Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Hey there, folks, it's Saturday, June twenty first. Welcome to this weekend edition of Morning Run. On the first full day of summer.
In this little late it fuels late, especially given how hot it is here in the Northeast. It is near record setting temperatures. We went from you know, at the beginning of the week feeling like it was November in Ireland. It was like misty and in the fifties and sixties.
It seems so late that we're just hitting summer. But yeah, it's the official first day of summer, so.
Hope the summer solstice.
All right, you all enjoy this first full weekend of summer. But yeah, we're checking in with you on the weekend here. There are plenty of stories during our Morning Run Monday through Friday. They kind of keep us talking, debating, and even arguing with each other afterwards. And this is where we're going a little farther on some of those stories, and one of them in particular this week. One of
the most romantic cities in the world. If you ask anybody that, they'll start pop up them off and they'll probably get to this city within top five, top five of everybody. But they want Jeff Bezos to keep his romance to himself, at least some there in Venice. As many of you heard, he's supposed to be getting married at the end of this month in Venice, a three day affair, big star stuttered affair. But in Venice they're kind of over it, and there have been protests robes
saying we don't want you here. Of course the wedding's still going to go on, but still they're letting their voices be heard that we don't want you here.
Yeah, they only have what fifty thousand actual residents of Venice, and how many visitors come? Was it twenty million visitors come each and every year. And so interestingly, as these protests were going on and signage being put up in advance of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's wedding at the end of this month, they were not alone. There were several cities and there have been several cities now throughout Europe who have started to protest what they're calling over tourism.
And you know, we deal with that a little bit here in New York City, So we do deal with to us and yet we're also folks who love to go to Europe as well in the summer and enjoy the annoying them.
So that's what we do.
We go over there, right, we get annoyed by the Europeans here in New York, and so I feel like, at least as a New Yorker, I don't feel too terrible returning the favor going back over there. I don't know. It's a fine line because, of course, so many of these cities are sustained because of the tourist.
Industry, big deal.
Yes, the restaurants, the hotels, the cute shops, none of those could survive if people didn't come and visit these beautiful historic cities like Lisbon that was one of the cities where you saw some protests in and just these gorgeous cities that people want to see and spend their money in.
But yeah, they're spending money, and then what happens is other folks around the world, other investors say, oh, a lot of money is going there, let's go take advantage, and they end up what running out some of those mom and pops and those smaller shops. That's been certainly a big complaint in Venice, that folks where the local artisans and folks like everyone in there is from somewhere else.
That is true. I did recent recently visit Venice, at least in the last five years, and you did start to see that transformation. And I can understand if you were a Venetian, if you're Italian, you take great pride in some of these shops that have now been turned over to foreigners. But in other cities like Barcelona, they were actually taking water guns out and spraying the tourists. That's how annoyed they are. They said they wanted to cool down the over tourisms.
Were they really doing They're just playing.
They're effing with folks. You know, what are you gonna do. You're not gonna get a ticket, You're not gonna it's not assaulting someone. But honestly, it's annoying, and so they took pleasure.
So it was an act of non aggressive aggression.
Can you imagine though here in New York sometimes like today, I actually fell and got pushed over when I was running because there were so many people in the streets. But can you imagine sitting down and shoe people with a water gun because you wanted them to go home. I haven't seen the video, or go away.
Little kids being playful or is it grown folks out there were water cannons.
It sounded I don't know about water cannons, but it did sound like they were adults and they were making a point. They wanted it to be known that they were sick of tourists overtaking their cities and mass numbers during the summer.
It's not the tour right, isn't it in some way? It doesn't have to be on whatever locale. Aren't they making decision? What is it? You surely you want the visitors, you want the money. At what point can you cut that off?
Yeah? So if you are yes, But if you are just a resident, oh yeah, you have to acknowledge that the reason why you have these cute little piazzas and squares and plazas is because these restaurants and businesses can afford to live in high rent districts because tourists are coming in and spending their money. I know it's annoying, we know it's annoying. There's a balance, but you have
to at least acknowledge that that is part of the reason. Now, maybe there's a way to create a a visa system where you somehow weed out folks you know, from coming in. But I did see in Barcelona they were specifically saying that their neighborhoods were changing, like you were pointing out saying, we don't want bubble tea shops in our neighborhoods. This isn't what Spaniards have. We don't have bubble tea. So I get that to an extent, and then we didn't
even mention the Love. The Love actually had to close. This is I can't think they had something when it happened last and it was like the pandemic. And then really the Louve does not close for any other reason other than Tuesdays when it's their day of rest. Apparently is Tuesday. But they had to actually shut down on Monday because the workers walked out because they were protesting the over tourism and the crumbling infrastructure and the fact
that they were overworked. They said the situation was untenable and frankly hot. It was hot all the tourists in their thirty thousand people every day.
So to aout the Caribbean folks. If you're thinking about vacation and give them a breakover in Europe. I hear Jamaica's lovely all year long. The other story that really
got Robes talking. We couldn't believe it. There was one day we got the headlines, it was one thing, and then we got the follow up to it, and it was just, oh boy, this is R. Kelly who is making a plea to anybody who will listen that he should be immediately released from prison for house arrest because he says there's a conspiracy amongst the guards in the prison system to have an inmate kill him. So a plot, if you will, to kill R. Kelly. He says he
should be let out now, Robes. What really got us the next day is when the government responded to this request from R. Kelly.
Correct So because R. Kelly is not just saying that prison officials have enlisted the help of any inmate. They say he's actually they've actually chosen the leader of the Aryan brotherhood to kill him. So we actually are saying specifically who this inmate is. But the government response was that this is a fanciful, deeply unserious claim that makes a mockery of the harm suffered by victims of r Kelly.
They called him a prolific child molester, and they basically in a nineteen page response to these claims by r Kelly and his lawyers, you kind of put it this way. They were kind of basically saying, lol, judge, as if.
They just stopped just short of if you can, what's the legal I've never seen a legal briefing that literally said lol.
Yeah it was.
They said, you all got to be kidding me, like this is insane. It was almost they couldn't believe they had to respond to it.
So then when just when you think that's unbelievable, yes, r Kelly's lawyer's response to that response was this that last Friday, r Kelly was given a life threatening overdose of his medication by prison officials and said that they moved him to solitary confinement. That scared r Kelly, so we said he stopped eating his food. He said he then got dizzy and lightheaded. Maybe that was because he stopped eating, but no, he claims it was because he
was given an overdose of medication. Then his lawyers claim that he was rushed to the hospital. Then his lawyers claim that doctors told him yep, you've been overdosed. And then they claim that his doctors told him you actually have dangerous blood clots in you and you need surgery immediately. Then what did Kelly's lawyers claim next? That prison officials plucked him from the hospital, wouldn't let him get the surgery, and brought him back to solitary confinement.
I mean, it's a heck of a story. But all those officially on record, this is not purportedly. This is stuff that they have laid out in their own requests and letters and legal briefings. But it was a bizarre headline initially. And you know what, I my hands kind of threw up in the air the first day we saw this, you know, Okay, maybe we'll see then when we got more of the details. And then the government's response, I it sounds fanciful.
As they say, yes, it's gone from strange to stranger. We'll let you know just how strange it gets and where this ends up. But if I were a betting woman, yeah, I would say R. Kelly's probably staying exactly where he is, serving the thirty year sentence that he received.
All right, this next story here is really a difficult one that we will probably continue to address here on our podcast, and who knows, weeks, months, even years to come, because it seems like we don't run out roads with these types of stories about artists, entertainers, celebrities of some kind, and sometimes some iconic names getting caught up in lawsuits and sometimes criminal proceedings having to do with sexual assault.
This week it was Tyler Perry who has been hit with a two hundred and sixty million dollar sexual assault lawsuit by someone who worked on one of his shows. The show's called The Oval that was on Beet. Derek Dixon is the is the guy's name, but robes he laid out kind of We'll address this first, saying, essentially a pattern of retaliation if you didn't reciprocate his sexual advances. And this fella has some pretty damning accusations, but it
was just here we are another. This is as big as you can get in black, oh in Hollywood, but certainly as far as black entertainment and black entertainers go. He is at the top in terms of being a black.
Entertainment best friends watching Oprah Winfrey, Harry and Megan. He's somebody who obviously has movies that so many families love to sit around and watch. So he's not just yes, he's beloved in the black community, of course, but I would say in white communities, and I mean he is a household name and people know when they are watching his movie, you're going to have some wholesome family fun. I mean, that is pretty much what it is.
But he was he has come out and strongly we should have to say this. He's come out and strongly deny this. I actually said, well, this was a scam that was set up. Now that was fascinating to me. They said this guy might have been plotting this for some time and trying to get close to him just so he could have this moment right now.
And Dixon claims that he actually moved from Atlanta to LA to get away from Perry because he was so concerned about retaliation for refusing his advances. But he claims he was sexually assaulted multiple times. He goes into great detail, and he also claims to have submitted text messages screenshots of actual communication where he claims that Perry had a perverted desire for sexual gratification. So he gets very specific.
So this is really sad to hear. Unfortunate to hear, especially on the hills of the Smoky Robinson allegations that have just come out recently, and of course we're in the thick of the Diddy trial. It's just it's disheartening to see that people who we've looked up to, people whose music and art we've appreciated and loved, now have all of these damning accusations surrounding them.
No of everybody mentioned, oh, everybody we've mentioned in the past few minutes, R. Kelly is the only one who's been found guilty of anything. Correct, we should start there. So of course Diddy is in the middle of what's happening right there. But you can't get any more influential than that guy when it comes to hip hop in terms of what he did for hip hop and putting it on the map around the world. That dude is
at the top of the hip hop mountain. Smokey Robinson, I don't even need to say anything exactly about how iconic he is. And Tyler Perry, now, what do you do with that art? How are you supposed to forget the personal just for I'm not saying because some of these folks we have been around and had relationships with through media, So just putting aside, Okay, I have a
personal connection to that individual. What do you do with the art of someone like r Kelly, who is in prison for some of the accused of were all convicted of some of the most horrific things. What do you do with all that art? Are you supposed to separate it? Do you have to separate it? Was it say about you if you don't separate it?
Right? And I would add Michael Jackson to that list as well. And for me, I think it's an individual personal choice. And I don't think you should judge somebody for still appreciating music. I think you can appreciate the art. I think you can appreciate the talent and you can separate. I say you, meaning me, I can do that. I don't want to suggest to other people if you've experienced something traumatic, I can understand why you might not be
able to separate it. I have not had something where I feel triggered by any of that, so, but I would give respect to anybody who felt that way, turned it off, didn't want to hear anything. But I feel like I can separate some of the brilliance and talent. It makes me sad when you hear the beautiful voice and the unbelievable brilliance of some of these artists, and to think what they were potentially capable of on the other side, but to also enjoy how wonderful their music
and art is. That it's something I can separate. How about you.
I think you nailed it when you said it should just be a personal choice. We don't have to make a decision or what's best. No, it really is a personal choice. I I have all these artists. I have to tell you. R Kelly has been his music. R Kelly and Diddy. That's the nineties.
Wow.
That the stuff you listened to from junior high to high school and starting call that's the stuff's gonna be with you the rest of your life. Those were the guys who got me through those particular years. So that is you talk about the most listened to artists I would have had in the nineties, those two guys.
And you can't and for you, I don't. I don't think it's fair to ask that you somehow stop liking those songs or loving those songs, or having those songs take you back to that point in your life where you had good times and care free times. I think that's okay, I do.
It's just it. It does again. Ditty and Smoky and Tyler here haven't been convicted of a thing, but it's just one of those things to where you're it's tarnished. Something about the legacy scene to be tarnished. All of this stuff can be completely made up and false, and maybe Diddy goes home right and guilty.
And I was just gonna say, sadly to jump on what you were saying these days, just to be accused of something is to be tarnished forever for a lot of people, in a lot of folks minds, and that is unfortunate. But that is where we are.
We will see what happens with Ditty. Yeah, we might be close to a jury getting the case very soon the next up here. This will keep us talking for a long time. We have this discussion somewhat daily. I think if if you ask anybody of robes, what are the recommendations for how much adults should consume alcohol every day? I think a lot of adults, certainly over the age of thirty at this point, you've heard it so much. Yeah, you can recite it for women. It's one drink or
less a day. For men, it's two drinks or less per day, so that might be changing.
Yeah. And the thing is, I also have heard recently, there's been a big recent surge in this that no amount of alcohol is safe, that no amount of alcohol is okay because you are introducing toxins to your body.
Why not recommend that?
Right? Well, but they haven't, right, why not? There are a lot of interested parties who might wish you to consider otherwise. And look, you also, truthfully, how many times have has a centurion been interviewed someone who makes it past one hundred and they say, what's your key to a long, happy life? I have a glass of wine every day and or I have a shot of whiskey every night. I mean, you hear that consistently. So part
of it is balance. I think you know you want to say, well, I work out every day, I eat, right, If I really want to have a glass of wine or two every day, is that actually going to kill me? And then I've gone to this whole thing where what do I lose three years? Four years, the last four years of my life. I might be okay with that if I can actually have a little bit more fun you're.
Playing any mind games?
That's right?
Okay, we're talking about the federal governments recommendations, right, yes.
Does do other people have these same thought?
I don't think they do. Okay, Sorry, the federal government might change the recommendation of one drink for a woman and two drinks for a man. They might change it to what's the recommendation Now, They're not going to give one. They're not going to recommend a number of drinks that might be safe. They're just going to say possibly to do it in moderation. This is according to who does Reuters?
I think Reuters is reporting that this is going to come from the Department of Health and Human Services, that they're going to take away those numbers, and yes, next month say hey, we're not going to tell you men how many drinks per day you should have and women
how many drinks per day you should have. And look, I know we have different genetic makeups, but I actually think that's fair because think about it, how much you weigh, how tall you are, what your genes are, what types of ability you may personally have, it you inherited to
metabolize alcohol? Everyone is different. How much food did you eat you know, if you had one drink and you didn't eat all day, or you had two drinks and you had a lot of meals, you have a different alcohol you know, percentage in.
Your b So how do you recommend what should they recommend? So they're recommending just drinking moderation.
You know what I appreciate. They're treating us like adults, drinking moderation, and if you don't, your consequences will be your guide. Well, your wait, reality will be your consequences.
But they give us all kinds of recommendations on how many calories we should have, how much vitamin this, this, this, and this we should have, how long you should be in the sun, how much exposure you should have to this, how many meals you used to have a day, how much water you should drink a day. You're telling me, you give me all these recommendations on my health, and this one about a toxin you're just gonna say, hey, figure it out, your a big boy.
But there are some benefits to some alcohols. There are lower rates of this cancer. There are higher rates of X cancer. I mean there are, and they're always consistently changing. Because how do you get a focus group where you can actually say all other things are equal. That's the hard part when you're dealing with humans. Science isn't actually exact when it comes to that kind of thing. When you're studying groups.
Okay, that's fine, but they can give us all those other recommendations. In general. There are some people who should be on a two thousand Calleri diet, others should be on a thirty five hundred for different reasons. All kinds of stuff you can. So they're giving us a baseline, give me the baseline.
I think they're just saying, you guys, figure it out.
I don't want that good Like doctors. Could you imagine going through your doctor with whatever problem your foot's broken? Woof, it looks tough.
Do the best you can walk in moderation rows.
This is crazy. I would like a recommendation. I would like to know that I'm hitting some kind of target that gives me a better chance. Now zero, I'm probably not going to do. But if you're telling me, give me the warning that this stuff is so bad, we don't think you should have a sip of it. I will listen to that.
I believe you. But you know what is interesting, This is the first time they have adjusted these recommendations. Yeah, in thirty five years. These recommendations came out in nineteen ninety. I think that's probably why you and I are so familiar with them, because it's been pounded into us. But look, I kind of look at it like this. Whatever. Whenever I think I want another glass, I always say, when I wake up in the morning, I never regretted saying no,
I never regretted taking that bottle of water. Instead, my regret always comes from when I wake up and there's a glass of wine by my nightstand, I'm like, why did I need to do that? So these are the moments where I can take I can subtract one.
Well, do I get that right? You're you're upset that you wasted the glass of wine.
Well, there's that drink and thats okay.
It's both sometimes the glass empty and sometimes when I wake up.
When I see a glass of water, I'm like, I made a good choice. Okay there, Gamio.
We always appreciate you running with us, even on a Saturday. So make some good choices today. What you decide to drink, and if you decided to drink anything, just do it.
In moderation exactly everything in moderation. Everyone, thanks for being with us, have a wonderful Saturday.