Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio podcast.
Hey there, folks, and welcome. We are trying something new. We are a bit of a weekend edition of Morning Run. If you listen to our Morning Run, there's so many stories that we do report, but there's so much about them that we don't get to talk about. So we're calling this what got Us. So essentially, Robe was going to tell people what got us about a lot of stories that we end up reporting. You and I oftentimes get into debates behind the scenes that people don't get to hear.
That's right.
So once we're wrapped with Morning Run, sometimes we continue the conversation, going back and forth about what we thought about what happened. And so the idea then came to us, what if we did a little weekly recap on the weekends about what got us? And so here we are and we'll just have to see if you all like to hear what we have to say. So there's a little bit of a test, a little bit of an experiment to see how many of you are interested in what got us?
And we'll go from there.
And some of these things got us going, got us worked up. Today we got nine stories we're going to blaze through for you. Up. First, the pope died, Yes, everybody's been watching that, but Robes. What got us about the story and continues to get us about it is the way the Vatican has really performed the past two and a half months.
Really, I've been impressed because we can remember when we were getting the daily updates and we joked that sometimes they were only nine words with the update, and there was a lot of accusations out there and distrust and mistrust in the Catholic Church, saying they weren't being transparent, they were hiding things the pope was already dead. Turns out the Vatican was being extremely transparent, and in fact, we got really detailed information from the Pope's doctors afterwards.
And I've just been impressed watching them deal with and handle the incredible amount of support that folks want to give the Pope. They've you know, this is an organization that's thought of being mysterious and following the rules it
all costs. They've kept Saint Peter's Basilica open throughout the night, extending hours really and truly being incredibly accommodating to let people honor this pope and I've just been impressed given what people typically think of the Church and the accusations levied against it, and then seeing how they're really extending and reaching out to the people in these times.
I wonder if some of that is in honor of him, Maybe some of this is a part of the plans he put in place. Who knows, but for two and a half months it's been for an organization that's considered secretive. I mean, they make movies, blockbusters about how secretive the Vatican can be, and look, this is openly. I think you were the one that brought to my attention. Originally the guys who were trying to break into the hospital
because they thought the pope was dead. And then after they put out an audio, Vatican put out audio of his voice, people still said, nope, still don't believe you. They put out a picture of him, said nope, can't see his face well enough. Right along the way, they were doing the best they could, and look, turns out they got it right in a lot of ways. And you have to give them credit. And I never think of them ropes to your point of them being warm
and fuzzy, correct, right, the Vaticans seeing them. You know what, We're gonna stay open all night so everybody can come through and see them. That was a that was a warmth to that gesture that I appreciate.
Yeah, and they didn't get once they had set the hours and decided, wow, look there are so many more people who have been waiting in line and want to see and pay their respects to the pope's body. I was so I thought it was so cool. They said, we're gonna stay open as long as there are people in line, and if we have to close it, it's just literally to clean it and we'll open the doors back up again.
That was really cool to see.
All Right. Our second story we got on this weekend rap now is the h has to do with the pope as well. Conclave. You might have seen Mike could assume that, yes, it makes sense. Conclave the movie that was just all the buzz anyway, because it had the big oscar run. It was nominated like eight or nine nominations, but it was a darling during this whole season, right of the award season. So sure enough, the Pontiff gets sick, no surprise, people started watching it more and more so
the viewership went up after his death. But Robes what got us was just how much it went up.
Yeah, what was the number? Two hundred and something.
Percent and eighty three percent.
But again, and I think it's cool because people are interested. They're interested in the process, they're interested in the inner workings of the Catholic Church, and we are going to be seeing a conclave, and for some people it might be the first time they've actually paid attention to it because of the movie. So I think it's pretty cool when you have and this is a phenomenal movie. It's done so well, it's written so well, the acting is incredible.
Have we watched it in the past couple of days?
Think, well, we've had it in the background, But it's played at least three.
Times, perhaps since the pote passed, and.
We keep seeing things we haven't seen before and have been we I like it even more now than I did the first time I watched it.
But part of this my fast nation goes up about the conclave. It's such a secretive vote, might be the most secretive thing that goes on as far as voting in the world. But my fascination now is after watching the movie and they kind of humanize the cardinals because initially or in the years past, of course they're men. They're flawed people, but you still think of them in some place as a this is a higher calling that
they could be above pettiness. But the movie kind of shows they're just a bunch of high school girls fighting over popularity, almost and it gets vicious.
Yeah, or a bunch of there's that one way to put it. Or a bunch of US politicians vying for the top job of president might not get that ugly. But certainly there's wheeling and dealing behind the scenes, and people are creating voting blocks and pitching themselves. I mean, that's all going on because you're right, these are men.
They aren't deities. They aren't above human flaws, and so yeah, they're there is the same kind of politicking going on behind the scenes that we see oftentimes in politics.
Why wouldn't they want this job. It's got to be the most impossible job to get. I mean, it's easier. I know we've had fewer presidents in the US, we're a younger country anyway, but I'm saying it seems like it would be more difficult. Your chances of getting that job are less than becoming president of the United States. So all these they know they're in there. They want it. If they say it or not, it's just in us all.
Wouldn't you want to of course you want it? Don't They say that in the movie when you say it to the guy, don't you want to be pope? He says no. He said, Look, every single one of us had already picked out a name.
Yes, Stanley Tucci said that. Stanley Tucci's character says that, yes, that has.
Been fascinating about why but yes, up two hundred and eighty three percent. The conclave viewership story number three here, also in line with this having to do with the conclave, there is one if you saw the headline, there is one cardinal who says he has a vote. To write he has the right to vote for pope. The Vatican says he doesn't. Giovanni Angelo Bechu is the name. And what got us about this story is that this is even possible that there is a cardinal who could be
banging on the door saying let me in. And there's an argument public now about whether or not he has access and has the right.
To vote for pope, and publicly he has said he is going to because he doesn't see anywhere in Vatican doctrine or laws that he cannot vote. Look, he was convicted of a financial crime. He was sentenced to five years in jail, So this is serious and it's on appeal. So there's the asterisk, and so yes, or he has continued to live in the Vatican. He's been able to keep his apartment while his case is still on appeal. So while his case is still on appeal, does he
get to vote for pope? The Vatican says no. Cardinal Bechu says yes, can't wait for this showdown, Like, honestly, this will be something we will continue to follow because we're fascinated by who wins in this one.
This kind of plays out in Conclave as well. If you've seen the movie, you know. But there's one point the guy comes to ray Fines, who was running the conclave, and says, hey, we got a problem. And ray Fines thought, oh my god, did one of them die. We've lost a cardinal. And the guy says, no, we've actually gained one that.
We didn't know we had.
We didn't know we had so he said, no, we must have been left off the list. He said no, he was never supposed to be on the list. We don't know to think that something like that is actually playing out to where there's an argument over whether or not you're supposed to be let in the room. I loved it. I would love to see him fight for this.
I think he's going to at least it sounds like he was going.
To the Cardinal bets you we'll see that plays out. Our story number four back here in the US had to do with the presidents suggesting he was in support of the idea of giving women who have babies a five thousand dollars baby bonus. That was the headline. What got me Robes about this story is how much against it. Initially he were at the sound of it.
Because yes, I thought it was I What got me was how gross that seemed that I'm going to get a presidential push present.
I was like, that is just weird to me.
So, you know, incentivizing women or families to have more babies. Look, I understand that there's a reason why he wants to get the nation's declining birth rate up, but I think there's a huge argument to be made that population control also is an important part of moving forward. We are you know, already exhausting Earth's resources? Do we really want to start paying people to have more babies so we can have more Americans.
In the world. There's just a part of me that just is you to the whole thing.
Okay, we don't know if this is going to happen or not, but at least he didn't poopoo it, and that's going to get a lot of people. I initially heard, I wasn't thinking in the way you do as a woman, and I didn't even know what a push present was. But when I first heard, I'm like, oh, well, yes, after going through that, why wouldn't you get that would be nice, wouldn't it to just a nice little something for having a baby? That's okay? And you turned me around pretty quick.
Well yeah, and by the way, I've never received a push present. I've just I know other people who have gotten one. So and it is a thing, and it's become a bigger thing. And the husband's typically or the baby daddy like that is traditionally what would.
Be not from a friend or family, specifically from the.
Yeah, thanks thanks sweetheart for pushing out this baby. Yeah, like, actually that is what it's supposed to be and and a lot of women are very excited to get one, like we're talking jewelry, uh.
Et cetera.
The whole thing seems a little strange to me, but to each there.
Out Okay, story number five here as I do with the Defense Secretary Pete Hexth, it came to light this week that he actually was texting war plans in a second group text we didn't know about, but this one included his brother and his wife. That was the headline. What got us about this story is the debate about relationships. How much are you supposed to tell your spouse now when it comes to top secret information. I would assume
it's supposed to stop there. But don't people always if your best friend tells you something, don't they assume you would go home and probably tell your spouse or no?
Yes, I always assume that whoever I tell something to, especially if it's a woman, that she's going to tell her husband. Now, if there is something that is very sacred between us that I don't want her to tell her husband or her partner, I will say, please, please, please don't. I'm sorry to ask you this because I know it's really hard not to tell your partner, but i'd really ask you not to tell him. Can you trust that because my mom told me this, and I
believe this is true. Everybody always tells one person. You can say, oh, I swear I won't tell anyone, and everybody always tells one person. And with that in mind, about twenty people end up knowing because everybody, especially if.
It's juicy and topsycred information.
Look, I get it why you would want to include your wife, just she's your partner, but maybe don't text it, like, maybe just talk about it when you get home.
My next question is that still wrong? Though? If you're in possession of that type of sensitive information, should it not be understood that Okay, maybe you don't have clearance.
Yes, yes, one hundred percent.
But I even think maybe if he waited until he got home and said, man, you wouldn't believe what happened today.
You know, we bombed.
But that's after the fact, whenever exactly.
So that was my point.
So it's after the fact that he could talk about what it was like and how it felt and YadA, YadA, YadA. But to give real time sensitive war plan information to your spouse on a text, I just think, I don't. I don't think that's defensible, well defendable.
Defending it, of course, saying there was nothing that was top secret in that blah blah blah blah blah.
But that was you get home.
But that was the first thing that jumped out at me, like, Wow, I guess I don't know what I would not tell you. I don't. I really don't. Just I don't know. I don't have necessarily friends. We are telling me big enough secrets that I think I think you would know.
Yeah, I mean what I'm talking about is a girlfriend of mine will want to say something about her husband or her don't tell your partner because then your partner might tell my partner that I'm talking like. It's that kind of a thing. We're not talking about highly sensitive information.
All right, folks, We're gonna get to the last four stories when we come back. Stay with us, because up next another one that got us going on a kind of a relationship front christin nom how does her purse get stolen from a restaurant? She is the head of homeland Security. Also coming up, Wendy's tried to smooth things over with Katy Perry sixty minutes guy he quit. That just doesn't happen. And then there was a hug in Texas that had us crying all morning this week Welcome back, folks.
Story number six for us on this weekend rap has to do with Christian Yes, the Homeland Security Secretary was out at dinner this week, had her purse stolen. That's the headline, including her badge, her house keys, checks. They said three thousand dollars in cash. That was the headline. What got us robes about this was pretty clear and maybe this was yes everybody. This should have gotten everybody going yeah.
I mean, how so when we got the details because we weren't sure how a masked white man was able to get her purse. It was under her chair. Now my mind is blown because you and I I mean, you are a stickler. Your head is on a swivel, as you like to say. You're always kind of looking and it's not your job. You're not a secret service agent. You're just my partner, and you're always looking after my purse,
my phone, moving it closer. And we even had a situation in Rome where we and you saw a woman with her foot sit next to us and try to take her toe and pull our bags and steal them, and we watched it happen because you were being observant, and again we were out having fun on vacation.
If your sole job as a secret.
Service agent is to protect the director of Homeland Security and her have her in a safe bubble, how does this happen? If that's your one job when you're there at that restaurant, to be observing and making sure that she is safe, and I would imagine her belongings are safe, especially when you have a top clearance badge in that purse. How in the world does that happen?
You just maybe think of something else now, the other part of it, for somebody to get that close. I didn't realize that the head of Homeland Security would be in a restaurant, a public restaurant, and someone is sitting physically close enough to her that they can slide their foot under her table. I didn't think about that until this moment. I mean, to everything you said that was the thing she protects the homeland. I can't protect her purse.
That's that seems I mean, maybe clearly missing something, some little detail. Not trying to get These secret surface guys do heroic work. Every single day. Obviously, it's just bizarre that nobody in that group noticed anything like that.
I think it's above bizarre.
I think it's alarming and concerning, and I know that.
I hope that lessons were learned.
I guess at this point, like, if it happens to you once, I've had it happen to me. Actually in DC at a restaurant, I happened to be reading The New York Times and saw something underneath my foot and there was a woman on all fours literally she had my wallet in her hand.
She was lifting it out of my purse. So it happens.
What did did Joe make eye contact them?
Oh?
I said, each other.
Wall drop my wallet. Now.
She threw it at me and ran out of the restaurant as fast as she could.
Well, wouldn't it happen if I were I know? All right, I'm the next door here at number seven. Wendy's and Katie What the hell? The headline said that Wendy's was trying to smooth things over with Katy Perry. Of course, she went to Space Blue Origin that celebrity ride with those other women, and she came back down. Everything was fine, But then Wendy's responding to somebody's tweet about Katy Perry being back on Earth. They responded, can we send her back?
Everybody looked like, what is your beef with Katy Perry? But they came back later and put out a statement saying that they very much respect her and her talents.
I don't think you can say that.
They didn't apologize it.
They didn't apologize, but I don't think you can say that and have tweeted what they did, or at least put the comments that they did, because it wasn't just one. There were two others that were equally I'm sorry, mean spirited.
Well, and I kissed the ground and I liked it, and the other one was meaner.
I kissed the ground and I liked it, wasn't terrible, but the other one was. It was something also equally mean, And I just feel like I maybe i'm and we are more sensitive to it, having been in a space where we had negative headlines and have obviously lots of
negative comments. I just don't understand, and I don't like the idea that they're capitalizing or getting free publicity by being mean spirited or by being snarky to the point that it's just completely unnecessary, Like, what did Katy Perry ever do to Wendy's Probably nothing, and so it's just to me, it's an attempt. It's a deliberate attempt to get attention, to get people talking about your brand, which we are, but at the expense of another human being.
And even though Katy Perry is a superstar, a pop star and now yes an astronaut, whether people want to debate that or not to use her and what she just did for your gain by throwing your under the bus, I'm never going to support that and it makes me not want to go to Wendy.
Are we taking it too seriously? Were they just doing what you said, getting a little attention, being a little snarky and trying to do something a little edgy. And some companies are doing this now, trying to have kind of an edgy social media accounts. Fine, should we all just take a joke?
Well, I think if everyone jumps on that bandwagon, we're in a really ugly world at the expense of people's feelings, and people still have feelings.
I don't care who you are, it's still hurts a little and I get.
It is taking a joke. It's just a joke to be able to take someone back, to send it back. It didn't mean it for real. I mean, what is it? Just a little joke, a little quip, and we should not take it so serious. If it would me now, I would hate it truly.
Off of course, I would feel sick to my stomach.
Actually, a brand that big getting that attention. Other question, is it turning anybody off to Wendy's.
It's turning me off to Wendy's.
Just wine, but you weren't. It's too hard.
I love Okay, I don't eat I don't eat best food very often, but I do love a Wendy single and they're.
Spicy, crispy chicken sandwich. I do and I have.
But honestly, the truth is, and people can disagree with me, but if I have a choice, I will think about that and I would make a decision not to choose Wendy's because I just, especially with everything that we have experienced in the last years, I am much more sensitive to means spirited.
Uh, it's out there, it's marketing campaign this kind of.
Stuff, And I'm with you. You're more passionate and making the argument here We've talked about it plenty, but it just she had a nice moment. I mean, she put herself out there for criticism with her music, with whatever she does, and that is fine. We just it felt it was too intentional to make a campaign that they've made a mockery of her for the sake of getting attention.
Now that's what I don't like.
I'm asking if the attention for them. It doesn't work for them because now people are talking about and that's good enough. Maybe this is a huge success for them. That scares the shit out of me because that means they'll do it the next time. Exactly, they do it the next time to the next person in the next person.
I'm not a fan.
Okay, next up, all right, Story number eight here sixty minutes, just lost as executive producer Bill Owen owens again bill Owens quit. What got us about the story Robes is that this is a scary direction we are going in this industry that we have spent our entire career and we love because it's this show, the most popular news show on TV, the most respected probably on TV. If the guy at the top just says I'm done because too many maybe political hands and things are being done
and I can't do my job. That's scary at hell.
It is because I won't speak for you, TJ, but I will speak for myself when I say that as a journalist you get to a certain level. We understand that television networks are businesses and they have to be profitable and they have to be careful about being sued.
But it is still our jobs as journalists to be able to tell stories in the way they're supposed to be told, to tell stories that need to be told, and to not shy away from stories that might piss off important, big people, because those are probably some of the most important stories to tell.
I've had the experience of having stories shelves. I have had the experience of.
Not being able to report stories that are actually super important, and it made me want to quit the industry as well.
I didn't have the balls to do that.
So my hat's off to Bill Owens to have the wherewithal to say I'm quitting. And just for perspective, in almost sixty years the show has been on the air, there have only been three executive producers. The point being, when you get a job like that at sixty minutes. You don't leave, you don't quit. It's what you've worked your entire career for. So for him to do that, that is a huge statement.
You've been in the business long enough. We've all been there. A story has been shelved, it has been changed, something has been edited. Someone comes in after the fact, oftentimes after the reporter us gets done with it. It's happened plenty of times and does something because they're trying to protect this interest or that interest. Look for us to act like that doesn't happen day in, day out, every single morning, it absolutely does. My thing that scared me here is
that this show is too if enough hands. I'm sure he's used to executives here and there saying tweak this, or do this, or can't you suggest this? But he's had some degree of autonomy. If it is that bad that he quit, then I think there's some part of something going on behind the scenes that we haven't heard yet. This is too important of a show, This is too big of a deal to where it's that bad that
he had to quit. I'm not talking I've had stories moved to different days because it goes with this lead in better We're talking about that's not what we're talking. But still those are decisions based on business, and that's fine. I've had story. Nope, we're not gonna do that because the audience that's work watching at this time is an audience between this age and this age and this demograph. That's fine, that's a business decision, good story, but for business,
we're not gonna do it. That's still I've never I'm gonna quit my job.
Well, critical stories about people who need to be examined and need to be questioned. When those stories are shelves, When those types of people who have incredible power and we aren't allowed to have critical stories about them that actually need to be told, that's scary.
See, I just don't know. I would love to hear from this guy to know what really prompted. And this couldn't have been overnight. Has had to be boiling for a little while. So the last story that really got us this week, if you haven't seen the twenty nineteen massacre to Walmart and El Paso, that racist massacre. Man went in and shot up that Walmart.
Twenty three, twenty four people were killed.
I believe in that. Well, he has been found guilty down in Texas and this week for a couple of days they had victim impact statements. Family members got to get up and speak. But what got us Robes about this story and had us in tears one morning as we were reporting it was that one of the people that got up she lost her brother. This killer shot and killed her brother. And Yolanda Tina Harrow is her name.
She asked the judge if she could go hug the guy who killed her brother, and the judge said, okay.
You know, the phrase killing someone with kindness kind of popped into my head. And she had the best of intentions. But to have a heart so big that she was able and knew the power of her love and the power of her forgiveness might be and I'm not saying
the biggest punishment, but perhaps made this guy. We can only hope this killer feel the weight of his decisions and instead show him that there is so much good in the world, there is so much love in the world, that someone like Yolanda could rise above the pain and the anger she has to have inside of her for what this man took away from her family and from her and to be able to rise above that and hug him so that he could feel the love of her, her,
the love from the Hispanic community. She talked about how if he had just given the Hispanic community a chance, they would have opened their doors to him, they would have made a meal for him, just to show him how wrong he was about a community that, for whatever reason, he chose to target.
What was it, she said, Well, and the scene went on for a while, it was like a full minute. But he wasn't stand office. She by all reports, kind of leaned into her, put his head even down on her, and she was whispering to her to him. Don't know what she said. I just she said, pain and forgiveness. She wanted him to feel both of those things in her physical body. I want you to feel both of those. And I don't know how she did it, but she set such an example for all of us about kind.
That's just not something I think I'm capable of.
I think when I think about someone taking the life of a family member of mine, I think of wanting to do the opposite. I think of wanting to punch them, tackle them, hit them, shoot them, like that's the kind of anger you feel. So for her to be able to harness that pain and turn it into something loving. I am blown.
Away, you know, and it's They've had several years to heal, but it has it's not done because this was a big part of some finality to this story. So I'm sure she's that the family has had time to heal in a certain way, but going through this trial, all those wounds open back up.
And to see his face, Yeah, I was just thinking, like to see him, to see his face.
The anger you would feel.
I cannot, for the life of me, I don't know that I could get to where she is, but man, that is something to aspire to. And just you know what I was thinking, in the ways, in the little ways that life irritates you, that people irritate you, that
someone a stranger or a loved one annoys you. If you can just take a little bit of what Yolanda had in her heart and think about that and change your brain and choose love and acceptance and tolerance at least at the very least above that anger or that frustration, that's something to take with all of us into the weekend.
So with that, I want to say thank you to Yolanda Tinnehero. It's been a rough news week in a lot of ways, but she gave us absolute hope or reason to smile and had us shedding a few tears. But that feels good sometimes too, So we always appreciate you all running with us, hanging with us, listening to us.
We sure thank you. And again, we're putting this up because there has been interests we have seen on weekend, so we decided to maybe we'll give you something fresh and some new fresh perspectives on something we've been reporting on this week. So we're going to try it out for now.
But I'm DJ and I'm Amy Roebock.
Have a wonderful weekend, everybody,