You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Saturdays with Tiffany Tifney Hobbs here until seven k i AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. We just had a spirited, beautiful, informative, empowering conversation with Mary L.
Hemingway.
You know her from movies like Lipstick and movies like Personal Best, But what you may not know is that she has her own story and she is very in control of that story. It deals with a lot of trauma and mental health awareness, and she's on a mission to help others embrace what they've gone through and hopefully not allow that to color who they are or where they go. And she has a new embodiment program called
Return of the Queen. What an apply named program? And you can sign up for that by visiting Maryelle's Instagram or Facebook, both of which are under her name Maryelle Hemingway on Instagram and Facebook. And if you comment Queen or rise on her post, any post, she said she'll see it because she mans her social media. No social media management for her. No, it's one on one right
there with Marielle Hemingway. She's giving you access and she hopes to be able to get you to become a participant in her retreat in this embodiment program.
Really really cool.
And if you missed any part of that interview, that conversation, this entire show, you can definitely go to featured segments on the KFIAM six forty dot com website and it will be posted later this evening, but definitely by tomorrow, and you can catch up on all Things Saturday with Tiffany. And I would love if you did that, because I really, truly, truly do love that you listen. I love the feedback that we get online. I love the talkbacks, and I
think we have a talkback now, Raoul. Right, someone who had something to say in line with Mary L. Hemingway's conversation Ready.
About thirty years ago, I was with Bill Murray. We were playing golf with the Dalai Lama and he said, bless you, my son, you'll get a hole in one. So it's a par six and off the tea I hit a hole in one and the Dalai Lama he's awesome, he called it man. The Dalai Lama. Me and Bill Murray was playing with the Dalai Lama.
We'd have no way to verify the validity of that claim. Sounds true to me, sounds true to I mean, who doesn't play golf with one Bill Murray and two the Dalai Lama himself. I think one in four people have had that experience, and he is one. So we just had a celebrity leave a talkback pretty much what's his name?
Let me check, I think we have his name.
We have people call into the show leave talkbacks who were just you know, something.
Special, Brad. That was Brad Williamson.
Brad, Brad, I would love to hear more stories about you and his holiness or you and Bill Murray for sure, So hit that talkback again, Brad.
Just keep hitting the talkback.
You just just flood our app or the app with all of your stories, because we're going to turn this into a segment, I imagine just Saturdays with Brad. There we go, we have a whole new segment. But before we get to that, we're going to take a deeper dive into what's going on with Los Angeles' fireworks program and problem. I should say it's a programs around the city, programs around the region, but definitely a problem, not a problem
just this year. It's been a problem historically for a very long time, but it seems to be getting worse and worse after year. Before we do that, let me just give you a quick update. There's an officer involves shooting that was reported around three forty five pm in the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles. Let's right there off of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Western, just north
of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard. King Boulevard is what you may know it as there's a park there and an officer responded to something and there was an officer involved shooting in which the officer was shot and transported to a local hospital where his condition is unknown at this time. But the suspect in the shooting was detained was arrested. We don't have much more information than that, but as soon as we do, I'll make sure that
you know. And of course we're following what's happening in Texas with this Guadalupe River overflowing and unfortunately killing at least forty three people, about one third of which our children, who were attending a summer camp up there in the mountains in this area of Texas. Kerr County, Texas to
be specific. And officials are they're looking, they're searching, because there are They say, I believe hundreds, if not more missing, hundreds if not more missing, And a Texas official says, quote, we're in a marathon. They say, this is going to be on going. It's a horrible situation out there. And as I'm watching CNN and other local outlets in Texas and outlets here carrying the story, there are visuals of people in trees, clinging to trees, and people trying to
rescue people in rising water. And this is just catastrophic, and the number of dead continues to rise and likely will likely will. This is Kurville, Texas, just earlier today. So at least forty six dead, including fifteen children, and that number, it just literally shot up in the last hour. All right, let's get into this growing problem of fireworks in Los Angeles. Raoul, if I may come to you, you've grown up here in the Southland, and Nikki you're
there in the studio. You're you're new to La so I'll come to you in a bit. But Raoul, you grew up here in southern California right where exactly Ontario, Ontario. Okay, So in Ontario, would you say that there's a you know, an illegal fireworks problem.
People just have these fireworks everywhere.
Well in Ontario would say it was pretty well controlled, because I had one one time they took away my fireworks that I had. The fire department showed up and confiscated my brand new box of fireworks that my stepdad bought me.
Obviously was I was like a kid. I was like sixteen years.
Wait wait rewind rewind rewind So you okay, so step dad, we don't want to implicate him.
I think the Statute of Limitations is out of the way though. But he got you, He got.
You fire works. Yeah, and you had them, You had them at your home. How did the fire department find out?
I don't know.
We were lighting them in the backyard.
It was fourth of July.
Shame, I know, and you know he was there and they rolled up on us and they confiscated like at least one hundred and fifty bucks worth of fireworks. And you know, now that's like two things. You know, it was probably double that at this point. But yeah, that was and after that, I never really ever did that again. Like I was like, I'm not wasting my money. And getting it taken away. Forget that right.
Okay, So when they came, and it's interesting that the fire department responded because we I think we have an you know, an idea that if you call, then they will come. Let's just say it's a really bad problem in your neighborhood, or there's something that is at risk of being set on fire. Whatever, you know, the risk is.
People think if you call, they'll come. But in many instances, law enforcement is just they don't have the resources, they're they're short staffed, or they're responding obviously to other calls, or they don't see it as important enough and they don't come out.
They actually came out to you. Were you cited at all?
Do you remember just confiscated? Well, I was telling you Mo this story too. I remember back then also same my stepdad getting pulled over and being intoxicated and being let go with the ticket. Different times, yeah, way different times. But yeah, I think it was a neighbor. I believe it was a neighbor called hey, the guy next door is blowing up stuff, please come and take away his stuff, and they came. Good neighbor, Yeah, yeah, you know, and adult now as an adult I understand. And now I
lived over by you up until recently. A couple moved last year and in Ktown area. That area that's oh, I mean, it's very route. It crazy, it's it's the Middle East, like you can't even describing it does not give it justice as to how horrible it is.
It doesn't. It doesn't.
And i'm, you know, just to speak about my experience really quickly. Growing up, I lived in the suburbs, and so you know, it wasn't uncommon to buy these fireworks sets from, you know, one of those little local stands. Everybody saw the stands in their neighborhood until they started obviously outlawing them.
But you know, you would go to.
A stand, and I'm sure there are some people nodding along like, yeah, of course there's a stand. You spend you know, twenty five thirty dollars. I don't know what it is today because I haven't done it in forever. I imagine a lot more. But you go and you get the sparklers, and you have the little ones that spin on the ground and shoot out the little sparks. You might have the bottle rockets that are are you know, in the boxes. Everything is very contained, and the adults were the ones lighting.
The kids could.
Hold the sparklers if you were above a certain age, lest you poke your eye out. Nobody wanted to go to the emergency room on fourth of July, and luckily we were able to avoid that sort of situation. Of course, there were stories of people blowing up their hands or having some sort of injury to their face, but those were few and far in between, whereas now they seemed
to be. It's so common that you can open up your social media on the fourth of July and if you're following any of these kind of crime app reporting pages or local neighborhood pages, whatever it may be, you're going to see a story of someone who has injured themselves. When we come back, we're going to continue this conversation
because I realized I'm going a little long. I was getting into the weeds of it all, and we're going to talk about what experts are saying is considered to be the firework capital of the United States, Los Angeles, and some ways they say we can possibly quell this issue in the future. Some things experts wish we all knew about fireworks. So Nikki Kayla we'll talk about your experience with fireworks from your respective corners of the world
when we come back. Kf I AM six forty Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Its Saturdays with Tiffany.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Hi Doriy raoulk I AM six forty Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Tiffany Hobbs here with you.
It's Saturdays with Tiffany until seven and then Michael Monks will be here and he'll have a great show.
As always.
We're in our deep dive segment and we're talking about why fireworks are just out of control in the City of Los Angeles. And if you live outside of the City of Los Angeles, and you might also be saying, well, fireworks are out of control here too, whether it's Burbank or whether you're out there in the Ie or San Diego County or wherever it may be. Fireworks are just a huge problem in California in general. And that's because we typically live in the illegal firework capital of the
United States. And did you know all fireworks are illegal in the City of Los Angeles, even those stands that are out there. Yes, those are actually illegal as well, but they're so rampant, they're so abundant, that there's just not enough law enforcement to respond to all of that. You know, they're not going to get every person jaywalking, although jaywalking is no longer a crime, but you understand
what I'm saying, the equivalency. It's just so out of control that at this point it's kind of a free for all. But where it becomes such a hazard is in the fact that these really really powerful DIY fireworks, the ones that are practically bombs, that are akin to something that you might hear, let's say, if you were in war, those are easily attainable just from outside of
the state, outside of the country. So we are right here, we're on the border of where these illegal fireworks can be easily bought, and these are professional grade pyrotechnics, they're small, and they're easily brought back here. Now, nationwide, the problem with fireworks is actually bigger than it's ever been. Last year, in twenty twenty four, almost fifteen thousand American people were treated for firework related injuries, fifteen thousand that could be minor,
that can be major. The year before and twenty twenty three, there were just over seven thousand people treated. The number jumped just or actually, excuse me, about nine thousand people treated. The number jumped that much in one year. Fifteen thousand people treated for these injuries related to fireworks in twenty twenty four. And who's to say that once the metrics come back in, those numbers won't reflect for twenty twenty five something even higher. So here are five things experts,
those who handle these professional grade piral technics. These are five things they wish you knew about your explosives, the ones that Raoul used to have in his backyard. Number one, we have the worst air quality in the country on the night of July fourth into July fifth, right here in La because fireworks actually give off as much air pollution as some wildfires. And we know a thing or
two about wildfires, don't we. You would think that we would be smarter about all of this, but again we're not. You know, when they raid houses and they take all these fireworks, these hundreds of pounds of fireworks that they found, you know, in this house or that house or wherever it may be, they actually have to dispose of them, and they don't just put them in the land, feel fill or throw them away, No, they ship them out.
So let's say they come to your home and they get thousands of pounds of fireworks because you just.
Got it like that.
Well, taxpayers in California foot the bill for those fireworks and any fireworks confiscated to be shipp to places like Ohio, Hawaii, and Massachusetts for disposal. So your tax paying dollars are going to shipping these fireworks out of California. And that's because it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to get rid of them. They have to do so in a
very organized fashion. A couple more kids say they don't really want the fireworks, their parents bought them for them, which then involves the question of who's this really four and kids are saying not us. When kids were asked, they're like, no, not us, Our parents wanted them. This seems to be, you know, a celebration for parents. You hear more about adults being injured or adults handling these sorts of things.
The illegal fireworks.
Injuries highly common. The most common ones burns. The most common firework that produces these burns sparklers. My favorite sparklers because you're holding on to them for just a few seconds too long, and then boom, you're needing skin grafting and surgeries or a hospital stay to tend to your wounds. So you definitely have the loss of fingers or major issues with limbs, but burns, especially those to the eye,
are extremely common as well. Experts predict that with the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the Olympics coming, fireworks, especially illegal fireworks, have the potential to be significant and extremely out of control. So as we prepare for those events, as we prepare for July fourth, twenty twenty five, New Year's Eve, whatever the celebration may be, the Dodgers winning, the Lakers winning, whatever it may be, just keep in mind that these things, while fun, are best left to
the professionals. And I know that falls on deaf ears because you're still gonna go out there and you're gonna buy your fireworks, but at the very least, be careful and bring your damn dog inside so your animals aren't terrorized, and think about more than just yourself. All right, let me get off my soapbox. When we come back, we're gonna talk about why sitting in silence for two hours a day can grow your brain and a lot of us need that. I think I might need that too.
We'll talk about that and more on the other side of the break. It's KFI AM six forty Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
Tiffany Hobbs here with you.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand k if.
I AM six forty Live Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Tiffany Hobbs here with You Saturdays with Tiffany and thank you for your talkbacks. We're getting them. We are sifting through them and definitely seeing which ones we want to play some of Like we can't verify if you've, you know, eaten pizza with the Dali Lama, so we're like, we
kind of hold off on that one. But it's good to know that you guys appreciate his holiness and that Maryelle hemming Well Hemingway interview, which is will be available on the feature segment section of the website the KFIAM six forty dot com website later this evening, definitely tomorrow. Make sure you check that out. It was a great conversation with Maryelle Hemingway. You know her, You know that last name, you know, Maryelle, and you definitely want to
hear that conversation before we move on. Just to kind of extend the last segment a deeper dive segment, I wanted to mention that there are some areas that have moved from fireworks, the actual explosive firework shows that we all grew.
Up loving, to the drone shows.
You might have seen a drone show if you go to a Dodger game, they regularly have drone shows on certain evenings. Drone shows are those light shows using drones that project these really cool pictures, very artistic, really interesting, very detailed, and it's kind of like have you ever watched let's say, a marching band, and like an aerial view of a marching band and you see people that the band kind of configure themselves into different shapes or
pictures or even like a large person. It looks like that, but in the sky with a bit more technological, technological savvy. It's really cool, and it's a way again to kind of circumvent the environmental hazards that fireworks do in fact provoke, and also the emotional hazards that people like veterans say or people with PTSD say, are sparked so to speak, by these explosive fireworks shows.
Okay because people not everybody likes them.
They're nice to look at, but you know, they do come with some serious stuff. So some places that have swopped fireworks for drones just did it yesterday and continue to do this going forward. San Fernando and Laguna Beach both decided to use drones this year. Grand Park in downtown LA. They shifted to a drone show. Of course,
across different neighborhoods. There are drone shows that were present San Pedro, the city of San Pedro for their big city fireworks show, they went with drones, and probably the biggest venue of all, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, decided to do a drone show instead of a fireworks show out of respect for the ongoing recovery, I would say in Altadena, due to the Altadena fire in January, so
they went with the drone show. Now, on the flip side of that, there have been some places that said, oh no, no, now, we're going to continue to go with our fireworks show because it's what we have planned. And one of those places which is now getting a lot of heat, Big Bear Valley, right there over the lake.
They had a petition that was signed by tens of thousands of people urging Big Bear and the Rotary Club out there not to have their fireworks show because of the Eagle family and other wildlife and veterans, and the
list goes on, but they went ahead and had it. Also, the Beach Club in Santa Monica, which is just steps away from the Palisades burn zone, Okay, went ahead with their fireworks celebration despite a city wide ban on fireworks and growing outrage from environmentalists and people who went through the fire. So not everybody's on board with the drone show, but more and more each year are shifting to that something you might well you know before where we do that.
I said I was going to come to you board up and producer, NICKI. You grew up in an entirely different country, right right, correct, correctly, Australia. You are a No, you're not Kiwis are New Zealand.
I'm actually both.
I'm Keigwe and Australian. So you're key Wee alien.
Yes, my mom's a Kiwi, so I inherited it through her and all my family's in New Zealand.
But I am Australian.
All right, So in Australia this is an inherently American pastime or tradition. But in Australia, do you guys have fireworks for different celebrations.
Well, we used to because we follow the Commonwealth. So we had Guy Fawkes Night, which is it used to be November fifth and it was commemorating I think it was sixteen sixty six in London when Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
History.
Yeah, so we'd commemorate it every year. And then in the late eighties or nineties they banned fireworks in Australia and I call that was after my grandfather visited from New Zealand set off fireworks in the garden and one of them flew directly at my brother and said, is his sweater on fire?
Wait, so your family's the reason that the fireworks were banned.
We are always ground zero in my family.
You and Raoul you just rabble rousers, trouble makers, just really just you know, defy in the odds right here.
Go to watch out for us.
Convict.
Well, thank you for that.
I was just curious because you know, fireworks again are inextricably linked to I think Los Angeles. Everyone kind of points here, and studies do say that we do, in fact have more injuries here in California than in anywhere else. But I was wondering what it might be like there in Australia. And we do know now that Nikki is a convict or at least comes from a family of convicts, and she doesn't have the mic now, so she can't dispel that myth.
We'll just run with it. But before we go to break.
Did you know that if you sit in silence for two hours per day that can trigger new brain cell growth? Every parent and every teacher just went duh, right, because everyone knows if you've ever been around a lot of stimulation, auditory stimulation, just how much of a reprieve absolute silence can be. Well, scientists have discovered that two hours a day of silence can in fact grow new brain cells.
It's called neurogenesis, or the creation of neurons, which occur during not during intense learning or strenuous mental tasks, no, during stillness. So when you're being still and you're just kind of staring into the oblivion or doing nothing, and someone's telling you that you need to do something, your brain is actually doing a lot. Absolutely, absolutely, that's good news. This comes from a twenty thirteen study led by a
neuroscientist out of Duke University. Was originally designed to observe how different sounds affect the brain, but it actually revealed that the best thing for the brain was in fact silence. And at first mice worthy controlled group, as they often are. Sadly yes, but in this case mice were subjected to different auditory environments, different types of music, calls, sounds, but the silence served as the control and resulted in a significant,
lasting increase in fully developed neurons. It affects the part of the brain that's critical for memory formation, learning and emotional processing because silence. The theory says that in the absence of external noise, the brain becomes more alert. When there's no noise, your brain becomes more alert. So when you're not doing things that are disrupting that, then you are in fact building up on those neurons. Your brain
is anything but idle. It's reorganizing, consolidating information, and potentially laying the groundwork for new cell development. So at some point this weekend, if you can carve out two hours a day. Every parent's like, try and carve out two hours a day of silence so you can grow your brain.
When we come back, we're going to talk about a group of people who some say need to grow their brain, and that's Gen Z. Because a lot of people are complaining that Generation Z, those young people as they work in the service industry, that they don't know what they're doing and that they're not greeting customers the way they should be greeted.
We'll talk about that and wrap this show up.
On the other side of the braak, It's KFI AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand KFI.
AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Tiffany Hobbs here with you for one more segment on this glorious hopefully all finger having Saturday post fourth of July, and this fourth of July was absolutely absurd given all the things I saw flood through social media. First, let's give a major shout out to Martha Kandarou. She's a big listener of KFI and we appreciate you. Martha We
hope you are doing well. Please keep listening. Hit the talk back at some point so we can hear you if you want to get your voice on the air, But regardless, thank you for listening and all of you who have been listening. We also have a talkback addressing Maryel Hemingway, who we had on at five thirty. Great conversation. Make sure you listen to that on featured segments a little bit later this evening or tomorrow morning, whenever you have some time. It was wonderful, can we hear it?
Raoul?
I remember Mary L. Henningway some sober dinner that was held three years ago, and I remember her very clearly, and she was very inspirational. Yeah, thank you, have a great time.
Thank you, And yeah, she's Maryelle's's totally inspirational.
That's the that's the probably the best word.
There are many words you can use a describer, but inspirational is certainly at the top.
And she's just available.
So make sure you go to Maryelle Hemingway her on Facebook, She's Mariel Hemingway. On Instagram, she's at Mariel Hemingway. You can talk to her right there. She's totally available to you. She sees you as not just a fan and we're all fans, but as a friend, and she wants to help you. She has a new retreat and she wants people to get involved in that to help guide them through their own mental health challenges. How selfless, How selfless.
So shout out to Maryelle, Shout out to Martha Canderu, Shout out to all of you who have been listening. It's been a great show. But before we go, let's make sure that we give a que little update about some stories that we've been following.
Some top stories.
There was an officer's shot out here in South LA just around Martin Luther King Boulevard and Western Avenue, just north of MLK Boulevard at MLK Park. Actually an officer involves shooting in which the officer was hit.
He was taken too. I say he because that's what's being said.
He was taken to a local hospital where he is in stable conditions. So that is great news. And the suspect was arrested. No motive has been released, no description or names yet as well, but we do know that that officer is in stable conditions, So prayers out for that person. And then of course we're following what's going on in Texas with these massive one in one hundred years, you know events, this massive flood. The number has risen
since we've been on air. I think when we started we were in the forties of people who were confirmed deceased, and now that number is at fifty, at least fifty death dead and at least twenty nine missing, many of whom are children, many of whom are reported to have been attendees at a summer camp, a Christian camp. At least fifty dead, including fifteen children, and the visuals coming off of CNN are just.
Wow.
It's just catastrophic, catastrophic, and they're calling it a once in a generational rain event, a terrible storm that caused this flooding at the Guadalupe River there in Texas. So you'll continue to hear updates from our KFI newsroom about that, and the officer involves shooting throughout the evening. Lastly, before we get to Michael Monks, before we throw it to his show, the gin Z gay, these gaze, the generation Z gaze, how they're looking at you?
Generation Z.
These young service workers are being reported to refuse to greet customers you go into a Starbucks, you go into wherever it is you're shopping, and you have a young person there. And our older generations, of which I now consider myself to be a part of, because I'm far away from Generation Z, at least in my mind, we are being set off by the lack of eye contact
from these younger service workers. People are saying you walk up to a front desk or a cashier and you're met with what's being described as a silent stare aka the gin Z gaze. This is being talked about all over social media. There's one post that has almost two million views where someone says they are so sick of the new style of customer service where people just stare at you when you walk up to the counter or service desk.
People are saying they're sick of it. They want interaction.
They want you to say good morning or hello, or what might you like instead of just being stared at.
And I can say I know that to be true.
It's interesting you walk into let's say, a Starbucks, and you know they have to greet you, that's a part of their contract, I think, but you know, you go there and they just these young kids, they really do they just look at you, and now you're looking at each other, and it's almost like osmosis, like they expect you to just insert into their brain what it is you want. Now you're just staring at each other, and
all that valuable time is wasted. So there's something going on with the young people and the young people and their training in the service industry. I wonder if they're practicing that two hours of silence while they're on the job.
It's been a blast.
I'll be here tomorrow for Chris Merrill sitting in from four to seven, so make sure you listen in then and as always, hit that talk back feature. Let us know what you thought of today's show, what's on your mind, how you spent the fourth and if we couldn't get to it today, then maybe we'll try to play some tomorrow. See, I'll be here from four to seven, so you have plenty of opportunities to chime on in. Thanks for listening again. Shout out to Martha Kangaroo. We see you girl over
there listening from your corner of the world. Thank you so much, and all of you have a wonderful day. Don't pop fireworks. Let people sleep in peace. Tonight, all right, I'll see you here tomorrow from four to seven. I AM six forty Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
Bye Kfi AM six forty on demand