Lugging Luggage

Break Free for Something Special Hour with Ben Maller starts right now in the air everywhere as we loviate the weekend away and we welcome you into the Mallard Podcast studio deep in the north Woods eight days a week as we try to overcompensate for my absence this week from the show, my post for a few a few nights here, and of course four hours a night clearly not enough. And the great thing about the podcast is you can listen to it overnight if you want, or

when the sun is up. You can actually listen when the sun is up. And I know from when people download, we actually have a lot of people that listened during the day and so we do appreciate that. Joined yet again by a man west of the four oh five, David gascong Man, I I really got to give myself one. I continue to book good guests. I should start getting paid for this ship. Wow. Wow, Wow, you know it's funny.

I I had done a Q and A session with one of your couple of your your listeners a few days ago, and they had asked that question about booking guests, and I said, you know, I like booking guests that Ben doesn't know or doesn't like, doesn't come in contact with, because it gives you. It gives you, like a little bit more work to write. It's like to do a little bit more research and to do a little bit

more recon and iways think it's fun. But like these guys, certain people like that you've come across and introduced me to, and like vice versa. I just think those people are so fascinating because we're always stuck in this you know, spectrum of sports and full disclosure, we've done the podcast long enough that we pretty much run out of people that there's very few people left that we haven't had

on like I think they like petros. People have said we should get petro Son, and I would love to get petro Son, but when we record the podcast, he's working, so we can't get petro Son. Now, maybe we can do something in another time. And we're talking about doing some stuff differently down the line, so that will open up the possibility of that and so we'll see. But you know, yeah, I don't. I don't know a lot of people I do. Radio radio is a small circle.

There's not a lot of people in it. And of the people in it, there's only a few that I get along with. So, um, you know, it's not a lot to work with you. There's not a lot that we can do. And so if you have any suggestions, we always say, hey, the email, the inbox is always open if you have somebody you'd like to have on. We've had recommendation with people from Denver, were like, we could get the voice of the Broncos on. We haven't

done that. Uh we we attempted to get the voice in the Minnesota Vikings on right and then he had Yeah, we tried a couple of times and that didn't work out. Paul Allen, the voice of the Vikings, Dave Logan and Denver that's right, maybe get them on because of scheduling issues. Um, but yeah, I mean, so I don't. I don't. Obviously, Andrew was fun to talk to. I like, I have an interest in cooking. He's a professional he's on television.

I think it's interesting how someone ends up on television and we're kind of in the same ballpark age wise, so we have our our perspective on life. I think it's pretty similar. Uh yeah, yeah. I although I don't like sea food, I do like pizza. I love pizza. Uh And Julia Child. I got to use my favorite Julia Child quote, and I didn't think I would ever get to use that, and so I'm glad that I did. I found a way to use a Julia Child quote, which I think I've only used once in my life.

But it's one of the great quotes about anything. You can have drama, even a pancake if if done properly. I'm paraphrasing the quote from from Julia Child. So I didn't ask you. I'd ask Andrew this, but I should have asked you gun to your head pancake waffle or French toast pancake? Oh wow, pancake, alright, pancake. You I don't know frive French toast, but I don't know. Arnie. Arnie every year for Christmas sending his gift packages for you know, for all the staff. The Vermont Maple syrup

man I've gotten I haven't got one. I've known Andrew longer than you, not Andrew, I've known Arnie longer. Yeah, I haven't known I've known Andrew at all. Actually I just met him yesterday, so but yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, pancakes a good call, especially because you can pacakes, you can stack them, you can put different so you know, obviously one of those things you can put different syrups or whatever, strawberry or the traditional maple syrup or anything

like that. But a well made pancake. And I don't I don't need breakfast, so I don't need a lot. As you know, that is one of the great scams. I should have brought this up with Andrew h And you know, the whole breakfast is the most important meal that you've heard that right, That is one of the great marketing slogans of all time. John Kellogg, the guy behind Kellogg's you know cereal company, That was his catchphrase to try to sell cereal breakfast Cereal. Nobody in the

when they breakfast cereals started, nobody bought it. Nobody wanted it. They didn't need it, they didn't want it. Most people ate breakfast it was just leftovers from dinner the night before if they ate anything, and a lot of people didn't even eat breakfast, they just skipped it. And he they came up with that marketing slogan breakfast is the most important meal of the day. They flooded all the newspapers, all the radio stations, and and the rest is history.

All these years later, we're talking about probably radio started in the nineteen twenties, so probably seventy eight years at least, I would say maybe longer than that. Damn crazy, It's amazing. I I do like the fact that Andrew said, I don't know if you do it at all, but I love eating breakfast for dinner. Yeah, I don't do too much. My wife loves breakfast, so that would be a compromise. I do. I do like similar to him. I do like the breakfast foods. I am a fan of breakfast foods.

I just I usually I'm fasting, so I can't eat breakfast, and I I pretty much just eat lunch. I've I've settled into a lunch I'm a lunch guy. I don't really eat dinner. On the weekends, I'll eat because otherwise I'll get killed with the family. I gotta eat, you know, lunch and dinner. But that's about it. Oh, we gotta go to Tustin. Man, I'm gonna let's do it. Let's do it. Let's just get a big old pie. Those those pineapples, Uh, I don't know if they're go on

my pizza. But the other pizza look delicious, they look they look solid. That's a good looking pie. That is a So that's that's food porn. That is food point. All right, So we have moving man Mallard. Now, as I referenced, I was away from my post this past week for three long, painful days. I would like to thank the staff at Fox Sports Radio for filling in. Mr Plank did a fine job sitting in for me there. Not not easy, not easy. The Mallard Militia, as you know,

a rather rambunctious group, the Mallard Militia. And typically when I'm away it is is open season, open season. But Chris Plank did a great job, as I understand, and did a wonderful holding of the fort. So we thank him for that. But as being away from the bully pulpit, the reason and you know I moved, but I'll give you some details. So the schedule worked out where my wife was off from work, um at the police stations and one operator. And so, no, you don't get a

lot of time off. You have to you know, you do get a lot of time off, but when you're supposed to work, you after work as well. Yeah, but most jobs and um, so she she said, we gotta move. This is it, you know, for for a couple of reasons. And so dragged me away to help help move. And we ski at schedaddle out of the halfway house to the the new Mallard mansion. And even though it's not completely done, it's not completely done, but logistically we had

to do it. And so it's still an active construction zone right now. Right across the room I'm in the I'm in the studio here, but just across the other side of the wall there are a group of hard working people who are sweating their asses off, covered in dust. They got the studio done, but the rest of the house is really not done, and it won't be done for a couple more days. I've actually been staying in a hotel the last couple of nights while they finish up.

But the studio has done so I'm here and I'm breathing in all the dust, which is great, and they really recommend that they recommend eating breathing in a lot of dust. But but anyway, so we it was a paint in and it took I have much respect from moving man Matt from Boston who hates you gascon uh and and several other p ones who have reached out to me over the years that are moving, you know, professionals. My god, what a what a pain in the ass.

I mean, it is a crap ton of physical labor, obviously, and you gotta take everything apart to fit it through doors, and it's just a nightmare. And then you lose. I I took some stuff apart from my student yoke because I moved that over, and I lost a whole bunch of screws that I needed. So then I'm going to home depot trying to match the screws, you know, and then they don't have the exact ones, so you gotta get it kind of close. And several U haul trips loading, unloading.

And the amazing about this is I'm not even done. Like, as I said, the house where I'm moving to is the studios done it'll be done in a couple of days. But then I have to move everything back from the storage that it's in and put it, you know, where it needs to be, and all that stuff for the final final move. So I have several probably months, because I can only do it on the weekends of sojourns. Renting a truck and then moving it and and all of that and all that. You know, something uh that

I was not anticipating taking is long. But the good news is this will be the final move. This will be my my final resting place. I don't imagine I will. I will die either in this house or while living in this house. So that's exciting. I don't have to move again, so I'm excited about that. And the house is gonna look great. And my wife designed like all I did was request the flooring. That's all I did. I said, I want a certain kind of flooring. Everything

else that was like pretty much here. So if it's good, I'll give her credit. If it's bad, she'll blame me for not having more of a say in the but she know she did a wonderful job and it's gonna look wonderful. I know you've seen some photos there gascon of some of this stuff that's done, which is not completely completely done, but almost done. And be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show week days at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports

Radio and the I Heart Radio app. It looks great. I saw a giant bowl occupying the living room, so that was that was nice. Um as a giant size bathtub. Um, that's the Mallard tub. That is the Mallard tub. It is. It looks old school, it looks awesome. The bathroom looks fantastic. Yeah. The bathroom is like it looks like the bellagio in here. It's yeah, because you get the little bench yeah yeah yeah yeah. Well we figured no because this the place

I needed complete complete, like gutting a fit. Yeah, talk to bottom. Yeah yeah. So like we can put ever we want, Like why don't we go big? You know, it doesn't cost that much more once you once you the hard part. The demo is expensive and then obviously the materials, but you can make it whatever you want. It doesn't cost that much more. I think kitchens and bathrooms you have to nail, and I think your wife nailed him. I think uh, Liven's in the kitchen yet,

but the bathroom, like the tile, the color, it looks great. Um, she looks good. Um My wife's really really good. She a lot of HUTV, a lot of reading stuff online and like what her tastes are, and and she tried to compromise because I have more. I'm pretty benign with this stuff, you know what I mean, Like I just can't like whatever. I just like I don't need it popping and all that stuff. But yeahs you we wanted stuff that's gonna last for a while, so hopefully this will.

You know. Sometimes you you paint something and you haven't look a certain way, and you get tired of it after a while. Yeah. I try to avoid that as much as part. I mean, it's like it's like the old cliche of buying real estate right on, like in Malibu, and you have this amazing window looking out of the Pacific Ocean, and then you look at it for like the first week or the first month, and then after a while you forget about it. You don't even look,

you know, used to get used to it. It says like you might as well live on the wrong side of the tracks looking at skid row because you're not gonna look at that, and you're not gonna look you know, you just it's not part of your routine. It's just not. Um. I think you guys did a great job. And I

applaud her for opening up her Instagram comments section. I was giving her shit about it, and she said that I was not the only person that was grieving over the fact that she had closed the door on comments. So that's in my position is different. You know, my my wife's loves to give updates, and I'm I'm more of, hey, you know, this is our you know, my private life.

You know, I don't need this out there. But I think she has a couple of Instagram pages, so I think it was on her personal one that she she set this stuff out. I think. I don't I don't know, but I've not been very good at the Instagram game. I just don't have I'm not a booty model. I'm not good at it, and I need to do better. I did post some photos the other day of me moving.

Yeah that's about it, and uh yeah, so uh the house will be done in a you know, a week or ten days, and then we gotta move everything and and then some of the stuff won't actually be here for months somebody because of the delay. Everything is delayed. I guess because of COVID. I don't know, but the production line delays some of the stuff that we got. We're looking at, well it's August right now, we're looking

at October. October. That's actually good news because most of the stuff that you get in October will be in such good condition it will be perfect for me to break in during the Christmas party. Just a beautiful, beautiful way to uh end there you go. Yeah, you'll have to to come over there, and I'm sure you'll complain about how far it is from where you live. No, No, that's actually worth the drive. Yeah you'll complain. You know.

It's a secret location deep in the north Woods. And that would be would you live in the north Woods? Would you live? I do? I do the studios in the north Woods? It is, But I mean like, would you live like Lake Arrowhead, let's say, or Big Bear? Would you ever considering living there? Um? Yeah, And now I can do. Because of the studio set up, I could work anywhere, so I'm open, you know, getty up. My my wife is more tied down than I am at this point because I never imagined working in radio

that this would be the setup. I always thought, well, it's only like Rush Limbaugh and uh, you know Steve Harvey and Art Bell could do their show from their home studio. Now there, I'll never be able to do that. And then because of the it's one of the benefits of COVID we have we have full the full time hosts that have remote access. We have hosts that work once a week that I have access, we have anchors that have access. It seems like everybody has access to

work remotely, except for like someone like myself. Yeah, I knew that was coming, you know, like driving to work paying five and a half dollars and gallon for gasoline and then you can thank your your governor, Gavin Listen. I have I have voted a high, high, high dark circle on that. Yes, recall, It'll be great. And of course most of my friends are like, why are you

gonna recall him? What has he done? All right? Yeah, well I my favorite part of that is the positioning of the recall, like these are extremists, this is these are hardcore people that are these are Trump people? No, Huan, that was called I believe the people. These are people that overtook the White House, you know, And I'm like, real, uh, because California is mostly liberal, a lot of liberal people that think this guy's a boob. So oh, we'll see

what happens. I'm glack. Should I endorse it? I don't know if I'm allowed to endorse. Am I allowed to endorse anybody? Somebody? As far as the pool of candidates, Larry Elder, Yes, Larry Elder's the guy, radio guy, well spoken. I think I think he would be a fine temporary governor for the state of California. I hope that Larry Elder ends up if we do succeed in getting rid of this stiff, this turd, Gavin Newsome. I'd love to see Larry Elder in there. I think he'd do a

great job. You have to give up his radio show though, right, he can't do the radio show'd be nice of you could, right, That'd be they'd be kind of wild awesome. Yeah, three or four hour and syndicated Larry Elder show as the governor of California. Oh my gosh, could you imagine that'd be wild? I'm glad you brought him up. And I want to ask you, I need your your your personal and probably your fessional opinion on this because they overlap

in a couple of different things. You annually do a nice little thing for a couple of cities where you dress up as Santa Claus. Yes, and you do it obviously for the kids. If if there was ever a time, because you're volunteering your time and your day to do this for the kids, But if there was ever a time where the centers that you do it for the fire departments, that you can do it for they said, Hey, we're triggered by you looking like this or doing this

as Santa Claus. We need you to change, and you don't want to. Um, would you just tell them to kick rocks? Or would you change for the fact that you're volunteering and you're offering your services for the kids. Well, it depends, like if I was flicking off the kids as I was address no, Like if it was just something that it was your personal choice, like the way you dressed, the way you talk to them, um, the way you looked, just something like that, like which, uh, yeah,

I mean, I don't know even it's ridiculous. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not getting paid for it. It's just I like doing. It's fun, all right, Why do you so? Last week we talked about someone we were celebrating or I was celebrating my one year anniversary on the National Suicide Prevention Line, and UM, I don't know if many people know this, but the State of New York followed State of California's leader vice versa on this. We're Gavin Newsom mandated that everyone in the health industry

UM Health Services has to be there. They're mandated to be vaccinated. So that means employees, wage earner's staff, board members, volunteers, everybody has to be vaccinated. And so the cut off date on that is September thirty this year. And our center, the National Suicide Prevention Center, sent out a mass email to all of us and said, hey, you guys need to be vaccinated by this date or at least have

your first shot. And prior to that, we need everybody to actually get COVID test dating once a week that staff, employees, and volunteers. Bend the kicker on this as they even wanted remote employees and staff and volunteers to also do this. So their logic was, well, it's mandated by the Health Department or health, the health industry, and the governor. That means you all have to do this because we consider everyone to be interacting with individuals. Well, we interact with

people on phone calls. That's it. Like, we're not case managers, were not meeting with people, were not doctors, physicians and that stuff. And they basically said, hey, you either do this or you're going to be forced to resign. And a couple of days ago, after my one year anniversary, I sent a pretty detailed and scathing email and I said, Hey, you guys have an email that says you're either vaccinated

or you're not. But you guys haven't addressed including the medical director or this agency, individuals that have out of bodies, Like where does that come into play? And I said, you're doing this under the advisement or recommendation of a governor that staring down the barrel of a recall. What happens if he gets recalled and we have a new governor and he doesn't mandate, in fact, he retracts that

mandate of vaccines. So it was a long, long email, but the gist of it was I just said I'm not gonna lose agency over my body because of what other individuals I think I should and shouldn't do. So you can either accept that. You can either be comfortable with me working from home and doing what I want to do, or I can I can say goodbye. I did training, I did role pall role call, role play calling on the phones I did I took a TV shot, um,

I did a background. I did all this stuff remotely, and now all of a sudden, they're like, well, in case you come into the studio or into work, and I'm like, well, I'm not so I've already been given access.

I was good for eighteen months to work there, a year to work there, and uh, you know, it's like one of those text messages, right like if when you're in a relationship, someone tends to send you a big text, like emotionally like throwing all these things out there, and you just respond with a K. That was kind of

what it was. I said this long ass email to the medical director, to the HR representative, and to my supervisor, and they sent like a three three line, you know, sentence that said, sorry, we require all this, Yeah, an listen, I don't. I don't believe people should be uh forced to get a vaccination if they don't want to. People get upset when I say that we said this, but oh you shouldn't say that and all this stuff. But I think it's up to you if you want to do it or you don't want to do it. But

common sense is not coming. I think that that is really the lesson. Common sense is not common and people have whatever their motivation is, um, they do not they do not want to take a position on the you know, that is away from the group think, right. The group think is everyone needs to get vaccinated and and uh

and all that. And that's why I was asking. I think, I think me each you have to decide for yourself what you want to do and and whether it's worth it, or you have to weigh what you know and what you don't know because we don't know a lot, and then you have to be the enlightened young grasshopper and make the decision. Right. Well, that's what I was asking because I'm curious in your stance because you've had the matter militia attack attack certain people. William Shatton is one

of them. Uh, They've gone after after writers and reporters in Arizona and in Texas. Um, do you think I should be vocal about something like this? Uh, well, if you're planning on leaving anyway, left, I left, you're not. You're not, so you're done, you're not. I turned in my stuff a couple of days ago. I just it was quick, like the email was sent out on Tuesday night. I had a shift Wednesday morning, and as soon as I logged on or my shift, everything was was canceled out.

I had no credentials everything. They did it for you, They got rid of you. What happened? Okay, well, yeah, I basically said I wasn't gonna do it, so they cut me off. And so they they must have endless amount of people that want to do that. Then, right, there's not as shorts of people that want to do Oh there is a short but they still got rid of you, even though again, just to recap as as I understand the story that you told me, you don't

actually go anywhere around people. No, you do it remotely, but they still are demanding that you get the vaccine even though you do it from your house. Right, And I have to get tested and I have to get tested once a week. While I work from home until that September thirty cut off date. Yeah, so I have to go pay to get tested. I have to go drive to get paid to pay to go get tested. Yeah. I thought it was free to get tested, right, And

there's a lot of places you can get it from. Yeah, I can get it for free, but they wanted specific centers. Oh really Yeah, So I mean I might have to pay and then they re imburse me. Now is there a chance you can go work somewhere else or is it all they're all the same dogma? Well, I don't know. But here in the state of California, it's mandated for everybody in the health industry, so doctors, physicians, p A

s um, clinical workers, like everybody. I have a friend that works in pharmacy, she had to get it um. I have a friend who is in a caretaker she has to get it UM. But I was reading and I think there's like seventy nurses that threatened to quit Anne you center up in Northern California on the vaccine mandate. So you know, I mean, for as much as we are in a crisis right now, this will amplify the crisis. If you have people in this industry that say I don't or I can't get it. At this point, do

you know, are you alone wolf on this? Though? Now I found out I found it through the grape vine, emails and phone calls that I was not the only guy in this fight. But I am one a few people that has a platform I guess that can be vocal about it. I just don't know if there's a win and all that, because you see it what's happening with kids, you see what's happening in other states. Obviously the medical industry in New York you can't get into

places without having a vaccine card um. But nobody is talking about natural immunity, which is just beyond me because well, the thing that frustrates me is is the uh, you know, big big pharma as uh figured out like they'll be booster shot. They found they can make this, you know, billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars. They're gonna make money on top of money on the right, the booster shots every year that fiser is gonna put

out and all that. So it's not it's not just like get the vaccine then you're good. It's no, no, no, every year, you gotta come back and get a every two years or whatever, you're gonna get a shot. So yeah,

I mean, and that's my whole thing. In that email, I said, Hey, if the state's mandating you to have everyone vaccinated, does that mean that you will mandate everyone to take the necessary precautions uh to either avoid, treat, or recover from COVID Because that includes working out, exercising, eating well, cooking, lowering your stress, getting more sleep, and and working on your own mental health. Are you gonna mandate that or you're gonna be proactive about it? And

that was my final shot across the bow. And they probably don't like that either, but it's true, right, like you realize you're outnumbered, though you're you're you're tremendously out well, I'm only outnumbered because people have actually gotten the vaccine, like Californians have gotten the vaccine. So I'm outnumbered in

that sense. But I do think there's plenty of people that either regret getting the vaccine or question the effectiveness of it, considering the fact that, yeah, you need booster shots now, and some of these, some of these have adverse effects to people well, and a lot of not a lot, but if a percentage of the those people got the vaccine because they were told, you don't have to wear a mask anymore, you don't have the social distance. And then within a month they're like, fuck you, you

gotta you gotta do all that. So the Hollywood Bowl and the Greek Theater here in Los Angeles, so requiring people to wear vaccines outside where you may wear masks not. I don't think you can va vaccine mask. If you could, that would be something. How could you wear a vaccine that look, I don't know. You can wear a tattoo on your shoulder right. Well, it's like the people on social media that have the circle their photo I got vaccinated, which is like almost as annoying as the people on

social media say he him or you know, see her. Uh. That's when you know you've reached a douche bag. When I see that kind of stuff, I just rolled my eyes and they really were at that point there come on. But yeah, I don't know. I feel bad, you know, because I did that out of a couple of reasons. One was like, we got killed with the sports industry, and I was motivated to help other people out and I just feel awful that people are losing AID because these people are trying to put a gun to do.

I do have a story for you, So I uh, the RAMS training Camp. I I just love to go to RAMS training camp when I was a kid. And I had the opportunity to go to RAMS training Camp this year, but there were so many hoops you had to jump through. You had had of the vaccine, you had to get tested even after the vaccine, and so all these and as I'm not worth it. I don't want to deal with the bullshit, and so I didn't even go out. And I would have loved it. It It

would have been wonderful. I liked the RAMS. I could have gone and had access and and all that, but they they sent an email. I was like, really, there's like seven such a pain in the ass. It's like to me, it's not worth it to spend an hour and a half watching football players, you know, run around, which would have been fun. But I like, you know, I'm not I'm not dealing with that crap and uh, and so I haven't. I have not. But it's up to you if you want to release the hounds. The

Malle Militia very good at annoying, very good. They're like mosquitoes. They just getting your business. They bite you, they'll sting you. Yeah, it's weird. I don't know. I obviously everyone's got their own choices and uh, you know, this thing continues to evolve anyway, taking shape. So it's weird because there's people that think that just because you don't want to do something, you're anti that right, like you know, all of a sudden,

if I'm against something around, Yeah, what do you say? Now? What do you say? Guess there are people that listen to this that think, hey, this guy's a nut job. What's wrong with you? What do you say to people? They love the vaccine and think that everyone needs to get it and if you don't get it, guessing you're a bad person. Who want to say to that guy, But I'm not an anti vaxter and I think everyone

should take it if they need to get it. Like you said, you're some of your family have got parents have recommended. Uh, aunts and uncles have recommended. I have a couple of friends that are diabetics. I recommended they get it. Um, and you know my situation. I got it my my brother. Um, I you is my brother is a guinea pig, and I figured he has the same DNA as I. Plus I got you know, my wife and my family, the first side of the family. You know, we hang out on the weekends. You're gonna

get excited. So I but I waited until my brother had had it, and then I waited a couple of months until after. I didn't get it until not that long ago because I wanted to make sure he was all right. And um, and you know, he's got other medical conditions other than that I don't have. But he's he's doing fine and so. Uh. But if I was single and not, you know, and not in the situation,

I probably would not have gotten it. But uh, you know, because of my situation, I got it, and I've been fine and nothing's It was painful for a day and I felt a little weird for like a few hours, but other than that, nothing really happened. And who knows, you know, you don't know down the line. And but the way I look at it, um, I'll be in the majority of the people or whatever that so we'll all die at the same time. We all hold the

hands while we die. Well, well, at least at least I know where get to bury you in your brand new remodeled house. Yes, yeah, in the backyard if you want, you can bury me back there. I think I have five G power. Now you can use me as a cell phone receptacle. I'm growing an extra I I have a tail. But other than that, it's all good. It's all good. What could possibly go wrong? Oh my gosh.

I have a couple of friends that are autoimmune, and when they asked me what I thought about, I said, you gotta get the vaccine, Like I feel like you are in that that group where you badly need it, and um, yeah, I mean elderly, of course. I mean we had the The thing that is frustrating is like you still can get it to me? To me a vaccine, is you get it? You like if you have the

polio vaccine, I don't think you get polio. And maybe I'm wrong with that and maybe somebody can correct me, but you don't get But this now there's well, it's not as bad. And there's always those outliers where people make the media where people get have the vaccine, get it, get COVID and still and they say that's within the margin of error or whatever. And so you know, I don't know that people know what they're talking about, but you know, you gotta roll with it, guess sometimes I

gotta roll with I'm rolling with you, guest. But I give you credit for standing standing up for your principles in a world where that's looked down upon. Yeah, you have to just follow the group think. And if you don't follow the group think, you're a heathen, which is just weird, right because if you put I mean, because we have people like in our industry radio and television, and some of them are in fantastic shape, some of them are okay, and some of them are just got awful.

But are you trying to tell me someone that's pushing like three bills or four hundred, that's on radio or TV and sits down every day and gets a vaccine that's healthier than me, Like fuck no, Like well, no, no, of course not. But they cheat people like bio hazards. Right, If you're not vaccinated, you're walking biohazard. Yeah. Yeah, I don't I don't care. I mean, to me, you should aside if you don't want to do it, you just

have to deal with the consequences of something happens. Right, but but at the same time, it doesn't guarantee the vaccine doesn't get it to you're not gonna get it

and have consequence. Yeah, so I wanted your opinion on that publicly because yeah, it's interesting and uh, you know, and being a lot the argument the Devil's Advocate arguments, well, these are these are private A lot of these are private businesses, although you said, is that through the state of California, Well, it's a nonprofit, so I don't know

like where they are. I guess the National Center is here in Los Angeles, but they're across the country, Like aren' they gonna They're gonna like have military guys have to get it and all that, and they're talking about that. Yeah, so it's and the argument has always been like in the private sector, you can have you can require so and so, and they you know, they'll they'll say that you have kids going to school, you have you have to get vaccinated for certain things, and so that's just

part of the deal. And you know that going in and right, and I get that, But counter argument, you are so are comparing vaccines that have been in the game for a long period of time to something that has just been put out into the market, you know. It just I don't think it's apples to orange. I don't think it's apples to apples. I think it's apples to oranges. I really do. And and well we'll fight out if they royally screwed up. And a lot of

people are you know, you know that. But I hope the thing we have to look forward to down the line, you know, we can look forward to that years people. You know, it's like people smoke cigarette. Doctor used to recommend smoke cigarettes, you know, and then eventually, as my dad used to tell me all the time when I was thinking about, you know, should you smoke, should not smoke, He's like, well, you know, it's the doctors used to

say to smoke. And then you know, they didn't realize you get lung cancer, and they didn't put that there was no connection, no correlation. For a while, I didn't want to mention briefly here before we get to get out of here. The the Mallard Studio, which I'm very excited about. It is the even though this is actually airing the Friday podcast and now this is Saturday podcast aired after the radio show, this is actually the maiden voyage. This is the maiden voyage from the new studio and

new and improved audio quality. By the way, uh deep here in the north Woods, off the grid from the rest of the world, embedded with a microphone in hand, ready to go. The studio is It's like a two for one. So I'm on the radio side of the studio right now. The I had my own podcast set up. I'm still getting some equipment for that putting that together. I did dust out the wallet. I would like to

thank the great Jake Warner. Was on Jake Warner's podcast, Stay Awake with Jake, my guy, my engineer Fox Sports Radio back in the day, and he's now doing his own thing. He's got a popular podcast, the Big Brother Jake Podcast, and we were talking old radio stories and Jake I connected and he said, wait a minute, that sounds that sounds terrible. It sounds that sounds bad. And I said, well, I'm on my computer. It sounds fine. He says, no, it doesn't. That sounds He's a professional engineer.

And I was like, uh, and so I said, well, you gotta help me, Jake. He said, yeah, Jake guided me to see the light. He's the o. G the old gangster engineer for the Clippers, my my favorite NBA team, the l A. King's my favorite hockey team. And he used to be the traveling audio engineer for the Los Angeles Dodgers for years. And Jake knows how to make you sound good. Jake will make you sound good. He's a pros pro and so he we were talking back

and forth. He actually came over to the halfway house and looked at the equipment that I had, and he's the only one, literally, the only one that was in there. Nobody else. I didn't have anybody else in my friend circle that came in there because I was so embarrassed because there was boxes everywhere and like there was a mattress on the on the floor. It was a disaster. Uh. And he came in and he told me what to get and so that should be up and running within

about ten days or so. So it'll give us a little more freedom and it will sound better. So I'm excited about this is gonna be this a big chapter here, Gascon. And you were actually part of it. I can't get into the reasons why, but you were the motivation for it. So if it hadn't been for you and your you know your situation, I would not have done this. Oh my gosh. So do you want to give you a little little, little added bonus to this? All right, so

some of your dreams, no pun intended, might come true. Um, the league that I'm calling European football for right now, that production company reached out to me a couple of days ago, and uh, they are in partnership with another production company in Europe and they want me to do play by play for a champions hockey league. It's an international league with like twenty six teams involved. Pluck usually drops around six or seven o'clock Pacific, which means they'll

have to be up early. So am so so your dream of potentially recording these things at different times like after your show might actually, unfortunately have to come into reality. I'm not really happy abou any of that. Well, I'm very happy about that. I'm very happy. Uh. As you know, I'm a creature of habits, and because of your situation about my my habits are changing and and so if it can be more ben friendly, that would that would

be great? Employ would that be one? You haven't posted any pictures of your studio yet, have you No, No, I want to wait till it's the podcast stuff is up. But I'm excited about it. It's it's pretty cool. This is this is gonna be great. It's gonna be wonderful. And then I went out and it sounds sounds better. This week, I spent some bucks on a new voice processor. My voice processor had been dying a slow, painful death, and I finally put that out to pastor and this

one is good to go. So I'm very excited about that. And uh, and also I've been dealing with a massive spider bite, by the way, that's been that's been going on here, guests. I write, the spider loves the meat right below my knee on the back of my my leg there, they just right below the knee there, and it's my whole right leg was like infected. And I then read that spiders love piles of clothes, like for them, that's porn, that's yes, they love to hide and live

and piles of clothes. Well, the place I was living had nothing but piles of clothes because everything was kind of in transit, right, so we didn't really put anything away because we're not gonna stay there and we're only there for a couple of months, and so it was like a playground for the spiders and it was a freaking nightmare. Um. Anyway, so it is finally healed. And I did read online though, that a home remedy for

spider bites garlic. Yeah, that you can just rub garlic on the spider bite, which adds to the mystical powers of the ancient formula, the original medicine garlic. You can put some witch hazel on it too. Yeah, I'm sure I could rub a lot of stuff on anyway. Alright, so we'll put the baby to ba. Get a big mail bag. A lot of people fired up here, Mallard

militia on malamlicia, crime on the mail bag. We look forward to that, and uh, we'll catch you then, have a wonderful rest of your Saturday, and we'll see you on the other side on a on a Sunday. Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven p m Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart to Your While