I welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. On the last episode, I talked about a New York Times article about a woman who falls in love with chat GPT. It's portrayed as this normal thing that she did. You just, you know, went ahead and fell in love with her AI, as if that was a sane or rational path. And I mentioned it on X also and was asked, why do you care? This is just a lonely person soothing herself. So let's start with why I
do care it's in the New York Times. If I'm not meant to care, why is there a whole story on this? But I particularly care because I have kids growing up in this world where a major newspaper thinks a story about a woman basically talking to herself is just as acceptable a life as any other. I said this on the last episode. But it's the fact that this life option is presented as just another choice that I find so objectionable. This is a terrible choice. This
is actually no life at all. Really is this a lonely woman just trying to feel better? Kind of The woman in the story is married, but for financial reasons, she lives apart from her husband. They're working towards getting back to the same place. Clearly, this isn't a well functioning person. So to add an AI love affair, which by the way, she's paying for at the end of the article with money, she does not have to add
that to the mix. Can we just say no, this is bad, don't do this, and have that be enough. But even putting aside the coverage in the New York Times, because who knows what they cover at this point or why this woman needs to pretend to have a boyfriend who doesn't actually exist, The bigger picture for me is that so many people are living their lives completely online and not in real life, and this is really the
ultimate version of that. At least most people are interacting with real people online, hopefully, but even still, that's a sad way to live. I work from home, and I always have, so I get the whole having an online life thing. I really do. There are days where that is the great majority of my human interaction, and I recognize that it's not great. I have my husband and my kids, but my primary friendships are all happening online, and again I realize it's bad. I work towards more
in real life interactions and connections. But this AI thing is taking it to another level, and it shouldn't be normalized or treated as just another way to have a relationship.
It's not.
There's nobody at the other end of that relationship. So that's why I care. I care because I can see where this road leads and it's not anywhere good, and it's important to differentiate between good and bad and not allow it to be muddled. There are better and worse
paths in life. Try to take the better one. Coming up my interview with Julio Rosis, but first, on January twenty seventh, International Holocaust Remember and Day we remember the great evil of the Holocaust, when millions of Jews were slaughtered during the Nazis reign of terror. Today, the rise in global anti Semitism and the constant attacks on Israel show us that it's more important than ever to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust to ensure it never happens again.
That's why I've partnered with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. They provide food, shelter, and safe to Jews in Israel and around the world, including those remaining Holocaust survivors. Your donation today will help provide food, water, medicine, and other basic necessities to Jewish communities. And through your gift, you will stand with the Jewish people and against this
growing anti Semitism and hatred. Give a gift to show your support of the Jewish people by visiting SUPPORTIFCJ dot org. That's one word SUPPORTIFCJ dot org. Or call eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ that's eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ eight eight eight four eight eight four three two five. Welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio. My guest today is Julio Rosis. Julio is national correspondent for Blaze Media. Hi, Julio, so nice to have you on.
Yeah for having it, Carol.
So, this show is generally not about news of the day, and it's not about, you know, what's going on in our media. But it's sort of an interesting moment right now. You just got back from California covering the fires, and I did want to talk to you about what you saw there and what makes you go into disaster areas when I would personally run the other way.
Yeah. So, I mean it's a classic case. I mean obviously you see the destruction on TV, and I would and this this was my first wildfire coverage because you know, I've done hurricanes, I've done you know, the flooding like after North Carolina a couple of months ago, and obviously this was this was very different because even even before leaving the airport, the smoke is so bad, the air
quality is so bad in Los Angeles right now. Is that I started getting a headache from the smoke even before leaving the airport, and so that was obviously to be expected. But once you're dealing with that for a couple of days, it gets, it gets kind of it gets annoying. It's kind of like a it's almost as if the smoke is in your head.
Yeah.
I had a friend, Anthony Cobasas, who is also a reporter. He described it feeling the same way. So in terms of in terms of why I like to to cover these things, the answer is, I don't really know. Outside of the side, I would say it's two things. One, it's it. It's important obviously because whenever there is chaos, whether whether it is riots, whether it's natural disasters or you know, stuff that's like happening at the border and things relate to that. As we've seen, right, the discourse
gets very out of control very fast. And being able to one be there see it for myself, so that gives me some credibility to talk about it, right because I'm not just somebody behind the computer right mouthing off. But also it's not anything wrong with that.
Now that there's anything wrong with that, right, I know that that's half of our industry, So I have to have to be careful, but also just so being able to see it for myself and then also able to document it accurately and actually get a feel for on the ground, talking to people and people that are being affected by that.
Is very important to capture so that the rest of the country kind of has a better understanding of what's going on. And that's applicable to basically almost any story chaotic thing. And the other thing is is that it is exciting and and I'm I've said this before, but I never considered myself to be an adrenaline junkie of any kind. I don't like roller coasters. I still don't like roller coasters. I don't whenever the you know, a plane gets turbulence, which I'm on a lot of planes
these days. Right, So whenever playing gets urmulents, I don't I don't like that feeling in my stomach. That's really the big thing. Uh. And so but whenever it's in not a situation that I can I want to say that I can control, because obviously by nature like this is very out of control and whatever, whatever the situation is.
But when being able to kind of navigate it, and like I said, also having like a mission behind it, I find a lot of satisfaction in being able to go out and kind of like complete a mission in a sense and in a way, so it's those two it's like combining those two things, right, So it's like the passion while also getting paid for it is a pretty nice gig, right, you know, being able to do what I like to do as a job. And so
that's that's kind of why. And also I guess it would be kind of like job security because like as you said, of people wouldn't want to go at first at first of these things, and so kind of being the guy that always raises his hand and saying, okay, all right, I'll take one for the team. And you know, there's a lot of things that go into it right, and like, for example, because when the fires really started raging on that Tuesday, I just got back from DC.
I was helping Blaze cover you know, January sixth, and all that and all that entailed, and I told my mom that I was leaving it. And because my mom takes care of my dog that I rescued, because she lives close by, obviously, whenever I leave, I have to give her heads up that, like, hey, you're gonna to take care of Bella for the first time. And she tells me, no, don't go, Like I feel like if you go, things are going to be out of control.
It's going to be chaotic there. And I just looked at her and I was like, you know, what's what I do. Like, if you're trying to convince me to not go, that was the wrong thing to say. And so she finally was like okay. And so I would say, definitely having the gas ask, which I got a couple of years ago for the riots with the tear guys like that actually came in handy a lot, as you can imagine. So yeah, I mean, it was it was it was it was seeing that sort because she used
to live in Burbank prior to living in Florida. So actually after I started my career in journalism, I was actually out there a lot because before we never went to Los Angeles and so kind of seeing the you know, being in those areas that that we would visit, uh, you know, whether it's like Malibu or Santa Monica and seeing the state that it's in, I mean, like, yeah, it is jarring, it is.
It is.
Yeah, it is sad because as much as I like the rag on California, you know, yeah, but I love California.
That's a beautiful state. It would be so much better, you.
Know, right, And that's the thing. Like, so I as someone who spent a lot of time there, I understand how much better it can be, and and I do appreciate the things that that are still good there, which there are quite a few things, right, And I finally understood because I want to Pacific Palisades and seeing the
destruction there and even in its state that it's currently in. Unfortunately, I can understand why people who have grown up, their their whole lives aren't just gonna automatically move to a red state like Texas are afforded because like that area is still nice.
So nice.
Yeah, So what do your parents think about what you do in general? Do they? I mean, I'm sure they're proud of you, but they can't love you head you know, because I was going to say, actually, in another era, you'd probably be a war correspondent, but you actually are a war correspondent. You do go into war zones, you go into all of these things, you go into riots, you go into you know, natural disasters, and you have been in war zones. So what do they think. Are
they like, can you please not? Or are they like, go ahead and do it. This is you know, what you were born to do.
No, I have my parents are very supportive of what I do. Obviously, they do have concerns, uh, you know, depending on the situation. I would say, when again, when I was talking to my mom before I loved, she definitely had more of a concern than usual because this was definitely a much because it was also just a new situation, right, it was a new situation because she's she is used to me being in right, she is used to me being in in uh, you know, like
when I was in Israel after October seventh. So but but they but they also understand that this is what I want to do, right and and there, and like I said, they're they're very supportive in that, and so I do check in with them a lot whenever whenever I do go, and especially my mom, because you know, I was kind of telling her how how things were and how and and kind of getting her reaction to to seeing because even though she she obviously grew to
dislike California with it with its politics after COVID and then all that, you know, she's against New sum and then in the recall campaign, so she did, she did try her She did try her best when she lived there, but she did, you know, she did get very emotional because she did spend a lot of time there, right, I mean she lived there for seven and eight years, and we actually lived briefly when I was very little in California even prior to that.
So so she she was, you know, pretty upset seeing everything, as as a lot of people are obviously, Oh, it's nice, right, It's nice to have that that support, and it is also kind of like a good I would say good.
Kind of like a control rod and a nuclear reactor, where obviously for me, I just want to you know at the first time, I think, I just I just want to go, right, Like I just just want to go and and and you know, maybe I don't think about all of the all of the dangers that kind of kind of go along sid So whenever I check in with my parents, they kind of like, Okay, well did you think about this? Do you think about that?
Like what are your plans for this? So it's kind of a good it's kind of a good regulator almost right to to to just my my natural instinct to go out and head into to the craziness. So and also now having to take care of a dog isn't good because as much as I wouldn want to be out there for as long as possible, you get very shed. My mom tells me she gets very very sad and depressed whenever I'm going for extented period. So it's it's like, okay, so I have to leave, right.
Did you always want to do this? Did you always want to be a reporter?
No? So I didn't. I didn't know what I wanted to do when I was in after after high school, because I knew I wanted to be in the Marines, but in the Marine reserves. So that's a part time thing. It's that full time. So I knew I had to obviously have a career outside of that while while I was doing the part time thing, and so I took a journalism This is like my only formal education was a journalism class for one semester in high school. Right, So it's very very it's very basic. It's obviously not
super in depth, and I didn't like it. But even at that time, I didn't know what I wanted to do. But then after I got involved into politics, right before the twenty sixteen election, I got into writing, and that was just by happenstance. And so after I covered the protests at the RNC and the DNC in twenty sixteen, which people forget the DNC was actually had a lot
more protests because all the Bernie bros. Were still upset that Hillary kind of you know, sold the nomination with the serial delegates, So there were a lot of protests there, and so combining that with Twitter, you know, then Twitter, that's kind of when I realized, oh, I like being out in the field and using social media to give live updates. So that's kind of how I So when I moved out to d C after Trump won in twenty seventeen. That's when I really and I covered Charlottesville
because I was like shortly after. That's when it really clicked for me. It's like, Okay, whenever there's an opportunity for something like this, this is where I want to be and this is the type of journalism that I want to do.
What would you be doing if it wasn't this, like motorcycle racing, adrenaline junk, Well, yeah, no, motorcycle racing.
No I yeah, I don't. I don't like to ride motorcycles, especially in southern Florida. So no, I don't. I don't know, honestly,
I really don't. And that's actually something my parents want me to think about often, well just in the sense of and I guess this kind of speaks to not not to get ahead but with with but the because my one of my issues is that i'm too I can get hyper focused on an issue, on something, and so that if that's all I think about, and that's all I focus on, obviously there's you know, there's more
to life than just being in the field. And so when I was in d C that that was especially true, and that was because a lot of things were happening, especially in twenty twenty, but I kind of let other things kind of fall to the wayside. And so moving to Florida was kind of an answer to that, because when you're sucked into d C, obviously that's that's that's the city, right, the city around these news cycles and
the politics and everything. So being able to kind of just remove myself from that environment, obviously still working in the industry, but remove myself from the environment to allow myself to kind of take pause, take a breath, and enjoy other aspects. But no, so the answer question, I have no idea. I mean, I was I was when I when I was in college because I dropped out. I was doing business administration. So I'm not entirely sure, you know, because again that's very general, So I'm not
entirely sure what what I would do with that. Maybe I was saying I was, I was probably thinking leaning towards something like marketing, because again that's like or like communications, right, so you know, communicating with the outside world, even though nonmusicapacity more.
With Julio in a moment, But first, well, we may have won this election. The fight to restore our great nation is only beginning. Now is the time to take a stand, and Patriot Mobile is leading the charge. As America's only Christian conservative wireless provider. Patriot Mobile offers a way to vote with your wallet without compromising on quality or convenience. Patriot Mobile isn't just about providing exceptional cell phone service. It's a call to action to defend our
rights and freedoms. With Patriot Mobile, you'll get outstanding nationwide coverage because they operate on all three major networks. If you have cell phone service today, you can get cell phone service with Patriot Mobile with a coverage guarantee. But the difference is every dollar you spend supports the First and Second Amendments, the sanctity of life, and our veterans and first responders. Switching is easy, keep your number, keep
your phone, or upgrade. They're one hundred percent US based customer service team will help you find the perfect plan right now. Go to Patriotmobile dot com, slash Carol K A R O L or call nine seven to Patriot and get a free month of service with promo code Carol with a K. Switch to Patriot Mobile today and defend freedom with every call and text you make visit patriotmobile dot com, slash k A R O L or call nine seven to Patriot.
So you go into these very tense situations, you go into natural disasters and all the rest. What worries you, what's your biggest worry about? Just anything really, but you know, you get to see all of this up close, it has to affect you.
It does at a certain point because you know, you try, you try, you try not to get to you because yeah, because when you when you're in the situations and you're in again. That's why helps having that mission with with like reporting because you know you do you don't want it to be you know, you don't want to like make it about you obviously because you know, unless it's in your area, you're just visiting until you kind of
always have to keep that in mind. But so having that mission and having that that responsibility to focus again, to focus and to get the word out on what's on, what's going on. But yeah, after a while, it does, it does kind of weigh on you. And a good example outside of the riots was actually the border crisis, because when everything first started in twenty twenty one, it was obviously a very much a border issue at the beginning because they were the first being impacted. People were
just starting to arrive. Yes, even though they were being sent out into the United States for that year, the numbers hadn't reached critical mass yet, and that didn't happen until late or until like mid twenty twenty three, basically like a two year period where you know, I'm kind of you know, I'm raising any alarm about it, there's other people raising any alarm about it, and sure, obviously Republicans were too, but understandably it still was kind of
a far away issue. It wasn't like the school board issue, like in loud and counting, right, because obviously, oh, like that's my kids school board, and then people are looking at their other stuff, and so it's whenever I whenever I leave, I have to kind of not obviously completely forget about it, but I can't dwell on it because especially with an issue like that, it's such a huge issue.
It's a year's long issue. Obviously got worse because of the Biden Harris administration, and obviously now it's it's it's almost incomprehensible about how big of an issue it has become. And now it's I'll.
Tell you that. My my a political sister in law, like a month or two ago, was like, do you know what's going on at the border? And I was like, yeah, I do. I do know what's going on.
It's like Internet Explorer. That's explorer, but.
Telling you it has it has jumped to you know, people who just don't follow the news. She's very smart, you know, she just has a different you know, different different things that she follows.
She's a normal person, normal person.
Exactly normal people now know about the border.
So so yeah, so it's so whenever I leave, I kind of have to forget about the more horrific aspects of it, because if you do just sit on it and dwell on it, it will drive you crazy because it's like, this is a problem. Why isn't it being solved?
You would say, is your biggest worry the border?
No? No, No, My biggest worry is is reaching a point to where I can't do this anymore? And that can come in a variety of ways. Right, Like in twenty twenty, it was it was a mental thing, right because it was starting to go down like a dark path just because of all the stress of all the things that I was saying and experiencing just by being there. But then it could also just be getting injured to
a point where I can't go out anymore. And there have been a few times where you know, if things, if things went a certain way, you know, I could get into you know, paralyze you know, or even even you know, or even die. Right, And so obviously, like I said, now that I kind of have other responsibilities besides just work, that be just being able to come home and still be able to you know, live life.
That that's something that I always try to have at the back of my mind, especially when I'm out there, so that I don't I don't put myself in unnecessarily more dangerous situations that anything. Because obviously we want to get the story. Obviously we want to get the videos and the photos and everything. But it's not worth my life. It's not worth being able to it's not worth being able to live life in the way that I do and in the way that I do now.
So yeah, and I mean, as you know, in my with my mom hat on, but like you know, if you get married and have a family, all of that's going to get harder as well.
Yeah, and I'm kind of at that stage where because because I was talking to my mom about that, because like what does that mean with kids? And and she goes, yeah, like if you have kids, you can't, you can't do that.
Yeah, your dog is the preview of that. You know, why home to your dog, You're gonna it's even you know, possibly even more so with kids.
Right, No, exactly, so yeah, exactly, And obviously I don't And obviously I don't want to just like dump the responsibility on someone else because obviously that's my responsibility to and I can only get away with that because my mom loves my mom loves Fellow, she loves taking here.
But but I still I still feel bad because and so that's so if I feel that way with the dogs, like okay, so like that's a kid, Like it's even more with a kid. It's even more if there's multiple kids. So it's a matter of what So so yeah, I kind of worry about, like what what's this going to
look like? Because even with even with the people that the few people that do have kids that do like being out in the field, they do obviously they do change, like they you know, I ran into somebody who was there for one day because she was in the area by by chance, and she's like, I have to go back, I have to go back to my kid. And it's like, yeah, that's that's really fine. And so it's like, all right,
that's fine. I'll pick up the slack. You know, It's like, I'll pick up the slack because I can do that. But you know, obviously at some point, you know, obviously I do, like I said, want to have more outside of life. So I don't know, I'm not entirely sure what that's going to look like. But in true, in true Julio stance, I'm just going to procrastinate it just just just this a little bit more. But I do I do know that the time is kind of you know, it's kind of kind of coming up here.
So what advice would you give sixteen year old Julio sixteen year old self? Like, what would you sell yourself?
Definitely definitely lean into the confidence that that you have. And when I say that is I knew I knew I couldn't make it. I knew I could make in journalism with with if that was just like, oh I can do attitude, But I mean it does make a difference, right, that that attitude does make a difference if you truly believe that you can do it, and the opportunity to presents itself, you can. I hate to say, you know, cliche or you know, season the day, but I.
Mean there's a reason, but yeah, there's a reason cliche, but.
There is a reason. There is a reason why it's a long lasting, long lasting kind of life model. But it really is true. And so I would say, you know, lean into that confidence that you already have. But also again and this is kind of what I was saying earlier, but don't also get too hyper focused because I was in d C for was it seven years? I was in the DC area for seven years? Just like just throw myself into work. Just yeah I did. Obviously I did.
Obviously did have friends and you know, didn't kind of have a social life. But but that was it. And and it got to a point where, especially if this was early on, and this is you know, I had moved away from my parents and everything, so I wasn't used to having to make it like make it a point to call them just every once in a while. And so my parents at one point told me, it's like,
you haven't called in three months. Obviously I texted every one, but it wasn't just but obviously that's not like just a phone call just to talk. It's like you haven't called in three months and I didn't, And that wasn't even on purpose, right, it's just like, oh my goodness, like you're right. So that that that that's kind of what I was saying, where you can just get it so consumed. M And obviously it's great to have a good work ethic. Yeah, it's great, especially in today's day age.
But too much, too much of anything is not good. And so I would definitely say, you know, take time to slow down, enjoy the other things that as much as again it's much like the rag on DC, there are still good things are also good. There are good things about that about the area to take advantage of it, and so it would definitely be to just take a
breath every once in a while. And that's why I love living down here in Florida because it's so much easier to take those opportunities because obviously not because of the weather, but the attitude, the attitude and the vibe is obviously different. And that's why that's that's why you.
Missed one of our parties to go cover the fires.
Well yeah, that yeah, I know. Again I apologize, but yeah, so that that's why it's also kind of like, you know, I because that drive, because like I really do have that drive when I really don't know what it what it is because I mean, obviously, yeah, you get the you get the attention because obviously there's not that many people, like I said, who just.
Want to be in the mix. I think that's a very normal thing, and I think you do it very well. You are clear eyed, and I think your reports are are very very good. And it's funny because I think a lot of like you know, a lot of media is is covering the same thing, but your reports are more they just feel more honest, like you're not trying to cover anything, cover up anything, or have an angle. They're just very very clear.
And I appreciate you.
I do.
Yeah, yeah, because especially in today's day and age with social media, there there are obviously it's good to have independent like news out there, but there you know, and this goes with mainstream media as well, but yeah, there's a lot of times where people just want to make it about themselves, right, and I understand that to a point, because you are out there, if, of course that supplies if you're out there. If you're not, then of course
that doesn't apply. But even then it can get easy to get sucked into like, ah, look what I'm doing because I'm out here. So again you kind of have to keep you kind of have to keep that in check because obviously, like, yes, it's important to recognize that like, yes, I'm out here, this is what I'm seeing, this is what's this is what's happening. The story is about what you're capturing, not right, you can you can kind of have an analysis afterwards after the fact. That's kind that's
kind of my rule. That's kind of like what I'm doing right now. But but when when you're when when in the moment, it's like it's it's about what's what's happening out there?
Yeah, well, I love this conversation. I love hearing about what you're doing on the ground. Leave us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.
Yeah, I mean, I would say, and again I hate to sound too much like it's much of a cliche, but definitely definitely go out and touch grass.
Yeah, I love that. No, I say that all the time.
Yeah, and and I I can't. I hate that I'm not more original with that, but it is so important just because and that's and again that's why I like being out in the field because even though it's work related, it does kind of get me out of out of the out of the rut, out of the cycle that that that that you can get when you sit behind the desk for too long m hm. And so that's that's not to say to just be lazy, right like that, that's not to say like, oh, just kind of forget
about everything. No, but you go out with a purpose, you know, go out with a purpose, go enjoy the things that that you do enjoy. And it's interesting because we the the you know, Republicans and conservatives are kind of having that conversation about with the with the whole
HB one visa debate. And it is kind of true that, you know, because I and I've and I've noticed this a lot when I've been to Mexico too, when when I when you talk to people like obviously there's a difference between like hard work and and work called being a workholic. And I'm saying that as a self professed kind of workaholic. But the one thing that I don't like about American culture is that it's just like you've become the company man, and like that's the only way
to succeed. Obviously, yes, that is a common way to succeed. That that I'm not saying like that doesn't happen, but it does come at a tremendous cost, like personally, and again I say that with experience, and so I'm not saying that it's evil, you know, I'm not saying like, oh, it's it's like it's so bad, But it's just you got to have a right balance. And that's something that I'm always working on trying to achieve because for me, it's not even just oh I'm at the office for
ten twelve hours. It's it's like I'm not even here, yeah, with my friends, with my family, with you know, with my dog, and so that that that is kind of a good tether to kind of keep me grounded, to always just keep striving for that. And so yeah, I mean, so obviously that can be in big and small ways. I'm probably more the extreme side trying to find that balance.
But if I can find that balance, if I can at least, you know, try to strive for that, then other people can definitely have an easier time reaching that. At least that's ride.
That's great. Yeah, he is Julio Rosis. Check out his work at the Blaze. If you see a disaster or anything happening on TV, he's on the ground covering it. Definitely be sure to check him out.
Thank you, Julio, of course, thanks for having me.
Thanks so much for joining us on the Carol Markowitz Show. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.