#50 - Unfiltered Idaho Law: A Fight for Truth in Media w/Matt Todd

What makes Idaho special, and how can we protect it? Matt, creator of The Ranch podcast, reveals his journey from Berkeley graduate to California SAT tutor to Idaho political bridge-builder in this wide-ranging conversation about state politics, education, and community values.

After nearly two decades in education, Matt witnessed California's political landscape transform the system in ways he found deeply concerning. When his state eliminated the SAT as an equalizing opportunity for disadvantaged students like himself, he knew it was time for a change. In 2022, he moved his family to Idaho seeking a state that valued personal liberty, civic engagement, and pragmatic governance—and started a podcast to understand his new home.

The Ranch quickly evolved from neighborhood conversations to interviews with Idaho's most influential leaders, from the Governor to agency heads. What sets it apart is Matt's commitment to honest, unbiased dialogue that humanizes political figures across the spectrum. "If you say you want to talk to both sides, people need to trust you," he explains, detailing how he builds that trust through fair questioning and accurate representation.

Through fascinating examples—from ranchers creating volunteer firefighting agencies to debates over employment protections—Matt demonstrates how his podcast illuminates complex state issues often overlooked by traditional media. He dives deep into technology in schools, sharing alarming discoveries about monitoring software vulnerabilities and his work on legislation requiring greater transparency for parents.

Beyond politics, Matt reflects on what truly makes Idaho special: the freedom to explore public lands, the emphasis on individual agency and personal responsibility, and the authentic civic participation that has shaped the state's character. As Idaho faces growth and demographic changes, he sees his platform as critical to preserving these values by helping newcomers understand what makes the Gem State worth protecting.

Whether you're an Idaho native, a transplant, or simply interested in how local media can bridge political divides, this conversation offers valuable insights into building community in polarized times.

To learn more about Idaho, it's legislature, and what lies behind it...make sure to visit: The Ranch Podcast - Powered by Truth in Media Foundation and follow Matt on Instagram @the_ranch_podcast

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Coffee Confessions
• 8:54 From Berkeley to Idaho: Matt's Journey
• 17:20 California Exodus and Idaho's Appeal
• 26:48 Building The Ranch Podcast
• 38:07 Technology in Schools: The Hidden Dangers
• 57:40 Idaho Politics and Rights Issues
• 1:08:44 Preserving Idaho's Freedom and Culture
• 1:24:38 The Changing of the Guard in Idaho
• 1:33:54 Sustaining Independent Media

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:09

Before we get started, I don't like you. I don't have sponsors yet, but I'm not political so I can take whatever I'll get paid. No, but what I do here is I offer veteran and law enforcement businesses, small businesses, to send us anything and then we give to our guests. Oh, awesome, so if they have apparel lines, things like that. So one of our sponsors is the war machine or platoon cigars.

Speaker 2: 0:30

I don't know if you're a cigar guy, since this is the first time we've ever met and we're going to have this conversation. So he's a combat Marine that got out, became a cop in Chicago, ends up getting shot in the line of duty, um, so he's got a crazy story. But he gives all of our guests cigars and then C-State coffee. He's a recon Marine, he's here, local Great guy, he's been on the episode, and so, yeah, everybody gets to come home with a bag of coffee and some cold brews and just be aware I would not drink those past like noon because they have ungodly amount of caffeine in them and yeah, so everybody gets to go home with a gift. We try to just help the community by if they can get a plug and somebody sees and wants to support a veteran or whatever. From the episodes I invite anybody to send us anything to give out Peril gear slings. I mean, I've got all kinds of stuff, man, I love me some coffee. I'm not a coffee guy who hurt you.

Speaker 1: 1:21

My dad, my dad, it's his fault.

Speaker 2: 1:23

The list is long. Yeah, where do we start? No, it was a. It's a funny story. My dad, we'd go hunting every morning and he would stop and get this God awful smelling like espresso coffee, this French latte thing, and I'd lay in the back seat and there was this windy road to get.

Speaker 2: 1:44

I was one of the only guys in our platoon that didn't drink coffee. I didn't dip, I didn't smoke no nicotine, no caffeine like through pretty much my whole adulthood. I just I just never used it. And so I had him actually on the podcast and he called me out on it and he made me actually drink one of his and, uh, it was actually really good, but I'm sure it was? It was one of his chocolate ones. So I, I still, I'm still not a coffee fan Like I just don't drink it.

Speaker 1: 2:09

I dated this girl. This is so damn embarrassing. I dated this girl in college.

Speaker 2: 2:13

There's water beside you if you need it. Thank you, sir, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 2:16

I date this girl in college and she's, you know, like we're going to school, we're rowing team, she was on the swim team and she's getting up at like five. I'm getting up at five, she drinks coffee and I'm just this 20 year old idiot right this. So I'm giving her a hard time all the time. She'd be like well, you know, I got it. She'd stay up till like 2 AM studying. She was like whatever. And I keep giving her a hard time. I'm like you don't, that's a drug, why are you drinking that? And she's like well, I got to study. So then Saturday would roll around, saturday 10 o'clock, matt, today all I want is a cup of coffee. And she'd be like oh, I'm going to go get coffee. And Matt at 20 is like you're not even studying. What are you doing? You have a dependency on this. It's so painful to admit this, and that's because I didn't drink coffee.

Speaker 1: 3:01

And then, once we broke up, I started drinking coffee and my now wife and I got so obsessed with coffee. At our wedding we didn't even have table numbers, we just made coffee house numbers. So at each of the tables there was a little A-frame card with a picture of the coffee shop we drink at, and then a paragraph on the back about, like, how we found it, where we would go. Like, this place has the best corned beef and hash. This place beef and hash. This place has the best drip coffee. Like, oh, perfect, yeah, like, and we had it for. For favors at our wedding, we gave out, uh, custom coffee cubs filled with chocolate cover espresso beans.

Speaker 1: 3:29

This is the level of asset that I have okay, this poor 20 year old girl is just getting me, having her, giving her a hard time, and then, like a year later, I'm like what is this? Oh my god, that's incredible.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Now, you're some connoisseur, just travel the world drinking different coffees.

Speaker 1: 3:43

God that chalk that up to like just one of the million things that I'm I feel bad about, but put it on the list.

Speaker 2: 3:50

Yeah, that's one yeah well, dude, why don't you give us an intro? And uh, we're just gonna hop right into it. You got a pretty awesome podcast that I follow along. Uh, you're buried in the politics into the education system in idaho fish and game yeah, law enforcement as well, yeah, you're kind of buried in the politics into the education system in Idaho fish and game yeah, law enforcement as well, yeah. Yeah, you're kind of buried into the political side of things. On both sides you give everybody a voice to be able to talk about anything and everything. So I want to just dig into your life story and I have questions too. I'm sure they'll come up along the way.

Speaker 1: 4:19

Awesome, yeah. So I left. I was in Cal, I couldn't write. I went to Berkeley. I didn't care for Berkeley at all. Let me be really clear. I went to the best school I could get into, so I get in there. I go in as a math major. I love math. Like English was his third language or something. He I was so bad at writing that we had to both had to take this remedial writing test. My buddy, marcel from Journey, passes the test and it's like his fourth language or something and I fail it. I'm like there we go.

Speaker 2: 4:54

That's California public school.

Speaker 1: 4:56

Yeah, I was like, oh my God, so I have to take this remedial writing course. And I had this baller teacher who actually taught me how to write. I was like, wow, this is really not that bad. And after that course I got like a B in it. I try this rhetoric course and rhetoric just persuasive language and argument. So a lot of reading, a lot of writing, a lot of argument. And I fell in love with it.

Speaker 1: 5:16

So I go to the tutoring center at Cal and I'm like, hey, I actually really like writing and I think it's really basic and simple. If you have somebody teach you, I'd love to help other kids. And I was like 20 at the time and they actually hired me. I was like God, they took a shot. I was like, does he know? I failed the test. So I started tutoring. I was like this is lit, like I love helping people. So I leave Cal and my plan originally was to go to law school, but I was like, dude, if I could just teach, that would be awesome. So I bailed on law school and I started tutoring privately.

Speaker 1: 5:49

That was me four days after I graduate I get my first private tutoring client and it was a fifth grader in math. I was teaching her like fractions and stuff. And I leave and the mom cuts me a check. It was like an hour. She cuts me a check for 75 bucks and I swear to God, I thought it was an FBI sting. I was like I walked downstairs. I'm like, so I leave him, like Went straight to the bank yeah, straight, I swear. I went straight to the bank and I was like wait a minute, you can actually do this. And I was like, yeah, if you get enough clients. So within three months I was making like a thousand bucks a week doing tutoring. My friends who took these like corporate jobs working you know eight to six were making a thousand bucks a week. This is 2004. And I was like, dude, this is wild, like I could do this. So that's all I did Really. Pretty much immediately I got into SAT prep. Like put me in a room with a bunch of 16 year olds and I can just like swear at them and yell at them and teach them math and English. So that's all I did my entire professional life until the week I moved to Idaho and what year was that? So that was 2004, until 2022. So January 22.

Speaker 1: 6:54

And one of the reasons I moved here is, believe it or not, covid destroyed the SAT because what happened is the SAT went optional for the kids who couldn't get tests. Because what happened is the SAT went optional for the kids who couldn't get tests and, on top of that, california being California was, like you know, white kids like you. You score higher on average than Mexicans like Matt. So I think that's not fair. We're going to eliminate the SAT. And I was like wait a minute, guys, if the Hispanic community is scoring lower on this test, help them score higher on the test. Like if the math is a problem, fix the problem. The problem is not the diagnostic that's showing they're worse. So they eliminated the SAT as an American institution evaporated overnight.

Speaker 2: 7:40

How does that make sense? And I get obviously the political ladder.

Speaker 1: 7:46

That's the only way it makes sense. That's the only way it makes sense, yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:49

How does it, even no matter what side you're on. Let's take this away from these kids so they don't have to strive to work for something or learn anything, and that's going to help them and make things equal.

Speaker 1: 8:04

I just what concept is that it is? Again, you need equality of outcome. If your goal is to get an equal representation of Hispanic minority, let's just use Hispanic, right. If your goal is to get an equal representation of Hispanic versus, say, caucasian, based on population density, whatever it might be, then all you have to do is get that outcome. You don't care that if you equalize it, maybe the Hispanic kids are ill-equipped to deal with the rigors of whatever hierarchy they're going up against, right? Which is what you saw, obviously, in Affirmative Action in like the 80s. It's like, look, you can put kids in here, but if they're academically insufficient to compete, that's going to be a problem, which is what I experienced.

Speaker 1: 8:44

I went to this terrible high school in Northern California. It actually ranked lower than the worst high schools in Compton, believe it or not, which is hilarious. Yeah, and it's in Northern California. So I go to this high school.

Speaker 1: 8:55

I didn't have fantastic grades. I was a grown-up single parent and I was in three different sports. I was in the band, but I didn't have tutors helping me through my calculus class. So I had OK grades, but I needed the test to show the schools that I applied to. I was like no, no, I have horsepower. I just like nobody cared what my grades were when I was 15.

Speaker 1: 9:15

But like I'm not an idiot, that's the irony that you eliminated the one equalizing factor for minorities like me, which was hey, if I don't have a parent looking over my shoulder every single week checking my progress reports, talking to my teachers, I'm not going to have great grades, but I sure as hell can show up on test day and crush a test. They eliminated that because they're like well, let's equalize it. So again, that gets eliminated, and a slew of other things. My wife and I were raising three young men and we're like this is not, they are not best served here. Like this is not working. A friend of mine had moved up here in 2020, a jiu-jitsu buddy of mine and he immediately was like guys, it's different here, like it is, he was raising young people in 2021. I was here for 48 hours, bought a house, flew home and told him it was like all right, we're leaving, and six weeks later we're in a van.

Speaker 2: 10:07

My wife has never she had never even been to Idaho. Good for you Never seen it.

Speaker 1: 10:15

Good for you and was it hard to convince her? Was she on board? Dude, she's my ride or die? Good, and there was a lot of question within the family. And again, I don't want to get too specific, but there are like imagine people were like wait, you're moving somewhere, you've never even seen it, your significant other has been there for two days and you're just going along with this. And there was enough faith in each other and belief that it was like yeah, yeah, I am. And, by the way, it was the best decision ever A hundred percent, a hundred percent, a hundred percent. That was the worst thing, that was the hardest thing ever to do, that I had lived in a five mile radius my entire life.

Speaker 2: 10:49

Really yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. So that, yeah, I can see that.

Speaker 1: 10:52

That's all. I had never left. My plan was to like go to North Carolina for law school or like go to Michigan it, but I never left. Right, like, and I grew up in a lower end, lower end kind of middle lower end town, made it to Berkeley, then started a business and we made it to like the exact opposite, but like this high end, you know, really nice place. We had a tiny little house. It was all we could afford, but we loved it and that was our life.

Speaker 1: 11:17

And then the world in that state just turned upside down. And for people you've experienced it a little bit, for people who were born and raised there, it's so hard to express what life became and what drove people out. Right, like, everybody wants to criticize and I understand why people want to criticize people moving here, and yeah, I'm part of the problem, like I drove up housing prices. I'm sure you know we're part of the problem. But at the same time it's like, yeah, but we're Americans and if we're Americans, you should care about what I was going through and perhaps you don't, but you should, because it was not good and we are hyper-motivated to prevent that from happening. I didn't move here. Like, how many people are moving out of like Sandpoint to San Francisco to screw up San Francisco politics Like try no one.

Speaker 2: 12:05

It's like just I'm not coming up from california to like mess with your politics, but I feel that's a lot of people, that's, that's the ideology or the thought process behind it, because you see, these maps I just saw one the other day I had california with the mass exodus, and it's like almost like charting airplanes, yes, and then you start seeing it's like houston, san antonio, washington, spokane, and so you see that it's like and I San Antonio, washington, spokane and so you see that it's like and I get it being stationed in California. I was actually born in Chino Hills, and so my dad's, originally from upstate New York, came out to Cali for work, met my mom, had us as soon as we. He saw the writing on the wall and got us out of there when we were really young. So I grew up in New York, born in California, though, but I never claimed that to anybody. I don't even know why I admitted it.

Speaker 2: 12:45

On this, we'll probably edit that, yeah, write this time down. Yeah, time stamp, yeah it's cut. But you know so. I didn't know it as a kid, but I was stationed out there on Pendleton and just those eight years well, it was more than that, because I got out and stayed for a little bit that because I got out and stayed for a little bit. But it you, there's pockets of really good people and there's communities that don't fall into the just the political bullshit that's driving that state.

Speaker 2: 13:14

California, hands down, used to be probably the greatest state out of everything that we have. Oh, yeah, just for resources for exturricular. If you want to go snowboarding, dirt biking, surfing, and one day you can make that happen and you want to go from Northern California, which is beautiful, incredible mountains, you got hunting, all as much hunting as you want to do up there to the beaches of Southern California. I mean, it offers everything, but it's been so destroyed over the years and so when I think what everybody you know sees the California lights play, you're like motherfucker, go home, you know, because you get the Karen's that come with it and that belief. But it's like man, this is such an incredible area, it's so hard to you want to preserve it yourself and I feel that it's hard.

Speaker 2: 13:59

As a transplant which the majority of Idaho is now transplant which the majority of Idaho is now, there's a lot of pride that you immediately start to absorb because our forests are clean, our roads are clean and taken care of, you have more public land than anybody except for Alaska, I think has more public land access than us. Things are free, you know. But then I get the point of the old timers, the locals that have lived here their whole life, and even Eagle road was one lane and it was dirt and you know, and it's like they're seeing the growth and they don't like it. I understand that and so, but it's you get that feel of okay, just don't you know the don't California, my Idaho type of thing and which we?

Speaker 2: 14:39

I had Way more in the politics than I am. But you look at the judges, you look at the school systems and the mayors. It's not like these things are flipping blue. For the majority, I think of everything it's staying somewhat red, except for, obviously, downtown Boise. You're always going to have that blue vote. That was blue for a long time it has been. It was blue before we got here.

Speaker 1: 15:02

And you don't move. If you're looking for blue, you don't move from California to Boise.

Speaker 2: 15:05

You're going Salt Lake, you're going Skokie.

Speaker 1: 15:07

You're not moving here, right, and people move for a myriad of reasons, right, like I know somebody who moved from Oakland to Portland, I think it was like three or four years ago. She wanted cheaper housing, but she wanted those types of politics. So it's like listen people, yes, people leave California, but people leave California for a myriad of reasons. And people moving here are not accidentally ending up in Idaho. No, like, nobody accidentally ends up here. No, people are moving here for an express purpose.

Speaker 1: 15:36

And what you said is really interesting, because you articulated a sentiment that I think anybody who moves here feels which is like oh my god, this is so great, we should preserve this. Yeah. But the question then becomes how and what am I preserving? We know the end outcome. We know proper pragmatic governance, we know individual rights. We know all these things. We don't know how that stuff is maintained. We don't know what makes Idaho Idaho, and that led me to start the ranch in, like in the middle of 22. It's kind of like what is this place Like? What? What's going on? And everybody moves here and join some political action group, even though you don't know. Conceptualize the spectrum of conservatism right In California. If you have somebody who's conservative? It's like oh, they go duck hunting, like they own a shotgun or something like whatever, and that's pretty much it. But here you have conservative. That's all the way on like I'm a sovereign citizen and I live in the mountains and I don't believe the federal government exists Right.

Speaker 1: 16:43

Yeah, all the way down to I have purple hair and face tattoos, and she also thinks she's conservative, and for me, when I first saw it, I was like, wait, ah, my head hurts you Like what do you mean? You're all like conservative doesn't mean the same thing, then, and that's that's one problem where it's like you can't orient yourself properly because, as we are a monoparty state, one problem with the Democratic Party as it exists in California is Democrats are largely in a direction. That's the whole nature of progress. We have to move in a direct. This is the direction we're going this way. So, wherever we exist today, that is insufficient and we need to continue moving this direction. Today, that is insufficient and we need to continue moving this direction. So, if you want to maintain your democratic status, you have to move on the treadmill with everyone as we're going down the street.

Speaker 1: 17:32

But Republicans are not direction oriented, they're target oriented, all right. So it's like, hey, I want limited government, so let's tend towards limited government, let's tend towards fiscal responsibility, and if we hit fiscal responsibility, we hit the target and like we're always trying to hover over this thing. Because of that, there's no correction in the Democratic Party, because the nature of the party is we're moving this direction, that's it right. Whereas with Republicans they say, hey, we're shooting for this, you're like way over here, like come back, man, you've gone too far away and you have that correction occurring here. But for people moving here, they don't know that they can't discern between a conservative who's over the target of fiscal responsibility and personal liberty and somebody who's over the target with, like some other extreme one, or inappropriate or not representative conservative value right.

Speaker 1: 18:23

We don't know that when we move here, so we're like ripe for the plucking right.

Speaker 1: 18:27

So, essentially yeah, right, so what I started doing is oh man, dude, you know how to start a podcast. It's so, but I moved here. I didn't know anyone, I didn't have any friends. So I start this podcast and I'd started one towards the end of my SAT career just audio, really predominantly. I didn't know anything about video, audio, audio video engineering, so it was all this like heavy lift learning curve.

Speaker 1: 18:47

So I start this podcast and it's like I got to convince my neighbor to come on and then I got to do a bit on like the HOA meeting and then, and then I get to like episode 10. And then I start interviewing some people that are running for like school board and Boise, and so I start my goal was to offer value in, offer value in a small pocket, because people all want to talk about broad, national or life things. Like let's talk about the nature of success and things of that nature. It's like all right, that's fine, but if you're trying to be relevant to everyone, you're not relevant to anyone. Like you got to find if you can't add value, point to one person and be like I'm going to add value to this person's life, you're not hitting the target. So for me. I was like all right, I'm going to start real small.

Speaker 1: 19:28

So I live in Dry Creek Ranch, so I named it the Ranch. And I also knew that the Ranch would work if it became a bigger thing. I was like, so it's sufficiently relevant now, but it will be appropriate later. So I start doing like bigger episodes, bigger episodes. Then I moved to, like you know, the mayor of Eagle. I was like the mayor, I got the mayor on. This is lit.

Speaker 2: 19:47

Again, I'm a nobody right.

Speaker 1: 19:49

And once that hit, then that was from essentially the middle of 22,. Going through meeting different people, refining the process, refining the product, the end results, the clips, and then in the mayoral race of 23, I actually start interviewing. Like I become really relevant to the city of Eagle. They're like hey, our mayors like I've never seen the mayor talk for more than five minutes, like you just had them on for an hour, like whoa. So people started paying attention and that started this kind of like uptick. And then all over 2024, people started I got the secretary of state on Phil McGrain in. I think it was March and I was like dude, this is crazy, it's the secretary of state and again, I'm a nobody, he's coming on.

Speaker 1: 20:35

And that started I think it was like around April. I was at like 4,000 followers on Instagram. I got really excited. I was like I hit, I broke four. And then it's just this massive ramp up where people started paying attention and people started believing that when I said I wanted to talk to both sides, they could actually trust me. Like I got a big enough collection of people that I had interviewed that were like no, no, no, he really isn't going to go after you. Like he's really like. He'll ask you tough questions, but he's not going to manipulate your clips, which is how it should be.

Speaker 2: 21:04

I feel the way that media has gone. Media is dead. Yeah, traditional media, it's so dead is I mean? There's podcasts, there's? I got a buddy of mine, he's. He's doing more than cnn does on on his yeah, like, did you hear this stat on msnbc?

Speaker 1: 21:19

no, they have in between 18, and it's either 18 and 45 or 18 and 55. Their national audience is 50 000 people. Oh, I mean, it's either 18 and 45 or 18 and 55, their national audience is 50,000 people. Oh, I mean, it's like you got 50,000 people which is nothing nothing in today's age. Yeah Right, and so it's yourself.

Speaker 2: 21:37

Sparky, they all a hundred percent. I mean I anyways, it's just so for you that it's a perfect demographic, because one, I think, when I was talking about the other day with AI and the way it's growing and taking over everything like I was just laying in bed the other night and I'm like, is this fucking real?

Speaker 2: 21:55

Is this real? And it was the most incredible. It was three dudes holding a fish and there's a rocket one of the SpaceX rockets taking off. And I'm like, if this is real, one congratulations to those dudes for the most incredible video photo they'll ever capture in their life and two like what an incredible moment to share that. But it's becoming to that point where here in the next couple of years, you're not going to know what's real or not, except for this form of entertainment.

Speaker 2: 22:21

I would say you know, and so for you it's communication and that's what and I feel that's what a lot of people are drawn to. They want to see an open line of communication between two people through whatever the group setting is. So for you to be able to launch a biased which is probably difficult at times, because I know I couldn't do it, but that's what people for me, this is, that's what drew me to you is because I'm I couldn't do it, but that's what people for me, this is, that's what drew me to you is because I'm able to watch and like okay, it may not make sense to me, but I can see that point of view now.

Speaker 1: 22:52

You don't have to agree, but like, okay, you're, maybe you're not the devil, I don't agree with you. Like I see your point, I don't agree, but you're not a terrible person, yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:02

Yeah, and so I think with that, with the, the way that it's going, for you it's, it's perfect because people want to see the media's killed itself. You don't know what's real or becoming real or fake on social media, so it's a perfect time to be able to sit down and be able. Okay, I want to watch. Obviously, I'm in the hunting. I want to see what our fishing game in whites, because I have my opinions on I. I fucking hate anything government related to hunting, fishing, fishing game.

Speaker 2: 23:29

I'm against all of it because they're not in the field, they they do not know the numbers like we do as as outdoorsmen that are true, live, eat, breathe the mountains. They're getting their surveys from people calling it. It's to me I, I'll go down a rabbit hole fishing game, but I can sit and watch that and be like, okay, that's why they're doing this may not make sense to me, but at least I have an answer. Why, right, so it's, it's great. I. I think what you're doing is the perfect platform, especially being so niche, built off of, okay, this is what what's happening, state or legislative side size-wise here in our state.

Speaker 1: 24:06

I get to learn about it. And that last point, which is hey look, there's nobody trying to really drive a communication, like there's no bridge between our state leaders. Everybody looks national and of course, we know why. I was so bummed when the election was over. I was like we know why, like it's, you know, I was so bummed when the election was over. I was like, oh, this is the greatest theater of our lifetime. Like we, I have paid into this system, I want my ticket and I don't want the movie to be over. Like it was so lit. And when, like Kamala came in, I was like this is crazy. I was watching it. I was like this is great.

Speaker 1: 24:40

So yeah, of course we understand why people pay attention to National, but the things that actually affect us are state and nobody's bringing state leaders to the populace. And, more than anything, nobody's bringing state leaders to the populace in a way that the populace is consuming. They're like listen, you want my attention, you can have hours of it, but you better show up on Instagram. And if you don't show up on Instagram, I'm not going to your website. I'm not looking at your mail. Like, don't email me anything I don't like you can show everything.

Speaker 2: 25:09

Now you see these billboards and you try to pull it. The first thing you do it I'm Instagramming who this person is, who's the sheriff is. Who's voting, who's who's going to?

Speaker 1: 25:17

be our representative.

Speaker 2: 25:18

Now I want to know what they're into social media, and so that way, if they're not, I mean good luck Right.

Speaker 1: 25:24

And the difficulty that I think a lot of the problems that the politicians don't quite get is it's like listen, this is not like an email list. Like you get a 40,000 person email list, you send out a communication to 40,000 people instantly, maybe you have to pay for the email list, whatever. But like you get it out and it slides into an email inbox. It's like all right, fine, if you want a 40,000 person Instagram following or you want a hundred thousand Instagram views, not like real views where they consume the whole 10 or 20 seconds. You like, you can't even buy that. You can, you can make sure it gets in front of people, but there's no like swipe, right past it. So it's like that's why there's that distinction for people that don't know between impressions and views.

Speaker 1: 26:04

It's like no, no, no, sure, 100,000 people saw that this video was available. How many watched it and how long did they watch it for? And that's the type of communication that is possible. But it takes years to cultivate and build up that trust, up that trust. So we have these state level officials that need to communicate and connect, for better for worse with us, the populace, and they can't do it because we refuse to go. We like emails, a permission-based communication Like I have to give you permission to, I got to participate the whole thing and it's painful. Like nobody goes to their email like oh, dude, let me just get 10 minutes.

Speaker 2: 26:44

Yeah, like you open you open instagram.

Speaker 1: 26:46

You're like I just need 10 minutes to zone out. Nobody opens the email for 10 minutes two hours later, oh my god right. Could you imagine if that was like our email, like oh, look at this email from like two years ago, or or?

Speaker 1: 26:55

I have nothing in my emails, right, even if you have a banger newsletter from like. Oh, do you remember the newsletter of like 24? Well, on instagram, it Instagram, it remembers it. It's like this clip you put out hammered in 23, we put it out again in 24, it hammered and it keeps pumping it out and we could refurbish it by pushing repost.

Speaker 2: 27:14

That's right, I mean, that's it.

Speaker 1: 27:15

You can keep doing that. So what I think the beautiful thing about this communication is it's earned, like it's the first mass communication that is truly earned. You can't buy it. It's not who owns the radio station, not who owns the printing press, it is organically earned. Now you can get, you can fib it a little bit, you can push things more aggressively, but everybody, like we, have never had more discriminating communication consumers in the history of the world. Like we all know.

Speaker 1: 27:41

Like the half second or second and a half where we decide if we're going to watch something, we are tuned in to upregulate only the best stuff and our leaders will never have that and the classic news media will never offer that to them. And so my play is hey look, what if we could connect our state leaders that affect our everyday life to the populace on their phones and we keep it Idaho. I never get to the point where I'm like, oh, I'll go national. It's like no, no, no, what if it was only Idaho? What if we protected our community from outside interference and manipulation by having this platform so that we actually know what our representatives are doing?

Speaker 2: 28:21

And you know what I love about it is you take Kamala right. She couldn't, unless I be, personally, I feel that she couldn't sit down on Joe Rogan. He would have crucified her with basic questions, just basic questions.

Speaker 1: 28:34

It's a nice way like. Can you explain this to me?

Speaker 2: 28:37

Basic questions. But now I get to see who's running for Senate, whatever position, and you can't bullshit a podcast Like, obviously you and I can carry a conversation, sure, but we're having a conversation and I'm getting to know you. But if you're a Senator, you're, you're competing for a position and now you have to be you in front of cameras and there's no going back, there's no scripting, there's no already pre-planned questions and any of that bullshit. Then I can watch who that person really is. I can see how they respond, I can see their body language, watch their interaction and be like oh man, she's, she's way cooler. Oh, she has way more for a he's. Does this instead. It allows us to be able to watch who that person is on a more personal level.

Speaker 2: 29:28

Look how much credit they gave to Trump winning because of podcasts. Right, because of Barron. He puts his son in charge of it. Hey, you need to go on Sean Ryan. You need to go on Joe Rooks. You can sit and have a conversation, listen to it. If you agree with them or not, you could still listen to him talk. I think personally like Trump kind of side topic interviewing wise nightmare. I don't know if you listened to that episode. Oh, rogan, yeah, of course He'd ask him what thing, and he's just fucking veering off.

Speaker 1: 29:55

They kept referencing the weave. He's like I'm like, weave it in the store. And you're like, oh my God, what is happening?

Speaker 2: 30:01

It isn't like somebody that has a fog. I'm like, oh my God, I wouldn't know how to control this, you know, because he just he's the weave. But you're able to just listen to him, love, hate him, whatever. You can see what is in his mind, how his mind is working, and his opponents couldn't give us anything Right.

Speaker 2: 30:18

And so for you, I mean, it's, it's perfect, it's a it's the perfect way because, especially at a state level, local level, we don't know who any of these people are. If they're, they're true colors, their personalities, what are they in it for? Why are they in it? And that's where these types of settings really, in a way, get to call them out. And and if they're, if they're ballsy enough I don't want to say ballsy enough, but they have to answer.

Speaker 1: 30:43

It's essentially like you have to answer to the people. Yeah, like if I'm going to ask you a question in good faith, you're going to answer it and it's either going to make sense or it's not, and everybody is going to see that it's a really so. When I interviewed Governor Little at the end of last year, I got all these messages from people like I've never heard him talk for more than like two minutes. Yeah Right, and here he was making, he was cracking jokes on like Newsom and like doing, and it was a great conversation. I was like this is wild and he had perspectives and was like again, I was learning, like crazy and I was. I had to like thread a needle because of like I got 30 minutes exactly with this person Like what can we cover, what can we talk about that's relevant and important and those types of things.

Speaker 1: 31:27

I also had Lieutenant Governor Scott Betke on shortly thereafter. He talked for like well over an hour. It's like all kinds of stuff about water and cattle and ranching. This is wild, wild. But again, one issue that I think, one reason that Trump benefited so much from podcasts is because there was a cost associated with it that Kamala didn't want to pay and Trump was like I'll pay it. I'll pay it in the risk. I don't know what I'm going to say, I don't know what he's going to say, but I'll pay that.

Speaker 2: 31:57

I'll pay that cost. It's a huge cost. It's a talk for hours.

Speaker 1: 32:39

Like I'll do multiple interviews, it doesn't matter to me, but we need to make it politically damaging for them to not talk to us. And again, I'm not saying they should go on any podcast. There are a lot of bad podcasts that I think people engage in in in bad faith or extreme partisanism and like that's fine and, by the way, you should, people should be, people should be able to have whatever platform they want and if they gain a following, god bless them. Right, like 100%, but I think at the very least it's like listen if somebody is in good faith trying to communicate. Like it needs to be bad for you if you don't engage in that right, like we need to take back the mic For sure.

Speaker 2: 33:14

I think what would be I don't know if you do this and correct me if I'm wrong what would be really cool, especially as your growth continues and the race to come up. Sure, sure, I and I do it for us here and I get great, great response. If I have a guest that's known, or people like Madison Cawthorn he came on, he was the congressman for North Carolina, he was rolling through town to reach out. It was. I put it out on my social hey, if you guys have questions, yes, like if you were sitting with the next governor or the, the whoever's competing right in the race and you put it out like, hey, I'm sitting down with so and so what do you want to know?

Speaker 2: 33:52

See what people ask, and then you pick your top questions and go from there, because then it's coming from the people. They have to answer the people's question. It's like I don't know and I'm not telling you to change anything, but I'm just saying, like, if I saw something like that, you're like, hey, I'm sitting here with a fishing game officer, what do you? What question? Oh, I would have fucking questions for days, you know? So, yeah, why is this happening? I don't know.

Speaker 1: 34:11

If I'm not saying to change anything no, no, I don't implement, but I don't think. I don't think that's a bad idea. I here's the thing most, I think most people don't really know the right questions to ask. They have grievances and I think people have grievances and those grievances should be answered. Those problems should be dealt with 100%. His commentary that it's not the consumer's job to know what the consumer wants it's my job to know what the consumer wants. So, sifting through things that you know, you can get sidetracked on accusations that are formed off of social media or individual problems. But it's like there's a lot more to this. The whole nature of it is like you don't really we don't really know what the state government's doing, because we've never seen any of the state government Like I've had three members of the Water Resource Board on OK, that's an eight-member board that are directly appointed by the governor to manage our water resource. Now water in Idaho is like the most precious resource we have.

Speaker 1: 35:18

You're shot over water, right we have an eight-panel or eight-member board that no one even knows what they look like. Okay, Like, unless you're like the water users, the farm bureau, but the average citizen doesn't know what the water, what the water board looks like. They don't know the problems that are going on. Having those people on and being able to sit down with them, hear the intricacies and the problems of the state's water resource.

Speaker 1: 35:39

You're like, oh my God, I had no idea about the stuff. And it's that kind of stuff that it's like listen, there's more to this than you think. Like, yeah, we can talk about flags in classrooms and we can talk about a lot of the hotter topics, but the thing that actually you're going to care about, as well as that stuff you're not even thinking about. You don't even know it exists. So I do think there is a place where it's like okay, what are big problems? And giving a place to be a proxy for the people, but I also think it's my job. It's like, okay, I'm pretty sure you're going to like hearing about this.

Speaker 1: 36:12

Like, let's give that a shot and see, see, where that goes.

Speaker 2: 36:15

And just most people, right. But at the same time, you'd be surprised with some questions that people know that come up with, and obviously not just the bitches, moans and complains. But I see the comments and people. I mean what about this? And you'll see them on your feet alone. It's like fuck yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:33

The engagement is wild, like people, and I actually read all of the comments and they instruct me into next. For instance, I had this one with a Senator Wintrow Melissa Wintrow. She's a district 19 Senator Democrat. She came on and was saying, hey look we. The first bill that comes out is Heather representative Scott, heather Scott. She did the essentially making resolution to make a gay marriage outlawed in in the state of Idaho.

Speaker 2: 36:58

Okay, the point of this topic I actually wanted to talk about with you, so I mean I guess you could. I saw that I had no idea.

Speaker 1: 37:04

We'll dive right in so here's, here's what happens she makes. Now it's federally, it is. Gay marriage is legal.

Speaker 1: 37:10

Okay, but it's going to be very similar to the trigger law that we had for women's abortion rights. Okay, so we have the Supreme Court ruling. Once that got struck down, this law went into effect immediately. Same kind of thing here which is, hey, let's make a resolution towards saying, hey, if this ever gets repealed, gay marriage is outlawed in the state of Idaho. Okay, and I have.

Speaker 1: 37:30

I very thankfully have a representative, scott, scheduled to come on next Friday, and representative or, excuse me, senator Wintrow wanted to come on. So Melissa Wintrow comes on and she instantly goes into this concept that I had never heard of, which is called add the words. I'm like what are the words? What are we adding? And she says, well, okay, look, here's the thing In our Idaho human rights, you can fire somebody for being gay.

Speaker 1: 37:53

And I was like what do you mean? She was like if you're gay, your employer can fire you because you're gay. I'm like well, wait, aren't there federal protections? It's like in Idaho you can be fired for being gay. It's like that sounds crazy. Now I put this out. Two things happen immediately. People are like okay, what about Title VII? Okay, title VII. I'm like is that a, v and two? I's. So I look up Title VII and of course it's like okay, federal protection, you know all these things. And I'm like, well, wait a minute, did she just lie? Like that's crazy. And then somebody else says Idaho is a right to work state. So you actually don't like you can fire somebody for any reason.

Speaker 2: 38:33

I'm like wait a minute.

Speaker 1: 38:35

Did she just lie? And I send her this stuff. I'm like, hey, I'm not trying to out you, but like, what about this stuff? She instantly sends me back a legal brief from like 22 or 23 outlining the problems with Idaho human rights. So I'm like, ok, the plot thickens because I don't know any of this stuff. So I get a hold of an attorney. This is all happening on Tuesday. I'm like real time, right.

Speaker 1: 38:56

So I get a hold of this attorney and the attorney is like, look, broadly, wintrow is right. And the attorney is like, look, broadly, wintrow is right, you can be fired because you're gay, and no right to work does not cover firing somebody because they're gay. Right to work covers firing somebody for other things, but you can't fire them because of, like, their gender or their, you know, ethnicity or you know things like that. It's still a protected class. But in Idaho you can fire somebody for being gay if the corporation that you're working for, the company you're working for, is under a certain number of employees. So I think it's like 15 or fewer you can. It doesn't. A title seven doesn't apply and right to work state doesn't cover it.

Speaker 1: 39:32

So like, yeah, yeah, you can still be fired for being gay. It's like it's out there, so it's like, oh my God, this is crazy. And they're like, yeah, and so what happens is you essentially need, you need an attorney to come in and explain this. So I get an attorney. He's coming in on Monday to explain like what is it? Because we, the people of Idaho, we should know clearly what the rules are right and if it's not legal to fire you because you're gay, we should know that. If it is, we should know that and we deserve to have somebody explain it. And then if we, the people of Idaho, are like, okay, I like this or I don't like this, but I have a clear understanding of what this is, then we should be able to take action and call our representatives. But it's just flushing that stuff out. And the comments are the things that let me on to this stuff.

Speaker 2: 40:29

It's like is a problem. Yep, yeah, that's fascinating, dude, it is. It opens up so many cans of worm for you. I bet, like, just just because, even if, even if someone it is something like right, like she comes in and states it, but then you, you have the keyboard warriors, right, that are, they're ready, you know they're, they're on it, and then that sparks a whole entire argument and then it raises your attention. You're like, well, is she wrong? Right, then it. Then it leads to you having an attorney come on and actually break it down and educate people on it, because people will. You could have whoever on. I guarantee that you'll still have people like that's not true, that's, that's, that's not right.

Speaker 1: 41:01

But the obligation is really and again, like I will have, I guarantee I will have people come on that will say things that don't that either have nefarious intent or you know they're trying to like get somebody. But my whole gig is like kind of like hey look, if you think like I had Ron Nate, come on. Okay, ron Nate is the president of IFF and I wanted to hear, like IFF, is this, you know, like walled garden of principle? That it's my understanding. They don't do like a lot of media interviews. And I invited Ron on and he took me up and I was like, oh, fantastic, I want to understand what the IFF is, what you guys are going for, all these things.

Speaker 1: 41:40

So he comes on and he has some things to say about ISP. And then he moved into school choice Great. But he said these things about ISP and was like listen, they bought these Mustangs, they wanted this helicopter. I don't think having a helicopter is a great idea or the expense isn't justified, all these things. And he takes his job and his position seriously and I was like, okay, great, I don't know anything about ISP. So I reach out to some people and I get the director of ISP, this guy, colonel Gardner. He comes in and he explains where the Mustangs came from, why they were asking for a helicopter.

Speaker 1: 42:14

Turns out that it was the Sheriff's Association had asked them or, excuse me, chiefs, no, sheriff's Association, the 44 sheriffs within the state of Idaho felt that they had a need for a full-time helicopter throughout to be managed statewide. So they were like we don't individually, like we don't want the Sheriff of Coeur d'Alene or the Sheriff of Ada County to have it, we want ISP to have it and manage the statewide resource, as ISP is a statewide law enforcement agency and he's like so that's where the helicopter came from. Now, the legislator didn't agree that we needed. That's fine. But like this is the reasoning why we asked for it.

Speaker 1: 42:47

We didn't just like want a helicopter. People get to see that and decide okay, like I understand now and I understand Ron's point or I understand Bill's point, but they understand the side. So my job, when you have somebody on and people criticize a position or call it into question, my whole job is to find somebody who can clarify and once it's clear you can disagree. All you want, all right, no helicopter or yes to the Mustangs or whatever it is, what's laid out. What's laid out, what's laid out, and then we have an educated populace, and once we have an educated populace, we're less manipulatable. We don't get taken by people.

Speaker 2: 43:23

That is the Holy Grail. That's how you defend Idaho, which is something that needs to be defended. Oh my God, it's incredible. So you're doing God's work.

Speaker 1: 43:32

Let me ask you this You've been here like three times as long as I have. What do you think makes Idaho Idaho the freedom? But like we have what freedom? Let me be clear which. What the freedom. But like we have what, what freedom? Let me let me be clear which port, what, what style of freedom, cause you got a lot of freedom in Portland. You walk down the street, shoot up some heroin, smoke some crack. That's a lot of freedom.

Speaker 2: 43:51

For sure. That's a great question, I think, the freedom to be able to just go and explore Idaho. You can pull over in your river and you're not getting charged out the ass to park somewhere. Get in the dues and fees. I can take my family and go two-tracking out in the middle of the mountains and pop up a tent.

Speaker 1: 44:06

Obviously, fire burns pertaining or not Sure, sure, sure.

Speaker 2: 44:08

But the freedom to be able to just live and go and explore.

Speaker 2: 44:14

That's what I, as somebody that lives here and has the pride in being a resident here, that's what I want to fight to protect is our freedom just to just enjoy, enjoy nature. You're not dealing with trash and grow sites and just the shit you deal with in California. So it's you know that that's what I love and that's where I want to be able to protect is you know, we can go out into the mountains and enjoy life and what the mountains and the woods and the rivers and the streams and everything provide for us. That's that's what, like I really makes.

Speaker 2: 44:49

Idaho for me, you know, and everybody's got their thing.

Speaker 2: 44:52

You know, and it's who knows. You know anybody else's reasoning of why I want to come here. But yeah, that's a big pole and that's what kind of keeps us here is. Is come here, but yeah, that's a big pull and that's what kind of keeps us here is. Is this just be able to enjoy public land and not have? You know, I got buddies in texas and they can't just go hunt. They got to get on a lease, they got to pay to get on a ranch. It's like, see we just I got spots, we'll just go. And I mean all these, I got piles of bear heights because we just go and pick a spot and give her hell. You know, like that's, that's what I love, that's beautiful.

Speaker 1: 45:21

I remember the first time when we realized a couple years ago I think it was like our first summer here we realized we could just go down to the river. Yeah, it's like we just go in.

Speaker 2: 45:31

Bring some chairs, bring a cooler, bring a grill and just being in, I remember floating.

Speaker 1: 45:35

There's this little spot over near Reed, merrill Park where you go over the bridge near the park off the green belt, yep, where you know you go over the bridge and the near the park off the off the green belt and you go on the river and there are these little rapids, you know and uh, the river's not that deep, it's only like three, three and a half four feet deep at max at that point and my boys just kept, you know like kind of going down these little rapids, throwing rocks and stuff. We saw some like marmot running around or something. I was like wow, like awesome, and I just remember looking up and down the river, like wait, this is ours, like we just it's clean, it's beautiful, like this is open. I love swimming, I was a swimmer. It's like wow, this is like open water, like this is wild and it's clean and it's beautiful. And people were nice and I was like this is bonkers to me and yeah, so I deeply appreciate that I also there's an aspect of individual agency and personal liberty from the sense that there's not.

Speaker 1: 46:32

I have this clip that I'm posting today from Representative Galloway Cody Galloway and she came in recently and was talking about that. She was like listen, nobody's going to spend your money better than you, right? So the idea that the government should take your money away because they know how to spend it on, say, charity is just not accurate. She doesn't subscribe to that. There are numerous very successful private supports, like Boise Rescue Mission with Reverend Bill Roscoe. He does a great job and he doesn't take any government money. They're all privately funded.

Speaker 1: 47:03

And she was bringing up that point that it's like look, you have personal agency, you can help the family on your street, you can donate to this cause. If you want to help with old folks, you want to help with young people, you want to volunteer all these things, you get to do that, and you also get to not do that if you don't want to. But it's the personal liberty to engage in that individual decision process that I really like. There's an insistence on participation in civic-oriented programs in other states like California, my former state. I just hate that. It's like wait, you shouldn't be able to force me to participate in this right. I may even believe in what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 47:47

But should never be forced.

Speaker 1: 47:48

Right, my dear friend Dave Anderson, who lives in Salt Lake. We used to train, we were training buddies for years. He was like listen, when you force an ethical decision or moral decision, you rob anybody of the benefit. I'm like I don't, I'm not, I'm not very bright, to help me out. He's like listen, you're, you're going in the desert. You're in the desert. You see that you got a sandwich in a water bottle. You're going to be fine. You see a guy dying. You're like oh my God, take this water, take this sandwich. You saved his life. You walk away being like I saved his life. He walks away saying that guy saved my life, you both benefit. Right, what we do now is you're walking through the desert and somebody holds a gun to your head and says give me the sandwich and water bottle. And you're like but these are like give me the sandwich. You got to give them the sandwich and the water bottle. And then they turn around and hand, you know, 95% of the sandwich and 95% of the water bottle to the guy dying. The guy dying doesn't appreciate you because you got it removed from you at gunpoint. You're furious because you didn't even have a chance to do something nice and you rob everyone of the capacity to be, to engage in voluntary human compassion. Instead, it's like, no, no, no gun to the head. You will be compassionate, you will participate in this, you will validate and affirm these things. It's like that's not the way this goes. It's like that with anything in life. I feel like, yeah, very much so, and this state does not do that. At least I do.

Speaker 1: 49:11

I was talking to somebody today about the Representative Hill brought a bill that would ban statewide any flag aside from, I think, idaho and United States flag in classrooms, and I'm trying to understand why that's a bad thing. And I was speaking with Lauren Nekachea, who's the head of the Democratic Party, just before I came here, and her position was well, we want everyone to feel welcome. It's like, okay, but is that first off, is a flag doing that? And is it the public school's job to welcome everyone and tacitly approve with everyone? Because, like, if you're just saying like, this flag represents a lot more than just, you know, sexual preference. It represents all kinds of things, and you know she had an answer and whether or not people agree with her is not my position.

Speaker 1: 49:55

It's like, whatever, you can agree with her or disagree with her, but I think this is a question that we should be having, which is should we, in a public sphere, be presenting approval of someone's lifestyle? It's like you should not have to approve of my first off. I'm a terrible person, so don't approve of my lifestyle, and I shouldn't have to approve of your lifestyle. I don't even like whatever right, and again, I don't know where this will flush out. But I do appreciate that there's the struggle in the state to be like look, should we force people to do what we think is right? Right, is that how we want to be?

Speaker 2: 50:31

Yeah, and then, if I mean then, it becomes a slippery slope. You start bending the knee for certain subjects. Where does it stop? And we've seen where it's gone the last four years of just Protected classes, and it's just. Where does it stop. And we've seen where it's gone the last four years of just protected classes, and it's just where does it end. But then where do you draw the line?

Speaker 1: 50:51

I think that's the way to be, which is, hey look, we're not approving or disapproving of anyone's lifestyle and if people are getting bullied, we're going to stop bullying categorically. And we're not stopping bullying or concerned about bullying because you may be gay or straight or whatever. We're stopping bullying because bullying is bad categorically and it doesn't matter if you're black, white, whatever you know. That's that's something that I think is interesting. And again, over the last four years and over the last, you know, a decade really, people have been really concerned about know, weighing and judging human suffering and difficulty differently.

Speaker 1: 51:28

Yeah, right, like adam carolla has that great, great bit about his white privilege, growing up like super broke and then applying to a fire department. They're like you got to come back in seven years because you're white. Like he couldn't. He was like goes back after seven years and he's in line to to take a test to apply. And there's, I think, a gal there who happened to be African-American as he tells the story and he's like hey, how long did you wait? She's like oh, I, just last week, they just told me to come. And he's like I had to wait seven years, you know, and I think he was testifying in front of Congress. You hear that story, you're like, okay, how does that make sense? It doesn't. I mean, it doesn't really make sense to me. What have you?

Speaker 2: 52:07

what have since doing this? And you have three sons yes, what have. What have you learned about the education system here? That's good, bad or the ugly. We're homeschoolers, yeah, so we, we pulled our kids, we're. We're done with it, they're. We give them the option every year. Hey, you want to go back?

Speaker 1: 52:26

and it's a.

Speaker 2: 52:26

It's a hard pass, hard, no, yeah. So, and I'll tell you the reason why maybe this going lead into more covid, right, everything's happening. We're going to the school here, great school, nothing wrong. We fill out the form and the wife comes back. She's like mark my words. She goes the second they hit one week of being back in school. They're going to get their public funding and they're going to go right back to mask. And it was. I think it was like that Friday that night at like 11 o'clock at night, they send this email out hey, starting on Monday, mask required. And then the wife looks at me. She this is her words. She goes I'm pulling the girls out of school. We're done with this. You're either with me or you're against me. I'm like you can't go against mama Barry and I was like maybe I love you, Whatever you want.

Speaker 2: 53:12

Whatever, whatever Cool, yeah, like just same team. And so, yeah, we pulled our kids out and they've never been back and it's been the greatest thing that we've done. We're. You know, I never thought in a million years we would be those people by any.

Speaker 1: 53:24

What do you mean? Those people, what do you?

Speaker 2: 53:26

mean, what do you mean those people? And so we, uh, so, but we watch and we're seeing and we have obviously the majority of our friends are still in and it's, it's scary, you know, maybe not so much here, but where they're pushing agendas in schools and across other states and stuff. So what's interesting that's happening here in Idaho? I mean you're sitting down with some, I mean you're part of the PTA, correct?

Speaker 1: 53:49

State PTA. Yeah, so let me. Yeah, so I'm the legislative rep for the state PTA, just because I happen to be friends with the president of the state PTA and I happen to know a lot of politicians, yep, through the, I'm actually running a bill right now that has bipartisan support, is supported by the State Department of Education, the School Boards Association. I think our schools in a public setting are predominantly reasonable. Okay, okay, wonderful, they got that in place. They already started taking out books that were offensive on on their own right, ahead of whatever bills they. They are doing a conservative version of public education pretty well, okay, let's just say that. But but one, that's one school district. Yeah, so when, when somebody gets ahold of me, they're like I go to this school district, I go to this school district, this is what's happening. It's like, yeah, I believe you, so to speak, on the state's education system as a whole. It's like, okay, this is tricky.

Speaker 1: 54:59

Somebody in you know, I don't know, garden Valley might be like that's trash. That's not true and they would be right. So that's one. But I will tell you that there is a problem. The problems with the structure will always exist, for sure, which is somebody criticized an education video that I put on on choice right, because I'm interviewing a lot of people on choice and they were like, no, in public schools you do have a choice.

Speaker 1: 55:23

You can run for school board. If you want, you can get somebody else. You can get these people unelected. And I actually sent this person a note because I don't like to get into it in the comments. But I was like, hey look, that's not entirely a fair thing to say because let's say, I got a first grader and somebody gets elected to the school board and it's like a big problem. Or they institute policies that I disagree with, like I don't know. One-to-one technology distribution for a first grader. Then he ends up watching Odd Squad while he's in first grade, like my son did, oh really, oh. Ends up watching odd squad while he's in first grade, like my son did. Oh really, oh, yeah, really. They give west data hands out one-to-one chromebooks and it's not policy that it can be used for classroom management, but chromebooks do frequently become classroom management. Now I'm not outing any particular teacher, I'm just saying systemically this is a problem.

Speaker 2: 56:09

The tech integration I would have a huge problem with that huge problem, huge problem. I'm for and thisically, this is a problem. The tech integration is a problem.

Speaker 1: 56:11

I would have a huge problem with that?

Speaker 2: 56:12

Huge problem, Huge problem. I'm for and this is that weird give-take Right when you start integrating kids into technology, it's the future. It's not like us growing up where we had a freaking PlayStation or something like that and your dad's worried about it and we had nothing right.

Speaker 1: 56:34

When do you start? I wouldn't want my first grader on it, no. And then, and nobody, and I talked to everybody I possibly could to find out look, what is the roi on this? And I again, in good faith, not trying to get people, I was like why do we give second graders chromebooks? Why is it?

Speaker 1: 56:45

what they say benefit the number one thing they say is like well, we don't want our kids learning how to type when they're seniors in high school. It's like like, okay, I understand that. I don't think there's any reason to have that. Like, kids knew how to type before they were 18. Pre one-to-one Chromebooks, right, like so why are? Like, I knew how to type, I grew up in the nineties Like, why are we giving kids one-to-one Chromebooks? Well, we want kids to know how to use technology responsibly. Okay, first off, parents can teach them how to use tech responsibly, right, why are we giving kids one-to-one? And you go down this list of reasons and you come just like okay, just answer me this Do we have increased graduation rates because we got Chromebooks? No, do we have increased literacy because we got Chromebooks? No, no, we don't. Now there could be an argument made that we're actually saving money because, say, a textbook that would be $120 in paper book is only $70 on a Chromebook. Okay, like so. Are you saying it's financial? Like, if that's it, fine, but there's this big problem. So one problem statewide is tech integration, and this happened over COVID and people were pushing it before, but it like big rollout, it opened the door, opened the door big time and it was justified at the time, at least a lot of people feel. But there was no walking back. No, and that has created a problem where I can tell you in good faith it's like I saw like you can see my kid, or you used to, you can see kids using tech inappropriately, Like my fifth graders, playing video games every day on a school, and I was like, come on, bro, you're playing games Like I get in time every day. We have a good relationship with them, so we're kind of joking about it, but it's like what are you doing? So tech integration is a problem? Okay, that is 100% true.

Speaker 1: 58:36

The problem with school boards and the nature of elected officials is, if I have a problem in first grade, first off, if I want to get that person out or if I want to run against them. For what am I going to run a recall? That's extremely difficult, costly. I got to get a huge, so fine, let's just run somebody against them. Well, if I have a problem with what they're doing in elementary school, it's a four-year poll, so even if I'm successful, what? The person is removed in the second half of fifth grade.

Speaker 1: 58:49

That doesn't make sense and you have to find somebody that one agrees with what you're saying. It's like, yeah, you got a problem there. Two, you have to find somebody who agrees with what you're saying, is willing to run a public campaign where they're going to get dragged through the mud, and then three, just wants the job right, like, how are you going to find that person? So for the average individual, you could have a problem going into fifth grade. The person doesn't even get out until you're like in high school, right, like you could miss all of middle school. So the flexibility that we actually have with holding our elected officials accountable in a public school setting is far less manageable than I think.

Speaker 1: 59:27

People articulate I don't know what the solution is to fix it. People than I think people articulate I don't know what the solution is to fix it. But when people say, hey, I had a problem, I went to my principal, I went to my board member, nobody listened to me, I pulled my kid, I'm like I believe that that happened and I don't know what the problem was. But I have a problem with tech and I have gone through a similar situation, right, and so I'm running a bill to go back to that point. I'm running a bill that requires that if you are a public school entity in the state of Idaho and this bill is backed by the State Department of Ed as well as School Board Association If you are a public school or charter school in Idaho and you hand out an internet connected device, you have to meaningfully warn and educate parents about the real risks on that device. What are these kids using these things for? It's not okay. That's a difficult Kids. The ICAC, the executive director of ICAC on in Idaho there's an ICAC coalition.

Speaker 2: 1:00:25

What's.

Speaker 1: 1:00:25

ICAC Internet Crimes Against Children.

Speaker 2: 1:00:28

Okay, okay.

Speaker 1: 1:00:28

So the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Coalition. So it's like I-I cack, cack, right, vic Dominguez. He comes in and we have this great conversation. He's an older, older law enforcement guy, he's retired, he's very passionate about this and he said look the number. What do you think the riskiest times for kids are with tech, probably at school, are with tech, probably at school. It's between 12 and 4 am when you're asleep. So kids that have access to technology, the parents go to sleep. There's no more monitoring, either at school or at home, makes sense. They get in trouble and they explore. My seventh grader tells me we're driving to school, driving to school. He's like dad, I got to tell you something. I was like, oh no, oh no, I drive him to school every morning. So we have great conversation. He's like on my computer. I'm like, oh no, here it comes.

Speaker 1: 1:01:16

He's like I've been watching a lot of the Star Wars videos. I was like, oh, thank God. So I'm like, okay, bud, look what you didn't know. I didn't know and he knew it was wrong. He was like I can get around the monitoring software really, really easily. Every other school district in the state of Idaho go to work every day to make this tech as safe as possible. It is just inherently not 100% safe. So he I'm like, all right, listen, bud, show me how you do this. We're sitting in line and drop off. So he whips out his computer, I tether it to my cell phone. It's Chromebook, no-transcript, and he's not how old or what grade, and he's not in how old or what grade. Listen there.

Speaker 1: 1:02:16

I spoke with a vice principal recently who said one of, I think, a 14 year old freshman in high school started a google classroom to teach everyone in the district about how to get past the monitoring software. And he was like they were inviting middle school kids, all the high school kids, and it's a google classroom. Nobody would outlaw google classroom on on a chromebook. That's google classroom. He's a Google classroom. Nobody would outlaw Google classroom on a Chromebook. That's Google classroom. He starts a Google classroom and teaches everyone in the district, Takes one kid. It's like a virus. So he some kids just showed him how to do this and he I have such, I have a good enough rapport with him.

Speaker 1: 1:02:44

He showed me. I was like, okay, listen, thank you, please stop doing this. And he was like, okay, I won't, I'm sorry, I'm like it's okay, I love you, like thank you, and please keep telling me when these things pop up. But it's that kind of thing where, okay, how do you monitor that? Or how about the fact that some teachers do, in fact, assign, say, like a YouTube video, a YouTube video to watch, okay for an assignment. Now, mind you, youtube doesn't care anything about your student. Youtube only cares about you watching more YouTube. We all know this. That's why it recommends videos. Well, there's a gal in Boise School District who's part of this parent group that's trying to fight back against tech integration and the inundation we have and they have, and her daughter was watching this video. And then the recommended video that popped up was a cow urinating onto a woman OK, on YouTube. Her daughter was like, oh my God, oh, this is crazy. So she goes to mom. Mom gets super upset. So parents don't know about this, right?

Speaker 1: 1:03:40

And I'm not anti-tech. I love teaching my sons how to edit videos. I love teaching them about audio engineering. I love tech. When I was in high school, when I graduated in 2000,. I could program in two languages, I could 3d model. I had a website Like I actually coded a website. It was ridiculous. I love tech, it's a way. It's future.

Speaker 1: 1:04:01

It'll always be but having access to tech and uh and just having to like Instagram is not teaching you how to code right Like, having access to this stuff is not synonymous always with actually learning something valuable, and we've used this as a hammer to hit every single possible nail and then some. This is a problem. I'm not against school districts having tech. You can do dangerous things with children. Your children never go on a field trip to the zoo. You get them on a bus. What do you got to do? You got to sign a waiver. I acknowledge you're transporting my kid on a bus.

Speaker 1: 1:04:35

I acknowledge there's inherent risk in that. Great, no problem. You can do dangerous things, but you have to warn the parents first. We can have these Chromebooks, but the parents need to know one. They're not 100% safe. In spite of the best good faith effort that the schools are putting forward, they are not 100% safe and the parents need to know, and they need to know what they can do about it to keep their kids safe at home. I'm not against having tech in school, but we have to include parents in the protective mechanism.

Speaker 2: 1:05:06

Is that going to help? These parents are already given their 10-year-old cell phones Full access.

Speaker 1: 1:05:10

Listen, we have free will. We have free will 100%. I'm not here to tell a parent what they can or can't do 100%. I am merely saying if the state hands my kid a piece of tech, you better tell me. If you know it's dangerous. And the state Idaho agrees, they're like hey, that makes perfect sense.

Speaker 2: 1:05:26

I mean, it makes sense. But it comes down to these parents and I feel that this day, with technology, there's already such a huge problem. I know a guy that so rule in our house. 8 o'clock, we're winding down, there's no phones, there's nothing in your room. Sleepovers, you have it until we go to bed. I'll stay up extra late. If you're watching a movie, you're done. Collect it all, go to bed. I'll stay up extra late. If you're watching a movie, you're done. Collect it all. Everything's out, great, everything's collected. It's just, it's human nature. You don't know, you could click one thing and it leads you watching some roadblocks video and then there's a woman getting pissed on by a cow. All that, yeah, it comes down to the parents At the down, to the parents at the end of the day, no matter what. I feel that just and it's scary.

Speaker 2: 1:06:13

I mean you, obviously you've mentioned a couple times having a great relationship with your kids. That takes work, a lot of work, a lot of work and a lot of time. We, we, I pride myself on being able to have a relationship with teenage girls that talk boys and drama and all that shit. We, I know family, this guy, three kids, they'll be up. There's no, there's no supervision. Kids as kids, all of them, have full, full access to everything and it's just like. Then you're going to add that on top of it. And I know it's not down to the teachers and it's not down to the education board to be able to educate parents, but I feel for the parents that don't have the ability to give their kids technology, you're just opening it up even sooner, because if they're even the parents that give their kids technology, the majority of them aren't monitoring. I mean, how many teenage boys I know that have full access?

Speaker 1: 1:07:06

to the internet, all of them. And even if they don't, even if you don't think they have full access, they pop up. They're like 150 web browsers right there. There are some that look like calculators. You won't even know, and but here's the thing, look, we can't save everyone. Like how many people buy fruit loops?

Speaker 2: 1:07:22

or or food that I would consider like that's probably not a great idea, skittles the number worst, the worst rated product of food that you can just I think I just saw this woman talking like the absolute number one worst thing you can put in your body is.

Speaker 1: 1:07:34

Skittles For sure.

Speaker 2: 1:07:36

You're giving it up for.

Speaker 1: 1:07:36

Halloween. So look, we have agency in the United States and we certainly have personal liberty in Idaho, and I love that. And if people want to drink themselves to death, if people want to eat themselves to death, I don't I wish they wouldn't, but we have personal agency. And if a family wants to give a youth a piece of technology and not monitor it, that is upsetting, but that is their kid. Oh they have the rights to do it A hundred percent.

Speaker 1: 1:08:01

I think what's important is for the parents that are trying to do the right thing, trying to monitor that they don't get sideswiped. They're like I took all your iPad away, I took your phone away, I took all this stuff and kid says no problem, I'm just going up to room with my computer to get my homework done, and they're back on the exact same apps.

Speaker 1: 1:08:21

That's what we need to stop. So, for parents that are in good faith, really trying to work, the state of Idaho and the school system should not be undermining that with supplying them with tech that they didn't know was a problem. Like my kids use their school computers or my my um. Spoiler alert I pulled, I pulled my younger kids out of their neighborhood elementary and I have them going to a different school, to a charter school so still state funded that doesn't have tech. There. There are no tech campus. I cannot say enough how upset I was that even in the presence of acknowledging they're watching tv in school, nothing changed and I was like I cannot.

Speaker 2: 1:09:02

This is not tenable for me you can't, you can't, if you care, if you can't, and I get it private, public funded, what state funded, whatever I everybody has. They have their own life going on and the people can, like us. We have the ability to homeschool.

Speaker 1: 1:09:16

Yes, people don't. And we were very lucky that we had a charter school that had space and it met our values. But like I like that about the Idaho education system, like, hey, we recognize that all of your values, your community values, may not be wholly met by this neighborhood average neighborhood public school. Let's make charter schools that people feel they reflect better, and this one does so.

Speaker 1: 1:09:38

I have my oldest son who still goes to the neighborhood middle school and he's fine with it, like he can control himself on his tech. We have a good relationship. But when he has his Chromebook he's sitting at the kitchen table with his back to me so I can see the screen the whole time and I just monitor it. Right, for the people that don't care, it's not going to matter. But we have an obligation as a state to warn parents and just say, hey, look, this could be a problem. And again, odds are exceptionally small. It's not like every other kid is getting hurt on these, but there is a possibility and that's really important that we recognize that You're going to roll the dice?

Speaker 2: 1:10:13

Yeah, are you willing to roll the dice for your kid? Yeah, that number pops up. You know if they're going to come across something. I feel, when it comes to tech, my biggest gripe with getting kids on it at such an early age is they're not learning how to properly write Write Penmanship's out the window Right, Spelling out the window Right my wife she is a stickler, Absolute stickler, and it does not matter anything what it is.

Speaker 2: 1:10:40

They're writing it and I feel with us in homeschooling and obviously you pull in a tech-free school for those. Sure, sure, sure. And we both agree, Tech is very. I mean, look at what Tech is great. She's the full producer Tech.

Speaker 1: 1:10:51

I mean, look at my Tech is great.

Speaker 2: 1:10:52

She's the full producer. I need my kids to learn my youngest she's in one of her programs. She's in a coding program right now and 10 years old, she's learning how to code. Cool, love it. But when we're giving the kids these Chromebooks where now they're doing all of their assignments, everything is typing Cool. You can learn typing in a full season if you bust these kids out in junior high or whatever. They can learn it then. But now it's getting younger and younger and younger when it comes to these MacBooks and Chromebooks and everything else. They're coming home with iPads now, yes, and that's everything's to it, and we're losing the most basic skill, very important skill.

Speaker 2: 1:11:29

I feel like I'm a horrible writer. It's one thing I was not pushed to do chicken scratch. Even my 10 year old makes fun of me. She's like dad, I write better than you. I'm like good, you should, because if you wrote like me, we have a problem. Yeah, but that's I feel like that's. One of my biggest, scariest points is is that as we move into technology and the younger they get, they're losing these skills that are going to be so important farther down in life, because the world is going tech and that's the way we need to push it. It's scary.

Speaker 1: 1:11:59

And yes, I, like my fifth grader, loves tech. He does not need tech every second of the day. He just doesn't and he doesn't need it. It should be used sparingly. It's like Tylenol.

Speaker 1: 1:12:13

It's like, listen, you don't take Tylenol every time you have, like, an ache or a pain. You take it for acute things. We need targeted tech integration. I love tech. I love. When I moved here, I loved that the kids had Wonder One Chromebooks. I was like this is awesome, they're investing in their kids. But it's the rollout and utilization and misutilization of these things that's a problem and we're hearing it statewide. Right Like being a member of the PTA. My president, alexis Morgan. She traveled the state and talked to parents this last summer and it's like it's so goofy. It's like I would never think I'd be on a PTA, but like I'm passionate about education, it's hilarious.

Speaker 1: 1:12:49

Yeah hilarious right Like oh, I'm a PTA dude.

Speaker 1: 1:12:54

You're a PTA dad 100%. Oh my God right. So she traveled the state and she talked to all these people on her own dime. It's all volunteer. And she was like these parents, like statewide, have a problem with tech. They don't want all this tech. We're not against tech. It's clear that people are like can you just use it when you really need it? Don't give a second grader. And one of the arguments is like well, we use the, we use the Chromebooks for state level testing. Fine, they don't need it for 180 school days. Then maybe, like whip it out the week before and like show them how to hit enter or like do whatever you want. But again, we just need to use the tech appropriately because it is the wave of the future. Like I want my kids to know how to do. Like video, in particular, video for sales, video for marketing, video for all kinds, video for communication, good faith communication. Like video for everything. This is the way that people are consuming and developing their worldviews. It's on video.

Speaker 1: 1:13:49

I did four interviews leading up to the November election just this last year with the Secretary of State, phil McGrane, because he's like listen, we need to help people understand how our election system is different than other states. How do we do that? And he was all hands on deck, put everything on the table. He came on.

Speaker 1: 1:14:05

We got like over a million views on episodes talking about the Idaho election mechanisms, what IDs work, what IDs don't work? Yes, you have to have an ID. No, you can't use California. No, you can't. There has to be an Idaho or federally issued ID. Like how they count the ballots, all of these things. And people were like, oh, that's cool. It's like, yes, this is how people are forming their worldview. So I want my boys to deeply understand how to communicate in that way. I want them to know how to write and I want them to know how to communicate on video and that part of that's video, video engineering. This is great tech stuff, but I'm not just handing them a Chromebook and assuming they'll just learn video engineering, like that's not how this works, man?

Speaker 2: 1:14:48

No, definitely not, because, especially a young kid young kid their mind that's the last thing, right, they're wanting to search their. Once they figure out that code, you know how to crack it. I feel like it's like a lot like when we were when the iphones first came out you could crack an iphone and right jailbreak jailbreak yeah you just knew one dude and everybody got their stuff done.

Speaker 2: 1:15:06

now with these kids? I mean, they find one kid figures it out, right, he's probably got some smart older brother that already dealt with it and then it just trickles through, right.

Speaker 1: 1:15:15

It's, it's a, it's a wild thing. So, yeah, I would say, if I was going to say anything, it's the, it's the tech in the state I think there are. We live in a conservative state. Our teachers are conservative, far more conservative than a lot of places.

Speaker 1: 1:15:26

That doesn't mean every single teacher, every single counselor fine, you're going to have problems, you know at scale, but by and large, this state is more focused on fundamental things that are valuable. Like you can take a welding elective. It's like why? Because when you're 18, you want to go into the welder trade. Like you have some skills there. Like we're focused on real things, but the tech, just like we see everywhere else, has been integrated in a in a breakneck speed and the state again, pragmatic, real people. I explained what I explained to you, to the state department of ed, to other people. They're like got it, we're fixing it. It's like what you are. They're like, yeah, this is a problem. We don't like this problem, let's fix it.

Speaker 2: 1:16:07

It's like God damn, look at that. And that's how I feel states should be. And that's exactly how. When it comes to freedom, cool. If there's a problem and the majority of the people are speaking about it, it's not the highly populated area that's controlling everything. It's unanimous across the state. So it's like boom, cool, we have a problem. People are speaking their voices.

Speaker 1: 1:16:33

Right to it.

Speaker 2: 1:16:34

And it gets taken care of.

Speaker 1: 1:16:35

Yeah, it's cool having a small state like that, to your point.

Speaker 2: 1:16:38

Because you can connect with people 100%.

Speaker 1: 1:16:40

Under 2 million you can call your reps and actually make things happen.

Speaker 2: 1:16:44

I really like that and that makes it cool. It's more personal. You feel that things are able to get done and accomplished, especially if there's a voice backing it. Cool.

Speaker 1: 1:16:53

Yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 2: 1:16:57

You could go right downtown and probably knock on someone's door and you'll get right in and you know, obviously through the right process and you're able to get your voice to be heard.

Speaker 1: 1:17:02

So I'm sorry I interrupted you. You had a no, no, no.

Speaker 2: 1:17:04

I was going to ask you, since being here and you're buried in the everything Idaho what's something that is fascinating about the state of Idaho that most people don't know? What's something that you've learned that you were blown away by? I know it's kind of a loaded question, no, no.

Speaker 1: 1:17:20

It's great. I think what's most interesting is that you have a changing of the age of Idaho. That's happening and I think everybody kind of experiences it, but it's happening. It's like this bookshelf falling over in slow motion, where you have people that built the state to be the way it is that are aging out and we you and I and people in our generation we have an opportunity to interface with these people and understand what they did, how they did it, why they did it and carry that on. And you really do have what I think is the best state in the nation sitting here as this gem right, this beautiful place that has pragmatic, functional state and local governments. That's not to say everybody's perfect, but it's functioning, it's producing a high quality of life for people, higher than other places I've seen. And it's so cool because if you ask if you find a leader or you find somebody who's done something, they will tell you what the history has been. They will tell you what happened.

Speaker 1: 1:18:38

I had this guy in yesterday. Man, this guy, charlie Lyons, holy shit, he started the first rangelands fire protection agency, really, yeah, started the first rangelands fire protection agency, really, yeah. So what? What people don't know is, uh, ranchers. This is a huge problem in in the integration of urban and rural rural communities, because urban communities don't in general understand the nature of the benefit they get from ranching operations and grazing operations and farmers. So it's kind of like you know there's a whole vegan movement and you're like, oh, cow farts and stuff. Apparently cows don't even fart, they burp. So like that whole thing was a lie. But I find that I hang out with a lot of farm guys. But one thing is that you have to realize like if you have a wildfire that blows through a ranch, they see fire and they see their house and they see that their house is going to get burned down. They also see $100,000 worth of food that just went up in smoke in an hour. They see their animals getting burned alive. When you have fire burn through, you apparently have a two-year mandatory hold period. So whatever 100,000 acres burns, you have that 100,000 acres sitting dormant for two years and it's this brutal thing.

Speaker 1: 1:19:52

So this gentleman, charlie Justice, was in like this hot battle for decades with the BLM fire people because they would let fires burn. They're losing, ranchers are losing their livelihood. They were taking their own dozers out trying to build fire breaks, you know, and then BLM would show up with dozers, but in one case there was this massive fire and they're like we're not going out there because there's an Oregon trail out there and like that's a historical site and we can't bulldoze over that. And he's like that's my life in flames. And it was such an incredible Idaho story of hearing how this guy came to the realization. He's like we can't keep going on like this. We're fighting with the BLM. We want to go to like we are backing them into a corner. They're backing us into a corner. We can't do this. There's no solution that exists. He was like we have to find a solution, we have to make a solution. The government's not the solution, we have to be the solution.

Speaker 1: 1:20:52

And he recounts this story of realizing that he wasn't an asset, that he wasn't helping, that he wasn't leading. And they start putting together this team of people. They're like, well, listen, you can't fight fires out there unless you're some firefighting agency and you're just a bunch of ranchers. They're like, okay, what do we need to be an agency? They're like, well, you got to be this thing. They're like, okay, how do we be that thing? You know it's. It was this multi-year process of okay. So if we are the agency, what else is it? Well, like you can't, even if you're an agency, you need training. It's like. Okay, what training Like? Can you give me a list?

Speaker 2: 1:21:28

Okay, do we get the training?

Speaker 1: 1:21:29

Who do we get training for? Right? What equipment do we need? Okay, do we have. We don't have funding, we have to fund it ourselves. Okay, so I need like a full suit, I need a helmet, I need a fire shelter, I need all. Okay, great, how much does that kit cost?

Speaker 1: 1:21:42

And he put all this together and they started putting this stuff. They made the first rangeland fire protection agency. That was like volunteer driven. There was a bunch of ranchers that were down to put their asses on the line, their life and everything on the line to protect what was theirs, and they came up with a solution that did not depend on the government. That was them and explaining to people about. And he obviously went on. Now there are like almost a dozen of these throughout the state. These are rancher and citizen-led agencies that show up with their own diesel, with their own equipment. They have the water trucks that they use nine months out of the year to water the fields and then they use them to put out fires, like all of these things. And it's all citizen-oriented, it's citizen liberty. It's look, the government is not here to fix my problem and even if we wanted them to, they can't. We have to fix it.

Speaker 1: 1:22:40

And he's getting to this age. He was telling me he's like I'm exhausted, it's like I'm too tired to keep explaining this to people, and my message to him, you know, was this incredibly emotional thing. We're both in tears. At one point, like he's, he took me through this journey. I was ill-prepared, I thought I was just talking like firefighting. He took me through this journey and and it's like, yeah, but, charlie, maybe maybe you've done your part, maybe that's right, maybe it's our job now, maybe it's our obligation, to understand what you did, to understand the problems that you solved, to understand the burden that you've been carrying and take it off your shoulders Right Like pass the torch man.

Speaker 1: 1:23:22

And Idaho is in this changing of the guard where we have this older generation that made it happen and they are aging out. They built this and it's up to us and that is the craziest, coolest, most horrifying thing possible to imagine where it's like, oh, if we don't do it, if you and me, if we don't do it, this is going to be gone forever because they're going to age out, they're going to die and in 15 years, unless we did what we could to transfer that knowledge, it's gone forever and we don't even know what made Idaho Idaho Do you think a lot of these old timers that are in his position, do you see that they look at the growth of everything that's happening and it scares them because they're not true Idahoans that are coming in and trying to learn and absorb the culture and just the traditions and history of Idaho.

Speaker 2: 1:24:17

Do you think they're almost kind of stand backish of it or are they accepting to passing the torch?

Speaker 1: 1:24:21

I mean man, so first off, you got to remember, a lot of the old timers came from somewhere else too, for sure, right, I think Charlie moved here in like 92.

Speaker 1: 1:24:30

He moved, he lived all over the west, he's like I'm a, I'm a citizen of the west and he, he was always in rural areas, always ranching cowboy and, uh, doing timber. So he, he doesn't have any animosity to me, right? Or at least if he did, he kept it. He kept it locked in pretty, pretty tight. I shouldn't speak for him. Maybe I was a jerk, I probably was a jerk, but like I don't californian.

Speaker 1: 1:24:50

I don't see, I don't see, I don't see that. I see people, especially old time Idahoans. This is not the first time they saw a wave of Californians coming up here. They this has been happening for decades and decades.

Speaker 1: 1:25:03

I think what they want is is people to meaningfully participate. Right, they don't like that's really it. It's look what are you contributing? Cause there's no place. I was talking to Brian Simpson, who's on Eagle Fire Commission. He was running. He was one of the interviews in 23 that like really kind of blew up because he was running at the same time that Eagle mayoral races were going on and he and I became friends and he he was even telling me in his interview about how he grew up as this like Eagle fire department, kind of like brat right, because his dad, they were all these volunteer firefighters, the Eagle fire department. He's like, yeah, you know, like they volunteer and like fire alarm will go off and we live two blocks away. So like 3am like mom, dad would like grab us and we like all ran down to the fire department.

Speaker 1: 1:25:51

Then all the kids would play together throughout the night because their dads and moms and stuff were like off fighting fires, volunteering, and it's that level of participation and civic engagement that made Idaho what it is, and we need to keep that. I think the problem how do we keep that? Okay, helping people understand that they have a place, that there is a need, that they have a place, that they have something to add Right. One large criticism of the community I moved from in California was that it's like this is transactional for these people. They move in, they're moving here for the school, they're moving here for a job. You're not taking them an apple pie. They're not accepting one. Even if you take it, they look at you like you're crazy. They're allergic to apples, gluten-free.

Speaker 1: 1:26:34

I don't know, whatever it is right and there's no connection. Right, it was transactional and we need to ward off against transactional communities. Here too, it's like no, no, no, we have something to contribute. We need to bring that civic participation in and help people understand that, like we all rely on volunteerism and Idaho was born and bred and raised on volunteerism and civic duty right, charlie, to this day, they show up to fight fires, paying for the fire with their own diesel, using their own equipment that could burn. They put their own lives on the line. They're not getting, you know, out there getting paid. It's taking care of it ourselves. That's and that's a different thing than what I think a lot of people see in other states. So like, oh, how, like I don't know. I think it comes down to leadership. I think it's. It's helping people understand the problem, helping them understand they have something to contribute and we need it. And if they don't want to contribute it, this place is going to be a little bit worse.

Speaker 2: 1:27:32

What's your thoughts on Oregon splitting off?

Speaker 1: 1:27:37

Oh, you mean like I'm trying to get a hold of those people?

Speaker 2: 1:27:39

Yeah, I mean, how does that benefit us? I don't. I'm against it. I'm against it. Where do we go if this? I mean, it seems like it's gaining subtraction.

Speaker 1: 1:27:53

I mean, but they've been talking about it for I think it probably has the same chance of, like texas seceding from the nation. Okay, like I don't think it's actually gonna happen and like I don't know, I don't know what the benefits would be. We'd get, like another couple congressional representatives or something, probably, um, you know, like maybe we brought our tax base. I'm not 100 sure. I don't think. I don't think we need to modify the states. I think, if you like, change your state, look, you don't. There's an aspect of like, look, you don't get your cake and eat it too. Like I had to move away from my home. Okay, fine, you, you've moved. Like we move, we move state to state. And yeah, I understand that maybe you live in oregon and you're on a, on a farm or a ranch or something. And yeah, I understand that maybe you live in Oregon and you're on a farm or a ranch or something that you want to keep that, but you want it to be Idaho politics, like I get that, I really do. But like, maybe just move to Idaho. Or clean house, get your voice heard. Clean house, like at some point I think there's going to be a reckoning. And if it's not, clean house, at some point I think there's going to be a reckoning and, if it's not, try this on for size, all right.

Speaker 1: 1:28:58

My community I moved from. I tried really hard to address problems before we left. I had a podcast down there. It was not the level that I have here, but I did have a podcast and it was the only one trying to talk to people and really air out both sides and really try to be like look, this doesn't make sense, guys. And I move up here and my wife had asked me at the time. She's like listen, I got to shop at Trader Joe's, I got to be out in public. You can't say things that are going to like really light us on fire and put a target, because people were getting crazy in the community, people were getting harassed. Oh yeah, crazy left liberal groups were like showing up to people's houses.

Speaker 1: 1:29:29

Anybody that talked about getting kids back in school. They're like showing up at houses, showing up at work trying to get them fired. And my wife and I think she was right. She's like listen, we got babies, I got like a three-year-old. I can't have crazy people showing up at the doors Like I respect that. I understand, we move up here.

Speaker 1: 1:29:44

Gloves came off, like I care deeply for my friends and community. Back there I'm like well, I'm going to keep talking about these problems because I can say things now that nobody else can say. And ultimately, what I realized is that's the wrong way to do it because I move out of there. They saw value in what I was doing. People kept calling on me to help them with problems and now, even after three years, even this last election, people were hitting me up. They're like you got to do a podcast and I was like guys, it's up to you now. You see, there was a problem. Somebody has to step up, fix it. I've been gone for years. You step up and fix it, but rousing anyone out of apathy or getting people to engage in actual action, if it costs them something, even time, they won't do it and their community will never change and like that's it, but it shouldn't be up to us.

Speaker 2: 1:30:37

But they'll have a voice and they'll bitch about it, right, but they don't make a change, right. And I think that's the biggest problem with California. Oregon you know me, being from New York, where I grew up it is the most beautiful. It's a summer town I mean, it looks like it should be on a postcard. It's a little tourist town right on the Canadian border. The majority of people are Republican, but everybody wants to bitch about it because the city runs it. But then, oh, I'm not voting, it doesn't make a difference. But that's the problem. Is these rural areas, these farmers, the ranchers, everybody is spread thin. They don't come together. But they'll have an opinion and a voice on it, but nobody wants to fight for it because it becomes work and it's too much of a problem, or they don't have the time for it, and so then it's just this hamster wheel of generations bitching about the same thing, right, and no actual movement.

Speaker 1: 1:31:29

And you don't have participation. You don't. Even even when I was still doing those episodes, people would reach out. They're like, oh my gosh, these are like my closest friends. Like, oh my God, I had no idea, this is their school district back in California. Like I had no idea. I like the cameras cost six grand, right, like any help with that, I'd appreciate that. Or, even easier, just go to your school board meeting and tell them that you don't like this. Not a dime got sent and not a single person went to the school board.

Speaker 1: 1:32:04

I'm like, okay, so you want to know what you can do, as long as it doesn't cost you any time, doesn't cost you any time, doesn't cost you any money. Well, shit, I don't know what you can do. If it doesn't cost you any time, doesn't cost you any money. What can you do besides sign a petition on online petition? Not, nobody even made an online petitions. He's like, I don't even know what to tell you. Like, I'm gonna help you at this point. Make your bed. Yeah, this is this, is it? So? Yeah, it's. Uh, we gotta have participation and we have to have informed and informed populace that participates and if we can have those two things and I'm trying my damnedest to inform people.

Speaker 2: 1:32:38

You're doing a hell of a job at it.

Speaker 1: 1:32:39

If I can, if I can nail down or help nail down one piece in the absence of anyone else doing it, Cause like, guess what I don't even get paid for like I've been at two and a half years, I'll make a dollar from it. For, like I've been at two and a half years, I'll make a dollar from it. If I can get. We need to make it sustainable. But if I can help inform because no one else is doing it, if I can do that and then people participate, man, we can protect Idaho from a lot of pitfalls.

Speaker 2: 1:33:01

How are you going to do? How do you make it sustainable, though? I mean, obviously it's we talked. I don't know if we were rolling or not. How much time we got left, babe. Oh perfect, what time is it? It's 4.53 right now.

Speaker 1: 1:33:13

Okay, could we wrap up in like five-ish, because I got to get home to my I got to leave my wife.

Speaker 2: 1:33:18

That's what I was asking.

Speaker 1: 1:33:20

Okay, we could do like 10 more minutes. Okay, cool. Well, fuck, where do we go from? Here, how do we make it sustainable? I think you were asking Lost my? I lost my train of thought.

Speaker 2: 1:33:33

We were rolling, I was, you had, I had. How do you okay, sorry, got it. How do you make it sustainable, then, since you want to be equal on both sides, how, how do you do this? You can continue to do it and spread the word, because obviously you have a great mission. How, how does this sustain itself?

Speaker 1: 1:33:47

for you, that's a great this is the hardest question I've had to answer in like ever. I veer away from for-profit models like it's the plague, because the for-profit model is what actually sold out our national news media. It's what sold out like. The national news media was a problem in itself before we created social media. But once social media was made, you had individual creators that were like, oh, I just need views. Oh, awesome, like I'll do this for views, no problem. And they just ramped up like crazy. They ramped up these stories, the frequencies and, like news media has some kind of like, you can get sued if you go on the news and say something crazy, you ain't getting sued on social media. So people just started saying outlandish, like patently false things to get more clicks and views. That's what drove this arms race between news media and social media to the point where, like nobody trusts news media at all. Right, like it's this huge problem, but it was a for-profit model which is like I need to get more views to get more money, right, so what I'm doing is like, okay, I can't go down that road and I also can't have sponsors controlling the content, because if I, you know, say I get a very conservative sponsor, they're like hey look, I know you talked to a lot of education people about public ed. Stop doing that Because, like we have a lot of homeschooling, we got a lot of private school. We don't really trust the public school system. So like don't I'm, like I'm fair to everyone. It's like, well, that's not a great idea, right, like we should be able to talk to everyone. So what I did is, with the help of some very, very bright people, is I made a nonprofit media company called Truth in Media, right, so the Truth in Media Foundation, and you can find out more information about it on theranchpodcastorg.

Speaker 1: 1:35:29

But the Truth in Media Foundation is essentially okay. Look by its charter. It has to be an unbiased public policy education platform, and unbiased, not that I have. I essentially use common sense and I invite both sides on Absolutely. And using that model, we're able to actually crowdsource or get larger associations or foundations that are like hey, we want, like there are plenty of nonprofits or funding mechanisms that fund things like nonprofit news channels, but nobody is doing this like this, nobody is doing it with a podcast and nobody has access to the politicians in Idaho. Very thankfully, they just like everybody is like OK, yeah, you can go on, matt. He'll give you a fair shake. You're not in control of it, but he's not going to get you. So that's essentially what I'm going after.

Speaker 1: 1:36:18

So my hope is over 2025,. We collect funding, obviously, from either people like foundations, like an Albertsons Foundation or something like a Dream Foundation, but they support things that are good for Idaho. So what I'm trying to do is make a platform that benefits all Idaho by presenting its leaders, its law enforcement agents, its educators, its fish and game presents these people to the state in a fair shake that has no representation anywhere else. And if we can do that successfully which I would argue we are doing then I absolutely believe that not only citizens you know citizens will fund it, but potentially we could get grants to, you know, help with communications, or or donors from foundations. Good for you. Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 2: 1:37:01

I didn't say it worked yet it's happening. It started, though. That's the big, that's the biggest hurdle. Yes, it's, it's just getting the ball going. Yes.

Speaker 1: 1:37:10

Yes, good for you, man. We need this.

Speaker 2: 1:37:14

I feel every state, every city needs something like the ranch, your platform, and that's how I found it. I was one of your homeschool or not homeschool it was one of your education videos and it always just sparks my interest because I like to know what's going on. Yes, obviously with the wife we watch, and that's how I started following, and then with Little, and then Raul was like you guys got to get connected. But yeah, that's great, man, what you're doing. I 100% got my support with it and it's cool to see because the world needs just unbiased media when it comes to politics what's going on in your state, your cities, federal level I mean, you name it. We need to know the truth and obviously we know how mainstream is, and we talked about it in the beginning, and so this is a perfect avenue to be able to watch, listen and see.

Speaker 2: 1:38:09

Both sides are unbiased. That's what it comes down to. Nobody's just unbiased anymore. So everything's politically driven, even left and right. Right it's, it's a battle. Now everything's a war over everything, and we see how that's gone. So now I could sit and listen to even though I don't agree with somebody, I could still hear their point of view from a biased host and you get the, you get their opponents opponents, I guess, or if they're competing, or the other side, if you have competing ideas and then you get to decide, yeah, but like that's at the core of this.

Speaker 1: 1:38:40

If we can humanize people that we disagree with, then we all win. We're like, hey, I don't agree with that gal, I don't agree with that guy. They're good people. I believe that they believe what they're saying. We don't agree, and that's all right, and but like he's, he's still going home to his kids, she's still going home to her husband. Like we don't agree, that's not a big deal. And yet, yeah, we should aggressively fight for what we think is right. That's our civic duty to fight for what we think is right. But we can still humanize people, mean, like that's, that's what our country is losing, right, we've become so polarized and now it's like a them, it's like punch a nazi, it's like get the hell out of here because I believe in lower taxes like, punch a nazi like.

Speaker 1: 1:39:22

Is that it? Yeah?

Speaker 2: 1:39:24

well and it helps because now it there's, there's not like a hard line, right, there's it. It you can have an adult conversation. I have a guy that I was doing physical therapy with him and he is very opposite of everything that I believe in, Even when it came down to kids, and he didn't have any kids, his political everything. But it was cool because him and I would be able to. I'd come in and be like what do you think of this? Just to get, but him and I were able to have that open dialect and that conversation without oh, you believe this and you're this and you're in the name calling. It's like how everything goes now. You even watch these news reports and they're cannibalizing themselves on their own stations, it seems like half the time.

Speaker 1: 1:40:09

It's so great, I love every second of it. Eat yourself alive.

Speaker 2: 1:40:12

Son exactly and so, but it's like I just want to know what's going on, yeah, and so I feel that you are the perfect platform for it. Thank you, I'm glad I was able to get you on and to to hopefully spread the word, and thank you and listen.

Speaker 1: 1:40:24

I want to have you on, so we got to line something I'm not political.

Speaker 2: 1:40:27

By any means. You don't want my political I beliefs. I don't just do first off.

Speaker 1: 1:40:30

First off, you got to have an X factor there. So like I do a bunch of interviews with Brandy, the Eagle Chamber of Commerce gal. She's the executive director, she's great, we're like great friends and she's not political. She comes in, she brings food, she brings drink. We like talk some trash and have a great time. So like be my guy man.

Speaker 2: 1:40:49

Anytime I'll bring a loaf of bread. Normally we have. We give every guest a fresh loaf of sourdough because the kids have the little sourdough company. It's doing incredible, but our oven just burned out and it actually gets delivered tomorrow or Friday. I don't know what. Today is Wednesday. I think it gets delivered Friday.

Speaker 1: 1:41:05

Bring the bread when you bring it, all right.

Speaker 2: 1:41:13

I'll keep you posted on it. Well, dude, thank you so much for joining and giving us a little insight of the ranch podcast and just what's going on in Idaho and fighting the fight for everybody to get the word and everybody's thoughts out there.

Speaker 1: 1:41:21

So thanks for having me on, man, it's a. It's a hot mess, a little wild chaos. Hey always. Thanks, dude.

Speaker 2: 1:41:26

I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 1:41:27

Boom. How was that? That was great man. It's Boom. How was that? That was great man. That was fantastic. I definitely went down some rabbit holes in different ways. Thank you.