Issues And Ideas: News & Political Commentary With Chris DeBello March 15 2026

Join us for conversations, expert analysis, insight and commentary about today's politics, news, economy and current events including the latest regarding the war in Iran.
 
(00:00) The claims versus the facts regarding the SAVE America Act and whether there's an actual need for the legislation are examined.

(08:00) Cybersecurity attorney Lisa Sotto, partner with the firm Hunton, Andrews, Kurth LLP and former DHS data privacy official, explains the paths Iran can take to launch cyberattacks in America along with steps companies and individuals need to take to prevent them.

(18:56) Former CIA operative Tim Beard offers ideas about the importance of awareness of surroundings and priorities to rely on when confronted by threats and dangerous times at home and abroad.

(34:07) Olympic and champion pro boxer Danny O'Connor tells how a decades long eating disorder impacted his career, threatened his life as well as how he's created an online platform for men with eating disorders and how he's still involved with boxing via the DO Boxing Academy.

(49:32) Chris DeBello looks at what the Bible teaches and warns about Blind Faith.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia. They don't talk about how to do that. They don't talk about anything. That's what they talked about. You can end it up that you're going to win the midterms at levels that you can't even believe and you're going to win every election for a long time until somebody really screws things up, and hopefully that won't happen.

SPEAKER_05 1:03

Donald Trump also claimed that the Save Act is all that you and the rest of the American public is talking about. Affordability, oh I'm sorry, affordability, education, housing, price of gas, price of oil, price of groceries? Nah. You're not concerned about any of that. Getting back to what Trump said, to how the Save America Act would serve Republicans in the midterms, is it fair to say that Trump is basically saying that Republicans would win if fewer people were voting? Well, at least in theory, that's what the Save America Act has the potential of doing. It requires voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship at the time of registration, a photo ID at the time of voting. It's passed by the House of Representatives. February. It's not sure whether it's going to make it through the Senate. They've tried this past week. And there's a whole talk about the filibuster being in the way. You've probably been hearing a little bit at least about that. Let's look at the Save America Act as in the aspect of citizenship being a requirement to vote and instances of non citizens voting. Well that's rare for that to happen. But s in effect, the Save America Act is introducing a documentation requirement for a law that's existed for decades. It's called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which has been around for a while, which prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections. Period. End of case. Now the Safe America Act, it's amending the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by introducing the requirement for people to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. Registration voting by non-citizens, that's as part of a normal process investigated and prosecuted by the appropriate authorities, and there is no evidence that attempts to voting by non-citizens have ever been to the level that impacted the outcome of any elections, federal, state, or local. In fact, there's there's plenty of evidence to indicate registration and voting by non-citizens is far and few in between. Many state election offices are already using it's called the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program started using this process last year to verify voter citizenship, and records in this program reveal that just 0.04% of voter verification cases are returned as non-citizens. Now, when it comes to having documentary proof of citizenship, this is from the U.S. Department of State. Examples of primary citizenship evidence are a birth certificate, a passport, a consular report of birth abroad, a certificate of citizenship or a naturalization certificate. And while real IDs are often assumed to be a reliable proxy for citizenship, they don't definitively establish citizenship. Although at least one of these documents are, again, in theory available to most citizens, not everybody has them readily available. According to some recent studies, 9% of all eligible voters don't have or do not have easy access to documentary proof of citizenship. 52% of registered voters don't have an unexpired passport with their current legal name, and 11% of registered voters don't have access to their birth certificate. Speaking of birth certificates, they often lack information that matches a person's current identity. Example, someone who has changed their name through marriage, for example, or court order, you might need to present a third document, like a marriage certificate, to join the proof of citizenship or birth certificate with their proof of identity, like a driver's license. So that further decreases the likelihood that a voter will have the appropriate documentation on hand to successfully register. And even if voters were to provide documentary proof of citizenship, verifying that it's all legit, that's uh not easy to say the least one that election officials and motor vehicle departments often don't have the resources or even the training to do. Now you can say this is why the federal government needs to get involved with the administration of elections for the states. Just a small problem with this idea, and I've probably said this before, but it looks like I need to say it again. It's Article I, Section 4, Clause I of the U.S. Constitution, affectionately known as the Elections Clause, that assigns all oversight and administration of elections to the individual states. Now, this isn't to say that there are never illegal votes cast. There are. Here are a few examples. We have James Saunders, this is in 2023 in Ohio. He was convicted of two felony counts for voting twice in both the 2020 presidential election and 2022 midterms in Minnesota. We have from 2024 Daniel Christine Miller. She was initially sentenced to jail time for voting in the 2024 presidential election using her deceased mother's name, but she got out of that. The judge told her instead to read a book about voting in the U.S. and write a book report. That's according to the court records. I'm not making that one up. Let's go to Pennsylvania, where Bruce Bartman was sentenced to five years probation after he admitted to illegally casting his dead mother's ballot in the 2020 presidential election. We have Jay Ketchuk, John Ryder, and Joan Halstead in Central Florida. They were arrested for casting more than one vote during the 2020 presidential election. They all live in the villages in Sumter County, Florida. They were looking at felony charges up to five years in prison for casting more than one ballot in the presidential race. One more, Barry Morphew. That's the husband of a Colorado woman who's been missing for more than two years. He pled guilty to casting her mail invalid during the 2020 presidential election. All those examples I just told you about, what do they all have in common when it came to casting illegal votes? They were all casting illegal votes for Donald Trump. This past week, Donald Trump said several times that the war in Iran has been won. If look at the military side at least, we've seen continued missile and drone attacks being launched upon Iran. But first guest today is here to point out that Iran also holds a weapon that they may have already started to reach for and use. It's a weapon that can very easily impact your life, especially your financial life and stability. Joining us to discuss how this likelihood could unfold is Cybersecurity Attorney, partnering the firm Hunted Andrews Curth LLP, former chair of the DHS Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. Lisa Sado, how are you today, Lisa?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

I'm just fine. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_05 8:40

And learn more about the aforementioned Hunted Andrews Curth L LP. It's Hunton.com. We do have a link over at our homepage as well. Mention that Iran is not technically illiterate by any stretch of the imagination, and certainly are they're capable of creating turmoil digitally just as much as they are militarily. As far as what we know about Iran's capabilities, whether it's alone or with either third party or even allies, what's the danger ta uh through technology that Iran presents?

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah, in fact, uh they are extremely technically proficient, as are their proxies. So there are hacktivists who are uh ideologically aligned with uh with Iran, and they are extremely sophisticated. We should never, never underestimate their level of sophistication in uh with respect to cyber espionage. Um there is real danger, as we saw uh with their first major foray uh getting into an American company um from a global perspective, Stryker. They they went for the jugular, uh they they attacked a critical infrastructure company. This is a a health care supplier, uh, and they uh they took down many systems uh all over the world and uh claimed at least that they stole a vast amount of data. So we are very concerned about the the the possibility of of uh a cyber attack uh because of course you don't need boots on the ground to uh to conduct a cyber attack, and not only are uh Iranian uh uh linked parties uh uh potentially uh uh in the mix for for taking action, but so are their proxies.

SPEAKER_05 10:39

Is there also a threat of oh I'm I guess I'm revealing my my fandom and addiction to Western movies. Are there hired guns out there that Iran can recruit and have them do the dirty work at a wider range than Iran could even do on their own?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Sure. Uh but there there are many hired guns. The uh uh we do know that some nation states, in fact, partner with straight-on criminal hackers. So yeah, there are there are plenty of uh very sophisticated players for hire. But um I I'm not even sure they need to to uh expend resources on these folks because there are also uh plenty of sophisticated um cyber criminals uh who are directly linked to Iran and also directly linked to to some of their proxies.

SPEAKER_05 11:29

And as you mentioned, militarily you need numbers where with technology you need obviously much much fewer numbers. We we assume that the attack is always going to go directly into a system, uh a financial system like uh Chase, for example, the New York Stock Exchange, pick the target that you wish. Technologically, is it also possible to get through in through a back door through a client of Chase as an example, who maybe is leaving an open door to get into the main system through the backdoor?

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Absolutely. Uh and you can wreak havoc that way. So where there are connected systems and we are all connected to each other, uh, there's always the potential for uh for criminal actors getting to get in through uh through backdoors. And in fact, we do see when uh criminal hackers get into systems, they come in through one door, but they leave a number of back doors in the system so that they can come back in if you find that front door and shut it. So we're always checking for those other vulnerabilities so that we can try to shut all the doors and not just the front door uh through which they entered. There's also, of course, the potential just to wreak havoc. So not only could they bring down uh a system like like a bank or a utility, electric utility or a municipal water system, uh, but they can also wreak uh psychological havoc. So we're we're very attuned to that as well.

SPEAKER_05 13:01

Well, certainly one havoc would lead to the the to the psychological havoc as the as the aftermath. And isn't is it uh is there a priority list because we also think of brick and mortar locations, businesses, industries, and you referenced about uh utilities and the ease that really anything that matters in any country is is accessible electronically because we see so often reports of data breaches, it makes one suspect just how unprepared are these large bodies of activity of businesses, corporations supplying utilities, how unprepared are so many of these necessities?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

We try very hard uh to do uh incident preparedness work in advance. Um remember it just takes one successful attack, and we have to ward off thousands of them a day. So one one one time is all it takes for a bad actor to get into a system and uh successfully and and and wreak havoc within the system. Um we are very focused on uh readiness activities, uh ensuring that we're testing systems constantly. Uh of course, basic hygiene is really critical, uh, making sure you have strong uh uh authentication methods, uh strong passwords, uh, strong multi-factor authentication methods, uh, access controls, segmentation of systems. So if a bad guy gets into one part of the system, they can't traverse into another part of the system. Um so we are constantly testing uh these sorts of protections. In addition to understanding whether or not we have um immutable backups, so that if a threat actor wipes the system clean of data, do we have backups in a totally segregated place that we could use to then restore the data?

SPEAKER_05 15:03

So for organizations really of any size when you think about, because one can get you into another and you can go up the technological chain, what are some of the priorities organizations should be revisiting as the likelihood, not the possibility, I think I think likelihood is a more accurate word, of a cyber attack is going to grow even not just during the war in Iran, but the aftermath again, because you don't need numbers to cause the havoc that we're talking about here. So, what are some of the priorities organizations have to go back to revisit that they thought they may have already had set and all already operating as they hope it would be?

SPEAKER_00 15:45

You're right to say that there's a likelihood that that companies will be attacked, and uh we we do think that there's literally no one who's immune uh from cyber attacks. So there's no industry sector that can feel uh safe from these sorts of attacks. Um we worry about the supply chain. We we've talked about this, but I think that's a real concern because uh to the extent uh a a bad actor gets in um to one point uphill and then distributes malware to thousands of customers of that single supplier, um that's that's a way of of uh doing a one-to-many attack, and it's it's very successful and it's very efficient uh and hard to protect against. Um so we we worry about the supply chain. You could have a fortress around your system. You could have a moat with the alligators in the moat around your own systems, but if you let that bridge down to others to get into your system, bad actors also could cross that bridge. So it's very important to have a vendor management program in place, make sure you're you're vetting your vendors, and particularly the ones who have any sort of integration within your system to make sure that they have the protections that you expect of them, uh, have contractual protections as well to uh to at least bind them contractually to uh to committing to certain security protections. And then do ongoing monitoring of your vendors because you might have very strong protections at the beginning of a relationship, but five years down the road, those protections may lap. So it's very important to uh to do ongoing monitoring. I'll also note that companies now routinely do penetration tests, uh, for example, to see uh whether their their systems are um susceptible to uh penetration from the outside. And doing something called um red team hacking, I think, is very useful. Um you're essentially hiring uh a group of folks to try to break into your system. Uh and uh in many, many, many cases they are successful. Uh the hope is that we find the vulnerabilities before the threat actors do.

SPEAKER_05 18:03

There's a lot of ways and a lot of guidance that Lisa's offered here, as does her firm, Hunt and Andrews Kirth LLP. Find out more about the services they provide at hunting.com. We have the link at the homepage as well. Lone being a cybersecurity attorney and partner in the firm Hunt and Andrews Kirth LLP. She's former chair of the DHS Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. Lisa Soto, thanks so much for helping us realize the importance of awareness and not to take what we think as normal daily activity lightly because that leaves us prone, and that's in this day and time is not a place we want to be. Thanks for your very educational and insightful words today.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Thank you for speaking with me.

SPEAKER_05 18:50

If you're listening via your favorite podcast platform, don't forget to follow or subscribe. It wasn't too long after the war in Iran began that the U.S. government advised all Americans not just leave the countries immediately around Iran, but pretty much the entire Middle East. Since embassies had been shut down, air travel was extremely limited at best, didn't leave Americans in that region with much to work with, did it? Now, while you might be thinking that this will be a situation you'll never be in, if you do any foreign travel, who says you couldn't be, even in a region that you thought was stable? What's that saying? Uh yeah, failing to plan is planning to fail. My next guest is with us. Help you with that planning, which won't just keep you safe, but it could save your life. He offers his expert guidance in his latest book, Look Twice, Volume 3, Your Guide When Danger Comes to You at Home and Overseas. He's a retired CIA operative who led and managed clandestine operations around the world. He also served in the U.S. Marine Corps, attaining the grade of captain. Tim Beard, how are you today, Tim?

SPEAKER_04 19:57

Hi, Chris. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity to come back on again.

SPEAKER_05 20:00

Well, I appreciate your continued work on this very timely information, TimbeardAuthor.com. You can find out more about not just LookTrice Volume 3, but Volume 2 as well as Volume 1. Let's build a foundation for the listener. And because this is the running theme through all of your books, the LookTwice mindset. What are a couple of the elements of that?

SPEAKER_04 20:24

A couple of the elements on that. First off, I I as I said before, I want to say this again because it's so important. Security doesn't have to be hard. It's doing the fundamentals, the basics right every single time. And in your audience, they can do this. You got to be in the moment. So these are some of the elements. You need to be aware and in the moment. You need to be paying attention, not in a paranoid way, but with your head up and just be alert and know what's going on around you. Don't be staring at your phone. Don't have headphones on when you're exposed on the street. This applies anywhere in the world. Another principle there is planning and preparation. A big part of, you know, some of the folks get caught, say they're in Dubai or they're over in the region near Iran, they it's been 47 years since we our embassy was overrun, I believe it was 4 November 1979. So a long time ago. There have been problems boiling along over the years and finally balled over. So the thing was by planning and preparing and trying to see, hey, what's coming this way, that's where you want to try to get ahead of problems. You want to mitigate risk by avoiding. Because obviously, if you're in a a threat area in a war zone or an area that's receiving missile strikes, that's beyond the capability of any human to defend against, other than getting out of the way. And so with a look twice mindset, it's avoiding, it's planning and preparing, it's being aware, and when you're planning that travel, hey, do I I want to go there. Things seem like they're heating up a bit. And maybe it's not the best call.

SPEAKER_05 22:05

And also too where you think you can have a reliance on an outside individual or organization embassies, for example, like like I said in the introduction. That's great to think that and hope that's going to be there, but if not, what's going to fall upon me to take care of?

SPEAKER_04 22:24

Yeah, a lot of times you've got to be self-sufficient. It's important that you contact the embassy and that you are on record as being in the country, that you sign up for notifications for the local embassy or consulate wherever you're at, because then they'll know you're in theater and they can pay attention. But if you put yourself into that environment and the environment's overwhelmed, that I mean they're not necessarily going to be able to come help you. They're going to do their best, but that is that's not in their mission statement to rescue and get everybody out of there. You know, one folks, one thing a lot of Americans forget about, they think when they go overseas, they're like, well, I'm an American, I have special rights and privileges. When you're in a sovereign country, somebody else's country, you're a visitor. You don't have any special rights or privileges. The embassy will try to help you out, the local consulate, which is subordinate to the embassy, they'll try to help you out as much as they can, but you are subject to the laws of that environment. And if there's a conflict going on there and you put yourself into that situation, um, you may have to find a way to get out. And that can be very, very difficult, especially something as large as this.

SPEAKER_05 23:33

Certainly, depending on the nation you're in, you can go from being you might be thinking you're a special privileged American, but in fact you could quickly become a target.

SPEAKER_04 23:42

Absolutely. And I would offer that many Americans are targets by virtue of being American in a lot of places around the world. There are mixed responses to Americans. Some people like us a lot, some people don't. And it also varies by times in history. There have been places where you could go and visit, you and I could go on a trip to someplace, and they loved us a few years ago, and maybe they don't love us now, or they couldn't stand us a few years ago, and now they're best friends with America. And that's the thing I would offer to to the listeners. One thing that is constant is change. Just because if you know, I've been to a lot of places around the world, obviously based on my background. There may be a country I went to twenty years ago. It has completely changed, and it could be the best friend of the United States now, or it could be an enemy. Things change and sometimes they change quickly. So when you're doing your research, you can't say, Well, I've been going there for years. I would quickly say, and what's changed over that period? What is current as of today? Here's another one of these quotes I throw out to your audience. Bad news doesn't get better with age. It's not fine wine or cheese. So if if you're looking at the situation, you need to say, This is what's going on. I need to be straight. I need to not lie to myself or the people I'm with. I need to say, this is what I'm seeing, and it's ugly. And now you're gonna have to figure out how do I deal with the problem in front of me. A lot of people try to sugarcoat stuff. They're like, well, it's not that bad, or we're gonna be okay. Sometimes you're not gonna be okay. You need to plan for what is in front of you, and you've got to guide yourself to be okay. That's a really important point. Don't don't lie to yourself and say it'll all work out. It'll work out because you see the problem set, and then you are addressing the problem set logically, thoughtfully, and right now, and you're trying to figure out what to do. Know your resources before you go into a particular theater. Know where the embassy is. You know what part of town it is, what's the local consulate if you're away from the capital city? How do you do you have contact numbers? Are they aware of you being there? What's historically been the problems in the local area? I address a lot of this as you mentioned in volume three. I have a whole bunch of questions I came up with that I think are important to ask before you schedule travel to go someplace. And just remember environments change.

SPEAKER_05 26:14

Oh, and Tim Beard with his latest book, Look Twice, Volume 3, your guide when danger comes to you at home and overseas, Timbear.com, the website, and your listing to Wish Hughes and Ideas, Tim also writes about medical concerns that come about, as well as self-defense, which I've noticed over recent years, Tim. A lot of I mean, we always think of shooting academies and uh uh military-based uh training for uh learning how to respect and use the gun, but I've seen many gun ranges and gun dealers start. I mean, for sure it's a way to add to revenue for a for a working business, but the ones I've talked to, they say they want to help people respect and understand a firearm, not just get it and use it, and that's a big difference, I think.

SPEAKER_04 27:00

It is. Just just because you purchase a firearm doesn't make you an expert in firearms. Uh when you buy a firearm, you just took on a whole bunch of responsibility. I would offer the number one thing if you purchase a firearm, you've got to train, train, train, learn how to use it. Just because you buy a guitar or a piano doesn't make you uh Eric Clapton, a famous guitar player. It doesn't make you a concert pianist. You have to practice and practice. Now with a firearm, you can get skilled relatively quickly with good training. But as you mentioned, there's a lot of folks out there who will offer training. The best place to go if you really want to get serious about it is to go to a professional shooting school. There are several of those out there around the United States that have been very safe in training people. They have expert instructors with solid backgrounds, and they've been doing it for many, many, many years. So you can search online and find some of those. The other one, too, and I know there are different feelings about the NRA for different folks, but one thing the National Rifle Association does do very well, they train and they have instructors who are certified to teach people the safe handling and storage of firearms. That is a great resource as well. The third one, and uh a smart way to go, wherever you purchase the firearm from, you know, say I'd really like to learn how to use this and get you know intimately comfortable with this this particular weapon because it's a tool. You've got to know how to use it. Talk to the people at the gun shop, and a lot of them can direct you towards really good training resources. Chris, the thing that folks need to be careful of is when they talk to somebody who they know and they go, Yeah, I'll teach you how to shoot. Well, they may be teaching them a lot of bad habits. I learned to shoot in the United States Marine Corps, and the United States Marine Corps is really, really good at teaching people to shoot. Because it's they've been doing it for for you know almost 250 years. So it's something that um there are people who will learn in the military, but you just need to know what's their background and are they a good teacher of it. That's a really important piece though.

SPEAKER_05 29:15

I have to wrap up on this with um I'm gonna I want to wrap up what you begin the book with, the section on civil unrest. Typically, short of an assassination, the first one comes to mind was the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and civil unrest quickly developed after that. But typically, civil unrest is a long-term developing situation. How important is it for someone to understand the difference between possible and probable?

SPEAKER_04 29:44

And that is also a piece of the look twice mindset. First, let me define that for the listeners. The possible versus the probable, the example I'll give. A meteor could follow me right now and crush me. Is that possible? Sure. Is it probable? No, it's not. I cannot, I have limited resources. Everybody does. Limited attention. If I'm worried about every possibility, I'm gonna be frustrated, paranoid, nervous, on edge all the time, in a self-made prison. That is not any way to live. What folks should do is look at the three, four, five most probable things from a security perspective that can happen in a situation. You're driving through a difficult neighborhood, you know you're gonna have to stop at a stoplight or a stop sign. Is it possible I could have my car jacked or have somebody approach me while the car is stationary? It's possible. I would say in some environments, especially if there's a history of that, it may be probable. So think ahead of time, what am I gonna do? What would I do while you're clear in mind, while you don't have adrenaline surging through your body when you start making bad decisions and you lose your fine motor skills and can't work levers or push buttons very well. What am I gonna do in that situation? Right to that hard drive in your brain. So that's where you're gonna go when something happens for real. So that's the possible versus the probable. If you're going to an environment, for example, where there has been boiling unrest, that can be overseas. When I wrote these books, it can pertain to the United States. It can also pertain to a lot of countries around the world where they have unrest. There are difficult situations that are on the verge of boiling all the time. I would certainly question why am I going there? Maybe for work, but am I going there for fun? If I'm going for fun and I get a look over my shoulder, that's that's not such fun as a good time. So maybe I don't want to go there. So then that comes back to the planning and preparation. But in volume three, I talk about civil unrest and I I give a little planning process that anyone can use to help you plan in advance what happens if the unthinkable comes true and stuff starts to boil over. Where are you gonna go? How are you gonna get there? What are you gonna carry? And what are you gonna do along the way? Who are you moving with? If you're moving with somebody that has disabilities who can't run or can't walk very far, you've got to take that into account if that's a family member or a friend, somebody you're moving with. So I really go into detail on that, and that'll help a lot of folks. But does stuff boil up overnight? We've had some challenges in the United States where there may be a shooting and people and they get very upset and something starts to boil up quickly and can boil over. And that's something that you may want to have a plan in place if you live in a major urban center, and something like that's happened historically. It doesn't hurt to plan. It doesn't hurt to have an idea of what you're gonna do. And if something does happen, you'll be grateful for the time you put into it.

SPEAKER_05 32:47

That's really what Tim teaches with all of us look twice books, the importance of planning, and what will surprise you is your capability of creating and executing a sustainable, effective plan. He gives you the steps and shows you really how realistic it is. You're not you don't you won't be called upon to build a backyard bunker. It's a realistic uh easy-to-do, easy to accept tools and strategies to keep it safe no matter what happens to explode either here in America. Is it a possibility? Well, at this point I could say possibility. Probability, well, maybe that's what the that's the benefit of 24-7 news uh uh stream that we can always see whether a possible is becoming a probable, certainly overseas. That's more obvious more than ever, perhaps. Find out more about all of Tim's writings. More importantly, get them for your uh education, your awareness, and your safety at Timbeardauthor.com. Tim, you are a you are a fountain of factual, uh necessary truth for us to be realistic about the world around us. I thank you for that for being here today.

SPEAKER_04 33:57

Thanks so much, Chris.

SPEAKER_05 33:58

Uh we've got the next No Kings rallies coming up on Saturday, March 28th. You can find out the one near you at no kings.org. We've really become a self-conscious society, have we not? Sometimes it's vanity, other times it's just outside influence. One of the main points of focus is right weight, they call it too. Social media plays a huge role in how people all ages see themselves while comparing themselves with others in, let's say, really unrealistic ways. Assumptions and biases, they also add to this emotional and physical turmoil. Left him with a decades-long eating disorder. He tells a story, what he had to confront and overcome, and provides, I believe, very vital first-hand knowledge and guidance about SQ, which is not limited to only women. That's what you might believe, but he helps you understand otherwise his book is weight class, A Fighter's Life or Death Battle with an eating disorder, being an award-winning amateur boxer, member of the 2008 Olympics team as a pro. He was also the WVC International Silver Super Lightweight Champion, Danny O'Connor. Thanks for being here today, Danny.com. And like I said, we have those over at our homepage. It's a general term that I think people don't take seriously enough. So talk about your eating disorder, how it impacted more specifically your training and your fighting, because one l one coexisted with the other.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

Uh yeah, well, I think it's important to realize that there's two parallels here. Like um the unhealthy the unhealthy tactics that I use to manipulate my body to make a weight class, that's one parallel. I mean, you can compete in a combat sport free of uh eating disorder and and still have a you know great purpose in the sport. The unfortunate part was, you know, I I had been in a weight class sport since adolescence, and I did uh a lot of negative things to my body to manipulate it to try to fit into a weight class. And so ultimately an eating disorder is the other parallel, and that is something that developed over time. It didn't happen overnight, it it developed over time, and um I view that as a as a whole separate thing because even when I came away from the sport and away from the weight class, the eating disorder was still there. It didn't leave because the the weight class left. And so um 2013 was about when I kind of realized like that I had a problem and it was affecting my health, and um ultimately this eating disorder, I view it as something that was beyond control. Like I had such discipline in all aspects of my life as a professional athlete, um and and the ability to not eat um and to make weight and to do these different things, then all of a sudden it felt like overnight where it just changed. I got a binge eating diagnosis and then I couldn't stop. Something I controlled so aggressively for so many years, um, then I was out of control of it. And so that's where I view the eating disorder separate than the tactics that I was using to make weight, which were unhealthy in their own, you know, restricting my food, w you know, taking water out, using laxatives, things that um that that I was doing to make weight. And so those two things separate, um, the eating disorder itself was kind of now a a whole nother aspect of my life that kind of took over and I had a whole professional team of people. I mean, that eating disorder almost killed me numerous times, and uh I ended up in the ICU on probably one of the biggest nights of my life, the stages of my life when I was trying to fight for that world championship belt that I had basically been following for ten years, ten years straight. I had that that goal and that and that vision and that thing that I was working to, and um ultimately I didn't get to fulfill that. Because you gotta understand the eating disorder was separate than making weight, but making weight was my job, it was my livelihood, and those two things went in direct conflict with each other. The the more the eating disorder developed and got out of control, the the more the tactics to make my weight class and fulfill my duties became more extreme, and so it was just a really, really chaotic negative cycle.

SPEAKER_05 38:46

Sure, without a doubt. And you you you observed yourself as a disciplined professional, and with that vision you had of yourself, before you got the diagnosis, did you think your eating habits were were normal as far as you were concerned? Was there a level of level of normalcy at any time?

SPEAKER_03 39:05

No, definitely not. And that and that's the point I'm trying to get. Like, there's two parallels here. Like, anyone that's affected by eating disorder, you know, I I hope that that my message can like give you some connection and and hope that you understand that you can seek help and find supports. But then there's also some kids stepping on a scale somewhere in the world right now that doesn't have an eating disorder, and you know, I hope that they learned from my lesson to not do any of the things that I was doing because I never accepted them as dangerous in the long run. I knew they were acutely dangerous, and I kind of normalized that to make weight because you know I started at an early age, there wasn't a lot of education, and I kind of just fell into a way of doing things to maintain a weight and and still compete. Um but ultimately I normalized that, but I never once asked myself, like, if what am I doing now, you know, how's that gonna affect me in in ten years? And that was the problem because um, you know, I just figured I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do to make weight, and then eventually I'll I'll go back to what you think normal would be when my career is over and I'm a and I'm a a regular person, regular day activities, not professional athlete. Um and I never once said like you know, maybe that wouldn't be an option, and I didn't realize that um in until kind of too late in the game, it it had already progressed. So um two different types of of dangers. One acutely, when you're making weight in the moment, you're putting your life at risk, but then the eating disorder, which is it's not acute, it's it's accumulative. So like you know, that thing develops and people don't realize I think there's a lot of misunderstanding in eating disorders. They're very, very complex, and it's your physical, your mental, and your emotional. And when you go against the natural cues of your body, like when your body tells you to eat and you don't eat, and you know, you you induce going to the bathroom with laxatives, like you can create serious problems in your health that affect systems of your body. Um, and so I've had many health issues I had to remedy over the years because of you know something that I was doing or or wasn't doing. So it it's it's about awareness to understand the severity of these things, and it doesn't matter if you're a guy or a girl, like anybody can be affected by food. That's why it's it's kind of like hidden in plain sight, and and that's the reality of it, because my wife of 15 years, who is my number one support, like I wouldn't have been able to do it without her, and then the professional team of people keeping me alive. Outside of that, no one really knew the depths of this. It was a very lonely, isolated disorder that spanned 20 years of my life.

SPEAKER_05 41:34

Or Danny O'Connor, who tells about his life in weight class, the fighter's life or death battle with an eating disorder, bitelike a man.com get into what his work with that is all about, as well as dooboxingacademy.com and you are listening to It's Using Ideas. You know what's going on, you understand it uh as as best you can, hopefully with help around you. It's uh it's just like with any medical treatment. You need a team of professionals and a team of uh personal people in your life to get through this. But as for yourself, uh Can you pinpoint a uh was it that day in that night in July of 2018? Was there a specific time when you looked at yourself and you had to confess that things have to change or I'm dead?

SPEAKER_03 42:21

Um I I would say 2013 was that like pivotal moment where I kind of was like, damn, I have an eating disorder right now. There was no delusion. And then I kind of was like, wait a minute, what's an eating disorder? How does it affect me? That's like 2013. I was in a wicked negative cycle with the binge eating and the making weight, and um, you know, I I knew that something was wrong because when I was trying to, you know, you say like I I like to think I understand this because it it's you know, I spent eight, ten years going through the recovery process to understand it, but some days I just still feel baffled the complexity of it. Like you don't just quit an eating disorder, you don't quit food like a typical drug, like you can have abstinence, like you have to put the out of control back in control while you're still maintaining a relationship with food, because you have to eat for survival. So it was a very tricky thing. But that day in 2013, when I realized like there is a problem right now, that's when I kind of went on the journey to eliminate it, and it humbled me a lot because at that time I actually stepped away from the sport. I left the sport, and since there's no seasons in boxing, there's really no questions to be asked because it's it's you fight at your own leisure. At at any at any time a fighter can step away or come back. So it was a very private thing, and at that time I thought like naively, I'm just gonna take care of this overnight. Like I look at everything as like an athlete. If something you know, you get an injury on your your arm, you heal it, you rehab it, you optimize, you get back, you compete, like nothing happened. And so I look at everything mental, emotional, physical. Like if there's something wrong, you address it and then you get back into the game, right? So I thought it would be an overnight fix. Like, you know, I'm just gonna quit this thing and get back to my career. And, you know, I was humbled real quick, and you know, five years later, as I'm still going through the journey, like um it it it's just a really complex thing that that I had to understand and understand how I was affected by it and understand how I was gonna be able to overcome it, which ultimately I did. Today I feel free of an eating, sort of like I know I'm gonna have a relationship with food for the rest of my life. We already explained how it's different, and my relationship with food will be a lot different than other people's, so I always have to keep that in mind. But the action of binge eating, which you know was the most chaotic, craziest thing ever, I don't do that anymore. And I haven't in a long time, and I feel very free of all the mental and emotional baggage that comes with the eating disorder, because like we talked about it before, it touches so many areas of your life. So it just took a long time to get there.

SPEAKER_05 45:02

And certainly too, for you listening, you can hear how Danny had so much in front of him, but in spite of that, the eating disorder overtook the goals that he set for himself professionally, and now today you have uh two operations that you're you're overseeing Bite Like a Man, which is BiteLikeAMan.com, and your Boxing Academy deal, BoxingAcademy.com. What do you hope to accomplish with these two uh these two works that you're doing?

SPEAKER_03 45:29

Um I try to make my life to involve business but also helping people at the same time. Uh you know, and I like to do things that are purposeful to me. So um the Boxing Academy is using the platform that was gifted to me because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for boxing. Boxing came into my life at a pivotal pivotal time when I was uh adolescent when I was either gonna face jail or death, and boxing saved my life. So for all the hardships that had to do with weight, the eating disorder, or boxing over the years, I still always have a special love for the sport. So um it's a platform that really can change lives and elevate lives. It doesn't matter where you come from or how much money you have, and so I wanted to be able to give that back to the community. And obviously, if you read the book, you'll see the journey that I went on that was very unorthodox. Like I went to your typical like hospital setting intensive outpatient like eating disorder program, but then there was a lot of unorthodox things that I did because I never really felt like I fit anywhere because obviously there's a lack of mail, so I didn't have guys to talk to freely. Um I did a lot of other stuff. Mindfulness, the uh UMass medical program. I I went through that and so I incorporate a lot of the mindfulness because boxing is just not the physical, it's very much emotional control and mental control. And so I I created a program that I thought would uh try to give at-risk kids the same platform that I had, and so um that's pretty purposeful to me, and also bite like a man.com. We just talked about it. I didn't have a true connection to a lot of males in the eating disorder world over the years. You know, I think I only talked to four and and one was a a child. So I wanted to make a platform where if you had an issue and you were a man, you could come like talk about it. Not mental health services, but just kind of a community where you know, if you got something going on, maybe you can come get some education, some awareness, because you know, I always look back to like when I first stepped on a scale and that you know, we're talking about like 1999, 2000s, there wasn't the internet wasn't awesome, there wasn't a lot of awareness. You know, I I think if I just knew a lot more, I could have made better decisions with my diet, with the way I was making weight, and I could have just enjoyed the sport, but instead my whole focus was on the weight, on manipulating my body to to make that weight, and it it caused some some serious harm into my adult years and into my future. So um I just wanted a place where guys could come and get information and and be a part of a community.

SPEAKER_05 48:11

Well, as you can hear, Danny is not just telling a story to sell a book, he's working to make a difference in a variety of ways. First, with one of the most open books of a life that you'll ever want to read and learn from, and Danny re referenced to how back in 1999 the internet wasn't really a go-to. Well, today it is, and like I said back in the introduction, it's giving a huge negative influence for both young men and young women, with body image in particular, what they think they need to be to be liked or followed, or whatever whatever the case may be. And Danny, with his story and weight class, the fighters, life or death battle with an eating disorder, helps you understand the value of life and how it's so easy to jeopardize it through our own actions, decisions, wise and unwise, and more importantly, the steps it takes, and it's always plural, it's never a singular. It's steps to take to recover, overcome, and restore the life that you want to have. Two websites bitelikeaman.com and for Danny's Boxing Academy, DOBoxingAcademy.com. Again, the book, Weight Class, a Fighter's Life or Death Battle with an Eating Disorder. Danny O'Connor, thank you so much for giving so much to people to learn from and to be strengthened by, and thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_05 49:32

At first it was just a small number of Americans, and that number grew. If you're on social media to any degree, you no doubt saw this, or maybe you were even a part of it yourself. Supporters of Donald Trump began turning away from him. Most common cause for their newly found rejection of Trump has been their saying, I didn't vote for this, meaning that they didn't agree with Trump's actions or his decisions. Then it was the voices on very, very public platforms who joined the chorus saying, I didn't vote for this. Most prominent names, of course, Joe Rogan, Marjorie Taylor Green, but there are more. These are all people who voted for and supported Donald Trump based on what he said he would do. They never asked for details about how he was going to do it, just what he was going to do. That's called blind faith. So what's changed within these people? I think the answer is found in the song that we probably know very well, Amazing Grace. I'm not going to sing it, don't worry, but the lyrics say this Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed. Amazing Grace was written by John Newton back in 1772 and first published in 1779. What's important to know about John Newton is he was a slave ship captain who rebuked his past and became a pastor. His hymn, which has become really the definition of a timeless song, is based on what we read in 1 Chronicles chapter 17, verses 16 and 17, with King David praising God's grace. Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me this far? And yet this was a small thing in your sight, O God, and you have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree, O Lord God. Let's go back to the idea of blind faith. What is faith? Let's start with that. Here's what we read in Romans chapter ten, verse seventeen. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So we can call that our foundation, right? Now let's look at some of the ways people apply the Bible to their act of what they consider to be blind faith. An often quoted Bible verse by those seeking justification of their blind faith is 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7, which declares, For we walk by faith, not by sight. But you wind up lost unless you also read verse 8. We are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. This teaches us that our faith should only be placed with God and his promise. Now, how does that align with what James teaches us in James chapter 2, verse 14? What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? Right, it it doesn't. In the twentieth chapter of the book of John, Jesus comes to his disciples after his death and resurrection. Thomas had to, he wasn't there, he had to make the post office run that day, so he wasn't there. When Thomas came back and was told what happened, he said, I don't believe it unless I see it. Which now you know where the term doubting Thomas comes from. Jesus did indeed appear again, so Thomas could see him. Jesus then says this to Thomas. In John chapter 20, verse 29, Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. This is not just a lesson for Thomas, but for all, place your faith where the testimony of others rests. If you're hearing a mixed message, then that's no place for any kind of faith, blind or otherwise. If you're hearing a message of love, of truth, of grace, placing your blind faith there will certainly bring you God's blessings. Are you asking what your filter should be for all this? How can I know without falling into a false faith? Well, not only should you be asking those questions, you should be studying and absorbing how John answers them in first John chapter 4, verses 1 through 3. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. While it's our duty to proclaim our love of God with a full loud voice, it's also our duty to reveal those who seek blind faith pretending to be of heaven, but in truth are of just the earth. Remember that everything of the earth is temporary, while everything of God and heaven is eternal. Let's end with this from first John chapter two verse fifteen through seventeen. Do not love the world or the things in the world, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world is passing away, and the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. Be sure to check out our website, Issues and IdeasRadio.com. That's where we have more information about the guests who joined us here on the show today. If you're listening to us on your favorite podcast platform, be sure to follow or subscribe. That way you'll never miss a minute. Always grateful and thankful for your time and attention. Look forward to being with you right here this time next week for our next edition of Issues and Ideas.