The Missing Peace

California Lost — When the Golden State Loses Its Shine

• Season 1 • Episode 12

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0:00 | 51:50

What happens when the state you grew up in no longer feels like home? In this episode, Brooke Benevento and Danielle Griffiths have an honest, no-holds-barred conversation about what's been happening in California — and why so many people are leaving.

From pandemic-era lockdowns and small business shutdowns to a $126 billion high-speed rail that's never laid a single foot of track, Danielle breaks down the numbers behind California's taxes, homelessness crisis, Prop 47, and the state's growing deficit. Brooke shares her family's journey leaving California for Tennessee and what it meant to find peace on the other side of the country.

But this isn't just a political rant — it's a conversation about collective consciousness, courage, and what it means to wake up. They explore how exposing uncomfortable truths can be part of a greater awakening, and why raising your own awareness is the most powerful thing you can do — no matter where you live.

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • Why "as California goes, so goes the nation" still matters today
  • How pandemic lockdowns exposed a troubling double standard
  • The staggering numbers behind California's high-speed rail, homelessness spending, and tax burden
  • What Prop 47 actually did — and why store shelves are locked up
  • Brooke's experience leaving California and finding peace in Tennessee
  • How collective consciousness and individual awakening can drive real change
  • Why having courageous conversations across political lines is essential
  • The difference between being informed and being consumed by fear

References:

  • Prop 47 — Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act (2014)
  • California High-Speed Rail Project
  • Napoleon Hill — referenced from previous episodes
  • Episodes 1–4 of The Missing Peace (social heredity foundation)

Connect with us:

Have a topic you want us to cover? Want to be a guest on the show or sponsor an episode? Reach out — we'd love to hear from you!

Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and share this with someone who needs to hear it today!

SPEAKER_01

I remember they dumped sand in the the skate parks to keep uh kids from skating. I remember they arrested a guy who was out in the ocean surfing by himself. Uh they waited till he came in and then arrested him for being out during during COVID. And there just seemed to be so much hypocrisy in what we were being told to do and what you know actually made sense. So you you have a lot of these companies that were shut down, and then you have, you know, liquor stores, um, strip joints, uh, things that we might not consider as healthy that were allowed to be open.

unknown

And then they came up with a big big book.

SPEAKER_00

Doing fantastic. Thank you. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01

Me too. And I'm super excited about this. I know uh this is our 12th episode. Uh, we've decided to name it California Lost. Uh, Brooke and I have both uh been longtime Californians. One of us is still here trying to survive, and uh one of us got out. So uh what we wanted to do today is to do an episode about California, how much it has changed in the last decade or so, uh kind of what we're going through. And then for those of you, whether you live in California or you don't, uh Brooke has some advice on how to deal with it when you're in a situation that you might not be able to get out of, but still want to make the the best out of. So uh does that sound good, Brooke?

SPEAKER_00

Yep, sounds good. I'm excited to get started and dive into this. And yeah, it's it's gonna be great. And I think it's gonna be very eye-opening for some people that um are from Tennessee and have never lived in California and maybe uh vice versa. So it's it'll be good. It's gonna be really good. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome. I I loved doing research. I love researching. Um I didn't when I was in school, but there's something about a being an adult where education can be fun, but um I digress. But we're gonna start off talking about a very famous uh phrase. Um, where California goes, so goes the nation. And I had a hard time finding the origin of that. It has been attributed to a couple different people, but it it sounds like it came from a man named Earl Warren. He's a former governor of California, which I actually didn't know that. I know him better as a Supreme Court uh justice. He um very famous Warren Court uh in the 50s and 60s. So Warren actually frequently used that expression during his political tenure to describe California's role as both a political and a cultural trendsetter for the rest of the country. And I know a lot of people look at California and they think Disneyland and Hollywood and beaches and mountains, and it's just the most amazing state. And in a lot of ways, it really, really is. However, there have been some things that have been going on, especially, like I said, the last five to 10 years that I really feel like we need to talk about. And so that's gonna be the purpose of this episode. And while I was born in the United States, I actually spent the first decade or so of life uh overseas. I was born here um late 70s and um moved, my family moved a lot because of my dad's job. And so we lived in Europe uh for a few years. But my earliest memories are in living in Colombia in South America, and this was in the 1980s. People have probably heard the name Pablo Escobar, uh, cocaine, cartel, drug pin. That time period is when I lived down there. And it was considered, I don't know if it still is, but at the time it was considered a third world country. I saw poverty like I had never seen before. But to me, that was all I knew. That was all I had been exposed to. So when I was about eight or nine years old, we moved to the United States. We actually moved to California, and I thought we had moved to heaven. It was clean, um, I felt safe. We there weren't men with guns escorting my family different places. Everyone just seemed so happy and it just really, really felt like heaven. And so those are my earliest memories of California. Um, but I before I get too much into kind of what we're gonna talk about and and the things that have been happening, I know a lot of people have been leaving California. I saw so many different statistics when I was kind of digging into this. And Brooke, I know you are one of those California refugees. And I'm excited for you and your family that you had the the ability to to leave because it has been extremely tough, especially the last couple years. But what advice would you give, or if you want to share your experience, or what advice would you give for people that maybe can't leave for whatever reason? Um I'm staying here predominantly because my family is here. Um, but a lot of people don't have the ability to to move, even if they they feel like they're not in a good spot. What what would you uh what would you share about that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you know, for us, moving was such a God thing. And um if I'm I want to be transparent with you, my husband did not want to leave. I really, really pushed this. Uh, I really felt like, you know, God was just really pushing us, um us to move. And I think for anyone that is in a situation where they want to, you know, leave their hometown or maybe even take a job somewhere else or maybe start a new life, you know, I think really asking yourself, what what would give me peace? You know, we're always I'm always going back to that and saying, you know, for me personally, I have peace being here in Tennessee. Um, of course, I miss my family and my friends dearly. Um, some days, you know, are are harder than others. You want to see them, um, but really they're just they're just a they're just an airplane, you know, ride away. Um and I think that at the end of the day, you really have to live for yourself and choose like what is good for me and trust that God, God is molding you into something. Um, and right now that is that is for us to be here in Tennessee. So I definitely think that that's a personal question for every single person and just to really sit with yourself and ask, like, where where would where would I have peace? And you know, there are a lot of refugees here. It's insane how many people have come to Tennessee. I don't know what it is. I always joke around and say, people say, Well, what brought you here? And I'm like, Oh, well, California. But also I think God was pushing me, you know, I there's not much more I can say. Um, but also I really felt like God was pushing us here. And I have had multiple people tell me the same thing that they just felt called here. Uh, and I don't quite know exactly what the plan is for that yet or or what what's happening. But I keep, I always joke around and say, well, we all got the same memo because we're all here kind of around the same time. Uh so yeah, so I think really just asking yourself, you know, what is the best thing for me and um and how do I find peace in that?

SPEAKER_01

I love that. And it's interesting, it's fascinating. We we both grew up in central California. I know people think of the Golden State and they think of San Francisco and and Los Angeles, and absolutely those metropolitan areas are amazing. But we grew up in the middle. I know for me, um, my husband went to to college up in in the Bay Area, so I got exposed to that area. San Francisco, I was actually proposed to in Union Square in front of the huge Christmas tree. It used to be so beautiful in in downtown San Francisco. Um, I had the honor of doing my undergrad work in San Diego in a little um part of San Diego called La Jolla, which is just gorgeous. And then we actually did live in Los Angeles uh for several years. So we've kind of been all over the state. And I only mention that because I don't think people realize just how unique California is. We could go off on all these statistics about the natural resources and how it's such a big economy, and we have 12% of the nation's population. And, you know, like I said earlier, Disneyland, mountains, skiing, surfing, uh, theme parks, uh, so much to do, uh, active lifestyles in a lot of parts of California. But I think what really woke me up was the pandemic. Because when the pandemic happened, I was a small business owner at the time. And I remember thinking how odd it was that my small business that had three or four employees and we might have a dozen, two dozen people come into the office each day, that was forcibly shut down. As were churches, as were uh health clubs, like gyms, as were a lot of things that were health related. I remember they dumped sand in the skate parks to keep uh kids from skating. I remember they arrested a guy who was out in the ocean surfing by himself. Uh, they waited till he came in and then arrested him for being out during during COVID. And there just seemed to be so much hypocrisy in what we were being told to do and what, you know, actually made sense. So you you have a lot of these companies that were shut down, and then you have, you know, liquor stores, um, strip joints, uh, things that we might not consider as healthy that were allowed to be open. So there was definitely a weird dichotomy going on during COVID that made me wonder what is going on. And one of the other things had to do with education. We were locked down and set into distance learning much, much longer than most other states. And uh they started to relax some of those mandates in 2022. But for a good two, two and a half years, I didn't feel like I was in California. I felt like I was in a different world and not a good one. And I I I mention that because I feel like a state that is so big on health and you know, being active and and just having this active lifestyle was kind of turned on its head. And um, were you still here during during the pandemic or had you already moved?

SPEAKER_00

No, we we left 2020 in October. So we we saw, yeah, we saw a lot of that happening. And what was really interesting is uh when I started talking about moving, uh, it was either gonna be here or Montana. And thank God he didn't I did not go to Montana. I would have probably I would have never survived there. Even my husband said, you won't make it there, you're not strong enough. And he was right. Oh my gosh, yes. Shoot, it's still, I think it's just stopped snowing over there like a couple of weeks ago. So yeah, no, I would have never survived there. Um, so my husband uh knows me better than I know myself, obviously. But um, but yeah, I mean, I remember, you know, uh when we came to visit here, because of course we came to visit to see if we wanted to move here. And I, you can you couldn't go anywhere in California without a mask on. It was a mandate. Uh there were times in that you could go to the grocery store. Uh, they set certain times for certain people. I remember that. And when we came here, nobody was wearing a mask. Maybe we saw five people wearing a mask. And so it was really interesting that you could travel 2,000 miles in the same country and that things were just different. And something I started to realize was we would turn the TV on when we were here, and it was completely different topics on the TV. Uh, people were not really worried about it. Um, but she went home to California and people were really saying that we're all gonna die. And it it was, it was, it felt like you know, it felt like I mean it felt it felt scary there. Um apocalyptic. Apocalyptic, yeah. And I yeah, oh no, 100%. And I when we came to Tennessee, we were shocked because we thought that everybody in the United States was doing what we were doing, and they were not. And that was really shocking for me um and really opened up our eyes. And I think that was the first time that my husband said, Okay, I think, I think, I think we're we need to move, and there's gonna be more opportun opportunity um on the East Coast, and I think we should move the kids there. So that that really did open our eyes, and uh yeah, we moved, I think it was six weeks later. We shocked everybody. We sold our house really quick and we were said, Okay, we're we're leaving y'all. Um, we're gonna go to Tennessee and uh we hope you come visit. But uh yeah, it was yeah, it was it was a crazy time.

SPEAKER_01

It really was. It really was. And you know, one of the things I wanted to to do during this episode, I mean, we could do an episode on each one of these things I'm about to mention, but I want to give people, maybe that don't live in California, kind of an overview of some of the issues that we're dealing with. And one of the big ones that I think almost any Californian would would bring up would be taxes. Uh, we have the highest state taxes in the nation, um, right around 13, just under 14%. It has become not an annoyance as much as uh a burden because on top of the cost of living, which is astronomical, uh gas prices completely out of control. I think, I mean, granted, there's there's a conflict in Iran going on right now that that is causing the the gas spikes. But even during COVID, we had um six, seven, eight dollar a gallon gas, which was ridiculous. It was about $150 to fill up our tank. You multiply that by a couple cars, it gets really crazy. Um, what's interesting is we we have a water problem in California, uh a big water problem, which we tried to fix. So in 2014, we passed the voters passed something called Prop One. It was designated $2.7 billion to create more water storage uh projects, reservoirs, dams, things like that. I checked this morning in June of 2026. Guess how many water projects have been completed in the last 12, 13 years? None. None. So that money has been spent somehow. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna grill you a little bit just to throw things out there and guess because the numbers are crazy. So um, yeah, 2.7 billion for water storage, no water storage. So we have a lot of water. We've actually had good rain seasons the last couple years. That water is not getting saved, it's getting pumped out into the ocean. Again, I could do an entire episode on that. But so we have taxes, water issues, the infamous high speed rail. And let me say real quick, when I first heard this one. Oh, when I first heard about the high speed rail, thorn. This is a thorn in my side. Woo! Well, I I I it must have been my naivete about it, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

No, tell them what it is because a lot of people aren't gonna know what this is that we're talking about. This high speed rail okay. Uh I mean, people in Tennessee, they're not gonna know, they don't know what this is, they don't know that this was happening where we went at this high speed route. No, people don't know what this is. So, yes, let's let's let's tell them about this.

SPEAKER_01

Such a good example, I just want to mention for all of you out there who are discussing politics, religion, anything controversial, and both sides are able to present evidence. This is where we're at. Whatever news, whatever you're consuming, whether it is social media or legacy media or the people you talk to, you're cultivating this world. It's almost like your own little matrix. And the more you see of something, we just assume, well, everybody knows that. Everybody is seeing the same thing that I am. But this is a good example of no, that is not the case. So high speed rail, I actually looked it up because I was interested in like what is a high speed rail versus like a train? And a high speed rail is uh a system that obviously is a lot faster. It's uh over 125 miles an hour. So if you think of like the bullet trains, I know um Japan and China have really done a phenomenal job uh with their high-speed rail. But we decided as a state, we were gonna build a high-speed rail system from San Francisco to Los Angeles. And we were told here in the San Joaquin Valley. So if you imagine the state, you got San Francisco up here, LA here, um, where we live is kind of in the middle. So it's about two and a half hours to drive to LA. It's about maybe three to four hours to go to the Bay Area, depending on where you're going. But with this high speed rail, it was supposed to take us to LA in 45 minutes. And we were stoked because we've got a lot of dodge lands around here.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Which normally would take us about two and a half hours, three-ish hours with with traffic. With no traffic. This was breaking, yeah, with well, yeah, with no traffic. So this was breaking it down the time significantly for us in the San Joaquin Valley. We could go to uh, we could go north, we could go south. So just to give you some time frames of how long it would take for us in the San Joaquin Valley to travel there.

SPEAKER_01

So us here in the San Joaquin Valley were really excited about the high speed rail because the Giants fans were like, cool, we can go to San Francisco, catch a game, come back. We thought the same thing about going down to I mean, it was a it was a exciting idea. Yeah, we were excited. Yeah, yeah. Yeah and we were told it would be a cost of $33 billion. A lot of money, but in our minds, it would make us cutting edge, it would make traveling a lot easier. Anyone that's driven in LA knows the traffic is insane. It's one of the reasons why we we moved away years ago. But just to give you a little debate.

SPEAKER_00

Estimate. Yeah, it was also it was also supposed to help us bring in more jobs to the San Joaquin Valley because people were going to be coming from LA to San Francisco to work. So it was supposed to bring a lot of growth into the San Joaquin Valley, which is right really what we would be good for the people that lived there. I mean, we wanted the growth.

SPEAKER_01

So in 2008, when the project started, we were stoked. We thought, okay, $33 billion is a lot of money, but we thought it would be great. Now, just to give you some current in 2026 updates, we're now being told that instead of $33 billion, it's gonna cost roughly $126 billion, with some watchdog and independent uh uh estimates going up to $231 billion. But like in for comparison, in Germany, the Berlin-Munich line cost $11 billion to build. It has 22 tunnels, 29 bridges, goes through mountains. In France, they have one that was completed in 2017 for about $11 billion. So I guess the question would be: why are we here in California trying to build something that has been built in other countries for a fraction of the cost? And here we are all these years later, not one foot of track has been laid. So it gets a little frustrating. Um, I I you you had left when they were starting that, or no, they've been working on it for a long time.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, been working on it forever and never connected, and never there was a little piece here and a little piece there, and it was only a bunch of concrete, and there was never a rail on it. There's never been anything, and they they actually stopped working on it. I mean, I don't I pay my parents say they drive by it all the time. There's nothing going on. I'm like, okay.

SPEAKER_01

So it's it it's it's kind of turned into a big joke because it'll say like so many days without without uh an accident, we're like, yeah, there's no accidents because you're not working on. But but they they decided to shorten it. They decided that going over the grapevine, and for those of you that you know heard it through the grapevine, those of you that don't know California, if you're in the Central Valley, if you're gonna go south into LA, you have to go over the grapevine. It's about 4,000 square feet up, you know, it's about 40 minutes from from one end to the other. But it is very mountainous. And I I remember thinking, well, that's gonna be tough to build through. But the whole moral of this story is I feel like California sometimes talks a big game, but where is all this money going? Yeah, and I don't have an answer to that. Um, I could I could guess, but um yeah. So on on top of, yeah, sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00

Oh no, I was just gonna say it's it's absolutely uh astonishing what when you live there, you just you don't understand. It you you see this big thing that you drive by and you're like, What what's the point of this? And yeah, we can uh say all we can speculate and say these things, which maybe some of them are not even speculations. We we know that there are some factual things there that are going on. But Uh yeah. It's a mess.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and it's it's frustrating to be in, again, the state that has the highest state income taxes, and our roads are are horrible. Um, I hear people cleaning on the city.

SPEAKER_00

Our Tennessee roads are bad too here. Fucking terrible.

SPEAKER_01

Well, Kentucky roads are really good. Really? Okay. Well, that's something to keep in mind.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So the other one of the other main things about California that I have just witnessed has gotten so bad is the homeless, uh, homeless population. And I am very empathetic to people that become homeless for no fault of their own. I I realize that drug addiction is a very serious disease. I understand that. I understand the cost of living has caused some people to lose their, lose their homes, but it appears to me that it's turned into a money-making machine. And I have some statistics that I wanted to share real quick. So they actually did um some studies of this. In 2007, there were about 140,000 homeless in California. Now keep in mind, we have roughly 12% of the nation's population. But depending on what stats you look at, we have between 30 and even as high as 50% of the nation's homeless and about a third of the nation's welfare cases. So that makes us a very entitlement welfare state. And that's a whole nother issue. But so 2007, there were about 140,000 homeless. In 2014, that had actually dropped a little bit to about 114,000. So it did go down. I looked at the the most recent statistics they had were from 2024, 187,000 people that that are homeless in California. So despite the fact we have spent, wait for it, in the last five years, $24 billion with a B on the homeless population, it's actually gotten worse. So a couple other things I found uh in Los Angeles, which is in the news right now over their uh election situation. Um, Mayor Bass spent approximately $67 million on a homeless program. You want to take a guess how many uh people were successfully housed with that $67 million? Throw a number out there. It's not zero, but there are some.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that's a good news. Let's see. 2,000.

SPEAKER_01

255 people.

SPEAKER_00

I know it is.

SPEAKER_01

Not 255,000. 255 people were housed for at a cost of 67 million dollars. The other thing that I thought was phenomenal is they did an audit of the the spending in Los Angeles on the homeless issue. $837,000 per person to build however many units they've built. So I only bring this up because for a state that went, you know, from being $90 billion in in the in the the plus, like we had a huge surplus after COVID. We got a lot of money during COVID. We now have last time I checked, it was about a $30 billion uh deficit.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. State of California. It's incredible. So it's it's crazy. And I mean, even in and out is moving here. Yeah. Even In and Out is moving here. We got one, we got one coming down right by our by our house. Yeah. They said they would never go East Coast. They said they would never go East Coast past Texas. And here they are. And it's yeah, there are a lot of companies that are leaving because, you know, they just can't keep up there. And yeah, we got In N Out coming right down. And I I really never thought I'd see that. It's it's pretty, pretty crazy because I never thought I'd ever see those two palm trees.

SPEAKER_01

No, I saw a statistic the other day that said $11 billion in tax revenue has left the state in the last 18 months, uh, two years. Yeah. So, and that was already in the works. Obviously, you know, companies don't just drop everything and leave, but um, they are doing that in very large numbers. We've already lost, I think, two or three congressional seats, and we're um expected to lose more once they they do the census in 2030. But it's it's it's bad. And I mean, I could I could go on and on. I'm just gonna mention a couple other things because I do want to kind of get to what I feel like this is part of the Great Awakening, what's happening in our state, what's happening with um homeless taxation, um elections, there's so corruption in general. So there are two propositions, and I'm only gonna really talk about the first one because we could go on and on about this, but Prop 47, in my humble opinion, as someone who follows politics and history very as closely as I can, it's it's it's not only part of my profession, but it's a it's an obsession and it's definitely a hobby. In 2014, the voters passed Prop 47. And what California likes to do is they like to name their propositions things that make people think it's a good thing. I think the most famous one was a couple years ago. Um, I don't know if you remember this or not, but the the gas tax repeal. I can't remember which it was like Prop six or something like that. But basically, people were so mad at the government at that point that people were voting no on everything. But that particular proposition, the way it was worded, it was basically saying, do you want us to repeal the gas tax? So a bunch of people voted no, thinking they were voting against the gas tax. In actuality, you had to vote yes in order to reverse it. So they're they're infamous for doing that. Prop 47, which um I don't have it written down, but I believe it was called the Safe Schools and Communities Act, something that sounded great. And you see this a lot in politics, where they sell it as something that's going to be beneficial for the community, that's going to help people. In reality, what Prop 47 did is it reduced nonviolent property crimes and shoplifting where a stolen value that was $950 or less instead of being a felony, just a misdemeanor. And anyone that lives in California right now uh knows they don't really prosecute a lot of things right now. So if you have followed California politics, you might see there there were a lot of gangs of people that would go into department stores, expensive, you know, Rodeo Drive had an issue where they were going in and stealing, you know, these thousand dollar purses, going into Apple stores and just taking everything down. And I'll tell you one thing, and this is something if you don't live in California, I would be curious to know if you went to your local grocery store, Walmart, you know, Sabart, whatever, how much of things are locked up? Because I go to the grocery store every couple of days. It's gotten to the point where stuff that costs like a dollar is locked up. You have to push a button and wait. We're talking detergent, deodorant, toothpaste, vitamins. Um, there were combs and like shaving cream. I had to get some shaving cream for for my husband the other day. $1.99 locked up. And so it really shows just how much our golden state has changed and not in a good way. And I think one thing I really miss is being able to go to the store and just being able to grab what I need and walk out. And it's it's kind of turned into an ordeal. Do you guys have stuff locked up in uh Tennessee?

SPEAKER_00

No. I mean, we have we have we have we no, there's certain things like electronics and things like that. Nor normal things that would be, you know. But what kind of blows my mind about that is that shaving cream and toothbrushes and things like this. I mean, this is these are things that are that every human should just have. I'm sorry, but we should not be locking up a toothbrush. We should be really handing these things out to people. I mean, I get it somebody's gotta make these things, but you know, these are these are healthcare items that you know that that people need. And it's right, it's absolutely mind-blowing. They, you know, there is something too that I think is is is happening. You know, insurance companies for these places, they will tell people, do not go after anybody that tries to walk out of the store with something. Do not try and tackle them, do not try and stop them. Nothing you if you see it happening, you you know, maybe say, hey, hey, hey, but odds are they're gonna run. Do not chase them, do not do not take them down. Yeah, because the insurance companies, what will happen is is that person could say they got hurt on the job and then they're suing that place. So, you know, it it's such a it's it's it's such a difficult thing to think about that, you know, you the people feel like they can't get just basic things for themselves, so they have to steal it, you know. Even like I will say that here uh we do have our um baby formula is locked up now, which I that breaks my heart because I don't want to think about any babies having to starve.

SPEAKER_01

And it was interesting. You were saying about like you know, having basic needs. We used to love to go to the big cities, LA, San Francisco, so fun. I mean, there's so much to do, the restaurants, the culture, multiculturalism in those cities. The food is amazing, the the just the the vibe. Last time we went to LA, and it's been a while, the stench from the excrement poop, urine, the drug use. I my then he was probably six or seven years old um child was like, Mom, what's that smell? I look, it's open air. There are people shooting up on Hollywood Boulevard. There are people with bongs doing their thing. I mean, you don't feel like you're in a civilized society. And it breaks my heart because I love this state so much. I'm in fight or flight mode, and the only thing I can think to do right now is to fight. And I'm trying to use my voice because I'm not giving up. We we are a large uh state. We have millions and millions of people, but I think unless something changes, it it just really worries me to see what's what's gonna happen soon.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, throughout history, there have been periods where, you know, old systems and beliefs and the ways that we're thinking, you know, no longer served humanity and like they used to. And so we find that when that happens, naturally people feel uncertain because change often looks like chaos before it looks like clarity. Right. So sometimes you gotta, you gotta break down the system to build a new one. So I I try and look at this as maybe this is something that if we if it gets to a point where it breaks down so bad, there's no other place than to go up. And and I really do hope that it does because my family lives there and I don't want that for them. You know, they have businesses out there where it would be extremely hard for them to move to another state, even if they wanted to, you know. And uh I want I want a better life uh for them, um, if that's something that they, you know, they want to. And I and I think they do, you know, they voice their opinions about that. And uh also I think what gives me peace too, and I want to I want to kind of move to like the collective consciousness. I think that's something that you and I wanted to really talk about this. Yeah, because uh how can we, you know, even if we don't live in California or we don't live in other states where we see things that maybe we don't technically agree with, and we don't have to agree with everything, you know, that's not the point. Um, but there is this sort of individual consciousness that we're talking about. And the truth is the world really doesn't change because the government changes. It changes because people internally change. And as people, we do have more power than we think because, like we've talked about every thought, every conversation, every act of kindness, every moment of forgiveness, every decision. Uh, to choose love over fear contributes to this collective experience that we are all creating together. And uh if we want if we want to live in a more peace-centered world, we have to become more peace-centered people. So it's it's really easy to point out, you know, everyone else should be doing this. And but really the more meaningful question is to really ask ourselves like, how am I showing up? And am I bringing peace to my home? Am I extending am I extending grace to the people who think differently than I do? Am I living in alignment with the values that I say I believe in? Um and I know that this the greatest misunderstandings about the collective consciousness is that people think that it requires everyone to agree and to think the same exact thing, but it doesn't. All it requires is enough people choosing higher levels of awareness, compassion, responsibility, love, etc. And when enough people are vibrating at that level, then what we will see is sort of this cris consciousness or a movement of consciousness, you know, moving into another direction where there is more, there is less fear around these things and there's more love. So we say, you know, fear is fear is contagious. Well, so is love. Division is contagious, well, so is unity, you know, anxiety spreads, so does hope, you know. So every time we think, well, this bad thing spreads, I guarantee you the better side of it spreads even better, you know, and even actually even faster. Um, but as humans, we tend to always look at all that fear, you know, and like like Danielle said before, you know, what we're consuming on a daily basis is correlates exactly to your consciousness level. So, like if again, episode one, two, three, and four, if you surround yourself with people that are, you know, fear-mongling, or you surround yourself with people that are, you know, watching the news all the time, or well, whatever, right? Like all of this stuff is is embedding into your subconscious mind and feeding that through, you know, fear and control of you and things like that. So, and Danielle and I know we're about to go into another round of a two-year, you know, we're about to go to another election. And every two, every, you know, there's this, yeah, midterms are coming, and here we go again with all of this stuff that's gonna start coming up. And I believe, listen, we have got to be aware of what's going on. We've got to, we've got to do our due diligence in looking at these propositions like Daniel's talking about. We're just voting because we think, oh, it has a pretty name. No, like take the time to read and it read it and decide whether it's good for the collectiveness of the world, not just yourself, but like the collectiveness of the world. And really voting is really the best thing. And I was reading this book by Napoleon Hill, and he was talking about that, you know, really pay attention to Congress. You know, Congress actually has more power sometimes than the than the president, you know. And so, yes, the president is great, but but the con yeah, the Congress is where we really need to be focusing um all of our um our thought processes and who's really going in there and and not not for not for what's bettering us as a person, but as a whole, as a society, right? And as we really start raising our consciousness, we can we can actually, I believe one day, I think we will leave live in a more peaceful world. But I think right now what's happening is that a lot of things are going to have to maybe crumble a little bit and be exposed. And people are really gonna have to make that decision whether we want to live like this anymore and if what we want to carry on for our children, you know, and so we really have to start exposing these things. And, you know, I'm not a pol, I'm not a very political person. I've gotten a little more into it these um past few years. Um, Danielle has yes, I was just gonna say my apologies. No, yeah, yeah, no, and no, but you really have like taught me a lot about what's going on and like how to research and how to ask more questions about this. And, you know, being involved doesn't mean you have to be obsessed with it, right? It just means you have to be educated to make a a sound decision for yourself and yes, this collective consciousness. Uh so yeah, I mean, for me, I mean, with this topic, you know, there's so much and this is the other thing. Listen, we live in Tennessee and we are fed certain things on commercials and ads and things like that because of where we live and what our demographic is, and you know, the amount of people, and California is also being fed things. Okay. And so don't think that it's all the same thing because when we moved, we saw it firsthand. Oh, wait, we're doing this in California, but other states are not doing this. This, this is absolutely we thought everybody was doing this. We thought, you know, this was a collective of people that were deciding to mask up a hundred percent of the time, you know, and and that just wasn't the case. And so really understand that what the news is feeding you uh is probably um a little inflated and really use common sense and use your thinking skills to say, hmm, is this does this seem a little overboard, you know, or does this seem like something that is I and ask questions from people like, you know, I talk to people that don't live in California and I'm like, listen, do you know we have a high speed rail that has literally goes to nowhere? Like they're like, what? What what do you mean? And I'm like, there was a bunch of money dumped into this thing. And you know, I mean, explaining that the what's going on in other states, people don't know. People don't know what they don't know, they just don't know. Right. I talked to people in Texas and they're like, this is what's going on in Texas. And I'm like, I didn't even know that was going on in Texas, you know? And so really and and and and ask people, ask the people that are live there and say, hey, what's going on in your state? You know, be open to it and see what's going on because what we're being fed is not always the truth.

SPEAKER_01

I I absolutely and what I would also say on that, I'm noticing a shift in in on social media. People are starting to we we talked in in the last couple episodes about Napoleon Hill and and the six fears, and one of them is criticism. People don't want to be criticized. And I think that's why for a long time, people on both sides of the aisle are like, I'm not gonna talk about politics. I don't want to get into an argument, whatever the case is, I don't want to be called names. And I think people are starting to realize that standing up for yourself and saying, no, you don't get to call me a name. We're gonna have a civil conversation. We're gonna talk about policies, not people or parties. We're gonna talk about policies. We're gonna find common ground there. I'm seeing a big shift in that because what I've gone over so far is literally like I'm just gonna kind of rapid fire. Our grid, we have an energy grid problem. We are being told that by 2035, state of California is no longer gonna be selling gas-powered cars, which is problematic considering a summer does not go by without a brownout or a blackout. And if you don't know what that is, you lose electricity. So that's one problem. We have mismanagement of forests. They're not uh raking the forests, they're not clearing the brush. So if there is a wildfire like we saw last year in the Pacific Palisades, I don't know if a lot of people realize that fire was arson. It was a very small fire that caught the person that did it. It was not extinguished, it was not put out for about a week, and it spread and eventually uh took out 16,000 buildings. And to add insult to injury, I used to be in the insurance industry. To add insult to injury, thousands of people who lost their homes had recently been non-renewed on their home insurance. So we, I mean, that's another rabbit hole. Um, crime has gotten out of control. Um, our streets are not safe. Uh, corruption at multi-levels. We just found out in, I believe it was Arcadia, but don't quote me on that. There was a mayor of uh Southern California town who we found out was CCP, Chinese Communist Party. Like she was a spy. So, you know, people go, oh, that's a conspiracy thing. You know, they they they dismiss it, but there's things going on that are very problematic. And you can look at it one of two ways. You can look at it and say, oh, it's how it's always been, every big state has its problems, or you can say, you know what, it's a good thing that this is getting exposed. One of my favorite sayings is sunlight is the best disinfectant. If we don't look at problems and deal with them, and I know it's that feeling we don't want to be uncomfortable, we don't want to argue with our families, we don't want to, I get that, but nothing's gonna change until people have the courage, like you talked about the last episode, the courage. To say, I don't agree with you.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But we can still be friends. We can still be cordial. We can still have a relationship. Some of my favorite people on earth have the polar opposite politics than I do. And we still get along great because we know it's okay to disagree. It really is. And, you know, again, I could go off cost of living. Um, I already talked about the energy grid. Um, I mean, I could tell you about Prop 57's a whole nother thing. But the California that I grew up in, it feels far away, but I don't think it is. And again, if if uh if exposure is what's gonna lead to change, this is why we're having this conversation. And if if you haven't started your your Great Awakening, um, I would highly recommend. Again, it's not being obsessed with politics or history or arguing with people on social media. That might be what I do for fun. I understand not every that's not everyone's cup of tea. But um my my husband always jokes, you're the only person I know who relaxes by arguing with people about politics. That's what's relaxing to me. But but I don't take it personally. I I know people think differently, and and that's okay. California is a very, very diverse state, but I I get people that that seem to think it's it's all one way or another, and it's really not. It's extremely diverse, and including in in politics.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. And I think we're gonna see a lot of things, a lot of things happen with this mayor race. I mean, uh in LA and in the governor's race coming up, and you know, I think it's gonna shed some light on some things, and I think it already is. And, you know, I I think my thing, you know, I think that it and it's something that my mentor always tells me, he's like, listen, Brooke, he's like, everything is working out for the highest good, and we never know exactly what it is. And sometimes it looks really bad until you're like, oh, okay. I get why we had to go all through all of this because this all of this had to be exposed. And not only are we exposing things in politics, but we're exposing things in ourselves, you know, as people, you know, exposing things that, you know, when we talk about a great awakening, if it's an inner awakening, you know, or for or if it, or if it's an awakening for, for, for, for our nation, you know, for actually the world, you know, to really wake up and yeah, it's it's fascinating you say that.

SPEAKER_01

I kind of had an epiphany. I know we were talking about the Dodgers earlier. I I, you know, Dodgers spend an insane amount of money on their on their team. And I always hear people say, oh, Danielle, you know, the Dodgers just keep winning because they spend all this money. And in my head, I'm like, oh, you're just jealous. You don't have all these World Series rings. And I kind of feel like that's what's happening right now with politics. It's like, you're just jealous because we're winning. No, I'm not jealous. I'm concerned. And just for anyone that doesn't know in California, ballot harvesting is legal in California. It's actually illegal in most states. Uh, we do not have voter ID. In fact, a couple of years ago, they passed a law making it illegal to show your ID. And it came out of Orange County. I can't remember it was the Newport Beach or somewhere around there, wanted to pass a local ordinance saying you had to show your ID to vote. And the the governor said no, no, no, and and you know, put the kiosk on that. Uh, mail-in ballots are universal. So everybody gets a mail-in ballot, whether you requested one or not, whether you're alive or not, whether you still live in California or not. And so it is there fraud? I don't know. I can't prove it one way or another, but it it gives the semblance of a system that has a lot of problems. So it's gonna be fascinating to see what happens. You know, by the time you know this this airs, we could know something completely different. But um it's gonna be interesting. That's that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be great. Yeah, and she is uh Danielle is she listen, she does her research. That's all I know. I I always I text her and I say, Okay, what's going on over there? Like what's happening? Um, because she does really do her research. And um, you know, I think that it's um it is important for us to stay um informed, right? To make informed decisions and understand. And I think I think also how we started this was that, you know, California kind of leads the nation, you know, and there are things that, you know, I still I see in Tennessee that are very starting to start that are very familiar to California, you know, and that that does that does that does, you know, I'm aware of it, you know, and I I I really um pray that uh we can keep um things the way that they they are in Tennessee um without exploiting it a little too much. So right. So yeah, I I I I really do, I somewhat do agree with his statement, you know, and I think we all have to be very, I think we all have to look at California and say, hey, look at look at what they did. We don't want that. So let's find a different way to go about this. Um, because obviously, yes, times are changing, things need to change, infrastructure has to change, things like that. But let's take it as let's take it, let's take it what they've done and not not repeat it. Let's not repeat it. Learn from it. Let's not repeat that. Learn from your failure.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, definitely. I completely agree. Well, it's gonna be exciting. I just I I I keep calling California the once golden state. We will be golden again. The question is when. And I I just, you know, on behalf of of Brooke and I, uh, I hope you've enjoyed listening to us. Do you have anything you want to add before we wrap up, Brooke?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, I've I want to thank you for, yeah, I think bringing up this topic. And, you know, listen, politics and religion are the two things they say that divide us, right? And I think something that Danielle and I also want to say is that it doesn't have to, right? People can people can talk and have conversations and not agree and that be okay. Just don't let it pull yourself, don't let it pull your families apart. Don't let it pull yourself apart. Just just if if someone doesn't agree with you, that's okay. It's all right. We all don't need to agree for us to move forward. And I think that the more that we can accept each other and our ideas and our policies and our politics and our religious and ideas and things, um, the more peaceful this world will be. So yeah, have a conversation with someone. Don't it doesn't have to get heated, you know? And I think that's what we're opening this up to is to say, hey, we can talk about difficult things and you may not agree, but it's okay to learn from other people where they've been, where they've come from. Uh so yeah, I think I think you guys are, yeah, I think this is a great episode. And um, again, if you guys have any questions, you want us to go over any topics, uh, you uh want to get in touch with us about um the services that we that we provide. Uh we are also gonna be um asking for some sponsors soon. So if you want to be a sponsor on the show, we would love to have you. Uh and um if it aligns with our, you know, with our system and and and our sort of our beliefs and where we're headed, we would love to collaborate with you. Uh yeah, so get in contact with us and we're we're always looking for guests too. I want to throw that out there that we are we are looking for guests that want to come on and talk about different things. So yeah, reach out and uh we'd love to get to know you guys and more about what you guys want to hear. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Awesome. Yeah, like, comment, subscribe, send us an email, visit us on our socials, and uh we can't wait to see you again. Thank you so much for joining us and uh have an amazing day. Bye y'all.