Cops. Guns, and Color

In this episode of Cruz Control, we tackle three subjects that are often discussed separately but deeply intertwined in American life: cops, guns, and color.

Drawing from their different backgrounds and life experiences, Aaron and Arrington explore how race, law enforcement, and firearm culture have shaped their perspectives. Aaron reflects on navigating the world as a man of mixed heritage, while Arrington shares his experiences growing up and living from a different vantage point.

This is not a debate, and it’s not an attempt to provide easy answers. Instead, it’s an honest conversation about perception, personal responsibility, fear, trust, identity, and the experiences that shape how we see one another.

As with every episode of Cruz Control, the goal isn't to win an argument, it's to better understand the human experience through open dialogue, curiosity, and respect.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Cruise Control, navigating the chaos. One conversation at a time. This is an ongoing conversation with Aaron Cruz, a competitive bodybuilder, mixed martial artist, ironworker, business owner, researcher, philosopher, spiritual explorer, and much more. Each episode explores where physical discipline meets inner work, where strength, believe, ancestry, and purpose intersect. No scripts, no personas, just an honest conversation about the many layers that shape how to move through the world. Let's get into it.

SPEAKER_05 0:40

Hello there and welcome. Welcome back to Cruise Control Navigating the Chaos One Conversation at a time. I'm your co-host, John Williams. It's interesting because every time Aaron and I were in a training session, an idea comes to us, we talk it, we hash it out, and I wish we had the mics on. And this is one of those conversations. And I think that now more than ever, especially in our country, the idea of color, law enforcement, and guns is quite valid. Aaron, you shared with me a story about an experience that you had that for me opened my eyes and showed me a different perspective than perhaps I'm used to. So we're really excited to talk about this today with you guys. Aaron, how you doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:34

I'm good, man. Seems like it's been a while since we've been here.

SPEAKER_05 1:37

It has been a minute.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

Before we get into all that, man, I just I want to let everybody know that Errington and I have kind of been talking about the podcast a little bit back and forth. And pretty soon in the near future, in the next next couple weeks, I'm I'm guessing it's gonna happen. I don't want you guys to get bored of just hearing me talk about my stories. I know you guys enjoy it. The feedback we get back is is awesome. Everybody likes to hear about my adventures and experiences and stuff. But along along those lines, man, I've I've got to meet lots of people, amazing people, people that I think are just very interesting and kind of excited to offer the platform that we're building here, with all of you guys listening and tuning in, to have some some interesting, awesome people come in and share a little bit of their stories as they've been navigating the chaos themselves. And these are going to be really deep, heavy conversations, but very beneficial for everybody that's listening. So I'm excited to introduce you to a few people that are near and dear to me as well.

SPEAKER_05 2:41

This show by design is set up for interviewing people and talking to people outside of yourself, with people who have uh you know uh gravitated around your circle. So just based on our conversations, there's some people who we've got lined up to come on the show. It's gonna be very powerful.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Amazing, amazing conversations are gonna happen for the first time here with multiple people.

SPEAKER_05 3:04

So we're super excited about that. And we almost felt like we needed to do one more episode prior to that. Yeah. So we've decided to tackle something easy like race. This should be a little lighter, I guess. Yeah, why not? I mean, based on what's coming, you know, get the tissue, the tissue boxes here, actually. Now that I see in the recording stick.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

That'll that'll be great for the next few weeks.

SPEAKER_05 3:30

So we, you know, a lot of the times, I mean, I think we need to start off, Aaron, by saying, what is your your cultural background?

SPEAKER_03 3:38

Oh god, I I'm created in a blender. I'm a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_05 3:41

United Nations.

SPEAKER_03 3:42

I'm the United Nations, yeah. I'm I'm the whole enchilada, man. I'm white, brown, islander, Pacific Islander, all of that stuff, man.

SPEAKER_05 3:51

But what is the reality of what your cultural heritage is and what people mistake you?

SPEAKER_03 3:57

Well, a lot of people look at me, and nothing wrong with this. Like I had a lot of Latino friends, but a lot of people just start speaking Spanish and think I'm Mexican. Yeah. And then they see my last name Cruz, but that comes from the Pacific Islander and Filipino influence and my dad's side of the family. So I'm I'm very brown and very white, and then put that in a blender, and out comes me and my sister. So yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:17

So because I've met your mom, and your mom is, I would say, definitely Caucasian.

SPEAKER_03 4:21

100%, yeah. My my dad is my dad as brown as it gets, you know. So him and him and my whole father's side of the family are all island folks, Filipinos and Pacific Islanders.

SPEAKER_05 4:33

So what do you say as brown as it gets?

SPEAKER_03 4:35

What does that I mean, what does that well, I mean, at at face value, they're very not white. The easiest way I can't analyze the problem, folks. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:48

They are very not white, you know. So it's Hawaiian, Filipino, yeah, just all that kind of Pacific Island in a blended. If we look at you, we see the tattoos, a big guy, muscular, right, goatee, shaved head.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Everybody just thinks, oh, this guy's a Samoan or something, you know, full full on, but a little bit of the Sunset. Yeah. I would I always tell people I'm the Pebble, I'm not quite the rock. Just call me the Pebble, not quite the rock, but I'll take the Pebble mining.

SPEAKER_05 5:23

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:24

Well, okay. And I I would say that my my heritage is it's English. I mean, I'm from North Carolina, and those three boats that you know, the Santa Maria, they land it. Like it doesn't get any wider. And I feel like this is an interesting conversation. We've had it on several occasions, and it's changed my perspective on things when I go, I never considered that, which is something I think we all should do. And we talk about color, we talk about race, we talk about the perception, we talk about law enforcement. You've had a very interesting story about working for a major Hollywood production with a now major Hollywood star where things got a little dicey at the hands of a very white cop.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Yeah, absolutely. And even to back it up a little bit, I've had these kind of conversations with my mom, even, you know, like growing up and having experiences, she she never understood what I was trying to portray or convey to her because she just sees her son, right? So I'm a byproduct of her and my my father's relationship. So I'm, you know, my my mom accepts me wholeheartedly for who I am and and and how I look, and this and that and the other. So when I when I share experiences with her in the past, she's she's almost like in disbelief. Like, there's no way that you can have these experiences in today's time. I'm like, oh yeah, mom, definitely 100%. You know, like people see you at face value. Prejudice is out there. And I don't think it's the only factor that we can filter and walk through life with and and kind of blame and and and and pinpoint, but it's definitely a valid point. Like, we're all prejudiced in our own ways. We always say, oh, don't judge a book by its cover, but everybody judges a book by its cover. If you see somebody walking down the street, you know, and they have a certain persona or or image at face value, you you're you're judging them whether you think you are or not. You might step away from them a little bit more to feel a little bit safer. You might hold your your your woman's hand a little closer or tighter because of you a threatening vibe or something that's created in your mind without any interaction, we're prejudiced. And that definitely exists across the spectrum, law enforcement or not. You know, there's there's good people and there's bad people everywhere, and there's prejudiced people everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:51

Is it, you know, how does one because I think you and I were having a conversation and I thought I had a valid point. You were like, no, no, no, no. Here's the reality of being a person of color, you know, at uh hands um of you know corrupt law enforcement. And I was like, Well, you know, I've had a couple situations, one recently, where you know, had an interaction with a cop that was unpleasant. And, you know, what I mean, what how does one formulate an opinion? I mean, I think the most valid, one of the most valid things I I believe in is you know, trust nothing but your own experience. Right. But at the same time, how do we not become a monster to defeat the monster? So, you know, when it comes to a preconceived notion, an experience with people, I mean, at what point do we go? You know, I'm not gonna base my opinion on that group of people, broad strokes, based on the color of their skin, although this has been my experience with them time and time.

SPEAKER_03 8:59

It's difficult, right? And there's no template to follow. You kind of have to, like you said, you nailed it, you you kind of have to go off of your own experiences and your own understandings and what you learn from different situations and and environments that we we kind of travel around and function through. And it's unfortunate, man, but race is still very, very prominent obstacle to kind of conquer and and and navigate through. And a lot of brown people understand that a lot more than a lot of white people might. And I say that unbiased because I'm I'm half white and half brown. So I I have both perspectives, you know, and I have my mom talking in one ear, I have my dad's family talking in one ear growing up, and they're they're both very different filters. And for myself, I'm somewhere in the middle. So it's almost like I got to stand on the on the fence and look over both sides of the fence and kind of see like, well, shit, where do where do I belong and where do I fit into this situation? Because I definitely get treated like I'm brown as a kid. A lot of people say, Oh, you grew up in Palm Springs, man, you're probably an amazing golfer. And I and I always tell this story, man, because this this is the reality of me growing up. Before Tiger Woods, there wasn't brown kids on a golf course. It was predominantly older, successful white businessmen, retired people, talking business deals or whatever on a golf course, away from their wives, away from other people. It was a private club. So growing up in Palm Springs, it was like I was kind of programmed to think like there's no business for me on a golf golf course unless I'm gonna be tending to the carts or scrubbing golf balls for these people, right? So there was there was no opportunity for me to invest my time and energy to learn the game. So even at that level, there was prejudice. And it was it was a it was a filter that I felt very young. Now, fast forward, you know, like you you you you you learn how to maneuver through those kind of things. And I get up into my adult stage of life and I'm working on this amazing project. And my friend was a writer, director, producer of a really cool movie called Older Than America. Her name is Georgina Lightning. She's a Native American from Canada, and she wrote this script and this project to reflect kind of the negative outcomes of Native Americans being forced through a boarding school. So it gets into religion and Catholic Church kind of Bible thumping Native people and whitewashing them and kind of, you know, telling them they can't speak their language and grow their hair. And it's this is a real story that happened that she was telling. And some relatives in her family, her father, and some other people actually committed suicide because of what they experienced growing up through boarding schools like this. So fast forward, man. We're working on this movie. She invites me and a couple of my friends to be consultants and help design a few of these scenes that were shot in California. And if you're familiar with Southern California, from the Coachella Valley all the way up to the top of the mountains, you get up to like Warner Springs. There's an Indian reservation up there called Los Coyotes Indian Reservation. And I have really, really great, amazing friends from that Indian reservation. And it just so happened that I set it up to where we can set this big scene of this movie, Older Than America, to take place on the reservation. And um one day myself, two of my good friends, Dan and Cody, were driving, and and and my friend Dan's SUV from Hemet up the S2. Just little windy kind of mountain road that goes from Hemet to the top of the mountain. Not a major, major road. It's a two two-lane road. Very windy, kind of like going up 74, but on the other side of the mountain. You can't speed on this road. We're in a big SUV and there's three brown guys in a truck. My friend Dan has a very stoic Native American appearance. I mean, you think of Native, it's Dan comes up in the dictionary. You look at you look at a picture of an old stoic Native American. He resembles that. He was driving. My friend Cody was in the front passenger seat. I was in the back seat right behind Cody, passenger back seat. And we're just cruising up this road, man. We're going to shoot this scene and meet the crew and the cast and everybody and get set up for the day. And my friend Dan was in charge of bringing the per diem money, the day money, the expense money. So we had about, can't remember exactly, but let's just call it $20,000 in cash in a big manila envelope in the in the the glove box of the truck. We all have our seat belts on, there's no taillights out, everything's just dandy, man. We're excited to go to work and work on this thing, and we're doing good stuff, helping people out, and we get pulled over. We pass this officer that was parked on the side of this road. And about a mile down the road, he comes hauling ass up behind us and pulls us over. When we've seen the lights flashing, we thought he was trying to get around us because we're just minding our own business, doing our thing. And he pulled us over, and it was just the beginning of a bad day for us. For you. Yeah. Yeah, big time, man. Totally caught off guard. Like I said, all three of us were excited. We're positive. We're we're happy to be going where we're going and doing what we're doing. Bradley Cooper. Bradley Cooper was a star of our yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:44

So Bradley just happened, right?

SPEAKER_03 14:46

Hangover one had just happened. So we got Bradley Cooper into the into the project with us as he was filming Hangover Two. So as he was filming Hangover Two, he consecutively was filming Older Than America with us. And back back to the bad day that we're gonna have. This officer pulled us over, came walking up to the truck with his gun drawn. And my friend Dan was driving, he said, Oh shit, like his gun's out, his gun's drawn. And usually when you get pulled over, the first thing that you see is not a gun pointed your way.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

No.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Unless you're a murderer or a known criminal.

SPEAKER_05 15:26

It's already an uncomfortable situation.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

It started out bad. And the guy's veins on his neck were just bulging. And he was clearly upset about something.

SPEAKER_04 15:36

Like a yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Officer Strang, I remember your name, asshole. Because it sounds like Officer Strange. I'll never forget you. So Officer Strang came out with his gun drawn, veins popping out of his neck, and just irate as it can get. Screaming commands at us, telling us to put our hands, telling my friend Dan, put your hands on the steering wheel. He directed Cody to put his hands on the dashboard. He directed me to put my hands on the headrest of the seat in front of me and to look straight forward. And if any of us turned our heads, he said he would shoot us dead. Right off the get-go. Worry about it later. And worry about it later, word for word. He started the conversation exactly like that. So then I'm thinking, and I'm not sure what my friends are thinking, oh, maybe a crime just happened down in Hemet, and there was a black SUV with three guys leaving a crime scene. Maybe we maybe we fit a description of something that he was interested in. Maybe something bad happened and we just kind of fit the picture. Never once did he ask us for our driver's license. Never once did he ask us for any identification, vehicle registration, car insurance. Never once did he tell us why we're being pulled over. None of that. And the first thing that he did was instruct my friend Dan, the driver, to get out of the vehicle. And he told us to keep looking forward and keep our hands forward from our bodies and to not turn around. And we just hear him backing Dan out of the car. And this is a very angry person with a gun pointed at all of us. And at the time he's backing Dan out of the car, he's got it pointed directly at his head. And he's telling Dan the same thing. You resist, you turn around and look at me, you talk back to me, I'm gonna shoot you dead and figure it out later. And this is a recurring statement that we heard over an hour, at least 20, 30, 40 times. He repeated that statement quite a bit.

SPEAKER_04 17:39

Do you think he meant it? 100%. We had no doubt.

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Yeah, that's that's how he started the conversation. We we had no doubt that. I'm in control. We had no doubt of that. And mind you, Dan, the driver, he's been through some things, man. He's he's taken his lumps and bumps in life. Like none of us are wimpy guys, man. There's there's three pretty pretty solid guys in the car, man. They're confident, manly, about about what we're about, and you know, not easy to take advantage of. My friend Cody, him and I, we're both very seasoned and trained, Brazilian jujitsu practitioners, fighters. Like we're we're very comfortable and confident in in our in our environment normally. Now he's getting Dan back, and I'm I'm I'm guessing he's gonna pat him down and put him in in the squad car in cuffs behind us. And he's constantly checking in with us, telling us to keep our eyes forward. Me and my friend Cody start having a conversation, like, what are we gonna do if we hear the gun go off? Because we're both anticipating some bad shit to go down. This guy just started off in a in a fireball and just miserable experience. We're we're expecting. We're kind of like counting down the seconds to hear my friend get shot behind us. And me and Cody start having a conversation with each other in the truck. Like, all right, bro, like what are we gonna do? That gun goes off. Are we gonna run? We're gonna fight him, we're gonna wait for him to come and take us out of the car and shoot us and then try to get hands on him. Like, how are we gonna approach this? We're having this conversation quietly because it was that real to us at the time. The gun never went off, thank God. In retrospect, I'm thinking maybe 15, 20 minutes goes by, and then there's more officers on the scene. And it seems like they're more than just coworkers. It seems like they're kind of cohorts or buddies of his because they all kind of have the same demeanor. And it's a demeanor that you don't expect to have just from getting pulled over for no reason. And again, mind you, nobody asks for our driver's license, proof of insurance, registration. Nobody verbalized why we were pulled over. Now, one at a time, another officer comes to the front passenger seat, removes Cody, my friend Cody, from the vehicle, saying the same thing, like, don't fuck with us today, man. Like, if you have any any thought to to get physical, frisky, or run, we're gonna shoot you dead. Now we have multiple officers threatening our life in this situation for no apparent reason. My friend Cody said, are you guys looking for somebody that you you have us confused with? Shut up. We're not asking, we're not asking your opinion on anything. We don't want to hear your questions. Again, let me let me let me say this to you again. Hear what I'm saying. If you speak to me about anything, if you turn around and look at me, we're gonna shoot you dead. This is a recurring theme, man. It just feels like it's a movie.

SPEAKER_05 20:43

So where do you think this is coming from?

SPEAKER_03 20:45

Uh I don't know. I think they seen at the end of the day, I'll go through some more details of this story, but at the end of the day, what I think is happening is they seen Dan in the front seat. Like I said, he's very visually native. Native American.

SPEAKER_05 21:00

What does that mean? Visually native.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

You can't mistake him for any other culture. He is he looks like a Native American statue. I mean, it's just his features. Yeah, his features, yeah. His features are very, very native prominent, right? Like you don't mistake him to be mixed with anything else but native. He's he's a just a classic Native American stoic stoic face and presence. And what I think was happening was the Pachanga Indian Casino and Reservation is close by. And what it seemed like at the end of the day, we'll get back to the story, but what it seemed like is Officer Strang seen this image of a person driving the car that was definitely identifiable as native, and kind of places you into connection with the casino. And most tribal members roll around with pretty good amount of cash in in their presence. It looked like Like he was trying to get a payday because the first thing that the first thing that they all kind of did was celebrate when they seen that that envelope of money. And when they found the envelope of money, now all three of us are in different cars handcuffed, looking forward, and they're having conversations and they're just kind of joking around. And inside of us, they're just kind of joking around and hollering at us from time to time, like, keep looking forward, don't fucking test us out. And they're just tossing around this envelope from hand to hand, and they're all kind of looking at it and feeling the weight of it, joking around. And this plus other things go on for roughly over an hour. And at the time that Officer Strang had had his co-workers come up, they had completely shut down the S2. So the traffic coming down the mountain from the opposite direction, and the the traffic below us coming up on the same lane that we were coming up, there was 100% closed-off access. Then we noticed the helicopter flying over all of all of the police cars where we were all positioned, and there was a person, an officer, pointing an assault rifle down towards us. While the helicopter was hovering, not too much higher than what was safe, they were pointing assault rifles down at us. So if you think about visually what we're experiencing, we're pulled over, not identified, not told why. Our lives have been verbally threatened by pretty pissed-off, aggressive officers 20, 30, 40 times in the in the hour. They've cut off all access to any people having any kind of ability to witness what's going on on the road. They closed down the whole state highway. It's state highway two. So totally cut the traffic down to nothing. So nobody can drive by, nobody can walk by, nobody can walk their dog by. It's completely, completely delineated and shut down. The only thing that saved us was their superior back at the office seeing that there's four, four cop cars, four squad cars out at one location, a helicopter support. There's all this activity going on. And because of that, legally, he had to come out and assess what was going on and mitigate the scene. Because we could have been terrorists or something, or a bomb threat, or whatever. So they sent out somebody to micromanage what was going on. And that's the only thing that really saved us, man, because this managing officer came on scene and said, okay, Officer Strang, like what are you what are you holding them for? What's going on? Tell tell me the story. Blah, blah, blah. Found out it was nothing that the management could figure out. So he ordered him to release us. So it just got out of control. It started out of control, bro. Like, like I said, I'm a very confident person, man. And this is the only time I've had like my life flash in front of me in a in a situation like that. You know, the parts that I didn't tell you within that hour, they were smacking us in the head with their pistols. They were pushing their the the barrel of their pistol pistols into our skull like violence.

SPEAKER_05 25:25

They were hoping you guys were just gonna go away. Like we're gonna scare you, we're gonna take the money, and you're not gonna open your mouth.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

Or that, or they wanted to get us a a reaction out of us so they can shoot us. So had the manager not showed up, you guys would be I don't think I'd be here talking, talking to you on this podcast right now, to believe it or not. I mean, they would have just made it wasn't a lot of money to split between four or five guys. It was 20 grand in there, but it was 20 grand. They would have just made that disappear and justified a reason for shooting us dead, you know. I'm sure they would have painted a much different picture than just three guys going to work.

unknown 25:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

And not speeding and all had their seatbelts on. Not once they ever identify us.

SPEAKER_05 26:04

So in the face of this, Aaron, do you how do you feel about law enforcement? How do you feel about white law law enforcement? You know, I love it because is it color it at all for you, or you just go, this is an isolated, this guy is it this is on this guy?

SPEAKER_03 26:20

No, it was definitely isolated to me. Officer Strang was a piece of shit. And I always made a promise that if if that guy ever lost his badge and I came across him, I'd let him know how much of a piece of shit he was. And actually at the time, from being an archaeologist, one of my coworkers, his dad was Riverside County District Court judge, and his dad put us in touch with a man named Andrew Roth. And Andrew Roth was a civil rights attorney, and he was a civil rights attorney that represented this little case in Riverside that some of you may remember. Her name was Taisha Miller. She was a young black girl, and she was in her pickup truck in a park in Riverside, and she was asleep. She's just kind of sleeping in in her truck, just kind of resting, not not breaking any laws. And these police officers came and tapped on her window at this park in Riverside, and it kind of startled her when she woke up. There was like lights on her face and people banging on her window. It kind of kind of surprised her. And she kind of put her hands down real quick towards towards her lap and sat up real real real straight, kind of, you know, being startled like that. And they shot her dead. They unloaded clips on her, and they tried to say that she was reaching for a weapon. She didn't even have a cell phone in her car, from what I remember. She had nothing to reach for. So the attorney, the civil rights attorney that represented her family, was was our attorney. I I I I we we collectively put a case together. I wanted this guy's badge, man. I wanted to make make him a civilian so I could beat the shit out of him. That was my intention. I just did not want him to be a policeman. Well, I mean, it was slow. It was slow and it was very cost-effective and I mean very expensive. And, you know, the department that he worked for had much more funding and grips of attorneys that deal with things like this, and they just kind of made it go away, and they just washed us out of resources, man. So went to court a few times, and Mr. Roth, our attorney, the civil rights attorney, said, you know, you guys really do have a good case here. Like, believe in everything you've you're telling us, and and these these pieces of shits don't need their badge, and they don't need to be peace officers in public, and they don't need to be representing law. They're they should not be carrying a badge and a gun. Unfortunately, and this was from our attorney word for word. Unfortunately, you know, I represented the family of Taisha Miller. She was murdered, and I can barely get anything for her family in settlement. He said, So you guys, you know, yeah, you got some little bumps and bruises, and your egos are a little bruised, but nobody lost their life. So if you have the money and resources, I will work with you. And it just kind of we ran it dry. You know what I mean? We didn't we didn't get very far down the road before we were done.

SPEAKER_05 29:16

Was he in court? Was he in court with you, the officer?

SPEAKER_03 29:20

I never seen him in court. So what does that mean? Protected. I'm sure. Yeah, you know. I I never I never got to see him again after that day. And I remember exactly what he looks like. I remember his name. And if you're listening, Officer Strang, I remember you, buddy.

SPEAKER_05 29:39

Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:42

So I firmly believe that at some point you go, okay, well, I'm gonna form an opinion here, you know, based on my experience. Or do we not do that?

SPEAKER_03 29:54

I mean, at what point do you form a I'm sure this was years ago, but I'm sure initially and it never made me dislike police officers. Um a lot of my really, really good friends, man, are are officers. I have a nephew that's a peace officer. A lot of my really good friends in town are the Palm Springs Police Department. I I went to school with a lot of them. I trained and taught jujitsu to most of them that do jujitsu. Like I'm really close to a lot of them. I got nothing but love and respect for them. This was just one guy, but I I'm sure initially, and I can't remember exact details, but I'm sure I hated all cops after that for a while. But you grow past that, you know.

SPEAKER_05 30:35

I just got pulled.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

Yeah, let's hear about that a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 30:38

Jesus. You know, I there's a new law where you can't hold your cell phone. And I was at a stoplight in Cathedral City close to the gym.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Wait, say that one more time. There's a new law, what?

SPEAKER_05 30:48

That you cannot have the your cell phone in your hand.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

While you're driving.

SPEAKER_05 30:53

While you're dri in the car.

SPEAKER_03 30:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 30:56

And if you'll notice there's a second camera that is being put up and it's everywhere to bust you the way that, you know, when you went through a stoplight. Like you cannot, if you hold your phone up, they're gonna take a photo of it, you're gonna get a ticket. I feel like this is I mean, you do feel like you're being watched, and you're being watched for a purpose, financial purpose, and it's bullshit.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

It's always about money, right?

SPEAKER_05 31:22

I had my phone in my crotch and I moved it from my crotch to my cup holder. I didn't turn it on, I didn't check a text message, I didn't put on a song.

SPEAKER_03 31:31

You just transferred it from your lap to my lap to the cup holder.

SPEAKER_05 31:35

Okay. And the cop on a bike was next to me, pulled me into a parking lot, and he was walking up to the car, and I said, Let me put white privilege to the test. Let me see what's the fact that you could say, Let me put white privilege to the test, that's white privilege. I'm gonna just be as nice to this mother as I possibly can. And let me tell you, it had no effect. This guy showed up. He was so he was busting out of his uniform. I think I jokingly told you in the gym after it happened that this guy is definitely on Lipitor. Wow. He has got a cholesterol medicine issue going on him. He had big fat something off of he was definitely, I would, I'm gonna say based on my visual assessment, that he was Latin in nature from a Central America country. And he came over and he was such an asshole to me. And I was like, officer, you know, I kept my hands on the wheel. I gave him no attitude. He said, give me your license of registration. I said, officer, for your request, I'm now gonna lean over to my glove box and I'm gonna pull out my, you know, and was just as nice and sincere, not snarky at all, to him to see if I could get him to respond and I couldn't. He was just, he wanted to be a dick. He then took his hand, put it inside of my car, and this was a new car, maybe a month old, and he took this big glove of his and his big fat hand. And he was trying to, he was like, What year is this? I'm like, 2026. I just got it a couple months ago. Look, you can see on the registration. And he was convinced that the inside had been of the front windshield had been tinted, and he was trying to like peel off.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

He's trying to damage your windshield.

SPEAKER_05 33:24

Yes. And I was like, this guy's got his big fat finger in my car without me saying it's okay, trying to get like he's convinced that it's been tinted.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 33:37

And you know, then he got more angry with me because it wasn't. And I'm like, this guy wants me because you know, I'm, you know, middle class white guy is what I'm thinking. But I'm like, no, you cannot judge an entire group of people based on this cop being an asshole.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 33:54

But he was like, why is your hand in my car? Yeah, damaging it, yeah, trying to bust me. And then finally he gave me the ticket, $150.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

For moving your phone from your lap to the from my crotch to a cup holder, wasn't on it. $150. Hear that, people? That's $150. It's gonna be.

SPEAKER_05 34:26

I said, This is a new car. I'm just getting used to it. I said, look, even the clock is right.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

And well, that's another $100 ticket. I know.

SPEAKER_05 34:35

I said, this is on me. I said, you know, apologies, it won't happen again. He would not acknowledge me engaging him in a conversation and being pleasant.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 34:46

He wanted me so bad, you know. I told him to have a nice day, did not give me the time of day, got on his motorbike, ran around, and there was another one over there by the Mary Pickford. And they just posted up, and I just went, you know, if I was a person of color right now, I'd say that guy was fucking racist.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:06

But could be. But you know what my take is, and I hope this everyone else will know this, and in your case too. We got a world full of assholes, buddy. No, this has nothing to do with color. Maybe he wanted me because he thought, this, look at this white guy. But maybe, maybe, but he's just an asshole. Like, there are assholes out there. Yeah. And you know what? I've never walked in the in the mile in the shoes of a police officer. What is that like? I don't know what that's like any more than I know what it's like being a black guy walking in a black guy's shoes or a person of color. Like, what does it feel like to be pulled over? I'm already nervous. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:46

You know, so for us, for us, we're we're a little bit more nervous than you.

SPEAKER_05 35:52

And I'm not disputing that. Yeah, we're not saying that there's not a claim.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

There's a little bit more anxiety when you skin the brown.

SPEAKER_05 35:58

I want everyone to know that, like, for me, I can't become the monster to defeat the monster just because this Latinesque Central America, I'm doing everything I could do not to say Mexican, you know, was an asshole to me. I can't go out and judge an entire group.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

No, you can't, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 36:15

Definitely not, including white people.

SPEAKER_03 36:17

Yeah, for sure you can't.

SPEAKER_05 36:18

You know, there's just a lot of bad people out there right now. But, you know, race is a it's a it's an issue here in the United States. And, you know, being a minority, and I've always honestly loved being a minority. And of all the places I've ever lived, uh, London, New York, Washington, LA, it's interesting because being here in Palm Springs, I definitely feel like the minority.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:43

Me too. And I was born here. Yeah. I was born here, and I still feel like I'm minority.

SPEAKER_05 36:49

You know, I mean, you you live in Palm Springs proper, and you know there's just so many layers now that we gotta kind of navigate through, man.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

It's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_05 36:59

How do we do it without you know becoming the monster to defeat the monster? That's what I always come back to and go, okay, you know, this is I pulled away and I'm fucking this guy with his big fat finger and his statin drugs. You know, like just peeling out of it. Now every time I go to Cathedral City, I'm paranoid.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

That's pretty bold.

SPEAKER_05 37:20

And I think about okay, what would it be like if I was a black guy?

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

And that was a white cop. You're damn right I would have an issue with this. Yeah. It would scare me or like put me on edge. But point being is who knows what these guys have been through, what they go through every day.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

And you know, but and that's a thing too, like to have that kind of an occupation. And and you know, I've had conversations with lots of my friends that are policemen, and detectives and squat and special teams, and you know, they have to go home and process whatever the day brought them, but they're genuinely amazing people, man. They're not they're not assholes. And for an asshole to have that position, that that that spot of employment in society, where you're an officer and you you're armed and you have a badge and a and and a weapon, and co-workers that have the same, I think the assholes kind of stick together like what we what we found out about that day on the S2 going up the mountain. You know, they were they definitely had an agenda, and it seemed like they had kind of scripted and done these things before. So I'm sure in my situation, they were just looking for an easy pre-day. So much that three guys in a truck were only worth $20,000, what they found in our envelope. I really believed that was their intention to take us out, man. Like I have no second thought about that. I I can't see it any other way, especially when they stopped traffic both ways, had rifles from the sky pointed down on us. They were looking for some reason to paint a picture and create a scene that just was not what it was. And yeah, I mean, is that worth $20,000 that they found in our truck? You know, so we went up to my friend's reservation a couple hours late that day, and everybody's kind of waiting for us to show up because without us showing up, we were kind of like the the spine of the scene that day. We were help creating the design for the scene and and the flow of this scene to be shot. So they were definitely waiting for us, man. And they waited for a couple hours, and we we told them the story when we arrived, and they were just they were blown away, man.

SPEAKER_05 39:28

So you guys didn't show up for a long time. You got $20,000 in per DM. They're probably worth it.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Yeah, we're these guys are out of the casino. Yeah, doubling down. Yeah. 21. Let's go.

SPEAKER_05 39:41

What how many times have you ever had a gun pointed at you?

SPEAKER_03 39:44

My whole life?

SPEAKER_05 39:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

Maybe a handful of times.

SPEAKER_05 39:47

I can count three. Yeah. I'm I'm I I have a couple more.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

I've got a couple more than that for but just stupid things, the general directions, not necessarily in my face. These guys were wrapping the barrel of their pistols off of our skulls, man. Yeah. So, you know, what if it misfired or what if they're a little agitated when they tap me in the forehead with a with a the barrel of their pistol? You know, they could accidentally just blow any of us away. It was sketchy, man. It was sketchy.

SPEAKER_05 40:18

I had some Mexican cops one time ask me, do we have a problem here? And I went, nope. Not a problem. Nope. Nope, not at all. No problema. No problema. This will never come up again. Like, you guys are good. Here's my money. Yep. Well, you know, obviously, in especially in this country, color is such a big deal. And I don't, I've never understood it. I've never understood what why people are so hung up on color.

SPEAKER_03 40:43

I don't think necessarily they're hung up on color. I think people are just hung up. And the state that we're in as a species right now is just turmoil, man. In any direction you look at it, politically, religiously, racially, sexually, there's just all these different opinions out there, man. And everybody's just clinging for something to complain about, something to create drama over. It's a very tribal mentality, you know. Everybody wants to be around people that think exactly like them. And it's really not how it works, man. Like there's a billion people on the planet, there's a billion opinions of what makes the day work, right? But everybody needs to be validated for something, man. And I think race and the color of their skin is just one facet of desperate people to reach towards to see who's like-minded. And I don't think it's much more than that, man. I mean, if you look at society's, everybody's innerbred. There's not very many pure races left, man. Like we're a melting generational that's going out. Yeah, yeah. All those all those people that want to talk shit about being racist or you know, white, black, or this or that, go get your DNA done, dude. Like you're a rainbow just like everybody else. You you've you've got white and black and everything in you. I know. You know, there's there's knock it off. Yeah, behave. You're you're in a blender too.

SPEAKER_05 42:07

You come from a big family, and there's a lot of things happening throughout your and Liz's family, right? As far as cultural background and heritage.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

Oh yeah, man. We're we're the Brady bunch in a blender. So, like I said, me in a blender, Liz is the same way. She's multicultural, multi-ethnic. All of our kids are multicultural, multi-ethnic. So it's it's it leaves lots of lots of doors wide open to kind of try to figure out and help the kids process and go through. But yeah, there's always some kind of a family dynamic somewhere. And it, you know, kind of takes a family to to get through those things, man.

SPEAKER_05 42:50

Do you find that it's hard for the kids being from a multicultural or now? Is it just the norm?

SPEAKER_03 42:56

Is it well I can't speak for them, but it seems like they have it much, much easier than maybe like me and my sister's generation trying to figure it out. I I think the farther down the timeline goes, everybody's just kind of more blended and and integrated into cultures, cultures more more so than when we're growing up. So I think it's more of a normal thing now.

unknown 43:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

You know, her kids, like Liz's kids, don't really consider themselves, I don't think, Latin Latin or black. They just kind of, you know, they're they're part of the golden race.

SPEAKER_05 43:29

Yeah. I just ran into her, one of them, and they were it was at work and she was with her friends all at the front desk over here at this restaurant. And they were all laughing, having a good time. I mean, there was no yeah, no one was like, oh, you're this, or I'm you're beneath me, or whatever. When when when in the when in your life was the first time you were you understood it was explained to you, there was a situation where you understood racism. What it means to be racist, like a racist situation where something was denied you or denied someone around you based on the color of their skin. Well, there's quite a first recollection of racism.

SPEAKER_03 44:12

There's quite a few, but I don't know if this is my first one. But we were my sister and I were maybe like in young high school age, and my family always had a boat down in Dana Point. So we grew up going down to Dana Point quite a bit. And right on the side of Dana Point, there's a beach called Doheny Beach. And one time it was, I want to think my mom went with us, maybe, maybe not. Correct me if I'm wrong about this mom, but my my sister's boyfriend at the time was a little bit older than us, and he had a half-brother that was half black, half black, half white. So we're we're all at Doheny Beach, and we're just kind of walking on the boardwalk there, and there's this huge crowd of people, and we're kind of approaching this huge crowd of people. And do you remember back in the day when Geraldo Rivera show was on TV and there was that big outbreak between the KKK and like people were throwing chairs and one bounced off of like Geraldo's nose and he had tape on his nose for like a month after that? So do you remember the leader of the KKK faction at that time that was on Geraldo Rivera was his last name was Metzger? Do you remember that? Nah, I don't remember. It's like John Tom Metzger or something. So, anyways, I watched that episode before we were in Doheny Beach. That was a that was a big Geraldo Rivera episode, and it was wild. So we're walking into this crowd of people and had no idea it was a clan rally. And so we're we're walking with, you know, my brother, my sister's boyfriend's little half black brother, and we bump right into the guy that was on Geraldo and his son. So it was like John and Tom Metzger, and they were leading this clan rally, and we were like, oh shit, like we're in the wrong place with with our little our little half half-breed friend, right? This is a KKK rally, man, at in Doheny Beach. So, like things like that, you know, are memorable moments. I was a little older and I was traveling with a bunch of natives to a to a ceremony in South Dakota, and I remember we went through this town and we were in a we were in RV. We met up with with some friends of mine in in Denver, Colorado. So from Denver, Colorado, we take an RV full of this native family, man, a woman, a bunch of kids, myself and some other people. And we're all traveling to South Dakota, man, in the summertime. Go do some cool stuff together. And he gets a flat tire in Dalton, Nebraska. And I remember breaking down in an RV in Dalton, Nebraska. Hello, Dalton, Nebraska. If you're you're tapping in, I remember you too. I'll never forget this town. And we break down in this RV in Dalton, Nebraska. And there's like a garage that does like repair and mechanics on semi-trucks and whatnot. And which we needed because the tire on this RV was a split rim wheel. They're kind of unique to like bigger trucks and heavier loads, right? So a lot of semis have split rim wheels on them. Not too many people work on them. There's specialty shops. So we see this one really close to where we break down. And it's kind of early in the morning, and we start getting out of the RV and walking together to find a mechanic, go towards this sign that says garage. And we notice this pickup truck. And it had a bunch of the good old boys driving in it, right? First thing in the morning, they were like, who broke down in Dalton, Nebraska? What do what are all these brown people doing walking down our street? And they started circling the wagon, man. They just started driving around the block and wouldn't leave it alone. We walked to the mechanic shop, and the mechanic shop was still closed for like another hour. Right next to the mechanic shop, there was a diner. So we're like, well, let's go have some breakfast and wait for the mechanic shop to open up, right? So we go into this diner in Dalton, Nebraska, sit down at a table, and nobody wanted to wait on us or serve us. They refused refused to serve us because of who we were and what we represented. There's a group of brown people in this this cafe in Dalton, Nebraska that should not be sitting at this table. So that's another instance where where race definitely was a very prominent issue. And we practically begged for water for the kids, and they barely gave us that. They agreed to give us water for the kids, and they needed to hurry up and drink the water, and then we had to leave. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:57

So it's just isn't it, is this just learned? I mean, yeah, of course. Yeah, of course. It's it's learned, it's bred. The word that I use, it's all encompassing for both white and black people, is redneck, because I can use it as a white man. I can say the word redneck. But any any culture has a redneck. Sure. And what I mean by redneck isn't someone who's a working class out on the field, probably the proper definition of redneck, but you know, just a bunch of fucking idiots. There's a ton of fucking stuff out there. Yeah. You know, brown rednecks, white rednecks, black rednecks. I just can't stand the thought of a redneck. You know, just bringing nothing to the table but destroying something.

SPEAKER_03 49:40

And that that mentality is definitely bred and taught and learned. And it's not it's not natural.

SPEAKER_05 49:46

I hope we're moving away from that.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

I I I I hope so too. I kind of think we are. I think so too. But it's just weird because the the temperature, the climate of people and the world and society in general, man, is pretty pretty agitated. It seems like there's just so many things that kind of stirring the pot nowadays that if it's not race, it's something else.

SPEAKER_05 50:08

If it's not in the South to hate you.

SPEAKER_03 50:12

It's it's race, it's skin color, it's sexuality, gender, genderism, it's political stance and views. There's just so much that's that's ready ready to ignite the fuse of a firefighter, right?

SPEAKER_05 50:26

I I've recently been exploring my cultural heritage as a Nordic Swede. And he's a Viking people. He's a Viking. I'm in the presence of a Viking barrier. So I'm just, you know, because I'm so tired of all my friends throughout my you know, my life who are Irish. I've I gotta hear about that. It's just like Jesus, you know, I know you're Irish and you're proud, but come on, man, or Italian or Mexican. Jesus. So I'm exploring that, but then only to find out that like you know, people from Denmark, everyone hates Swedes, like in the Nordic culture. Right. So it doesn't take much for someone to have a biased against, you know, someone. I mean, it just doesn't like it.

SPEAKER_03 51:09

Isn't that weird that still exists?

SPEAKER_05 51:11

I know. That's my point. It's like I don't, I don't, I don't understand it, you know, which I hope means I'm not part of the problem. But you know, you're within your full right if someone's an asshole to, you know, okay, that person's an asshole, but it has nothing to do with the color of their skin. Think about it. People are so hung up on what shade of you know, beige you are. It's fucking crazy.

SPEAKER_03 51:36

Yep. It's pretty wild, it still exists, man.

SPEAKER_05 51:40

Well, this is I think a relevant and a very deep conversation. One that a perspective that I didn't have. And I forget what we were talking about in the gym, and then you told me this story. This is that. So for me, you know, I you know, my experience with cops is that it's never been good. I've had a gun drawn on me three times, twice by cops, and I think both times I've probably deserved it. You know, I don't know what that means, but yeah, you seem pretty non-threatening. One for sure I deserve to get that that gun on me. You know, you don't when a cop's coming up to the car and you're going in between the seats with your hand, I was looking for my wallet, and I turned around and that gun hit that cheek, my cheek hit the gun.

SPEAKER_03 52:24

And see, just just that statement alone, like just being a little browner than you, man, like we know your hand is not reaching the seats. I know, I that's an instinct for us.

SPEAKER_05 52:34

That's right now I'm like, officer, per your request. Yeah, I am, but when you watch like a uh episode of cops, that is not what the guy's saying. No, not at all.

SPEAKER_03 52:43

Yeah, you racist pigs, you pieces of shit.

SPEAKER_05 52:46

Yeah, I know. So, but being from North Carolina, not city cops, but North Carolina State Highway Patrol. I mean, these guys are one step away from Nazis. These guys don't know what century it is. They scared the shit out of me. So I'm a black man, forget about it. Like, I would never like, you know, these guys don't know how to get to South Carolina because their brother usually takes them. Yeah, it's awful. That said, I'm a black man in America today, based on living in the South, having family in the Midwest, and now living in California. I I'd live in the South.

SPEAKER_02 53:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 53:23

I find my experience growing up is that in the South, you go out on a Friday night, you'll see white and brown, shades of brown, black, whatever you want to call it, commingling. Honestly, it feels pretty segregated to me here. And I feel like the racism in the Midwest is 10 times worse than anywhere else, including the South.

SPEAKER_03 53:47

And here too, like the segregation in our little little valley here doesn't seem so much racial to me. It's it's more political and sexual identity.

SPEAKER_05 53:56

Yeah, I mean, you know, but it's still it almost feels like it's uh like financially, like the haves and the have nots, the haves are going over to here, but that community doesn't have, so yeah, and and going back to how we started when we're talking, like everybody's prejudice, everybody judges a book by by its cover, right?

SPEAKER_03 54:14

At one point in my life, and I I'm I'm I'm not joking about this. Every time I was in an airport, I always got secondary inspection. Yeah, always just and it's not random. Yeah, I don't know. Every time. Now, I used to do a contract when I was an archaeologist down by the Salton Sea. And when you're coming back from the Salton Sea towards Indio, you pass like this little micro border patrol check, right? Every time. Every time. I'd do 10 days on rotation down in El Centro and then come home for four days. Go 10 days on, come home for four days. So every two weeks, man, I was driving past this little micro border patrol station. And every two weeks I would get secondary check. Oh sir, can you pull over here? We need to further investigate every time. And it was the same officers that seen me every two weeks.

SPEAKER_05 55:11

Really? Really? Okay. Absolutely. So I mean I saw you coming through the security, I'd be like, this guy's got a top.

SPEAKER_03 55:18

See, exactly, just because of what I look like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm brown, bald headed tattoos.

SPEAKER_05 55:23

But you're big and you look like you're, you know, a gangster. Tell us, tell us, you know, because now where we live, there's a there's a huge Canadian contingency. Now I'm gonna get into trouble.

SPEAKER_03 55:33

What uh let's do it.

SPEAKER_05 55:36

When you you couldn't get into Canada because you had a parking ticket?

SPEAKER_03 55:39

Yeah. I have it, yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 55:43

I was I was for all our Canadian friends who are listening.

SPEAKER_03 55:47

So I was driving from the United States up to to BC to visit some friends, man, some dear friends that I had that lived in in the reserve, the Indian Reservation, right across the border of OMAC, Washington. And then you get into British Columb Columbia, like Kelowna area, beautiful country. And I had driven all the way from California, all the way up to like past OMAC to a border, small border crossing that I always crossed. I think it was called Nighthawk border crossing or something like this. And I get up to their, to the officer, and they ask me for my identification, where I'm coming from, what I'm doing in Canada, who I'm visiting, how long I'm staying, this, that, and the other. And they said, sir, you need to turn around and go back. Pretty much almost word for word. I said, Excuse me? They say, Yeah, you're not allowed to be in Canada. I said, Well, why not? They say, Well, you have an unpaid parking ticket in in California and you're driving across. You could have flown across, but since you have an unpaid traffic violation or parking ticket in the state of California, you're not allowed to drive across the border. We're not allowing you in our country. That was mind blown.

SPEAKER_05 56:59

Can you imagine people not getting into this country because they had a parking lot? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:04

I just turned around. I went to my friend's place in Omack, Washington, and had my Canadian friends drive down from Canada and pick me up. You know, then I wasn't driving a vehicle. I was, I just traveled across the border. They're only like an hour and a half away over the border. But yeah, they refused me to to to have access to a country because I had an unpaid parking ticket in in California.

SPEAKER_05 57:26

Yeah, I mean, you think about who gets into our country. Unpaid parking.

SPEAKER_03 57:30

Right? They said, no, you can't drive here, buddy. You might get a ticket and not pay us.

SPEAKER_05 57:37

Oh God, that's too funny. Yeah, that's worth it. That's that's pretty, yeah. Well, on that note, folks, we publicly suggest that you do not try to get into Canada if you pay your tickets. Done.

SPEAKER_02 57:56

Done deal. Go home.

SPEAKER_05 57:57

Well, I think I think this has been good. Um I it's an interesting story, it's a fascinating story, you know.

SPEAKER_03 58:04

Well, too, in in lieu of the serious conversations that are gonna be coming up, it's it's just a little fun to laugh and kind of revisit some of the lumps you've taken in life and and and joke about it and make light of it. And you know, at the end of the day, we're we're all moving forward and we're all trying to grow and figure it out and understand where we're going and where we came from and how to get there. And this is it's part of the process, man. So sometimes you you get pulled over by really pissed off cops that for whatever reason have different plans. They're out there. And there's beautiful, wonderful cops out there, too, people. That's not what I'm saying. It's just, you know, part of our experiences, man, and stories that I share in the gym and they end up on the podcast just because people are interested in hearing it, you know. And again, like there's some some some good ones coming up, some deep ones, some emotional ones. They're gonna help a lot of people, I think. And I'm I'm really excited about opening up the platform to do that. But today it was just a little lighter and a little bit more fun and kind of pretty casual.

SPEAKER_05 59:04

Yeah, I mean, based on the fact that it's about racism and that's lighter and fun. Yeah. Hang on to your socks, folks.

SPEAKER_03 59:09

Yeah, it's coming.

SPEAKER_05 59:10

Aaron, what what what social media platform is, you know, I feel like you've got some traction going. We encourage everyone to go over, hit subscribe, hit the like button. Yeah. You now have a uh Twitter X?

SPEAKER_03 59:23

Yeah, I we we started on an X that kind of connects and links to the podcast. So if you're on X, look at Aaron Cruz, it's capital A, A-R-O-N-C-R-U-Z, capital H capital Q, as in headquarters, and follow us on X and chime in and tap in and let everybody know to tap in and hopefully it funnels more people to the podcast and gets more people listening and interested.

SPEAKER_05 59:49

For those of you on X, please head over to Aaron Cruz HQ. Aaron Cruz HQ. All right, folks. Well, thank you so much for tuning in. Always a pleasure, Aaron. Thank you for sharing all these incredible stories.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:03

Oh, there's plenty more.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:04

I know. I again wish I could just hit record gym because a lot of exciting stuff happening. Well, we'll be back very soon with some exciting guests, and we cannot wait to uh share with what you know what's gonna happen next.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:21

That's gonna be a real conversation for that.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:24

Very, yes, very interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:26

All right, folks, we'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:28

Bye. That's it for this conversation on cruise control. Thank you for spending time with us, listening, thinking, and navigating the chaos. These conversations don't end here. So take what resonates, question what doesn't, and carry it in your own work. Physical, mental, and spiritual. If you enjoyed the show, subscribe, follow, and share it. We'll be back soon with another conversation. Until next time, stay grounded, take care of it, and keep your cruise control steady.