You're listening to KFI AM six forty wake Up Call with me Amy King on
demand on the iHeartRadio app KFI and kost HD two Los Angeles, Orange County.
I got it, proved a good call yours, Amy Kay, Good
morning. This is your wake up call for Monday, May sixth. We're
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Amy King. I hope you had
a great weekend. Ready to get back to it. It was crazy busy
for me. I had a friend in town and so we just decided to
do everything. Started off with the fall Guy on Thursday night, and then
we went to the La County Fair for opening day on Friday night, and
I spent way too much money. If you remember, I was talking to
the CEO of the fair and we were talking about how my friend and I
liked to shop at the fair. Yeah, we did it upright. Then
also went to Netflix is a Joke and got to see Leanne Morgan and I
hadn't seen her before, but she is huh hilarious, Oh my gosh,
so funny, so funny in fact that I got up on Sunday morning and
watched her Netflix special. But she's really a hoot and very family friendly,
but gosh, she was good. And then this morning we get to talk
to another star of Netflix as a joke. Matt Rife is going to be
on with us. He's headlining one of the shows this week. And then
of course we wrapped up our extravaganza weekend with the Dodgers who Killed Atlanta Saturday
night eleven to two. That was a super fun game. But now it's
Monday. Time to get back to it, and here is what it's ahead
on Wake Up Call. UCLA will resume regular operations today. Classes are also
scheduled to be back on at USC now that police have cleared out an encampment.
Over the weekend. Former President Trump will be back in court in his
hush money trial in New York, following Friday's testimony from former top aid Hope
Hicks, who testified that Trump was worried about his wife's reaction to paying off
a former play by Playboy playmate, and a whole lot more. We're going
to be talking with ABC's Peter harral Lumbus, who is in the courtroom to
find out what's on tap for today. Our own Steve Gregory's going to take
a look at some of the failures at UCLA and how if plans had been
implemented correctly, the mess and the mass arrests could have been prevented. Also,
we're going to be talking to Plastic People director Ben Adelman. He's got
a new documentary out, fascinating. That's all coming up. I told you
it's going to be a big one. At six ZHO five it's handle on
the news. Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate Rafa, another sign that Israel
is about to launch its ground offensive in the South. Let's get started with
some of the stories coming out of the KFI T twenty four hour newsroom.
UCLA and USC are set to resume regular campus operations following days of pro Palestinian
protests that took police to clear out. Uclas's faculty can continue to hold classes
remotely if they want through next Friday. Thelice and public safety officers at USC
cleared out a protest camp their early Sunday morning. At least a dozen student
protesters received interim or full suspensions from the university, and several who lived in
USC housing were given until five tonight to pack their stuff and leave the remains
of two Australian men and an American who disappeared during a surfing trip to Mexico
have been found. The men had been missing since late April. ABC's Matt
Rivers's. The remains were found in a well near Ensinata. The state Attorney
General's office calling this a case of a robbery gone wrong, saying the culprits
attempted to steal the tires from the group's car and when the men resisted,
they were killed. The Ensinata Medical Examiner's Office had Friday the three were killed
by gunshots to the head. Three people were being questioned by police, including
a woman found with a cell phone that belonged to one of the murdered men.
A man from Fountain a Valley has been disqualified as the men's winner of
the OC marathon because he took fluids from a spectator. Runners are only allowed
to get water from official hydration stations. A runner from San Pedro was then
declared the winner yesterday with the time of two hours, twenty five minutes,
eleven seconds. A woman from Virginia won the women's race. Well, that's
got to be a bummer. Disqualified for taking a sip I guess you got
to do it because maybe it's going to be a performance enhancing hydration or something
like that. Let's say good morning now to ABC's Peter Harralumbus, who is
in the courtroom in New York. It's day twelve of New York versus Trump.
So let's turn back and talk about day eleven for a second. Trump's
former aid Hope Hicks was on the stand. Yeah, it was an emotional
day of pest on you. On Friday, Hope Picks testified for about two
and a half hours in the prosecution stse against Trump. She offered some really
damaging blows to Trump's defense, acknowledging in a way that Donald Trump preferred the
story about Stormy Daniels to come out after the twenty sixteen election rather than before
when it could have hurt his chances of winning the actual election. That's a
really major blow to support the prosecution theory that Trump was fundamentally concerned about winning
the election and wanted to height information from voters. Moments after she made that
keeal mission, she broke down on the witness stands began to cry. Judge
Maschawn called a brief break. She regains her composure just minutes later, she
apologized to the jury, and she did a relatively gentle cross examination from Trump's
lawyers. During that time. She gave them some minor wins, suggesting that
Donald Trump fundamentally was concerned about hurting his family and wanted to protect them.
That goes towards the major defense points. But in a way, the damage
was already done at that point. Hopepick's really delivering a major point. That
computer's promise when they made their opening statements two weeks ago. Okay, And
then how did former President Trump react to Hicks's testimony. It's interesting it was
more of a non reaction in a way. Donald Trump wasn't very alert or
active during most of the testimony. He was closing his eyes a lot of
the time. The two appear to avoid eye contact or looking at each other
for a significant period of time. When Hicks, for example, began to
cry and walked off the witness stand, she had to walk past Donald Trump
in the courtroom, no real visible reaction from Donald Trump in that moment.
When she re entered the courtroom, he barely moved his head to watch him
watch her enter. It was kind of stunning. These two are Hicks was
one of Donald Trump's closest advisor's most trusted aid, akin to family in a
way, and the lack of reaction between the two was a kind of surprise,
especially after we saw Trump, for example, and his assistant Ronograss interacting
in person after her testimony in the case. Trump for a Ronographs case,
you know, got up in and shook Graft's hand basically and whish for some
words in his ears. No such interaction with Hicks, okay, And for
then day twelve, we know that there's going to be testimony, but we
don't know who's going to be on the stand. Is that right? That's
correct. We still don't know publicly witnesses from the prosecutions in this case who's
going to come next, though it does appear that the prosecutions needs to begin
pivoting their case basically. Over the last two weeks, we've heard plenty of
salicious tales about this catch and kill scheme. Before the twenty sixteen election,
we were testimony from David Pecker of the National Inquirer, Stormy Daniel's former lawyer,
but really jurors have not heard anything about the falsification of business records that
comprise the thirty four criminal accounts in this case. So over the next few
days, we expect prosecutors to begin following witnesses who can speak to that talking
about Michael Cohen submitting fraudulent invoices for legal expenses when in reality he was just
asking for reimbursement for the Stormy Daniels payment and the effort to get Trump to
sign those checks. So that's what we kind of expect over the coming days,
though we don't necessarily know who prosecutors are going to call to make that
point, Okay, and Peter, is it just us who don't know who's
going to be getting in the testimony or does defense? Does the defense team
also not know who it's going to be. It appears that defense team is
largely kept in the dark as well. Oftentimes we understand that they've been getting
kind of an overnight notice of who's coming next, but the element of surprise
has kind of been maintained throughout this entire trial. The main argument from prosecutioncy
to defend that practice is if, for example, they declare the witness on
Friday, Trump could spend the entire weekend attacking that witness on social media and
potentially intimidate that intimidate the potential witness. So that appears to be the case.
Rashaan has had no problem with it, and defense attorneys they just had
to work around that constraints and has that been done before, because it seems
like the defense team should be able to prepare and they're not able to really
do that if they don't know who's coming next. You know, it varies
in a case by case basis in terms of how much advanced note you have
to give that's your next witness. There's no like formal rule on it.
But at the end of the day, you know, defense lawyers have complained
about this on at least two occasions publicly. On each occasion where Shawn has
wighed kind of the benefits of advanced notice versus the threat of Donald Trump intimidating
those witnesses, and he's continually sided with prosecutors. Again, Donald Trump at
this point has been held in criminal contempt nine times in this case. That
doesn't really help his case when it comes to making a case for advanced notice
when prosecutors say you might threaten witnesses. Okay, and then one last question
before I let you go, what's happening outside court. Is it just sort
of business as usual or are there are there people gathering outside or is there
anything unusual going on so that the heavy police presence. For sure, there's
metal barricades all over the place. I'm looking out across the park outside of
the courthouse. There have been minimal Trump supporters or protesters. For example,
in the park right now, I see what appears to be five people wearing
red Trump hats. But generally speaking, it's been a low presence of support.
Trump is blamness on police presidents. I don't know if that's true at
all. Really, there's been a slow trickle of support coming by holding mini
rallies in this park, but nothing too significant. All right, Well,
we know you got to get to court, so we're gonna let you go.
Peter Hira Alumbus, thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
All Right, we'll talk soon. So interesting to hear what's going on in
the court to me, Like I said, I mean, you don't just
sit and watch it. Well we haven't since you know Oj Simpson, and
since there's no cameras. It's Peter My favorite thing still was listening to him.
I think we talked to him last week, and he was talking about
some of the only sounds you hear in court are the mad, frantic typing
of all the reporters who are in the room because they have to send updates
out to their news organizations, and so they're all just tap tap tap tap
tap tap tap tap. Anyway, let's get back to some of the stories
coming out of the KFI twenty for our newsroom. Early this Monday morning.
Strong winds have caused some problems around southern California. Man, it was blustery
yesterday afternoon. Scaffolding at a construction site in Hollywood got blown over yesterday onto
some power lines. A couple of fires in the San Fernando Valley were pushed
by wind gusts, and the wind may have helped push over a large tree
onto a street in mar Vista, hitting two cars. Strong winds also caused
organizers of the Beachlife Festival in Redondo Beach to shut down a few hours early.
That's a bummer. A dash bus driver in La has been attacked by
a homeless woman, days after transit operators staged a sick out amid ongoing safety
concerns. The woman yesterday went after the female driver after refusing to pay fifty
cents for a ride. Video shows the woman pulling each other and throwing punches.
The driver, who had been behind a partition, was pulled off the
bus. She was eventually able to get back into the vehicle, shout out
the homeless woman and drive off. A college student in the Inland Empires been
suspended for having an assault rifle on campus. That's not all police found.
When authorities executed a search warrant at an apartment complex on Friday eight uc Riverside,
they also found AMMO, five high capacity magazines, and hand drawn images
in a journal that depicted a violent act. The content of the images has
not been disclosed, and authorities will submit the case to the Riverside County DA
following a hearing at the college. Authorities also say that the student is ordered
not to return a camps pending the outcome of the hearing. Andrew Caravella Kafi
News UCR police say does not appear the incident is related to any recent campus
protests. Six people have been hurt in the capsize of a boat near the
Port of Los Angeles, and La County Lifeguard boat picked up the six from
the sinking boat late yesterday afternoon. LA fire boat crews worked to upright the
boat after the rescue. The Fall Guy's number one at the box office,
but the Ryan Gosling Emily Blunt movie about stuntmen opened below projections twenty eight and
a half million dollars in ticket sales. I think the last I heard it
was expected to bring in like forty million. A re release of Star Wars
The Phantom Menace finished in second place with just over eight million dollars. Zendea's
Tennis Love Triangle movie was third in its second week and release. Laped.
Officers in riot gearv cleared out a pro Palestinian encampment on the campus of USC.
Officers formed a perimeter around Alumni Park, where dozens of tenths have been
for the last couple of weeks. Officers reportedly corraled demonstrators outside the main section
of campus and shut the gates. The tent camp is being cleared. No
reports of arrest made. The latest round of Gaza ceasefire talks appear to have
broken off, at least for now. Israel and hamaser trading blame for the
impasse in the long running negotiations. Involving Katari, Egyptian and US representatives.
A lot of people partied to celebrate Sinko de Maya. Of course, that
was yesterday, but a new poll shows most people don't know what they're celebrating.
The poll, sponsored by Avocados of Mexico, shows only twenty two percent
of people know that it's not Mexican Independence Day. Holiday celebrates the Battle of
Puebla in Or eighteen sixty two, when the Mexican army defeated an invading French
occupation force at six o five its handle on the new South Dakota. Governor
Christy Noem's book is about to be released and people are losing their minds over
it. We'll tell you about that. Kfi's Steve Gregory says a report from
the University of California shows UCLA failed to implement civil unrest protocols during those protests
last week. The Robinson Day Report was compiled in twenty fourteen as a way
for campuses in the UC system to find a universal way of handling various types
of protests, including one to ask for outside help. KFI News acquired a
copy of the one hundred and four page report, which shows recommendations for ten
campuses, including UCLA. Some of the recommendations are specific to a campus and
others are system wide. But according to the president of the union representing police
officers in the uc system, UCLA leadership dropped the ball when it came to
handling the events leading up to and including the night the chpn LPD broke up
an encampment and made dozens of arrests the university itself. I don't know what
they're guided by and how they make those decisions. I think oftentimes they want
to try to solve the problems themselves, which is fine most of the times.
But the warning signs were all there right when they started to fortify the
encampment, when video from up above showed them gathering fire extinguishers, PPE and
other items. Those are telling signs that they're preparing for something, and so
why they chose to wait to go into there, You'll have to ask them.
Wade Stern is an officer with the UCU Riverside Police Department and the president
of the Federated University Police Officers Association. He says they use the Robinson Eddy
Report to establish rules of engagement, and one of the priorities on the list
is first, using the university's own system Wide Response Team or sr team,
they're able to respond to civil disobedience and civil unrest on our campuses. That's
what we're trained for. We are guided by the Robinson Eddley Report with our
community Safety plan that's been put together by the university itself, the Office of
the President. At the time our SRT team prior to had been called police
did ask for our officers to respond for an SRT call out and then it
was canceled twice. The report also made forty nine recommendations for all ten uc
campuses, which includes number fifteen requiring each campus police department to ask for help
from other campus police departments before calling in outside agencies. Or number nineteen,
which increases the training of campus police in the areas of crowd management, mediation
and de escalation. And how about number twenty two, which requires formal training
of administrators at the state and local levels in the areas of crowd management,
mediation and de escalation, the federal incident command structure, and police force options,
all of which are to be refreshed annually. Stern says there's been no
new training since twenty twenty because of lack of funding. The report also includes
a letter from UCLA Chancellor Gene Block dated October twenty third, twenty thirteen,
certify the recommendations and the commitment to implement them. During my interview with Stern
news Broke, the Chancellor Jean Bloc created a new Office of Campus Safety,
which will be led by a former Sacramento Police chief with thirty years of public
safety experience. So this is now trying to take police out of the direct
hands of the vice chancellor, which is executive leadership at the campus. And
so now what you're going to have is is you're going to have a chief
that is going to report to this guy who was going to report to a
vice chancellor who's going to report to the chancellor. More bureaucracy, more bureaucracy.
What you're going to have is you have a chief that you've been trusted,
right, that has over a thirty years experience in law enforcement, that
you hire to handle law enforcement on campus and safety on campus. And now
you're bringing in another person with the same amount of experience. Because the chief
over at UCLA oversees the police department and emergency management. So you're bringing in
somebody else with thirty year years of experience to oversee the chief and emergency services.
I don't understand. I'm trying to make sense of that. Does it
sound more like an ass covering move than more of a tactical move. Yeah,
I mean the timing of this doesn't look good right, students. Is
a good example of just how UCLA's police department was restrained by campus leadership can
be illustrated by this phone call between a UCLA police dispatcher and the mother of
a Jewish student who claims her son had been refused entry to the campus library
by pro Palestinian protesters. Unfortunately, the police are not interveaning with that right
now. And this is coming from the university. So if you had any
concessions to concern you with taking with the university itself. So the university has
taken a stance that they will not in fact allow or help Jewish students get
to their classes. That this is going to be tolerated as the directive cannot
entertain at this time year. In the statement last Thursday, Chancellor Jeene Block
said the university's approach to the encampment that was established on Royce Quad had been
guided by several equally important principles, the need to support the safety and well
being of bruins, the need to support the free expression rights of the community,
and the need to minimize disruption to the teaching and learning mission. Locke
said they'll continue to investigate the violent incidents, especially that horrific attack by a
mob of instigators. When physical violence broke out that night, leadership immediately directed
the university's police chief to call for the support of outside law enforcement. Leadership
is carefully examining the security processes that night. Wade Stern says he hopes the
investigation will reveal all of the events leading up to the moment the HP and
LAPD went in. He says, it's a lot like the scene of a
plane crash. Investigators don't focus solely on the crash itself, but the chain
of events that led up to the event. The theory being all crashes have
a chain of events, long or short, that lead to a crash.
A crash doesn't happen without warning, and if the sequence of events is recognized
and acted upon, the chain of events is broken and the crash avoided.
For wake up call, I'm Steve Gregory. Kay if I news pretty interesting
stuff. Huh. Hopefully they'll get their acts together. I'm watching American Idol.
Are you watching American Idol? They're down to the top five, and
I think that I finally got a little vindication for my Abby Carter, who
I told to you about it last week and said, I think she's fabulous.
I thought she was gonna win. Then I didn't think she was going
to win because I didn't think the judges were with her. But they might
be back in her quarter corner. She did Hello by Adele last night,
and here's just just a piece of it. He's so true and so it
so for good Jenny go Home. She practically brings me to tears every time
she sings. And the judges even said that that was angelic and beautiful and
they really liked it last night. So and she's still in it. So
oh, if you haven't watched it, sorry, Okay. About twenty UCLA
faculty members have called for amnesty for pro Palestinian student protesters who were arrested at
the university at a protest Saturday night. In addition to amnesty for the students,
they called for Chancellor Jene block to resign. Two bodies have been found
in a makeshift cave in Northridge. LA Fire says it found the bodies along
with a white powder in the cave yesterday morning near North Lindley Avenue. Willy
say the two people found were transients. Former President Trump will be back in
court in his high money trial in New York following Friday's testimony from former top
aid Hope Hicks. She testified that Trump was worried about his wife's reaction to
paying off a former playboy playmate, but also said that the story coming out
before the election wasn't a good thing. At six oh five, it's handle
on the news. Another bus driver in LA has been attacked. At five
point fifty, we're talking to the director of a new documentary called Plastic People.
And it's not about plastic surgery. It's very scary, very disturbing,
and you're gonna want to be listening for that one. All right. Now,
let's say good morning to the star of Natural Selection on Netflix. And
one of the stars of the Netflix is a joke festival comedian Matt Rife.
Now, Matt, Natural Selection got ten million views in its first week of
release. That's pretty impressive. You know, I think it did okay.
Thank you for having me, good morning. It did do okay, And
I will tell you that I had not seen it until just recently. Dang,
you're funny, but you kind of leave no stone unturned and it's not
for the faint of heart. Oh well, thank you. I think that's
a compliment. It is. I mean, it's comedian. It's a comedian's
job to push boundaries, right, And if we have a unique comedic perspective
on something, why not talk about it exactly? And in your special you
say that at the very beginning, you kind of say, yeah, I'm
kind of testing the waters with the audience. I'm wondering, do you really
test the waters or is it kind of damn the torpedoes full speed ahead.
Now, every comedian does that. That's why you usually choose which couple of
jokes you're going to start a show with to like just kind of test the
tone of an audience, because every audience at every show, at every city
across the country is completely different. Right. Yeah, you might do a
joke in one city and it could crush, and you go try the exact
same joke in another city and nobody likes it at all, So you do
have to theoretically just test the water and see what the tone of the audience
is and figure out what they're going to be into and the kinds of things
that you might be able to even steer them in a direction they didn't think
they were going to be comfortable going, and then you show them that there's
actually a very funny way to talk about the thing that makes them feel uncomfortable,
and now you have a great show. Yeah. I'm wondering, Matt
if you've found or had to change anything in any way because everything is so
PC. Comedy seems to sort of be the last bastion of political incorrectness.
Does it play into your performances? No, I do not care the things
that the things that upset you and offends you comedically are not my problem.
I'm sorry. I don't pander to the audience that doesn't like my comedy.
I perform to the people who do like what I have to say and the
kind of jokes I do like to tell. You can't sit around and base
your whole life off of the things that people don't like about you, and
there's so many things that people do like about you. And I don't believe
there's any limit for comedy whatsoever. There's nothing you can't make a joke about
if it's all done creatively and with the right intentions, which are just to
make people laugh. Do you think that being a good observer helps make you
be a better comic? Oh, yes, ma'am. You're happy to have
to take in your surrounding, especially especially if you're gonna do some crowd work.
I mean, that's what I've found to be the most effective is so
simply just be present, listen to what they have to say, really observe
the story they're telling you, and ask inquisitive questions that are going to lead
to unique, funny answers, not just not just where you're from, how
long you've been dating, you have kids, you know what I mean,
Like the basic setups, being present and being informed is definitely a comedian's best
tools. Yeah. And I watched some clips of you on YouTube. You
were just completely off the cuff and interacting with some people who had disabilities in
the audience, and it was no holds barred, and I was like,
Wow, you did that in a way that was funny, a little bit
uncomfortable, but made sense and wasn't like nasty, rude or anything like that.
It wasn't demeaning or anything like that. I was really impressed by it,
and it was darned funny. Well, thank you. I mean,
that's the purpose of comedy is it's supposed it's with the intention for everybody to
laugh. You're obviously not going to appeal to everybody. That's an impossible task.
There's eight billion people on the planet not anything to like you. You've
got thirty three million of them following you though, So thank you. And
I'm even more happy that a few of them are handicapped. When these people
come to shows, they're also there to have a good time, like they
they are aware of the conscious decision being made to come laugh at a comedy
show tonight. And so many comedians, and not just comedians, by the
way, normal human beings greet people so different, like they're not just normal
human beings who happen to have a slight disability. You know, so many
people are so uncomfortable or afraid to laugh about the same things that these people
also might want to laugh at. Like nobody even takes the time to ask
than what they find funnier or their perspective on things. So when these people
get to come and I get to just have a normal interaction with them,
it stuns more people than it should. Honestly, I'm just so happy they
get to come and have fun. Absolutely, I think, especially today,
we all need a good laugh, and I think a lot of people are
going to be laughing a lot because you're headlining for the Netflix is a joke
comedy series, and that's happening May e that the Hollywood Bowl go Mad May
eight. I'm so excited about it. I've wanted to play this venue since
the first time I ever visited LA when I was sixteen. The Beatles played
there in nineteen sixty four. I mean, it's it's the most iconic venue
in LA And the fact that I get to now play it and headline it
as the youngest comedian to ever get to play the Hollywood Bowl, It's a
dream come true. And I'm planning on it being the best show of the
entire five hundred show tour that we're on right now. So I think people
have they come out expect to see me for an hour. I have a
lineup of a bunch of my hilarious friends. We have some prize guests popping
in, as well as a musical performance by rapper performer Core Day as well
one of my very good friends. It's a jam pack show, okay,
and Matt Rife, Where can people follow you? Because I know, like
I said, thirty three million are following you. But if you know you're
one of the people who hasn't followed him yet, where do they do that?
Pretty much? Everything is just my name, just Matt Rife, m
Att rif e TikTok. I think has an underscore in between my first and
last name. But other than that, just my name. Go search it
see if I'm funny or not. All right, Netflix is a joke and
Matt Rife is a star, and we appreciate your time. Knock him dead,
Matt, have a great time, and thanks so much for taking time
to talk to us on wake up call. Thank you so much. I'll
see you, sir. I hope so very funny guy. Netflix is a
joke, is going on through May twelfth, and it's everywhere and if you
go down I hadn't been down to Hollywood, so when we went down there
on Saturday to the Pantagious, there's just signage everywhere, and it's like at
all the theaters. It's at the Egyptian and the Welter and and the Pantagious,
and the and the Bowl and the Kia Forum and several other locations.
And if you are looking for a good belly laugh, the shows are going
on again, as I mentioned, through May twelfth, and you can just
go to the Netflix is a Joke website and see all the shows. They're
still even adding shows and there are some that are sold out, some that
are getting close to being sold out. But I was literally crying at Leanne
Morgan on Saturday, and I haven't been to a comedy show for a while,
so that was a lot of fun. Highly recommend it. Let's get
back to some of the stories coming out of the KFI twenty four hour newsroom.
You CLA and USC are set to resume regular campus operations following days of
pro Palestinian protests on campus. Of course, police had to come in to
clear those out. UCLA says faculty can continue to hold classes remotely if they
want through Friday. Police and public safety officers at USA cleared USC rather cleared
out of protest camps yesterday early early in the morning At least a dozen student
protests received interim or full suspensions from the university, and several who lived in
USC housing were given until five tonight to pack their stuff and get out.
The La County Youth Climate Commission has submitted its report to the Board of Supervisors.
After ten months of work, including surveying and meeting with young people under
the age of eighteen, The county's first youth Climate Commission has found their top
priorities cleaner air, green spaces, and green buildings. Commission member Isaac Michael
Lebara says he learned how younger people feel the impact of climate change differently,
like during a power outage, air conditioners don't work, and then when that
happens, you know, students can't sleep at home and they're expected to sit
in classrooms that are just as hot, if not worse. The commission is
made up of young people from around the county and is believed by the Board
of Supervisors to be the first of its kind in the nation. Michael Monks
KFI News Attention shoppers, there's a new push to get rid of self checkouts
in California. A bill making its way through the legislature would change regulations in
hopes of cutting down on theft. The bill says it would also boost employment
by increasing the number of employees monitoring the stations at the checkouts. The California
Chamber of Commerce is against the move, saying it could hurt business. The
Dodgers take on the Marlins tonight at seven o'clock. Listen to every play of
every Dodgers game on AM five to seventy LA Sports live from the Gallpin Motors
Broadcast booth. You can stream all the games in HD on the iHeartRadio app
Keyword AM five seventy LA Sports. And as I mentioned, I was a
game Saturday night, eleven to two win over Atlanta. It was fabulous Love
the Dodgers. A UC Riverside student has been suspended and ordered to stay away
from campus after an assault rifle was discovered in the Students on Campus apartment Please
Say A rifle, ammunition, and a journal with drawings depicting violence were found
in the apartment when a search warrant was issued at North District apartments. The
Riverside County DA is going to decide if charges will be filed. The latest
round of GAZA CSP talks appear to have broken off, at least for now.
Israel and Humas are trading blame for the impasse in the long running negotiations
involving Katari, Egyptian and US representatives, and California's tourism is at an all
time high. In a social media video recorded from the top of the Golden
Gate Bridge yesterday, Governor Newsom says visitors are coming to experience the wonders of
this state, from a world renowned coastline to the world's tallest trees, to
iconic cities and theme parks. New data shows last year's spending topped a record
breaking one hundred and fifty billion dollars. We're just minutes away from handle on
the news this morning, Boeing is about to go out of this world.
But right now we're going to say good morning to Ben Adelman. He makes
documentary films, TV shows, commercials. He's made several award winning feature documentaries
that have been featured at film festivals including sun Dance. Also, you can
see some of his work on Apple TV, Disney Plus, Netflix and others.
Let's say now good morning to the director of a new documentary called Plastic
People, Ben Adlman. Good morning, Ben, Hi there, good morning,
nice to be here. Well, I appreciate you getting up to talk
to us this morning. I just watched Plastic People yesterday. I wanted to
have it fresh in my mind, and I tell you, it's a pretty
stark reality that we're facing. And right out of the gate, this documentary
says, you know what, we're in trouble. We're basically becoming plastic people.
So tell us what the documentary is about, Ben, sure, Well,
it's basically about the human health impacts of microplastics and microplastics if it's a
new term to some people. They're just basically very small, tiny pieces of
plastics, so that would be like five millimeters or smaller. And they're here
because one of the things we're sort of learning about plastic now is that it's
basically an indestructible material. That's why it's such a useful material. It never
really disappears or bio degrades. It just keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller
and smaller until it becomes essentially microplastics or microscopic, I should say, which
is sort of the same thing. So you could say, we say in
our film that you know, basically every single piece of plastic that's ever been
made, you know, over like you know, the you know, one
hundred year history of making plastic still exists here on earth, like in some
form, just as smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller form. And of
course, you know, I'm sure people know that we've made a lot,
a lot, a lot a lot of plastics, and we're just making more
and more and more and more of us. So basically it's everywhere. It's
in the air, in the water, in the dust, in the food,
you know, everywhere on Earth, like the top of the Arctic,
in the bottom of the ocean, and the latest frontier. And this basically
what our film looks at is that it's getting into our into our bodies.
So essentially everywhere you look for microplastics, they find them everywhere. You say,
was there anywhere that you said that you didn't test it? Because I
was watching the documentary. I don't want to give it all away, because
I want you to watch it. This is it was fascinating, But like
all the tests, it was like everything everywhere in your food, in your
blood system, in the air, I mean everywhere. Yeah, I mean
it's essentially a new but growing field of sort of study and science. But
I don't know one hundred percent, but I in all the research I did
for more than a year, and other people working in the film, they
didn't look anywhere and not find it, including all all over the human body.
So you know, obviously it's hard to sort of look in the human
body, but you know, they found it in lung blood, people's species,
you know, more disturbing in like placentas of pregnant women, and then
our sort of film climaxes with fighting it in the human brain for the first
time. Yeah, so that's it. And you know, they really are
everywhere in the sense that like you're breathing them in right now. I'm breathing
them in right now, and I'm sure everybody listening also is okay. And
then bed you also go into in the documentary a little bit about how plastic
became so popular and whether it was like, oh, we could use this
and it's sort of a natural evolution that it became so popular, or was
it kind of pushed on us. Yeah, it's definitely pushed us. I
mean, especially you know, these sort of miracle materials were invented, you
know, in the twenties and thirties, and it became super useful and got
more and more in youth, and you know, not to go too far
back in history, but in World War Two is when they really really really
ramped up production, especially in the US, kind of like, you know,
make this useful material and sort of push it out. And it was
extremely useful. But then at a certain point, you know, they reached
the limits of how much plastic they could sell, and this concept of single
use or disposable throwaway material, with classic being a big part of it,
came into use. And you know, as you say that, people didn't
take to that super easily at first, because you know, our grandparents are
great grandparents, you know, they weren't you know, accustomed to just using
things once and then throwing them away. So there were literally campaigns to teach
people, yeah, you should throw it away. It's good to throw it
away. There was an article in Time magazine or is it Life magazine,
Life magazine called Throwaway Living, and it was sort of like advertising this concept
of just like this entire meal, this entire sort of picnic, that this
nice family's having everything here could just be thrown away. You don't have to
bother cleaning anything out. So we were trained to be a throwaway society.
We were basically trying to do it. Yeah, yes, and advertising played
a big role in it, and people resisted for a while until, you
know, we get some sort of the point where we are now, where
fifty percent of the plastic made, you know, which is a huge amount,
is made for single use applications. So this indestructable material is used designed
to be used once and then thrown away and then it essentially lives forever.
That's that's encouraging. So I think it's been The way that you chose to
film the documentary was very interesting. It's in the present day, but it
looks and sounds more like it was made in the seventies. Just so the
way that the film presents itself. Why did you choose to do it that
way? Well, yeah, well yeah, I mean that's as you to
say. It was sort of I guess it was sort of style, a
style choice to give it a bit of that, you know, it's a
bit of a dark subject. We wanted it also to sort of have a
fun element and a watchable elements, so that sort of you know, that
retro futuristic plastic world. You know that was sort of promised to people in
like the sixties, seventies and a little bit the eighties. We were using
a lot of footage from that era, so we kind of incorporated that style
into the film in general. It makes it really a little bit ironic,
a little bit fun to watch. Yeah, Okay. What I appreciated about
the documentary too, Ben, is that you don't just show us the sobering
reality of what the current situation is and kind of push us off the cliff
and walk away. There is a glimmer of hope in there too, which
I appreciate. Sure, yeah, thanks. I mean one of the easiest
things to sort of address is all this sort of single use plastic. And
you know, most of us remember time. I mean I don't remember time
without plastic, and I'm sure most people don't really, but a time when
you know, most of the time you went to the seven eleven, you
know it was glass, not plastic that you bought your like iced tea in,
or you know, apply that to like almost everything. You know,
pickle jars would always would have been glass. So I mean, we know
how to do it in a lot of ways. And could take a big,
big chunk out of the extra plastic that we make pretty easily without you
know, affecting people's lives too much. So yeah, that's where I would
start. And then there's all kinds of other things being worked on, technological
solutions and other things. Yeah. You know, I've got my reusable shopping
bags, and I've not been a huge prop proponent of getting rid of them
because, you know, like you said, they they've taught us that they're
very convenient, and like they're now looking at getting rid of the plastic vegetable
bags and plastic bottles. But after seeing this, I'm really kind of rethinking
it. And then also, like when I was getting ready for bed last
night, I'm like, Okay, I'm brushing my teeth. It's plastic.
My toothpaste is in plastic. Oh but that container over there is plastic.
It is everywhere. It's so pervasive. It's like, how do you get
away with it? Get away from it? Yeah, it's pretty overwhelming to
me. I Mean what I've done in my sort of personal life is just
tried to just focus on the single use. Yeah, you know, I
work in like on film crewise and they men it's about as bad as it
gets. You know what. People just the first thing that the you know,
production saysiness do is buy like a case of bottled water, and we
do. We do do a lot less of that now And it just happened
kind of instinctively. But yeah, it does feel like in a big problem.
But you know, there are people working on it. There are people
trying to regulate these things, make less toxic plastic, plastic that actually biodegrades,
which is early doesn't really happen. There's a study you see you see
San Diego. They're working on it, and they're saying that they've discovered some
way that makes the plastic biodegrade. So it'll be interesting to see if they
actually can pull that off. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of people are
working on it. I mean, the promise of biodegradable plastic was a little
you know, ahead of itself because it turns out that biodegradable plastic or you
know, still created these microplastics and still was pretty toxic. But people are
working on the non toxic version of it now, you know, as we
speak. Well, I think in the meantime, the easiest thing for people
to do is just sort of reduce a little bit of there's the single use
plastic. You know, it's all often unnecessary, and I'm not saying every
single use obviously there's there's very useful uses. And also people should be aware
that you might get the impression that we're using less plastic because like you said,
of usable you know bags that we take the grocery stores. But we're
actually making more and more and more and more plastic, and if you look
closely, you'll see it in places you don't expect. Yeah, it's it's
everywhere. Yeah, Okay, Ben, thank you so much. How how
can we see this video this documentary? Well, well, we're on Canadian
and it was a Canadian production, so right now it's going to be broadcast
in Canada, but we we're working on the American distribution. There's a distributor
working to like get it onto streamers and it'll definitely be in you know,
theaters all over the US and like community screenings and university screenings and things like
that. So there's a website, plastic People doc dot com that people could
look at and soon enough there will be US screenings and streaming. Okay,
for now, plastic people dot dot com. The movie or the movie documentary
is called Plastic People, and Ben Adelman, one of the people interviewed,
says, we didn't get there in a day. We're not going to get
out of it in a day. But it's a really fascinating documentary and on
this day, we appreciate you taking the time to talk with us about Plastic
People. Thanks Ben, oh, thank you very much, my pleasure.
Bye. This is KFI and KOST HD two Los Angeles, Orange County.
We lead local live from the KFI twenty four our newsroom. I'm Amy King.
This has been your wake up call. If you missed any of wake
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