Adam Ford: From Amish Country to Media Guru… How Did This Happen? | ( Throwback 4/3/20 )

speaker-0 (00:06.222)

You're listening to At the Mic with Keith, an independent podcast production. Welcome to another episode of At the Mic. I'm your host, Keith Malinak. There are a lot of fascinating people who work at the Blaze TV. And one of those is the managing producer of the show, Does America. His name is Adam Ford. And he recently sat down with me and we discussed, well, Barney the dinosaur's inspirational tree. How it was to work for Joy Behar and growing up.

Among the Amish. Huh. we also talked about herpetologists. All right, let's get right to it. Adam Ford, this week's guest on At the Mic. I'm here with Adam Ford, a coworker of mine for how many years have you... you know, before I do this stuff, let me just, I owe you an apology, okay? Because I walked into this room two and a half minutes late, okay? See, I'm always the guy who shows up early, okay?

speaker-1 (00:56.685)

I'm ready.

speaker-1 (01:04.866)

Well, apparently not.

speaker-0 (01:05.838)

Apparently not today and you were waiting out there in the hallway to come in here and I felt bad enough at that and then I was two and a half minutes late and So I didn't respect your time and I'm sorry So thank you for being prompt because you you sir are the I think the only person in this building that shows up where they're supposed to be on time and so thank you and I'm sorry that I betrayed that trust

speaker-1 (01:28.878)

It took years of practice to get there and years of beatings by my father to get that way. But the two and a half minutes was not a bad thing. If you'll notice where I was sitting, I was under the Barney tree. Oh yeah. And what a better spot for inspiration for something like this. That's true. Than under the Barney tree. Yeah. This is really a spiritually enlightening time for me.

speaker-0 (01:47.512)

Yeah.

That's good to know. But now, is the rumor true? We, I don't know, we molested that Barney tree and cut it in half, right? Because didn't it used to be a lot taller?

speaker-1 (01:59.083)

yeah, mhm, yeah we destroyed it.

speaker-0 (02:01.048)

That's sad. mean, with it went so many innocent childhoods.

speaker-1 (02:05.314)

We didn't destroy it, we made it more efficient. It's a better tree now. Just like all the trees in the rainforest, you know, they were just sitting there doing nothing as far as I'm concerned. But now, their paper, toilet paper, they're useful.

speaker-0 (02:20.12)

Thank you! Humans needed newspapers more than monkeys needed... Wait, there's no monkeys down there. messed that up. time. Okay, so you sir have been employed here at the Blaze for how long?

speaker-1 (02:26.412)

they're they're all dead I see we can cut down their own

speaker-1 (02:34.902)

time coming up on a decade in April, I think.

speaker-0 (02:38.614)

Nice. So hold on a second. Wait, wait. I got to do quick math here. So did you work with the Blaze then before Glenn moved his operations down here to Dallas?

speaker-1 (02:49.85)

I sure did. was Glenn's first TV intern at CNN in, what was that, 2007? Just a summer internship, randomly assigned. That's how I got to know a lot of the people that are still around because they were working with that operation. Finished the summer, went back to school, graduated, hit up all my contacts from the internship, ended up back at CNN on a...

The wonderful Joy Behar program or whatever we called it. was just high-tier television. She was very nice. She was very good to her. Really? Absolutely.

speaker-0 (03:23.064)

she fun to work with?

my goodness, that's good to hear. I wouldn't believe that if I didn't know you.

speaker-1 (03:32.066)

Yeah, there were, I'm sure there were Diva moments, but I was pretty low on the totem pole. And she invited the whole staff over to her house, threw a whole party, Whoopi was there. It was kind of cool, know? No regrets for that, but I only lasted a year or so on that show. I was very happy to abandon the CNN ship and head over to Mercury Radio Arts, where Glenn Beck was about to leave Fox News.

speaker-0 (03:50.862)

Did you leave or were you-

speaker-1 (04:01.398)

and start his new thing. So that was when I came in in a full time capacity.

speaker-0 (04:06.69)

So it's just ironic that you grew up in Dallas and now you're back here, I'm sorry. That's right. You were born in Dallas. I'm Okay. And, was that traumatic? mean, that first year you, must've put down roots and,

speaker-1 (04:10.188)

Well, born in Dallas and moved away like when I was a year old.

speaker-1 (04:19.226)

I mean, Colleyville was where we had our house and it was just, you know, real hard to leave. we were headed for the green pastures of Connecticut.

speaker-0 (04:30.702)

Well, so wait now, how did you grow up then in Amish country, Pennsylvania? It looks like it's Lancaster County, I think it's pronounced Lancaster. You got it. So did you go from Dallas to Pennsylvania straight through or you went to Connecticut?

speaker-1 (04:44.406)

I was to Connecticut until fourth grade and then to Amish country in fifth grade where I stayed through college in Philly and onward to New York.

speaker-0 (04:53.622)

And so you took a horse and buggy everywhere you went? yeah.

speaker-1 (04:56.302)

It was a weird dynamic out there. Part of my driver's test, I had to prove that I could correctly pass a horse and buggy on the streets, which involves, you know, not being on a hill, signaling, getting over a lane, all the stuff we ignore because we just buzz by them as close as we can, know, to nick the horse with our window and way by, know, just liven up their day a little bit.

speaker-0 (05:19.566)

Yeah, so because I've when we lived up there we went to Amish country, know and they spin a week. Yeah, it's it's it's a whole new world. It's fascinating In fact, I remember getting the tour of some sort of like house or whatever that was set up You know from the period and it was right behind a target, you know And so but I remember passing on the road the horses and the buggies I never thought that that would be incorporated into a driving test, but that makes total sense, but it's a it's beautiful up there

speaker-1 (05:46.838)

If you don't mind the smell.

speaker-0 (05:47.822)

You don't mind the smell, but no, it's really cool. So obviously not everybody in Amish country, not everybody in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is Amish. I was going to ask you, do you know what the percentage is? Don't make me Google.

speaker-1 (05:57.134)

Correct, I would say the minority.

I don't know the percentage. I'd say probably about 75 % what they call English and 25 % Amish. This is where you go. They're very localized. know, there'll be a couple of miles where it's a ton of farms grouped together. And then you'll have the, I love calling it the English area because they call us the English. It just, it seems like just a normal suburbia.

speaker-0 (06:07.755)

Okay

speaker-0 (06:19.384)

That's fun.

speaker-0 (06:23.47)

Okay, so you grew up basically in the Northeast after spending a year here in Dallas. Have one sibling? Yeah. Okay, very cool. How close are you guys in age?

speaker-1 (06:28.812)

Yes, older sister Ashley.

She's three years older than me. She's up in Pennsylvania. She does teaching and she's a karate instructor on the side. My sister and father are both black belts in karate.

speaker-0 (06:39.383)

Wow.

speaker-0 (06:42.949)

my gosh, bet, hold on, when did she start taking classes?

speaker-1 (06:45.966)

Oh, when she was very- Oh no, probably 13 or 14 years-

speaker-0 (06:50.818)

Did you guys get along, or did she kick your butt all the time?

speaker-1 (06:54.262)

We had a tumultuous relationship that grew into us being very close eventually. But yeah, I made it to Greenbelt in karate and then I quit because I wanted to play hockey.

speaker-0 (07:11.566)

Hold on, well first of all, we gotta talk about hockey, that's awesome. Oh, I'm with you, I'm with you, yeah, yeah. We got a lot to talk about hockey, but first things first, if I remember correctly, remember, you'd go to a, maybe you don't remember, don't know, how old are you? 33. 33, okay. So you're 33, when I was a kid,

speaker-1 (07:14.126)

Straight hockey, not ice hockey.

speaker-0 (07:32.43)

The Karate Kid movie was a thing. And you'd go to the theater and you'd get a coupon. Hey, five free lessons or whatever at the Karate Milly Snitch store to the theater. yeah. awesome. that was huge, yeah. And that's why so many kids my generation there got into karate.

speaker-1 (07:47.31)

huh, everybody walked in and wanted to do the crane move. Right? Right.

speaker-0 (07:50.414)

So I remember, I remember, well first of all, being terrible at it. Okay, but I remember really struggling to go from the white belt to the yellow belt to the green belt, is that right?

speaker-1 (08:04.174)

depends on the form. I was tongue-sudo. I think there's...

speaker-0 (08:07.37)

Okay, because I was about to say, not impressed if you made a two level advancement, but you're talking about you were really up there then, huh? well then. Forget that setup.

speaker-1 (08:13.952)

Now it's about to belt.

speaker-1 (08:18.047)

They said I had a real affinity for it though. They said I could have like gone and gone on to get really good at it And then they like the sound of that

speaker-0 (08:24.451)

I was going to say, did they say that while they were showing you how much the next course would cost? But you're doing it so great.

speaker-1 (08:31.788)

But to circle back to your question, my sister won a lot more arguments the further up in belts that she got,

speaker-0 (08:39.597)

That would make sense. Yes, ma'am. Whatever you say. Absolutely. Okay, so you alluded to street hockey. my gosh, I've never heard anyone ever talk about playing street hockey other than me. And then, know, 20 years that it's been since I've had a chance to play.

speaker-1 (08:53.976)

huge in our town. Yeah. Mm Gap, Pennsylvania. had the the Salisbury Township Youth Hockey League. It was a league. There were probably 10 or 12 teams of, you know, 15 kids per from all around the area. It was was a big deal.

speaker-0 (09:01.058)

was a lea-

speaker-0 (09:10.844)

so that was running around in shoes, right? was it skating? So that's more like roller hockey type stuff. Yeah. Because I just run around, man. We call it street. It does sound cool.

speaker-0 (09:28.066)

My goodness. I would have learned how to skate well and know how to stop more, more specifically. Yeah. If there was a league, you know.

speaker-1 (09:34.094)

You gotta drag that tail. That's cool. We had like down at the Gap Town Park, we had two concrete rinks with, you know, little foot high lips and then fencing for the rest of it. That is cool. You know, there's, there's, they were pretty no contact about it, but we didn't care. know, we got pretty br-

speaker-0 (09:53.28)

I bet it did. what was the age range that you played then?

speaker-1 (09:57.996)

That would probably be from about the time I was... Well, we were playing out in the cul-de-sac, you know, from the time I was 12. I didn't join the league till about 14. Yeah, 14, 15, 16. That kind of year ranged before high school got to high school.

speaker-0 (10:07.118)

Speaking my language,

speaker-0 (10:13.634)

Okay, through high school, yeah. So, so the Organized League sounds like a blast. Yeah. What position did you play?

speaker-1 (10:19.437)

files.

I was, they pretty much just split us into offense and defense. And if you were right-handed, you took right wing. If you're left-handed, I played right wing offense.

speaker-0 (10:29.952)

Awesome. Very cool. Okay. So grew up there. You eventually went to college at Temple. Sure did. In Philadelphia. And you majored in broadcast journalism. How was that?

speaker-1 (10:40.302)

It was good. I actually came in under print journalism. They had it split up between print, radio, and television. When I selected print, the very first thing that my teacher told me was pretty much, this is a dying industry. You don't want to be in newspapers. You need to rethink your career path. was like, okay. So broadcast it was. it was, I went to Temple because it was either that or Penn State for accredited schools of journalism in Pennsylvania.

and my sister was already at Penn State and it's a big area though, I'm pretty fast, I could probably run away. it scared me how big main campus was, and we used to go to concerts at the Bryce Jordan Center and it was terrifying. So my SAT scores weren't quite good enough for main campus, I would have had to do a satellite school for two years and that just sounded like a whole thing.

speaker-0 (11:11.608)

Hey, you knew she

speaker-0 (11:32.398)

Let's be honest, that's why all of us got into broadcast schlussum. Our scores weren't good enough for any other situation.

speaker-1 (11:34.787)

That kind

speaker-1 (11:38.785)

Something like that. So Philly I went.

speaker-0 (11:40.844)

Okay, okay, because I majored, I went to the University of Nebraska, and I mean, it's basically the same degree you're talking about, Mike, as journalism. think it was journalism and mass communication, something like that. And I do remember that the year that I enrolled there was the last year you didn't have to take any math classes. Lucky. Right, you only had to take two years of a foreign language instead of four. I forget, there's one other thing. I got in like at the right time, because I don't know if you're familiar with me, I...

speaker-1 (11:58.606)

speaker-0 (12:10.094)

can't handle a simple math problem. So it worked out nicely, I grew up in good company. Yeah. Right. So, and, and let's be honest being broadcast majors, have no real marketable skills outside of this building. So it better work out or we're doing something completely different. keep an eye.

speaker-1 (12:22.206)

Nope.

speaker-1 (12:27.188)

Alamo Draft House website to see if they're hiring servers just in case. I like their business model. I feel like I could contribute.

speaker-0 (12:34.114)

Awesome, that's great, yes. But I knew, I marked time age eight when I wanted to get into radio. When did you get that bug to be in this business?

speaker-1 (12:45.006)

Oh man, not for a while. It would have been, I wanted to be a fireman and then I wanted to be an air traffic controller. Apparently, well, it doesn't matter, it's too stupid for all of these. So it was just childhood pipe dreams. But my father was in the Air Force. He was an air traffic controller during the war. So, and then a herpetologist was a big driving in middle school, early high school.

speaker-0 (12:54.328)

Wow, you like high pressure situations?

speaker-0 (13:12.59)

Yeah, which is...

speaker-1 (13:13.848)

It's not the study of herpes, it's reptiles and amphibians, biology kind of stuff. That is the proper name for someone who studies reptiles and amphibians. I lizards. I used to love catching snakes out in the garden and keeping them in tubs in the garage.

speaker-0 (13:19.15)

I've never heard that word, first of all.

speaker-0 (13:25.418)

And how did you get that bug?

speaker-0 (13:34.156)

You wanted to be a firefighter, you wanted to be an air traffic controller, and then you caught snakes as a kid. I mean, you like to live on the edge.

speaker-1 (13:44.182)

Apparently as much of the edge as suburban Connecticut will provide or Amish country, Pennsylvania, but I got into journalism in high school because I wanted to take more writing and English classes because I've been a voracious reader since I was very, very young and I've always enjoyed writing. And you know how you'll have that one teacher in high school that makes the difference in your life that changes your whole trajectory?

For me, was Adam Barkaski at Pequay Valley High School. He showed me a side of writing and political engagement, civic engagement. He showed me what journalism was and could be and just really sparked something in me that I was like, really like this. I'm gonna stick to that. If Mr. B is listening to this, thanks Mr. B. I think, we'll see, TBD.

speaker-0 (14:35.883)

Very cool.

speaker-1 (14:42.06)

Yeah

speaker-0 (14:42.67)

So you're a big reader. And I guess my next question then would be, what's your favorite book or name some books that you're a big fan of?

speaker-1 (14:51.086)

You know, I came up on Michael Crichton. I, uh, I stole my dad's copy of Jurassic Park when I was in like, uh, think fourth or fifth grade, and I was reading it. Was that-

speaker-0 (15:01.11)

Before or after you were obsessed with reptiles and all that stuff?

speaker-1 (15:03.874)

This was probably a little before, if not during the early stages. So I just put that together. Who knows, Jurassic Park, dinosaurs. Of course, those dinosaurs were birds, right? That's what Dr. Grant's competitor says. But I stole his copy of Jurassic Park. I got in trouble at school for reading that book. The teacher said, should not be reading this book. It's too advanced for you. My parents were not pleased.

speaker-0 (15:15.598)

That's

speaker-1 (15:32.022)

with with that teacher. So what are you doing discouraging this young boy from reading books? absolute moron. Why are you a teacher? So

speaker-0 (15:42.26)

I've never heard of a teacher that said, you know what? It's so cool that he's reading, but shouldn't be reading that.

speaker-1 (15:48.384)

No, no, no, let's dumb it down a little bit. I like to write. Yeah, I do some creative writing on the side. Short stories, poetry way back in the day.

speaker-0 (15:51.95)

So you said you write or you

speaker-0 (16:02.894)

Things that see the light of day or just for your own enjoyment.

speaker-1 (16:05.23)

my own enjoyment. don't think my wife has read any of this stuff. But there is a novel somewhere inside me that probably when I'm about 75 years old will find its way out. Good for you. Thinking aliens on an uninhabited island.

speaker-0 (16:08.514)

Ha!

speaker-0 (16:18.786)

Wait a minute, is the island on Earth? I don't want to steal your story.

speaker-1 (16:21.422)

Well, I mean, it can't give away the ending. Maybe a shipwreck in our service. Yeah, oh yeah. You just give me 10 bucks right now and I'll keep it in mind.

speaker-0 (16:31.8)

Wanna miss out. Yeah. Okay. So you working out the blaze going on a decade. all of us, you've had other jobs that you've held. I'm going to save. Hold on. Let me go through these cause I'm saving one for last cause that's very intriguing. boy. You're a server at Rita's water ice. I don't know. What is Rita's water ice?

speaker-1 (16:48.188)

yeah. Northeastern people now. It's, I don't know why they call it water ice. It's the stupidest name ever because water is ice. It's like a soft Italian ice. It's a little bit looser, a little bit closer to ice cream.

speaker-0 (17:04.27)

I thought I knew kind what you're talking about. It's just kind of like, I know what you're talking about, but a server, like are you in like, I was just saying like a little shack.

speaker-0 (17:20.629)

How long of line did you have to deal with at its worst?

speaker-1 (17:23.394)

man in the summer months. Pretty long, I'm trying to think of what I can say. Because there's a really interesting part of this saga that may end up getting me sued, it's been so long now. So you know Annie Ann's pretzels? Ann Beiler lived in my neighborhood growing up in Amish country, Pennsylvania, this little town called Gap. Her house looked like a normal house, but it went like.

speaker-0 (17:28.397)

Is that yourself in there?

speaker-1 (17:51.124)

six stories down into the ground. She had like a pool and like a bunch of cars and motorcycles. Really cool lady, really charitable. She was a favorite of the neighborhood kids, you know, in terms of having us over and, you know, coming and watching us play hockey in the cul-de-sac, stuff like that. we knew her and we worked at Reed's, me and my friend David, and I'm bringing him into this too, because if I'm going down, he's going down with me. And so we worked at Reed's and

We had a talk from our boss who said, listen, if we called her Annie and if Annie and comes around, serve her, take her money, be polite, but don't talk to her too much about anything and don't give her our secret stabilizing powder, which was a white powder, which maintain the flavor throughout the ice.

It was the secret ingredient, know, what made Rita's Rita's and So sure enough Annie Anne came Of course came looking and she was she was very she was very friendly with the neighborhood kids So I'm gonna yada yada yada over some stuff and a couple of months later Annie Anne's Crayamo Opens up which was a Rita's water ice knockoff from Annie Anne that

That did not last, unfortunately. It was quite good. It did not last, though. We love Annie Anne, to this day, I try to grab a pretzel wherever.

speaker-0 (19:22.348)

And you do have an attorney that you keep on retainer. yeah. Very good. Very good. So you've been a server at various restaurants and stuff. What's like the worst customer experience that you've ever had with a?

speaker-1 (19:25.899)

huh, okay, so he's listening right now. Hi dad. Yes?

speaker-1 (19:36.158)

people. Really? Yeah, they're not listening so I can say this. They don't tip or if they do tip it's very very small and we had a party of 14 that stayed for about three hours and I had to work over the end of my shift. Couple hundred dollar bill all said and I think like a dollar twelve left on the table at the end of the night as a tip just as the change that they had gotten and I

speaker-0 (20:01.678)

Yeah

speaker-1 (20:03.016)

It's and I get it, it's a cultural difference, but that cultural difference, you know, was affecting my college payment.

speaker-0 (20:10.382)

No kidding. Wow, see, that's too bad there wasn't somebody in the group. I'm gonna out my grandfather when he was around, you know, we go out to eat or something, he would leave a dollar on the table because he's cheap, you know, and I would wait till he was almost through the door and kind of hang back and I would have,

speaker-1 (20:27.566)

Like that Curb Your Enthusiasm

speaker-0 (20:31.606)

And I go back and make sure that they were taken care of. Because that's terrible,

speaker-1 (20:37.57)

Yeah, it's, you know, say what you will about the tipping style of the American restaurant industry. It's the system we got, and you should take care of these people.

speaker-0 (20:46.91)

I agree. I agree totally. So you worked in a warehouse. What'd have to do in there?

speaker-1 (20:51.352)

carry stuff around. I was in the best shape. The only time I've been in anything considered good shape was that summer at the feed and supply warehouse. Yeah, Stoltzfus feed and supply warehouse also in Lancaster County. The most popular last name in in southeastern Pennsylvania Stoltzfus. Like more popular than like Miller or Smith and there's a lot of them too but just a lot of because there's a lot of Amish and Mennonite out there and Stoltzfus is just a big name all around and even none.

speaker-0 (21:08.632)

Wow!

speaker-1 (21:20.012)

Amish or Mennonite people have the last name Stultz.

speaker-0 (21:22.307)

Thank you for that describe if you can briefly the and I'll edit this out if you totally flub this so it's okay. No risk care the difference between the Amish and the Mennonites

speaker-1 (21:33.088)

the Mennonites are like Amish that have just lost their way. No, if you're going to put Amish in English on a line, Mennonite are somewhere in the middle. They've got cars, but there are certain rules for the cars. They have to be like black and stuff, and they have to hold a certain amount of people. You know, they can use electricity and stuff, but they're very limited on what they do use.

I really don't know a whole lot about the Mennonites. I knew personally more Amish people than I did Mennonites because I worked with a couple at the warehouse.

speaker-0 (22:07.118)

Yeah, it's not a Mennonite smorgasbord, right? That's an Amish thing, right? Where they had all the food and the big... yeah.

speaker-1 (22:15.71)

Yeah, that's Amish. And all the restaurants out in Lancaster County. Like if you go to a, there's a place called Kelly's, it's just a traditional Amish restaurant. They make their own everything. Peanut butter, chips, and

speaker-0 (22:29.55)

I can't remember the name of the restaurant we went to when we you know We lived up in New Jersey and we went to Amish country like I said earlier and we ate at one of those places I have never been so full in my life on a day that wasn't in November that was so good. The food was incredible

speaker-1 (22:46.446)

And they're all so skinny. I mean, they work very hard, obviously, from early to late,

speaker-0 (22:51.215)

And like you said, you were in the best shape of your life when you work at the feed store, you carrying around like sacks of food and stuff like that.

speaker-1 (22:56.566)

Horse feed, corn, concrete, anything a farm would need we probably carried and

speaker-0 (23:03.042)

which transitions into the other job that I wanted to get to that you had, a corn pollinator. What is corn pollinating and is it something we can talk about on this podcast?

speaker-1 (23:08.334)

There it is.

speaker-1 (23:13.11)

We sure can and it was actually a very fascinating aspect of living in Amish country was that farming and agriculture was not just an Amish thing. It was a huge industry for everybody out there and there was a corn research facility known as Pioneer and we're talking high tech like genetic kind of testing and stuff.

speaker-0 (23:36.332)

And this doesn't, don't think this sounds too weird to me. Again, I went to the University of Nebraska. yeah. you know, corn husk.

speaker-1 (23:42.798)

You know all about the female and male strands of corn and everything. So like any good successful company, it has to be built upon the backs of young under the table, unskilled labor, bunch of 14, 15 year old kids, you know, making 10 bucks an hour under the table. Wait, what? Out in these massive fields. When you're doing research on corn, it has to be grown and

speaker-0 (23:46.84)

Tell us. Walk us through.

speaker-1 (24:12.494)

Pollinated in a very particular way, you know, if you have a field of corn all of the different plants are gonna pollinate each other just Chaotically, you know willy-nilly the winds blowing everything around as a corn pollinator My job was to take the pollen from a single plant of corn and make sure that pollen got only onto the little shoots of ears of corn for that plant

which would require taking a big paper bag, putting it on the top of the stalk, which is where the pollen comes from. And the little shoots of the ears, we had what we called corn condoms. They were little white paper bags that we would slip down over the ears of corn. Thusly, you'd be taking the pollen from one plant and making sure it only got on itself.

speaker-0 (25:05.484)

That is awesome.

speaker-1 (25:06.676)

And that way you could, you know, have whole quadrants of corn that were male, female, sweet corn, feed corn, all kinds of who knows what kind of Frankenstein crap they were getting up

speaker-0 (25:18.298)

So the corn that we love, different variations, like you just said, is because of great people like you.

speaker-1 (25:25.634)

I don't know that they, like sold this corn as like feed or for food. I think this was purely for research and science-y types.

speaker-0 (25:34.494)

maybe down the line your efforts of putting condoms on. On corn. I don't know.

speaker-1 (25:41.836)

It was great though, my mom worked there, my sister worked there, we all went there, and it is miserable work being out there, even if it's only 90 degrees, it just feels hotter. Corn plants, as you know, being from Nebraska, can be very sharp, and you gotta wear long sleeves, otherwise you're gonna come home looking all cut up and stuff, Not fun, no.

speaker-0 (26:03.568)

Okay, so I think recently, really recently you got married, right?

speaker-1 (26:07.299)

Sure did. How long has it been? What's today? February. It's been like four months. Four or five months.

speaker-0 (26:11.854)

Thanks for dating the podcast. No, okay. So he recently got married and her name is Jessica. Okay, very cool. Congratulations. Thank you. And I send out these questions just so you're, you in advance, you kind of have a heads up of what I'm going to ask and stuff. And one of the questions I ask is do you have any kids? And this is the greatest answer I've gotten yet. I sure hope not. Great response. Great response.

speaker-1 (26:20.238)

Sure is.

speaker-1 (26:37.694)

written in sarcasm.

speaker-0 (26:38.888)

Do you have plans to have a family someday or you guys-

speaker-1 (26:43.278)

It's a little early on for that discussion. We're still trying to get our honeymoon planned.

speaker-0 (26:48.654)

Wait a minute, wait a minute. That's not a discussion you have before you decide to tie the knot?

speaker-1 (26:51.872)

So we have decided that we are open to the idea if and when it feels like the right move for us.

speaker-0 (26:59.554)

I promise not to pry any further along these lines.

speaker-1 (27:02.287)

I think we would both love to have kids. I think it's a matter of whether or not we think the world's in a place that we want to bring another life into.

speaker-0 (27:10.156)

then you're never having kids. This world sucks. Yeah. The evening news is the best form of birth control. Nothing. You said that last night and the night before. Okay. So when you have any downtime, which, you know, working here is a rarity, I realize. What do you like to do for fun,

speaker-1 (27:13.08)

Give me S birth control.

speaker-1 (27:19.074)

Can't have a baby now, world's going to hell.

speaker-1 (27:31.63)

I've taken to instant pot cooking recently. It's this great thing that Jessica bought. You just put a whole bunch of ingredients in a pot. You turn on the pressure like 15 minutes later, like some gourmet stuff comes out. It's great.

speaker-0 (27:35.821)

Ha ha.

speaker-0 (27:46.146)

the most fascinating inventions ever?

speaker-1 (27:48.975)

It's like a slow cooker, but you're taking out the eight hours and turning it into-

speaker-0 (27:53.078)

It almost feels like, okay, what's the catch here? Am I getting cancer by eating what's coming out of this Instant Pot? Dissoluc... Dissinating inventions! I'm glad you mentioned that because, so you've been experimenting with...

speaker-1 (27:59.606)

Absolutely. Something's gotta be wrong with this.

speaker-1 (28:08.332)

I've done like six meals at this point. this is not like this is this is not a long-term hobby that I've had but I have been enjoying it. But I'm a reader. I'm a TV watcher. I'm a video game player. I like to once the insanity of the days worn off I like to I like to settle down, relax and my wife is very much the same way. You know we're big consumers of media and movies, TV shows.

speaker-0 (28:33.9)

Okay, so I got it. Yeah, you got books video games movies TVs. Let's go back to the instant pot. Yeah, it's a fascinating discussion as you impress yourself with whatever you cook in there and dishes turn out So I'm gonna need some something to pass along here to the wife because that sounds like Okay, yeah, just be sitting this stuff whenever like I said yourself send it to me please pretty good. Okay

speaker-1 (28:44.514)

I'm so easily impressed by myself.

speaker-1 (28:52.59)

Firecracker Chicken.

speaker-0 (29:01.024)

Any pets that you have? Are you an animal lover or anything like that?

speaker-1 (29:04.448)

Yeah, yeah, we we have a cat that was formerly my cat when I first moved to New York City I had to live out in Jersey City, New Jersey Yeah, we only had one major shootout between the gangs and the police and only a couple people died So and that's that's a true story. Actually. I had to spend the morning like six in the morning on the floor with my cat like holding on to it because there were bullets flying by the windows outside I had to

speaker-0 (29:14.39)

Isn't it a lovely state?

speaker-1 (29:34.038)

have a police officer walk me from my apartment to the PATH station. was outside Journal Square, real, real nasty area of Jersey City. And I got to work at CNN, had a little TV on my desk, and it's like massive shooting in Jersey City. I was like, that was me, I was right there.

speaker-0 (29:49.427)

That's rough.

speaker-1 (29:52.096)

And so I was, it's hard to make friends in Jersey City. It's very messy. It's hard to make friends as an adult. But so I adopted a kitty in Jersey City and he's a great little cat named Zach. Comes from a Star Wars name from a book I read a million years ago. That's it. And he's got personality. He's not just going to give it up. You you got to earn his affection.

speaker-0 (29:55.874)

I make friends in part of me

speaker-0 (30:09.646)

That's a cool name. Z-E-K-K. like it.

speaker-0 (30:17.58)

Yeah.

speaker-1 (30:21.61)

The, my first time that, that Jessica came over to the apartment when we were dating, I gave her this warning, like, listen, the cat's a little weird around new people. You know, he won't attack you, but he'll bite or scratch if you try to pick them up. She walks in, scoops this thing up in her arms, flips him on his back and just starts petting his belly. Something, something I've never done. And the cat was so shocked by the audacity of the act that he just didn't do anything.

And she put him down a little bit later and he ran off looking all confused and I think that set the dynamic of the relationship that they've gotten along ever since

speaker-0 (30:58.186)

the alpha now. Just to clarify, this isn't the apartment in Jersey. This is locally. Right. Yep. Okay. I was about to say, so I love that cat. Yeah, that's awesome. I love cats with personality.

speaker-1 (31:04.898)

This was here in Dallas.

speaker-1 (31:12.654)

rescue from Amish country. was a... because barn cats out there, the Amish and even just regular farmers treat them like rats, like vermin, you know. They'll, you know, they'll send an exterminator to get rid of barn cats because they just spread and multiply.

This cat was found in a trash bag with his brothers and sisters and he was the only one that survived. No. So we were at the SPCA or the Humane Society or whatever and I had picked out this little orange one that just looks stoned like this little kid just looked out of his mind. And then they come in this basket and I see this little brown guy peeking his head over and it was, know, who would eventually become Zach and I

speaker-0 (31:52.622)

I said, no, that's the one. That's really cool, man. That's awesome. You talked about crappy apartment experiences. When I lived in Houston, this is the irony of where I've lived. I lived 45 minutes north of the city. And you would think it would be a nice safe area or whatever. It was a nasty apartment complex. I I had a leaky ceiling for six months that I complained about. I sent registered mail, all stuff. Nothing could get done. And literally, Adam, I'm not kidding.

I went in for the last box, my last thing when I was moving out. no. And this guy came up the stairs, a maintenance guy goes, yeah, I'm here to check out your leaky ceiling you got. I'm like, are you kidding me, man?

speaker-1 (32:32.683)

That was on purpose. Don't think for a second that was an

speaker-0 (32:35.342)

Yeah, so I must have pissed someone off. Who don't I piss off? So anyhow, I there was a there was a tropical storm Allison that hit there was 38 inches of rain You know just a couple of miles recorded from my apartment complex. So there's massive flooding and

speaker-1 (32:52.662)

Houston's traditionally kind of a dry area.

speaker-0 (32:55.63)

I don't know much about Houston. No, Houston is set up where as you spit in the street, you go in, turn on the weather channel, wait for the flash flood warm. That's how Houston is. Gotcha. But about a week before this tropical storm hit, dump, you over three feet of rain in some parts, this momma cat, this black momma cat walked across the street in front of me and these little kittens were following her like ducklings, right? And they were all black and I was like, that's cute. And about a week later...

I was leaving my apartment one Saturday morning and this little whiny little kitten, little black kitten was crawling up, you know, anyhow. And the family hadn't moved or Carrie, we didn't have kids at the time. Carrie hadn't moved to Houston yet. And so I adopted this kitten and- They need someone to f*** Right, right. Exactly. So was me and Clarence for a few months, Clarence. The reason I tell you this story is we lived in this apartment complex, much like your Jersey city experience. But thankfully I didn't risk or didn't realize I was risking life or limb.

speaker-1 (33:33.912)

Come home to.

speaker-1 (33:37.624)

So.

speaker-0 (33:47.978)

Until I years later, I had moved away several cities later. I was in Charleston, South Carolina. News broke about this guy who had chopped up his girlfriend and then grilled her out on a grill in the parking lot of the apartment complex where I had lived just a few years before. That's fun to see.

speaker-0 (34:12.301)

No, no, this happened after I moved away. Yeah. It was. don't know. Let's see when then then we moved down to the hood. have a problem with anybody. Not a problem. Then we moved to the far western edge of Omaha, Nebraska. And in two weeks after living there, someone stole my car stereo. You just never know who you're sharing space with. looks can be deceiving. Yeah.

speaker-1 (34:35.883)

went four years in North Philly at Temple with no issues and then I moved to Dallas and in this, my first apartment was up on, off of Greenville Avenue, kind of near the Street. It's really fancy area, really nice apartment. And my car got broken into, like the first few months I was here. I know, it's like, aw.

speaker-0 (34:52.866)

Doesn't that feel great? Is that fun being violated like that? Yes. Okay, so you've got some interesting talents. You can write and record songs.

speaker-1 (35:01.93)

Ugh, yeah. Did I really put that? That doesn't require proof though, right?

speaker-0 (35:03.566)

Yeah, you put that. No, no, no, no, no, there's not gonna, I'm not gonna splice in a song unless you want me to. you're using my iPod. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Are we talking about, like, are you playing instruments or are just singing?

speaker-1 (35:09.827)

Don't touch my-

speaker-1 (35:16.443)

Both, play guitar, bass, and I've been known to sing a little bit.

speaker-0 (35:21.57)

You what do you is this like you're writing you just do it for yourself?

speaker-1 (35:24.374)

Yeah, yeah, I was in a band in high school. Really, just imagine if Blink-182 was just worse than they already are. Just infinitely worse than that was us. covering some of their songs. I was.

speaker-0 (35:36.426)

lead singer? want I want to hear something no

speaker-1 (35:40.75)

But there's, I think there's a video on my Facebook page of an old concert at Java Joe's in Pennsylvania. yeah, once I started the career and went to New York and then ultimately Texas before I met Jessica, like we said, it's hard to make friends. So you look for things to fill the time. And I had just a little MacBook with a plug-in mic and it came pre-installed with GarageBand or whatever. And I knew little bit about audio editing. So I just would lay down acoustic songs.

um, got probably 15 or 20 of them and uh, my high school band actually does have an album. Um,

speaker-0 (36:19.21)

I'm gonna need to hear that.

speaker-1 (36:20.598)

It's so the band was breaking something beautiful because we had all seen Fight Club and thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I got a shout out to David Savakinas, Phil Copley and Dusty Steppi. Those guys were, we were terrible, but, I'll, I'll play you something.

speaker-0 (36:36.856)

Sometimes you'll get a kick out of it. thank you. Okay, so, you know, I just realized at this point in the conversation, and my brain just got triggered or reminded, I should say, when you talked about audio editing, I didn't ask you what you do under this roof, or the blaze earlier. what I do? Yeah, so, I mean, because your role has really evolved over the last 10 years. yeah. So many different... So what is it that you currently do here or have done? I mean, whatever you want to tell me.

speaker-1 (36:56.808)

And one thing and another.

speaker-1 (37:03.054)

So I guess it just laid out linearly, started as a PA on Glenn's show, just kind of floating around all his projects, more just a Glenn PA, helped out with little bit of radio.

speaker-0 (37:14.798)

That's a production assistant. Yeah.

speaker-1 (37:17.358)

production assistant this was back in New York real old days worked with Glenn for a long time and really really found my stride as as an employee here when I started on the wonderful world of Stu which was a comedy sketch program with Stubergear and we had seven great seasons a couple of really fun years I am so proud of some of the stuff I did on that show

you know, I pull it out to show new people all the time and that's why I'm so excited to recently have moved because I went back to Glenn after that ended. We just, there was no logistical way to keep that going. And you know, we, we, we did a lot of cool stuff. back to Glenn for a while. now Stu does America. I'm so excited to, to be back on a project with Stu, especially a comedy show with him. You know, we,

We click very well in terms of our writing. What we think is fun.

speaker-0 (38:15.57)

Yeah, the sense of humor. I mean your sense of humor is spectacular and that's one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you for this podcast. thank you. Yeah, absolutely

speaker-1 (38:22.572)

I start my stand-up career this afternoon.

speaker-0 (38:25.528)

wow. Yeah, there can be a concert in here later with your garage.

speaker-1 (38:27.607)

Use the studio.

speaker-1 (38:31.951)

Yeah, I got about four people that I know that are gonna come watch. You're one of them.

speaker-0 (38:35.882)

Okay. Well, shoot, I'm busy. Just checked my schedule. Swing it. I'm washing my hair, which you know is a lie since I have none.

speaker-1 (38:39.852)

It's.

speaker-1 (38:44.174)

You have some of mine. It's beautiful and bountiful.

speaker-0 (38:47.608)

Listen to you bragging over there. It's all I got. He's got a beautiful head of hair. Yes, sir. That's it. And so under the question, what is something people don't know about you? Do you want to tell the good folks? What did I say? Something about your politics.

speaker-1 (38:57.806)

No, there's no need to go into that too deeply. Let's just say the great thing about television, and especially political television, even more especially in the comedy world where you're just looking for ways to make light and make fun of anything, it's great that we live in a country where you can work for a network that espouses certain political views that you don't have to line up with them yourself.

I'm an individual, Keith, and I can't be defined on a black and white, right? No, I'm a bleeding heart liberal. I'm absolutely a bleeding heart liberal.

speaker-0 (39:31.254)

And I think that's completely fair.

speaker-0 (39:36.61)

But, but correct me if I'm wrong, you have no problem making fun of your side when it's necessary. it's ridiculous. find the humor in it and you can write to that.

speaker-1 (39:45.646)

Easy and that's the thing, you know I don't think anything is so sacred that we can't just laugh about it because because once we do then that's when everything starts getting so tribal and an angry and confrontational and you know, I'm a very Big believer and everybody believe what you believe and stand up for yourself and what you believe but don't like don't be a jerk about other people like

speaker-0 (40:11.01)

Right, right. Have your beliefs, but can we still laugh together? Yeah.

speaker-1 (40:14.094)

And I have a lot of personal beliefs that probably fall more in the the conservative area, you know, I'm very pro-life Although I consider myself liberal. I'm just not a big fan of killing things, you know any kind of thing, especially babies So, you know, it's just it's it's

speaker-0 (40:30.806)

So are your friends mostly liberal? So how do they react to the fact that you work for Glenn Beck?

speaker-1 (40:38.858)

they, you know, they get it. I'm sure at the start, you know, it was probably a little like, really? What are you doing there? But I always tell everyone the same thing when that question comes up. It's like, Glenn Beck may be, you know, people know Fox News firebrand Glenn Beck, but the Glenn Beck I know has never spoken, like, he tells the truth to what he believes and he never BS's. Same with Stu.

You know, I may not agree with everything that Glenn and Stu believe, but man, they're telling the truth and they're doing it because they believe it's beneficial for all of us as a country, a society, and I just, I respect people who don't try to lie. You know, just people are so full of crap and you find anyone who is just willing to be honest.

speaker-0 (41:26.062)

Yeah, yeah, you

speaker-1 (41:34.431)

and listen to you be honest and that's another thing you know Glenn's always said I like to surround myself with people who have different ideas than me because it helps strengthen my own such a big believer in that concept

speaker-0 (41:43.98)

That's great. mean, have you lost any friends over who your employer is or okay? Well, that's good. That's no if have some hope

speaker-1 (41:51.062)

If I would, then I probably wouldn't be friends with people like that in the first place. You know, that's just such a...

speaker-0 (41:56.514)

You want to publish a book in your lifetime. is... That book that's living in your head from earlier? Is that what you're talking

speaker-1 (41:58.604)

Yeah, in the top of the book.

That's just one idea. I really would love to write just a great horror novel, something that really shocked people. I'm a big Stephen King fan, have always been. Huge fan of his son, Joe Hill. If anyone hasn't heard of Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, in his writings, he is better than his father, in my opinion. And I read this book that Joe Hill did called The Fireman about a post-apocalyptic scenario where

people are spontaneously combusting because of a disease. They're bursting into flames and dying across the planet. And it was the most original, gut-wrenching thriller really, because there was nothing supernatural about it outside of this disease that makes you burst into flames. But man, that novel just... The Fireman. it was just so good. And I read this series of books called The Expanse as well, which is a great TV show.

that they made and these guys, the way they write, it just makes me angry. Cause it's so good. And I could never, I don't think I could ever write anything like that, but I want to try. That's the goal. That's bucket list right there. That's it.

speaker-0 (43:15.672)

Well, you and I should get together, because I kind of have an idea for a screenplay. Bounce it off of you and see if you think there's anything. Cool. But under the heading bucket list, because I asked that question in the email, you said that you wanted to go to space or the moon, wherever they'll have you, right? You said, settle for having your ashes shot into space. think that's a thing. Which is fine, but I don't think that that counts as a bucket list, because I think the bucket list, have to still be alive.

speaker-1 (43:21.068)

Love to experiment with the screenplay.

speaker-1 (43:33.653)

Did I put on there about my ashes?

speaker-0 (43:45.475)

right.

speaker-1 (43:45.9)

Yeah, but does anybody really know what happens to the spirit after death? Like, could be like that Doctor Who spinoff where people are still alive no matter what happens. That was really crazy.

speaker-0 (43:56.11)

I've never heard of anyone who wanted their ashes shot into space. Either there or How could you go about doing that? Like, who do you call? The guy who runs Richard Branson, you're to call him and...

speaker-1 (44:07.232)

It's a company. I remember hearing about it seeing on Reddit or something, but just this guy that was, you know, building rockets to send people's ashes into not like, I don't think, you know, on a trajectory to head out of the solar system, it probably gets up into like the one of the lower levels. Space junk. Yeah. And I would love to think that my space junk would one day collide with the ISS and, know, just cause a complete global catastrophe. Remember that.

speaker-0 (44:23.342)

Where were it just?

speaker-0 (44:32.878)

That's good. That's good. they would oh no There's ashes or or they would they would be planning missions to make sure that they didn't Intercept your ashes or something or collide with them or whatever like like an asteroid belt. Yeah that could

speaker-1 (44:47.15)

never been me that killed Clooney in Gravity. spoiler. Sorry. Did he die?

speaker-0 (44:51.256)

Haven't seen it. Was it any good? right. Well, that's cool, man. Do you think that we will see regular space travel in our lifetime?

speaker-1 (44:53.87)

This was good the first time. In theaters since.

speaker-1 (45:04.751)

I really don't know. Not through anything government funded, I don't think.

speaker-0 (45:10.626)

And when I say space travel, I mean with individuals like you and

speaker-1 (45:14.162)

Colonization of the moon or Mars. I would love to see it in my lifetime. It's gonna be done privately. Future supervillains like Elon Musk, those are gonna be the people that actually inject the capital to do these kind of things. It's never gonna happen under the government banner and who knows what China's doing on the dark side of the moon right now. So, you know, if I have to defect to become Chinese to have them shoot my ashes up into space, you know, that's fine.

speaker-0 (45:34.062)

You're not kidding.

speaker-0 (45:41.902)

I'm gonna figure it out. right, anything else that I missed you wanna add here? Tell us about yourself.

speaker-1 (45:46.572)

hate talking about myself, but this has been fun. You know, this is a yeah. Yeah. It's nice to reflect on this company because, you know, like you said, being of a different political mind here in a building like this, it has been such a non-issue that I have put non-thought into for so long. Nobody cares. No, you know, we all respect each other's beliefs.

speaker-0 (45:49.806)

For spending time, I've enjoyed it.

speaker-1 (46:09.998)

We all make fun of each other mercilessly as good friends do and you know this company is it sounds so cliche, but it's a family Yeah, this is I've put blood sweat into tears and to this network and you know I would I wouldn't take a bullet for Glenn Beck, but I definitely be like hey watch out. There's a bullet coming. Yeah

Splinter, one those nasty ones. love this company. love working with you guys.

speaker-0 (46:35.886)

Cool, well us too, man. Adam Ford from The Blaze. What is your title with Stu Does America?

speaker-1 (46:41.742)

Let's go with managing producer, that was the last I heard.

speaker-0 (46:44.374)

energy producer of Stu Does America, Adam Ford. Thanks, buddy. Thank you.