Curiosity, 2nd Amendment, and Parenthood with Julio Barreto Jr.

Hi guys, welcome back to the show. I’m Carol Carpenter, and that’s my co-host in the corner over there, Travis Johnson, and we have a special guest on our podcast today. His name is Julio Barretto. I’ll just give you a quick overview of Julio.

Julio is from the Bronx and has 40 years of experience in business and policy development, community outreach, advocacy, journalism, legislative affairs, and public affairs and public speaking, he has worked in civil rights advocacy with local government officials, business and housing development, policing and crime education, banking, and land use planning on behalf of the Hispanic community. He is currently working with a developer, helping individuals and families become first-time home buyers and realtors Investors welcome Julio.

Hello, hello, hello! I’m glad to be on. Thanks for having me.

Yes, I saw your bio, and I’m interested in you. You are just a dynamo.

Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. I’ve been blessed, no question about it.

Yeah, yeah, we’ll elaborate a little bit.

Well, you know. I live in the Bronx. The only boy was the fourth of five children. So, as my wife often says, I was very for it.

I’m so sorry.

When we bought our house, it was a 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom house. It’s just my wife and I and our son. You know the house had three bathrooms. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven, right? But being able to come from a place where I know you know I am and where I grew up, wasn’t a bad experience, anything like that. But you know, I was exposed to a lot of things at a young age and got to explore a lot of things. 

I left New York when I was 18, and I’m one of those guys. You know, some people. I mean, a lot of people plan their lives. Mine just sort of It happened. When I was in college my criteria was the first college that accepted me and was far away from home. And that’s what I went to. They say consistency is the key to success, I was consistency a C Student and I’m very proud of that. I learned that I love to learn; I just didn’t like school. That was my issue. 

And you’ve already seen what I’ve got. I was exposed to a lot of different things at a young age. I got to travel through the United States and cover a wide range of issues. I met a lot of interesting people, so I’ve been fortunate. I met my wife, you know. I have a son and grandchildren. I mean, I don’t know if the good Lord took me home today. And I’ve got nothing to complain about. I mean it. Because I can’t complain, I say that. Every day is a great day to be alive. You know, if you get to wake up every day, whatever happens during the day is just icing on the cake.

Agreed, and I love what you said about life just happening to you. I find a lot You know that entrepreneurs weren’t planners; things just happened to them, and you know it. It took them down a different path, one they hadn’t anticipated, but that’s all part of the fun and adventure of life is of going with the flow of it, right?

Yeah, you know. And sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I only worked one job the entire time. You know, I mean, I may have, you know, ADHD or whatever that stuff is.

I think all entrepreneurs have ADHD.

Yeah, you know, because I get bored easily and get easily sidetracked, but my mind needs to be stimulated. You know I can get bored. I need to go somewhere else. And sometimes that can be frustrating in terms of finishing a task. 

But you know, I have a curiosity. I’m always asking questions. I’m always reading things. You know my wife’s jokes that I’ll read the back of a cereal box. And if I think it’s interesting, you know? I mean, I’ll use it, and so, you know, I’m just thinking. I love this little bit from my dad. My dad’s 96, and, you know, I guess he’s gone through a lot of stuff in the last 10 years. Brain surgery, heart surgery, amputation of a limb, diabetes, or kidney failure? I mean, it’s not like it’s been through much. But he’s always been that way. He’s always had this one thing—at least with technology—where he wants to learn more and keep his mind active. 

I’ve learned from friends and, of course, my father that the older you get, the more active you become. The more you need to be curious about things. Because I believe that as you get older, you realize how much you don’t know. And you know, and you know, and you realize that there’s a lot more to learn in life. 

I always think of that Louis Armstrong song. It’s a wonderful life. I hear babies’ cries. I watch them grow. They’ll learn so much more than I’ll ever know. Every time I think of those words, it just kind of blows my mind when I think about how much I know. As a soon-to-be 33-year-old, is this your second time? that you are aware that my 2-1/2-year-old granddaughter, is likely to know more than I do. We just kind of blew my mind at a younger age than I was.

Yeah, as much as you’ve been exposed to over your lifetime, it’s been quite the journey because you were around before the digital age, and when that happened, there was this explosion of new information. You can get quick answers for almost anything with this new technology and that new technology, and they discovered that they used to believe that knowledge would be the answer. And now knowledge is at our fingertips, and we’re struggling more than ever. As it turns out, knowledge is never the problem. The issue is how you apply and apply what you’ve learned; as we discussed in another podcast, knowledge is essentially worthless without discipline. You must be disciplined and execute whatever it is that you know or do. make that kind of impact.

Yeah, you know. Everyone knows, as you say, that my grandmother died a month shy of turning 100. And this was probably 12 years ago. One of the things that we sat around talking about was: “How much has changed in the world since then She was alive.” Right, I think she was born in 1898 if I’m not mistaken. I just think of everything that happened. During that period, it was mind-boggling. 

And for us, you know, we were sitting there talking about it, and it was blowing our minds. It was blowing out my thoughts about what she saw. Right, and then we started to think about the changes that we’ve experienced in our short lifetime, and as you say, you know, I remember you know the eight tracks, right?

Oh, I do too.

The 33 vinyl records are coming back, and it’s kind of ironic because that’s coming back. I was just talking to a guy who was around 30. I think he’s 28 and the guys are into vinyl LPs. I met him at a bookstore, buying vinyl.

vinyl LPs for the inconvenience and the expense.

Yeah, that’s right.

Well, everything old is new again. It always comes back around.

That is exactly correct, but you’re right, Travis. What it is knowing how to use it believe I am thinking now. As you say, there’s just so much information, but there’s also so much disinformation. 

And at least there was some level of filtering. So when thinking of the information that we have, right, Travis? It is; the trick is knowing how to use it. I believe I am thinking now. As you say, there’s just so much information, but there’s also so much disinformation. And at least there was some level of filtering.

So, when we use the information that we have right, Travis. Knowing how to use it is what it is. I believe I am thinking now, as you say, there’s just so much information, but there’s also so much disinformation. And at least there was some level of filtering. So, when thinking of the information that we have, you’re right Travis. It is, it’s knowing how to use it. 

As you say, there’s just so much information, but there’s also so much disinformation. And at least there was some level of filtering. So, when we of the information that we. That’s all we have. There really is no filter now, and you almost have to be the filter for the kids and kind of monitor what they’re getting to make sure it’s credible and constructive for them, and so on. 

So, it is. You are aware that discipline, both on the part of the children and especially on the part of the adults, is critical to truly educating and teaching the children how to do things.

Very true. Very true, and I know.  

Yeah, absolutely.  

Travis wants to ask the question.

I want to know what makes you a Titan, Julio.

I think I can relate to all people I mean; you know, I believe in honesty. One thing I have always been able to do is connecting with to connect Even when I didn’t realize it, I’ve always been able to connect with people, and I think that the varied experiences that I’ve had have helped me to do that.

I think I’ve always been open to new experiences, or at least I’m willing to let things play out if that makes sense. You know, when I left New York to attend college, I went outside of Rochester, NY, to a state school 8 hours away. 

Again, the first acceptance was the most distant, right? I believe they gave you an 800 on the SATs for signing your name, and I got a 900 on the test, and so on. At the school, about 1/3 of the student body came from the New York/Long Island area. And there were a lot of guys in particular from New York who couldn’t handle not being in New York.

And there was a huge adjustment. I always tell the story of going down Main Street. We’d consider some hedges.  And I would go into the street to try and bypass the hedges because I didn’t know. was on the other side. And after a while, some friends would say we couldn’t hang out with you. You’re not in New York anymore. You’ve got to stop this. 

And I realized that I had to start learning how to adapt to the environment that I was in and just sort of follow the line of things that I’ve learned from New York. I believe that I would have relied on many of my experiences until I was in my 30s. You know, growing up in New York You know, I’ve always been open to learning and seeing how things play out, so when I finish school, I decided I was going to go outside of Philadelphia to go to graduate school. 

And when I was in college, someone asked me, “What do you do after you graduate?” I said I’d go down to Philly to maybe hop down to DC. There was no real plan, but it just turned out that way. Right? My circumstances, you know, kind of presented themselves, and I had a chance to go to California. Because I was pursuing journalism at the time, I had a chance to go to California, and I’ve had time. I was dating this young lady, and I knew if I went to California, the relationship wouldn’t last. I was curious to see how this thing played out, and as you know, we’ll be married 39 years this year. 

It’s because I’ve always been open to working things out, so again, going back to the question about being tight, I think that because of that I can relate to a lot of people. And you remember the guy I work with in Baltimore who always says, “You know, Julio will talk to a Nat if it’ll stay still long enough. You realize you’re talking, don’t you? I mean, I just like talking to people, and last night I met a guy who used to be Colin Powell’s bodyguard. It was an interesting conversation about Colin Powell. He was looking at something at Best Buy when he said, “Hey, you know, I just asked whom he played for his little. “He was an athlete, and that just led to all this discussion.

You know what I think of all of that—that you see people, and I think too much in the day-to-day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We’ll sit even at the barista stand, and you’ll just leave. Get your coffee. But I’ll talk to the barista while she’s making it because they don’t always work in a place where people can’t see them. They’re there, but no one notices them, and people really appreciate and open up if you just say hello, ask their name, and get to know them, and it’s funny if you go there frequently; they remember you; they’ll make your drink the second you walk in, you know it’s because they feel a connection to you, they like being seen is something we all want, and I believe this is why people open up to you: you are saying, “Hey, I see you.”

Yeah, yeah, and you know, since you say, “I see you”, I think about a documentary on Netflix. John Leguizamo does it. Latin history is for idiots, right? 

And one of the things he says in it about his journey to learn the history of Hispanics in the United States had to do with his son. And so is his son, and I believe his wife is Jewish. He’s Colombian and, I believe, Puerto Rican. But he said that when he looked at history, he didn’t see himself. 

And when he did his research, one of the things he said that I loved was that because he didn’t see himself, he felt so alone; he felt lost and alone, and I think that’s how people are to your point, that if you don’t see people or if people don’t see themselves in you, they feel so lost and alone. 

According to a friend, half of the world is waiting for the other half to say hello. You recognize them, as well as those who take the initiative to say hello, people love that.

I was in the metro in DC at the time. They call the train station the metro station. I have to say hello to a lady, and she was so excited. said thank you for saying hello. She says people don’t say hello here in DC. OK. OK.  

There are actually signs up in Newport, RI, that are posted all over town, especially when it’s late. It says, “Say hello to someone as you’re walking by, and the signs remind you to be a decent human being.” Well, I mean, how hard is it? It’s getting dark out, and you’re out walking. You see somebody and don’t know anything about them. Right now, our lizard brain is wondering, “Are these guys going to screw us over?” Are they going to do something to us, like what? Are we going to do”?

But you say it’s all right. evening and all of a sudden no one’s scared anymore, right? You realize that they are a person. Just trying to get by with life and saying hello, all that fear is instantly gone and vanishes like some kind of magic potion that Carol would send to you through the mail and say, “Follow these directions and some.” 

I only gave you a sage stick, and now, all of a sudden, it’s potions.

So. 

So, do you know why cats are associated with witches? Not that you’re a witch. Carol, but that’s just what’s got me thinking about that.

She’s got nine cats.

I do not. I have no cats. 

Evidently, you know, during the plague, you knew, as it was discovered, that it was rats that were carrying the plague. The only households that did not get the plague had cats and the people who predominantly had cats were women, so they were considered to be sorceresses. And so, it is to this day. Cats are associated with witches.

Now see, I just learned something.

I can see that. It’s that fact that makes it so interesting. When I meet people who say they’re cat ladies, I can be like, “Are you a witch?” According to Julio Bruno, history says…

It’s so interesting, though, that we as people always try to do it. With the sewer, we could put something in a box or put a label on it. the safer we feel, and because they couldn’t explain why it was that people had cats. If you think about it objectively, the cats probably kept the rats away, who had the right to think about it just as we do. It’s not too hard, but you can’t connect the dots. We come up with these stories. to try to make it make sense, right? 

If we took someone from the 1850s and showed them What was a computer? Did you mean black magic? Without a doubt, black magic. There was not a chance in hell that they would be anything other than freaked out the entire time because it didn’t make sense to him. It’s so far removed from what they know or what they think they know that it’s impossible. We live in an era where computing power doubles every 18 months. 

I am so screwed, Travis. I’m already having problems with technology. They keep advancing that far. I’m going to be a complete moron.

Have you ever read the book, “Rise of the Robot?” I think it’s by Martin Ford. He wrote this, I think, in 2013, and at that time he said we were 40 years behind where we needed to be with technology. In 2013, he was saying that technology had the intellectual capacity of a nat. Despite this, we were still 40 years behind where we should have been. 

It was kind of mind-boggling, and then there was this guy, Oppenheimer—I forget his first name—who was convinced that we would eventually have guaranteed income and that the growth sector would be entertainment because technology would take over most jobs and we would have to figure out how to entertain people in order to survive. We literally don’t have rioting in the streets. 

The gladiators are on their way back. I see wrestling making a comeback. We’ve got ways to entertain each other.

Yeah, you USB-no, that’s right. No, that’s right. You know, I tell people all the time that we’re not that far away from having a purge-like society. They’re really not that far away. 

Have you seen any of the movies from “The Purge”?

Those films, indeed.

So, I watched those. For the first time a couple of weeks ago, I was not kidding.

I don’t like them. I don’t like them.

The first one is the scariest to me because it’s about a family in a house, and then someone breaks in. Then that’s the scariest part—the stuff that happens in the streets. You can keep yourself isolated. You can choose not to participate if other people choose not to include you, right? I mean, that’s not true. Home invasion, however, is terrifying, similar to a home invasion. Terrifying, especially in like. Like current residences, there is no place to go.

Hide No, no, that’s right, that’s right, they don’t

That’s why we carry.

Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. You know, it seems that way because, when I was working on civil rights issues, I had a chance to go to Cuba. And I was a member of a second group that accompanied me and my colleague there. And we sat in the house. The group that went before us, I think, were the first Americans to meet with Fidel Castro. In terms of technology, our group was about 20 years ahead of its time in some areas of the stuff that we were doing, but I was on board with this. I was with this other guy, who eventually ended up working for the CIA, ironically, but we were sending the lady’s home.

I love how he just said that. You know, under his breath.

Yeah, if you knew him, you’d know he was a little bit of a radical. So it was just kind of ironic that he became an analyst for the CIA. I just thought…

We were sitting in this lady’s home, and she was an artist before the revolution. And so, by Cuban standards at that time were in the mid-80s. They lived in a lovely home with three bedrooms for just her and her husband. Their kids are in the United States. and she was sitting in her home. We were just talking, and she was literally shaking in tears. 

You have no idea. You are just by saying that cool because they have those neighborhoods. You know the spy networks in the neighborhoods, and people would look at us funny because we were sitting. We were walking with them, but she was in tears, literally shaking in her chair and tears. So we went back to the hotel that Miguel was telling me about. He says, “You know what?” Whom did you get to understand that they were? You know, by Cuban standards, they did very well. They are particularly fond of Cuba’s middle and upper classes. 

I said no, you don’t understand that this woman was petrified in her own home. There’s something fundamentally wrong with society when a person doesn’t feel safe in their own home. That should be your most secure feeling location. 

Right, so to your point, Travis said about the entire first film, don’t you? People should be able to feel safe in their homes, and when they don’t, there’s something fundamentally wrong with society without a doubt. And I agree with you, Carol. That’s why we carry a lot. Yeah, that’s right.

And stockpile ammo.

That’s right. That’s right. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I’m in Maryland, so I’m fighting. I’m fighting, you know, the Maryland restrictions, literally. If I walk outside of my home, I’m in violation of the county code, which is kind of crazy. 

It’s true that they have a restriction in the county I live in. Is that true if you have a Maryland “wear and carry” permit? And you have a firearm that’s within 100 yards of where the public gathers. You are in violation; even if you have a permit, we’re in a carrier state, and the state has a provision that attempts to deny you the right. If you’re within 100 feet of where the public carries

Wait so? You have a concealed carry permit, right?

I have a concealed carry permit.

But they have other restrictions on top of that,

The county has another restriction. On top of that, according to the state, you should know that I’m legit. All that sort of in fact, we’re not. 

When I did my interview with the state trooper, you know, he asked me if I’d ever been convicted of anything, and I told him, “Look, man, I get high just driving past the prison.” If you can’t get me a permit, you know there’s something wrong with your process here, right?

But, because the county in which I live is much more liberal in its approach to things, literally the moment my doors closed behind me, If I’m carrying a magazine, and especially if I’m carrying one in the chamber, I’m in violation of the county ordinance. So, when I’m part of a group that’s fighting it, that’s all a never-ending battle.

Fundamental rights, you know, our constitutional rights state only that we have the right to keep and bear arms. The part where I got upset was because, as you know, I’m a single mom. I’m single now, but I was a single mom when I went to learn how to shoot. I had gotten divorced, and I didn’t want to have to worry about protecting my kids, so that’s why I went and learned how to shoot and started carrying a gun. even went and got my permit for a concealed carry license. If it’s a basic right. Why are we restricting it?

Unfortunately, it’s Maryland, and since that New York State provision, somebody just sent me a note that more than 200,000 people in Maryland have sought their wear and carry permits. Because you must have a case before the Supreme Court reason to justify It I was able to get mine because I did real estate work, but outside of that, you needed a reason to justify it, and once that restriction was lifted, it was removed; now it’s up to 200,000. 

So, even if they try to limit it, if you know it’s not going to happen, it’s not going to happen, and in fact, as I mentioned in the video before I came on here, there’s a group called the Liberals for the Second Amendment. And the woman who was being interviewed was just explaining. Listen, you know, self-defence goes beyond politics, and we may be left to center on certain issues. But you already know we’re against bans on assault rifles were opposed by bans on magazine capacity. They clearly want things like making them mandatory. I think the training requirements for reciprocity can be met, but it is what it is. It’s a little crazy. Here in Maryland, without a doubt.

Some of those laws… 

Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. 

Laws were like confusion. Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. With things like assault weapons, I despise the term because “assault” is a verb, but if it’s not actively doing anything, it’s not real, right?

Yeah, right, right?

But the vast majority—the vast, vast, vast majority—of mass shootings have occurred with a handgun. So why does it mean the one with two hands is scarier or more deadly? That’s not true.

In Oklahoma. Is that open carry state allows adults 21 or older to carry guns without a permit, as long as they have a legitimate purpose, which they don’t, and aren’t breaking other laws. Active members of the military and veterans over the age of 18 may also carry a firearm in public without a license. 

That means holstered and in Plainview. Some of the legitimate reasons are that I’ve got this going on. The N-dot law Is it hunting, target shooting, participating in or preparing for a military function, or participating in or preparing for a recognized police function when defending themselves on private property? 

You cannot carry into Oklahoma if you are practicing for entertainment purposes. If you have been convicted of aggravated assault, battery, domestic violence, stalking, violating protective orders, or illegal drug use or possession, 

Yeah, but those are obviously for psychological reasons, right? 

But in Oklahoma, I see people walking around with guns on their hips, but no one has a problem with it, or if they do, it isn’t saying anything because it isn’t.

Right, right, yeah, right, right.

The guy with the gun on their hips. Now that being said, I don’t own a gun. It doesn’t bother me. if other people, but I don’t have any. I don’t have a personal need for it, and I don’t believe it, but then I watched the movie The Purge, which got me thinking. I feel like I could maybe use a guide.

and completing the entire year.

So my boyfriend’s Canadian, and you know they can’t have guns, right? As a result, he finds it amusing. Is it true that girlfriends have a lot of friends? in addition to and I actually said to him, “Michael, as they call people without guns”, and he, like, looked at me and was like, “Okay.” No, and I said “victims.” 

He he’s.  

He’s pretty—I mean, funny. He was like, “Not just yet; I’ll just depend on you.” to make sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, just say yes.

You take care of it. I’ll just stand behind you.

You, oh my goodness, like “human shield” type stuff that’s hilarious.

Did you see this clip I don’t know? I’m a huge fan of Ryan Reynolds, and he was doing an interview and talking about his wife, Blake. And like he would throw himself into a bus and jump from it to save her life, like a wonderful person. And then their kid was born. I immediately imagined him using his wife as a human shield to protect that baby, as the level of love required and expressed was the love of his life. As soon as that next level was born, he was like, “I would totally use her as a shield to protect the child”, for example.” Do anything, do anything, to protect him.

I again had a great discussion with someone on this topic. We’re flying to Hawaii, and it’s during a political campaign. I was like, “I want to talk about some of this stuff.” And she was from the San Francisco Bay area, and one of the things that came up was that it’s easier to own a gun than get a library card. 

And I was like, “That’s an interesting topic,” and if you guys know about the political discourse of the last couple of years. That was a sound bite from President Barack Obama. And I was like, “Do you think that’s weird? Do you have a library card? She was like, “Yeah, I was like, it wasn’t particularly hard to get,” and she was like, “No.” I was like, “Do you honestly believe it’s easier to get a gun than it was to get a library card?” She’s like, “Well, now that I’m being challenged, it doesn’t sound true.” 

I was like, “How about this?” How about you and your girlfriends on whatever night out? Go to Dick’s Sporting Goods or an academy and see what it takes. To get a gun, let’s say you buy one or don’t buy one just for your edification. Find out where it takes. You never know, right? 

But when we have those sound bites, they do a great job of summarizing whatever the topic was about, but they’re so easy to remember that unless we’re challenged to feel about a topic, find out how we feel about it. It’s not useful to know that thing if it’s not as real as you believe it to be.

You just have to get educated in the process, right?

Yes, yes, I’m originally from northern Minnesota, and they do a lot of things in Minnesota, at least in the 80s and 90s. They didn’t do it in other states. 

Everyone was required to have boating safety, gun safety, and snowmobile safety, and all these different things happened in class while talking to my dad about this topic. People go boating, and people go swimming—swimming lessons are required, right? All these things happen, and I was talking to my dad about them. He’s like, you know, everyone used to have their gun in the school parking lot. They would have it in the gun rack in the back of their truck, and after school, they would go hunting on the way home, and they would have, you know, food for the family. 

However, no one even considered using it, and there were shooting clubs and other activities at school. Like, no one gave a crap about him at all. Then, in the 1990s, I believe it was Senator Biden who established the gun-free zone to take guns out of schools, and then it was 4/20 of 1999 when the Columbine shooting happened.

Yes, yes, yes; I’ve always found it, and I have for the past three years. I’ve only been gone for about three or four years, even though I had an interest for many years, but when? I was representing cities. You know, the cops said that the crime was all one of my problems and one of the things that bothered me. I’ve always thought it was strange that firearms, firearm safety, or whatever the case may be, were not taught in school.

I always remember this one story. We had one of the groups I was with. We had a conference in New York. And a gentleman was attending the conference for the first time in New York. He was visiting family, and he was telling me the story. Then, the next day, he was telling me the story. 

So last night I went to visit my family in the Bronx. I’m from there. And he said so, so we went out. It’s like one or two o’clock in the morning. He said, “I was petrified.” “I was petrified,” he said, “but nobody bothered me.” And he said, “So I asked my cousin and said, “Why is it that you know nobody but him?” And he said, “Look, if you’re at one or two o’clock in the morning in New York, people just assume that you have something on you, so they’re just not going to bother you. Right? Because who else would be out at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning in these neighborhoods? If you don’t think that’s going to protect you as well.

I kind of laughed with him on that one, but in any interviews that you have with criminals, they will tell you that, unless they’re going to a home specifically to get a weapon, they know they have their weapons in the home. The last thing that they want to do is mess with someone who’s armed or someone who’s going to fight back. That’s the last thing they want. 

You know, that’s one of the things you learned growing up. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose the fight; you just have to show that you’re willing to fight. Because eventually, you’re going to win a fight, right? But as long as people know that you’re willing to fight, they’re going to back away from you. And as long as people recognize your arms, they will recognize you. know how to use it. It’s not going to bother you, so I never quite understood why that stuff wasn’t taught in schools across the board. 

And you are correct—you are aware of much of the misinformation. There are a lot of twisting  all the facts you know, there was just something about it. What was it that the Center for Disease Control said that one of the gun control groups was convincing them to leave out data? That is what they presented. I believe they excluded self-defence data from the weapon information being disseminated. 

Oh, for Pete’s sake, are you serious?

It’s being used, like, in California, with all this that’s going on in the last couple of days, but they did not include the number of times that a weapon was used in self-defense. 

right against those numbers.

against those numbers, right?

Oh, my goodness, that’s skewed.

Right?  

I thought it was interesting to so talk to someone who feels a certain way about it, and I don’t blame them for feeling the way that they feel. I said, “What is it that your side cares about in this gun control debate?” 

Because each side has a thing that they care about. And I was like watching the news watching the next report that comes out. There’s going to be another one and see if the things that they care about—I know Julio mentioned earlier things like assault weapons, bump stocks, and whatever else—are See if that stuff is mentioned in the news article. Are they saying, “Oh, you know we hate gun shows; that’s one of the things, right?” Are they saying where this person obtained their weapon? And if that’s not included in the report, then they know the answer and are omitting it because it doesn’t follow their narrative. 

Or what is the thing? I’m not sure what the answer is, but if they have each side’s argument and aren’t including those things or whatever reports they’re filing on whatever side, that’s the side’s news you’re looking for. Which would raise a red flag for me if they cared about it so much. Should it be included in every report that’s going out?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know again, and I guess the 25 years in politics are what it’s all about, skewing the information is all about either stretching the truth, mischaracterizing the truth, or just outright lying.

Chris Matthews on MSNBC. I remember him as Tip O’Neill’s chief of staff during the Reagan administration. And he and I discussed he blatantly said I made up facts just so I could get a piece of legislation passed. I forget what it was, but he said I took this number here and I took this number here, and I put them all together, and then I created this scenario that made it look like it was a problem so I could make sure I got this legislation passed. 

As young as I am, this is insane, but that’s how it’s done, and I’m back now. It was just kind of funny, but common. You know both sides do it. They will accept it. You know they’ll twist and turn the information to get what they want. 

You know, as you know, I think the guy is named Frank Luntz. So there are people who are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars just to get the right word in your motion gets you acting the way they want you to act, and

Words are powerful.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, we fall for it all.

Isn’t it time? And very misleading. Why are you chuckling?

I’m just laughing; there’s—I can’t think of the site right now—but there’s a site. There’s a website out there that tracks All of the elected officials’ investments are listed, and you can go in and see when they buy stock, no joke. Firearm companies. And then they go, you know, yell about it online. And then they just bought a bunch of stock, and then people run out and buy guns, and then you see that stock go up.

Oh yes.  

What does that mean? Being a congressman is like being licensed for stock manipulation and insider trading.

It is, well, you know, that’s the whole thing. You know before Covid. There were many elected officials who moved money around and told their friends that this thing was going to hit. It’s going to affect the economy. And boom, it’s all a master game, and everybody else is kind of playing tiddlywinks. And some of those folks are playing high-level chess with you.

Well, isn’t that the truth, yeah?

What are you currently working on?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. 

So I’m working with the developer in both cases where we’re trying to create home-buying opportunities, particularly for low- and moderate-income households. Trying to help create first-time home buyers and then new or novice investors, we are trying to help guide them into the world of real estate investment, as we have seen just in the last 24 hours. We’ve had three individual single mothers. They inquire about renting properties, and the one question that we’ve asked them is, “Have you ever considered buying a home?” And in one case, she never thought of it. In the other two cases, yeah, they’ve thought of it, but they just figured that they couldn’t afford to do it.

And in Baltimore, they can. You already know if they can pay, $1500 a month in rent and an affordable mortgage It’s just going to be a process. And so what we’re discovering is that people don’t know, and in many, if not most, cases, these people don’t come from families or environments where home ownership is an aspiration or if there are any examples. 

And they’ve never had anyone walk them through the process, so we try to do so. In terms of getting the credit together, what do they need to do—those sorts of things—to help them buy homes. And there was one gentleman who was a veteran in his 60s when he bought a home. In the end, he bawled like a baby because he was the first person in his family to ever own a home. And then other family members joined in, saying, “Well, you know, if you can do it, I can do it.” 

You know one of the neighborhoods because the Preakness is run in Baltimore. That’s the second leg of the Triple Crown. So there is a street that’s two blocks down from the racetrack. There is a lot of drug activity in that area of Baltimore that was hard hit by the crack epidemic. In the 80s. And there’s one particular street called Garrison Ave down the corner. When you turn to get onto that street, they have, you know, the guys who are on the corner. They’re dealing with a lot of vacant homes, and the house that we were working on there actually had a dead cat. We always go to the cat house, but it’s a couple of doors down. They used to do they used to have guys dealing in various vacant homes in the evening. We fixed that first home up. 

Slowly but surely, we’ve done about eight in that neighborhood, and all that drug activity is gone. and the families. The families in that neighborhood that own homes start fixing up the properties so that other people, either other investors or other buyers, can come in and start fixing up the homes. And so you really see the transformation there, and now we’re in another historic neighborhood called Harlem Park. We’re literally on one side of the street. Those white families on the other side were black families, and neither was across the street, so now those were vacant homes. 

Some of them measured up to 3035 square feet. These houses are so old that no one knows when they were built. They come to find out if it says it was built in the 1900s. That means that they don’t know when it was built. 

But the fundamental structures set out to renovate those, and people in DC are coming up to move into those properties. So we’re changing people’s lives, changing generations, and getting people to think differently about You know how they can progress as a family by thinking more long-term? You know what they can provide for their family, generationally. What can I do about it?

Yeah, I love that. I love that you’re providing those types of opportunities, and you must have hope because you know if you grew up thinking, “I have to rent because there’s no way I’ll ever be able to own a home.” I mean, how are you supposed to know, and they may not even know where to go to get educated? Though having a place to go and individuals to help guide them is incredible, trust me, from there they’ll be telling other people they’ll get educated, and that’ll grow as well. 

Right, right? That’s something we’re noticing. And so my role is primarily to do a lot of the front-end work because I’ll talk to, and I’ll stay long enough to talk to, someone that talks to a lot of the elected officials. I know how local government works, and you know the other guy he deals more with them. On the financing side, he made his money building resorts in Turks and Caicos. He deals with the finance side. He does the construction side, but I pretty much deal with all the people, the weighty this stuff.

You’re good with people; that’s why.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and, without a doubt, that is my greatest strength. And, without a doubt, I’ve worked on it. Some people believe it comes naturally to me, but others do not. I was very shy, you know, and one of the reasons I left New York was because of that If I stay in New York, I’ll have to find myself, but as you get older, you realize you already know that… I realized my perception of myself was very different from the perception others had of me when I was growing up. Which is always entertaining. You know, people thought I had it. I was thoroughly entertained. Act as if you knew everything. The stuff that was going on in my head!

I had no idea.

Yeah, it’s insane. It’s crazy, but

Isn’t that one of the biggest mysteries, like the internal and external view of a person?

Oh yeah. 

I’ve been accused of saying things like, “What do you know about adversity?” as if everything in your life is perfect; really, tell me more about yourself than I do.

Let me educate you.

That’s how fair the whole thing is. True, you never know what’s going on in someone’s head, and there’s a lot more to it than just suicide. It’s so prominent now that maybe it was certainly there when I was growing up, but I think a lot of that stuff was still going on then; we just didn’t know what to call it. 

I’m convinced that the idea of men being mentally tough is a myth. It’s just a way of hiding the mental illness that men go through. But men won’t admit it, but there’s an article about a guy who was the first overall pick in the NBA in this week’s Sports Illustrated. And then he just quit two years later. And he said it was messing with my mental health, and I just had to step away. I couldn’t deal with it. 

And, you know, you’ll notice that this generation is becoming more in tune with dealing with those unfortunate issues. My generation criticizes the old heads for not being “manly,” if you will, but I give them a lot of credit for admitting that mentally they’re not in a good place and that they need to reset if they don’t. Yeah, they don’t. You know there’s no telling what will happen, moving on down the road, you know?

So this is happening on both sides of the aisle, right? 

Simone Biles took a break from the Olympics and said, “Look, I’m not… I can’t do it.” And obviously, whenever something like that happens, a lot of people have There are a lot of things to say. You’re not paying my bills; you’re sleeping next to me, and I really don’t care about what you think.

I must be correct in order to be able to care for my household, plain and simple. Nothing else matters, right? I can go out and participate in a Guinness World Record, show up to the world’s largest piece of cake, and get paid for it. It deserves little credit, but it doesn’t mean anything, If my home life isn’t taken care of, sure. It’s a nice picture. It’s a great memory. But if I walk into a broken home and am like, “Well, why have you been gone for however long doing blah blah blah?” It doesn’t matter that that thing took place. I’m not taking care of the people in my house that matter.

So, Julio, tell us more about that. People might not know about you.

I was a dancer in college, actually.

What kind?  

Exotic, 

stop it.

No, maybe in private, but not for public consumption.

Oh my God.  

I don’t know what we’re talking about. You tap dance?

No, actually, I wanted to learn tap dance, but I knew you had to go through a series of classes to be able to do it, and I just didn’t do it. I was more into modern dance, and I was also in the theater a lot; my senior high school years in college, so I did that. That was one thing.

Wait for a second, you said you were shy.

You are aware that I found out during my senior year of high school. How much I enjoy theater. And I realize I’m a bit of a ham, which is why I can, you know, do things like public speaking. One of the things I’m looking to do is sort of pivot into speaking. 

One of the things you know I can do is just get up off the cuff and do my thing. And I realized how much I enjoyed it, so when I’m around my grandkids, I literally let my hair down and just enjoy doing voices. You know that kind of thing, so yeah, I realized I really kind of enjoyed that, and that helped get me a little bit out of my shell. 

When I went to college, I did some dancing in a couple of plays, and I just really enjoyed it, just like I’ve always enjoyed movies and theater growing up. I used to be a big movie fan, and what else do you have? But yeah, that helped sort of get me out of my shell. In some respects, I guess I’m a Nashville lad. I don’t know. 

Well, I guess I’m sort of a natural at it, but again, I can get up just off the cuffs. and I’m not. I’m not a great singer or anything like that, but I can get up and entertain folks. I’ll be an MC, and you know I can do it easily. I enjoy that stuff again and again. And I know that one of my mentors refers to me as a “wordsmith” because I’m always very good at this type of thing. 

Coming up with words and phrases to describe things. I’ve become a bit of a history buff as I’ve gotten older; I like the whole thing with the cats and stuff like that. I like interjecting some of those sorts of things inside there, but yeah, so I think that would be one thing that catches people’s attention. Surprise!

My name is Pop, and my grandkids call me Pops. I got that name from a theater character that I played the summer before I started college. I was in a sort of summer theatrical group. And I was this old man called Pops. His name was Pops. I always liked the name, and I said, “Well, my grandkids, my grandkids, they’re going to call me pops.” I have to call myself Grandpa, but they call me Pops.

It’s adorable, and I love it.

It’s yes, yes, yes. 

You know that that’s actually been on my mind. My daughter’s been teasing the fact that I might be a grandfather sooner than I prefer.

Wait, teasing?

Yeah, she keeps bringing it up, but I don’t think she’s pregnant. She talks about things like when she’s going to have kids. I’m like, and she’s a very thin woman, and if she were even like 9 days, you’d be like, “What’s that like?” That’s how thin it is.

Despite the fact that I used to go to church, with the lady, literally, when she was nine months pregnant. She looked like she was four months pregnant. Every one of her five kids was like that.

How do women get there? Do that. Oh no. I was a maniac. house with both of us.

The kids look like you were smuggling a microwave oven under your shirt.

No, just like me. I felt like I was a whale; actually, my OB/GYN said you’re a whale, and I’m like, thanks.

Did you go after that person for slander? What did you wow about? Oh man, I’m not even that heartless. I’m pretty sure I can be pretty mean.

You want to hear something funny. She was from She was originally from New York, so she thought, “I see they’re leaving, and that’s so insensitive.” I’m all ready, like, pregnant. I already feel fat, but now you call me a whale.”

Perhaps it was like a cute beluga whale, not a blue whale.

Oh OK, yeah right. Make me feel better.

What whale species is appropriate to fit in here? Make her feel better.

There isn’t any.

There isn’t one. I don’t think so, yeah.

Yeah, very. She and her husband are both very thin, and she’s been making fun of them for talking about grandkids and such. And I’m like, you know, I don’t know what I would call myself because I know a bunch of people who can help with all these different names, like the ones I call my grandparents, Grandma, and Grandpa. And that’s all I ever heard growing up in northern Minnesota, where I met Mimi, Pop Pop, and Pops. And like, all these different names, and I’m like, how does someone even decide?

Right? 

I wasn’t until I moved to the South and realized that some people call their parents, sisters, and aunts, and having an aunt was like, “They have you there.” This makes it a different word. That’s not an ant, right? If you are, you should fry an ant with a magnifying glass.

Right?  

that kind of thing. So, like, I don’t know what I would do. She turns out to be

You have time to figure it out, like, by 9.

What is this? Well, potentially, right? Right? It’s perfect for recording. This is January 24th. She turns 20 on February 8th. And I’m just waiting. I’m hoping that I can post this. I do this for all of my friends’ children, such as when they turn 20 and I say, “Hey, congrats on surviving a teen pregnancy!” One of the things that I post. There’s no real reason to be excited on your 20th birthday, so I’m hoping I can sit it on my arm. But hey, congrats on beating teen pregnancy! Uh, here in a few days, so we’ll see. 

fingers crossed.

Right, right, right.

Oh, my goodness! 

Julio and I discussed this journey through manhood a lot during the pre-interview. What it’s like to be a parent—and I know Carol and I usually end up talking about it a lot on these episodes, but it’s such a We have three different ethnicities, three different time zones, and three different levels of experience here, so it’s a huge topic with a wide range of experiences. 

I’m the baby of this room, and I feel like I have tons of experiences but nowhere near enough. You’re my co-host and my guest today. Something Julio said really struck me. “I wrote it down,” he said. We’re just kids living in adult bodies, reliving our childhood trauma.

Yeah, my brother says that all the time, but I don’t think he realizes how prophetic that is. One of my pastors at church has a book that he calls “Turning the Pages,” in which he talks about the front stage and the backstage. That’s right, and that’s who we are live on the front stage, and that’s what people see. But it’s the backstage that is really churning. You know, we were talking about this a little earlier. That’s really kind of churning inside of us. And, in many cases, what we do on the front stage reflects what’s going on backstage. 

And, I believe, for men in particular, we’ve been taught that we’re not supposed to deal with mental illness, so we just let it out. You know, we just have to tough it out, and one of the things I was telling Travis is that he’s working on a book for flawed men only, and the whole point is to try to help young adults, particularly those aged 25 to 45. and navigate this thing called being a man because it’s something you learn as you get older some confusing examples of what a man is. Right, and you know your first model is your dad, and in my case, I was both blessed and I don’t curse, but my father didn’t know his father when he was growing up. 

Right, so he really didn’t have a model for a father growing up, so I think he was just trying to figure it out, and, you know, he very much believed that family was important. He tells me that in the 1960s, he basically sacrificed as much as $50,000 did in the early 1950s—a lot of money. But if he had, you know, pursued the money, it would have destroyed the family. 

That $50,000 won’t even buy you two cartons of eggs.

Yeah exactly. I almost jumped a guy at Costco, He had a dozen eggs there, you know.

I just want to. Learn why the price of chicken meat has not increased while the price of eggs has.

Yeah, yeah, proportion. Yeah, it’s kind of crazy. And so I say that a lot, but I think I’m lucky because my paternal grandfather was a jerk. You knew he was an alcoholic. He was abused. After all, he was just. He’s just a bad dude, and so my father did not have that model growing up, he would then turn around because that’s all he knew, right? 

So, you kind of grow up, and you have your friends, and you have any kind of coach. Those kinds of influences have a lot of sway in how you see yourself as a man.

And then, I believe, growing up, is the first generation. Puerto Ricans are from Puerto Rico. I didn’t feel as if I were, quote-un, “American,” but I also didn’t feel like I was quite Puerto Rican. And if you saw me without knowing my name, you’d assume that I was black, so I never really felt like I was black, so I didn’t… when I went to college, I used to get into conflict with, so my black classmates say you’re black and all Puerto Rican. No, you’re not black. You know so. It was almost like an identity. Trying to say what the identity was You know one of mine.

Then Carol’s calling you an Italian name, Mario. So, who knows?

I know I love it; you’re Italian. No, Julio, you’re Italian.

Exactly, I would tell you—yeah, right.

And so and so, you know, you go through trying to figure out what your identity is. And how that relates to you. Because, Travis, you talked earlier about being put in boxes, and it’s easy for people to put someone in a box.

I remember when someone asked Tiger Woods what he was, and he gave this long, convoluted answer that he was mocked for. But I could see where he was going. He was a person of two cultures attempting to balance an African American father with an Asian American mother. He doesn’t fit into one mold, nor does he fit into the mold. So he’s trying to figure out what his identity is.

Because you feel like that sometimes, and I have a high school classmate named Guy John. African American who is fully bilingual lives in Japan, and he was back on a trip, I think the 80s and 90s, I think, were the last time I saw him. And I asked him. I said, “John,” and I kind of asked you, “What’s it like being a black man in Japan?” You know, he said, “Well, you know whom you know.” You understand two things. One is in Japan. They’re still dealing with stereotypes from the 1950s, so you know those images are very much from the 1950s, as he said. 

But secondly, the Japanese believe that there are two kinds of people in the world: the Japanese and everybody else. So, you know going in that if you aren’t Japanese, you are a part of everyone else, so you. Can deal with that. 

He says that in America, as a black man, you’re told that you’re accepted, but you’re really not. That kind of messes with your head. You and I both know about the identity journey. You know, depending on who you are and what your experiences are, it takes a while to kind of formulate that, figure that out, and feel comfortable with yourself. 

And I think men in particular will self-destruct just to prove their manhood to another man. You know, sport is a great example where I believe it’s all about dominating another man. As opposed to uplifting another man, you know you’re weak, if you cry, you know all sorts of things. 

And so it is when it comes to being a parent. Again, you only know what you know. So, you tell your children about it. And you know, I know that for me, when I came back from the hospital the night my son was born, I had to sit down, and that was the first time I really asked myself, “What do I really believe in?” What is it that I really kind of believe in, and what is it that I want him to know? 

And it went to another level when I had kids and grandchildren, because all of a sudden I realized, OK, this is where my legacy is. And I realized, as a grandparent, that I had failed as a parent. But then I also realized that I was trying so hard to raise my son. That I don’t think I do, I think. I was trying so hard to raise him. I don’t think I showed him how much I loved him the way that I do with the grandkids.

It was such a different kind of thing because you’re so busy that you’re just surviving, truthfully. You’ll know when you’re there. Get to have grandkids. That’s somebody else’s problem. You get to play with them and spoil them. 

And I find that, as a grandparent, it is easier to discipline them than as a parent. Because part of it is all the stress. You know what I’m talking about, and unfortunately, we project our inner childhood traumas onto our children. You know, my mentor often says just that kids in school. It’s not the kids, it’s the parents. The child is just acting out some of what the parents are doing. And as a teacher, you know what you’re dealing with essentially, this is a result of what these children are witnessing at home.

Very true.  

It’s quite profound. I’ve had this discussion with my dad and with my daughter, and every generation of parents messes up their kids.

Yeah, that’s right.

It’s our job.

I want to say something that, as soon as I heard it in my head, sounded way, way worse than I thought it would sound coming out. I was like, “You know what I will hold on to that one.

So, my father was the youngest of seven children and grew up on a farm, but it wasn’t the family farm where his father worked as a farmhand and extremely limited financial resources. All the kids ended up getting kind of pushed out of the house in their early teens because they couldn’t afford to feed them all. 

And, you know, one of his main concerns was, you know, environmental security and having a house that had all of those features that were very important to him because that was the thing that he was lacking now. 

Fast forward to the part where I’m the kid. The biggest thing on my mind was not moving around so much. Knowing that you live in one place, you know I moved. If you’ve been listening to the show for any length of time, you know that I’ve moved 50 times. That was a big deal for me at the time. 

My daughter was like, “No, no, no you.” You hit the mark on that one, but you messed it up over here,  like you didn’t take care of me emotionally, and I’m really emotional. I didn’t know there was more than one emotion. I had no idea.

Yeah, yeah. 

Part of it was a joke, and part of it was, you know, all the stuff that I was dealing with. You know, when you’re a young parent, you are also knew in the workplace that you’re a young parent. You’re a new husband; it appears that everything is happening all at once, especially for someone like me and many others. 

You’re still really damaged from the stuff that you went through as a kid, so as a damaged person, you’re trying to balance a job and a spouse, and now you have kids that need different things from you, and you have no clue what you’re doing, but you’re trying your best. But your best is going to miss hugely in some departments, and then your kids are going to tell you about it. Consider everything you’ve done. that your parents didn’t do, and you’re like, “I’ve been a great parent.” “Yeah, dad, but you missed this and this and this and this,” I’m going to say. And I was like, “You know, sweetie, that’s true,” and I wish I could have done so. 

But I wish it could go back in time and make things better. But here’s the deal: That’s the stuff you’re going to focus on with your kids. You’re going to find out one day that you missed something else. like not enough PlayStation 13 time, or whatever generation will be on whatever.

Yeah, yeah. 

There’s always going to be something we miss.

Do you know what we can learn from all of this? However, in general terms, your parents were doing the best they could. With the limited knowledge that they had at that time—and that’s literally all we’re trying to do—we’re not intentionally trying to hurt our children. We’re doing. We’re surviving. We’re trying to do the best we can, you know. And if we can, look at it from that angle. I think we can. And, you know, I truly understand you.

Yeah, you know, I always think of Atlas as the result of the universe, and to me, that kind of represents the accumulation of our generations. Right, because we’re the sum total of the dominant characteristics of our generations. And you mix, you know, different experiences and such. 

And yeah, you’re just doing the best you can, and then you hope that when you teach your kids or parents, you can kind of share the lessons that you’ve learned. That they can then apply for because, no matter what anyone tells you, you have to go through the experience of being a parent because you know what it’s like every day with the kids and I can remember countless times, or can you? I would say something to my son. “Oh God, I hope I was right,” I’d think as I walked away. 

Sometimes I sounded like my parents and me at times, and I remember saying I wasn’t. I can’t believe I said this; I swear I’d never say it. But you know, as you say, you just do the best that you can, but if you do it at least halfway right, you can see the difference in the kids when they’re with other people. and that’s kind of like your measuring stick. 

When my son was in college, he went to New York University and called me once. He was dating a girl. I think it was his sophomore year or so. He said, “Dad, now I understand why he used to spank me.” What are you talking about? Evidently, his girlfriend, her mother, her sister, and a younger brother were walking up 5th Ave. went to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. It’s kind of hanging out, and the mother wanted to stay for mass, so we’ve made another outing for the boy and started fitting. So, my son just said hit him.

And she said, “No, I can’t do that.” Still, you know the parents will. People will think I’m a child molester, said the man, if my father says he wouldn’t kill anyone who says he would spanked me on the spot and I would have gone straight, but now I’m not so sure. Understand why you did it.

Any guilt that I had

But it was a different day and age. We could spank our kids just like my mom spanked me. My mom spanked my brother. I mean, that was a lot of discipline back then. You knew that was it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember Arsenio Hall once having Tom Hanks on and talking about getting disciplined and sending them all away. He claimed Tom Hanks said something I sent you wholly: “Simply follow my grandmother’s advice and make Tom Hanks sick.” Your mother did that too, my mom used to take out a coat hanger, and then they started going through, and they just started laughing about their experience of getting disciplined. 

And yeah, it’s a different age. Yeah, I guess, and something—listen. I understand it’s some of it. Some of today’s lax parenting reflects some of the abuse they experienced as children as a result of parents who went too far with discipline. You know, I understand that. But some of this idea of just letting your kids do whatever they want You to know, that’s that…

That’s not the answer either.

That’s right, that’s right, that’s right.

They must learn where the boundaries are and where the limits are (left, right, center), and they must constantly test those boundaries. I had to spank my daughter several times, but only once for doing something he knew was clearly wrong, and I told him, “Here’s what you did.” Deal. You can turn around, and I can give you one. You can choose not to. I’m going to give you three for not making it. The right choice and he turned around, and I gave him One swat. 

And I’ve never had a problem with him. He’s, uh, a freshman in high school. Now, of course, he hasn’t started chasing girls yet, so we’ll see how those changes, but currently.

Good luck.  

Yeah, yeah, good luck. He’s currently one of the most chill people I know in the world. He’s just saying, “Hey, you take the trash out,” and a few minutes later he’ll come and do it without saying much, saying it’s no big deal and that he’ll just go by today.

Hey, Julio, this has been fantastic.

You should be able to do so. Right?  

Of course, hello, and I have two final questions for you. I’m going to ask them, and together, back-to-back, one is working in one place. People contact you, and then two do. What advice would you have for anyone struggling with any of these things? That’s what we’ve talked about today.

But only one is genuine on LinkedIn. If you go to LinkedIn and connect with me there, that’s probably the easiest thing to do, and I consider the one piece of advice that I would give to people to be probably two. I think. 

I think one is to feel good about the person you see in the mirror. I read a book called The Magic of thinking big. which was the first positive thinking book I read in college. The magic of thinking big And one of the things that it talks about is writing your own commercial. And repeat that commercial to yourself. I used to do that, and does that sound crazy? But I used to get high, and I used to read that commercial to myself in the mirror, and I would just laugh at myself. It was the silliest thing in the world, but it always made me feel good.

 I still don’t know how. I’m a tall thing; call me Doctor Green. I’ll smile all day, I’ll smile all night, and I’ll smile to make you feel all right. I’m tall, dark, and handsome as well, and I’ll throw in some cash just to keep you happy and myself cool. I’m not talented; I’m talented tails, and I have the gift of gab, and I really don’t like me. I really don’t care. I don’t feel too bad, but I don’t float like a butterfly or sting like a bee, and I’m going through life happy and free. Isn’t it true that you’re free today?

I love that.

So, you know, I think so. I think he had to feel good about #1. But, on the other hand, I believe you must address your past. I’m not of the opinion that you should forget your past. I think you’re supposed to resolve your past. And you’re supposed to resolve your past. I’m a believer that your greatness is birthed out of your wretchedness. 

And I’m a Christian, and you can’t be… You can’t understand… God never works through people who have their act together. They always work through people…. If the Bible is not shy about describing the failings of men, using “men” generically is right, but it’s out of that wretchedness that he always shows your greatness. And I believe that if people were they would feel better about themselves if they could resolve their paths. I think people will be OK with what they want to do in their lives.

Very wise.  

Thank you so much, Julio.

Thank you both for really helping with this.

Julio Barreto, alias Mario the Nat Whisperer,

That’s right.  

Thank you for being our guest today.

Take care of yourselves.