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December 25, 2024 38 mins
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Well, Merry Christmas. Many of you that may be listening
right now, you might be traveling to go see family
right now, and we thought we would pause from politics
on this Christmas and first off just say Merry Christmas,
but also to talk about something completely different, and that
is center. People that don't know you, well, I'm gonna

(00:23):
give them a little bit of a clue. You absolutely
love movies, and you put together a list of your
favorite movies and also series and shows that you watch.
And if you've ever wondered what Senator Cruz is watching
when he's flying all the time, here's a really good
list we're gonna be giving you on this Christmas.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, and let me just echo that Merry Christmas. I
hope you're having a wonderful and blessed day. I hope
Sanna came down the chimney and your kids are overjoyed,
and you're spending time, maybe with some hot cocoa. We
often do Christmas by the tree, where all be in
my bathrobe. We'll all be in our pajamas, the kids
will be opening presents. We all actually have cups of

(01:03):
hot cope coat and it's a beautiful time and it's
a beautiful time to reflect not just on the love
your family has for each other, but the love God
has for us and the salvation He sent for us. Now,
I don't know about you, but over holidays, what my
family has always done is we go to movies. We
go to movies over Thanksgiving break, we go to movies
over Christmas break. I love movies. As a kid, both

(01:24):
my parents love movies. I would go to movies with
my mom and dad when I was a little kid.
I still go to movies with them now.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
But I mean, you're a movie theater guy. Just so
people know this, I like.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
The real theater, so I like the big screen. I
like popcorn and gummy bears, and you know, the experience
of being there. And by the way, I'm also rabid
about staying until the very end, till the last moment
of the credits play. I will not get up and leave.
There's a sense of completeness of appreciating the entirety of
the movie. And so what we decided we do today

(01:56):
is put together just a compilation of movies that that
I love, that I recommend to you, and and hopefully
as you're taking some time with your family, maybe you'll
go watch one of them and laugh or cry, and
it'll touch you and you'll enjoy it. And I think
art and storytelling are beautiful, beautiful things.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
So that being said here in the big shows and
the big movies on Senator Cruise's list, Merry Christmas. I
get asked all the time from many of you guys
that are watching or listening right now, what is Ted
Cruz like behind the scenes. So we thought we'd have
a little fun. I'm gonna ask him some questions, and
you're even gonna find out what his favorite movies are. Senator,

(02:37):
We're gonna have a little fun. I get asked all
the time when I'm all over the country. In half
of this last week in New York, so what is
Ted Cruz really like behind the scenes? And I say,
I actually, if people got to see the side of
you that I know, you're actually really fun to be around.
You're also a huge movie buff as well, and so
I'm gonna ask some fun questions just to kind of

(03:00):
let people know behind the curtain who you really are.
So let's start with this. What is the last thing
you watched on a plane?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
What is the last thing I watched on a plane?
Was outer Banks. Okay, which is a series. It's a
teeny bopper series, and it's phenomenal. I am in the
middle of season three. And there's a reason I'm watching
a teeny bopper series, which is my youngest daughter, Catherine
loves Outer Banks. She's at camp right now, yep. And
when I dropped her off at camp, she said, Dad,

(03:30):
I want you to watch out her Banks, and I
want you to write to me in letters and tell
me what you think is the season's progressing. And so
I've been regularly. I write to her about every couple
of days and I tell her, Okay, here's where I am.
I'm at this point. I'm at this point. This character
just my favorite character, JB. Yeah too, no doubt about it.
So she asked me that I'm a little troubled. Her

(03:51):
favorite character is JJ who who is kind of a
look I guess if you're a thirteen year old girl,
he's you know, he's always doing the dumbest thing imaginable,
but he's kind of a I like John B. John
B is a good character.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
It's such a fun show. So when you were growing up,
what was it that you were watching high school college?

Speaker 2 (04:10):
But by the way, spoiler alert. I apologize if you
haven't seen seen it, I'm gonna give a spoiler alert
right now, So just fast forward through this if you
don't want a spoiler alert. But in season two, when
when when Ward is blown blown up, I knew Ward
was not blown up, and so I wrote her, I said, yeah,
Ward just died. I'm very confident he's alive. And I
remembered they keep scuba gear in the boat. He got

(04:31):
in the scuba gear and then like seven.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
EPs books remember those there you got to figure it out,
and you're like, they got to keep this, they gotta
keep the series.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
So I felt pretty good that I was at least
a step ahead of the teeny Bopper series.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
I like that. So what were you watching in high school?

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Like?

Speaker 1 (04:45):
What were your favorite shows? What was your favorite movie?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
So I love movies. My parents love movies, like like
we would, you know, this is what we do. So
so every holiday, every Thanksgiving, every Christmas, my family got
and watch movies.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
I heard a Christmas movie.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Of course it is okay good, absolutely, yes, there's only
one right answer. Guy Heart is absolutely a Christmas movie.
But we would go out and do movies When I
was a kid, when I was like eight nine years old,
my dad would drop me off at the theater all
Saturday and I'd watch like five movies. I'd go from
one theater to the next to the next and just
watch everything there. It's we all love movies. So what

(05:22):
I've done done today for this show is I put
together a list of twenty five movies. Now this is
not exclusive, this is not the only twenty five movies
I like, and I don't even know that it's my
twenty five favorite. But it's twenty five awesome movies, which
if you haven't watched, I recommend you watch. You will
enjoy them. You will laugh, you will be moved, you

(05:43):
will get good things from them. So let's go through
the twenty five.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
I gotta ask for one more question for your twenty
five What movie have you watched the most in your
life over and over again?

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Well, that actually happens to be number one on the list.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
I knew it. I like this.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
So my favorite movie of all time is The Princess Bride. Really,
I love The Princess Bride the Prince. I think every
character in it is exquisite. Every line from every character
is fantastic. I'll tell you. In college, we used to
play a game called Drinking Princess Bride. And so the
way you play Drinking Princess Bride as you sit down

(06:16):
with a bunch of college kids, you put the movie
on and you try to say each line immediately before
it's said. If you get it right, you point at
somebody they have to drink. If you screw it up
even slightly, you drink. And if two or more people
say the same line at the same time, everybody drinks.
So when you get to the wish, why you.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Were so sober in college now I understand.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Look, when you get to the as you wishes, everyone
can get them. So they're all socials and it is
a fun game. My problem is I know just about
every line from the movie, but I'll screw them up slightly,
so I end up kind of getting myself because I
try an awful lot of them. But is an exquisite movie.
I probably watched The Princess Bride, I don't know a
couple hundred times. No way, it is fantastic. So that's

(07:01):
number one on your list, far and away. Number two
on my list is The Godfather Saga.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Couldn't agree with you more? One of the best series
ever made, period.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
And I'm not gonna break it down between one, two
and three. I even like three, which is a bit
of a heretical idea. I think three stands on its
own as its own movie. The least that three only
makes sense in conjunction with one and two.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Which is when you're in the club. I kind of
like that, like you can't fake it and go see
number three and and think oh, that was incredible. You
have to be in it.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
And look, I quote all of them all the time,
you know, from three. Every time I get out, they
keep pulling me back in. I will say it was
a little depressing with with my team where I turned.
You know, senate staffers are all children. You know, your
average to put that on a T shirt, your average
senate staffer is like twenty three, twenty four, twenty five.

(07:57):
So so things like Godfather quotes they just don't get.
And so I said something, I said, you know, this
is the business we have chosen, and like everyone looked
at me confused, and I said, okay, I like six
staffers there. I said, all right, do any of you
have any idea what I'm saying. They're like, no, no, no,
I said, okay, this is Godfather too, And this is

(08:20):
a conversation between him and Roth, who is clearly modeled
after Myer Lanski, hym And Roth and Michael Corleoni. And
they're down in Miami and Hyman Roth goes Michael. I
had a friend. I had a friend since childhood, Moe
Green was his name. And one day somebody put a

(08:42):
bullet in his eye. I did not ask who was responsible.
I did not seek retribution. I said, this is the
business we have chosen. None of them had any idea

(09:02):
what I was talking about.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
Team building night in the Senate. You should totally. You
should totally bring them in one, two and three.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
It's nine hours.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
This is what you're gonna do. That's team building.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
One one Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
A favorite line from any of the Godfather is the
best one. Mine's a canoli.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Leave leave the gun, take the canola.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Yeah, no brainer. Number three on your list Scarface? Really?

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Oh I love me some scarface. Why notice Pacino has
two spots in my top three here? I like Pacina, Okay,
I love crime movies and look Scarface. Stony Montani's Cuban.
I'm Cuban. It's you know, it is larger than life.
I can quote a lot of lines from it. To
be honest, I'm not going to because they're pretty off

(09:48):
color and I'm going to avoid putting out on the
podcast some of the language uh from from it. But
uh it is. So crime genre is your thing and
I like Pacino.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yeah, amazing.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
So my favorite TV show is Criminal Minds. I love
Criminal Minds.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
I'm actually shocked by that one because if there is
only one box that I can take with me my
whole life, like if I was stuck on it as
a island, it'd be West Wing.

Speaker 2 (10:13):
West Wing is fabulous. I've watched every episode of West Wing.
I've watched every episode of Criminal Minds. But Criminal Minds
is I just find it fascinating. Heidi hates it, by
the way, when Criminal Minds is on, She's like, turn
that garbage off because you know you've got evil, vicious murderers.
I'm like, no, no, they're the bad guys though, it's
all about stopping them. But she just doesn't like that.
In the house, all right. Number four Fletch never seen it.

(10:34):
You've never seen Fletch. Go home tonight and watch Fletch.
It may be the funniest movie ever made. Really, Chevy
Chase plays Irwin Fletcher, an undercover investigative reporter. It is
absolutely hysterical. You know, I love Tivy Chase.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
So that's that's It's.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Chevy Chase's best movie, much much better than Lampoon's Vacation,
much better than and He's Done It. I love chevy Chase.
But Fletch is head and shoulders above them all. You know, Grant,
who heads up my security detail. Grant and I quote
Fletch lines back and forth at each other every week.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
Really, it is Go and watch the movie. Never seen it.
It is spectacular, all right, Fletch, I'm on it all right,
Number five amazing. Grace also never seen it.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
A lot of people have not seen it, but it
is a very good It is the true story of
William Wilberforce. Now William Wilberforce was a member of Parliament
in the United Kingdom who led the effort to abolish
the slave trade.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
Very cool, is it true? Store?

Speaker 2 (11:39):
True? Store and Wilberforce. So when he started as a
young MP, the slave trade was the United Kingdom's single
greatest source of revenue. It was their business. And he
begins as this young MP arguing we must end the
slave trade. It is wrong, it is immoral, and everyone

(12:00):
laughs at him. And it would be like if you
were in Texas standing up saying we should ban oil
and gas.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
I mean, it was that absurd of an idea back then.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
And he spends fifty years battling for it, and the
movie ends with him successfully championing and passing the legislation
abolishing the slave trade and shutting down their most lucrative
business because it was evil. And by the way, the
title amazing grace, you know where it comes from. What

(12:31):
So the person who wrote the hymn amazing Grace was
a friar who had been the former captain of a
slave ship. Really, he was the captain of a slave ship.
And think of the words of the song, amazing grace,
amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch

(12:53):
like me. I once was lost, but now and found,
was blind, but now I see and imagine the person
writing that in that context was the captain of a
slave ship. Presumably he had murdered people, he had beaten people,
he had whipped people. He I mean, I mean, you
think of the evil entailed in being the captain of

(13:15):
a slave ship, and then the amazing grace that that
that God offered redemption even in the face of the
horrific evil. It puts a whole different character that the
book is is by Eric metaxash' A, who's a fantastic author.
Christian author does great biographies. I highly recommend Amazing Grace

(13:36):
Number six. Unforgiven, Never seen it? Oh, Unforgiven is.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
This is why it makes me laugh when we get
to do shows like this, because I I mean, I
will go watch these now.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
Okay, so Unforgiven Best Western ever made won the Academy
Award for Best Picture. Clint Eastwood is in it.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
I could I could do an age joke. Here was
it in black and white?

Speaker 2 (13:57):
No? No, no, no, it was actually laid Eastwood. You
were actually out of diapers when it came out.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
Okay, gotcha.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
Morgan Freeman is in it. Gene Hackman is in it.
Gene Hackman is spectacular. What's interesting about Unforgiven that is
so powerful is it turns all of the stereotypes of
the Western on its head. So, for example, Clint Eastwood
plays this this outlaw who had turned over a good

(14:26):
leaf and was good and then was going back gets hired.
What happens is a a woman who is a prostitute
is badly cut up by a drunk cowboy and they
put out a reward to kill the cowboy who cut
her up. And Clint Eastwood, as this retired outlaw, needs
the money and so is coming to collect the reward,

(14:49):
and and Morgan Freeman, his partner, comes with him. But
there's a point where where Clint Eastwood, you know, there's
there's a young kid who wants to be a gunslinger
and and he's like practicing on shooting fast, and like
Clint Eastwood says, well, you know, for me, this is
about as fast as I can draw my gun, point it,

(15:10):
aim at it, pull the trigger, and hit what I'm
aiming at. And he said, in most firefights, people are
scared out of their mind and they're just terrified. And
whoever can kind of calmly engages who wins. And there
are scenes where like everyone's like, oh crap, and they
shoot their foot and they drop their gun and they're
like freaking out. And he kind of and he would

(15:30):
just get drunk and just sort of systematically bang, and
it really did invert many of the conventional wisdom.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Of being a fast draw on everything else.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
And Gene Hackman's character is hysterical. It is. He's the
sheriff who initially you think might be the hero, but
he very quickly becomes an anti hero. So excellent. Movie
number eight, Team America.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
I've actually seen it, Hilary.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
And I'm going a little edgy. So Team America, Team America,
World Police. It's a puppet movie.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
I remember when it came out. Everybody was in shock,
but I was dying laughing.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
So Heidi didn't like movies very much. I took Heidi
to see it. She almost fell to the floor laughing.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
So she y'all clicked on that.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
It is screamingly funny. Now it makes fun of both sides.
It makes fun of Republicans, Democrats, every ding. It's the
guys who do South Park who did it? It is puppets.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
They are truly equal opportunity offenders.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
It is now. I'm going to give a warning. Every
third word is a profanity. If you're offended by profanity,
skipped this suggestion, I will say. When we were fairly
newly weeds, we went on vacation with Heidie's parents down
at Lake Powell, which is fabulous, and we brought it
with us and we sort of like, Heidi and I remember,

(16:50):
this is really really funny, and I think we didn't
quite remember that every third word is a profanity. And
I'm sitting there with Heidie's parents as we're listening to
the blinkety blink blink blink, blink blink. We didn't finish
the movie really, like ten minutes into it.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
We just I can't believe you brought this in front
of your parents, right, yeah, it was, but it's still
funny as I'll get it, all right.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Next movie, Patten.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yep, amazing, amazing movie. I've watched Patton probably five six
times in my life.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
All Right, do you know what I did before every
Supreme Court argument I ever did?

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, I can figure it out now you watch Patten.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Not the whole thing, just which scene the opening speech? Okay, yeah,
just the opening speech George C. Scott in front of
the gigantic flag, standing up and saying, men, the objective
is not to give your life for your country. The
objective is to make that other poor son of a
bitch give his life for his country. I mean, I
can dig that.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
I can dig that.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
It is sound advice. If you can watch that speech
and not be inspired, you're dead. Yeah, like it is.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
See, those are my weakness movies. I love true stories.
I love good versus evil movies. I absolutely love sports
movies as well, but there's always usually a big speech
in those.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
By the way, a buddy of mine collects historical military
equipment and clothing and uniforms, and he has patents dog tags,
no way, And I actually have worn Patten's dog tags.
They have rested on my bare chest and I literally
felt like I was ready to pull out a pistol
and start shooting in an airplane. Like it made you.
You think about that that actually rested right above the

(18:27):
heart of patent.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
That's incredibly wild. That's a good thing known all right.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Next movie The Sting Classic. Have you seen this? You've
never seen the sk.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
I don't even know what it's about.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Oh, oh, Benjamin Benjamin Benjamin The Sting All time classic.
Robert Redford, Paul Newman, they're they're con men. It is
this is.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
This is when I can really mess with. Wait. Newman
does something outside of like SASA like.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
It is hysterical. It is beautifully done. Go and watch
what's it about? It's about conmen, okay, and it's it's
worth watching. I'd probably watched it one hundred times in way.
Such a good movie. All right, next movie, Awakenings. Yes,
I've seen that, so Awake. It's only one. So Awakenings
is fabulous. Robert de Niro, you're a de Niro fan.

(19:15):
I like de Niro a lot. Not a fan of
his politics, but a big fan of his acting. He
is a great actor. Although as much de Niro got
all the acclaim but I actually thought Robin Williams stole
the show.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Well, I love Robin Williams, So this is what this
is right at my alley.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Robin Williams is one of my all time favorite actors ever.
I mean, he's an incredible comedic actor, so.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
You're gonna laugh. I was asked the question if you
could have dinner with like any five people who would
be at your table, living or alive or dead. I
had Robin Williams for years in my list because I
think he's just one of the most brilliant actors and
genuinely funny human beings.

Speaker 2 (19:48):
So when Robin and Williams passed, I genuinely cried and
I wrote a long statement about Robin Williams on Facebook
that I put up, but it just I hammered it
out of my iPad because he he is so so funny.
His stand up If you've ever watched his stand up
routine golf, yeah, I've watched the one on golf is
again profane language, but as funny as anything that has

(20:11):
ever been said, like screamingly funny. Awakenings, the portrayal he gives.
I actually like Robin Williams even better in dramatic performances
than comedy. And he's one of the funniest human beings
ever alive. So Awakening on the list, Yes, fabulous, all right.
The next two I view together, Braveheart and Gladiator.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Both amazing, no brainers, incredible and all Gibson Russell Crowe right, yes,
back to back. How can you get that wrong?

Speaker 2 (20:43):
And both standing and fighting and and fighting against oppression
and their epic epic movies. Again, if you're not inspired
by them, you're dead, I will say, Mike Lee. There's
an app where you could can put yourself you speaking

(21:05):
into an audio clip. And he and I used to
send things back and forth. And you know at the
end when mel Gibson is being executed. He screams freedom,
so Mike would send me videos of him screaming to
Mel Gibson's voice Freedom. It was pretty powerful, all right. Next,

(21:28):
Beverly Hills.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Cop hands down one of the funniest movies ever.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Just screamingly funny. Eddie Murphy, you're gonna laugh.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
I consider that a Christmas movie because it's like days off.
I want to watch the classic. I watched that.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
It is every moment of it. Eddie Murphy remains one
of my favorite actors of all times.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
He's got a new one coming out, a sequel coming
out on Amazon. I think it's on Amazon Prime. Did
you see that recently? I just saw it this last week.
I don't know which one it was, but they were teasing.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Yes, they're doing a Beverly Hills.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Cop too, Okay, is that what it is? Three?

Speaker 2 (22:01):
But look, the original Beverly Hills Cop is screamingly funny
and and I actually have three Eddie Murphy movies in
a row because I love Eddie Murphy. Beverly Hills Cop,
Trading Places, Yes, and Coming to America.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
So Coming America is one of the first movies that
was like really edgy that I remember, like in my
adolescent sing hilarious.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Again, screamingly funny, and Eddie Murphy and our Cineo Hall,
and they play multiple characters at all the different you
know in the barber shop, when you have Eddie Murphy
in our Senel Hall, going back and forth. I mean,
it's amazingly And you know what, they probably wouldn't let
you make that movie today because it gets racially edgy
in a way that like, now you know the woke world. No no, no,

(22:41):
you can't laugh at me that no, no, no no
you can't. You can't. You can't have any of that humor.
By the way. You want funny humor, go back to
young Eddie Murphy on sen L when he was like
nineteen years old, brilliant and just edgy, comedic like brilliance.
I love He's by far my favorite character ever on

(23:02):
SNL was young Eddie Murphy because it was just so funny.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
I like it. Mine's Farley by the way.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
Look he was he was great and he put his
hole into it.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I also love that man
and a little Jack, that man down by the river.
I mean, but I also love like comedy when there's
people falling over and he could do that. His physical
comedy was incredible, all right. Next on the list, Wall Street, Yep,
just all time Gordon Gecko one of the great all

(23:34):
time classics. By the way, a line that I quote
frequently Gordon Gecko is is in the locker room getting
cleaned up after playing playing racquetball, and he turns to
Charlie Sheen and he goes, I'm on the board of
the Bronx Zoo. Cost me a million bucks. That's the
thing about wasps love animals, hate people.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
There's some insight.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
There is some insight there for sure.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Hidden figures. Yes, wonderful movie. Incredible movie about the African
American female mathematicians who were foundational to America going to
the Moon. And for me, there are two kind of
personal reasons why that movie is significant to me.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Well, it's got to be because of Houston.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Well, when we went to see the movie, I took
my mother to the movie. I took Heidi to the movie.
I took both my daughters to the movie. And it
was interesting my girls. It was the first time they'd
seen a movie that had segregation.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah, the bathroom is the one of the most iconic
scenes in that whole movie.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
And it led to I had a long conversation with
both of them and they were like, well, why would
people have done that? And to talk about segregation and
civil rights and just sort of walk through the history
of it. It prompted really good conversations with my girls.
But secondly, so my mom. My mom graduated from Rice
in nineteen fifty six and she had a degree and

(25:01):
she went to work as a computer programmer at Shell.
She subsequently went to work at the Smithsonian. And you
remember the movie Hidden Figures begins with Sputnik being launched
and sort of the space race being beginning. One of
my mother's first assignments at the Smithsonian was to help
compute the orbits of Sputnik. And so in front of

(25:24):
the girls, I asked my mom. I said, Mom, you
were doing this, and in fact, you were doing it
ten years earlier. You were doing it in the fifties.
Hidden Figures is set in the sixties, And I said,
how accurate is it? And my mother thought it was
very accurate. That it did a really good job of
conveying what it was like to be a woman in
space and science and in a technical environment. And I

(25:47):
commented to her, I said, okay, one of the strange
things to a more modern ear is that they referred
to the women there as computers. Yeah, and we think
of a computer as a piece of metal.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
But they were actually called computers because they were actually
doing the math.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
And my mother started laughing at me and she said
her first job title was computer and when she started
at Shell, she had a business card that said eleanor
dearra computer No way. And so in response to that,
I introduced legislation to rename the street in front of

(26:25):
NASA headquarters hidden Figures Way. And this is actually a
really cool story. I introduced that legislation before it could pass,
and we would have gotten it passed, but a DC
City councilman saw that legislation and said, you know what,
that's a great idea. And the DC City councilman introduced
it in the DC City council. Guy's a Democrat, and

(26:45):
he got it passed. So the DC City Council passes.

Speaker 1 (26:48):
It's cool.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
So I went to the street signed dedication and that
that is the street sign there, and I was there,
I spoke at the denaway it is the headquarters of NASA, Inc.
And so NASA so the address of NASA is one
hidden figure's way. And so I spoke of the dedication.
The DC City councilman spoke, and he's a Democrat. I'm
a Republican. And I told the story of my mom,

(27:10):
which was really cool to get to tell. And I said, look,
at some level, you might say, listen, the street sign's
not that big a.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
Deal, that one is.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
But at another level, you know, fifty years from now,
one hundred years from now, some little girl, some little
boy is going to come visit NASA and they're gonna
look up and see the street sign and they're gonna say, hey,
what does that mean? Yeah, and they're going to hear
the story of the pioneering African American women who were
the mathematicians that got us to the moon. And so

(27:38):
it's where movies and stories are powerful.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Did any of the characters of the movie, Did any
of them get to come to.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
That that they had passed by the time we did that?
So no, all right, we just got a few more.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Schindler's List one of the hardest movies to watch. Yes,
The other one is that I can't. I've only watched
it one time because I just can't bring myself to
watch it again. Is Loan Survivor. Those two movies to
me are must sees. But I just I don't know
if it's because I've become a dad and having kids
now and watching the kids, I just can't watch them

(28:12):
like I used to.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
So, as you know, a couple of weeks ago, I
was at Normandy for the eightieth anniversary of D Day,
and wildly enough I got to meet Steven Spielberg and
Tom Hanks, which was really cool, and I had pretty
extended conversations with both of them, and they've done Look,
their politics are both left of center, but they've done
an amazing job really honoring and telling the stories of

(28:34):
the greatest generation, whether saving Private Ryan, whether Band of Brothers,
whether the Pacific and so we're talking about that, and
I was talking with Spielberg about about Schindler's List and
just you know, talking with the heroes, the World War
Two heroes who almost all say, well, I could have

(28:54):
done more. I could have done more, and the real
heroes are under those crosses behind us. And I was
telling Spielberg, I said, hearing them say that reminds me
of the end of Schindler's List, where Oscar Schindler is like,
I could have done more, and he looks down at
his gold watch and he said, this watch, this watch
could have saved three more people. Three more people are

(29:16):
dead because I kept my watch. And you think about
the heroism of his rescuing Jews from the Nazis and
incredible courage. But at the same time, the like, why
didn't I do even more? And that that, to me,
is the most beautiful moment of that movie, is the
sort of did I do enough? Yeah, Okay, I'm gonna

(29:38):
take a detour, a detour to the world of musicals.
So I like musicals.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Do you like Broadway?

Speaker 2 (29:46):
I do. I love Broadway absolutely so.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Like you if you go to New York, you would
put it on your list to go see a show.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
I love Broadway, and I'm gonna have four musicals on here.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (29:55):
So number one is my father's favorite movie of all time,
which is My Fair Lady. Okay, and My Fair Lady
is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
I've seen it because of my mom and my sister
multiple times.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
I've met the English.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
I've never watched that.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
You've got children how to speak, Norwegians learned, Norwegians the
Greeks are taught their Greek.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
See, this is why I said this show would be entertaining,
because I would have never thought you were musical. It
is Spectator Broadway you've ever been to.

Speaker 2 (30:24):
I'm gonna get to that.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Okay, go ahead, going to get to that.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
So the second one there is Oliver. Yep, great, Oliver
is spectacular. So so look, I was in high school.
I was president of the drama club.

Speaker 1 (30:36):
I have way too many one liners, but I'll leave
that for another show. Keep going.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
You were captain of the tennis team. I was president
of the drama club. Okay, I get that. There's a
reason why you would have stuck me in the locker.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
If if that would have that would have gotten you
a SmackDown for sure.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah. But so look, I all politicians are frustrated actors.
It's just it's just part of the the it is.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
You act in high school?

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Oh yes, a lot were you in? So I did?

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Do we have eight tracks of this or what what
was it? Beta? Can there?

Speaker 2 (31:06):
They may be somewhere. So let's see, I've done Sound
of Music twice.

Speaker 1 (31:11):
What did you play?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
So I played the first time I played Rolf?

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:15):
Uh, you know and I warbled out, you are sixteen
going on seventeen, no way. And then the second time
I played max Yep, I also so I did Oliver
and Oliver.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Is a fabulous classic.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
So Oliver was my senior year, and the head of
the music department told me, hey, we're doing Oliver next year,
and he said, you know, I'd love to have you
play Fagan if you can sing it. And and my curse, Look,
I'm a terrible singer. I cannot carry just save my
in a bucket like like I wish I could I have,
you were not given to it. And so I actually

(31:53):
went and for like six months I took voice lessons,
so try to get be able to sing Fagan is such?

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Did you get any better in the six months?

Speaker 2 (32:02):
A little bit? And so what happened? And the nice
thing about Fagan is is Fagan's songs are more spoken
than saying. So for example, the song reviewing the situation
a man's got a hot, hasn't he? Joking apart? Hasn't he?

(32:28):
And though I'd be the first to admit that I
wasn't a saint, I'm finding it hard to be really
as bad here I.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
See your dad next I'm gonna say, those six months
is worth it now right, I'm.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
A viewing the situation. Can a fellow be a villain
all his life, all the trials worry about? To settle
down and get myself away.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
And you remember.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
I will cook and sew for you, and comfort you
and go for what are you in? Golder?

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Are you?

Speaker 2 (33:01):
And nagget you the finger? She will wag at you.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
How many tickets they sell for? This is what I
really want to know.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
So I prepared that song was one. Now it's mostly spoken,
it's not release, so I could do it marginally competently
after six months practicing. I did that at the trio
and then and then afterwards music director said, hey, Ted,
stick around, and he went to the piano and he
said sing this, and he went d and I went

(33:29):
and he did it like three times and he goes, okay,
damn it not happening. So I was cast as Bill Sykes.
It's the second male lead with no singing. It's a
fun role. You're the villain. You get to like beat
up Oliver, twist and like you're but but I wanted.
I wanted to play that role badly, and I did
not get it. All right. Two more musicals. Hamilton, which

(33:57):
is utterly exquisite. I've seen it multiple times. It is brilliant,
it is beautiful, it is powerful. My girls know the songs.
There are few things that make me happier than when
my daughters are singing songs from Hamilton. I mean it
was there was a period where they were obsessed with it.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
You and I were talking about this the other day.
My dad I took him to New York for the
first time ever for seventh birthday, and you said, did
you go see a show? And I was like, do
you want to see Hamilton? He's like, I'd rather go
the Yankees game. And then the next night I was like,
we just that I'd rather have a nice meal. I
tried hard. I tried to get him to Hamilton. It
just wasn't on the list.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
And then my favorite music of all time is Lemis
Really and I love le miss I think, do you
get choked out?

Speaker 1 (34:36):
Be honest, because I'm a sucker for this. I get
I get the lump in the throaked up. Yeah, all right,
So what song gets you choked up? Oh? The one
that the most famous. I'm terrible with it. It's the
one that Anne Hathaway does It's so good.

Speaker 2 (34:48):
Oh, and she won won the Academy Awards. One every
time it gets me, so that is beautiful. I'll tell
you that the two that get me choked up are
number one, when John Valjean is saying let him live, yep,
and he's looking down and he says, you know, if
I die, that one's InCred to me die. Yeah, let

(35:10):
him live. And it's a prayer to God to let
him live every time. I have tears every time. Then
the other one that gets me is the song empty
chairs and empty tables at the end when everyone has died.
And I will confess at the end of the presidential
campaign in twenty sixteen, as I walked through the empty
campaign office and I saw the empty chairs and empty tables,

(35:33):
I heard that rephrames of that song, so les miz
is exquisite. All right, by the way, when I was
all right, So nineteen ninety three, I was just finished
my first year of law school, and I had a
job in New York. I was working in a law
firm in New York for the summer, and I decided

(35:56):
to fly my mom to New York for the weekend,
and so it's nineteen ninety three. So actually fedexed a
plane ticket. And this is back when a plane ticket
was a piece a piece of cardboard. Yeah, I fedexed
a plane ticket to her with nothing else. It was
literally she opened the FedEx package and just a plane
ticket to New York fell out. And she called me
and she's like, Ted, I assume this is you. I said, yeah,
I had no note, no nothing, just a plane ticket
and the FedEx thing.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Get on the plane. I'll see you soon, mom.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
So I fleird in New York and we went out
to dinner at Boulet, which at the time was the
nicest restaurant in New York. Was fabulous, and then I
took her one night to see Camelot, which was really fun. Yep,
and then the next night to see Le Miz And
did she love it? She loved it?

Speaker 1 (36:32):
And it I that's one of those ironed memories for
us of life.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Yeah, I know that. That was just very cool to
go do that. All right, So we have a total
of three more. I'm gonna say the Magnificent.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Seven, incredible, watch it ten times, the original one? Yes
with my dad? All right, all right, that's like in
my Dad's like I grew up on John Wayne and
war movies.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
Yeah, like Magnificence seven and that was, like, I remember
what the unforgiven The Magnificent seven is the greatest Western
that's actually originally at a Western. I'm forgiven. It was
sort of a modern remake format, but Magnificent seven exquisite
with you know, Uill Brenner and Charles Bronson.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
And that was the Moss Coburn. Oh, when mom was
out of town, that was one of the movies we watched.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Oh, it was so good. It's it's a fabulous movie.
And then I'm gonna end with two Quentin Tarantino, is it?

Speaker 1 (37:23):
The Inglorious Bastards? Is that where we're going with this?

Speaker 2 (37:26):
So I'm gonna start with pulp fiction, okay, which is fantastic,
and then the last one is in Glorious Bastard yep.
And I feel bad that I left Reservoir Dogs off
because Reservoir Dogs is exquisite too. But if you made
me pick two, I go with pulp fiction and Inglorious.
Inglorious Bastards is a spectacular movie. So that's twenty five movies,
which if you've got some downtime, download them. Watch them.

(37:50):
You will enjoy them, you will laugh, you will be moved,
you will be.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
And send your critiques on Twitter. We'll take them. And
let me ask you one of the question. If you
can only take one movie and one TV series to
a desert island with you, what would you pick? Only
one movie and only one TV series? That's all you
got to watch.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
The Princess Bride and Criminal Minds.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
There you go, that's it.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Yeah, I like it.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
See now we know a little bit more about you.
Don't forget we do the show Monday Wasday Friday. Every
once in a while we get to do something fun
like this. So make sure you get that subscriber auto
download button and the sin and I will see you
back here in a couple of days.
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Host

Ben Ferguson

Ben Ferguson

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