Midlife Revelations, Hawk Tuah Viral Fame, & Denver's Creative Support

Midlife Revelations, Hawk Tuah Viral Fame, & Denver’s Creative Support
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Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives
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Bruce Anthony: Welcome. First of all, welcome. This is unsolicited perspectives. I'm your host Bruce Anthony here to lead the conversation and important events and topics that are shaping today's society. Join the conversation and follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts, subscribe to our YouTube channel, watch our video podcast, rate review, like.

Bruce Anthony: Comment, share, share with your friends, share with your family, hell, even share with your enemies. On today's episode, I'm going to be dilly dallying a little bit in the first segment. Then we'll be talking about a new program that is helping the unhoused. And then we're going to be talking about social media in the last segment.

Bruce Anthony: And I'm going to tell an interesting story from back in the day. But that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the show. 

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A Much-Needed Break and Personal Reflections
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Bruce Anthony: Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome [00:01:00] back. We took a little, little break. It was gone for a little two weeks. Uh, I guess you could say for the holiday and also my birthday and I just needed a break. I've been burning a candle on both ends. This show is a full time job and I also have a Another full time job that takes up a lot of my time.

Bruce Anthony: So it was a much needed break for me. A lot of things happened during this break. First thing that happened was the debate. I really don't have any opinion on the debate because I didn't watch it. I just didn't watch the debate. I already know who I'm voting for. I don't know how anybody could watch the debate and change their mind.

Bruce Anthony: Basically. I don't know how there's any undecided voters right now. These are a Polar opposites. And I don't really care to comment about how one candidate was lying. And the other candidate looked really old. They both looked really old to me. And they were both kind of lying a little bit one way more than other, but I really, I really, really do not care about the debate.

Bruce Anthony: I live in [00:02:00] Washington D. C. I'm going to be getting my full share of this election. I'm just trying to enjoy this hot ass summer, you know. 

Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake: A Petty Feud
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Bruce Anthony: Um, another thing that happened, Kendrick Lamar dropped another, he dropped a video, uh, another shot against Drake. I don't know man, this is getting kind of weird. Um, I don't know why Drake holds that much space in Kendrick's head.

Bruce Anthony: I will fully admit, I'm a Drake fan, I'm a Kendrick fan, but I'm more of a Drake fan than I am a Kendrick. Uh, I just don't understand how Drake has pissed him off at this point. I mean, this has gone past petty. Petty was running that song Juneteenth celebration, right? Like, this, this video that was taken spring Really specific artistic shots at Drake.

Bruce Anthony: Like I'm saying, man, this has gotten kind of weird. This has gotten to the point where this is straight [00:03:00] bullying because Kendrick, you won. You don't have to keep going on. You won. You can end this now. Look. The song is good. I mean, he's made a hit. It's a classic and he's really rubbing it in. I just think that it's gone a little too far now.

Bruce Anthony: I know there's going to be people out there that are just so petty. Like, no, you keep going. You keep going. I don't know. I'm one of those people. Like once you've won the fight, you don't smack a man and punch a man when he's down. But, but that's just me. People still out there enjoying it. Hey, go for it.

Bruce Anthony: To me, this is getting a little weird. Um, but it might be getting weird because I'm getting older. Like I said, we took a break because I needed a little time to recharge my batteries and I'm just getting older. 

Turning 44: Birthday Tales and Realizations
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Bruce Anthony: I turned 44. I'm officially in my mid forties. I'm no longer in my early forties. I'm officially middle aged.

Bruce Anthony: Will I make it to 88 years old? I don't know. I didn't even know that I was going to make it a 44. [00:04:00] You asked me at 18, 16, 18, would I make it to 44? I don't know. I was pretty reckless. So this is pretty fantastic to even make it to this age. Couple of things that, uh, I found out on my 44th birthday. Tommy Troubles.

Bruce Anthony: That was one of the main things that happened. So, typically on my, my birthday, I get red lobster. I didn't do it this year. There's this taco place not far from me that I really, really enjoy. And I had every intention of going down to that restaurant that afternoon, on my birthday, and getting some tacos and tequila and just kicking it.

Bruce Anthony: Well, my day got started kind of late and I got back from the gym cause I'm still 44, but I, you know, I still want to, I still want to look good, you know, even if I'm 44, so I worked out on my birthday and it was getting kind of late and I said, I'm just going to order it. Uber eats home. Cause I got tequila at the house.

Bruce Anthony: Cause a lot of my friends got me. Bottles of tequila for my birthday. I got so much tequila. Well, not [00:05:00] that much tequila anymore because I was killing the bottle But I got bottles of tequila and I just said i'll just have some tacos here at the house So I got this queso with some chips Because this particular restaurant has the best queso to me and I got basically four tacos They're like street tacos and they're not too big and immediately, uh, after about a queso, all the queso and chips and two tacos, my tummy started hurting and it was really bothering me for a good few hours.

Bruce Anthony: And I mean, real tummy troubles. I'm not going to get too graphic, but it was real tummy troubles. The tequila helped. Settle my stomach. Didn't know it's probiotic. Just let you people know out there you can take a probiotic every day or you take a couple shots of tequila every day. I don't recommend that.

Bruce Anthony: I'm not a doctor. Do not follow my medical advice, but I had tummy troubles. [00:06:00] I was dead set on having prime rib for dinner that night. And there's this place that's not too far from my house. When the weather is not too hot, I like to do this walk and it's about a three mile walk through this neighborhood that has shops and restaurants and all this type of stuff.

Bruce Anthony: And in that, in that center, there's a restaurant that has prime rib. And I went online and I said, yeah, I'm gonna get some prime rib from this. I'm gonna do my walk. Um, and I'm going to stop off at this restaurant, get the prime ribbing and go on home. I was originally intending on going to the restaurant, sitting at the bar, eating at the restaurant.

Bruce Anthony: But, the day was long, the tummy troubles was real, even though the tequila started helping. I decided not to do that, and to go ahead and get it to go. So I'm doing my walk, and I get to the restaurant, and lo and behold there, out of Prime Rib. Can you believe that [00:07:00] out of prime rib, so I'm pissed off cuz it's hot It was hot.

Bruce Anthony: It was above 90 degrees. So I'm sweating. I'm burning. I'm Dehydrated because of all the tequila I've been drinking. I'm still got slight tummy issues. So I'm on uber and Walking home, sweat pouring in my eyes, trying to find a place that I can order prime rib. I'm going to a bunch of different restaurants because I only do, I want prime rib.

Bruce Anthony: I want mashed potatoes. Hey, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it all the way, right? So I'm trying to find a place to get prime rib and mashed potatoes. And prime rib is not easy. And I'm not going to Longhorn steakhouse for my birthday dinner. I found a place. I ordered the prime rib. Was it good? I don't know.

Bruce Anthony: I enjoyed it. I guess I was really drunk. All I know is I ate it. And the mashed potatoes. And then what did I have for dessert? Oh yeah. No, I got some butter pecan ice cream that my sister keeps joking on me about. It's [00:08:00] definitely an old person's ice cream, but I did not eat it because my tummy started hurting again.

Bruce Anthony: So I just drank tequila, stayed up too late. And then finally with the bed, I had a really long phone call with my father, uh, two hours. Just chit chatting. It was a really long phone, really good phone call. My mom FaceTimed me in the morning and this was another sign that I'm getting old because you know, when you FaceTime older people and then they want to show you something in the FaceTime, so they got to flip the camera around and they don't really do it that well.

Bruce Anthony: Well, I've been a professional, uh, camera flipper for the iPhone for the last 10 years, you know, FaceTime is my thing. I prefer to FaceTime than I actually do talk on the phone. If you're going to call me, if you got to call me, you better FaceTime me because I am not about to just hold the phone like this and talk.

Bruce Anthony: And I did the [00:09:00] video representation of you guys are watching on YouTube, which by the way, please watch on YouTube. Then you saw me put the phone signature up. To my face. Like you're talking on the phone, but I'm trying to flip the camera around and having a little trouble I'm pushing the wrong buttons, uh, because I got this new artwork that I put on a wall and lights shooting down on the artwork.

Bruce Anthony: It's, it's very dope. And I wanted to show my mom, but I'm having really difficult trouble. Flipping the camera over to show my mom. I'm showing my face. I zoomed in on my face. I'm opened up my pictures by accident. I don't, I didn't even know you could do share screen on FaceTime. I don't know if you can or not, but I figured out a way to do it.

Bruce Anthony: Basically any and everything. Other than flipping the camera around so I can show my mom my artwork. And I was like, ah, this is 44. Like, like I'm here now. And I guess it's just a rite of passage. When you hit middle age, when you hit old people age in technology, you [00:10:00] don't know how to work FaceTime and the top of it all off.

Middle Age Mishaps and Realizations
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Bruce Anthony: Almost died. Okay. So let me just tell the story. I was taking a shower like I do twice a day every day. I was taking a shower and somehow my shower head broke as I'm washing my face. So there is face cleanser that's in my eyes. And it's, it's, it's starting to burn a little bit and I've got water spouting everywhere.

Bruce Anthony: And I can't really open my eyes because there's facial cleanser all on my face. So I'm trying to put my hand up towards the shot, the broken shower head that to figure out to stop the water from blasting me in my face. As I'm doing that, the soap. That from the, from the liquid bottle, the liquid soap fell on top of the tub from the, from the blast from the water from the [00:11:00] broken showerhead.

Bruce Anthony: It leaks out on the tub, which makes the tub slippery. So now I'm slippery. I grab a hold of the curtains. The curtains break a little bit. I try to grab a hold of where you there's a little bar. On the middle part of the shower, I have a tub, but there's a bar in the middle part in the shower. That's where I put my washcloth and stuff.

Bruce Anthony: That's where I assume that you know, I put washcloths and stuff and I grab a hold of it to stop it and I break it and I fall. I don't hurt anything. I don't break anything, but I'm at that age now where. Like, hey, if I slip and fall in the shower, it can, it can be some real consequences, um, to the situation.

Bruce Anthony: Safe to say that I took water and splashed my face to get the facial cleanser. At least out of my eyes so I can see to pull myself up to try and fix the shower head, but the shower head was broke. I mean the cable, I have an attachment, a shower [00:12:00] head that detaches that has a little cable so you can move the shower head around.

Bruce Anthony: I'm a big guy. So, you know, this is a way to clean areas that, you know, regular shower head can't reach. And that little cable, like, broke and water was spouting all over that. So literally I had to finish my shower. Like I was hosing myself off. There was water everywhere. When I got out of the shower, the water had gotten out of the shower when it sprayed from the shower head breaking.

Bruce Anthony: There was water all over the floor. Almost busted my ass when I got out the shower for the second time. I mean, I'm not in pain right now. And this was a little while ago. Uh, not like a little while ago today, but a couple of days ago. So I'm not in pain right now, but that could have turned left real fast.

Bruce Anthony: And these are all signs that I'm in my middle ages. I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm getting older and it sucks. I can't move like I wanted to move anymore. I can't eat what I want to eat anymore. I got tummy issues for no strange reason. Oh, and, and the [00:13:00] drinking, I can't drink like I used to. I was in a coma the day after my birthday.

Bruce Anthony: And I went out with a friend and was drinking all night again and was in another coma that night. Uh, just slept heavy and didn't wake up. Too great. I don't know about you guys, but when I wake up in the morning, now it takes a good hour or two for my eyes to adjust. I'm getting older. And the thing that hurt the most during this whole birthday week celebration that I took is that the young women don't find me attractive anymore.

Bruce Anthony: I'm not talking about like R. Kelly young women. I'm talking about if I'm 44, like 30, 30 year olds, 35 year olds aren't really looking at me like that anymore. And it just kind of just happened all of a sudden, just like overnight. And that sucks. Cuz I don't know I don't like people that most people my age don't you know They look kind of old sometimes especially if you got [00:14:00] kids kids age you Ladies and gentlemen, this is 44 but up next I'm gonna be talking about a really dope program that Denver used To help the unhoused situation.

Bruce Anthony: We're going to get into that after we pay some bills. 

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Denver's Innovative Program for the Unhoused
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Bruce Anthony: So I came across a pretty cool article from the business insider that talked about this new program that Denver used to help its unhoused program. So Denver has launched a program called the Denver basic income project. D, B, I, P for short which provides direct cash payments to people experiencing homelessness or the unhoused.

Bruce Anthony: For the purposes of this conversation, we're going to say homeless or homelessness. Just know that I call them unhoused, but a lot of the direct quotes from this article use [00:15:00] homelessness. Cause you know, the business insider is not so progressive to know proper terms, but anyway, The program was the participants received payments over a 12 month period.

Bruce Anthony: Then this was started in December, 2022 and involved around 800 people. The participants were divided into three separate groups, group a, which received a thousand dollars per month group B, which received 6, 500 upfront and 500 per month. and group C, which received 50 per month as a control group.

Bruce Anthony: The program aimed to study the impact of these pain payments on homelessness, food insecurity, shelter, use, and employment. Early results have been pretty promising. It increased housing stability. Group a saw a 26. percent increase in participants staying in housing. They rented or own while group B saw a 35 percent increase.

Bruce Anthony: Remember group A received a thousand dollars per [00:16:00] month. Group B received 6, 500 upfront and then 500 per month afterwards. So 26 percent of group A to people receiving a thousand dollars per month stayed in the housing that they rented or own, which meant that it really helped a quarter of them.

Bruce Anthony: Succeed and, and improve upon this situation. For the group B who received an upfront payment and $500 a month, it was even a bigger increase, which was more than a third, 35%. This reduced unsheltered homelessness. The rates dropped significantly across all groups. So all groups saw an improvement and.

Bruce Anthony: Their situations as far as the unsheltered or the homelessness and improve their overall well being participants reported being able to secure housing pay off debt and even save money for the first time. This project is part of a broader trend of cities experiment with a universal basic income to address poverty.

Bruce Anthony: Homelessness by trusting people [00:17:00] to know their own needs. Basically to be eligible for this program, you had to experience homelessness. This includes those who were unsheltered, staying in shelters or in temporary housing situations like couch surfing or living in motels. They had a connected. Service provider applicants must be linked with the organizations that partner with the D.

Bruce Anthony: P. P. I. Everybody had to be 18 years of older and applicants should not have severe unaddressed mental health or substance abuse issues in addition to the cash payments, the D. B. The D. B. I. P. Provided. Provided participants with access to a variety of support services. These services are designed to help individuals stabilize their lives and improve their overall well being.

Bruce Anthony: Some of the key services provided were housing assistance, employment services, health care access, financial counseling, child care support, food assistance. And these all, [00:18:00] these all were provided through partnerships with local organizations with aiming to help. These people that were experiencing these issues achieve greater stability and self significance, self sufficiency.

Bruce Anthony: In other words, this program is not just a giveaway. People are receiving money as well as services to help them get better. Back on top, get, get their head going in the right direction. Not their head going in the right, going in the right direction, but start heading in the right direction with a little bit of help.

Bruce Anthony: How was all of this funded? Cause I know a lot of people will be like, yeah, well, where's this money coming from? Okay. So private donations and foundations, a significant portion of the funding came from private donors and charitable foundations. For example, the Cotorado trusts and another anonymous foundation contributed 3 million to this program.

Bruce Anthony: The city of Denver [00:19:00] contributed money to the program, uh, committed about 2 million from all donations. Unspent federal pandemic aid dollars. This funding was specifically approved by the city council to support women, transgender and gender non confirming individuals who have experienced a rising levels of homelessness during the pandemic.

Bruce Anthony: This is something that really doesn't get talked about. For people in the LGBTQ plus community, especially for people that are trans or non gender conforming, is that we have so much anti trans legislation, so much anti trans sentiment that a lot of people were anti trans. being kicked out of their homes or being displaced because of the society as a whole.

Bruce Anthony: So this program, the specifically the city of Denver said, Hey, look, we got all this pandemic aid that we haven't used. Let's vote on this. Let's help the people. That are [00:20:00] less fortunate and give them a chance to get a leg up. That's what I should have said earlier, a leg up, uh, to, to, to move forward and to improve their situation.

Bruce Anthony: And I really thought this was a really dope program. The founder of the DB. IP Mark Donovan initially used his own money to kickstart this project and has since secured over 10 million of commitments. So once again, they pulled money from all over the place to help fund this program that was funding 800 people, basically from December, 2022 to, December, 2023.

Bruce Anthony: So this program was used. To help people that need, and I know a lot of people are like, well, these social programs, you need to pull yourself by the [00:21:00] bootstraps. Yo, a lot of people don't realize just how privileged and fortunate that they are. A lot of people feel like, well, I did it all on my own. Not realizing that there were factors that helped them get to where they were.

Bruce Anthony: Most people are not, let's put it this way. How many people out there in life. We're born with nobody to take care of them and had to fight and scratch and claw to make it in life. Cause that's truly pulling yourself by the bootstraps and even along the way they had people helping them. But let's just go from the initial premise from birth.

Bruce Anthony: You got nothing. I mean, we typically have nothing. We have people that help us and take care of us if we're lucky and fortunate, which by the way is a privilege. That you may think, well, no, it's just my parents had me and, you know, they just took care of me. No, that's a privilege. That's a benefit. You would at least get help from the [00:22:00] very beginning.

Bruce Anthony: Everybody is different on the help that they get, but that's a privilege. Some people don't have that. You know, I talk about Kids that are in the foster care system. They are passed from group home to group home, to foster house, to foster house. They don't have any stability. Are you trying to say that you're not more privileged than them?

Bruce Anthony: When you had at least a semi stable household? Yeah. Your mom may have. Yeah. Your mom and dad may have fought. Or your mom and mom or your dad and dad. Maybe they even split up. Maybe they even got a divorce. Maybe they were shuffling you through back and forth. Maybe it wasn't your parents that raised you.

Bruce Anthony: Maybe it was your grandparents. Maybe it was your aunt, your uncle. You had somebody. You had somebody. And there's other, there are people out there. The start, the start that they get from life. They don't even have that. What does that mean when you're moving all around the place? You're out. Education is shoddy at best.

Bruce Anthony: Let me tell you a story about [00:23:00] what happened to me. I moved from Virginia to Maryland in high school. In Virginia, basically during the 90s, they had a three class structure as far as like each grade level. So if you were in a ninth grade, you were either in lower level classes, right? Average classes or accelerated classes?

Bruce Anthony: I, thankfully, was in accelerated classes, okay? So, I wasn't in average or below average. Not to say that when I started in Virginia, I was in below average classes because they thought I had a learning disability. Which maybe I do. But a lot of times it was just, they were putting me in these classes that were so easy that they were boring to me and I didn't pay attention.

Bruce Anthony: And so my mind would wander until I had to take a [00:24:00] test and then I would take a test. And then eventually they found out in middle school, Oh, Bruce is not. below average. He's not even average because I think by late elementary school, I moved myself up to average. They said, Oh, he's above average. Let's put him in accelerated programs to the point where I was taking high school courses in middle school.

Bruce Anthony: So anyway, I'm in high school when we're sophomore year. And the way the sciences programs leveled up in Virginia, it was sciences and social studies, there were certain subjects that you took in each grade level. They didn't measure up in Maryland. So when I moved to Maryland, the class I had to take was U.

Bruce Anthony: S. History. That's what it was for juniors in the state of Virginia. In Maryland, it was for freshmen. I had to take U. S. history for my requirement, which means I was a junior that they put in freshman. And the next year in government, I was a senior that they put in sophomore classes. Right? I [00:25:00] actually had a really good education.

Bruce Anthony: Now, imagine that foster kid going from one section of the city to the next section of the city. During school years and school semesters and grading periods, grades all over the place. This is, these are the points that I'm trying to make. 

Addressing Privilege and Assistance Programs
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Bruce Anthony: Is that you think I didn't come from any privilege, I wasn't rich, and you weren't.

Bruce Anthony: There are people that have more privilege than you. But to say that you don't have any privilege and to assume, well, I did it all myself and I didn't have any help is a lie. So what this program is doing, the DBIP is what is doing is those people that are falling down on their luck. They're saying, Hey, We're going to give you this money, but we're also going to give you services that is going to help you get on your feet.

Bruce Anthony: What were the services again? 

Employment and Housing Services
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Bruce Anthony: I'll run through them. Housing assistance, right? Support and finding and maintaining stable housing, [00:26:00] employment services, help with job searches, resume building, and connecting with potential employers. Now, if you're unhoused. Everybody has gone out for a job interview. Let's say you go in and you fill out, I fill out an application.

Bruce Anthony: It's been decades since I've filled out an application, right? Decades, almost three decades since I've walked into like a retail store and fill out an application in order for them to contact you to come in for an interview. If you don't get an on spot interview, you'll need a phone number. Now could some of the unhoused people have a cell phone number?

Bruce Anthony: Sure, but probably not. You need a place of residence to get a job. So that's what employment services is doing. 

Healthcare and Addiction Support
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Bruce Anthony: Healthcare access, assistance, assistance in accessing medical, mental health and substance use [00:27:00] treatment, treatment centers. Yes. A lot of people are falling on hard times because of mental health issues because they have a problem with the addiction, whatever that addiction could be.

Bruce Anthony: And let's, let's talk about addiction. Right. Let's, let's talk about that. I know I'm going all over the place, but I'm, I'm trying to hit a point that everybody can kind of understand and identify with to see how beneficial this program is. I'm going on, I'm going about it in many different ways and trying to hit a court with, with the majority of the people that are listening and watching this podcast.

Bruce Anthony: Okay. Addiction. I recently had to tell a friend that they working out too much, that they were addicted to working out. And I know what you're thinking to yourself, Bruce, that's quite easy. Right. Right. Not crazy, crazy. How can somebody actually be working out too much? It's true. You can overwork your body and it can be a detriment to what you're actually trying to achieve.

Bruce Anthony: Did you know that if you work out [00:28:00] more than a certain period of time, anywhere between 45 and 75 minutes, if you work out the more than that, you start to stop fat burning and started to go into weight loss, which is essentially, storing fat and feeding off of your muscle mass. You might lose weight, but you're not going to look leaner.

Bruce Anthony: You see what I mean? There's a difference. And I had to explain to the person, Hey, you're overworking yourself. Your body has to have rest. This was an addiction that this person had. And it is, they're listening to me somewhat, but I have to beat it in their head. Not literally, but I had to reiterate it all the time.

Bruce Anthony: Hey, Relax, chill. Some people are addicted to working. I had to talk to a recent friend of mine, went on vacation. I was like, you're going on a vacation to go on vacation, right? No work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No work. Text them while they were on vacation. [00:29:00] Hey, close the laptop. Go enjoy the beach. How did you know?

Bruce Anthony: Because I know you, you're addicted to work. So there's all these different things that, that people are addicted to. Now, will that lead to, uh, being unhoused? No, that won't lead to being unhoused. But the basic point is, is everybody faces addiction. It's not a thing that anybody should look down upon that anybody should be ashamed of.

Bruce Anthony: They all face it. Sometimes people need some help. Like these people who have substance abuse issues. Some of them, not all of them have substance abuse issues. Some people have mental health issues. Hell, just about everybody out there has some mental health issues, right? We are tripping out here in these streets.

Bruce Anthony: Okay, so point the debate and the discussion around the debate. But I said, I wasn't going to talk about that. So let's move on. 

Financial Counseling and Childcare Support
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Bruce Anthony: They're going to get, these people also get financial counseling that is guiding Guidance on budgeting, saving and managing finances. Look, I, [00:30:00] there's three of us as far as our siblings and we fit every single parameter as far as dealing with our finances.

Bruce Anthony: One of us. Is really, really a spin thrift and saves their money and just locks their money in one person be balling to the wheels fall off when they are broke as hell. And another person is right in the middle. We all have different ways of dealing with our finances. Some people out there listening and watching this show, no people that spend well above their means that are literally living paycheck to paycheck.

Bruce Anthony: I know people that are living paycheck to paycheck, and I know they make 250, a year. In the Washington DC area, that is not hard to find people that make an exorbitant amount of money and live in paycheck to paycheck. And we know people who make 35, 40, 000 a year are [00:31:00] always going on trips. They're smarter with their money.

Bruce Anthony: So this program is also helping with financial counseling. Child care support. Resources to help participants find and afford child care. Yo, I don't know if y'all really realize it for those people that don't have kids, but kids are expensive. I was reading something 10, 15 years ago that said, when you had a kid, just imagine a 25, 000 expense a year.

Bruce Anthony: And I've come to find out, talking to my friends, yo, that's just child care. That's not any of the other stuff. That's not like food and, and, you know, clothes and diapers and all that stuff. 20 think about it right now for all those people that don't have kids. 25, 000 just in childcare. There are people that I know that are paying more in childcare per month than they are in their mortgage.

Bruce Anthony: This program will help with that. And in food assistance, me and my sister have already talked about the food scarcity in this country, [00:32:00] and this is the help people that were in this program was receiving. So it is not all, we just going to give you money, see how you do. It was, we're going to give you money.

Bruce Anthony: And resources to help you improve your life. And I think it was a beautiful program and I know what everybody's is going to say, right? Well, you know, people, people always getting need a handout. Yeah. Yeah. Rich people get handouts too. Rich people get handouts too. Don't believe me? Tax breaks and subsidies.

Bruce Anthony: Wealthy are always benefiting on tax breaks and subsidies, especially people in the oil and gas business who receive significant subsidies, which benefit their wealthy investors and and the financial institutions that are backing them. And don't forget about the bailouts that happened right during the financial crisis, the government bailed out all those banks, all those banks [00:33:00] who had wealthy, Executives and shareholders, when it was their fault, the financial crisis was due to the housing crisis.

Bruce Anthony: It was the banks that screwed over everybody. They got bailed out. So don't talk to me about people need to help themselves. Now, sometimes we need to help people. And this program was pretty cool. I'm sure there are going to be some flaws. It wasn't 100 percent effective. I don't think anything is ever 100 percent effective.

Bruce Anthony: But the fact that there's a large number of people that improved upon themselves through the kindness and generosity of other people is letting us know, Hey, you know, maybe there is some hope for this country. If we could all get on board and helping one another. I don't know. That's what I think. I don't, I don't know if if, uh, if I'm in the minority or the majority, but I would, I like to hope I [00:34:00] like to hope that I'm in the majority.

Bruce Anthony: I tell you what I definitely was in the majority on paying attention to social media, especially with the hot tour girl. I'm gonna get into that next.

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Social Media's Impact and the Hot Tui Girl
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Bruce Anthony: You know, I often talk about the ills of social media, and it's more specifically about trolls and commenters, that really are just, social media can be an absolute cesspool. I need to do a better job of talking about the benefits of social media. And I've done it a little bit about, you can really learn if you take the initial spark that social media gives you and then go do your own research.

Bruce Anthony: There are a lot of things I've learned because social media has sparked an interest in a particular subject that I've gone out to research more and expand upon more. It [00:35:00] also gives people who are very, very talented an opportunity to showcase their talent, In ways that probably weren't presentable before social media or the internet.

Bruce Anthony: And one of those such things, you know, we, we did the, me and my sister talked about the main series of recent Tisa. And she actually, I saw her doing an interview show, not an interview show or standing at the red carpet doing interviews for something on Netflix or something like that. Like she parlayed that ability to tell a seven hour story and keep people engaged, which is the talent.

Bruce Anthony: She parlayed that into a job. Ain't like a real tangible job. And for a couple of weeks, there was this young lady who's known as the hot to a girl who went viral on social media. So her name is Haley Welch, also known as a hot to a girl. She became an internet sensation after a street interview during the CMA [00:36:00] Fest in Nashville went viral.

Bruce Anthony: In the interview, she humorously showed answered a question, um, The one makes a man go crazy. And she said, you got a hot tui on that thing and it went nuts. Here's some key stuff to know about Haley. One, her background. So Haley is from Belfast, Tennessee and worked at a spring factory before, before her viral moment, her viral fame, the video quick, uh, quickly gathered massive attention and, and, and.

Bruce Anthony: Leading to billions of media impressions and significant following on social media. She did a career shift following her newfound fame. Haley quit her job and started capitalizing on the Internet popularity. She has since appeared on stage with celebrities like. Zach Brian hasn't been involved in various media appearances.

Bruce Anthony: Haley, if you would love to come on this show, let me know. We'd love to talk to you about some of the stuff I'm going to get into later [00:37:00] after I get into the particulars here, but we'll continue on with the particulars. Um, she's doing merchandising and earnings. Haley has a profited from merchandise sales, such as a feature for her viral catchphrase, um, And then she's in discussions about potentially launching her own reality show.

Bruce Anthony: But here's the problem. 

The Truth Behind Haley Welch's Viral Fame
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Bruce Anthony: So this thing went viral and I thought, I found it extremely interesting and I, like other people tried to find her on the internet, but all of her such, all of her social media was shut down. So there were all these different types of stories that were going around that people didn't know if they were true or not true.

Bruce Anthony: And me being the person that I am, the fake journalist that I at least attempt to be, I tried to Google, but we didn't know her name. So it was just hop to it. So I tried to Google and find any type of any [00:38:00] credible news source about this young woman before anybody else could. But what we had were a lot of salacious stories.

Bruce Anthony: One of the stories was what her occupation was, right? People were saying on the internet that she was an elementary school teacher who had been fired because of the viral video. She confirmed she was never a teacher, never worked for a daycare or anything like that. Didn't work with kids. She worked at a spring factory, but.

Bruce Anthony: Everybody was saying, Oh, she was an elementary school teacher and she got fired from her job from the, because of this video. Cause the video is sexually explicit. Was she talking about hot too on that thing? Don't get me wrong ladies. I love a hot tour. Sorry mama, but I do. I love a hot tour. And although I am 44 years old, if you are in the age range of 30 to 44, you want to hock to [00:39:00] that thing.

Bruce Anthony: I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. But yeah, so that was the first law. The lie. The second lie was there was a rumor going around. Her father was a preacher. Once again, every time that I read something like this, or there was a comment I would Google to try and verify it and not one credible source, not one news organization was reporting any of this, but it was spreading on the internet like wildfire.

Bruce Anthony: And I would have friends of mine coming up to me saying, did you hear she got fired from her job? And I would just like, wait a second. I heard that. I tried to Google define if that was from any credible source. I did not stop spreading this because we don't know if it's truth or not. Or fiction, right? And it came out to all be false.

Bruce Anthony: Another one of the things with social media presence after going [00:40:00] viral, many fake accounts and impersonations of Haley appeared online. These accounts often misspelled names and misappropriated photos, which Haley found unsettling. There was a young woman that people thought was Haley and had gotten bombarded to the point where she had to come out and say, that's not me.

Bruce Anthony: And people didn't believe her. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, how dumb are we? And every single time this happened, and I know I'm in the minority when it comes to this and I don't think I'm better than anybody. I feel like this is something simple that anybody can do. Google for real. News sources, not blogs, not something, something, not dot net, not, Oh, I, somebody commented on this.

Bruce Anthony: Those are not credible sources before you go out and spread information. Because if people are coming [00:41:00] to me saying word of mouth. This is what I found out. Of course it's spreading like wildfire on the internet because the people that are coming to me saying that they heard about this are coming to me as if it is fact and every single time I said, I don't know that to be the case.

Bruce Anthony: Because I haven't found any credible information. Maybe we should just stop and take a break and figure out all this stuff. 

Personal Life and Social Media Rumors
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Bruce Anthony: And then there was her personal life, right? All these different accusations about her personal life. One of them was rumors about her love life and that, uh, she had just broken up with a guy and was heartbroken.

Bruce Anthony: Other personal details started, uh, started spreading about her, but she's kept her private life pretty private. You know, if you watch the video, um, Going back to how social media helps propel certain people, both good and bad. She definitely has [00:42:00] talent. I mean, you watch this interview and it just, from what we've been told in some of her interviews that she's done since this has gone viral, actually her giving answers to what is true.

Bruce Anthony: A lot of this stuff was just joke was turning tongue in cheek and to come up with that type of stuff, the way she said it was comedically. Fantastic. Like she has comedic talent. And so for her to potentially be in talks for her own reality show, and I know that she was picked up by a management company and, and she's, she's got a team now.

Bruce Anthony: I think that's really dope. I think it's really dope that she set the record straight. I think that's really dope that that a person that was working a little 20, young, 21, 22, 23 year old working in a spring factory can now go get money because a talent that she has has been discovered by the masses.

Bruce Anthony: [00:43:00] This is what social media can do. Social media can also spread a whole bunch of lies about people and damage people's lives. Life. 

A High School Rumor's Impact
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Bruce Anthony: Let me tell you a little story about a lie that spread about me in high school. And I know I'm not going to say the name of the person, but the young woman that is a feature in this story definitely follows the podcast.

Bruce Anthony: So you know who I'm talking to, right? You, you know who I'm talking to. So when I was a junior, I had moved from Virginia to Maryland, and for the first half of my junior year, I went to a private school. I transferred out of that private school and went to the local public school. And, you know, it's really tough for a person to make [00:44:00] friends when you're coming in as an upperclassman, when most people would kind of like growing up with each other, right.

Bruce Anthony: You're coming in as an upperclassman and in the middle of the school year. It's kind of difficult, but also there's this brand new shiny thing, right? Because everybody knows everybody else, but there's this brand new shiny thing and not to, you know, to my own home, but your boy was holding it down back in the day.

Bruce Anthony: Just, you know, just to be honest, I was holding it down back in the day. So I got attention from certain women. One particular woman. Like I said, I didn't have a lot of friends and I was transferred and I was on the basketball team, but the basketball players, some of them didn't rock with me because they felt threatened.

Bruce Anthony: The private school that I transferred from was known for basketball, so they knew that I must be a really good basketball player. Some of them felt threatened, and didn't want to get it. Close and mean naturally who I am being naturally [00:45:00] reserved. I didn't get close to them. Not until the following year, not until that summer, but didn't get close to them.

Bruce Anthony: So my friend groups were kind of different because I'm a person that could just be friends with everybody. And remember. I'm in accelerated classes. It's, it's just a weird dynamic all around, but I befriended a young lady who was my lunch buddy, right? Cause we could leave campus and go cross the street to the local restaurants to go have lunch.

Bruce Anthony: And I went to this Mexican restaurant every single day. This is another sign that I got older. Cause I don't remember having tummy issues in high school, but I went to this Mexican restaurant every single day. I had lunch and she would always join me. I found out we're going to call. That, that young lady, lunch girl, lunch woman, we're going to call another young woman, crush woman.

Bruce Anthony: So crush woman, there was another young woman in the same grade as me, uh, [00:46:00] that had a crush on me and let it be known through various channels that, that she had a crush on me and wanted to know if I was interested. Me being the passive person and non confrontational person when it comes to women, Still to this day was not interested in crush woman and wanted to get that information out there without having to directly tell her.

Bruce Anthony: And so I'm relaying this to the lunch woman and she says to me, I'll tell her and me stupidly said, you will. I get so excited. You will. She says, yeah, I'll tell her. I said, okay, cool. You tell her. So lunch woman goes to crush woman. And she tells her that I'm not interested. I didn't know what exactly she said, but all I know is that the job was taken care of.[00:47:00] 

Bruce Anthony: Like I said, I did not know exactly what she said and then I found out later but I'll tell you guys right now. She was not, she was not, uh, what's the word I'm looking for gentle or delicate in her description of my lack of feelings for crush woman. She was. really explicit. I found out later, cause once again, I'm an idiot that lunch woman had a crush on me too.

Bruce Anthony: And when lunch woman found out that my feelings were not the same, she stopped hanging out with me. But like I said, lunch woman told crush woman that I wasn't interested in a very, very negative way. How does this come back to bite me? 

Confronting the Source of the Rumor
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Bruce Anthony: How does misinformation get back and hurt people? There's a third woman and the third woman is the feature woman.

Bruce Anthony: That's the [00:48:00] reason why I'm going to call her feature woman. That I had been crushing on since I started the school year. She's a grade below me, but I had never in my life seen a woman that's my age, as beautiful as this in my entire life. And it felt like she was unfounded. It felt like nobody else knew what Jim this was in front of me until I started saying, Hey, y'all been seeing feature woman.

Bruce Anthony: She's really cute, and everybody's like, yeah, she is. So, one day after school, I actually built up the courage. The courage on the way to the buses, because she took a different bus than me. I took up the courage to walk up to her. And say, Hey, feature woman, I would love to hang out with you. Sometimes she's like, yeah, that's cool.

Bruce Anthony: I was like, cool, cool. You know, maybe we can go to the movies, you know, whatever type of things that you do for dates, you know, that'd be really cool. Whatever you want to [00:49:00] do, we could do. She said, Oh, I thought you were gay. I'm going to repeat that. Ladies and gentlemen, feature woman looks me dead in my face.

Bruce Anthony: And said, I thought you were gay. I say, what the hell? I'm not gay. What would make you think that I was gay? I didn't know I was giving up. This is 1997. So I was not evolved in my thinking. I said, I don't know what impression I gave off to make you think that I was gay. I need to switch up or do whatever.

Bruce Anthony: Why do you think that I'm gay? Oh, that's what the word is going around. What? That's the word that's going around. What do you mean, like, other people besides you think that I'm gay? Yeah, everybody thinks you're gay. What? I said, okay, I'm not gay. Um, would you like to hang out sometime? I, wait a minute. I don't even think I finished that.

Bruce Anthony: I stormed off. Because I went to [00:50:00] go ask people. As a matter of fact, I don't think I ever fished. I don't think she ever knew officially. Well, I mean, eventually she did know officially I was asking her on a date, but I don't think I ever officially got an answer. That was 28 years ago. Yeah, it was 28 years ago.

Bruce Anthony: I can't text her now. She is fully married with a lot of kids. So I, I can't text her now to find out what would have been. But anyway, I storm off to get to the bottom of this. Like what the hell? And yes, as I'm talking to people, people are saying, yeah, I thought she was gay. Which, let me just talk about how progressive this particular school was in the 90s.

Bruce Anthony: That, also I was a big, I was a big kid, so maybe nobody would confront me or joke on me about that. There's nothing funny about, uh, being gay. I'm just saying, in the 90s, that was a [00:51:00] slur that was used as derogat Well, not even in the 90s, there's still people using that as a derogatory term towards men. But nobody, nobody did that with me this whole time.

Bruce Anthony: And, and supposedly this rumor. Was not weeks. It was months that this rumor had taken place. Finally. I zeroed in and the source Of the rumor was crush girl who was upset that I had turned her down You see how rumors and people not fat checking can really hurt somebody feature girl could have been The mother of my kids, I could have missed out on the love of my life.

Bruce Anthony: I don't believe that was the case, but still, nevertheless, rumors, spreading rumors can hurt people and I'm lucky for Haley Welch, not hot tool girl, but Haley Welch that the, the misinformation and the rumors didn't hurt her [00:52:00] like it hurt me. With feature girl, but still to this day, I still don't know. I still don't know if she would have gone out on a date with me.

Bruce Anthony: She thought I was gay. She's like, I never looked at you like that because you were gay. And I'm like, I'm not gay. I'm fully heterosexual. Why? That's the reason why I'm asking you out on a date. Beautiful. Telling y'all beautiful, still beautiful, still beautiful. Uh, anyway, that's, that's the end of this story and this show.

Bruce Anthony: I want to thank you all for all the support that, that we've received on the show. We've got more interviews. We've got more sibling happy hours. We got more shows that are coming. So thank you for the support. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. And until next time, as always, I'll holler. ​ 

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