Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central.
Speaker 2: From the most trusted journalist is at Comedy Center's America's
Speaker 2: only sorts for news.
Speaker 1: This is The Daily Show with.
Speaker 3: Your Holy song Stop.
Speaker 4: Him about it.
Speaker 3: Ladies and gentleman, Welcome to The Daily Show.
Speaker 1: My name is John Seward. We got a show for
Speaker 1: you tonight.
Speaker 3: Our guest tonight it, formerly incarcerated firefighter Royal Raimie, is
Speaker 3: gonna be here to discuss his journey from prison firefighter
Speaker 3: to organizer. But first I just want to very clearly
Speaker 3: state to you guys something I found last week were exhausting.
Speaker 3: The return to sixteen hundred Trumpulvania Avenue was as disorienting
Speaker 3: and chaotic as I imagine. But then we had a weekend.
Speaker 3: Serenity now and we can finally catch our breath begin
Speaker 3: to move forward with intentionality. I mustang chaos on Wall Street.
Speaker 2: We are in the middle of a market selloff.
Speaker 5: Tex stocks sent the markets into a tailspin today at
Speaker 5: Tex stalks.
Speaker 3: Have just taken a battery.
Speaker 1: Will there never be peace?
Speaker 3: No? What has happened to Livda? What I was promised
Speaker 3: a new era of American prosperity and greatness will happen
Speaker 3: a powerful new Chinese AI tool called deep Seek is
Speaker 3: threatening the US dominance of this emerging technology.
Speaker 5: Deep Seak is on par with what open Ai and
Speaker 5: Google have made, even though those companies are singing billions
Speaker 5: of dollars, tons of years and lots of development into
Speaker 5: this space. Deep Seek did it for cheaper in a
Speaker 5: matter of months.
Speaker 3: Who would have expected the Chinese to do it cheaper?
Speaker 4: I can't believe it.
Speaker 3: It's as though when you don't have labor laws or rights.
Speaker 3: And by the way deep seek deep seek, we're getting
Speaker 3: our asses kicked by deep Seek. Who names an AI
Speaker 3: company after the thing it actually does? Where are your
Speaker 3: random letters? Where's your GPT?
Speaker 1: Your grock?
Speaker 3: Deep seek sounds like what you might use it for.
Speaker 3: China's even beating us at naming shit.
Speaker 1: By the way, I do know this is bad to
Speaker 1: who's financially.
Speaker 3: But is anyone else somewhat excited that AI had its
Speaker 3: job replaced by Ai?
Speaker 1: That's something.
Speaker 3: But listen, man, this is a minor setback.
Speaker 1: We will bounce back.
Speaker 3: Russia had Sputnik and it spurred us on to land
Speaker 3: on the moon.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's not going to be that bad.
Speaker 3: Has Chinese AI put America an AI out of a job.
Speaker 3: I mean, who knows. I'll find out, Siri, how bad
Speaker 3: is it?
Speaker 6: John?
Speaker 1: Check out my only sands?
Speaker 3: No, send me a link. But enough about the apparently
Speaker 3: tenuous underpinning of everything. We've banked our entire future economy on.
Speaker 3: What's the news freaking out about?
Speaker 1: Closer to home?
Speaker 7: Friday night master.
Speaker 5: Flate Friday night Purge a chilling perch, the purge.
Speaker 1: O Trump possession?
Speaker 7: In the purge, I for what?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: For one will take full advantage by doing some unpermitted
Speaker 3: lawn work.
Speaker 1: Your God is powerless.
Speaker 3: Although, just in case I'm misinterpreting, what is this purge about?
Speaker 1: Exactly?
Speaker 3: Breaking news?
Speaker 8: The mass firing of government agency watchdogs?
Speaker 3: Trump fired at least seventeen inspectors general. No, he got
Speaker 3: rid of seventeen inspectors general.
Speaker 9: That only leaves no one knows how many that I
Speaker 9: have no idea.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm sorry, did I break the illusion?
Speaker 1: You know? Here's a nice thing at home?
Speaker 3: You don't know if that's the axe?
Speaker 1: Oh my desk? Which one is fake? I'll never tell.
Speaker 1: The point is.
Speaker 3: We have seventeen less inspectors general. Who knows how many generals?
Speaker 3: Will now go uninspected. Democrats inspire my anger in the
Speaker 3: least charismatic way possible.
Speaker 6: Donald Trump's decision to fire twelve of the federal government's
Speaker 6: independent watchdogs is a glaring sign that it's a golden age.
Speaker 6: And Donald Trump's decision to fire twelve of the federal
Speaker 6: government's independent watchdogs is a glaring sign that it's a
Speaker 6: golden age for abuse in government and even corruption.
Speaker 3: He started again, right? You said it twice like no recognition,
Speaker 3: just started again? Is that what happened? Normally humans in
Speaker 3: that scenario would go, oh god.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry? What? Uh?
Speaker 7: Where was I?
Speaker 3: Let me take that from the top and maybe this
Speaker 3: time I'll look up.
Speaker 1: Can you are you?
Speaker 3: Can you legally just restart without acknowledgement?
Speaker 1: Is Schumer ai?
Speaker 7: Is he deep seek?
Speaker 3: But regardless of how slowly NPC Chuck Schumer laid it out,
Speaker 3: what Trump did violated the law. He can't just fire
Speaker 3: these people.
Speaker 4: Title five, Section four or three of the us CO
Speaker 4: Federal law in a spectro general may be removed by
Speaker 4: the president.
Speaker 1: What so, what's the purge? What's the mouth? Why do
Speaker 1: I have an act?
Speaker 2: There is a specific law that requires notice thirty days
Speaker 2: and a statement of reasons, substantive and detailed rationale.
Speaker 1: What I'm sorry, what?
Speaker 3: Oh apparently you can fire them, but you have to
Speaker 3: give them thirty days notice.
Speaker 1: Oh so that's what we're up said about. No, you
Speaker 1: can do it, but not in that font.
Speaker 3: That's Hittler's font. But this is the cycle we find
Speaker 3: ourselves in first law of trumpodynamics. Every action is met
Speaker 3: with a very not equal overreaction, thus throwing off our
Speaker 3: ability to know when shit is actually.
Speaker 1: Getting real Like last week's pardons.
Speaker 3: These pardons are sick, they are offensive, they are Unamerican.
Speaker 5: This is one of the most egregious, despicable acts in
Speaker 5: American history. This is textbook authoritarian takeof over one oh one.
Speaker 1: I knew I should have taken that class.
Speaker 3: I'm not majored in submissive liberal crying one oh one.
Speaker 1: Do what you with Trumpieski?
Speaker 7: Was it shitty? Yes?
Speaker 3: Should you have let some of those terrible people? No?
Speaker 1: Is it an abusive pardon power?
Speaker 3: I don't know, but that is his constitutional power. Again,
Speaker 3: for some reason, we have given presidents the power of
Speaker 3: a king, and then we say, oh, by the way,
Speaker 3: that power, you're not gonna get all like king lean
Speaker 3: shit on us. Right to put that in constitutional terms.
Speaker 3: If I could don't hate the player, hate the founding fathers.
Speaker 1: That's not.
Speaker 3: Why do we even have it? Because I don't know
Speaker 3: if you've mac Donald Trump, he pushes shit.
Speaker 5: President Trump deploying executive action to end birthright citizenship, this
Speaker 5: unconstitutional on American.
Speaker 3: Attack, shredding our constitution.
Speaker 9: Was to be a strong man, authoritarian.
Speaker 3: Birthright citizenship was very specifically tailored to send a message
Speaker 3: to people in America was a place, an idea.
Speaker 1: It wasn't for one race, it wasn't for one gender.
Speaker 3: Citizenship in America was based on where you were, not
Speaker 3: who you were, and to just stroke of a pen. Finally,
Speaker 3: I agree that is authoritarian.
Speaker 8: We do begin tonight with the federal judge blocking President
Speaker 8: Trump's executive order that would end birthright citizenship, and we're back.
Speaker 1: See how easy that was. It was a dictatorship. And
Speaker 1: then the judgment.
Speaker 3: It's like when you have an electric fence. You never
Speaker 3: check it. You're not really sure if it works because
Speaker 3: because you have a good boy. Yeah I have a
Speaker 3: very good boy. But then one day zap. By the way,
Speaker 3: I fundamentally disagree with the use of electric fences.
Speaker 1: I it is true.
Speaker 3: I prefer to discipline my dogs with a series of passive,
Speaker 3: aggressive comments about their weight. Really tearing through the bowl tonight. Huh,
Speaker 3: take a breath, Tubs.
Speaker 1: It's called kibble, not gobble.
Speaker 3: By the way, my dog's name is Tubs. Anyway, birthright
Speaker 3: citizenship is back.
Speaker 1: No, obviously will appeal it.
Speaker 3: Damn you constitutionally enshrined judicial review of executive action and
Speaker 3: it's relief through the appellate process. Look, we are facing
Speaker 3: a deluge of these executive actions, and certainly we must
Speaker 3: be prepared for those most vulnerable to the consequences of
Speaker 3: these actions. But this is all fascist argument has become
Speaker 3: almost a reflex for the left.
Speaker 5: Donald Trump promised to be a dictator on day one,
Speaker 5: and he's carried that forward through the entire week.
Speaker 3: Five days into this administration.
Speaker 1: The abuse has already rampant well.
Speaker 3: The rest of the week, shredding the constitution as.
Speaker 5: He went on a fascism scale of one to ten,
Speaker 5: with ten being peak fascism. How would you rate Trump's
Speaker 5: first week.
Speaker 3: The scale of Mussolini to the Holocaust? You know, I
Speaker 3: would say it's not fascism.
Speaker 7: Do I not.
Speaker 1: Understand what fascism is?
Speaker 3: And also, if I may, and this may be petty,
Speaker 3: why are we asking someone who, at the end of January.
Speaker 1: Still has his fun Christmas tree off? Why are we
Speaker 1: asking you anything?
Speaker 3: You know who used to leave the Christmas tree up
Speaker 3: all the time?
Speaker 1: Hitler?
Speaker 3: So somebody in the audience literally jumped my Hitler. Joe,
Speaker 3: you know who used to do that?
Speaker 8: By the way, Paul Pott, Now, look, I have a
Speaker 8: lot of fear that as this term goes on, things
Speaker 8: are going to get a little fascisty, and we must
Speaker 8: be vigilant.
Speaker 1: But part of vigilance is discernment.
Speaker 3: Republicans control the House, the Senate, the Executive, and the judiciary,
Speaker 3: and just about every move that has been made till
Speaker 3: this point we have granted them electorally.
Speaker 1: It's our confault.
Speaker 3: And the constant drug yets just don't fall, and the
Speaker 3: constant drumbeat of encroaching fascism will erode the credibility we
Speaker 3: will need if hopefully if and not when it hits.
Speaker 3: But the truth is that for now, his most objectionable
Speaker 3: actions have taken place almost entirely within our designed democratic system,
Speaker 3: like the confirmation process. Despite claims of meritocracy, Trump has
Speaker 3: put forth some of the least LinkedIn people you could imagine.
Speaker 3: I don't know what responsible hiring process you can create
Speaker 3: that looks at this.
Speaker 10: I'm gonna get another repill hold on, I feel good,
Speaker 10: you know, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: Say, add a little bit of extra starting in there.
Speaker 7: Anyway, what do we care?
Speaker 1: What sad duncan dad?
Speaker 3: On two year's eve?
Speaker 1: Who's that guy? I want him leading defense? And how
Speaker 1: did this individual.
Speaker 3: Who has never so much as successfully managed a waffle
Speaker 3: house pop up gonna run the three million people Department
Speaker 3: of Defense? But he wasn't foisted upon us by a dictator.
Speaker 3: There was no authoritarian end run, no royal edicts. This
Speaker 3: shit happened to us as designed advise. But Moe consent
Speaker 3: passed through the Armed Services Committee, put through a Senate vote.
Speaker 3: Three Republicans, of course, made a show of him.
Speaker 1: It is the most outrage and good contracts.
Speaker 3: Blah blah, because they knew they could lose three. It
Speaker 3: was a fucking performance and Jade Vance broke the tie. Democratically,
Speaker 3: Trump's using the almost absolute power we have constitutionally granted
Speaker 3: him and the Republicans because this is Trump's theory and governance,
Speaker 3: He's already laid it out to not President Bush in
Speaker 3: two thousand and five, back when he was still accessing Hollywood.
Speaker 7: Hey, when you were started, they let you do it.
Speaker 1: You can do anything.
Speaker 7: Grab him by the pussy.
Speaker 3: That's his governing philosophy for all of it, Appointing people,
Speaker 3: firing people, writing executive orders, taking Greenland, making Wikipedia like edits.
Speaker 1: To the literal globe.
Speaker 3: But unfortunately, as of now, he's pretty much just democratically
Speaker 3: grabbed or pussy. Yeah, yeah, we said, yeah, he has
Speaker 3: the consent of the people. For God's sakes. His deportation
Speaker 3: orders are so popular they have collabse.
Speaker 5: TV personality doctor Phil tagged along on a Chicago raid.
Speaker 1: You've never been deported before, Phil, Doctor Phil?
Speaker 7: Yeah? How do you know me?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 7: I seen I've seen a doctor Phil, you know on TV?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you know me? You've been in one thing?
Speaker 3: How do you know I'm doctor Phil? Because you're on
Speaker 3: the Doctor Phil Show. You're doctor Phil?
Speaker 7: How do you know me?
Speaker 1: Oh? Why aren't you and good Fellas?
Speaker 7: No, you're from Doctor Pell.
Speaker 3: I know that little head anywhere, no bald mustache, southern drawl.
Speaker 7: What do you know what I'm doing that?
Speaker 1: How do you know that picture.
Speaker 3: I guess doctor phil finally cashed someone outside.
Speaker 1: How about that? Let me go, good, let me go,
Speaker 1: let me finish. We're almost done.
Speaker 3: Look, the Trump administration was clearly ready for this.
Speaker 7: It was almost as.
Speaker 3: Though they had some project for what they might do
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five. And they're so emboldened they're not
Speaker 3: even stopping on American shores.
Speaker 8: The President said he thought more than a million Palestinians
Speaker 8: in Gaza could be moved to nearby Arab countries.
Speaker 3: What the what the he's so emboldened he wants to
Speaker 3: start deporting people from other people's countries.
Speaker 1: You want doctor Philip be down in Gaza?
Speaker 7: You know me?
Speaker 3: How do you know me?
Speaker 1: So abiet me? I don't have a television, I don't
Speaker 1: know you. I don't know how Bibi. Look.
Speaker 3: I really hope the Democrats figure out a way to
Speaker 3: contain this guy. The question is probably not how dare he?
Speaker 7: Though?
Speaker 3: The question should be what are you learning from this?
Speaker 3: How would you use this power? What's your contract with America?
Speaker 3: Democrats exist outside of him. Tell people what you would
Speaker 3: do with the power that Trump is wielding, and then
Speaker 3: convince us to give that power to you. As soon
Speaker 3: as possible.
Speaker 4: That's the goal.
Speaker 1: It's enough with the ha the hitler.
Speaker 7: Here's the thing.
Speaker 3: Stop doing it.
Speaker 1: That's terrible.
Speaker 7: What would you know?
Speaker 3: And if not, you know, if you don't have any
Speaker 3: of the answers, maybe Ai has a solution for you.
Speaker 1: Hate Siri.
Speaker 3: What can democrats do to stop Trump? I'm a boopie
Speaker 3: Don's Salem. I'm doing what a country jo from w
Speaker 3: would you do.
Speaker 6: I'm a sory of doing g It's too late.
Speaker 1: When we come back, Royal Ramio be here, We'll be
Speaker 1: right back.
Speaker 7: Hi, what am I going? So my death tonight?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna like this A formerly.
Speaker 3: Incarcerated firefighter who is now the CEO and co founder
Speaker 3: of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, also the subject
Speaker 3: of the forthcoming documentary Firebreak. Since World War Two, there's
Speaker 3: been a growing reliance for imprisoned people to do some
Speaker 3: of the frontwork of firefighting.
Speaker 2: We were both formally incarcerated in fires.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we got out. We were dedicated to how fire fighters.
Speaker 7: I'm full in love with it, but i'd have a blueprint.
Speaker 7: I was just lost.
Speaker 1: He's welcome to the program, Royal Raimie.
Speaker 10: Sorry, done better. Thing goes let's go.
Speaker 3: You know, very a lot of times we get economists
Speaker 3: on the show, judges, very rarely do they go, come on,
Speaker 3: it's so nice to see you and so nice to
Speaker 3: meet you. When I heard the story, not even just
Speaker 3: your story, but just the general story of incarcerated firefighters
Speaker 3: that were I was very surprised, and I'll run the
Speaker 3: thoughts that were going through my.
Speaker 1: Head and I'll have you speak to them.
Speaker 3: One was, oh my god, the bravery that these folks
Speaker 3: who don't have their own liberty are showing on our
Speaker 3: behalf is astonishing.
Speaker 7: Right running to the.
Speaker 3: Number two, I bet they're paying them shit? And is
Speaker 3: this indentured servative? And is this being coerced? And then
Speaker 3: number three was if I wanted to escape from prison,
Speaker 3: I would light a fire. How do they keep them
Speaker 3: from not running away in the middle of the fire,
Speaker 3: And then everybody being like, where's slim Pete? And then
Speaker 3: they're like, so it run this story. Man, you were
Speaker 3: in this program, What is this? Why did you get
Speaker 3: into it? What made you get into the firefighting program
Speaker 3: from prison?
Speaker 4: So honestly, around the time that I went to prison,
Speaker 4: it was overcrowded in California. So I ended up getting
Speaker 4: transferred to Arizona and the Mississippi and I was in
Speaker 4: prison about twenty plus months, closer to two years in Mississippi. Like,
Speaker 4: so I went to Arizona FIRSTI So it's like that
Speaker 4: time of being out of state. You know, it was
Speaker 4: an opportunity for me to go back to California to
Speaker 4: see my family because I didn't see him.
Speaker 7: For the amount of time. Oh wow.
Speaker 4: And you know, obviously I heard the rumors around like
Speaker 4: it's better food. You know, you have a dormitory, you
Speaker 4: know setting when you out there, it's not like you
Speaker 4: behind us in the.
Speaker 7: Sale and you're not, are you?
Speaker 4: You can be able to get the most money that
Speaker 4: you can earn in prison, which is a dollar hour
Speaker 4: on fires, right, which is a.
Speaker 3: Dollar an hour on fires is the most money.
Speaker 4: Like yeah, so you make about around twenty six dollars
Speaker 4: a day when you're out there fighting the fire. So
Speaker 4: that's the most money you can make in prison.
Speaker 3: Okay, So here's where it's gonna get here. Here's where
Speaker 3: it gets ugly for liberals, right because the liberal reaction is.
Speaker 1: Howard exploit the incarcerated.
Speaker 7: But but in.
Speaker 1: Prison it's so bad that this is great?
Speaker 3: Is that it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's the best.
Speaker 4: It's one of the best programs that Califran Department of
Speaker 4: Correction and Real Abilitation has actually, especially when it comes
Speaker 4: down to when you, you know, you most people when they
Speaker 4: come home, they come home with two hundred dollars a
Speaker 4: gay money, right, right, and then have an opportunity to
Speaker 4: go to fire camp, you know, get a gain of
Speaker 4: a family, win a career in the fire sector.
Speaker 7: Right. That's like monumental.
Speaker 4: A lot of folks don't be can't even fathom of
Speaker 4: like never having a job like that, like having a career,
Speaker 4: you know, just just having that felony you know in
Speaker 4: your record, right to being able to possibly have a
Speaker 4: six figure career, benefits retirement, and be able to be
Speaker 4: take care of your family, you know, for for a
Speaker 4: long time.
Speaker 3: So, I mean, in some ways it's a new model
Speaker 3: of rehabilitation, you know. I was reading that the recetivism
Speaker 3: rate generally it's pretty high, fifty percent, sometimes sixty percent.
Speaker 3: The recidivism rate on those who have been inducted into
Speaker 3: this program is less than ten percent.
Speaker 1: Is that correct?
Speaker 7: I know that from my program, right, But that's amazing, Yeah,
Speaker 7: it is, it is, It is.
Speaker 4: It changed my life, honestly, John, it gave me an
Speaker 4: opportunity to know what a team kind of feel like.
Speaker 4: And when you're out there fighting fires and you have
Speaker 4: to rely on the next person, you know, it does
Speaker 4: take a lot, you know, it takes a lot of
Speaker 4: courage and being able to like, you know, come together
Speaker 4: when it's all you know, when it's the fires raging
Speaker 4: and you out there on the line and you you know,
Speaker 4: you're putting your life on the line, it does give
Speaker 4: you a sense of teamwork and partnership with folks that you.
Speaker 7: Probably never have.
Speaker 4: Had a communication with when a positive light when you
Speaker 4: out there in the streets, because you got to think
Speaker 4: about it, it's folks that's been in gangs right right had
Speaker 4: you know, some some trauma and a life and it's
Speaker 4: there's a lot of segregation within you know, California prisons.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of politics in it. So you know, race,
Speaker 4: you know, is a big thing. And when you when you.
Speaker 3: In fire camps, you have prisons, it's very segregated to
Speaker 3: a white gang, this Kanic gang, a black gang absolutely,
Speaker 3: and firefighting none of that.
Speaker 4: Now you have to you have to put that all
Speaker 4: to the side and your crew so you have a
Speaker 4: mixture of folks it's amazing.
Speaker 3: Did you you know, did you not believe that you
Speaker 3: could do it? Is the idea that people in that
Speaker 3: environment have been so lacked the UH network and confidence
Speaker 3: and confidence that that goes along with things, that this
Speaker 3: is a revelation for themselves that I'm, oh, I'm worthy,
Speaker 3: I'm I'm actually worthy.
Speaker 1: That's the deal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, I think so when you out there on
Speaker 4: those big, you know, fire campaigns, you know, you see
Speaker 4: signs that says thank you firefighters. And then when you
Speaker 4: actually you know, doing the work the same thing that
Speaker 4: you will see a hot shot crew do or tight
Speaker 4: tu crew that to do, like you're doing pretty much
Speaker 4: the same work. So you know, you do feel that
Speaker 4: sense of pride in and purpose and it gives you
Speaker 4: a way to be able to utilize the knowledge, skills,
Speaker 4: and abilities that you learned in fire camp to transition
Speaker 4: into the fire service professionally. And that's what the forestry
Speaker 4: and fire you know, recruitment.
Speaker 3: Do, like we so your your organization tries to take
Speaker 3: that training because you're not if you go through the
Speaker 3: prison program, are you certified to fight fires?
Speaker 1: At that point in.
Speaker 4: California now you still got some more certifications that you
Speaker 4: would need in order for you to be able to
Speaker 4: be a professional firefighter, even though.
Speaker 3: They've already put you in fires. You're already doing the job, right,
Speaker 3: but they're saying to you, yes, you can fight the fires,
Speaker 3: but you're not qualified to fight the fires.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's some you know, it's some things to that, definitely, right,
Speaker 4: but but.
Speaker 7: You know it's the definitely think to that.
Speaker 3: And that's diplomatic here right a little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so you know, just just being transparent
Speaker 4: and real. It's definitely like it's a gatekeeping thing, I think,
Speaker 4: and a lot of folks don't understand the actual process, right,
Speaker 4: Like you have to have the certifications to be able
Speaker 4: to apply to these positions. You have to understand, you know,
Speaker 4: what to put on the resume, how to apply to
Speaker 4: the job, like making sure that you read everything right.
Speaker 4: And then but they train you, yes, you get the train,
Speaker 4: don't just get prisoners, like come on.
Speaker 1: Let's go.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they gave you minimum training. They do.
Speaker 3: But there's anybody in there, like for Arson, they're on.
Speaker 1: There and they're like, hey, Phil, what would you do
Speaker 1: in this situation?
Speaker 7: Right now?
Speaker 1: You're not allowed to think of you.
Speaker 7: No, you can't have arson and you can't.
Speaker 1: Like I said, it could be the dumbest question.
Speaker 7: In the in the sex crime. That's one of the
Speaker 7: two major things.
Speaker 4: I think they're trying to revisit some things around certain
Speaker 4: violent crimes, but they're trying to you know, evaluate and
Speaker 4: and my big my best one of my best friend
Speaker 4: of mentor.
Speaker 1: ROLB.
Speaker 7: Diaz, he would kill me in friend money.
Speaker 4: You want to see this, right, They did tell me
Speaker 4: that I was rugged, but now it's definitely they have
Speaker 4: some requirements for.
Speaker 1: The prisoners. How do they view that bargain?
Speaker 3: That bargain of Look, they are the state exploits prison labor.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's just straight down the line.
Speaker 7: Common fact's common fact.
Speaker 3: And and the penalties on felony makes it almost impossible
Speaker 3: for people to reintegrate into like our prison system as
Speaker 3: you know, as you are experienced, is uh And obviously
Speaker 3: like I'm not a sociologist thing, but I think the word.
Speaker 7: Is I love you, Yeah, I love you? Yeah? What
Speaker 7: it is to right?
Speaker 1: So how did they.
Speaker 3: How do they console each other in that? How do
Speaker 3: you guys talk to each other about what this opportunity means?
Speaker 3: And what the system is is doing to you.
Speaker 1: Guys, while that's all happening, you're ready.
Speaker 7: For the real deal.
Speaker 4: Holyville, Be honest with you, I didn't know what I
Speaker 4: was getting myself into.
Speaker 7: Really, they say fire camp.
Speaker 4: I'm a kid from the inner city, like fire camp, fire,
Speaker 4: okay around the camp like you told you know what I'm.
Speaker 7: Saying, Like, I don't know.
Speaker 3: He was like you wo had gotten into a program, right,
Speaker 3: like you were gonna make thismores right right?
Speaker 4: I didn't know, like honestly, Like it wasn't like, Oh,
Speaker 4: you're gonna be on the front line. You're gonna be
Speaker 4: fighting fire. You're gonna carry this pack, you're gonna be
Speaker 4: having this tool, and then right you're gonna be working
Speaker 4: twenty four hour shifts. You're gonna be doing you know,
Speaker 4: Like I'm like, what, like that's fire fighting?
Speaker 7: Fire like?
Speaker 4: And when I first got to camp and it was
Speaker 4: like here give you know, gave my equipment and we
Speaker 4: start hiking, I'm like it was like, yeah, here's these
Speaker 4: boots and I'm like I'm used to wearing Nikes, right.
Speaker 3: Boots, Like okay, did I get the boots?
Speaker 7: Said, Okay, give me a pack.
Speaker 4: And a tool and we hiking, I'm like, man, I
Speaker 4: got you know around here, like whoa, Like this is?
Speaker 7: This is intense. But I ended up talking to one
Speaker 7: of my captains.
Speaker 4: And he was like, Raimy, you one of the the
Speaker 4: youngest dudes on the crew, and you're the slowest one,
Speaker 4: you know, dude. And I'm like, you know, just being
Speaker 4: from the from the inner city, you know, in so
Speaker 4: many words, he was like, you're calling me a you know,
Speaker 4: a sissy.
Speaker 3: And I got to tell you when that story when
Speaker 3: you were going there, I really thought you're gonna be
Speaker 3: like He pulled me aside and he said, I like, you, son,
Speaker 3: you You've really got something I can't. He pulled you
Speaker 3: aside and he's just like, what the man.
Speaker 1: Get off here?
Speaker 7: Right? Right?
Speaker 3: How long did it take you to acclimate to this?
Speaker 3: And and and and how long.
Speaker 1: Was the training?
Speaker 7: It was?
Speaker 4: So to answer the second question first, So the training
Speaker 4: was about a couple of weeks, just like physical training
Speaker 4: that you get and then you go into like a
Speaker 4: classroom setting where you get the S one ninety.
Speaker 7: I know a couple of people are going to kill me.
Speaker 4: For this, but it's the entry level position or entry
Speaker 4: certification for wildland fire behavior and then from there you
Speaker 4: kind of like get a pack and you got to
Speaker 4: make sure you hike within a certain amount of time.
Speaker 4: And then once you complete that, then you're I was
Speaker 4: able to go to a fire camp. That was when
Speaker 4: I was you know there into twenty two.
Speaker 3: So you guys are wild land firefighters, certified firefighters. This
Speaker 3: is and very different from like what La County urban fire,
Speaker 3: residential fire. So your role in this is more in
Speaker 3: those areas where the maybe the chaparal is or where
Speaker 3: the wilderness stuff is. Is that generally where the incarcerated guys.
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, So it's a couple of things.
Speaker 4: So you got so the main objective is to the
Speaker 4: pretty much train and deploy folks that's incarcerated to fire
Speaker 4: fire wildland fires. And then when you're not fighting fires,
Speaker 4: you out there doing fire prevention work or projects within
Speaker 4: the community. So that's one of the pluses TOOS is
Speaker 4: like you're not actually in the sale, you actually in
Speaker 4: the community doing different you know work or whatever. It
Speaker 4: could be a project, you know, could be laying you know,
Speaker 4: cement somewhere. It could be you know, you know, doing
Speaker 4: cutting brush or you can.
Speaker 3: Do wheeda baby and these are necessary jobs that they
Speaker 3: do have trouble finding candidates for and and people for.
Speaker 3: You know, it's been so interesting and I wonder how
Speaker 3: you sort of process this in your head. But this
Speaker 3: idea of like DEEI like, oh, the Los Angeles fire
Speaker 3: only happened because it's she's a lesbian, Like like, you're
Speaker 3: on the other side of that where you're like, we
Speaker 3: want to get into this business. There are a lot
Speaker 3: of gate keepers that keep us out, but boy, we're
Speaker 3: we're capable, right, and how do you reckon that?
Speaker 7: So you just so I'm a doer, right.
Speaker 4: So when I first was in fire Camp, obviously it
Speaker 4: was a transition for me mentally, emotionally, you know, spiritually,
Speaker 4: and you know, I grew to love it and I
Speaker 4: fell in love with it, and it was it was
Speaker 4: that one thing in my head. It was like, man,
Speaker 4: like I wonder, I want to do this. I want
Speaker 4: to do my career. I want to make this happen, right,
Speaker 4: And me and my co founder Brenda Smith, he, you know,
Speaker 4: we was talking one day and it was like, look, man,
Speaker 4: you know you want to be able to do it.
Speaker 7: I want to do it.
Speaker 4: Let's figure this out, you know, and be like the
Speaker 4: modern day Harriet Tupman's of the buyer service.
Speaker 1: Right undergrad.
Speaker 3: Because you knew that generally those jobs are you know,
Speaker 3: connections play a large part in them, and it's relatively
Speaker 3: homogeneous in those areas, right, and it was.
Speaker 1: Gonna be tough to break through. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's just the cultural thing too, and understanding that
Speaker 4: you know you're going to have to do.
Speaker 7: You got to put in the work.
Speaker 4: You got to make sure that you understand the culture,
Speaker 4: understand how to be a professional, because you got a
Speaker 4: lot of folks that consider people that's been incarcerated that's
Speaker 4: zero's right, and then when you look at them as
Speaker 4: a hero, it's like a you know, a public nuisance
Speaker 4: in a public servant like that kind of like doesn't
Speaker 4: mix our public you know, prison and public service don't mix.
Speaker 4: And you have to change that narrative with people because
Speaker 4: once because I remember when I was actually I went
Speaker 4: to my first pretty much like month on my job
Speaker 4: with cal Fire and one of my captain was like, hey,
Speaker 4: we went on this fire.
Speaker 7: I was cutting with the saw and stuff.
Speaker 4: He was like, man, you do you did a pretty
Speaker 4: good job with that, Like where did you.
Speaker 7: Learn that from?
Speaker 4: Like usually and usually folks like myself learned that in
Speaker 4: camp right, and I was like, you know, I kind
Speaker 4: of shied away from it.
Speaker 7: Yeah. I worked for the Ford Service first.
Speaker 4: So it was like, you know, I kind of had
Speaker 4: that got a spiel, but I wanted to make sure
Speaker 4: that they looked at me as a human being first
Speaker 4: and not just based off of what you know, my
Speaker 4: previous experiences were when I when I was in prison.
Speaker 1: It's it's.
Speaker 3: Incredibly impressive, and maybe what's the most impressive thing about
Speaker 3: it is that you took that knowledge and you took
Speaker 3: that experience, and you have created this organization to make
Speaker 3: sure that you keep the ladder down people the fire
Speaker 3: ladder to help other people up. And I love that
Speaker 3: prison to public service road because so often in this
Speaker 3: country it's public service to prison.
Speaker 1: That's a political thing, goes the other way. It's so
Speaker 1: good the meets, the more information about the forest fire.
Speaker 10: The pltment, check out the late below cheap Hi laying hot,
Speaker 10: presnive little home.
Speaker 7: I'm not gonna talk for tonight, but.
Speaker 3: If before we go, we're going to check in with
Speaker 3: your host for the rest of the week, Michael Costa.
Speaker 1: Michael, what do you got cats? Of the War, Michael Costa.
Speaker 11: John, we'll be going through all the secret files on JFK,
Speaker 11: MLK and RFK. You know, Trump declassified them last week,
Speaker 11: and we're already learning some really shocking stuff. For example, John,
Speaker 11: did you know that RFK is RFK Junior's dad.
Speaker 1: I did know that.
Speaker 7: Okay, I thought that was news.
Speaker 11: But check this out because did you know that JFK
Speaker 11: and RFK were brothers. Both of their last names were Kennedy.
Speaker 11: But John, the K in MLK is not for Kennedy.
Speaker 11: This is crazy stuff. Also, they all fake their dads
Speaker 11: and they're living in Oregon.
Speaker 3: But other than that, well, at least we have some closure.
Speaker 3: Check out Michael Costa this week here it is your
Speaker 3: moment is that.
Speaker 2: You know, there are a lot of things that Donald
Speaker 2: Trump has done in his first week in office that
Speaker 2: Americans do support.
Speaker 1: This ain't one of them. This ain't one of them.
Speaker 2: I don't know what the heck he's doing because not
Speaker 2: only did that judge spank him like he was a
Speaker 2: young child back in the nineteen sixties, but the American
Speaker 2: public ain't with him either.
Speaker 7: Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching.
Speaker 3: The Daily show wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Watch The Daily Show week nights at.
Speaker 4: Eleven ten Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes
Speaker 4: anytime on Paramount
Speaker 7: Plus Paramount Podcasts