Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Hey, it's Roy Wood Jr.
Speaker 1: Up Next is a special presentation of the original Daily
Speaker 1: Show podcast Beyond the Scenes, hosted by yours truly. In
Speaker 1: this podcast, we take you further into topics and segments
Speaker 1: covered on the Daily Show, and we talked with the
Speaker 1: producers from the show, writers, correspondents, and expert guests who
Speaker 1: can give us a little bit more insight and context
Speaker 1: on the topics at hand. Have a listen. I know
Speaker 1: you're gonna like it. Welcome to Beyond the Scenes, the
Speaker 1: podcast that goes deeper into segments and topics that aired
Speaker 1: on the Daily Show with Trevor Nolla. This week, we're
Speaker 1: taking a look back at some of the many amazing
Speaker 1: guests and experts We've been lucky to have on the program.
Speaker 1: I've had everybody from members of Congress to medical professionals,
Speaker 1: even professional singers and songwriters. Now, let's take a look
Speaker 1: at some of our favorite moments with our guests who
Speaker 1: provided us with their wisdom and expertise. The first expert
Speaker 1: we have up is Congresswoman Jackie Spear, who talks to
Speaker 1: us about the pink tax and why certain goods and
Speaker 1: services cost women more than they do men the same
Speaker 1: thing that a man boy a woman bout it post more.
Speaker 1: It's ridiculous, and she was even kind enough to give
Speaker 1: us a little show and tail. Let's check it out.
Speaker 1: Congresswoman Spear, welcome to beyond the scenes. It is my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me, well, thank you for letting
Speaker 1: me be a man and this woman. Too bad. We
Speaker 1: don't rule the world though, just because we're ruling this
Speaker 1: particular podcast, that's the problem. We're not ruling the world yet.
Speaker 1: I would be honest. I felt uncomfortable hosting this episode.
Speaker 1: I was like, Dazi need the guest host. I don't
Speaker 1: want to get in trouble. You're doing great, Roy, Okay,
Speaker 1: before we do anything, we have to define what the
Speaker 1: issue is. So Daisy Stacy, let's start off off the top.
Speaker 1: What is the pink tax? Well, the pink tax refer
Speaker 1: to the markup on goods and services that are specifically
Speaker 1: being targeted to women and gender price discrimination. So Roy,
Speaker 1: you everything you buy is cheaper than the same products
Speaker 1: we want to buy. Okay, So if we both bought
Speaker 1: deodorant and your and mine is man deodorant and yours
Speaker 1: is woman deodorant, same brand. You're paying more than me,
Speaker 1: is what you're saying, Stacy. It's more expensive for us
Speaker 1: to smell good than for you, which is why Stacy
Speaker 1: and I refuse to smell good. Yeah, you're lucky this
Speaker 1: is on zoom Roy because you don't want to smell this. Okay,
Speaker 1: let us back in the studio. Yes, okay, nothing to
Speaker 1: do with COVID. So congress Woman, Congresswoman, I'm sorry. I
Speaker 1: apologize for both of them. Um, why why does the
Speaker 1: pink tax exists? And more importantly, how do manufacturers and
Speaker 1: retailers justify this tax? Well, the pink tax exists because
Speaker 1: it's a form of gender discrimination. It's not just about pink.
Speaker 1: It's about the fact that women's products cost more than
Speaker 1: men's products, um, when they are basically identical. Um. It
Speaker 1: is important for us to address this because, as we
Speaker 1: all know, women still make less than men. Uh. For
Speaker 1: every dollar mannerns, a woman makes a d two cents.
Speaker 1: If you look at women of color, it's even more egregious.
Speaker 1: And that's real money. When everything is said and done,
Speaker 1: are there other examples of this other than deodorant? Because,
Speaker 1: and I'll be honest as a man, this isn't something
Speaker 1: that you would normally think about, because you're not buying
Speaker 1: a lot of women's items unless you're a committed strong
Speaker 1: man in a relationship like I am. So you're not
Speaker 1: aware of this. Giv me what what other items other
Speaker 1: than deodorant? I have heard that women get worse deals
Speaker 1: on cars. But let me give you some products that
Speaker 1: kind of make the case. All right, So this is
Speaker 1: um Dove deodor for men and women. And as you
Speaker 1: can see here, for a four pack, a woman is
Speaker 1: gonna pay nineteen dollars and thirty nine cents. The man's
Speaker 1: gonna pay thirteen dollars and fifty eight cents. That's just
Speaker 1: the odor. Let's move on. How about probiotics for women?
Speaker 1: Umto seventy nine, seventy nine for a man? All right,
Speaker 1: this like the price is right? Let me guess it's
Speaker 1: the price is wrong though. That's the problem, always wrong.
Speaker 1: So the price is right needs to have a gender
Speaker 1: separate episode, maybe so huh So look at this. These
Speaker 1: are bibbs, right, bibbs for boys, bibbs for girls, A
Speaker 1: dollar more for the girls. Bibbs. Now wait, there's more,
Speaker 1: what there's more? Oh my god, these are kids diapers.
Speaker 1: The kids diapers thirty seven dollars for the girl, thirty
Speaker 1: three dollars for the boy. But I'll show you the
Speaker 1: same discrimination stipers and boys have more happening to fill
Speaker 1: out diaper space. So really square footage, it should cost
Speaker 1: more for the men, right, probably because they need more absorbents,
Speaker 1: They need more absorbent material, so it's right right. Yeah. Now,
Speaker 1: we did this same study two or three years ago, um,
Speaker 1: and they were egregious around children's toys. So I had
Speaker 1: my interns do this just this week and this is
Speaker 1: what they found online at retailers throughout the country. So
Speaker 1: this is up to date, current. So what are we
Speaker 1: gonna do about it? How does price discrimination add another
Speaker 1: layer to the wage inequality that women also deal with? Well,
Speaker 1: it's yet another blow. Um. When I did the service
Speaker 1: review in we found out through the Assembly Office of
Speaker 1: Research in California that women were paying fourteen hundred dollars
Speaker 1: in a gender tax every year, more than men. So imagine,
Speaker 1: on top of the fact that we're in a seat
Speaker 1: she session, not a recession. More women are out of
Speaker 1: work than men, and there's one point three million women
Speaker 1: who have left the workforce since COVID hit and have
Speaker 1: not returned, in part because of the lack of childcare.
Speaker 1: This number is the highest number of women not employed
Speaker 1: since So you couple that with women out of work,
Speaker 1: women getting paid less than men, and on top of that,
Speaker 1: products are and services are costing them more. There ought
Speaker 1: to be a law, and that's why I've introduced the
Speaker 1: Pink Tax Repeal Act and we have fifty one co
Speaker 1: sponsors on it. Now, this issue, this pink tax issue,
Speaker 1: when we talk about the say the word again, a
Speaker 1: she session, a she session in sentiari, does this she
Speaker 1: session strike women equally or even within that is their
Speaker 1: additional inequities based on race? Oh, no question. UM, it's
Speaker 1: more egregious for women of color, UM, African American women,
Speaker 1: Tina women, UM. And the amount of loss and income
Speaker 1: UH is the greatest for Latina women. So your Pink
Speaker 1: Tax Repeal at it's bipartisan and basically we're trying to
Speaker 1: get all of these manufacturers and retailers on the same
Speaker 1: plane to basically say, if it's something as simple as
Speaker 1: deodorant and it both you keep both of y'all from
Speaker 1: being musty, it should be the same price. That's right,
Speaker 1: unless you can. I'm sure it's not worded like that.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you worded it more professionally. You probably said
Speaker 1: FTC an attorney general, you used a lot of the
Speaker 1: the words. That's right. We did use more proper words
Speaker 1: to basically say, if you don't play by these rules,
Speaker 1: you're going to be sued. And so then the bill
Speaker 1: has forty eight co sponsors right now. Has there been
Speaker 1: any pushback that you've seen so far on your proposal?
Speaker 1: And the numbers have grown, it's now at fifty one,
Speaker 1: and I've talked to the chairwoman of the subcommittee. She
Speaker 1: loves the bill, and we're gonna have a hearing on
Speaker 1: it and hopefully get it to the House floor within
Speaker 1: the next few months. And we can credit you with
Speaker 1: helping me get it over the top. Disy, no credit here,
Speaker 1: no credit here. What role can consumers play in provoking change? Consumers?
Speaker 1: I mean, you know the problem. You are the problem well,
Speaker 1: and the problem is that it's not illegal in most
Speaker 1: states to charge more for services based on gender or
Speaker 1: charge more for products. You should not be discriminating on
Speaker 1: goods and services based on gender. It should be based
Speaker 1: on the time it takes to do a service. And
Speaker 1: what's in the product. Women pay about more to get
Speaker 1: their hair cut than men do, and they pay about
Speaker 1: six more at the dry cleaners for the same service
Speaker 1: for the same item, and then for car repairs they
Speaker 1: pay about more. Now in California, back in the nineties,
Speaker 1: I had legislation pass that was signed into law that
Speaker 1: said for services you had to base it not on gender,
Speaker 1: but on the amount of time it takes to provide
Speaker 1: that service. For instance, I timed the last time I
Speaker 1: got my hair cut. It took ten minutes, and I
Speaker 1: watched a man getting his haircut and it took longer.
Speaker 1: So if we do base it on time, then I
Speaker 1: think you're just see the tables turned a little bit,
Speaker 1: and then there'll be an outcry from you guys because
Speaker 1: you're gonna be paying more for your two dollar dry
Speaker 1: cleaning shirt. Wouldn't would you say that you all were
Speaker 1: first aware of a pink tax existing, because you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta figure you have a little bit of a
Speaker 1: blind spot to certain inequities, and then one day you
Speaker 1: just go, wait a minute, When was when was your
Speaker 1: wait a minute moment? Congress warm When I started with you,
Speaker 1: it was when I took my husband's Oxford shirt shirts
Speaker 1: to the dry cleaner, and they were, you know, a
Speaker 1: dollar fifty a shirt, and my Oxford shirt costs you know,
Speaker 1: three fifty four dollars. That's when I thought, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: something's wrong here. I can remember when I first started
Speaker 1: shaving my legs around six seven years old. It was
Speaker 1: a very hairy child. Uh No, I was thirteen, twelve,
Speaker 1: thirteen somewhere around there, and my mom bought me a
Speaker 1: razor and some shaving cream, and I remember the Gillette
Speaker 1: razor being considerably more expensive than what men use, and
Speaker 1: my mom refusing to buy me that razor and also
Speaker 1: bought me a can of Barbesal, like the old school
Speaker 1: men's shaving cream. And so when I shaved my legs,
Speaker 1: I use like I just used the stuff for ment.
Speaker 1: And I still, if I'm being honest, I still have
Speaker 1: an affinity for the smell of Barbesal. That's why I
Speaker 1: just never shaved my leg Mine was. I went through
Speaker 1: a terrible phase where I had um what called pixie haircut,
Speaker 1: to be nice about it, and I went to a
Speaker 1: hair salon and the girl's haircuts were like about twenty
Speaker 1: dollars more, and I was like why I'm literally getting
Speaker 1: the same haircut as that guy in the chair and
Speaker 1: I just at the time thought that they were just
Speaker 1: a really like sexist hair place, and they were like,
Speaker 1: oh women, you know you guys have more layers. I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's the exact same haircut. And then it wasn't until
Speaker 1: I went to your office and I was ashamed. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, this is a thing, like
Speaker 1: another thing to add on top of everything else. So
Speaker 1: you opened my eyes, Congresswoman good. We want to open
Speaker 1: the eyes of both men and women in this country
Speaker 1: to recognize that this is another form of discrimination that
Speaker 1: we've got to stamp out. Big thank you to the
Speaker 1: Congresswoman Spear for giving us a little bit of our time.
Speaker 1: Our next expert after the break is going to talk
Speaker 1: to us about the way nurses have been treated during COVID,
Speaker 1: actually mistreated. It's beyond the scenes. Welcome back. You know what, man,
Speaker 1: that Prices Wrong segment was really eye open as CBS
Speaker 1: needs to develop that into a Price's Right spinoff. Hit
Speaker 1: me up, Drew Carrett, I got nothing but time. Trevor
Speaker 1: got my number. Next up, I chat with the doctor
Speaker 1: of Nursing Dr Christopher Freese. Now, I know his name
Speaker 1: sounds like a bit of a supervillain, but I assure
Speaker 1: you he's a hero in a white coat. I chatted
Speaker 1: with Christopher about how nurses have been coping during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and he had some real eye opening things to say
Speaker 1: about the treatment of nurses. Give me a clip, Dr Freeze.
Speaker 1: You know, when you look at healthcare in the modern
Speaker 1: era in this country, now, like it's not just about
Speaker 1: knowing your job from a techie technical I v find
Speaker 1: the vein standpoint you Also, it seems that the job
Speaker 1: of nurse is a little bit part sociologist as well,
Speaker 1: where you have to be able to relate to people.
Speaker 1: And I would even argue that there might be a
Speaker 1: little small element of social work and trying to just
Speaker 1: connect with people on a normal human basis. But you
Speaker 1: have a lot of different confluences happening. What do you
Speaker 1: believe are the primary challenges for nurses and the health
Speaker 1: care system right now? Well, how much time do we
Speaker 1: have right now? Um? So, first I want to say
Speaker 1: that each and every day, nurses are delivering exceptional care
Speaker 1: across the country. They are they are getting it done
Speaker 1: for their patients Technically socially, physically. They are problem solving
Speaker 1: behind the scenes there. You know, I call it, you know,
Speaker 1: part technical, part psychology, part air traffic controller, and and
Speaker 1: that's the part that a lot of people don't see.
Speaker 1: So a lot of excellent nursing care is still happening,
Speaker 1: but we're on the brink, and we've been on the
Speaker 1: brink for about almost two years now. So when we
Speaker 1: think about the priorities, what I'm really worried about is
Speaker 1: at some point our public health officials will have a
Speaker 1: lower level of concern for COVID than they do right now.
Speaker 1: They will say, we're in a phase that we can
Speaker 1: quote manage this. We we have an ability. You know,
Speaker 1: the case counts are very, very low. We're not seeing
Speaker 1: these big white spikes that we're still seeing. And everybody's
Speaker 1: gonna say, oh, great, problems solving. They're gonna walk away
Speaker 1: and they're gonna leave nurses in the lurch without solving
Speaker 1: the underlying structural things that are happening to nurses every
Speaker 1: day and have been happening for a decade. So my
Speaker 1: team has been studying nursing work places for two decades now.
Speaker 1: A couple of things that I'm very worried about. One
Speaker 1: is executives are not spending enough time on understanding the
Speaker 1: working conditions of nurses and how they need to fix them.
Speaker 1: They're not listening to nurses and solving their problems within
Speaker 1: the health care system. Exactly right. Executives in the health
Speaker 1: care system are not listening carefully to nurses concerns and
Speaker 1: acting upon those concerns. When nurses tell they have a problem,
Speaker 1: they have a problem, they're not making it up. And
Speaker 1: when nurses have problems in their workplaces, we've known that
Speaker 1: patients are more likely to die, patients are more likely
Speaker 1: to have complications, patients are more likely to have to
Speaker 1: stay longer in the hospital. None of us want any
Speaker 1: of that. So firstus we have to have our health
Speaker 1: care executives listen deeply and carefully to nurses and work
Speaker 1: very strategically on those problems. Then we have a couple
Speaker 1: of structural things, not very sexy, but we still allow
Speaker 1: many nurses, as you point out, to work mandatory over time.
Speaker 1: Their boss can come to them they've worked a twelve
Speaker 1: hours shift, it's five o'clock at night, they've worked ten
Speaker 1: hours NonStop, and their boss can come to them at
Speaker 1: five pm. And say, guess what, you're staying in another
Speaker 1: four hours. And we don't do that to pilots. Your
Speaker 1: pilot flies you from New York to l A. They
Speaker 1: get off the plane and they go home and rest
Speaker 1: drivers either and they drivers to make sure they're not
Speaker 1: even cheating exactly right. So so we've got a couple
Speaker 1: of structural things like that. We also have well, guess what,
Speaker 1: we're running short on a nurse, so you're gonna take
Speaker 1: another one to three patients. And right now in the
Speaker 1: COVID area, we're seeing that in the I c U.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of that in the I c U
Speaker 1: and twenty five years of nursing. So executives have decided
Speaker 1: to put the labor problems on the backs of nurses
Speaker 1: rather than solving the underlying problem. And I think that
Speaker 1: problem predated COVID and it's only gotten worse during COVID.
Speaker 1: So if we really focus on those issues, we're going
Speaker 1: to have a healthy, safe nursing workforce that can care
Speaker 1: for us during COVID and after COVID. And if we
Speaker 1: don't pay attention to that stuff, we're going to be
Speaker 1: in a whole world of hurt and we're going to
Speaker 1: see more of the stuff that we're seeing now, Nurses
Speaker 1: leaving in droves, too many, too many patients to care for,
Speaker 1: unsafe staffing, etcetera. It's a vicious cycle. If we don't
Speaker 1: break the change, I'm I'm going to ask a question.
Speaker 1: It's going to seem more of it. But it's from
Speaker 1: a fiscal place. Why would the executives they break the
Speaker 1: backs of the employees whose job it is is to
Speaker 1: help keep the customer a lot? Like if we're just
Speaker 1: going base level making money in health care, if people
Speaker 1: die that it's not good fiscally for business. So why
Speaker 1: would we create a place where the workers cannot do
Speaker 1: their job the right? What what is the advantage in
Speaker 1: an executive doing that? Like if we said they're not
Speaker 1: a sponsor, let's just use Amazon for example. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: Amazon is gonna pay you as little as possible and
Speaker 1: not put you in a union because it makes them
Speaker 1: more money overworking nurses doesn't make you more money. The
Speaker 1: patient is the patient. The cost is the cost, So
Speaker 1: why would you want the patient to die? Like? What
Speaker 1: are the advantages in the executive infrastructure of a hospital
Speaker 1: in being assholes like this? Well, I have a lot
Speaker 1: of friends who are executives, So let me put that
Speaker 1: on there. And I think a lot of that they're cool,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Those other people right, So
Speaker 1: you know, I think that first of all, a lot
Speaker 1: of the executives are trying to do the right thing,
Speaker 1: but we don't have the incentives lined up. And I
Speaker 1: spoke about this earlier. So Number one, when you, unfortunately
Speaker 1: are in the hospital and you get a bill when
Speaker 1: you go home, do me a favor and look at
Speaker 1: your bill and you tell me. This is a quiz
Speaker 1: for everybody listening. Go take a look at that bill
Speaker 1: and tell me where the bill for nursing services is.
Speaker 1: You know where it is. Room and board nurses are
Speaker 1: part of the room and board part of a hospital bill.
Speaker 1: So if you have cancer and I'm on college, you nurse,
Speaker 1: and I am giving you expert care for you, Lukenia,
Speaker 1: and I'm in your room every hour, drawing blood and
Speaker 1: checking your giving you blood products to save your life,
Speaker 1: and giving you antibiotics and all that stuff in and
Speaker 1: the person next to you or the room down the
Speaker 1: hall has an appendix removed and they're there for twelve
Speaker 1: hours and I give them to tile in all and
Speaker 1: send them on their way. The bill for the day
Speaker 1: is the same. So right now, nurses are widgets in
Speaker 1: the hospital and they are the largest part of the
Speaker 1: hospital budget. And so when times get tough, guess where
Speaker 1: they're gonna cut. Guess where they're going to cut the
Speaker 1: corner without nurses stepping up and saying this is no
Speaker 1: longer safe, this is no longer acceptable. We need a
Speaker 1: different structure. And so it's a it's a tricky thing.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be hard to solve. But what I'm what
Speaker 1: executive can do right now is really listen carefully to
Speaker 1: what their nurses are telling them and act on it.
Speaker 1: And what they can do tomorrow is eliminate mandatory over
Speaker 1: time because that's unsafe, and we know it's unsafe, and
Speaker 1: they can work carefully to get those numbers right so
Speaker 1: that we have an adequate number of nurses to care
Speaker 1: for the patients because it's unsustainable. But the primary problem
Speaker 1: is we do not value, either numerically or monetarily, the
Speaker 1: kind of nursing care that patients in the US need
Speaker 1: in hospitals. One of the things that I found researching
Speaker 1: that you really struck me was just, you know, not
Speaker 1: just the level of care, but just all of the
Speaker 1: different types of care that nurses do that I don't
Speaker 1: think we really think of that. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: it is drying blood and it is giving medicine, but
Speaker 1: you're also you're helping patients shave, you know. The nurses
Speaker 1: are the ones holding the phones that people can talk
Speaker 1: to patients. Like, there's a lot of things that if
Speaker 1: you did put them on a hospital bill, it would
Speaker 1: probably look like a CBS receipt, you know, because it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, that's like, you know, maybe maybe we should start,
Speaker 1: you know, putting those on so people can actually understand
Speaker 1: that that type of care because or talking to the
Speaker 1: doctor and the pharmacist when you're not even the room
Speaker 1: to say you just ordered an errant medication that's going
Speaker 1: to put this patient at risk. Do you really want
Speaker 1: to do that? Yeah? Or you know, So there's all
Speaker 1: this work happening behind the scenes, this air traffic control function.
Speaker 1: Nobody sees it and nobody's paying for it. It's just happening,
Speaker 1: and it's part of my work. And so you can
Speaker 1: either have me overloaded where I'm trying to do that
Speaker 1: for too many planes, too many patients in this example,
Speaker 1: or we can do it in a way where I
Speaker 1: have the time and space to really care for patients
Speaker 1: or teach them about their new leukemia diagnosis or their
Speaker 1: new surgery, whatever they just had done. So you get
Speaker 1: what you pay for. And right now we're lumping this
Speaker 1: into room and board. It's basically a Hyatt bill. Sorry
Speaker 1: if they're a sponsor of yours, but you know we don't.
Speaker 1: I love this idea of the scene because if we
Speaker 1: did that for a nurse, what did you do for
Speaker 1: this patient for twelve hours? It would be a sicker
Speaker 1: tape parade. Is there anything that the general public can do?
Speaker 1: Because so much of what you're talking about is it
Speaker 1: seems to be in my opinion, just from my perspective
Speaker 1: again as a guy who only goes to hospitals to
Speaker 1: still blankets. A No, I don't take them like manteline.
Speaker 1: Don't clean it up for me. It's still them. These
Speaker 1: are very wonderful blankets. As a person who's just on
Speaker 1: the outside looking in, and it seems that allot of
Speaker 1: the solutions here lie within the institution. But how do I,
Speaker 1: as just Joe blow citizen, what can I do to
Speaker 1: help alleviate some of these challenges. Is it looking at
Speaker 1: what our elected officials are doing? How much does politic?
Speaker 1: Is there someone I need to vote out? Like? What
Speaker 1: can do I show up to the hospital and dry
Speaker 1: to protest? Like what can we do as regular people
Speaker 1: to help be a part of the solution on this issue. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So a couple of things. First of all, it's not
Speaker 1: just the blankets. The real money is the warm blankets,
Speaker 1: So make sure you ask for that next time. Oh nice,
Speaker 1: it will change your life. It will change your life.
Speaker 1: So thank you all. Thank You're very welcome for that tip.
Speaker 1: So what can the public do? A couple of things.
Speaker 1: One is, if you get great care at your facility,
Speaker 1: right the CEO of the hospital and mention the people
Speaker 1: who cared for you by name and tell them what
Speaker 1: a great job they did. And if you saw quality
Speaker 1: of care concerns, if you heard about man a tory
Speaker 1: over time or unsafe staffing, put that into and say, hey,
Speaker 1: this is not what I expect from my community hospital
Speaker 1: because they are accountable to the public. Most of our
Speaker 1: hospitals in the country are nonprofit and they're supposed to
Speaker 1: serve the community, so they need to respond to you.
Speaker 1: If you know a hospital executive, you can say what
Speaker 1: are you doing to keep your nurses safe? And the
Speaker 1: answer shouldn't be pizza parties or coloring books. The answers
Speaker 1: should be eliminating mandatory over time, humane staffing levels, and
Speaker 1: listening to nurses and acting on their issues. And do
Speaker 1: you have a safety committee for nursing and healthcare workers?
Speaker 1: We have patient safety committees in every hospital. Do we
Speaker 1: have a group of experts focused on healthcare workers safety?
Speaker 1: Missing piece? Finally for the policy piece, a couple of points.
Speaker 1: Every state healthcare most hospital issues are managed at the
Speaker 1: state level. Moving throughout the country is legislation on UM
Speaker 1: penalizing verbal and physical abuses towards healthcare workers. Zero tolerance.
Speaker 1: You hit or strike a nurse, or you call him
Speaker 1: a name, you're out, full stop. We're not gonna. We're
Speaker 1: not gonna, you know, with limited circumstances, you are we
Speaker 1: we are not obligated to treat you, and you can
Speaker 1: be charged with a with a crime. UM Also mandatory staff,
Speaker 1: mandatory overtime, and staffing ratios that are humane and safe.
Speaker 1: There's legislation in many states. California has a staffing mandate UH.
Speaker 1: Some states are working on banning mandatory overtime. We know
Speaker 1: those work that keeps not only nurses safe, but it
Speaker 1: keeps patients safe. So so those are a couple of things.
Speaker 1: And then the final thing at the federal level we
Speaker 1: talked about the nursing pipeline for faculty. We don't have
Speaker 1: enough funding to incentivize expert nurses to either stay at
Speaker 1: the bedside to teach, or to teach in nursing schools.
Speaker 1: And if we want more nurses, that's where we need
Speaker 1: to start. And that's a solvable problem. That's a we
Speaker 1: have money, right, I hope we have money. That's a
Speaker 1: money problem that we can solve. And our nursing schools,
Speaker 1: you know, we can work on our back end to
Speaker 1: make it work that we can add, you know, bring
Speaker 1: more of those people in that we're turning away year
Speaker 1: after year after year. Well, I'm happy that you are
Speaker 1: a nurse educator and that you're a nurse, and that
Speaker 1: you're a doctor of nursing because with a name like
Speaker 1: you know, Dr Freeze, you easily could have been a
Speaker 1: villain or some sort of comic book person that wreak
Speaker 1: havoc on the city. But instead you reek love. Dr
Speaker 1: Christopher Freese, thank you so much for going beyond the
Speaker 1: scenes with us today, and Madeline, I will see you
Speaker 1: again on year. I don't know, see the next pizza party. Right,
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more of Guess what guessing? Yes,
Speaker 1: beyond the scene, that was a good guess. I knew
Speaker 1: you were smart. Shout out to all our nurses out
Speaker 1: there who work long hours and who deserve way more
Speaker 1: than a pizza party. And this next clip, I chat
Speaker 1: with singer songwriter Alo Black about how musicians have been
Speaker 1: getting short changed by the streaming industry and how he
Speaker 1: got involved in the fight better give us our money.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a comedian. I don't make as much
Speaker 1: streaming as musicians, but still I want them for the
Speaker 1: eight It's my road to Cliff It's my money. I
Speaker 1: want it. I did not know that the number was
Speaker 1: forty three billion dollars that the music industry brought in
Speaker 1: last year, Yet somehow artists only got at at foot.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't have this ship without us, That's what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: especially now because like back in the day, it seemed like,
Speaker 1: oh well, music labels did work. You know, they got
Speaker 1: the records into the store and they did promotion and
Speaker 1: they you know, they got it out there to people.
Speaker 1: But alum, and now you probably do a lot of
Speaker 1: that stuff for yourself now, right, Yeah, Ali, break this down.
Speaker 1: How did you get involved in this? Because I know
Speaker 1: that you were very vocal about this. I got involved
Speaker 1: because I had one of the biggest songs in the
Speaker 1: world and twenty three waked me up. Wake me up
Speaker 1: when it it's all over, when I'm wiser and I'm
Speaker 1: all this time, I was finding myself didn't know I was,
Speaker 1: And I was looking at the streams total and then
Speaker 1: looking at the money that came in from the streams total,
Speaker 1: and it just wasn't making sense. So I'm a songwriter
Speaker 1: and a singer. Not every artist who's singing their songs
Speaker 1: is also writing the songs. But when I looked at
Speaker 1: the math, it just wasn't it wasn't adding up. You know,
Speaker 1: I'd rather have a dollar per download or somebody purchasing
Speaker 1: a CD than point zero zero four cents for a
Speaker 1: stream It's it's not a it's not a it's not
Speaker 1: a tenable situation for most of the artists. Do you
Speaker 1: think Alo, just as an artist, do you think that
Speaker 1: streaming what are what are some of the pros of streaming?
Speaker 1: Do you think it's saved the music industry to a degree,
Speaker 1: because the music industry was take in a bath, and
Speaker 1: I know that's where a lot of those three sixty
Speaker 1: deals came from, because the record labels figured out, oh, ship,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna make any money off you from album sales.
Speaker 1: So I will on a piece of your t shirts
Speaker 1: and your live nation and all your tour dates, and
Speaker 1: then we'll make sure your song gets on the radio.
Speaker 1: So do you think streaming in a way save the
Speaker 1: music industry? I do give it some credit. So I
Speaker 1: was part of the nast generation. When I was in college,
Speaker 1: I was downloading all kinds of free music, and so
Speaker 1: it wasn't gonna be possible for artists to make money
Speaker 1: off everybody's downloading the music for free. Having an organized
Speaker 1: system by which there is some sort of subscription paid,
Speaker 1: some money paid, we will put money back into the
Speaker 1: system that gets distributed to the artist. However, the way
Speaker 1: that the system works right now isn't an equitable system.
Speaker 1: So I would give the streaming industry some credit for
Speaker 1: saving the music industry, But it was also in a
Speaker 1: moment where we're always rapidly transforming with with and and
Speaker 1: progressing evolving with technology. G things are always going to change.
Speaker 1: If we can have artists at the table though, to
Speaker 1: make some of those decisions on how it changes, um
Speaker 1: so that we can continue to offer value, really valuable
Speaker 1: music and art, then I think it'll make for a
Speaker 1: much more fair and fair play playing ground. You know, alo,
Speaker 1: what's different about this battle now, because as far as
Speaker 1: I know, the record industry has always been shady. Is
Speaker 1: it the addition of the streamers now playing the role
Speaker 1: of co conspirator or is it the fact that this system,
Speaker 1: this construct was kind of built before our eyes over
Speaker 1: the last you know, ten to fifteen years, Good question.
Speaker 1: It was built before our eyes. You saw it happening.
Speaker 1: What you didn't see was the inside baseball where Spotify,
Speaker 1: looking like it's standing alone, is ultimately heavily heavily invested
Speaker 1: in by the major record label corporations. So Spotify doesn't
Speaker 1: really have much say. And when I joined the fight,
Speaker 1: I was joining the fight really as a songwriter. Look,
Speaker 1: what is John Lennon or Paul McCartney without the lyrics
Speaker 1: and melody that they wrote? Right? What is a song
Speaker 1: without the lyric and the melody. You could get a
Speaker 1: great Michael Jackson song and here three four hundred different
Speaker 1: versions of it. Right at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's that that unitary piece, that that more sol that nucleus,
Speaker 1: the songwriting. And when I learned that the songwriters get
Speaker 1: one of the income out of all this, I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, that doesn't make any sense. Uh what where
Speaker 1: where would the music industry be without the that piece
Speaker 1: of intellectual property, the actual song writing, the underlying work.
Speaker 1: And so I just started doing more digging and just
Speaker 1: getting involved in the fight. That's the problem, the rates
Speaker 1: paid per stream, Like, how do we make this more equitable?
Speaker 1: The problem is the rates paid per stream. And the
Speaker 1: issue is that as an artist, as a businessman, right,
Speaker 1: I don't get to choose my price. Any other industry
Speaker 1: you get to choose your price as a as an entrepreneur,
Speaker 1: you get to say, this is what I'm willing to
Speaker 1: sell my wares for, and if there's a willing buyer,
Speaker 1: then so be it. If there's not, then I die
Speaker 1: by my own sword, and I want to be able
Speaker 1: to choose my price. You're gonna tell me that, um
Speaker 1: Bill Withers lean on me is worth point zero zero
Speaker 1: four per stream, same as uh. I don't even want
Speaker 1: to name no artists right now, but you know there's
Speaker 1: a gang. You can just say it Royal with junior
Speaker 1: comedy albums from Comedy Central. It's not the same, princess.
Speaker 1: It's fine, I'll tell I'll lay on that grenade. It's fine.
Speaker 1: Take the hit. Yes, you can take the hit. So
Speaker 1: you you get me, right, And so what I think is,
Speaker 1: why can't Mr Wither's estate say nah, this is worth
Speaker 1: four dollars a stream, and if you don't like it,
Speaker 1: so be it. But this is the price. It's not
Speaker 1: going down because this is what the worth is in
Speaker 1: terms of value you artistic credibility, authenticity, and um, what
Speaker 1: he delivered to the world. So you know, if there's
Speaker 1: going to be a number, at least let the artists
Speaker 1: decide and we can figure it out over time. What
Speaker 1: can fans do in general, because more often than not,
Speaker 1: this battle between artists and the record label. Traditionally, as
Speaker 1: a fan, I've always felt helpless, like when I you
Speaker 1: can correct me. I'm sure you're more of a music
Speaker 1: encyclopedia than me, But I just won't name the artists.
Speaker 1: But I know that there have been traditionally a lot
Speaker 1: of rappers who speak out against their label and go
Speaker 1: I'm only getting fit this in a CD a dollar
Speaker 1: c D. And as a fan, the reaction from a
Speaker 1: lot of people, especially a lot of black people, a
Speaker 1: lot of hip hop fans, where you shouldn't design that
Speaker 1: deal not knowing the intricacies of how you get distribution
Speaker 1: and how you get in stores at that time. But
Speaker 1: it seems like distribution is less of a necessary need.
Speaker 1: So what can we as fans do to even try
Speaker 1: to help support artists other than just set up eight
Speaker 1: laptops and just let all of them ships play all black.
Speaker 1: The best thing that you could do to support fans
Speaker 1: go directly to the fans and to the artist for
Speaker 1: the merchandise that they're selling. Um, the artists, if they
Speaker 1: have their own, uh, their own infrastructure, can deal with
Speaker 1: you on a one to one basis. Um there are
Speaker 1: you know, many of the major artists have such a
Speaker 1: huge infrastructure around them that it's not going to be
Speaker 1: easy to do that. But for for independent artists and
Speaker 1: up and coming artists, they generally have their own merriach
Speaker 1: website where you can buy a T shirt or whatever. UM,
Speaker 1: they might be able to to sell you a song
Speaker 1: one to one from there from their website as well
Speaker 1: their band camp or their tune core UM, and you know,
Speaker 1: share their music, share, share all the love, and spread
Speaker 1: the gospel of what they're doing so that when we
Speaker 1: do open back up and people can get into concerts, UM,
Speaker 1: they can get a chance to to get that that
Speaker 1: concert ticket money. UM. That's definitely one of the plays
Speaker 1: for for a lot of artists. I know a lot
Speaker 1: of artists that survive off of that touring money. Here's
Speaker 1: a naive question, though, and this is coming from a
Speaker 1: guy that has seeing people go viral on TikTok and
Speaker 1: Twitch and YouTube and i G stories with their own
Speaker 1: original stuff who had no label, they had no support.
Speaker 1: What does the future of streaming look like? Because what
Speaker 1: is the advantage of a record label? If I, like
Speaker 1: right now, what's to stop me from going in the studio,
Speaker 1: getting my ship recorded and mastered and then getting some
Speaker 1: I s R C code digital footprint embedded in the
Speaker 1: track and sending that out onto the internet and uploading
Speaker 1: that to set. Because there's ways for me to get
Speaker 1: on the streamer without a record label. I could just
Speaker 1: sentiment like there's digital distribution companies that are just take
Speaker 1: a pinch off of the dollar and I get to
Speaker 1: keep seventy cents. So what's just stopping artist that's popular?
Speaker 1: Like why do I need a label if everybody's listening
Speaker 1: to their stuff from a streamer anyway, and I can
Speaker 1: get to a streamer without a label. Yes, that's a
Speaker 1: good question. Ultimately, the answer is, uh, whether or not
Speaker 1: you're gonna be part of the global consciousness as an artist. Um,
Speaker 1: you may be in for a second, for a hot
Speaker 1: minute with your hot song, but um, you know, these
Speaker 1: big boys are are there to play and if you
Speaker 1: want to get that radio, you're gonna have to work
Speaker 1: with them because this is the the decades old kind
Speaker 1: of you know, inside club. And then if you do
Speaker 1: have that one hit, they're gonna come at you with
Speaker 1: a huge bag and be like, look, here's a huge
Speaker 1: amount of money that we're gonna offer you to join
Speaker 1: our record label so that we could probably never pay
Speaker 1: attention to you again. Um, and you probably won't get
Speaker 1: all this money. It's just promised to you over time
Speaker 1: if you ah, if you perform, And so you know,
Speaker 1: when you hear about these big multimillion dollar deals. These
Speaker 1: are usually spread out across ten albums, um, you know,
Speaker 1: and multiple years. The artist doesn't necessarily see all that money.
Speaker 1: And you're looking at a lot of young cats who
Speaker 1: are flossing, but they're flossing. They got a bag, but
Speaker 1: they're flossing off money that's not gonna last forever. That's
Speaker 1: not forever forever money, some of that's gonna be gone.
Speaker 1: The reason why they end up going to the record
Speaker 1: labels is because they get that big, big paycheck in
Speaker 1: there in front of their face, rather than having to
Speaker 1: wait for the slow drip from the from the streams.
Speaker 1: What does it take then, because you know, there's independent
Speaker 1: artists that have stayed independent, like a guy that I
Speaker 1: two guys that I've enjoyed, one Immortal Technique, the other
Speaker 1: one Tech nine. And you know, Tech nine is a
Speaker 1: rapper that if you know him, you know him. He
Speaker 1: definitely does not get the spins on regular radio, but
Speaker 1: seems to have carved out a decent living for himself.
Speaker 1: And well never, he's not gonna get mobbed at the
Speaker 1: airport the way Drake or somebody from Young Money would
Speaker 1: or whatever. But why do you think that or what
Speaker 1: does it take for the artists and the creators to
Speaker 1: realize that they're the ones with the power and not
Speaker 1: the labels in the radio stations. It's gonna take uh
Speaker 1: a lot of communication from I'd say the more mature
Speaker 1: and seasoned artists in the music industry to work with
Speaker 1: some of the younger ones and help them to recognize,
Speaker 1: you know, young young cats. They're rebellious. They just want
Speaker 1: to do what they do and and get their money. Um,
Speaker 1: they're not really paying attention to the history of everything
Speaker 1: and and where the trend is leading, or at least
Speaker 1: where the the the activism within the within the artistry
Speaker 1: is leaning. Um. It's it's a tough it's a tough battle.
Speaker 1: We're battling culture, um, cultural norms. We're battling, uh, some
Speaker 1: deep seated industrial norms. And I'll just keep trying to
Speaker 1: stand up and and and speak my and speak my truth,
Speaker 1: you know. And that's just the tip of the iceberg
Speaker 1: of the great guests and experts that we've had on
Speaker 1: the show. And when season two comes back around, oh man,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have some more. Be sure to listen to
Speaker 1: the Daily Show Beyond the Scenes on Apple podcast. The
Speaker 1: I heart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: This has been a Comedy Central podcast