WEBVTT - Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard? 0:00:01.760 --> 0:00:09.039 Also media, Welcome to Behind the Oprah's a podcast about bastards. 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:14.720 This is, you know, the Oprah Winfrey Show or the 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.720 Oprah Winfrey Show show where we talk about the Oprah 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.959 Winfrey Show. Yeah, that's as good as I could do 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.280 the intro here. Look, we're on part six. I'm exhausted, 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:32.080 You're exhausted, Sophie's exhausted. Let's exhaust everything we have to 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:36.880 say about Oprah. How are we all feeling? Andrew t 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:41.320 and bridget Todd at this point in the Oprah Winfrey story. 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:47.960 Conflicted, I will say, conflicted, but ready to hear more. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:50.400 Okay, yeah, it's starting. 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:56.280 It's starting to feel like like the the six parts 0:00:56.320 --> 0:00:59.480 of the five parts have been have been leading to this, 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:04.120 so well, I'm ready. 0:01:06.760 --> 0:01:11.960 Let's talk about Oprah's Angel Network. Now. This was Oprah's 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:15.039 primary vehicle for charitable don I mean, she also has 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.080 her own personal foundations. This was her primary vehicle, certainly 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:23.480 for educational focused charitable donations during the height of her fame. 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:26.880 It got its start in nineteen ninety four when a 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:31.319 little girl named Nora went on The Oprah Winfrey Show 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.959 to talk about what was called the Penny Harvest Project. Apparently, 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:38.120 she and some other kids had started collecting pennies and 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.440 eventually raised like one thousand dollars via taking in pennies 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:45.920 to donate to some different charitable organizations, and Oprah says 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.080 this inspired her to wonder if you could do that. 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:51.480 I wonder what I could do, and like, well, the 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.760 answer is, you have hundreds of millions of dollars, Oprah, 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.880 much more than some children collecting pennies. I'm glad you're 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.280 thinking this way, but obviously the answer is you could 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.760 raise a lot more money. I do think it's. 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.440 I'm loving hearing a kid did something of being like, yeah, 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:07.920 I'm so much more money than you. 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:11.320 Yeah, it's like the way that oprah dot compost is 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:13.519 like Oprah was inspired by this little girl, but there's 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:15.400 certainly a read of it that's like, oh, I could 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:17.200 beat the hell out of that little kid. You a 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:21.720 thousand dollars is a lot. Shoves her off the fucking stage. 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:28.160 So on September eighteenth, nineteen ninety seven, Oprah announces the 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:33.080 launch of Oprah's Angel Network. The initial plan for this 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:35.760 was to turn people spare change. Basically, you donate you 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:39.560 know your spare change, right, She has Hillary Clinton on 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.079 the show. Hillary puts some change in a piggy bank, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:45.959 and this raises three point five million dollars to provide 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.720 twenty five thousand dollars college scholarships for one hundred and 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:50.400 fifty deserving students. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.440 I'm sorry, kid, is that more than a thousand dollars? 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:54.200 Let meet. 0:02:55.840 --> 0:02:59.600 Twenty five per kid? But no, no, no, your donation's good. 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.000 Oh yeah, yeah, no, no, yeah, for sure, for sure, 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.359 very impressive. I mean, you know, I raised three and 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:06.680 a half million with like the shit in my seat cushions. 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:07.880 But you know, you're good, You're good. 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:08.560 Yeah. 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.000 Oh did you have the first lady come on to 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:12.000 help with your program? 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:12.240 Oh? 0:03:12.280 --> 0:03:14.239 No, you didn't. You don't know the first lady? You 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:20.440 speed down? Interesting. Oprah's not doing that. We're just big dicks. Uh. 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:23.720 I I just want to say, for the record, I 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.520 like the version of Oprah that does that better than 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:28.079 the version of Oprah that exists. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.200 She would be on Margaret's Cool People who did cool 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.760 stuff if this had just been for twelve straight, like 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:37.160 literally like twenty years, just shit talking this like seven 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.440 year old, like, yeah, you think that's fucking fancy. Eighty 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:47.880 million dollars? Uh, to be that petty. So this is 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:51.080 how the Angel Network starts, Right, we're taking people's spare change, 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.440 we're giving out college student or scholarships to deserving students. 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:57.760 But it starts to expand, you know, they get involved 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.480 with like funding Habitat for Humanity and stuff like that. 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:04.600 And in two thousand, the Angel Network expands, thanks to 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:09.640 Paul Newman of Newman's own as well as Jeff Bezos, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.040 they start like expanding it to like donating money to 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:17.600 what the website describes as fifty life changing programs. And 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.880 it's interesting she describes as like more than fifty life 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.080 changing programs got the money they needed to help their 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.200 local communities. Well maybe maybe some taxes from Jeff Bezos 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:30.560 canna help with that too. But eventually the Angel Network expands, 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:34.520 taking in and taking something like eighty million dollars in donations, 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.839 most of which ultimately go to helping to start sixty 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:43.600 schools in thirteen countries, including India, Ecuador, and China. So 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:51.400 that's nice, right, helping to start schools, funding schools. Aspects, again, 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:53.920 as is always the case with OPRAH, aspects of this 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:58.360 are quite positive, but also aspects of this are very toxic. 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:00.840 Because particularly in the United States States, the thing that 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:03.720 Oprah spends most of her donation money on is not 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:11.200 helping school systems. It is establishing specific charter schools. And 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.640 in fact, the last thing the Angel Network does is 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.680 it gives six million dollars in twenty ten to six 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:21.600 charter schools in California, Colorado, Chicago, Pennsylvania, New Orleans, and Houston. 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:25.400 Now charter schools are too schools that are not part 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.600 of the public education system. A lot of this get 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:30.680 started the charter school thing in the Bush years, Right, 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.159 this is a big part of like defunding public schools. 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.000 Let's you know, we don't need to be spending we 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:38.520 need to have parents need to have choice and to 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:40.720 have vouchers that they can put into these you know, 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.240 different charter schools and magnate schools and all of this 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.599 kind of like both SAPs the power of teachers unions 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.040 because these schools exist outside of that system. But it's 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:54.200 also supposed to like prove that the corrupt Department of 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:57.279 Education is what's holding kids back that if we just 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.840 let rich people establish these charter obviously be vastly more successful. 0:06:02.160 --> 0:06:03.880 So it's this mix of like there are some very 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.359 good charter schools that are very good for kids. I 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.440 have friends who went to some of them, but also 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.480 the larger part of the charter school project is problematic, 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.719 and it continues on past the Bush era. One of 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.120 like the biggest roles in this is in twenty ten, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:22.000 there's a documentary called Waiting for Superman by Davis Guggenheim. 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.359 This is a documentary about how broken the education system 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:26.960 is and we're all just kind of like waiting for 0:06:27.120 --> 0:06:29.520 a Superman to fix it, and it winds up being 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.120 a very pro charter school movie. There's a couple of 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:36.160 other documentaries at the same time, the Lottery and the Cartel, 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.479 with the same basic attitude, but Waiting for Superman is 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:43.120 featured twice on the Oprah Winfrey Show. She's not the 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:44.839 only person who gives it a lot of media attention, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:46.479 but she gives it a ton of media attention. And 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.400 that six million dollar donation to those six private schools 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:54.240 is directly off of the back of this. I found 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.440 a good write up in the Brookings Institute on the 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:00.400 myth of charter schools, and it summarizes the message of 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.719 all these documentaries. American public education is a failed enterprise. 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:07.560 The problem is not money. Public schools already spin too much. 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:09.680 Test scores are low because there are so many bad 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:13.440 teachers whose jobs are protected by powerful unions. Students drop 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:15.680 out because the schools fail them, and they could accomplish 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.280 practically anything. If they were saved from bad teachers, they 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:20.440 would get higher test scores, if schools could fire more 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:22.720 bad teachers and pay more to good ones. The only 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.040 hope for the future of our society, especially for poor 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.200 Black and Hispanic children, is escape from public schools, especially 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.720 to charter schools, which are mostly funded by the government, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.280 controlled by private organizations, many of them operating to make 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:39.360 a profit. Now that is again, this is a thing 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.200 that a lot of people are into, and Oprah is 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:44.120 one of the folks who puts their money where her 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.560 mouth is, Like, this is the future of like fixing 0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:54.440 private education or public education, and it's problematic, to say 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:56.800 the least. To continue with a quote from that Brookings 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.720 Institute piece, and this is talking about waiting for Superman 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:03.800 in particular, some fact checking is in order, and the 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:05.920 place to start is with the film's quiet acknowledgment that 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:07.880 only one in five charter schools is able to get 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:10.640 the amazing results that it celebrates. Nothing more is said 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.200 about this astonishing statistic. It is drawn from a national 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:16.840 study of charter schools by Stanford economist Margaret Raymond, known 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.960 as the Credos Study. It evaluated student progress on math 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.360 tests in half of the nation's five thousand charter schools 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.120 and concluded that seventeen percent were superior to a matched 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.280 traditional public school, thirty seven percent were worse than the 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.320 public school, and the remaining forty six percent had academic 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.040 gains no different from that of a similar public school. 0:08:34.360 --> 0:08:36.959 The proportion of charters that got amazing results is far 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.600 smaller than seventeen percent. Why did Davis Guggenheim pay no 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:42.880 attention to the charter schools that are run by incompetent 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.240 leaders or corporations mainly concerned to make money. Why propound 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:48.400 to an unknowing public the myth that charter schools are 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.199 the answer to our educational woes. When the filmmaker knows 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.160 there are twice as many failing charters as there are 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:56.320 successful ones, why not give an honest to accounting. The 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.640 propagandistic nature of Waiting for Superman is revealed by Guggenheim's 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.760 complete indifference to the wide variation among charter schools. There 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.680 are excellent charter schools just as they're excellent public schools. 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.400 Why did he not also inquire into the charter chains 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.120 that are mired in unsavory real estate deals, or take 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.360 his camera to the charters where most students are getting 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:15.840 lower scores than those in the neighborhood public schools. Why 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:17.760 did he not report on the charter principles who have 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:19.959 been indicted for embezzlement, or the charters that blur the 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.120 line between church and state. Why did he not look 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:24.079 into the charter schools whose leaders are paid three hundred 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.680 to four hundred thousand dollars a year to oversee small 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.240 numbers of students. I don't need to go on. The 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:32.120 myth of charter schools from the Brookings Institute is a 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:32.800 good piece on this. 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:37.000 Yeah, I'm just I don't actually know anything about this director. 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.560 But does it have anything to do with his last name? 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.000 I actually don't know. A journalist would check in on that. 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:44.680 Let's do that. 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:51.840 I just have a sinking feeling that maybe the reason 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.360 of the one of the incentives has to do with 0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.360 the number of buildings ye name is. 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:04.640 He's related to the family. At least the AI overview 0:10:04.679 --> 0:10:08.080 says he's related to the family, but not directly related 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.600 to the foundation. Let's see here, let's look at his wiki. 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:15.200 Just a coincidence. 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.600 His dad is filmmaker Charles Gugenheim. Oh, he'll make deadwood 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:25.080 one four oscars, no one. 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.640 No one said rich kids can't make good stuff. Yeah, 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.480 it's just that they get a lot more chances to 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:30.880 do it. 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.640 Yeah. So anyway, I don't like this is this is 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.080 a problematic thing that the wind that Oprah Winfrey's charity 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.120 is going to, which is not to say that everything 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.040 she don'tates to do it like a lot of good 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.760 schools I've looked into. I looked into several of the 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.080 schools that she put money on. They have pretty good 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:51.000 academic records. But although they're not unproblematic, is this. 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.760 Article Yeah, I will just say I I feel like 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.160 this should be said. Even if literally every single charter 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:02.160 school had better to scores or or even or even 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:09.679 a good measure was that school, Yeah, they are still 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.480 a net negative on the education system. Literally, even I 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.080 mean it's the same example with the Oprah School, which 0:11:16.160 --> 0:11:20.480 is like, yeah, okay, you can make a good school, 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.440 but it comes at an immense opportunity cost. And that's 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:26.880 what's like the problem. 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:28.400 Here exactly that. 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:33.079 And like fundamentally they make public they erode public education 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:36.560 there at least where I live. There like full of 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:41.400 like pretty like like they're basically racist in my mind, 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.440 Like the way that they talk about school choice. 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.240 It's used as a giant. 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.439 Dog whistle to be like, you don't really want your 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.479 kids next to black and brown kids. 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:50.120 Right right? 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:50.680 Yeah? 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.359 And I think so even if all of her schools, 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.360 all of these schools were great, it still contributes to 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.160 a lot of pretty I think, like messed up things 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:00.280 in education. 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.880 Always resegregating the education system. 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:08.120 Cool, yes, And it's also not all of these schools 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:12.319 are And again because they abide by different rules. There's 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.520 a lot of problematic aspects to some of them, including 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:17.920 one of the schools that Oprah gave a shitload of 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.840 money to, this one, particularly in New Orleans. I'm going 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:25.760 to quote from Beet here. Numerous charter schools, including those 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:29.000 backed by Oprah Winfrey, Microsoft's Bill Gates, retailer Walmart, and 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.480 New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, have been accused of 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.240 breaking federal law by not serving children with disabilities. The 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:37.679 children are named in place plaintiffs in the legal battle, 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.440 which stems back to twenty ten. Charter schools and New 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:42.320 Orleans were seen as a way to rehab the city's 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.760 failing education system and serve seventy percent of cities children. 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:50.000 The Loop twenty one reports Lawrence Melrose sixteen needed counseling 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.160 in speech therapy, which wouldn't be provided by the New 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.559 Orleans Charter Science and Math charter school that was made 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.600 popular through its association with Oprah Winfrey. Instead, he was 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:00.360 frequently suspended and not allowed to ride the bus. The 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:02.880 lawsuit says the school kept him from attending a celebration 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:05.800 where students watched Oprah Winfrey hand the principle a check 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:09.520 for one million dollars. The exclusion of children with serious 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:12.320 learning and emotional disabilities occur often, says the lawsuit, at 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.360 charter schools, which comprise the majority of public schools in 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.080 New Orleans. The exclusion of special needs kids also helps 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.480 charter schools test scores, since children with disabilities typically do 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:22.240 not do well. 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.319 You couldn't even watch the assembly with Oprah like they 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:26.920 would like. 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:29.360 Nah. No, they literally locked him out of this. 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.560 It's also like these fucks will like, I mean, you 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.480 see it on so many other places where they're trying 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:39.200 to reinvent the wheel where they like, I feel like 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.000 transportation is such a clear one where it's like they're 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.640 going to try to do self driving cars before they 0:13:44.679 --> 0:13:48.760 try oh properly funding a subway system in Los Angeles. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:51.520 Oh yeah, And it's like I don't I'm sorry, guys. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:56.040 All the solutions for these ills were invented in like 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.880 fucking whatever eighteen hundred. We're just electing not to do 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:03.000 them because you're a billionaire. Yeah. 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:05.199 I mean, at this point, I support Musk building a 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:07.880 rich people tunnel under LA just because we'll have a 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.200 quake and the people who pay to access that tunnel 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:17.280 will all learn a lesson very quickly. At the same time, listen. 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:21.400 If he had even like an ounce of like self 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.840 believe his ass should be on Mars right now. 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:29.160 Yeah, yeah, get yourself there. Man. So I wanted to 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.800 talk a little bit about Oprah in charter schools, but really, 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:36.800 when we talk about Oprah's direct bastardism, there's no better 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.240 thing to discuss than the bevy of khnman that she 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.080 helped to introduce to the world. She is responsible for 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:44.960 making John of God, the Brazilian faith healer who sexually 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.920 assaulted at least six hundred women, internationally famous. There are 0:14:49.000 --> 0:14:51.720 numerous cases of women who visited his compound and were 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:54.560 raped or assaulted and say that they went there because 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.960 they saw him on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and specifically 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.360 they saw doctor Oz tell Opra Winfrey that he couldn't 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.800 explain the miraculous healings this man was responsible for. Now, 0:15:06.080 --> 0:15:08.320 I'm not gonna say more about John of God or 0:15:08.360 --> 0:15:11.160 doctor Oz or doctor Phil because we have done two 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.200 part episodes on all three of these guys, none of 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.320 whom would have Obviously there's specifically John of God was 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:21.360 like in Brazil, a famous faith healer and assaulting people. 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.479 He would not have become an international star without Oprah. 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.440 And I don't think doctor like Doctor Oz probably just 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.040 stays a surgeon. Doctor Phil probably dies in a ditch. 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.600 That's my guest for doctor Phil is he dies in 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.080 a ditch somewhere in rural Texas if doesn't pick him. 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:42.560 Up some kind of charisma. Doctor Oz, it's like he's 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.080 the most he's so repellent, you're just like, oh my god. 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:48.520 Without Oprah's cosyn he is. 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:50.680 There's no way this man is a star. That's how. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.440 That's the star power she has. Looks just listen to 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:59.240 doctor oz speak. Yeah, amazing stuff. So we're not going 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.200 to go into more to them, but I should note 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:06.040 we have never ever had a bastard who is responsible 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:10.000 for three different two parter episodes on other bastards, or 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.880 at least largely responsible. That's mark. 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.000 This, I think is the place where I'll try to 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:22.200 drop my quote, which is I mean, it does seem 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.239 like like Oprah is, she's like the enzyme for bastards, 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.120 Like she just makes, she takes She finds the worst 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.760 people or the worst people get into her orbit, and 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.280 she makes them a million times stronger than they ever 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:35.160 had any right to be. 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.200 Yes, yes, And I think that really is the way 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:38.800 to look at it. 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.800 And it's funny because I would peg Oprah as somebody 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.520 that I would assume would be a good judge of character, 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.360 and she's a terrible judge of character. It's like it 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:51.480 truly is like the worst people who come into her orbit, 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:53.080 She's like, let's make you a star. 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:54.960 What is it hooked up with that. 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.840 I mean, on some level, she has to be following 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.160 what she believes the audience wants. But why I picked 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.120 those specific people it is a little baffling. 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.480 I think there's a back. I'm sure there's a degree 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:14.160 to which both of those people, particularly doctor Phil, being 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.800 as doctor Phil is a pretty manipulative person, I would argue, 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.240 and I think he just understood how to make her 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:23.840 like him. A manipulator. Doctor Oz has a legitimate thing 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:25.440 that would make you like him and want to put 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.919 him in front of people. It is not unreasonable at 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:29.800 the start of things that you'd be like, this is 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:31.800 literally one of the best heart surgeons who's ever lived. 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.040 Maybe he'd be a good person to talk about public health. 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:40.400 Turns out no, turns out absolutely not. But I understand 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.000 how that process starts. Now, obviously there was ample evidence, 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:46.960 especially during the shot of god Shit, that he was not, 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:48.760 in fact a good person be doing that with. But 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:50.879 I don't think the evil is not in that she 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.439 initially was like, well, maybe the world's best heart surgeon 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.600 is a good guy to talk about health, right. I 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.000 get how that starts with doctor Phil. It's more like 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.920 this guy made me feel good about myself during a lawsuit. 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.600 Let's let him abuse teenagers on television for twenty years. 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.280 But again, we're not gonna say anymore about these guys 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.080 because we've said so much about them. But I did 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.359 feel like we have to go into detail about one 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:17.639 of Oprah's toxic bastards, right one of the convent that 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:20.040 she elevated to the public eye, who we haven't done 0:18:20.040 --> 0:18:23.080 episodes on. And that's going to bring us to James 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:28.040 Ray born in nineteen fifty seven. Ray was a former 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:31.520 telemarketer who got into the business of teaching motivational seminars 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.480 to corporations. He was not an original dude, and instead 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.560 worked for Stephen Covey, the author of The Seven Habits 0:18:38.560 --> 0:18:42.879 of Highly Effective People, teaching Stephen Covey's particular flavor of 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.800 self help bullshit to car salesman and the like. Or 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.080 at least Ray claims that he worked for Stephen Covey. 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:53.040 There is no actual evidence of this, and Ray is 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.600 a serial liar, so it's entirely possible he just made 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:00.359 that up for clout. Ray started his own motivational speaking 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.119 business and it did okay, It's not huge, it's not 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:09.480 really overwhelmingly successful, probably because he's not super successful himself. 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.119 He is not rich and famous, so he's like telling 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:14.600 people how to get rich, but like he didn't do it. 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:18.719 Ray is like a lot of these guys. There's very 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:20.720 little to separate him from the herd at this point. 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.760 He's an advocate of the law of attraction, which we've 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:25.840 talked about a few times in these episodes. This is 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.840 the bullshit belief underpinning the secret. Whatever good or bad 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.399 things happen to you happen because you drew them to yourself. 0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:34.240 Like a lot of guys in this space, he mixed 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.480 in buzzwords from quantum physics because of course he's like 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.040 a big also a big masculine guy, right, So as 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.439 a masculine guy, you can't just be like, you know, 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:47.760 you can't just be like this is the you know, 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:49.840 you can't do the wooy version of this, right, you 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:51.960 have to say, this is quantum physics, right, I'm talking 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.200 about science to you, you know, And so would He 0:19:55.240 --> 0:19:57.840 would rope in buzzwords from quantum physics to try to 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.120 convince mild skeptics that what he was selling in fact science. 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.119 In one interview, he said this about personal responsibility. I 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.520 fully know for me that there is no blame. Every 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.600 single thing is your responsibility and nothing is your fault 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:14.840 because every single thing that comes to you is a gift, 0:20:15.160 --> 0:20:20.280 a lesson. Now do you think that could like be bad? 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.920 I mean I love that nothing is my fault, angles 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:26.000 that I really really connect you. 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:35.200 Uh yeah, there's going to be a very interesting thing 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:38.680 that becomes his fault in the near future here, So yeah, 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:44.639 I think that's probably a good idea for him to 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:47.280 be selling at this point, given where he winds up. 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.840 His motivational seminars involved board breaking and trust falls, all 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.800 of which was done without proper medical staff present, which 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:57.640 is why prior to him getting famous, several people were 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.960 badly injured during his events. At least one time at 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.080 Walt Disney World in two thousand and five, a forty 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.840 two year old man was hospitalized after Ray made him 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:11.119 exercise in a poorly built sweat lodge. So this is 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:14.920 all happening before he winds up on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Now, 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:16.840 what gets him on the show is that he is 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:19.680 one of several narrators for the two thousand and six 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.359 documentary The Secret, which is what gets him on the 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:27.879 Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah lavished praise on Ray and urged 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.560 her viewers to sign up for his courses and listen 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.960 to his wisdom. Many did, and he goes in short 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.920 order from a failing motivational speaker with several lawsuits against 0:21:38.000 --> 0:21:40.240