WFAA’s Jason Wheeler Takes Off His Shoes | Jason Wheeler | Ep 218

Reiner sports talk Oh with the big mic. Oh, okay. All right.

Yeah. Okay. Now I get it All right, all right Here's a tip for all these Americana league teams.

Don't do it. You said tip. Yeah, okay.

Keep jamming To take a colon, nothing but a big gen X jerk off What kind of experience have you had at Earth X? I haven't I've done a podcast with someone who was putting it on Oh That's it. That's it No, it was a couple of years ago.

We haven't I haven't actually been to it We were going to go again this year, but then we tried to set it up and we didn't get the the guy we wanted and We didn't do it. Did you walk around and I didn't go. Oh, I don't have time for these pursuits But I mean when you were there before did you?

Well, no, we did him we did him from his he was at his house. Okay. Okay.

I thought maybe you got to go down there and Take a look around. It's quite a collection things. No, you don't get time for these things everybody's got me like Oh my god, they I'm so calendar down.

It's stupid. Well, it's because you're important you matter man Well, I don't know not all indicators show that either. You know what I mean I'll bet the one the indicators that matter most show that you matter I'm gonna have to go review those indicators again then because there may be a few in there that do not show it This kids is us Dipping into one of our favorite places To get people to come on to YDC that is WFAA channel eight The Undisputed not even close Not even worth talking about news leader in this town and we've had Several people on with us.

In fact, one is a quite the return offender the repeat offender Jesse Havila that would be him. Oh, y'all I needed was the word offender Yeah, we had him who we have the other day Matt Howard. Oh, yeah, we had Matt Hauerton.

Wow the shoelace Matt here at Hauerton he was No, he said Matt Harrison. Oh, he was let's just say a little bit Lucer than you think he might be Yeah, I know Matt So I'm not terribly surprised, but I do feel licensed now like good. I can take my shoes off Yeah, if you want take a pants off if you want Whatever you do not tempt me He'll tempt you not ask and look who we have today It is the great Jason Wheeler No one also has just Jason Wheeler Most people don't know any of that first part Well, I think you're pretty great.

Well, thank you, you know, we try others We try to get you a couple times before yeah, and couldn't but I played really hard to get I was not I was not going to let you get away We always had good reasons. I was sure you did We need the doctors notes. I think what what we need the doctors notes like Yes, they were all doctors notes and I'm like a really healthy guy except I keep Breaking myself, you know Like I just it's and it's stupid things that happen and I just keep breaking parts of me and have to be it get put back together Like literally you break something like breaking things muscles bones.

Yeah, I mean it's you know It's it's become a problem And the stupid thing is is like I don't even have great stories for the things that are happening You know, they're just it's dumb accidents You know now that's a bummer if you break something and you don't have a good story to go along with it One was a body surfing accident Which it was just ill advise. I shouldn't have been there. I shouldn't have been doing it And it was on a rock beach in Hawaii and it was beautiful Absolutely beautiful until it almost killed me and so it was this gorgeous beach black rocks Is what the whole beach is made up of and there was no one there Which should have been my first clue.

No one swimming there It's probably maybe a little dangerous to be there And so the waves were great and I was riding those waves and I can never body surf worth a damn But on that day I was But what I didn't realize was as I rode this monster great wave The beach there ends very abruptly and so it doesn't just kind of peter out at the end and leave you sitting there on the Rocks it though the wave just curls at the very end and dumps you straight down in this case straight onto my head Which I felt in my spine immediately Holy crap. So yeah, just a dumb like you don't want to tell that story to cocktail party Because then everybody's just like no, wow good for you, you know like Yeah, I'm sorry, bro. Yeah, I need to make something up better.

How'd you get around bad? Did you have surgery or anything you did? I did it took years the odd thing is is it took years for that to fully become the problem that it was You know, they knew in the beginning like this is going to cause you problems someday Let us know when that gets here and it got here They weren't wrong.

Yeah, so you got to go get that together. Unfortunately, they were not wrong Um, let's do a little biographical data, um, because I don't know hardly anything about you Oh good, and that's that's the kind of biographical data I like Where did you grow up? I grew up I was born in depending on how you look at it on the map because it's it kind of overlaps or I don't know if it's gone back and forth, but right on the borderline of Texas city and Lamarck Down in the Houston area Right right up the road from Galveston.

Yeah And so I was born there and grew up in the Houston area uh, league city area if anybody's familiar with that And then I went to school at Channel View High School, which If you know anything about Channel View High School, that was do you remember this uh the movie or tv series on pom pom mom The one where the cheerleader mom Yeah, it was it was it was like a You know like a death kind of thing to get her kid. So that was the school. Yeah And that's their claim to fame.

So yeah, and it was jayland hurts now What? Channel Views now claim to fame with jayland hurt. Oh, it probably is Maybe I should have said that Let's go with jayland hurts.

I do like that better So I went to high school there and I was the mascot there in high school, which was the falcon And um, we were right there in the shadows I mean if you went to the old campus there is right in the shadows of a big refinery Could not be more Houston than that. I mean you could see it Houston. Yeah from the practice fields.

You could see it, you know Great just great to be outside. How long have you been at wfa? I have been there since um November of 2012, which is like shockingly long.

I've never stayed any place this long in my career So that is one and probably only the only thing I have in common with jesse hewila Both of us always marvel like man we bounced around a lot before we got here And then something kept us here, you know So that's a very long time and those are dog years, you know, because this is it's a tough business. It's a tough industry It's a tough station like they I mean it's a there's a standard that's there and it's not an easy place to work You don't fly under radars there. Yeah, you know I was in that building about the time the standard was being set.

This is many years ago When below on them and they were still a radio game And I was one of the I worked at one of the radio stations upstairs And as I would leave every night I would walk down those stairs and around the channel eight newsroom And I always had kind of a feel of What was going on in there and man you could just tell You could just tell That the standard was the standard and anything less was not accepted everybody looks stretched out They did they still do yeah, you know what I have actually I was Thinking about you because you were in the area we now call the radio room. It's been redone But before they redid it it still had the mics in there and the padding on the walls and all of that And I actually did a couple of podcasts for our yolitics Political podcast in the same space where you used to do your magic wow really Yeah, so we have that connection man. I would so love to see that see what kind of shape it's in these days It's gone that parts gone the window looking in is still there the that original window But that the the podcast and and all of that the audio part is gone But it's it's been branded the radio room and it's got art on the walls that kind of speak to that and it's an interesting space You need to take a tour of a chupy you should yeah, I'd love to I'll show you around okay show you around I'll take you up all the hell really I will yeah Um, how did you wind up there?

Where were you before um I bounced around a lot I So I did internships in Houston left there went to my first market in El Paso Which was a great place to learn and I still love El Paso to this day. I never thought about El Paso until then Love that city left there went to Pittsburgh for a while Experience a couple of winters there and left there and came to San Antonio And then spent some time in San Antonio left there went to Miami Spent several years there which was again a great experience Came back to Texas to Austin this time and then up to Dallas I was looking I was looking for a change When we were in Austin and I never thought that I would ever end up in Dallas Fort Worth I never wanted to come here. I never tried to come here Until then and you know why is your city?

I did and you know why it was Houston this is again so dumb yes Because I grew up in Houston and there's like curriculum there you know in that school right there by the refinery They tell you no, I mean it was like ingrained and I don't know why But you were always told that Dallas people. They're so uppity and it's a you know, it's a bad place and blah blah blah We're we're told the same thing about Houston You know Yes, I know it must be I can only imagine the things you've heard and some of them may be true But no, it's funny how that's just put into your head and you just think oh, you know I don't really want to go there. Let me look at these other places But then you come hearing you go why were they saying all these bad things like this is it's a good place Is this what you aspire to be when you you know started to oh yeah plan a career for yourself?

Yes, I knew see and and I feel sorry for like a lot of these young people now because well first of all You know, they want to get you on a track now You know in high school and in college and all that they want you at like the age of four to know you have it all mapped out You know these poor kids, you know, and what if you change your mind when you're in like 10th grade But you know, I was one of those people who was blessed to know probably In late junior high what I wanted to do this is what I wanted to do and and weirdly like I didn't know how I wanted to do it I didn't know the exact thing I wanted to do But my favorite one of all on the Houston TV stations was a man by the name of Marvin Zindler and yeah You know him everybody knows him the late great Marvin Zindler. I witnessed you. Yeah, yeah, and boy.

He just boomed it Uh, man, he did and you know That looks like a news guy. Yeah, the best little whorehouse in Texas the movie Melvin P Thorpe in there the annoying investigative reporter whatever that was based on him as far as I understand Um, but yeah, he was the one that I just I absolutely loved what he did and weirdly now here. I am I don't do it the same way that Marvin did Nobody should do it that way.

I should try that one night do that do that that way Just rattle the newsroom Don't announce it. Just do it. They would love that.

Yeah, I bet they would love that Audience of two viral moments But yeah, and so here I am doing consumer business type things. He did a lot of consumer stuff He was a real lookout for the little guy guy. Yeah, and I really like that He was great.

Mm-hmm. I mean if you saw him and you have a thing for the oddball television character You had to love. Oh, you couldn't look away from him.

Yeah, you know with the pompador and the white It was white hair and like a rose coming out of the pocket of the suit. I mean it was And the green blue glasses the shades were greenish blue. I mean this guy was a character I really should try this just one time just one time.

That's probably all I get is just once Sweep sweet or what or something Yeah, how about you got enough cash aid out there where that extends you a little latitude. Yeah It's just one nice stuff that like that Just when you think that your stock is selling for a decent price you learn very quickly that wow It's worth how much now? Okay, I didn't know see he's keeping us right on the money.

I know Everything's in terms of dollars and cents How do you think that WFA has been able to maintain This thing that makes it so much better through the years. I think it is I mean some of it is and you know We could about that stressed out room of people They really are I mean they just like they eat this stuff man They eat this stuff and sleep this stuff and and I say they I guess you know I'm in there with them. I've done it long enough that you know obviously Maybe I have the gene But I mean it's just there's an expectation of you there and You just you either it's that whole sink or swim, you know and I call that a very high level of give a damn Yeah, and you better start swimming and the good thing is is you know, you do mention you know Erning some some some credibility with your management and all that there is a lot of an odd amount of autonomy I would say so once you once they know that you will get it done There's nobody hovering over you and if there's anything I've ever hated in jobs It's when somebody's hovering over me You know and like just constantly in your stuff and questioning everything that you do And so they'll question you still you know They'll they'll put you on the hot seat sometimes about things but they give you the The breathing room to just go do what you do And we don't want you to check every single thing with those all the time because you'll never get anything done So that sounds like you got some clearance for the marvels and little thing does yeah And then I'll probably have them over my shoulder for the rest of my life But till then it's gonna be glorious, but it's gonna feel good Maybe whenever you know your last day on the air Yeah, I'll be and just throw it on that last day.

What are they gonna do fire you? No This sounds a lot like when I'm I'm playing different sports whether it be I like Okay, everybody can laugh whatever pickleball Go ahead uh and no and oh okay not at all Some people pickleball earlier. Yeah, okay good some people still think that that's like Oh, that's just like really old people.

It's not So when I'm playing pickleball or tennis sometimes you know because I'm not great Sometimes when I get really frustrated, you know, you talk about letting it all out I will just I'll just take aim with a ball And I know I know that it's gonna go like four courts over But I just don't care And it feels so good to just have that release now it's unfair to my partner You know you always get a look like what was that But it just it feels so good to just put every bit that you have in there of Of just angst and anger and frustration and just let that thing sail And so it'll be like that. There you go. Yeah, it'll be my going out like I'll just leave it all out.

Yeah, leave everything on the field Oh, yeah, I have been warned not to pick up racket ball because it's you know, they say that if you already had I was gonna say you'll probably break some first of all we have that Uh, secondly, um, they say that if you have a frustrating sport already don't pick up another frustrating sport Is that yeah, but what sport is not frustrating? Hmm, you know, I would imagine I would imagine that Most sports are not frustrating if you have some talent in them or you're you're good at them I'm not good at anything. I'm not naturally.

No, I'm I'm serious. So like We we talk about this like I'll go to things whatever and you know speaking engagements and this and and this conversation has come up a couple of times Like I'm always like amazed by talents of other people and Invariably the conversation comes up like well, what's your talent? And I always like and I've really thought about this I've put thought into it.

I have no natural talent There is no natural like he was born with it We always knew that he would you know shine with that whatever The only talent I have is to work really hard to try to get better at something that I'm bad at or that I've had Issues trying to make right It's it's actually really oh Sounds like me there you go. I'd like you for some reason kindred spirit. We are scrappy guys Scrappy guys.

I like that. Can I be scrappy? You can be stupid.

I'll be scrappy. Yeah, perfect. I like that He was my favorite character on Scooby-Doo too, by the way.

Hell yeah scrappy was the best. Hell yeah Usually when they bring in the baby the show is over that's how the show began went to another level. Oh, absolutely I didn't watch the mood spoiler alert.

I'm not yeah Damn it Here's how it ends Let's just ruin the surprise Well, I haven't seen it and now I'm not going to because of that Well, let's say me three bucks You know one thing I noticed about you as I've watched you over the years Jason Is that you seem to be able to do virtually anything That might have to do with channel eight news I mean you seem very versatile you seem um I hate to put it this way almost like a Swiss army knife for him down there because you can do so much stuff You are correct It's you know that old jack-of-all trades master of none um, and you know that the it is good. It's good for I think it's I say this to people all the time because you know that you know we do money stuff and job stuff and all It is very good job security To know as many things at your workplace as possible become the indispensable player who you know just you know They can't get rid of they can always get rid of you But become the person it's kind of really hurt to get rid of and so know how to do as many things as possible The downside of that is they know that you know how to do all of the things and you might end up doing all of the things Yeah And so then your bandwidth just flies out the window and and I always uh liking it to I always try to say that okay if we're gonna put something else on the plate We're gonna have to take something off because it's like one of those really flimsy Barbecue outdoor, you know paper plates. Yeah, and I've already Yes, the one that's really sagging the one that's the bad guy in the commercial And it's really sagging and it's not too ply and there's art I've put a lot of wet stuff on it So there's it we got liquid dripping, you know, we got barbecue sauce and coleslaw stuff dripping out and We should not add something else on here unless we take at least a fork load of something else off Fiend time.

I forget baked beans because they're so wet So yeah a lot of wet stuff on that paper plate Yeah But you know It's again, it's it's good to be able to do different roles It's good filling in it's good, you know, plugging yourself into different things and for me as long as and you know God love him mad howerton I want you to stay healthy and well and never take a day off. I can't the one thing I can't Hardly bring myself to do is anything related to the early morning show And it's a hugely important yes thing. It's it's a it's a it's a big golden child wonderful thing But I just I'm telling you there is something visceral some of us you raised your hand Yes For some of us there is just there's a code that's written into our circadian rhythm where we go Not it's not just an inconvenience.

I feel like I'm dying when I get up at that hour Stay up until 3 a.m. Yes Yes, but only stayed up overnight to catch an early flight overseas and been okay Totally functional that's what I say I can I will stay up long into the night But I just when that alarm goes up. I mean it's like pain goes through my body and it doesn't stop and like I stand up and I can't even get ready like I just stand there frozen and I don't know what to do, you know like it's just Yeah, well it killed us like, you know, we when we had met Howard and on he said that he was going to bed at like six Yeah, I just looked at the clock to see what time it was 2011 right now.

Let's call it madhouse. Let's call it. Don't I have his numbers jammies Yeah, I think the biggest surprise in all of that exchange is now he wears jammies As far as I know he does okay, yeah, okay, this is the guy who can't stay dressed in the podcast.

Yeah, I know But he wears clothes to bed. He's a weird guy like that interesting. Yeah, okay More than we just wears he's just like Winnie the Pooh and just wears the top shirt Nothing else underneath When I have nightmares about madhouse and tonight I'll tell you what he was wild when he was like oh yeah, he's a wild guy.

Yeah, he is Yeah, he was Maybe it's a lot of fun. Yeah, he was cranking a pantera. Oh, yeah, you know, and Three monster energy drinks or something.

I've told him about those Oh, you're the problem. No, I've told him I've told him about those like that's a lot Yeah, it's a lot of stuff you're taking in there it affected him this from I mean I drink coffee like crazy But I mean, I don't touch the the energy drinks That's too much. There's it's a different.

It's like a different breed of of stimulant I've never tried one you just don't stay away. We we need you around Yeah, it feels a lot to me like the the drink version of a 3 a.m. wake-up call That's what it's like.

It's like you just you're rattled You know, you know, funny thing when I worked in Miami have you ever been to Miami everybody has been there? Then they're for the Super Bowl a couple times. It's an interesting place Very interesting place to live and work But when I first moved there I wasn't familiar with everything and they used to do these kaffesitos Where it was Cuban coffee and they it is a different kind of coffee.

I've learned that since then that does have more caffeine in it. There's different beans And I didn't know that at the time and I was filling in that night and they said hey, there's kaffesito up at the desk And I was like oh great, you know, so I go up there They serve it in a it's a styrofoam cup like what would be considered a small anywhere where you go to order something And then there's a big stack of thimbles little plastic thimbles Little cups tiny cups and you're supposed to just pour that into the cup And I just thought why don't they do this, you know? Do they don't they have enough and and so everybody had already had theirs And so I was like well if everybody else has already had theirs I'm just gonna take this, you know, so it's still have maybe you know a fourth or a half in there And I went to my desk.

I start drinking this. It's really good and it's loaded with sugar And but super strong like he is it's a really strong taste And I'm telling you I didn't even finish it and like 30 minutes in I'm like typing and my hands are just shaking And I feel Like nervous. I feel anxious about and I and I hadn't put two and two together yet And I'm just sitting there like oh my god like something's wrong with me, you know my stomach feels weird And I like have butterflies like a panic attack or something.

Yeah, I felt like it was having a panic attack And I looked at someone next to me and she was um, I think she was Dominican and I said to her hey Uh, what's going on with me whenever she goes Uh, did they give you that and I said no, I took it and she goes how much of that have you had? And I go I had like maybe half of the half, you know And she goes oh my god, you've had way too much you can't do that You can't do that and so then everybody's laughing about it But I'm like can we settle the emergency first and then we'll laugh about it tomorrow Does everyone know where the defibrillator is right now, you know I did not know that Yeah, it's like how was how was the come down from it? Uh, it was harsh because it was sugar and caffeine right and so you know You had that just rush and then at the end of the night it was like you felt like you had been on like a three-day bender Like and somebody had just beaten you up like it just like it does something to your body where you just go man I just got walloped And I'm glad I learned the lesson before I went further and had like the whole thing, you know That would have been brutal.

I I don't know what the caffeine content is of that, but it's got to be Yeah, if I was lucky Thank god she spotted it. She was like well, I go look at me. I'm just shaking Who gave you that?

I took it Do you know right away when a story is a good one for you? No Well, sometimes I do but there have been some that have been like these Occult stories where you just you know you go well, let me let me pursue this and I'm gonna see what I find on it or whatever And you put it together and you're happy enough with it and then It does this like some gargantuan number on the the website and you start getting just these Emails and these texts or you know messages, you know direct messages on social media And you go my god, this just hit this cord with people that I did not expect And I think early on one of the subjects that that happened with was a property tax story I know you know, it's I I dread it like anyone else whatever But I did something on that and I thought okay, well, there's my little story done and you're like moving on to the next thing And I mean it just starts ringing up the hit because Everybody is looking for that effort none of us were schooled on this stuff, you know And it's hard to to know all of these things and you don't have classes for this stuff and it's intimidating and it's You know, you might think even that it's boring and you just don't want to even read that article about it and And it's amazing when you can put it into bite-sized chunks that are more understandable and relatable and here's what to do about it Um, a man it just takes off like wildfire How do you guys at wfa determine? Who gets to do what?

Sometimes it is offered up on the email system and there's some like and I'm always skeptical When another reporter is giving away a story Like why are you giving that away? Do you know that it's not as there is catch here somewhere Because some of them seem like gems, you know, and you're like why would you offer this to others, you know Maybe they're more giving than I am. I don't know But I think if I had that I would totally like put my arms around it nobody else is gonna get it But is there a guy who assigns it or or they do we have um, we have meetings that I don't I don't go to those Because I don't I don't do general assignment anymore But back in the day I used to go to those meetings and I would pitch my ideas and we'd hear other ideas And I usually tried to latch on to other ideas because my ideas used to like more it like the vest, you know But then they would always go no, we're gonna have you do your idea that sounds good And you just go oh my god, how am I actually gonna turn that story today, you know like why did I ever say that So, you know, you're stuck with it you got to make it work But again, it's that expectation like uh-uh you come in here into this newsroom You start throwing things out and you're gonna do that and not only gonna do it you better do it real well You know So there's that pressure From the beginning of the day It never ends it doesn't that's why you're so great So great, this is Jason Wheeler of WFA TV and we'll be back with more with Jason Want to talk to you a little bit about the things you're probably best known for that you're doing these days Okay, and how those came about But right now if you want to relax just Kick kick back over there.

I'm already relaxed. I have no shoes on That's pretty good. That's good life.

You can take off more That's right. You're just almost asking me to do this. We want a full-howard Three energy drinks later there Right now though it is time for the dreaded and feared mid show read Yes All right now I have here in my hands the full spectrum Savstick I get this from the house of healing and I have it Because number one these days I need it.

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It's 14th edition It features two of Eric's favorite bands. I don't know if you know this about Eric But he's a real music lover kind of guy But he does not dwell in the mainstream He's out there on the fringes looking for stuff that nobody knows about And when he finds somebody likes he brings them in to play at his birthday benefit concert this year It is Brooklyn based Sammy Ray and the friends and Bay Bay Area favorite Chuck profit and the kumbia shoes This is going to be coming down Thursday the 14th of May doors open at 630 showtime 730 And it's all at the legendary longhorn ballroom now that's a whole another thing in itself because I don't know if you've been to the longhorn ballroom yet and seen what they've done over there as they brought it back to life But it is just Amazing You won't believe the history that you find when you walk through those halls over there Now this supports the work of the Grand Halliburton Foundation That's a local non-profit that provides mental health education Training and support to teens and families to warn learn more and purchase tickets Go to Grand Halliburton.org slash Eric Nadal sponsor tables and sweets are also available Comes to us the YDC team will be there on the purple carpet Eric Nadal's birthday benefit Presented by Haynes Boons and KXT 91.7 FM Featuring Sammy Ray and the friends and special guest Chuck profit Go to Grand Hall Halliburton.org slash Eric Nadal Or go to stolenwatermedia.com slash our community Is that it? Thanks.

Oh All right excellent very good. I love 91.7 It's great. Oh, it's so good It's really good.

Oh, you need to listen to it for sure. Yeah, back up Yeah, back up Now our guest here today is the great Jason Wheeler WFA I keep on to call it channel late That's fine even though a lot of people that's that's all people used to call it It's what a lot of people still call it. Yeah, yeah, um, they uh Although some people still they'll get the number wrong with me they do that a lot Hey, it's channel would fill in the blank and you know you just You know once they get started and they're wound up or whatever you just kind of go along with it You know, obviously they're watching the right channel or they wouldn't know You know, yeah, just like a lot of people think that they're talking to either the weatherman or the sports guy too That I get a lot of that.

Hey, what's the weather going to be like today, you know and I don't it's a thing for those those of them in the media. It's a thing. Yeah, I don't correct anyone anymore I go out hardly cloudy and sure high of 72, you know, you know, you'd be on the fan hell.

I'm on the fan You know I mean why burst someone's bubble, you know, obviously they're watching. They're just not putting everybody in their Exact roles. Yeah, a runner.

I'll love you on that muse in the news. Yeah Totally Well, I'm interested in how you landed on the two things that you seem to be most known for These days, weather and sports One is right on the money right on the money is an experiment that we started in 2019. Was this your idea?

It Softly was but not really so I used to do a lot of Consumery type stories and that's part of the reason why I think they hired me here because they liked those and they wanted more of that Because that was on my real that they saw when I applied here and And so they said hey, we want you to start doing this thing and we want you to name it and we want you We want it to be like involving anything money whatever money you figure that part out You come up with subjects you you know put them together and we're gonna have somebody edit them And you're gonna do all on green screen So it's gonna be this interactive screen that you can you know interact with the whole time and I said okay That's a lot, but yeah, I'm willing to do all that that sounds interesting whatever I just need one guarantee and they said name it and I go I just need whoever does the edit on these to be the same person every time because I saw all that You know you you know right away that that's gonna be the heavy lift right there, right? And so they were like done We're gonna get you know somebody we've got people with great skills. We'll have somebody do it And I think in the first year I went through maybe 10 different people And it wasn't that they just were terrible at making promises to me and they wanted to make my life really hard It was just the nature of how TV works, you know And it became like I was the short straw guy like they would go up to someone and go Hey, you're gonna be doing right on the money this weekend.

They'd be like why you know like Because Go backwards, baby Because they had heard you know because it is really hard to edit all of that green screen stuff in because you're creating Everything from the beginning you know So very difficult so Yeah, it's hard and people don't change it next week You So we finally got this whiz of a guy and his name is Austin and he is just amazing at what he does And so for each one of these that I create I create the actual piece that I record And then I go in and I write an entirely separate script that goes line by line in parentheses of what my mind is thinking for this And this and this and this and this and this and this and then I tell Austin you're gonna think of things that are like 10 times better than this So feel free to override me And then we create a web script out of every one of them that has links for people to actually go and do the things that you know Our solutions or whatever and it has more info on there. So each piece is three But you know we've gotten this cadence down and thank god I am with the same guy every time we do one of these because You don't want somebody on the fly having to polish up their old green screen edit skills, you know I don't think of that stuff because I watch right on the money and it's you. You're always so cool so polished so professional Yeah, you are and professional Yeah, I don't think he said that you might not be able to get me out of this chair I'm moving in But I mean it's it's like it just comes naturally to you To to to talk that speak that language.

Yeah, okay, so conversation by the time you've seen that though I've some of these now some of these come off of my fingertips really fast if it's a subject that I'm very familiar with I'm learning a lot of this stuff with you, you know Like I know portions of this and the great thing is as I've lived a life where I have and I'm not kidding I wish this was the joke where I have made So many mistakes with all of these things car house job salary debt credit cards you name it student loans. I've made so many mistakes But the great thing is is that it gave me great familiarity with all of these things from a different point of view And so now I just had to go fill in the rest of the point of view and create that so by the time you've seen it And you think that I'm all cool and polished and professional. I did remember all of those adjectives Um By the time you see it.

I have read and read and read and read I mean, I do so much reading. It's unreal and pull little pieces from each thing and and and try to find a way to take this further To actually help people who are going through it or to have have them have an understanding about it that they didn't have before And by the time you see it, I'm like on take 16 in front of that green screen and this is with a prompter And so that because like you turn to like reference something that's not really there But you know what's going to be there and as soon as you turn it's it's so stupid like you can't remember the simplest you know The that comes after that and you get back and you're just lost in the prompter And so just know when you see these that Every now and then I get it in first take usually I don't But in the early days we shot them without a teleprompter And it was an actual photographer down there with me who probably wanted to kill me on many of those days Because I'm not kidding. It was like take 44 Oh We were breaking this into little pieces and stuff and I'm telling you it was tedious and when I got that prompter one day It was just like oh that can breathe again, you know It's amazing boy That must have made all the difference it did it's fed things along to the point where they could say Hey, we want several of these a week Now that you've got me down Let's give you more let's do more.

Yeah, you've got time savings in there So you didn't have a true financial background before it I did not um and You know since then I talk a good game. Yeah, damn right full June Well, I do think I did have a financial background I think and I always say this and it's not just with this We have people on sometimes and the question I like the most is What do most people do wrong with this you know? What are we doing wrong and I do have a financial background I did a lot of things wrong and it's amazing the lessons that teaches you where you go Oh, let me go share this gold bar with the world And I mean, I've actually had people who have said to me You have saved us thousands and thousands of dollars just with that episode.

That saved us thousands of dollars I'm not surprised man. That to me is like That is almost as good as cool and polished and professional Almost Yes Make the same states Absolutely correct Yeah, and since then I have gotten my I found that I was doing a ton of property taxes and property related because all of us You know for most of us anyway our biggest investment is always going to be our home, right? And so I found that I was doing so much of that and I you know I'd get into you know these discussions with experts and you know some of the lingo and what I so I did get my real estate license Just so and it helped me tremendously and you know in fact when I got it I as I was going through these books and I actually did I know some people like skim through I actually read all of this stuff and I had highlighters and I kept highlighting things and like ear Earmarking the page and I thought I'm gonna do a whole series and we're gonna call it home schooling And I did I did a whole series on the stuff when I learned you know Got my license that every one of us should have been taught that all of us should know And we did a whole series on that and I think it was really beneficial because it was eye-opening to me as a homeowner You know You ought to repeat have you repeated that series yet or is it out there?

I should you know somebody just ask the other day and some of these don't get the You know life I guess that they should have so sometimes we'll put together like award entries or whatever for TV because you know TV people love to go to award ceremonies and I always am like I'm not entering that. I'm not entering anymore I've got all the Emmys I can stand And so So I always go in thinking I'm not gonna enter that and they go come on You just looked at a few of them whatever and Austin, you know I have the soft spot in my heart for Austin because he does the heavy lifting on these He says I really want to enter him like oh god, you know Of course they sent Austin and so I'll start going through the pieces that we've done in that quarter or that year or whatever And it's just like wow there's some really good information in here. I never have time I mean I see them in house before they air But I usually don't see them air.

I just see them and approve them You know to say everything is good and I don't see them air and like I'm always on to the next and the next and the next and the next and the next And before you know it like like somebody I'll say remember you did a piece on that and you're like I didn't do that and I haven't done one on that and they're like yeah, you did you know you're like well It must have been years ago and they're like it was two months And so when I'm watching these things I always think like man We should we should re-air this like this still has Legs like this is still affecting every day people and so we've done a couple of specials that we've done like on streaming Or we'll take over the four p.m. News and we'll just run an hour of me So if if somebody I mean and there's plenty of people out there who don't like me I'm sure who are like oh my gosh this whole hour is going to be this so So yeah, I that's what they say when they tune into YDC An entire hour so yeah some of them Yeah, some of them should have other life I think and and somebody just the other day in fact requested that we rerun The death checklist because I did a whole death checklist series Of all the stuff that none of us wants to think about and it seems morbid and it seems awful But if you've ever had to go through probate For someone in your family who died and you're the executor which I just went through by the way you Learned that man it would be great if we had all just known this stuff, you know Yeah, we should make this simple so that when you go people can grieve you or Hate you or whatever they did with you, but they don't have to go oh, man Why did you leave us in this bind? Why did you leave all of this unanswered, you know You have you have a lot on YouTube.

Do you have your YouTube channel? I should I do but I don't have anything hardly on it and I should catalog it all in one place To make it a lot easier. I have a lot of goals like I Should also be more involved on social media and I just I'll tell you I Used to be really good at it and there was a day When we went through the pandemic and during the pandemic it was hell for a lot of people a lot of people were in hell And they were losing their jobs or they lose their income for a good deal time And they didn't know what was happening with unemployment benefits because this states unemployment System just melted down under the pressure of that and I had a contact there at the Texas Workforce Commission and they were feeding me Information that you could not get their website was crashing their phones were crashing you couldn't get through And I was getting information from them and I was putting out stuff that no one in the state had because of that lifeline And I mean people were eating that they were there was like a voracious appetite.

I mean people were struggling and And people would ask me further questions and I would take those back to the person and they would answer those and it would answer it for so many And so I would spend every night for I don't know how long it was it was a long time I would come home when I was done with my day and those days were really long days. Y'all remember it was it was a weird time and I would sit there and answer questions on Facebook and Twitter and direct messages and I mean Hundreds On some days and my wife kept saying you need to stop this. This is going to kill you Like I can see it like you spend hours here every night and I was like you can't read this stuff and not answer this And so I did that for a very long time and then I took a break and just pulled away after the worst of it was over And I still post things on there and I still try to interact but I've never been able to go back to it the same way again It's like there's this lasting burnout But I try to get to it So yeah, I should try to create that YouTube page to Got a whole list of things I need to do Now the other thing you were very well known for Is the series you share with Jason Whiteley?

Yes, Yolatex. Yes. How did that come about?

I named that one too So I named right on the money and I named Yolatex and I didn't trademark either Yeah, I was going to ask you write any royalties or anything like that stupid stupid guy I told you I've made every financial mistake. There is If you think it's something copyright it folks No, we yes Mike's where I've named the ticket Did you copyright it? No, why would you do that?

The mailbox money that just could have kept coming So that one was also an experiment They wanted to this was also in 2019 before the 2020 election. Is that right? Yeah Again, it's dog ears.

It feels like it's like eons ago And they said let's just we might do a political podcast. Let's just try it whatever we'll see how it goes And you know, we'll we'll do it until the election And we're like okay, you know, and so we started doing it And we thought that once that 2020 election was over, you know, hotly contested whatever That that would be it and we actually found that people were coming to us even more After the election and after we moved through that whole crazy transition after that and when we were just talking about issues and And it was just convers it's conversations about political issues But it's real regular conversations with people who aren't screaming at each other or you know at each other's throats Where you're actually learning. Oh, that's why they have that position or that's what this issue is about And it's amazing that there's an appetite for can you give me more than just 10 seconds of people yelling at each other Yeah, and you know, we have a beer in the podcast too and that helps too because it loosens up the people we're talking to I mean even before they have the first drink.

It just feels a little bit more relaxed and And it has lasted all this time and like the the numbers that we've gotten on that thing are just It amazes me when I see and you just think wow this is really Taken off on its own and y'all know what it's like with podcasts. You can look at like where are people listening to this And it's the weirdest thing like you're like wow there's an expat community and like Latvia like That regularly they're regularly listening to that you know I mean, it's amazing like on all these continents you just you see people listening and that's kind of stunning when you think about it Yeah, so it was another experiment that just stuck you know, and it lasted and here we are and it's still going strong It's great, man. You guys are I mean you guys really have good chemistry together the two of you Thanks, I think it's one of those push pulls, you know, like we may have just enough in common to Kind of want to kind of want to hate each other every now and then you know what I mean Yeah, I'm not saying that you're alike or anything like that because you're You're there's definitely enough difference between the two of you totally that I'm the way better one It let me tell you this Jason Whiteley and I don't know what it is he has this hang up Jason Whiteley is always you walk into the newsroom and like if I don't have to be on TV until 4 o'clock or 330 or whatever if I'm not recording anything I'm going to be there in regular clothing.

Okay, like regular stuff that normal people wear Um, Jason Whiteley has his suit totally on jacket included middle of August I mean, I and we have air conditioning, but I mean he's wearing a full suit with a tie that's cinched all the way to the top You'll never see me if I'm not on air you will never see me with a tie cinched all the way to the top And he sits there like that all day long. I don't understand that He's he's the weird one. Am I right?

Yeah, okay, but he makes it look like I'm the weird one And like I walk in the room and it's like he can be busier than you can imagine And he will stop what he's doing to look me up and down like he's obsessed And oh hey Wheeler just roll out of bed. Oh, is that a t-shirt you're wearing there? And it's like it's it's a polo shirt It's a nice like why do you feel the need every day?

It's every day And like we'll be in a podcast and if I'm you know under the table. I've got my shoes off If anyone's going to notice it it's going to be Jason like it thrives him crazy And I think it really it's more than just I'm going to rib you for that. I think it makes him mad.

I really do I'm and I'm serious and I you know he may see this okay here this But I think it really watches this This Somebody mad howard's gonna watch this until Jason Um, but no he will like it bothers him and so not long ago we were talking with the DA John Cruze of the outgoing DA and Interestingly, I had my shoes on that day and I actually I was wearing a little bit nicer clothes, I guess And interestingly he said to Jason and Jason thought he was talking to me He goes, what'd you have dressed like that during the pandemic? And Jason looks at me and I'm like, ah, he's talking to you clearly. And it was because Jason was wearing like these loafers without socks.

And we were just talking about like how we were more casual during the pandemic. And I bet it drove him crazy that of all the things that could have been noticed about the two of us by a, you know, big-time guy, it was him and that he didn't have socks on. He was the casual one, you know?

Nobody was saying anything about me, because I had my dress shoes and socks on. So he doesn't even do suit with fancy tennis shoes? No.

The most casual he gets was on a day like that, where he has suit with different color jacket than slacks, which I don't usually do. I'll usually do the matching. But he had different color jacket than slacks, and then he had the nice loafers.

They're nice, but no socks. No socks or no seams. No, they were no socks.

Is he the most finicky dresser in channel eight? I think probably, I think that most people would tell you there that the best dresser is Greg Fields in the mornings. That's who I suspected.

Yeah. Pete is like a real serious dresser too, and like his wife gets all into it and like picks out combinations and stuff. And he likes to go jack it off.

Yeah, if it's really bad. Yeah. Yeah.

And the sleeves get rolled up. Oh my gosh. Let me go pull the car into the garage.

You know? You have sleeves up, car into garage. That's a loop formula.

No joke. But yeah, Jason's in that club. He's very picky.

And he always looks great. He really does. Even with the loafers with no socks, I can't do the loafers with no socks.

Jason, let's start a rumor that his feet stink. Oh, absolutely. That's how I know that it wasn't that he was wearing the no-seos.

There you go. Because I could smell him. No, I'm kidding.

Yeah, that's a joke. Get some owner-eaters, dude. Hey, I've never been able to do the loafers with no socks either.

No. Flip flops? Yeah.

Yeah, always wear flops. Which are terrible for you, by the way. No, they're not.

Yeah. I hate to tell you this. I'm sure they are.

That's not going to get me out of them. They mess up like that. OK, so I have really super flat feet.

Like, my feet are completely flat on the bottoms. And I was wearing flip flops for a long time. And I went to this podiatrist.

And I go, man, I'm selling so many like pains in my ankles, you know. And he goes, well, you have really flat feet. You know, stand up.

I'm not even going to examine you. Just walk from me. And he goes, I want you to walk down to the door down there, whatever.

And I start walking. And he goes, just stop, stop, stop. Three steps in.

Just stop. And I was like, God, is it that bad? And he was like, it's that bad.

So it's like this is how you walk barefooted? Yeah. But it's like a collapsing ankle.

Yeah, because you have no arch there. So your ankle is compensating in a way that it was not designed to do. And so he's like, don't ever wear flip flops again.

Ever, like ever. And so, and then I had to have inserts made. And so I got these custom inserts that go in the shoes.

That give arch there. And they hurt really bad at first, because your feet are not used to that. And then all of a sudden, like, one day you just go, wow, this feels like I'm walking on clouds.

And while it doesn't feel like, it always felt like, did you all see misery? Yes. With Kathy Bates.

You haven't seen misery? I'm sorry. It's one of the thereby.

That is a really. Oh. No.

Go ahead and tell them how it ends. Oh, okay. Well, there's a scene in it.

It's a name well. It's called misery. Kathy Bates is an amazing actress.

And there's a point in it where she's got this guy. And she's basically holding him hostage. And he can't move out of his bed that she has him in.

And she takes a sledgehammer to both ankles. And that's how it would feel after like a night of tennis. You know, again, the next morning, it was like, oh, my God.

So, yeah, inserts are great. But I loved flip flops. And I had to say goodbye to all of my flip flops.

I've gotten those chakos. And it's, you know, it's kind of like the... It's similar to...

What are the other ones that have the straps? You know what I'm talking about. Birkenstocks?

Birkenstocks. It's like those. Crocs makes actual flip flops with arches built in.

Oh, interesting. I'm going to have to look into that. Yeah, maybe you can jump back in that pool.

Ask that podiatrist about this. He told me never again. And please stop walking.

Sit down. You right now. You broke his heart, apparently.

I did. Like, I broke that test. Yeah.

I didn't even make it past his door to get to the other door. It's like just to stop. Yeah.

Please lay down. Sit down. What if it came to you and said, we want you to anchor the six and ten.

Hmm. Can you do it? I used to think I wanted that.

But I would say, first of all, like, no, because Chris is a great guy. He needs to be doing that. And he loves it.

And he's good at it. But I think that. I think I'm right now where I need to be.

Which is a weird thing to say. No, that's a good thing to say. I always tell other people that.

Like, I always tell people in wherever you are right now. And, you know, like these kids in college, whatever, ask for advice and stuff. And I always tell them, hey, you know, just keep plugging away.

You've got to keep working hard as someone who that's their only talent. Keep working hard. I'm not going to tell you that story.

But I always tell people, keep working hard. And just know that whatever you have done up to now has put you where you are now. And what you're doing now, you're where you need to be.

And when the next thing is right, it will be, you know. And then I always doubt that for myself. It is poetic.

That is as poetic as I get. But I really do believe that because there have been so many times in my life when I have thought, like, I've been passed over or I'm failing or this isn't going right. And then it takes later on when I look back and I go, oh my god, that was exactly like that needed to go.

As bad as that was, I needed to go through that, you know. Yeah. It's amazing how that works.

Yep. There are all kinds of situations where you look back on them and you say, well, had to go through that to get to where I am now. They form you.

Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of the natural order of things, although you don't realize that at the time.

Yeah. Like everything you've done led you here to your own house, your own rules. Yeah.

Doing what interests you. Yes. Asking the questions you want to ask that not that someone else wants to ask.

And the ability to have the freedom to do it. But you. One segment.

Yeah. One second. But the thing is is everything that you, everything you went through prepared you to be this guy now.

Yeah. You know, the chill, easy laid back. It's wouldn't have worked with you of 20 years ago.

No, it wouldn't have. You know, I was not that way then. Yeah.

You had to kick me out of here by now. The most boring person I've ever talked to you. Get out of here.

You know. Well, man, thanks for doing this. This was a pleasure.

This was a lot of fun. Real quick. Yeah.

Would you like some breaking sports news? Yes. If you got it.

Super flag. Yeah. Depending on who you ask.

Cooper Flag. Oh, did he win? We were just talking about that.

To the surprise of absolutely no one. I wondered about it. I was like, oh, she's been trying that.

Nico's gone. I'm still, I will say, I know we're done, but I'm still not over that trade. Where were you?

Yeah. I was at home. I was at home and I didn't believe my mom told me because she was visiting.

And she said, did they trade at Luca? And I was like, mom, you know, where are you? And she goes, I saw it on my phone and I go, you did these weird slides.

I asked her, what site are you looking at? And she was like, ESPN. And I was like, oh, wait.

You know, like, I mean, it was, and it was, I was stunned. Just, and I'm still stunned by that. Like, what did you call anybody to find out if they'd seen it too or anything?

No, because then I pull out my phone and I just sat there like a gas. Like, I just, I couldn't believe it. This is going to be a hall of fame inductee one day easy.

And you just, how? I don't understand. And I mean, I just, I don't understand it, I guess.

And I think I was a little bit personally invested more than I normally would be, you know. Because when they went to the finals the year before, I proposed, hey, we should go to Slovenia. I should get a trip out of this and we should go to Slovenia.

Never worked harder in my life. I don't know why I said that. But we went to Slovenia and like, this guy is like a beyond rock star there, obviously.

And we got to meet his coaches and people who knew him and worked with him and trained him and all of that. I think you develop kind of a personal, even I've never met him. But you develop this personal rapport or seeing where they grew up and how they grew up and with whom they grew up.

And these are the greatest people. And I don't know, I just, like, I just felt like such a loss. And I usually don't feel that way about things like that.

I just felt like I lost something there, you know. I loved watching him. It's been hard for everybody to take.

You know, I loved watching him too. I was, I was one of those and there weren't many of us who didn't think he was going to be a career maverick. Yeah.

But you were right. Yeah. But while here, man, watching him play was like nothing I've ever seen before.

And I get it. They wanted him in better shape and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, I get that.

But there was not another way, you know, I mean, just I loved watching him. He was electric. Like watching, it's one thing to go watch professional basketball and see.

It's amazing what they do on any, on a Tuesday night, Wednesday, whenever they play. It's amazing just on its own, the very talented people. It's another level when you can do that and be an entertainer at the same time.

Yeah. And he did that. Yeah, he made you just not want to look away, you know.

If you were with somebody who was talking to you, they just talked to the side of your head because you didn't want to look away because you're going to miss this trick pass or this crazy, you know, like he's got people on skates who are trying to defend him. And they just look like they're just falling backwards and forwards. I mean, it was just amazing.

I hated to see him go. I hated to see him go too. But congrats to Cooper.

That is well earned, well deserved. And I'm glad he wasn't cheated of that honor because it is. It should have been him.

And you know, he's a very unusual player too. Yeah. Will he last here?

Yeah, yeah. Okay. He will.

Because you know. You knew. How about he'll be career Maverick?

Okay. Wow. Yes.

I really think so. On the record. Yes.

There you go. Cooper flag, career Maverick. Remember to do your first.

Guaranteed. Nothing can go wrong now. Nothing can go wrong now.

Do not body surf. Don't body surf on a beach where no one else is in the water or on the shore. If no one else is around, there's probably a reason.

Go somewhere else. That's right. Thanks for doing this, man.

It's really been a nice talking to you and we appreciate it. I love this. Thank you for having me.

That is the great Jason Wheeler of WFAA. You see him there? You see us here.

And we will be back later on the week with another one of these in the meantime. What we want from you is to help us get out there. Share us.

Put us on social media stuff like that. We got another thing here. Oh, God.

Yeah, you let it. Oh, yeah, I did let it go. There's always more.

Oh, there is always more. But we have a website now. Okay.

Yeah, we got a website now. And we are moving away from Patreon and we're trying to get you to go to the website. So let us tell you about the website here.

Stolen water media is making a move. It's time for us to change as we've been growing. We need a little bit more than what we've had.

Now you can continue to view all eight of our podcasts on our Patreon pages. But now you can get all episodes at www.stolenwatermedia.com. That is our website.

And it's all there for you. This is a much much easier way for you to find whatever you want here on YDC. We just wander in with Norm Hitzker.

So maximum beer 30 sports o'clock, the clubhouse podcast, Engel Angle, single 51 chronicles, and the sunset soccer club. They are all there for you on the website. Now this is a developing story, but you can begin watching and listening now.

Go to stolenwatermedia.com and continue to find all audio wherever you find your favorite podcasts. And some places where you've never even heard of. You all continue to support us in our success.

We feel the love. We appreciate it. Stick with us as we made this move.

And always, as always, radus. Leave us a review wherever you follow us. Share us.

Recommend us to your family and friends. Thank you very, very much from all of us here at Stolenwater. Thanks to the great Jason Wheeler.

Thank you. Thanks to Ashley. Thanks to Shubi.

Thanks to Bega. Thanks to all of you. Bye.

All right. I don't know what to do. Hands off.

Your Dark Companion is a Stolenwater media presentation. Thank you.