hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr0966.txt

Episode: 966
Title: HPR0966: The wisdom of our elders
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0966/hpr0966.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 05:43:21

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Thank You!
Hello, HPR audience.
My name is Steve McLaughlin, door to door geek.
I am very, very, very long overdue to giving an episode.
I just posted something to Google Plus and Ken Simon said I should make this an HGAR episode.
So, Ken, I cannot agree with you more.
I'm down here in Florida on vacation to Disney World.
I have eight people with me.
My wife, my two kids, my sister-in-law, their two kids, my father and my father-in-law.
I just spent well in excess of almost four hours sitting on the deck of my place where
I'm at like the Westgate or the Windgate, something I don't even know.
Yes, so many reads, by the way, I just sat here with those two individuals talking about
everything from history of baseball, history of football, some of the inside stories, some
of the people they actually knew, and then ranging from everything from World War 1, World
War 2, Civil War, modern day politics, and we ran the gambit of conversation.
And the only thing that really seems abundantly clear to me is I have an utter fascination
with personal experiences explained to me in story form.
I have hung out with professional wrestlers, for instance, like the Iron Sheep, until three
to four in the morning, just sitting around, listening to them talk about things that they
personally experienced, things that they really went through.
And I gotta say, those are the kind of things that shaped me as a human being.
I personally believe those are the kind of people, those are the kind of things that really
do make up what this world was and what is becoming.
These people have a personal insight into history that I cannot truly comprehend.
I'm just some to them, young whipper Schnapper, who's going to be 40 years old by the way
here very soon.
And I feel like these are the kind of people that truly need to be listened to.
These are the kind of people that truly need to have a share at a table.
These are the people that have seen things that we cannot comprehend.
You have to understand how far this country, this world has advanced technology and politically
in the last 20 to 30 years.
We as young as basically cannot comprehend what it was really like 50, 60, 70, 80, 100,
200 years ago, we cannot comprehend it.
And these are the kind of people that when they talk, they truly open my eyes.
One of my comments in my Google Plus posting was how I truly do not wholeheartedly believe
everything I read in a book.
I'll say it's because I truly do not understand the history of the author.
By that, what I mean is everything ever written throughout the end of the time has a bias
to it.
It truly does.
Even when they try not to, it still does.
And because of that, I truly do not wholeheartedly believe what I read in a book unless I truly
understand the history of the author.
I don't understand the history of any author because I don't know them personally.
But these kind of people that I get to know over a drink, it seems like most of the time,
I'm sorry to say, but it's over a drink.
And these people basically expose to me, this guy, they expose what it meant to be young,
what it meant to grow up back then, what it meant to be black, what it meant to be white,
what it meant to be poor, what it meant to be rich.
These guys have a personal insight, a viewpoint, into history that I really honestly think
the majority of the younger people fail miserably to really acknowledge and comprehend.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe the younger people actually do listen to the older people and they really do understand
and comprehend where these people came from.
I personally think they don't.
I personally think the majority of people in this country treat them as ignorant, seen
narrow old people that just don't get it, quote, unquote.
Well, the problem is they get it and they get more than enough.
Now granted, their bias as well.
But when I sit here and listen to them, at least I truly understand where their bias is
coming from, why it's coming from where it's coming from, how it's coming from where it's
coming from, and for God's sake, why?
They're usually based upon personal experiences.
And these, I can't say that I cannot say it clear enough.
We all need to once in a while learn to shut our holes and actually listen.
Yes, we know a lot.
Yes, we understand a great deal about things that they do not even begin to comprehend.
But bottom line, when it comes to being humans on this planet, they've seen things that
we really, truly can't comprehend.
We really, truly cannot grasp the true nature of what they're saying.
But we can at least listen to them.
I honestly feel like a better person.
I feel more knowledgeable.
I feel like a better human being, every time I sit down and listen to those older people.
And granted, part of it is, I'll say entertainment purposes, because I like hearing these people
go off.
I like hearing them speak from their heart, speak about passionate things that they definitely
know about, excuse me, and I really, I cannot encourage more people to sit down and just
listen.
Okay, this country is we know it.
We only truly understand maybe 10, 15, 20, 30 years at the absolute most of cause and effect.
Everything else we know about comes from a book, which is personally biased, and we really
don't understand the true undertones, the true back stories about things that happen.
We only understand what we worked on.
The story alone about the Bismarck, which if you don't know what the Bismarck was, it
was almost the master ship, it was almost the perfect ship that could have been made at
any point in history, okay, and to understand what actually happened to it and why it happened
to it and how it happened to it makes me better understand how dare I say God was looking
out for the rest of the world, okay.
It's the kind of thing that you cannot write, you cannot make up, you cannot fabricate.
Real life is truly much, much, much, much, much, much more entertaining, much more complex
and almost much more unbelievable than anything these putzes in Hollywood or Bollywood or wherever
you're from can even comprehend to make up, okay, bottom line.
Once in a while when we just know people we think they're seen out, well guess what,
sometimes they're not seen out, they actually know what they're talking about.
I honestly can't fake Ketadov for just making that one simple comment, that one simple
basic comment of this should be an Easter episode.
I would love it if I could just go to dare I say a retirement center and get old people
to sit around and talk about personal experiences, not personal beliefs or not
personal feelings, but viewpoints, things they literally saw when they were younger.
Besides being in my mind what could be one of the most epic podcast ideas available,
I think it could honestly be educational to a great number of people and not only that
a nice way of recorded history dare I say.
What's again, yes, I've kind of been abbreviated, yes, I've been Florida, yes, it's 311
in the morning, but I will say I at least finally did an HBR episode of people and with
that said, I cannot thank people enough like Ken Fowon, 5150, even guys like Clark 2, Peter
64, Double N Dan, all those kind of guys, okay, and I'm missing a butt load of people
by the way, okay, an extreme butt load of people.
Those are the kind of people I cannot thank enough for getting me interested, getting me
let's say excited about listening to other people and sharing things I personally experience.
Those are the guys that I honestly feel are paving the way right now, right now, right now,
right now, right now.
Those are the kind of guys I really honestly look up to, I idolize and I really cannot
beg them enough to keep on doing what you are doing, come, hell or high water, period.
And yes, everybody who's doing the fest out there are saying to you because you bring
people to together to the exact same kind of story telling.
Bruce Patterson helped the Northeast, the new Lennox Pass and he utterly believes the
young people need to be there, need to get involved.
I will say Bruce is 100% right, but the same token, we need to get these older people
involved because if we get the older people and the younger people together, I feel like
only outstandingly great beneficial things for human culture can come out of it.
Again, man, that the card, he light was fantastic, it's all I gotta say, good stuff people.
Unless you're recovering, then it's bad, really bad.
Alright guys, I will definitely, I need to do more, period.
Thank you very much and you had yourself a great day.
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