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S3 Ep 047 Recounting My Time on the Dr. Phil Show with R Blank

In this episode, Stephanie gets to interview our very own R Blank to discuss his experience being invited, interviewed, and, dare I say, groomed to be a non-expert expert guest on Dr. Phil, the popular nationwide talk show, for an episode with the topic of microchipping humans for various use cases.

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Show Notes

For this episode, Stephanie gets to interview our very own R Blank to discuss his experience being invited, interviewed, and, dare I say, groomed to be a non-expert expert guest on Dr. Phil, the popular nationwide talk show, for an episode with the topic of microchipping humans for various use cases.

We’re going to go through the whole process with R and spend time discussing what he learned about how EMF topics are covered in media. This is a very special episode of the podcast and one you won’t want to miss.

S3 Ep 047 Dr. Phil Episode

In this episode you will hear: 

  • R’s experience with the Dr. Phil show. 
  • Finding the balance between communicating information and connecting with the audience. 
  • Traveling and the pre-show experience. 
  • How EMF is covered by mainstream media. 
  • Spreading the word about EMF to wider audiences. 
  • Counterprepping on television and expectations versus reality. 
  • R also discusses his debate with Amal Graafstra, the head of VivoKey technologies.
  • Moving the ball forward in public knowledge.

Connect with R Blank and Stephanie Warner: 

For more Austu Podcast episodes and to download our Austu Quick Start Guide, visit https://HealthierTech.co and follow https://instagram.com/healthiertech

Coverage about the episode: 

Additional Links:

Transcript

Announcer 0:01
Welcome to the Austu podcast, the show about building a healthier relationship with modern technology. Now, here are your hosts, R blank and Stephanie Warner.

Stephanie Warner 0:14
Okay, today we’re doing a few things differently. Okay, we’re doing them a lot differently. So for this episode, not only do I get to slide into the hosts seat, but I also get to interview our own R blank to discuss his experience being invited, interviewed, and dare I say groomed to be a non expert, expert guest on the Dr. Phil show. That’s right. Dr. Phil. So the topic of the show was microchipping. Humans for various use cases, we’re going to go through the whole process with our spend time discussing what he learned about how EMF topics are covered in the media. This is a very special episode of the podcast, and one you won’t want to miss. So without further ado, are Are you ready? Sure. All right, let’s do it. So my first question to you is why you? Why do you think they chose you? Is it the business? You’re in the content we produce? Do you think it has to do with your father’s legacy? What’s your take on that?

R Blank 1:16
Yeah, I mean, I don’t, obviously, I can’t say exactly. And I don’t even know how many people were involved in deciding to reach out to me or whom they may have reached out to earlier. I do know, they mentioned, the podcast, this podcast is one reason. So I assume that it’s my ability to talk. They have that on record. And obviously they knew about my work with shield your body as well. One thing though, you know, to that point in your intro, they specifically told me, they didn’t want a scientist, they wanted someone who could just talk normal. And so that’s again, I don’t know how they found me. I guess I should thank my SEO team and my podcast production team. And but that’s that they specifically said they wanted, you know, I don’t know, they didn’t use this exact word. But for lack of a better term, a normal guy, but someone who could talk, but not a scientist.

Stephanie Warner 2:16
Right, right. Yeah. So you know, before we get into kind of the the gritty meat and potatoes of this interview, I’d love to share one of the most fascinating elements of his experience with the RET one of the things I found the most fascinating about this, this whole process with the rest of our audience, so we’re gonna go ahead and roll a video. And we’ll just we’ll play it and then we’ll come back and chat about it.

R Blank 2:46
Hello, Dr. Phil R blank, and surgically implanted computers into humans is dangerous, just how dangerous we don’t know yet, because that’s how they release technology. As long as it doesn’t kill you instantly, or almost instantly, it’s deemed safe for sale. And then it’s 510 20 years later, we learned that it causes cancer, autism, birth defects and more. But by that point, we’ve become so dependent on the technology, we choose to live with the disease. At this point, we know a lot about what EMF does to the human body. But these exposures these are crazy. We’re talking about literally inside the body, point blank range with zero distance, day in day out for years on end. What impact will that have? We don’t know. But I can tell you it won’t be good. But look, let’s take EMF out of the equation. Let’s look at this from the perspective of technology. How often does your computer crash? How often do you lose access to some critical piece of information or functionality? Because someone somewhere halfway around the world inserted an errant line of code? Do you really want your body running on that? How often do you upgrade your phone, your computer, your television every year? Maybe two? Do you really want to have to undergo invasive surgery every year to just to keep your body current. Earlier this year, I read about a company Second Sight made an amazing piece of implantable technology that literally brought sight to blind people. So what’s the problem? The problem is they went bankrupt, and 350 of their customers were about to lose their vision again. Now fortunately, in that instance, someone came along and acquired them. But what happens next time? Do you really want critical bodily functions dependent on the stability of a startup? Look, humans, like all life on Earth, were designed to evolve at a certain speed, a speed that is much much much slower than apples or Tesla’s release cycle, that slow speed, it gives us resilience. It gives us durability. It gives us stability. It has a quality of design that modern technology cannot meet by entering the era of cyborgs and that is what we’re talking about here by entering the cyborg era with the same speed and recklessness that we did with cell phones. We are inviting a massive disaster of human health.

Stephanie Warner 5:04
Whoa, all right. So our I noticed a slightly different tone in this video than anything I have witnessed any content I’ve, I’ve seen you produce. And I’m sure our audience probably hasn’t heard this tone from you either. So what were you talking about in this video? And why are you so fired up?

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R Blank 5:25
Right? So well, all good questions. That was I forget now, but like the fifth or sixth take of that video. So what happened was after they reached out, and we can talk about that whole process, but they had me do a quote unquote, audition. So I had to record like a minute or two of my thoughts on the topic, which by the way, if you listen to the video, they told me I could talk about human embedded computing, not not microchipping because that’s what I talked about in the video. And those are two different issues from an EMF perspective. But anyway, so I submitted a first video, and the first video sounds a lot more like what our listeners are used to and what anyone who’s attended and sy B webinars used to. And I guess that was good enough for them to ask me for a second video, they told me they had for some of the other panellists, they had to turn them away, because it was they just, it was so painful to watch. So that was good enough. And then they they kind of coached me now. They didn’t coach me on what to say. They made it clear that I had to, you know, they wanted me to say things I believed. But it also became clear like, well, I needed to talk as though I’m talking to Dr. Phil’s audience, right, not to an S YB webinar. Attendee or the Austu podcast listener. So as time went on, actually, by the second video, I kind of nailed it. And after that, they asked for little tweaks, like, can you take off your glasses, so we don’t see the ring light in it and, and things like that, by the way, that, for me was a big sacrifice. I, I don’t actually like going on camera without my glasses. I can, you know, it’s like a subtler Drew Carey effect. But anyway, I did all that. And that’s so that is, so by the second video, they approved me. But then they had me do like four more takes, because they’re like, not only do we approve you, we want this on the air. And so the tone at the end is, as you say, very different from what most people who have encountered me, through my businesses would know. At the same time, I was 100% comfortable with every word that I said in that video. So I was trying to find this balance between my personal integrity and the truths that I believe with a way of communicating them in a way that reaches the audience, I was going to be speaking to which by the way, that is a while the tone might be different, that same process of finding that balance is what I do all of the time, which is why I sound you know, this way on the Austu podcast. And I don’t sound like Joe Rogan, because that’s not the audience for the Austu podcast.

Stephanie Warner 8:15
Right. Right. Yeah, that that’s a thank you for, you know, expanding on that a little bit. Because, yeah, I definitely wasn’t expecting that when I first saw it. I was like, Whoa. Okay, and then I, you know, I realised for myself, I was like, oh, you know, for this audience. That is, I was immediately recognising that that is the tone you see in, you know, TV show news. It’s that like, there’s a there’s an urgency. And I’d never guess I never really thought about that as being kind of a tactic or, you know, unnecessary thing. So let’s, let’s step back a little bit. And let’s talk about the first contact that you had with the show. Like, how did that come about? How did it happen? Yeah, well,

R Blank 9:04
I don’t know if you recall this, Stephanie. But you texted me? Yeah.

Stephanie Warner 9:09
Okay, let’s let our audience Yeah, happens. So

R Blank 9:12
well, the fruit. So what happens is, it’s after work. And a ticket comes through the s YB. helpdesk saying, you know, I’m from Dr. Phil Show, I forget exactly what they said. But we want you on the show. And I guess you did some quick checking to see that the person who actually submitted the ticket looked like a real person, you know, because we get lots of emails that are phishing and spammy. So you did that and then you texted me. Then I logged in, and because it sounded like a rush. I called the booking person back and this is on Dr. Phil’s staff. And we started talking, it turns out that that helpdesk ticket was one of several ways that this person had you’d like to reach out. I didn’t realise that until the next morning when I had emails and LinkedIn notifications and all of this. Right, right. But so we talked. And my initial reaction was, well, that’s cool that you’re reaching out to me. I have no, I didn’t say I have no interest in being on Dr. Phil. But I was like, Okay, let me see if I can think of someone who would be good for you is how I approached it. And then, and I said, I’ll call you back by tomorrow morning. And I started thinking of other people, but at that point, you already knew, I told my brother, and he’s like, so you were saying, you really got to do this.

Stephanie Warner 10:39
To me, it was a no brainer. To me. It was

R Blank 10:42
not to me, you know, Dr. Phil isn’t the same as Jerry Springer, but kinda, you know, and so, like, I don’t think people have ever thrown chairs on Dr. Phil, but it’s in that same genre. And I was like, worried, but you’re like, you got to do it. My brother was like, Yeah, that sounds good. Samantha, my fiancee, she was she saw both sides of it, kind of like I did. I talked to some neighbours. They’re like, Oh, no, you got to do it. So I called the man. I called the woman back, then. Oh, and also, I couldn’t think of anybody to refer because anyone I would want to refer would be a scientist. And they had said, they don’t want one. So I called back and I basically accepted except that’s what that’s the point at which I had to start doing the videos and so forth. But keep in mind, so this happened on a Monday. And because of how far away from LA I live now. I had to leave my house. On when’s day? I believe it What? No, on Thursday, on Thursday, so cuz I had to travel to the city on Thursday, then take a flight on Friday. Then on Saturday, I had to buy a new suit, because my suit wasn’t with me. Yeah, and so the whole thing was kind of jam packed. And during this whole process, I’m re recording versions of that video. But that’s anyway, that’s how it came about. And then the recording was on the following Monday. So it was for Monday to the whole thing was seven days.

Stephanie Warner 12:26
Right? Right. Yes. And I can say from, from, you know, my close proximity to all of this. It was a whirlwind of activity. So you had you know, you’ve already talked about the videos, then we have the travel aspect, which I think is important. And I think it’s really kind of key. To talk about that a little bit more. Well, we’ll get into it, because that travel aspect did have a big effect on the day of the show. And, you know, the the following hours after. But let’s talk a little bit more about like the pre show experience. So we talked about the video. What else did you do?

R Blank 13:06
Well, like, important? Yeah, they’d said they didn’t want a scientist on and they didn’t really want to talk about the science. They also told me that I could talk about human embedded computing, which as I say, is different from microchipping. Particularly, I mean, in a lot of ways, but particularly on the EMF emissions side. But then, they also, they also told me that Dr. Phil was a proponent of concerns around EMF and health, which so they had clearly led me to expect a different Dr. Phil, than the one that I encountered on the show. Now, after the show when I started talking to some other people like some other podcast hosts of podcasts I’ve been on there like, oh, yeah, that’s what Dr. Phil does. And I don’t I mean, I guess I was naive. I don’t think I went and totally naive. Like I said, you know, in my mind, this is sort of the same genres, Jerry Springer. So I, you know, I’m not an idiot. But at the same time, I guess I kind of believed what the producer was telling me like, I mean, she was so nice and earnest about it. It was just so but I guess I guess my first clue, I mean, it really hit me when Dr. Phil asked me the first question, but the first clue I think I should have had is when they introduced me, they said, and our next guest doesn’t even use a microwave. Like I’m like, I’m some kind of space alien for not using a microwave. Right? And so and then they told me, you know, Dr. Phil will ask you the first question. So what I want you to do is prepare this whatever you want to say in response to this question, and then that wasn’t Dr. Phil’s first question. That was and you know, Oh, it’s my first time on nationwide TV. It wasn’t, wasn’t my first time on TV. I had been on ABC in Las Vegas before, but it was my first time on nationwide TV. And, you know, I was just very focused on trying to prepare the one. The one thing I will say before the show that was a bit nerve racking, is they take me from the hotel to the studio. And the first thing I have to do is a COVID test. And then I’m sitting there and I have to wait like a half hour for the results along with all the other panellists. And I’m sitting there, and I’m thinking to myself, that I just travelled all the history. And it’s going to be undone by a COVID. So once I passed the COVID test, I felt all this relief, and they showed me to my dressing room, and I got changed. And, you know, I just started thinking about what I would say, in response to that, you know, first question that I was told to expect.

Stephanie Warner 16:01
Right, right. Well, and, you know, I I, so we’ve kind of talked a bit about kind of the lead up. And I feel like, like, I mean, I’m so close to this to the situation and the topic that I know what this conversation is, and I know what your experience was, I want to make sure that I’m being really thoughtful of the audience who’s listening to this. Maybe at this point, it’s a, it’s maybe at this point is, it’s a good time to talk about kind of your overall experience. And then maybe we work backwards a little bit, because I feel like we’re talking about all of these pieces that are that are leading to, you know, will lead the audience to think it was one thing, and maybe it was another because you know, because they’re they’re getting the front to end. So let’s let why don’t you explain to us kind of like in a broader overall expect, like, overview of the experience from your perspective?

R Blank 16:55
Oh, well, that’s a Well, obviously, by its nature, a very broad question. It was an amazing opportunity. I got to reach a lot of people. And the coverage at the end, I mean, so Okay. The big takeaway that I had, was kind of an illumination about how EMF is covered in the media. Now part of this is just how shows like Dr. Phil approach any topic, but I think part of it is also specific to how EMF it so they, I feel did a lot of things to try to set me into a position where I would either erupt or sound like a crazy person. And they significantly I would say, failed that front. I think not only did I sound the most professional, and also look to the most professional, but that you know, that’s just me, maybe I shouldn’t be making those judgments on myself. But no, they didn’t. I mean, so while I, I feel like I should have been more prepared to be tripped up by their show. And I wasn’t. I also feel like I conducted myself in, in in a pretty sick in a lot of ways. And we can talk about the coverage, but in, in in pretty successful ways. The one thing that I did start really thinking about and this, to me is the most what I think is my most important takeaway. And I also talk about this with with Nick Pineau on an episode of his podcast that’s coming out later this year, because that was after this taping. And we were talking about this not in the context of Dr. Phil just in general, there is a lot in the EMF space. And it’s not just in the EMF space. But particularly from my perspective, in the EMF space, there is a lot of preaching to the choir, I am used to talking to people who want to learn about this topic, right? Not about who are interested in challenging me on this topic. And and you know, that’s how marketing is these days, you you seek out people who are open to your message. Otherwise, marketing is too difficult and expensive. And so and so every what I’m trying to say is almost everyone in the EMF space has now years of experience of preaching to the choir and not nearly enough experience, trying to be evangelizers to the non converted. Now I want to be 100% clear, there are people and so like one example that we’ve had on the podcast is Dr. Deborah Davis, who’s done a tremendous amount of work, she’ll go anywhere, talk to anybody, be fully informed. I mean, she was you know, She went on Tucker Carlson, she’s been on all sorts of hours, she’ll, she’ll talk to anyone who will listen and get any coverage that she can. And so there are certain people, but when it comes to the types of people that we deal with the types of people we have on our show, the shows we go on the companies and influencers that we partner with, there is a lot of preaching to the choir. Now, I said, it’s not limited to EMF, because you know, this is the Austu podcast. And we like talking about tech in general, and its impact on society. And this is happening everywhere. And so everyone in every aspect of society is getting more and more practised at preaching to the choir, right, talking within the signs your

Stephanie Warner 20:47
tribe, yes, you find your tribe, and marketing is geared. That’s exactly what we do we try we find the people who are already talking about these things. And people who may be on the fence, they don’t know, but they’re open. Yeah, so we you know, and those are, those are completely different conversations that’s complete. And I really appreciate that you recognise that, that that you? Your takeaway, big takeaway for yourself personally, and for the business, of course, is that you are event siloed. And there’s a there’s a whole other opportunity that we just, you know, have it really there’s a whole untapped potential. And there are other people that, that there’s other opportunities to speak about this. And that can hone your skills in speaking to anybody anytime, and perhaps maybe not to the level of Miss of Dr. Davis, because she’s amazing. And she speaks to like you said, she’s been several if you if, if anyone is interested, we’ve had her on our podcast, go look at some past episodes. But

R Blank 21:55
well, I’m also not used to Yeah, I’m also not used to attacking people. And right, other panellists. They weren’t, they weren’t attacking me. But they were taking a very confrontational approach to me even going so far as to just blatantly lie about facts. And I, you know, in my, in my olden days, you know, I was on my high school mock trial team, I was in my college debate team, I had that kind of experience, but for the duration of my actual career. I don’t, I hadn’t had so I have that experience in my background, but it has not been recently practised. And I just I, I wasn’t ready up with, with takedowns. And, you know, polite takedowns, professional takedowns. But, but real, I

Stephanie Warner 22:45
will say refused. Yeah, a few. And then I got

R Blank 22:49
one in on the show, as to editing and, and it made it into the final show, and it made it into some of the coverage of the show. And the fact that I knew as soon as I said it, that it was the best line I’d had in the whole episode. And the fact that it made it into coverage of the show shows me that it was, and you know, but I needed more like that. And I needed to kind of acclimate to the environment and get comfortable. And then that’s, you know, and I wasn’t for the first big chunk of the show,

Stephanie Warner 23:19
you know, I again, since I, I’m aware of how this all went down. And we’ve talked extensively about this after Why would you say you so so here’s, here’s the this is the our I know that our I know, can answer any question about EMF, when you maybe you can’t pull up the science, there’s a wreath maybe there’s, maybe there’s not a citation in the top of your head, but your I can answer

R Blank 23:47
most questions that our customers have in because when customer service can answer them, they get forwarded to me exactly.

Stephanie Warner 23:53
And that’s the gamut, though. But but in so I’ve witnessed you responding to a gamut of questions about EMF and I was

R Blank 24:05
surprised

Stephanie Warner 24:07
that you felt unprepared and

R Blank 24:11
what part of what frustrated me in of in the experience was that I wanted not only to take an S YB perspective on this, I wanted to take a Austu perspective on this. I mean, the microchipping guy who runs a microchip and company, he’s there showing how if you shoot a microchip into your body, you can unlock your door. And you know, and we talked about this, it’s like, I think this was your line. That’s a problem we’ve solved. Like that’s, that doesn’t, that doesn’t help improve your life. So why are whatever additional risk that it brings to you? Why are you bringing it on just to unlock your door when we have, you know, these things called keys, and it was that so If I had come on the show, both as the CEO of SY B and as the host of the Austu podcast, and the nature of the questioning, pigeon holed me on the EMF side in a way that I didn’t figure out a way to get out of, on my feet. And so that is, I think part of what was most frustrating to me, because that’s the real message here. I mean, you and I always talk, there is no escaping EMF exposure. It’s all about reducing these exposures and taking a cost benefit analysis as it comes to our relationship with technology. Meanwhile, they have this woman on who the widow of the amazing Jonathan, the comedian who died young. And she had embedded I think it was two dozen magnets in her body. And she’s talking about how it makes it easier to pick up the knives at Olive Garden. And like, that’s a perfect opportunity to talk about, you know, how we should be thinking about body augmentation and Cyborg, building cyborgs and things like that. And it just, it didn’t happen. And so instead, we ended up at least my portion focused totally on the EMF side and with against a, what I would say was a hostile panel that I was not expecting to be as hostile and I just didn’t react the way I know in retrospect, I could have. And and now I believe I will, if given similar opportunities in the future.

Stephanie Warner 26:37
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think to what I’m getting at is you, you were, you were, I’m not going to use the word groomed. But you were there was no expectation. I wasn’t gonna say groomed again. Okay, so but you were what I’m getting at is that you there was an expectation. And I think if nobody had said anything to you about what to expect, you would have come for more prepared. And I think those answers the things that you say, over and over again, almost daily, in the messaging that we have been saying for years. Now. That’s what I at sy be, would have been top of mind. But I feel like and I know because of our conversations that you there there was there was it you were set, you were led to not be as prepared. And do you want to speak a little bit? Yeah, no, I

R Blank 27:31
think we already have. I mean, I was told this isn’t going to be about the science. We don’t want a scientist, I was told I could talk about human embedded computing, not just microchips, it all ended up being about microchips. I was led to Dr. Phil was pro EMF, very clearly not pro EMF. And then it goes beyond that. Right? So they had planted a guy in the audience to ask a question that I didn’t know this, because basically, we all have our assigned seats to I don’t know, if people know the format of the show. But at first everyone is in the audience. And then one at a time, as Dr. Phil builds the panel, you get called up and sit on the highchair like the adults. And so while I was in the audience, waiting, I was seated next to this other gentleman. And I didn’t realise that he was a plant. Because I but he was, and that’s not me just making it up. I saw him posting about it later. And he was planted to ask whether, you know, what are their concerns that microchipping is the mark of the beast? And look, if people want to believe that they can believe that right? But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they sat the EMF guy next to him so that I was on camera, when they are when he got to ask his question about the mark of the beast. Now again, people can believe what they want to believe. But my proximity to him and being in camera is a way of further D legitimising my image even before I’m introduced and opened my mouth.

Stephanie Warner 29:09
Right, right. And I know there was another way that really bugged you that you were a little delegitimize in the and that was the way that they they introduced you the what is it called the card, the name card, Lower Third, the lower third.

R Blank 29:23
So tell us about that. Yeah, so part of the prep for the show was, hey, email us exactly how you want your name and title to appear on the lower third. So that’s the graphic that appears when they introduce you and sometimes when you’re talking and so I sent back you know, R blank, CEOs yB and host the Austu podcast, and there’s a great confirmed then on the show itself. Dr. Phil only introduces me as our everyone else got introduced with two names first I’ve recently got introduced with y. But then when the show comes out, you see that the lower third also only says R, it doesn’t say R doesn’t have my last name. It doesn’t have either one of the titles or positions that that I’d set sent in. And I thought that was kind of weird, especially when you include you factor it in with the whole the way I was I feel counter prepped. And so the whole thing I felt was pretty weird. I feel like they were trying, because the funny thing is, is at the end of the day, Dr. Phil and I had the same position, and which is we don’t want to get microchipped. But, but in the course of that, they wanted a guy to come on who they could then say, I don’t agree with with the EMF science, they could take whatever he said and say I don’t want to, I don’t agree with the EMF science, which by the way, he is really one of the only TV doctors left that says or believes that like Sanjay Gupta did a multi part series on this. And while while this other one doc, Dr. Oz may have lost quite a bit of legitimacy here. He’s also talked about the serious health risks of cell phones. So Dr. Phil on this is an outlier. He is not as mainstream and so that I think is factored into the coverage that we saw following so there was two months in between the taping, and when it actually came out. It was originally supposed to come out in November finally came out in December. And after it came out, it got picked up it got picked up by Fox News. It got picked up by the New York Post, it got picked up by other outlets. And and they really took I was surprised because I was expecting because I see a lot by the way at once I I’ve never watched Dr. Phil except in advance of this show. And I but I sometimes see these articles online like Doctor School of Doctor school, Dr. Phil schools advocate of x, or Dr. Phil makes full out of advocate of why. And so for that whole two months, like well, articles that say that about me. But at the at the end, they all came out and they covered it. I mean, I would like them to have covered it more aggressively from the EMF side. But they really were fair about they’re like, well, microchipping guy said x, and then this guy who calls himself R says why? And and they did include a couple of good lines that I had made. Again, you know, you may say I’m experienced at talking to people and having answers, but I’m not experienced the talking and sound bites and the way that I think I need to now that because it was really just the sound bites that were picked up in the coverage. So at the end of the day, I think Dr. Phil’s team, whether it was him or his team, they wanted someone that they could shake off their feet and get angry or get to sound crazy, or something like that. And they didn’t succeed at that. And at the coverage, I think shows shows

Stephanie Warner 33:13
that Yeah, well, yeah. And I just want to say I, when I saw first found the article, the coverage, I started keying into the coverage, I was pleasantly surprised because I was I wasn’t you know, we’ve been waiting for two months to see how this was going to be spun. And we’re not stupid. We know how media spit kit can spin. So there’s that expectation that there’ll be some spin but not knowing what it’s gonna be and then coupled with the ways in which you were not, you’re paired to, to be you know, you’re kind of goaded and and prepared to not be the expert at the level that I that we all know you are. You know, I was I was worried too. And I was so pleasantly surprised to see that the front of all of these these this coverage was you looking professional like you are speaking clearly like you do. And yes, I know you could. There are other things you could have said. But I think you didn’t you the way you were presented was anything but crazy. And it was you and the guy who is a microchipping guy, we just call him his his his real name is the microchipping guy. So I

R Blank 34:30
just I forget his name. I know his company he has. He’s CEO of a big microchipping company, right? That’s been around for a long time. So you guys

Stephanie Warner 34:38
had this exchange, and that was what was picked up. And I think that’s really interesting. Because it wasn’t all the other things. It wasn’t the mark of the beast. You know, guy wasn’t the lady with the magnets all over her body. Yeah. The guy right and it wasn’t the guy who opens his Tesla with his arm embedded chip.

R Blank 35:00
Oh, they got what they got my dig at him. They did because at the end, Dr. Phil’s like, I wouldn’t do microchipping. But I would get a pacemaker. And I’m like, Yeah, but that’s life saving technology. You know, that’s not about opening your Tesla. And that was the Tesla guy looked exasperated as soon as I said it, but started laughing. After the show, he said, you know, my parents say the same thing. They were like, don’t do it. It’ll give you cancer. And

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Stephanie Warner 35:27
sometimes parents might know what they are.

R Blank 35:32
But yeah, so that, and then but yeah, so further to your point, just now Samantha, who, who obviously, you know, lives with me, and had to bear the brunt of my uncertainty for two months between when I got back from LA, and when the episode came out. I told her, please don’t watch the episode when it comes out. And the day it comes out, she comes, she’s working late. And then she comes out of her office. And she’s like, I watched the episode, I have no idea what you were worried about. And my first reaction was, you watch the episode I told you not to write. But but then I processed what she actually said. And then, you know, we started to see the coverage come through. And you watched it. And brother watched it. And yeah,

Stephanie Warner 36:20
and it was it was good in you know, again, just to kind of bring the audience or our audience into this. It’s that uncertainty what it was, it was a little debilitating at first, because you don’t know. And when you get such a huge automation, yeah, it’s

R Blank 36:36
such a huge advance. And even when the recording didn’t go the way I wanted it, or had expected it to. Then I started thinking, well, if they’re trying to make me like duck, I literally had, I’m sure there’s a part of a small part of me that’s gonna have PTSD forever. I literally had Dr. Phil yelling at me on national TV, what studies what studies and you know, I didn’t, I didn’t fold or yell or anything like that. And, and so when they didn’t get what they wanted out of me, I spent the time worrying how they were going to edit it, right? Because I do know that just like counter prepping or grooming, like use counter grooming is something they do. Deceptive editing is another thing that they do. But again, at the end of the day, you know, I think the only thing they did in editing that that was kind of weird, was not include my name or title.

Stephanie Warner 37:33
Yeah. And, you know, we can speculate that and speculate about that for forever. But I, you know, in just in this conversation, like, every time we talk about this, I have a new epiphany, but I feel like, you know, in talking about this today, it seems like, you know, just another way to de legitimise you. And because they didn’t get what they want, I think they got to a to a degree, I do believe they got what they wanted, because they chose you because you can speak and you can speak clearly. And they were excited about that, because you don’t want to get someone on the show, and then have them be a limp noodle. You can’t have that so you could speak. But I think they also knew that you could be very powerful speaker. And I think those those little things like telling you not to know, you don’t need to come prepared with studies. You don’t need to cite studies. That’s a huge thing. Because you would have and we had talked about this that week, you would you were starting to have to start pulling some of the some of the citations, and you stopped doing that. And part of that is this whole lead up of

R Blank 38:36
because I don’t walk around I don’t know what people think of me. But I am not one of these autodidacts. I am not one of these people who walks around with the citations of 1000s of studies. But you know, when you know, Oh, tell me about cancer tell me, EMF and cancer tell me about EMF and brain tumours. Tell me about EMF and prostate. What I do is I know that I stay familiar with where the science has is and what it’s talked about. And then, you know, if I’m interviewed invited onto a podcast, and they’re like, I really want to talk about the impact on children, then I’ll come prepared with, you know, certain specific studies to talk about, but I don’t just walk around having memorised 1000s of different scientific study citations. I know some people can do that. I am not one of those people. But I would say, you know, based following from your point, which is, you know, they had wanted a certain outcome with me. I had wanted a certain outcome from the experience. I don’t think either of us got what we wanted. But but the coverage, the fact that the coverage was I mean, balance is so misleading when it’s when when like we’re talking about true things and the opposition isn’t, you know, balance becomes misleading. But the fact that the coverage was balanced at all shows that even though I Feel like I didn’t achieve what I wanted to achieve. I was actually able through my demeanour and the words that I chose, I was able to make at least some version of this messaging accessible to a wider literally millions of people in a way that had either done what Dr. Phil wanted, it wouldn’t have happened, or if I’d been too aggressive, it wouldn’t have happened. So I even though I didn’t achieve what I wanted to achieve, I feel like I did actually end up striking a balance that that inched the ball forward. It didn’t it didn’t get us a first down. Right, but it inched the ball forward in the public awareness.

Stephanie Warner 40:43
I think that’s that’s, you know, just to kind of, you know, try to wrap this up a little bit, I think that’s what we all we can really hope for. Right? You know, you you want to move the ball forward. And in addition, now you’ve learned how to be be more prepared for these and these these things, I truly do believe these opportunities will start to come. Yeah, we’ll

R Blank 41:03
see. I mean, I agree that entering the ball forward is a win. I really, in retrospect, like, I just, I should have been able to clean the stage with those people because they weren’t like, it wasn’t like I said, it wasn’t like a pacemaker manufacturer that was there saying, it wasn’t a life saving technology. It was like, oh, here unlock a door. And it’s like, it’s so inane to me that people are willing to take steps towards becoming cyborgs when they’re, I mean, for that amount of value in exchange like I should. So I do feel like I should be in a position again, I feel like, I mean, as with everything, you know, my my second webinar was better than my first, my third was better than my second. So it’s not like the next opportunity. I’ll be amazing. But I definitely will be more prepared to execute on my vision of how I’d like things to turn out, then I was this go around. It was, it was it was sort of like I mean, diving in not knowing how to swim and diving into the deep end, or you know that percent. Yeah. And so,

Stephanie Warner 42:15
as much as I wanted you to do it, I was like, I’m so glad it’s not me.

R Blank 42:22
But and the other thing is that the takeaway, and this is maybe a good place to end on is back to this preaching to the choir thing, this? Yeah, the silo thing, I feel like more of us in the EMF space. But obviously, I only control myself, I should get more experience, speaking not to the choir. And again, I want to be clear, not everyone suffers from this problem, but basically a majority do because that’s who’s willing to tune in that’s, that’s who finds you through SEO, that’s who subscribes to you on Facebook, or however you’re reaching people. And so every, almost everyone is very well practised at preaching to the choir, and only very few have a lot of experience talking to sceptics. Like we’ve already mentioned, Dr. Davis, my father was very well known for taking on anybody there’s videos of him talking to Planning Commission’s and the EU Parliament and the sorry, the Canada parliament. And all of these people who were very sceptical about these things, he was like, Whatever, I’m just gonna go and I’m going to talk about the science. But But in general, we don’t have and so I would, I am. And if people anyone listening has ideas, you know, if you disagree with me, and you want to set up an interview to kind of go head to head, or if you know of ways to find opponents where we can have legitimate non skewed debates on these issues, I think that’s where I very much would like to see it. It’s just not easy to you know, if you sit down and think, Okay, I want to debate opponent on this topic. It’s just not easy to just make it happen. So I would, but I would very much like to see something like that increasingly happens here.

Stephanie Warner 44:12
You know, honestly, if microchip guy listens to this, contact us

R Blank 44:19
probably have a better chance if we remembered his name. We’ll find it we’ll put it in the show notes.

Stephanie Warner 44:25
And we’ll put it in the back end and the SEO in case itself ever has that? No, I do. I do think there’s a lot of value in speaking to people who are sceptical and I think there’s more value if it’s in so if anyone does go out and watch the video of some of the some of the coverage, I think I think you’ll you’ll see that it was very it does seem very balanced. And I think in it was also very respectful. So you guys disagreed in but you were both very respectful to each other. Yeah. And I think that the coverage was respectful to both of us. Exactly. And I think that yeah, and I see value in those sorts of discussions and debates of different ideas. Not in a battle, you know, like, you must believe what I believe and, you know, I feel like that’s useless. That’s, that’s, that’s the Jerry Springer stuff. And that’s the, I think the tone that Dr. Phil’s show was kind of looking for that. And they didn’t get it so haha, and good job you beat you beat the machine and you didn’t know, you know, really what you were we’re getting

R Blank 45:37
along those same lines. Good job stuff. Good to know that if I, if I catch COVID Again, we don’t need to reschedule interviews, you know, take the seat is not what you should be taking. Yeah. Our producers on he’s hearing this, so he now knows how good you are at this. So thank you very much for hosting this episode and leaving this discussion. I appreciate it.

Stephanie Warner 45:58
Yeah, absolutely. It was. It was good. And I’m glad we get to talk about this because I think our audience is gonna love it.

Announcer 46:06
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Austu podcast. Remember to check the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned in the show. Please like and subscribe to the Austu podcast on Apple, Spotify or your podcast platform of choice. Get your free quickstart guide to building a healthy relationship with technology and our latest information at Austu .co

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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R Blank

R Blank

R Blank is the founder of Austu and the host of “The Austu Podcast”, available iTunes, Spotify and all major podcasting platforms.

R has a long background in technology. Previously, R ran a software engineering firm in Los Angeles, producing enterprise-level solutions for blue chip clients including Medtronic, Apple, NBC, Toyota, Disney, Microsoft, the NFL, Ford, IKEA and Mattel.

In the past, he served on the faculty at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering where he taught software engineering, as well as the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He has spoken at technology conferences around the world, including in the US, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands, and he is the co-author of “AdvancED Flex Development” from Apress.

He has an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and received his bachelor’s degree, with honors, from Columbia University. He has also studied at Cambridge University in the UK; the University of Salamanca in Spain; and the Institute of Foreign Languages in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

Connect with R on LinkedIn.

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