Power Trip

WEBVTT
00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:21.679
We're recording now, Kevin.
00:00:21.920 --> 00:00:22.239
Awesome.
00:00:22.399 --> 00:00:22.559
Hello.
00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:23.199
Finally.
00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:25.359
After I put you off all day long.
00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:25.839
Yeah.
00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:27.120
What was that about?
00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:29.679
Go windy shit, I suppose.
00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:30.719
Let's meet at noon.
00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:31.359
Never mind.
00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:32.719
Let's meet at 5 p.m.
00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:36.399
That's what you call being fashionably late.
00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:37.039
Yeah.
00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:39.520
At least we're getting it stun getting it done.
00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.200
Maybe I was trying to power grab.
00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:42.159
Probably not.
00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:42.960
Probably.
00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:50.560
Right, but that is our that is our shoes, like mummy, it does kind of track, Wendy.
00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:52.000
Man, no need to be meaningful.
00:00:52.079 --> 00:00:53.359
Did you go on and attention myself?
00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:59.359
While you were Did you go on and No, no, no, no.
00:00:59.520 --> 00:01:05.760
If you remember last week's episode when you kept trying to bring up my uh obsession with perfection.
00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:08.879
When we were discussing obsession.
00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:09.519
Yeah.
00:01:10.879 --> 00:01:15.760
I went to go read through my story one more time and I was like, I don't know.
00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:17.840
I think I kinda want to change it a little bit.
00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:21.040
It's not not what I'm envisioning anymore.
00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:23.359
It was not the perfection I was looking for.
00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:26.959
And you know what, Caitlin, in all honesty, I think it's better now.
00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:28.319
Five hours later.
00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:30.159
Actually, yeah.
00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:31.680
Because I started at eleven.
00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:34.799
I w I went to go reread through it at eleven this morning.
00:01:34.959 --> 00:01:38.239
So five hours later, I think it was finally around four something.
00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:40.319
I was like, okay, cool, I could do this.
00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:42.560
So, you know, hopefully it's okay.
00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:44.640
You know, my hopefully people like it.
00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:45.840
My mom loved to write.
00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:51.040
My mom passed on her love of writing to me, and she always taught me to write a first draft.
00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:57.920
And I used to be able to go back and see like my first draft was nothing like the final product.
00:01:58.400 --> 00:01:59.359
And that's the whole point.
00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:10.240
This is probably my tenth rewrite on it, but I think at the end of the day, when I read through it this morning, it didn't have enough human emotion in it.
00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:14.240
Because my story, as everybody well, I guess everybody doesn't know.
00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:16.080
Let's introduce our topic this week, Caitlin.
00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:18.240
We're talking about power today, right?
00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:22.159
And so uh let me put my glasses on because oh, Andy can't read without them.
00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:31.120
But uh our topic today is is about power, and I wanted to make sure within my story that I grasped the type of power that I was wanting to actually pull in to play.
00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:34.159
So, you know, for some people, power means control.
00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:38.240
For others, it means freedom, security, influence, or maybe just having a voice.
00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:44.240
Sometimes you do not realize how much power you had until you lose it, or how much you want it until someone takes it away.
00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:54.719
So obviously, you guys know today Caitlin and I are gonna each tell each other stories, which we were just discussing how I had to be a perfectionist about mine, but we're coming from our own perspectives of what we think power is.
00:02:54.879 --> 00:03:03.759
And I was coming into it with this idea that I wanted a story that had uh both the power taken and the power gained kind of involved in it, right?
00:03:03.919 --> 00:03:08.879
So obviously I'll introduce my story here in a second, but before I do that, let's get let's get into this.
00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:12.479
This is outside the footnotes, and I am Wendy.
00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:13.520
And I'm Caitlin.
00:03:15.199 --> 00:03:17.599
So up to my story, shall we?
00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:21.360
I'll go into my introduction unless you've got anything you'd like to add in the beginning.
00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:22.560
No, you got nothing.
00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:24.080
Kayla's like, I got nothing.
00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:27.039
I'm just waited with bated breath on what you have to tell me.
00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:29.039
I hope you are not snoring.
00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:29.919
Literally.
00:03:30.319 --> 00:03:37.759
I hope you are not, I hope you're not snoring through this because I do go through a lot of there's a lot of facts in this one, okay?
00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:42.159
So uh when I started thinking about power, I kept coming back to one question, right?
00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:45.840
Well, what if you could take power from other people and still call it business?
00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:47.520
Completely acceptable, right?
00:03:47.759 --> 00:03:53.199
So you're taking the power from somebody and by doing so you're gaining the power, but it's just business, man, right?
00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:57.680
So you have the money, the influence, and enough protection to keep on doing it.
00:03:57.919 --> 00:03:58.560
Yep.
00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:07.680
The people on the other side lose their independence, their control, and pieces of themselves, and sometimes they even lose their lives, but the loss doesn't stop with them.
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:09.840
The people who love them lose power too.
00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:15.360
They watch someone they love change, unable to stop it, fix it, or protect them from what is happening.
00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:19.360
Sometimes they feel they have lost that person long before the person dies.
00:04:19.519 --> 00:04:23.920
Meanwhile, the people creating the dependence grow richer and more powerful.
00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:28.720
And that's the story I wanted to talk about today when I refer to power.
00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:30.560
My story is about the sacklers.
00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:32.399
Are you familiar with the Sacklers, Caitlin?
00:04:32.639 --> 00:04:32.879
Yes.
00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:35.680
Okay, but a quick note before we begin on my story.
00:04:35.839 --> 00:04:40.480
This episode is for information and commentary, not legal or medical advice.
00:04:40.639 --> 00:04:48.000
It draws on public records and reporting, and I'll distinguish allegations from admissions, court findings, and settlement terms whenever possible.
00:04:48.160 --> 00:05:00.800
Some details may change as cases develop, so please check the source and the show notes for the latest and most complete context, because obviously some things are still ongoing and they could change.
00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:04.240
So let's get into let's get into the Sackler story.
00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:04.879
Sackler.
00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:06.079
I Sackler.
00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:09.279
I said Sackler, pard my mispronunciation.
00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:10.639
The Sackler story.
00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:14.079
So some stories grow more complicated the deeper you look.
00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:20.160
Others leave you wondering how so many people could be hurt while the people at the center kept moving forward.
00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:22.399
The Sackler story does both.
00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:27.439
This is not only a story about a drug company, a famous family, or a legal fight.
00:05:27.600 --> 00:05:34.000
It is about people who walked into a doctor's office in pain and trusted the prescription placed in their hands.
00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:41.279
It is about the families who watched relief turn into dependence, dependence turn into fear, and fear become part of everyday life.
00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:47.680
It is about communities that buried neighbors and kept searching for treatment while the money continued to move upward.
00:05:47.759 --> 00:05:52.480
It is also about influence, reputation, and ultimately power.
00:05:53.519 --> 00:06:04.240
What happens when you become so wealthy, connected, respected, and powerful that your version of events begins to carry more weight than the experiences of the people affected?
00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:11.199
And perhaps more important, what happens when you start believing that your position gives you the right to keep doing what you're doing?
00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:16.000
Now, in order to do that, you guys, we gotta start discussing how the power grew.
00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:18.959
We gotta go back years before uh just ahead.
00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:23.279
So everybody who's not uh familiar with the Sackler family, let me give you a little bit of a heads up.
00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:28.319
The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharma, uh, associated with Purdue Pharma, uh Purdue Frederick.
00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:35.759
They are the ones that released Oxycottin, which we all know is an extended release pill form of Oxycodone.
00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:44.399
So I apologize if I replete what I just told you, but I want everybody to actually have a knowledge of what we're getting ready to go into before I start talking about the people who actually were a part of it.
00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:46.879
Caitlin, you're I know you're familiar with it, correct?
00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:48.160
Yes, I am.
00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:50.319
Okay.
00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:58.480
So to understand how that power grew, we have to go back to the years before Oxycotton became a household name.
00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.480
And to three brothers, Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler.
00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:04.160
All three brothers were doctors.
00:07:04.319 --> 00:07:05.040
Did you know that?
00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:06.480
No, I didn't know that.
00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:06.959
Wow.
00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:09.040
I I I didn't know that either.
00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:13.680
But Arthur Sackler also understood something important about medicine.
00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:18.800
People do not respond only to a drug, they respond to the authority around it.
00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:28.480
Through pharmaceutical advertising and medical publishing, he helped develop ways to use doctors and medical journals to shape how drugs were viewed and prescribed.
00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:32.959
In 1952, the brothers bought the company that became Purdue Frederick.
00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:36.720
Arthur, do you think I'd know how to pronounce that word better?
00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:37.920
It's my grandson's name.
00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:42.319
Arthur died in 1987, eight years before OxyCotton was approved.
00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:50.720
His heirs later sold their share to Mortimer and Raymond's branches of the family, which went on to own and control Purdue Pharma.
00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:53.920
The family accumulated not only money but status.
00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:59.360
Their name appeared on museums, galleries, universities, and other cultural institutions.
00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:06.480
To anyone walking through those buildings, the Sacklers could look like patrons of medicine, education, art, and science.
00:08:06.639 --> 00:08:09.920
Their name was carved into walls meant to endure.
00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:15.199
That matters because philanthropy can turn wealth into something more protective than luxury.
00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:17.600
It can turn a family name into a shield.
00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:20.480
You do not just become rich, you become respected.
00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:29.920
That carefully built reputation mattered when Purdue introduced Oxycontin, the drug that would transform the company and reshape the Sackler family's public legacy.
00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:35.120
After the FDA approved Oxycotton in 1995, can you believe it was that long ago?
00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:39.200
No, I thought it no, no, it seems more recent.
00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:47.440
Because I feel like it's at the end of the I know, but I feel like it seems more rent I think it feels more recent to us because we don't feel like we're as old as we are.
00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:48.240
That's true.
00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:50.320
Do you know what I mean?
00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:55.039
Just feels like, you know, the year 2002 was just 10 years ago, man.
00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:59.039
Anyways, it was in 1995.
00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:02.879
And it, like I said earlier, it's an extended release form of oxycodone.
00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:08.080
So Purdue aggressively marketed to physicians as demand for pain treatment grew.
00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:12.879
For many patients, the story began in the most ordinary way imaginable, right?
00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:13.679
Surgery.
00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:18.320
Like I've had surgeries before, an injury or pain that would not go away.
00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:20.080
They were not looking for addiction.
00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:24.159
They were trying to sleep, work, care for their children, and get through the day.
00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:28.080
They trusted their doctors and they trusted the prescription placed in their hands.
00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:32.399
The national toll that followed cannot be attributed to one company or one drug.
00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:35.039
I don't I don't want to throw that just on them, right?
00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:42.480
Because it's the the epidemic later changed as heroin and illicit fentanyl drove additional waves of death, right?
00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:45.919
But prescription opioids were central to the first wave.
00:09:46.159 --> 00:10:03.200
CDC data showed that the overdose deaths involving prescription opioids rose from 3,442 in 1999 to 17,029 in 2017, nearly five times as many families receiving devastating news in a single year.
00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:15.279
By 2023, this is three years ago, prescription opioid overdoses were still linked to 13,026 deaths, an average of more than 35 people every day.
00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:25.440
Those are birthdays that stopped being celebrated, phones that never rang again, bedrooms left untouched, and families learning to speak about someone they loved in the past tense.
00:10:25.679 --> 00:10:32.720
Purdue promoted oxycottin as an effective treatment for pain and made claims about its risk of addiction and abuse.
00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:36.799
Those claims later became central to federal criminal proceedings.
00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:42.000
They also shaped how the drug was discussed with doctors and how its risks were understood.
00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:51.600
In 2007, Purdue Frederick Company, an affiliate of Purdue Pharma, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of misbranding Oxycontin.
00:10:51.679 --> 00:11:03.440
The company admitted that it had thought presented OxyCottin as less addictive, less likely to be abused or diverted, and less likely to cause tolerance and withdraw than other pain medications.
00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:09.039
Purdue and three executives agreed to pay more than$600 million in penalties.
00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:12.799
The 2007 guilty plea should have changed the company's course.
00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:23.440
Instead, the Sackler family remained involved with Purdue, and the government later alleged that family members continued to receive information about the business, prescribing, and sales.
00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:36.080
Outside the boardroom, those same years were measured in locked bedroom doors, mischiefs, empty bank accounts, treatment attempts, relapses, frightened children, and the dread of a late-night phone call.
00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:47.360
This is where this becomes a story about power, not simply having money, but having enough distance and protection to keep making decisions while other people live with the consequences.
00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:56.159
By 2012, the government alleged the named Sacklers knew that the legitimate market for Purdue's opioids had shrunk.
00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:06.799
But the government alleged that rather than accept lower sales, they pushed Purdue executives to win those sales back and grow the company's share of the opioid market.
00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:08.799
So they they know this is no good.
00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:12.159
And they're like, no, we're gonna we need more shares, we need more money.
00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:17.600
As part of that, and that's my personal opinion, guys, please don't take that as facts, other than if I say it is.
00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:22.720
But as part of that effort, the company intensified its focus on extremely high volume prescribers.
00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:31.440
Doctors who were already writing dramatically more oxycotton prescriptions than their peers on a spreadsheet, those prescribers represented opportunity.
00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:37.519
In a patient's life, each prescription involved the person trying to function through pain and relying on medical guidance.
00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:46.159
For some patients, opioid use developed into dependence or addiction, leaving families to confront changes they did not initially understand.
00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:48.480
And this is where the story becomes uncomfortable.
00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:52.399
The question is no longer simply did they know opioids could be dangerous?
00:12:52.559 --> 00:12:55.360
It becomes what did they do with the information they had?
00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:03.600
After Purdue reformulated Oxycottin in 2010 to make the tablets harder to crush and manipulate, the company's revenue declined.
00:13:03.759 --> 00:13:16.720
Purdue saw lost sales, families saw something else, a loved one who could not make it through the day without opioids, another frantic search for treatment, another relapse, another night spent listening for breathing and wondering whether morning would come.
00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:23.840
In 2023 alone, about 5.4 million US adults reported having opioid use disorder.
00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:27.120
Roughly one out of every 48 adults.
00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:28.960
That's a huge number, right?
00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:30.720
That's atrocious.
00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:32.159
It is.
00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:33.120
It really is.
00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:36.240
But the number is better understood one person at a time.
00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:43.039
Someone trying to work, parent, manage pain, ask for help, or survive long enough to reach recovery.
00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:52.720
Around each person were partners, parents, siblings, and children learning how quickly love can become vigilant and how exhausting it is to fear for someone every day.
00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:56.480
Purdue said the revenue drop had two main causes.
00:13:56.799 --> 00:14:06.240
People who abused opioids moved away from the reformulated oxycotin, and doctors, pharmacists, and others in the supply chain were facing more scrutiny.
00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:11.519
That pressure to win pack sales helps explain what happened next in 2013.
00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:15.919
Purdue launched a marketing program called Evolve to Excellence.
00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:23.279
The government alleged that the program targeted more than 100,000 doctors and nurse practitioners each year.
00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:33.840
That included prescribers Purdue knew or should have known were using opioids in ways that were unsafe, unnecessary, ineffective, or likely to lead to diversion.
00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:36.080
To Purdue, those prescribers were on market.
00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:39.600
To patients, the consequences could be much more personal.
00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:46.720
Dependence that slowly took over, missed work, broken promises, isolation, and families trying to help without knowing what to do.
00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:48.879
One detail is especially disturbing.
00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:55.200
According to the Justice Department, Purdue kept marketing opioids to more than a hundred healthcare providers.
00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.919
It had good reason to believe were diverting them.
00:14:58.159 --> 00:14:59.039
Oh my gosh.
00:14:59.360 --> 00:15:12.159
The government also alleged that Purdue sales representatives repeatedly visited a doctor known by patients as the Candyman, despite Purdue knowing about his extremely high prescribing practices.
00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:14.799
Your face, Galen, could say a thousand words.
00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:16.320
Candyman?
00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:17.600
That's so gross.
00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:21.120
Well, I mean, obviously there's they're calling him that because he's Right.
00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:23.440
He's just dispensing it like candy.
00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:24.399
Yeah.
00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:33.200
For patients, the allegation raises a troubling question about whether a trusted medical relationship was also being shaped by a company sales strategy.
00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:35.440
These were not isolated warning signs.
00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:41.360
They became part of a larger pattern that led to Purdue Pharma's next criminal case in 2020.
00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:44.799
Company pleaded guilty to three federal felonies.
00:15:44.960 --> 00:15:47.360
Purdue admitted to three conspiracies.
00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:58.399
One involving fraud against the United States and violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, and two involving violations of the federal anti-kickback statute.
00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:08.559
Purdue admitted that it misled the DEA about the efforts to prevent opioid diversion, even while it continued marketing to healthcare providers it had reason to believe for diverting the drugs.
00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:16.320
Purdue also admitted that it paid doctors through its speaker program to encourage more prescriptions of the company's opioids.
00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:23.600
The company further admitted that it paid an electronic health records company to influence opioid prescribing.
00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:25.039
Wow.
00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:26.720
This was all 2020.
00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:27.600
This was just six years ago.
00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:29.200
Yeah.
00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:33.440
By then the opioid epidemic extended far beyond prescription pills.
00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:34.799
We know it's it's gone.
00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:36.480
It's gone past, right?
00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:43.840
Heroin, analysis, fentanyl had driven later waves, and no single company explains the entire crisis.
00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:45.759
Still the scale is staggering.
00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:53.679
From 1999 through 2023, approximately 806,000 people in the United States died from an opioid overdose.
00:16:53.840 --> 00:17:02.240
Spread across those 25 years, that's an average of about 88 deaths every day, more than three people every hour, day after day.
00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:06.799
Each death left an empty chair, an unanswered message, an unfinished plan.
00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:13.759
The people forced to learn the language of naloxone treatment, relapse, funeral arrangements, and grief.
00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:20.079
The financial consequences were enormous, but billions of dollars can make the human scale harder to see.
00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:24.640
A federal study estimated that more than 321,000 U.S.
00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:29.119
children lost a parent to drug overdose between 2011 and 2021.
00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:32.240
Roughly 80 children each day across that period.
00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:36.000
The study covered drug overdoses broadly, not opiates alone.
00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:44.319
Its findings show how overdose deaths reshape families, leaving children and relatives to face grief, discare, and new responsibilities.
00:17:44.559 --> 00:17:51.279
Under the 2020 agreement, Purdue accepted a$3.54 billion criminal fine.
00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:55.920
Fuck, man.
00:17:56.079 --> 00:18:00.000
Like$3.54 billion.
00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:01.039
Yeah.
00:18:01.279 --> 00:18:02.319
Not million.
00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:03.039
Billion.
00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:05.759
Chunk ch chunk change to them?
00:18:05.839 --> 00:18:11.200
Like what I mean, you have to wonder what were they what was their do we know what their gross profit was?
00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:14.319
Well, I I mean this is in 2020, they kept going.
00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:16.559
So just do we know what what problem was?
00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:18.799
Gross, sorry, gross profit.
00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:20.880
No, no, no, no, no, no.
00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:22.559
I didn't look into financials of the company.
00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:25.119
Two billion in criminal forfeiture.
00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:27.519
Okay.
00:18:29.839 --> 00:18:33.920
And 2.8 billion civil settlement with the federal government.
00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:45.599
These were amounts the company agreed it owed, not necessarily money paid immediately or in full, and they did not mean Purdue and the Sackler family had the same legal responsibility.
00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:49.200
So the Sackler family, not legally responsible, Purdue.
00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:51.359
Legally responsible.
00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:53.440
Wonderful thing about having corporate protection.
00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:54.880
Purdue pleaded guilty.
00:18:55.039 --> 00:18:56.960
Members of the Sackler family did not.
00:18:57.119 --> 00:19:05.119
The Justice Department's 2020 agreement with individual family members was civil, not criminal, and the claims against them remained allegations.
00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:10.960
The agreement also did not shield anyone from possible criminal charges later.
00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:12.880
That distinction matters.
00:19:13.039 --> 00:19:21.200
The story should not treat allegations as proven facts, but legal precision should not make the people affected by the crisis disappear.
00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.200
Money was only part of the Sackler's influence.
00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:26.720
They possessed social power.
00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:34.480
The Sackler's influence was not only about money, it also came from trust, access, credibility, and prestige.
00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:38.480
All of that created distance from the patient in an exam room.
00:19:39.440 --> 00:19:47.279
The parent begging for an open treatment bed, the spouse shaking someone awake to make sure they was still they were still breathing.
00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:50.319
And the family choosing a photograph for a funeral.
00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:59.920
The farther decision makers were from those moments, the easier it was for the harm to become a statistic, a lawsuit, or someone else's problem.
00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:02.559
That's one of the strange things about wealth.
00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:08.640
The more resources you have, the more lawyers can exist between you and the consequences of your decisions.
00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:11.759
You do not always have to face the problem yourself.
00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:18.960
You can hire attorneys, accountants, consultants, public relations firms, lobbyists, and financial advisors to handle it for you.
00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:22.400
And suddenly the question is not how do I survive this?
00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:24.240
It is how do I manage this.
00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:27.039
That's a very different kind of power.
00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:28.880
Then there is the money itself.
00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:37.359
As lawsuits mounted, attention turned to how much money had moved from Purdue to members of the Sackler family.
00:20:37.440 --> 00:20:43.359
So we're talking going from Purdue Pharma, the company corporation, to the Sackler family personally, right?
00:20:43.519 --> 00:20:45.279
And the family-controlled entities.
00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:49.440
For families, that question was not about accounting alone.
00:20:49.519 --> 00:20:51.200
So we're talking about families affected.
00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:52.559
We've got this judgment.
00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:54.079
Obviously, we've got this judgment.
00:20:54.160 --> 00:20:56.400
It's going to go to help the people that were affected by it, right?
00:20:56.559 --> 00:20:59.519
Whether it's treatment programs that the government provides, things of that nature.
00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:00.880
Yeah, you would think it should.
00:21:01.039 --> 00:21:02.720
I mean, they they want it, it should.
00:21:02.799 --> 00:21:07.599
But so so now these families are like, but wait, money has been moved from the company, right?
00:21:07.759 --> 00:21:12.400
And so it's got the the families are the families are a little nervous about that.
00:21:12.480 --> 00:21:20.880
You know, it it's about whether or not the resources would remain for treatment, recovery, prevention, compensation after so much wealth had already been left, had already left the company.
00:21:21.039 --> 00:21:23.839
So much has already left the company and it went into the Sacklers, right?
00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:37.039
So in 2020, the Justice Department made a civil allegation that from about 2008 through 2018, it named the members of the Sackler family Ask Purdue to transfer assets into family-controlled companies and trusts.
00:21:37.200 --> 00:21:44.880
The department alleged that the transfers were meant to put money beyond the reach of future creditors or were otherwise potentially fraudulent.
00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:56.000
These were allegations, not criminal findings against the family, but they made one question even more urgent for victims how much of the money generated by OxyCotton would still be there when accountability arrived.
00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:58.079
Well, that's huge.
00:21:58.880 --> 00:21:59.759
That's crazy.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:00.880
Yeah, right.
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:05.599
Those allegations shifted the dispute from produced survival to a broader question.
00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:07.599
Who would bear the financial consequences?
00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:11.279
The company, the family, the creditors, the state, or the victims.
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:19.440
For people who had already spent years caring for someone with an opioid addiction or grieving someone who died, the answer was r was not rhetorical.
00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:28.400
It affected whether money would be available for treatment, recovery, prevention, and compensation, and whether accountability would reach the people who had benefited most.
00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:35.680
As those questions intensified, Purdue filed for bankruptcy, and the fight over accountability moved into a new arena.
00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:36.720
You ready for this?
00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:40.400
Of course they did.
00:22:41.519 --> 00:22:46.000
The proposed bankruptcy plan gave families a painful choice.
00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:48.640
So this is the proposed plan for the bankruptcy.
00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:51.119
The stacklers would contribute money.
00:22:51.279 --> 00:22:58.720
In return, they would be protected from future opioid-related lawsuits, even though they had not personally filed for bankruptcy.
00:22:58.880 --> 00:23:01.759
So Purdue Pharma, the company, is filing for bankruptcy.
00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:02.079
Right.
00:23:02.240 --> 00:23:03.200
Not the stacklers.
00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:03.759
Right.
00:23:04.079 --> 00:23:05.119
But the entity.
00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:11.039
In order for Purdue, in order for Purdue basically to say, hey, we're gonna contribute.
00:23:11.279 --> 00:23:17.519
Stacklers are like, we're gonna we're filing for bankruptcy and we know we owe you guys this money and we will put money towards it.
00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:19.920
You know, the stacklers were going to contribute.
00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:25.119
They so that's the families contributing this money, but you can't come after us for any more money ever again.
00:23:25.279 --> 00:23:26.480
Like you can't come after us.
00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:27.039
Right.
00:23:27.279 --> 00:23:27.839
Right?
00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:33.279
Even though they weren't personally filing bankruptcy, they're still they still got all of this money.
00:23:33.440 --> 00:23:36.240
They're not they're not financially hurting, right?
00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:37.200
Of course not.
00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:44.799
So for someone who had spent years paying for treatment or grieving a child, rejecting the plan could mean waiting even longer for help.
00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:49.680
Accepting it could mean giving up the right to bring other claims against members of the family.
00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:52.319
Neither choice could restore what had been lost.
00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:54.160
Like, let's think about the lives, man.
00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:54.960
Totally.
00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:55.599
I know.
00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:02.160
The power that these families lost, the power that the people who became addicted lost.
00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:03.119
You know what I mean?
00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:05.279
Wow.
00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:07.039
In 2024, the U.S.
00:24:07.200 --> 00:24:09.039
Supreme Court projected that plan.
00:24:09.119 --> 00:24:10.799
They're like, nah, outta here.
00:24:11.279 --> 00:24:12.319
We're not doing that.
00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:21.920
The court said Purdue's bankruptcy could not automatically wipe away claims against family members who had not filed for bankruptcy themselves unless the affected claimants agreed.
00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:22.240
Right?
00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:23.440
So, like, no.
00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:28.720
So for this story about power, the decision raised to start questioned could wealth buy an exit?
00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:33.359
The Supreme Court's answer to that was absolutely not.
00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:33.680
No.
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:40.960
Purdue's bankruptcy could not automatically provide that protection to family members who had not filed for bankruptcy themselves.
00:24:41.519 --> 00:24:42.400
This is heavy.
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:44.640
I and I I was quiet throughout the story.
00:24:44.720 --> 00:24:50.400
I have three examples where that are kind of tied to this whole epidemic.
00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:53.599
And it's like just churning in my head.
00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:57.839
No, you're fine, but feel free to feel free to pop in if you got something to say, right?
00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:00.640
So basically the Supreme Court's like, no, nah.
00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:08.079
Just because like you're you you have stake in it, you're not filing for bankruptcy, you're not, you can't know, right?
00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:15.680
I'm not so when just to to verify in case anybody's confused, when I say family members of not people, I'm not talking about the victims of opioids.
00:25:15.920 --> 00:25:20.880
I'm talking about the family members who participated in ownership in Purdue, pharma.
00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:21.359
Okay.
00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:26.160
So the ruling closed off the proposed arrangements, uh, but it did not end the dispute.
00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:30.559
After the Supreme Court rejected the first plan, the parties went back to the negotiating table.
00:25:30.640 --> 00:25:32.880
So here we are in January 2025.
00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:34.400
Not that long ago, right?
00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:35.039
No.
00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:45.119
They announced a new, wait for it, 7.4 billion dollars settlement in principle involving Purdue.
00:25:45.359 --> 00:25:49.440
Members of the Sackler family, attorney generals, and other parties.
00:25:52.160 --> 00:25:54.559
So like they're they're like the amount was historic.
00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:03.599
If the settlement took effect, it could send money toward treatment, prevention, recovery service, and payments to affected individuals while publicly recognizing the scale of the harm.
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:09.599
Under the agreement, the Sacklers would pay up to six point five billion over 15 years.
00:26:09.759 --> 00:26:10.720
That's the Sacklers.
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:11.839
That's that, the family.
00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:13.519
Like Yes.
00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:14.079
Okay.
00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:18.000
And Purdue, Purdue would add nearly 900 million.
00:26:18.160 --> 00:26:22.480
So company 900 million, family 6.5 billion.
00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:28.480
The money was meant for governments, communities, treatment, and prevention programs and affected individuals.
00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:36.559
It could help fund support that many families had struggled to find, but it could not give back the years, relationships, or lives already lost.
00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:47.359
The agreement would end the SACLER's control of Purdue and bar them from manufacturing, selling, or marketing opioids in the United States if the plan became effective.
00:26:48.160 --> 00:26:56.480
By June of 2025, all 55 participating attorney generals representing every eligible state and U.S.
00:26:56.640 --> 00:26:59.200
territory had joined the settlement in principle.
00:26:59.359 --> 00:27:06.319
The broad support showed how urgently participating governments wanted money for treatment, prevention, recovery, and compensation.
00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:12.160
On November 18th, 2025, the bankruptcy court approved the new reorganization plan.
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.039
That approval allowed the process to move forward.
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:20.880
The Sacklers would lose ownership and control of Purdue when the plan officially took effect.
00:27:21.039 --> 00:27:28.720
After decades of wealth, influence, and control, the family was set to lose the company that had generated so much of that power.
00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:34.079
But losing control of a company is not the same as losing a child, a parent, a partner.
00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:36.480
Or years of your own life to addiction.
00:27:36.720 --> 00:27:41.200
One is a financial and legal consequence, the other follows a family home.
00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:47.200
A settlement can move money, restructure a company, and pay for treatment, prevention, and recovery.
00:27:47.359 --> 00:27:50.720
It cannot undo the moment someone found a loved one unresponsive.
00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:58.960
It cannot return the years spent fighting for recovery, erase the guilt of wondering whether more could have been done or give a child back their parent they lost.
00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:02.240
Deeper question is not simply whether the sacklers were greedy.
00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:04.079
It is how wealth became power.
00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:13.519
The power to shape institutions, influence how people saw them, manage legal consequences, and stay far away from the harm connected to the company's actions.
00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:16.880
Power does not always look like dictator behind the podium.
00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:27.359
Sometimes it looks like a family name on a museum wall, a doctor in a white coat, a pharmaceutical representative in an exam room, or a check written to a prestigious institution.
00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:29.359
Sometimes it looks like money.
00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:30.480
A lot of money.
00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:35.759
And when someone finally asks who gave you the right to do this, the answer may never be spoken aloud.
00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:39.039
It is built into years of wealth, access, and influence.
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:42.720
Years spent convincing people that the right was already theirs.
00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:45.200
That is the story I want to leave you with.
00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:52.880
Not only about how wealth becomes power, but how that power can delay consequence and how differently those consequences are carried by the people.
00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:56.079
So many lives were destroyed in uh opioids.
00:28:57.680 --> 00:28:58.799
So I was quiet.
00:28:59.119 --> 00:28:59.759
Still to this day.
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:01.839
To this day we're still in an opioid state.
00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:12.160
I and I was quiet because I was so I can actually think of three different situations related to opioids that they were turning in my mind as you were talking.
00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:16.160
First, I worked in a pharmacy where we served assisted living.
00:29:16.240 --> 00:29:18.720
Like we were actually in the assisted living building.
00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:23.279
And we served them and the other assisted living facilities in the area.
00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:27.519
And people would call and they would be like, You have blah blah blah blah blah.
00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:42.240
I need and they would know the drug, it was an opioid the count, and they would I mean they could just you know say it like they hadn't had it memorized, and we would be like, you know, we don't serve the general public.
00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:58.240
So that was always kind of creepy because there was and I don't know why, but my pharmacist always had this fear that these people would be out in the parking lot waiting for her, and I don't know if that's like a stereotype or if something had happened, but it was something that would happen on occasion and we would be concerned.
00:29:58.480 --> 00:30:21.119
Second is I was aware of a situation where somebody who was not a doctor stole a doctor's pad and was writing prescriptions, opioid prescriptions for their son, and they got caught because the DEA was like, Wow, this doctor is writing a lot of prescriptions and it became a whole thing.
00:30:21.279 --> 00:30:31.759
And then personally, my mother's family has always struggled with addiction, and my uncle, he is the last one of the five that is still alive.
00:30:32.400 --> 00:30:35.680
I believe that he is struggling with opioid addiction.
00:30:35.839 --> 00:30:44.720
And uh I'm not going to say why he gets his opioids, but I do believe that it's probably overkill for his issue.
00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:47.680
But he's always he's struggled with addiction his whole life.
00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:49.839
So I guess it makes sense that he would move on to opioids.
00:30:50.079 --> 00:30:51.920
So I yes, they've always made me sick.
00:30:52.079 --> 00:31:01.440
When I had my lung surgery back when I was 26 years old, a major lung surgery, and they sent me home with an oxycottin prescription for pain.
00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:02.880
And uh it made me sick.
00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:04.000
Like I I get it.
00:31:04.160 --> 00:31:17.920
Like I I I definitely do because it makes you feel like super like up and and good for a few minutes, but then but then I would come down from it and I would have the worst headache and I would I would feel like I was gonna throw up and I would just want to fall asleep.
00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:26.400
And and I took a couple of them and I was like, mm, I think I'm just gonna handle the pain and I'm gonna but I I do understand that not everybody not everybody can do that.
00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:35.680
And so it's kinda and I I don't what bothers me the most about this, and this is just one 100% guys, so everybody knows this is just opinion.
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:41.200
This is my opinion, this is not based on anything, so you know please take it for what it is.
00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:48.160
But I just in in my world, the idea that you could know that something is negatively affecting real people.
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:53.039
Yeah, that you could see in real time the crisis getting worse.
00:31:53.119 --> 00:32:00.559
You could see in real time how it's being abused, but still just kind of turn your back to it and and go back and count your money.
00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:15.279
Like that, so like you just look it it the way that I looked, like that's the the power that need to have the money, that that greed, the power of that, you know, the power to be able to be just so five times the separation from the actual issue at hand.
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:23.759
But then the idea of the power that was lost by all of these families, by the people I mean, because drug addiction uh drug addiction is a loss of power.
00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:24.160
Yeah.
00:32:24.559 --> 00:32:26.160
It's a loss of power within yourself.
00:32:26.400 --> 00:32:26.799
You know what I mean?
00:32:27.359 --> 00:32:30.880
Then the family has no power to do anything until you're ready to be out.
00:32:31.119 --> 00:32:41.200
It's it's I so you've got You've got these families losing power, and you've got this corporation gaining power.
00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:42.799
And it just it's I don't know.
00:32:42.880 --> 00:32:54.319
That's that's why I picked it up I took a I'm gonna uh when I was I had my wisdom teeth out when I was 18 and I literally felt like I was levitating off the bed and I couldn't hear anything.
00:32:54.480 --> 00:33:00.960
It's like all of your senses, it's like you go inward and you just you kind of check out from everything.
00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:02.559
That was my experience.
00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:05.440
Like like I said, I felt like I couldn't even feel the bed under me.
00:33:05.519 --> 00:33:06.240
It was crazy.
00:33:06.400 --> 00:33:07.119
I didn't like it.
00:33:07.359 --> 00:33:08.880
No, I didn't like it either.
00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:10.880
I can understand why some people do though.
00:33:11.039 --> 00:33:17.359
I mean, I've heard a lot of people refer to it as as heroin in a pill form, but it's not it's not cool.
00:33:17.519 --> 00:33:23.039
And uh definitely we will be if anybody does have any issues with addictions looking for help.
00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:28.880
We will definitely be posting in our show notes those uh phone numbers, crisis centers where you can get help.
00:33:29.039 --> 00:33:37.359
Don't be afraid to ask for it because as easy as it is for us to lose power sometimes, it's never something we lose forever, it's always something we can get back.
00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:38.079
Yeah.
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:40.079
Kaylin, it's time for your story.
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:42.400
Okay, so my for us this week.
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:44.640
We're venturing into the world of yoga.
00:33:44.799 --> 00:33:45.599
I love yoga.
00:33:45.680 --> 00:33:47.680
I think as I've said, I'm a yoga instructor.
00:33:47.759 --> 00:33:52.240
I've been doing yoga since my early 20s, so it's been a big part of my life.
00:33:52.720 --> 00:34:07.920
And I first want to give credit to a Netflix documentary that was done in 2019 called Beekram, Yoga Guru Creditor, and two articles by the Guardi the Guardian by Richard Godwin in 2017 and Adrian Portman in 2019.
00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:10.559
That's where I got a lot of my info and put it together.
00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:15.039
Some of the details are a little fuzzy, so just have some patience.
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:25.519
I'm trying to I was trying to work through it and I kind of made it a little bit generic, but all the same, it it's about power and what happens when it's unchecked in one individual.
00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:34.480
So the person that we're talking about, oh, and excuse me, I want to say there have been no criminal convictions, innocent until proven guilty.
00:34:34.960 --> 00:34:38.159
So I just wanted to make that statement as well.
00:34:39.119 --> 00:34:45.519
So today we're talking about Bekham Beakram Shroudri, the founder of Beekram Yoga.
00:34:45.760 --> 00:34:49.760
It was a very popular type of yoga in the 1990s and 2000s.
00:34:50.159 --> 00:34:55.280
So Vikram was born on February 10th, 1944 in India.
00:34:56.079 --> 00:35:03.599
We don't know much about his life there, and there are some questions as to whether or not some of the things that he has said are true.
00:35:03.679 --> 00:35:06.480
So we're already off to a great start with this guy.
00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:16.000
So he comes to the US in the early 1970s and he sets up a studio in Los Angeles, California, in the Beverly Hills area, which is very smart of him to do.
00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:19.440
And initially he starts out very humbly.
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:23.920
He asks for donations, he sleeps on the floor of his studio.
00:35:24.079 --> 00:35:26.719
So very, a very simple man, right?
00:35:26.800 --> 00:35:30.000
And I think that's part of the appeal of a yoga guru.
00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:31.840
They're typically very simple.
00:35:32.079 --> 00:35:34.000
They live like almost like a monk.
00:35:34.239 --> 00:35:38.320
Um, for some reason, I think that's what made this baby attracts us to them.
00:35:38.960 --> 00:35:44.960
So he starts teaching yoga to celebrities in Hollywood, and he gets popular by word of mouth.
00:35:45.119 --> 00:35:52.639
So he is a guru to everyone from George Harrison to Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Barbara Streisand.
00:35:54.079 --> 00:36:05.360
He also tells this story where he helped President Nixon fix a bad leg and that he got a green card as a result of that, but there's actually no proof of that.
00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:11.519
So he gets so popular that he ends up owning a fleet of 40 luxury cars.
00:36:11.760 --> 00:36:17.119
He lives in a massive mansion, and he's just very opulent, which I'm not against.
00:36:17.199 --> 00:36:21.199
Well, but what does he what does he need that many luxury cars for?
00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:26.400
Well, and that's yes, and I think as a guru, I would question that just like I would question a pastor.
00:36:26.639 --> 00:36:31.760
If a pastor had a fleet of 40 cars, I'd be like, Aren't you supposed to feed the poor?
00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:34.000
And like I I would question it.
00:36:34.159 --> 00:36:36.639
So yes, I think it's way too opulent.
00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:40.639
So I think people have a certain image of a guru, right?
00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:46.559
We're all like and people in yoga, we're all sitting around going, oh, and contemplating the big questions of life.
00:36:46.719 --> 00:36:51.280
But Beakram is he's different, he's eccentric and he's loud.
00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:56.719
And he literally describes himself as a mix of Mother Teresa and Howard Stern.
00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:01.280
I you can't have two more opposite people than that.
00:37:01.679 --> 00:37:06.000
That's no, that's that's that's quite that's that's quite a mix.
00:37:06.239 --> 00:37:17.360
I know I'm like when I'm I was like So he's saying, he's saying, I'll give you soup and I'll protect like so like when I well mother Mother Teresa was fierce now.
00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:19.119
I know I'm going a little off topic here.
00:37:19.519 --> 00:37:19.679
She was.
00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:22.559
But Mother Teresa was not one to be messed with.
00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:39.599
While she was very much a philanthropist and very much there for the needy and the poor and she was very much about changing like you know, the world, she also you don't mess with her because she understood the difference between uh she understood the difference between being weak and also being mindful.
00:37:39.840 --> 00:37:42.800
Like you don't have to be weak to be mindful.
00:37:42.960 --> 00:37:45.199
Like she protected peace, like nobody's supposed to.
00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:48.079
But Howard Stern, he's opinionated.
00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:51.760
Well, he's also like how do you come he's very crass.
00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:55.440
He's very crass, he's very opinionated.
00:37:55.519 --> 00:38:03.119
He's he's very the way that he speaks is extraordinarily like he doesn't have a it's it's like me sometimes.
00:38:03.280 --> 00:38:08.559
Like words just come out of his mouth, and you're like, wow, probably not appropriate, Wendy.
00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:12.079
Should have thought about that before it came out, but he doesn't care, right?
00:38:12.239 --> 00:38:16.880
So like I can't even imagine a mother Teresa Howard Stern mix, but continue on.
00:38:16.960 --> 00:38:18.639
I didn't, I just took you down an AD.
00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:20.880
It's up to there's my ADHD rabbit hole.
00:38:21.199 --> 00:38:24.880
Unfortunately, he's more like Howard Stern, so well you'll see.
00:38:25.599 --> 00:38:38.159
So in the Guardian article by Godwin, he writes that Beakram claims to have launched Michael Jackson's career and that he cured Janet Reynolds Parkinson's disease, which that makes me mad.
00:38:39.039 --> 00:38:41.519
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:45.679
What year did you say he started this group where he launched Michael Jackson's career?
00:38:45.920 --> 00:38:46.880
No, he's no no no.
00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:54.079
This was from a Guardian article in 2017 that Beakrum so Beegram I know, but you said you said that he claimed he did, right?
00:38:54.239 --> 00:38:54.400
Yes.
00:38:54.480 --> 00:38:54.719
So B.
00:38:55.280 --> 00:38:56.239
I want to know what year.
00:38:56.400 --> 00:38:58.000
Remind me what year he started.
00:38:58.800 --> 00:39:02.480
I said the same thing because I'm like Michael Jackson was a star from the time he was very little.
00:39:02.559 --> 00:39:05.119
Like I don't A B C Yeah, yes.
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:08.320
Easy as one to probably shouldn't be doing that.
00:39:08.639 --> 00:39:09.360
That's sorry.
00:39:09.519 --> 00:39:11.519
That is like 50s, 60s, man.
00:39:11.599 --> 00:39:12.480
This guy was no.
00:39:12.880 --> 00:39:21.679
And the Janet Reno thing is really gross because I know that I think the nation kind of they rewatched her decline in health and pass away, and it was horrible.
00:39:21.840 --> 00:39:22.800
It was an awful thing.
00:39:23.039 --> 00:39:25.519
Well, this is this is an exact quote from Beakram.
00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:26.719
You'll find this funny.
00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:37.760
Beakram apparently told people he experienced 70, 72 hours of marathon sex where my partner, not his wife, had 49 orgasms, and he said, I count.
00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:40.719
Okay, first and foremost, sounds like a good idea.
00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:43.519
Like, where do I sign up for that experience?
00:39:43.679 --> 00:39:45.199
Is that carnival ride?
00:39:45.280 --> 00:39:46.159
Where do I go?
00:39:47.440 --> 00:39:48.320
Whoa.
00:39:48.880 --> 00:39:49.199
Yeah.
00:39:49.360 --> 00:39:51.920
I you know, at my age, how old was he?
00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:53.519
He was probably in his 20s, wasn't he?
00:39:53.599 --> 00:39:56.000
I know as a 48-year-old, that's you're pushing it.
00:39:56.079 --> 00:39:58.320
Like, are we talking 49 consecutive?
00:39:58.480 --> 00:40:02.400
Are we talking like 49 over the course of a 24-hour period?
00:40:03.199 --> 00:40:05.440
It was 72 hours of marathon sex.
00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:07.679
Okay, well, that's three days.
00:40:07.840 --> 00:40:10.320
I mean, I could probably do that in three days with somebody too.
00:40:10.400 --> 00:40:11.760
So, like, cool, dude.
00:40:11.840 --> 00:40:13.039
You're so cool, right?
00:40:13.199 --> 00:40:13.519
Sorry.
00:40:13.679 --> 00:40:14.400
Continue on.
00:40:14.480 --> 00:40:16.159
I can't wait to hear about his power grants.
00:40:16.800 --> 00:40:18.719
With this quote, uh, pun intended.
00:40:18.960 --> 00:40:19.280
Okay.
00:40:20.079 --> 00:40:28.880
So these claims are obviously ridiculous, but I think Americans actually eat this stuff up.
00:40:28.960 --> 00:40:39.840
I mean, if you look at our current political landscape and the claims that get made with no verification, you know, nobody calling anybody out, I mean, it's kind of like, well, hard for the course, right?
00:40:40.079 --> 00:40:43.599
Becrum starts to offer a nine-week training course.
00:40:44.159 --> 00:40:51.840
And the only way you can become certified to teach Begram yoga is to be re recommended by a fellow Begrim yoga teacher.
00:40:52.400 --> 00:40:57.360
And then if you want to open up a studio, you have to get permission from him.
00:40:57.519 --> 00:41:09.199
So it's like this circle where you can't So not only was he holding ultimate power, but then he was trickling down the power to other people in order for them to I see it.
00:41:09.360 --> 00:41:15.440
Yeah, I could see because he's got these people that feel like they're so higher up than everybody else, they're protecting his power.
00:41:15.840 --> 00:41:16.559
This is insane.
00:41:16.639 --> 00:41:17.599
Continue, I'm sorry.
00:41:18.079 --> 00:41:18.400
It gets worse.
00:41:18.639 --> 00:41:20.239
I was correlating the power in my head.
00:41:27.119 --> 00:41:29.920
So he's basically getting funneled young women.
00:41:30.159 --> 00:41:30.480
Okay?
00:41:30.800 --> 00:41:32.000
Keep that in mind.
00:41:32.960 --> 00:41:33.920
Not cool.
00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:39.599
You're at a resort, you are isolated, so it's almost like you're you're at an all-inclusive resort.
00:41:39.840 --> 00:41:43.599
It's tens of thousands of dollars for this nine-week training.
00:41:44.159 --> 00:41:47.599
They start their day at 8 30 in the morning and they go past midnight.
00:41:47.760 --> 00:41:51.360
Now they do two 90-minute sessions every day.
00:41:51.440 --> 00:41:59.679
Now, B Grum Yoga, you are in a room that's about 104 to 105 degrees, and you do 26 moves twice.
00:41:59.920 --> 00:42:02.719
So the idea is that on purpose?
00:42:02.960 --> 00:42:03.360
Yes.
00:42:03.519 --> 00:42:03.920
Yes.
00:42:04.239 --> 00:42:10.000
The point is that Oh Lord, the only reason I'm in rooms that hot is because I gotta be at work and I'm getting paid for it.
00:42:10.239 --> 00:42:12.960
You're telling me these people are paying to do it?
00:42:13.360 --> 00:42:14.960
And training to become instructors.
00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:20.559
So no judgment here, guys, but you could take like they do polar plunges too.
00:42:21.679 --> 00:42:24.719
So now imagine this in his trainings.
00:42:25.119 --> 00:42:28.320
There are hundreds of people in this room.
00:42:29.039 --> 00:42:29.360
Okay.
00:42:30.880 --> 00:42:36.480
So a couple of things that I mean, these are ridiculous, but here we go.
00:42:37.519 --> 00:42:42.320
When he came to America, he saw carpeting and he thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.
00:42:43.440 --> 00:42:47.440
The rooms where these people are training in this hot weather are carpeted.
00:42:48.079 --> 00:42:51.039
Okay, that's just nasty from a hygienic standpoint.
00:42:51.599 --> 00:42:53.280
He b yeah, I know.
00:42:53.519 --> 00:42:58.320
He bans them from wearing the color green because he hates the color green.
00:42:58.800 --> 00:43:01.760
Okay, no, no, no, no, no.
00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:04.000
See, this is where the power would have gone too far.
00:43:04.239 --> 00:43:04.960
Right, if you're not gonna be a big thing.
00:43:05.119 --> 00:43:06.639
This is where Wendy would have set a boundary.
00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:09.920
Like what is wrong with the color green, dude?
00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:11.119
I don't know.
00:43:11.440 --> 00:43:13.199
It's grass and trees.
00:43:13.280 --> 00:43:14.480
It like no.
00:43:15.199 --> 00:43:24.400
Oh green for you! How how are you how are you a yoga guy that hates one of the most most well significant colors and grounding?
00:43:24.559 --> 00:43:25.599
Like, come on.
00:43:25.840 --> 00:43:26.400
Right.
00:43:27.039 --> 00:43:34.960
So he he berates a student and then he'll compliment them in the same breath.
00:43:35.119 --> 00:43:40.320
And he yells and swears, he shames people in bigger bodies.
00:43:40.960 --> 00:43:44.719
He he doesn't like when people go to the bathroom during his training.
00:43:44.880 --> 00:43:52.800
So he basically, and I'm not even gonna repeat the quote because it's so crude, but he tells men to use a string and women to use a cork so they don't have to pee.
00:43:53.519 --> 00:43:59.679
You can find the quote somewhere, it's very gross, and he sounds like a fantastic.
00:44:03.679 --> 00:44:09.920
He's just a vile man and he says he says like anti-Semitic and homophobic things in class.
00:44:10.480 --> 00:44:12.079
But yeah, we're not gonna talk about that.
00:44:12.400 --> 00:44:13.280
No, I won't.
00:44:13.360 --> 00:44:14.559
I'm not gonna say that.
00:44:14.800 --> 00:44:17.039
But he's just very, very crude.
00:44:17.920 --> 00:44:21.039
And but people worship him, they love him.
00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:26.239
And even the people he berates, they're like, Well, I kind of needed a kick in the butt.
00:44:26.480 --> 00:44:27.519
It's okay.
00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:30.159
I got in shape and blah blah blah blah.
00:44:30.239 --> 00:44:34.960
And so even in the midst of him berating these people, they're they're praising him.
00:44:35.039 --> 00:44:37.679
So it's a very unhealthy relationship.
00:44:38.480 --> 00:44:47.599
And in addition to that, so from about 2002 to 2015, he tries to copyright the sequence of 26 houses.
00:44:48.320 --> 00:44:52.559
Now he's got books and videos that he can copyright, and that's perfectly fine.
00:44:53.039 --> 00:44:58.719
And then what he does is he starts suing studios who are teaching it because he's saying this is his sequence.
00:44:59.039 --> 00:45:00.239
And these are former students.
00:45:00.400 --> 00:45:04.320
Remember, you can only have a beak from yoga studio if you get permission from him.
00:45:04.719 --> 00:45:07.199
So he's literally suing his former students.
00:45:08.480 --> 00:45:20.079
He somehow, and I'm not quite sure about this, but my understanding is that the copy, the US copyright office mistakenly copyrighted the sequence, and then they were like, you can't do that.
00:45:20.239 --> 00:45:24.320
So he goes to court, he loses, he appeals, he loses the appeal, basically.
00:45:24.400 --> 00:45:25.599
They're like, that's crazy.
00:45:25.679 --> 00:45:28.159
You can't copyright your sequences.
00:45:28.480 --> 00:45:31.360
So if that's not bad enough.
00:45:32.159 --> 00:45:36.320
Week five of the nine-week training is called sex week.
00:45:37.199 --> 00:45:39.519
Okay, and everybody knows this.
00:45:40.320 --> 00:45:45.440
So Begram claims Is that also in a hundred and four, hundred and five degree room?
00:45:45.519 --> 00:45:48.000
Because it still doesn't sound appealing.
00:45:48.480 --> 00:45:50.639
It's in his presidential suite that he lives in.
00:45:50.880 --> 00:45:51.679
Oh, cool, cool, cool.
00:45:51.760 --> 00:45:52.960
So we got AC now?
00:45:53.519 --> 00:45:54.000
Yes.
00:45:54.480 --> 00:45:55.519
Is it with him?
00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:57.840
If it's with him, I'm gonna pass.
00:45:58.000 --> 00:45:58.719
So pass.
00:45:58.960 --> 00:46:02.000
Begram claims he doesn't need much sleep.
00:46:02.320 --> 00:46:06.159
And since he doesn't need much sleep, neither do his students.
00:46:06.559 --> 00:46:10.000
And he likes to watch Bollywood movies at night.
00:46:10.239 --> 00:46:17.119
And he would literally call, of course, his female students in the middle of the night and say, come and watch this movie with me.
00:46:17.280 --> 00:46:19.199
And you would go in there and you'd watch the movie.
00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:24.400
And if you fell asleep, he would wake you up and he keeps doing that until about three in the morning.
00:46:24.559 --> 00:46:28.320
And unfortunately, this is where there are things that go bad.
00:46:28.400 --> 00:46:38.639
And I'm gonna talk about that in a minute, but it's a little fuzzy again, no criminal charges, but there are some things, there are some accusations that are made that are very serious.
00:46:38.800 --> 00:46:39.119
Okay.
00:46:39.519 --> 00:46:43.920
We all know I wouldn't have survived that, and he probably wouldn't have either waking me up.
00:46:44.239 --> 00:46:46.480
Caitlin, you know, you know the drill.
00:46:46.800 --> 00:46:47.599
You're gone.
00:46:49.440 --> 00:47:04.639
If I fell asleep, yeah, like you're just he he would have had me in a pine box before I woke up in the morning thinking I had so gently passed away in my people are in this very physically exerting nine-week training, they're getting little sleep.
00:47:04.880 --> 00:47:06.239
It's it's rough.
00:47:06.480 --> 00:47:10.320
And they know that these bad things are allegedly happening.
00:47:10.480 --> 00:47:12.239
Again, no criminal charges.
00:47:12.480 --> 00:47:16.239
Amidst all of this inappropriate behavior, who speaks up?
00:47:16.480 --> 00:47:17.440
A black woman.
00:47:17.679 --> 00:47:22.800
Her name is Pandora Williams, and she was in his training and they were in corpse pose.
00:47:23.280 --> 00:47:25.679
The la it's the last pose of any yoga session.
00:47:25.840 --> 00:47:27.760
You're just on the floor relaxing.
00:47:28.239 --> 00:47:30.960
And Beakram says something very homophobic.
00:47:31.599 --> 00:47:36.559
And I have what he said, but we might I think we'll just keep it out because it's very hurtful.
00:47:36.639 --> 00:47:38.159
Even I cried when I first read it.
00:47:38.239 --> 00:47:39.760
I couldn't believe he said that.
00:47:40.239 --> 00:47:43.440
After class, yeah, let's not let's not say that.
00:47:43.599 --> 00:47:44.960
Did he he said this to her?
00:47:45.039 --> 00:47:47.760
Was she said it in class during the training?
00:47:48.079 --> 00:47:51.119
In the training where hundreds of people are laying, they're relaxing.
00:47:51.199 --> 00:47:52.719
It's the end of the yoga session.
00:47:53.760 --> 00:47:55.039
He's fair enough.
00:47:57.199 --> 00:48:02.960
And she is brave enough to ask him, and I quote, Beakram, why are you preaching hate?
00:48:03.519 --> 00:48:05.840
Yoga is supposed to be about love.
00:48:06.800 --> 00:48:10.800
And he says, We don't sell love here, B-I-T-C-H.
00:48:11.920 --> 00:48:17.519
And then told his assistant to get that black E I T C H out of here because she's a cancer.
00:48:18.559 --> 00:48:24.239
Pandora Williams gets kicked out of the club the training, and she has not refunded the money.
00:48:24.960 --> 00:48:26.320
She sues Begram.
00:48:26.559 --> 00:48:28.079
And I'm like, you go, girl.
00:48:29.360 --> 00:48:33.760
So Begram's head legal advisor, Manakshi Jaffa Bowden.
00:48:34.159 --> 00:48:37.440
She receives the lawsuit, and she's really concerned at this point.
00:48:38.320 --> 00:48:39.840
People know who he is.
00:48:40.719 --> 00:48:46.400
Even you know, his people, they all know he's just very crude, rude, and does not care.
00:48:47.519 --> 00:48:53.280
Jaffa Bowden, his head legal advisor, is subpoenaed to testify by William's lawyer, Carla Minard.
00:48:53.440 --> 00:48:54.239
Now remember her name.
00:48:54.320 --> 00:49:00.880
So this is William's lawyer, Carla Menard, and they settle for an undisclosed amount the night before the jury is selected.
00:49:01.360 --> 00:49:02.639
But this wasn't the end.
00:49:02.880 --> 00:49:07.360
Pandora opened up a box and it had a powerful ripple effect.
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:11.360
So in 2013, there are Okay, wait.
00:49:11.599 --> 00:49:13.599
That was such a perfect setup.
00:49:13.840 --> 00:49:18.159
I was I said her name was like that was destined to Pandora's box.
00:49:18.400 --> 00:49:19.360
She opened up a box.
00:49:19.519 --> 00:49:20.639
Hell yeah.
00:49:21.440 --> 00:49:23.519
Open that box, sweetie.
00:49:23.760 --> 00:49:25.519
There are several Go Queen.
00:49:25.760 --> 00:49:26.480
Yes, oh yeah.
00:49:26.559 --> 00:49:27.599
I I love this woman.
00:49:27.679 --> 00:49:30.079
I I want to know what happened to her, where she is now.
00:49:30.239 --> 00:49:33.920
There are several allegations, again, allegations of essay.
00:49:34.480 --> 00:49:39.039
Jaffa Bowden, as his head legal advisor, does her job and she questions him.
00:49:39.199 --> 00:49:40.960
And he's his usual crude self.
00:49:41.039 --> 00:49:45.119
And he makes so many crude remarks, and she's now really concerned.
00:49:45.199 --> 00:49:50.960
And at this point, she even has to say to him, Eikram, you can't bring trainees to your room.
00:49:51.119 --> 00:49:56.000
And he says mockingly, my lawyer tells me I can't have a girl in my room.
00:49:56.079 --> 00:49:57.679
So now I'm gonna have two.
00:49:57.840 --> 00:50:00.320
So, you know, I mean, he's a great guy.
00:50:01.360 --> 00:50:07.519
So then Jaffa Bowden alleges that she sounded like he just wanted to be in power.
00:50:07.760 --> 00:50:10.320
Sounded like he wanted to be the most powerful one in the room.
00:50:10.639 --> 00:50:11.360
Power out of the way.
00:50:11.519 --> 00:50:16.239
And for everybody that doesn't know, when Kaelin says SA, she's referring to sexual assault.
00:50:16.559 --> 00:50:22.239
Sorry, I was trying to be he's he's there's been sexual assault, sexual assault allegations.
00:50:23.119 --> 00:50:28.880
So Jaffa Bowden, you know, she she is seeing, starting to see what's going on.
00:50:29.039 --> 00:50:38.480
And unfortunately, she has a she has a situation where Beakram tries to get her in a hotel room alone and she's like, no.
00:50:39.280 --> 00:50:41.119
So props to Jaffa Bowden.
00:50:41.440 --> 00:50:47.920
She's from India and she comes, she she is a devotee of Beekram's, and she to this day does Beekram yoga.
00:50:48.719 --> 00:50:50.559
She's with her daughter, she's a single mom.
00:50:51.039 --> 00:50:57.039
Her work visa, her apartment, her car, her cell phone, everything is tied to Beekram.
00:50:57.840 --> 00:51:03.599
And the minute she is supposed to testify, he ends her contract and she loses everything.
00:51:03.840 --> 00:51:08.800
So again, props to an again, another woman who stood up and was like, Nope.
00:51:09.039 --> 00:51:12.159
So she goes, and this is I love this part of the story.
00:51:13.119 --> 00:51:22.159
Joqua Bowden goes to Carla Menard, Pandora Williams lawyer, the black woman who was not gonna take Beakram's abuse.
00:51:23.119 --> 00:51:26.079
So Menard takes the case on one condition.
00:51:26.239 --> 00:51:34.000
They have to go to trial because she settled with the Williams case for an undisclosed amount, but now she's like, no, no, we gotta take this to trial.
00:51:34.400 --> 00:51:39.440
So to make a long story short, Beakram is terrible in the deposition and on the stand.
00:51:39.599 --> 00:51:55.760
I mean, if the story weren't so horrific, it would be comical because he's just like he's his own worst witness and he loses, and he's ordered to pay$7.4 million to Jaffa Bowden for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, and discrimination.
00:51:55.920 --> 00:51:58.960
And like this is a civil, obviously, not a criminal.
00:51:59.039 --> 00:52:04.639
So again, but what do powerful people do when they get in trouble?
00:52:05.280 --> 00:52:12.960
He claims bankruptcy, he flees the US, he divorces his wife in what they believe to be a sham divorce.
00:52:13.039 --> 00:52:19.280
So basically what he did is he divorced his wife and then said, Well, all the assets are hers and not mine, right?
00:52:19.519 --> 00:52:25.199
So it's a very I mean it's actually a very smart move, but of course Little bitch.
00:52:25.440 --> 00:52:26.400
I know, I know.
00:52:26.559 --> 00:52:46.000
So there are still several uh allegations out there, and there's a civil warrant that is active in the state of California, and from what I've read, because it's a it's a it's through the state of California and not a federal criminal indictment, extradition is very complex.
00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:47.679
So this is the kicker.
00:52:47.840 --> 00:52:48.960
Talk about power.
00:52:49.360 --> 00:52:55.760
He is still teaching in Mexico, Thailand, and India, and young women are still getting funneled to him through the system.
00:52:56.880 --> 00:53:00.559
And so, of course, with any accusation, there's a split.
00:53:01.039 --> 00:53:08.480
There are people who support the accused, becrum, and some people who support the accuser.
00:53:08.639 --> 00:53:17.199
And to this day, like I said, even the people who know he did wrong still they still speak very highly of him, and that bothered me.
00:53:17.280 --> 00:53:24.320
Um but today in the US, most studios in the US have rebranded and they are called hot yoga.
00:53:24.559 --> 00:53:30.800
So if you go past a hot yoga studio and it's been there for a while, it was probably a Begrim yoga studio.
00:53:30.960 --> 00:53:33.920
So he's still alive at 82 teaching yoga.
00:53:34.239 --> 00:53:39.360
So so is that what Begrim's claim to shame uh fame was on having a different type of yoga?
00:53:39.440 --> 00:53:43.599
Was just the fact that he was gonna turn the heat up so that you were intensely uncomfortable and sweating.
00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:45.199
Let me so this is a personal twist.
00:53:45.280 --> 00:53:48.239
So Bikrim yoga was actually the first yoga I was exposed to.
00:53:48.400 --> 00:53:49.679
I was in my early 20s.
00:53:49.840 --> 00:53:52.559
I was living in a city where there were a ton of yoga studios.
00:53:52.800 --> 00:53:55.679
One day I was like, I really need to start exercising.
00:53:55.920 --> 00:53:59.599
I went to the closest yoga studio, I went to the class that fit my schedule.
00:53:59.679 --> 00:54:01.360
It was a B Grip class.
00:54:01.519 --> 00:54:05.039
Now, granted, I was in my 20s, so it was a little bit different.
00:54:05.119 --> 00:54:06.159
I could handle it.
00:54:06.480 --> 00:54:09.840
So this is what I have been told.
00:54:09.920 --> 00:54:14.800
And I've been told a couple things that it simulates the experience in India.
00:54:15.039 --> 00:54:16.239
I don't know if that's true.
00:54:16.400 --> 00:54:20.800
And also the idea is that so you do a pose and then you do the pose again.
00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:22.559
It's 26 times two.
00:54:23.039 --> 00:54:31.119
And the second time you do the pose, because of the heat, you you should be able to go deeper into the pose because your muscles are more relaxed.
00:54:31.280 --> 00:54:32.239
That's the theory.
00:54:32.400 --> 00:54:33.599
That's what I've been told.
00:54:33.920 --> 00:54:36.719
I don't know if it's true, but it is a that room gets very hot.
00:54:36.880 --> 00:54:39.039
They have to monitor the CO2 levels.
00:54:39.199 --> 00:54:45.119
If they get too high, they have a system that literally dumps the CO2 out and brings in air from the outside.
00:54:45.360 --> 00:54:47.519
So it's gotta be a very controlled system.
00:54:47.760 --> 00:54:48.880
You can get faint.
00:54:49.119 --> 00:54:52.480
My teachers were always good about telling me to lay down.
00:54:52.880 --> 00:54:54.800
That's called that's called heat exhaustion.
00:54:54.960 --> 00:54:56.639
Yeah, I mean, that's called heat stress.
00:54:56.960 --> 00:55:05.199
And even in this, the the the documentary I watched, students are they're they're getting sick, they're I mean, it's it's not good.
00:55:05.440 --> 00:55:08.960
And so they did this, they do it twice a day in the nine-week training.
00:55:09.360 --> 00:55:11.920
Two 90-minute sessions in the heat.
00:55:12.079 --> 00:55:26.239
And I forgot to tell you, while they're in the heat, he sometimes is sitting up on an inflatable chair, like a throne, and he has cold air being pumped through through pipes dumped on him while they're drenched in their own sweat.
00:55:26.400 --> 00:55:26.800
Great guy.
00:55:26.960 --> 00:55:28.159
He sounds like a great guy.
00:55:28.239 --> 00:55:30.159
That's that sounds like a great guy.
00:55:30.320 --> 00:55:42.559
That's I mean, I it's like uh it's funny because that story, the way that I interpret it, and I don't know if you interpret it this way or not, uh, but he gained power by convincing other people that they had power.
00:55:43.039 --> 00:55:44.400
Even though they really didn't.
00:55:44.639 --> 00:55:46.320
He always had the power, right?
00:55:46.480 --> 00:55:51.440
Like the the the the lawsuit that he had oh with uh the lady that had the daughter from India.
00:55:51.840 --> 00:55:52.000
Right?
00:55:54.320 --> 00:55:56.719
Yeah, I I'm not gonna try to say that.
00:55:56.880 --> 00:56:00.559
I just I you heard me have an issue earlier with Mortimer.
00:56:00.800 --> 00:56:04.000
My mouth doesn't always work properly, and that's Jacobu Hama.
00:56:04.239 --> 00:56:07.199
I was like, I just I don't have it in front of me to sound it out.
00:56:07.360 --> 00:56:12.800
Sorry, no disrespect to that beautiful queen because that's quite a feat to stand up to somebody like that.
00:56:12.960 --> 00:56:13.199
Yeah.
00:56:13.440 --> 00:56:20.239
But making her feel like she had that power, like she was in a position of power, but then ultimately saying that he was the one in power.
00:56:20.400 --> 00:56:23.679
And I love how she reclaimed her power and said, I don't think so, sir.
00:56:23.920 --> 00:56:26.639
Yes, this is definitely a story of I don't think so.
00:56:26.880 --> 00:56:37.519
Yes, and I love that you know that especially Pandora Williams, she was Pandora, come on, powerless, and she was like, Oh no, I'm not gonna take this.
00:56:37.760 --> 00:56:39.440
She was just a student.
00:56:39.599 --> 00:56:40.320
I love it.
00:56:40.559 --> 00:56:41.199
Yeah.
00:56:42.400 --> 00:56:56.239
So yeah, it it's it's a good story, and it just it had a personal touch, and now I wonder what some of my Beakrim teachers went through in their training, because I think there are a lot of people who haven't who may never tell.
00:56:56.400 --> 00:57:11.920
And I understand why things happen, and sometimes we don't feel comfortable telling, but it all that stuff was going on while I was I was a student, and then I actually went to another studio that was a beak room studio, so I did it for quite a while and I didn't know, not a clue.
00:57:12.159 --> 00:57:14.320
I have I have never done yoga.
00:57:14.480 --> 00:57:16.159
I I did you just say I should.
00:57:16.400 --> 00:57:17.679
You should, yes.
00:57:18.320 --> 00:57:19.199
Yeah, okay.
00:57:19.360 --> 00:57:21.119
I love I love I love that.
00:57:21.360 --> 00:57:22.880
Any yoga is for everybody.
00:57:24.239 --> 00:57:26.400
Everybody yoga's for everybody.
00:57:26.639 --> 00:57:28.800
There's different different kinds of yoga.
00:57:29.039 --> 00:57:32.079
I I did you know I work in construction, I do physical stuff all day.
00:57:32.239 --> 00:57:35.440
I don't need to be that bendable, flexible.
00:57:35.679 --> 00:57:40.239
Oh, you were talking about the like I never thought yoga was that's like meditation.
00:57:40.480 --> 00:57:42.400
I do the meditation on the incense, all of that.
00:57:43.440 --> 00:57:43.920
I love making it.
00:57:44.159 --> 00:57:45.519
The ultimate goal of yoga.
00:57:45.920 --> 00:57:50.880
The ultimate goal of yoga is to actually be able to sit still in meditation.
00:57:51.039 --> 00:57:57.840
That's why we do the poses, that's why we push ourselves, that's why we do a pose that may not feel comfortable.
00:57:58.000 --> 00:58:00.239
The ultimate goal is to be able to sit for meditation.
00:58:00.480 --> 00:58:03.039
You can't do that without making your body hurt.
00:58:04.800 --> 00:58:07.280
Well, I'm sorry, I love you.
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:09.440
We can wrap this up if you want to.
00:58:10.880 --> 00:58:11.440
I'm sorry.
00:58:11.519 --> 00:58:13.679
I know I irritate the shit out of you.
00:58:13.840 --> 00:58:14.400
It's okay.
00:58:14.800 --> 00:58:15.679
I love you.
00:58:17.760 --> 00:58:21.440
Just let me put my glasses on, we'll finish this babble way up.
00:58:21.519 --> 00:58:22.239
What do you say?
00:58:22.480 --> 00:58:23.519
Let's do it.
00:58:24.880 --> 00:58:25.760
Oh my goodness.
00:58:25.920 --> 00:58:31.760
Hopefully everybody uh liked the difference in perspective of power between Kaylin and I.
00:58:31.920 --> 00:58:42.400
I feel like this new format really is a way for people to see, you know, kind of like similar we are, but also how very different we perceive the world.
00:58:42.559 --> 00:58:51.280
Because I don't think anybody perceives the world the same, and I think that everything that we discussed and everything we're going to discuss is gonna have a different meaning to somebody else, right?
00:58:51.440 --> 00:58:53.519
And no power is definitely one of them.
00:58:53.679 --> 00:59:03.760
And the funny thing about power is that we spend so much time thinking about presidents, CEOs, money, and people at the top that we can off often forget that power shapes our everyday life.
00:59:03.920 --> 00:59:12.639
So, like today I talked about the Sackler family, Caleb talked about the Bikram yoga, but it does hit us on an actual personal level on every day.
00:59:12.800 --> 00:59:28.960
And this is where we uh want to kind of talk to you because I think if we all sit back and we all look at where power exists or doesn't exist within our lives, it gives us a better understanding of what it is and the ability to identify it when it's happening around us.
00:59:29.199 --> 00:59:36.079
Because power, like I said, isn't always the things that we assume power is, like a president or government or things of that nature.
00:59:36.400 --> 00:59:39.199
Power is a parent over a child.
00:59:39.440 --> 00:59:39.840
Yeah.
00:59:40.079 --> 00:59:42.000
A boss over a coworker.
00:59:42.239 --> 00:59:42.800
Absolutely.
00:59:43.119 --> 00:59:47.599
A friend that knows a secret about you that you don't want anybody else to know.
00:59:47.679 --> 00:59:49.199
They hold power, right?
00:59:49.360 --> 00:59:52.639
It it's a lot quieter and sometimes it can even be stronger.
00:59:52.800 --> 00:59:55.039
It could be the person that finally says no.
00:59:55.360 --> 00:59:55.679
Yes.
00:59:55.920 --> 00:59:59.280
Think about the times that you've decided to say no or set boundaries.
00:59:59.840 --> 01:00:02.960
The employee that realizes they don't have to stay.
01:00:03.119 --> 01:00:06.079
Caelan and I have talked about that before in an episode.
01:00:06.400 --> 01:00:10.639
The person that walks away from a relationship they once thought they could not live without.
01:00:10.880 --> 01:00:11.199
Yes.
01:00:11.440 --> 01:00:15.119
Sometimes power is simply realizing you have a choice.
01:00:15.280 --> 01:00:18.559
And maybe that is what makes power so complicated.
01:00:18.719 --> 01:00:23.920
Sometimes we have more of it than we think, and sometimes we give it away without realizing it.
01:00:24.079 --> 01:00:29.840
Sometimes we spend so much time trying to reclaim power that we never stop to ask what getting it back might cost us.
01:00:30.079 --> 01:00:33.039
So maybe the question is not just who has the power.
01:00:33.199 --> 01:00:36.320
Maybe it is what are we doing with the power we have?
01:00:36.480 --> 01:00:39.519
And what are we willing to do when we do not have it?
01:00:39.679 --> 01:00:43.119
So, you know, all about what's missing from the discussion.
01:00:43.519 --> 01:00:52.559
Feel free, guys, to email us what you think is missing from the discussion at outside the footnote at gmail.com.
01:00:52.880 --> 01:00:56.719
Give us a follow on TikTok at outside the footnotes.
01:00:56.880 --> 01:01:01.199
Feel free to follow the substack that our beautiful Kaylin is writing for.
01:01:01.360 --> 01:01:03.360
Until then, guys, can't wait to see you guys next week.
01:01:03.519 --> 01:01:04.880
Tune in for Wendy Wednesday.
01:01:04.960 --> 01:01:06.159
It's gonna air on Wednesday.
01:01:06.239 --> 01:01:14.960
That's our mini episode that we're putting out where I get to go and tell all kinds of crazy stories that Kaylin doesn't necessarily want to hear because sometimes they get a little creepy.
01:01:15.119 --> 01:01:17.599
Or I might say words she don't like to hear.
01:01:17.679 --> 01:01:19.519
I'm just teasing that's not why I do it.
01:01:19.599 --> 01:01:24.320
It just helps me with a little bit of a smaller obsession that I have that Kaylin just supports.
01:01:24.559 --> 01:01:27.360
So hopefully you guys tune in Wednesday for our mini episode.
01:01:27.519 --> 01:01:30.079
Hopefully, we see you guys back here on Monday.
01:01:30.159 --> 01:01:35.840
And like I said, reach out, tell us what you think, and give us what you think is missing from the discussion.
01:01:36.000 --> 01:01:37.679
Until then, I am Wendy.
01:01:37.840 --> 01:01:38.639
And I'm Caitlin.
01:01:39.119 --> 01:01:39.920
Uh perfect.