Season 10, Episode Five November 24, 2024

SPEAKER_01 0:02

This is the Listening Tube.

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Hello. Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube. I'm your host, Bob Woodley. Nobody's offered me a job in the federal government yet, so I guess you're stuck with me for now. On this episode, we'll hear about the Greenback Party, and I'll have a chat with a man who writes novels about the Middle East and how Americans and religion help decide what happens there.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

But first, not the headlines.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

As you may or may not have noticed, President-elect Donald Trump has been filling the positions in his upcoming administration with little haste. While they're all publicly announced, most are glossed over and some gather a lot of attention. Matt Gates, as Attorney General, who has recently withdrawn his name for contention, and Pete Hegzeth as Secretary of Defense, there are two that have come under more scrutiny from critics than most. I realize all are criticized by the left for whatever cracks in the armor can be found, but even more level-headed people have raised an eyebrow or two. Those who have to be approved by the Senate might find some initial resistance, but will eventually prevail. Speaking of which, cabinet secretaries are a good indicator of how the next administration might address some of the issues concerning their departments. I'm not sure what Matt Gates would have brought, but Pete Hegseth has made his stance on issues of the military very public, not just as a television host, but also as an author of books about the military. And we know Donald Trump has a personal interest in the military and its role in America's security, as well as the Justice Department, and the way it was used against him to try to keep him from running for president again, or just ruin him, whichever came first. I was hoping to be named Ambassador to Ireland because my wife has always wanted to visit there, plus I heard it was a pretty sweet gig. Anyway, the appointment that caught my eye the most was that of the Secretary of Education. Why? Because it's the department most likely to be eliminated. So who got the job? Donald Trump's transition co-chair, Linda McMahon. Oh, so she got a cushy job just because she's a Trump foot soldier, right? She'll just be a caretaker secretary while the department withers on the vine after the funding is cut. Seems like a possibility, I guess. But when you look at Linda's background a bit more, you'll discover that she was previously the administrator of the Small Business Administration during Trump's first term. Not only that, but she's run for a seat as a senator for Connecticut twice, lost both times, and she financed the campaigns herself, spending almost a hundred million dollars combined. She served a year and a half on the Connecticut Board of Education and was an early supporter of the Special Olympics. She grew up in North Carolina, where her parents were both civilian employees of the military. Now you might be thinking, but Bob, where did she get a hundred million dollars to blow on two failed Senate campaigns? Well, here's the not the headlines part. Her husband, from whom she recently separated, is none other than Vince McMahon of professional wrestling fame. Ah, so that's where the money came from. She got it from her husband. Well, not exactly. You see, while Vince was the public face of professional wrestling, it was Linda who was the brains behind it. While Vince was a great promoter, it was Linda who protected the intellectual property rights and trademarks of the enterprise. She turned a small wrestling show into a multinational media conglomerate, complete with action figures and apparel and TV deals. She put women in charge of the human resources and consumer goods divisions of the company. And she didn't use her husband's money to bankroll her campaigns. She used her money. So here's how it's gonna go down. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Federal Government SmackDown 25! Two magnificent panels that are sure to keep you on the edge of your desk chair. In the red corner, Senate Majority Republicans, and in the blue corner, former Majority Democrats. This panel will decide if Linda McMahon will become the Secretary of Education. Ooh, that was fast. The Democrats never had a chance. The Republicans were just too overwhelming. The Democrats got their feet swept out from under them, and then the Republicans came down with a tricep to the side of the head. That was brutal. Let's move on to the main event. Tonight's marquee matchup hits the new Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, in the red corner against the Department of Education in the Blue Corner. In all my years of covering professional government wrestling, I've never seen a matchup like this one, Bob. Me neither, vaguely disguised voice. This could be a battle for the ages. The two opponents shake hands in the middle of the public square arena. Built in 1872, it seats millions. The Secretary wastes no time going on the offensive, and the department is clearly on the defense. Trouble is, the department's defense hasn't been tested yet, and there's a big difference between training and real life. Secretary Linda takes a few jabs, pointing out the department's bloat, almost mocking the department with her fancy footwork. Secretary Linda is landing blow after blow about the failures of the department and the low test scores and the abysmal literacy rates and the attrition of teachers as well as the indoctrination tools our schools have become. I can see the department's elbows dropping. It's getting tired. There's very little it can do to defend itself now. Oh, and there goes a knuckle drive right into the solar plexus of the Department of Education. Secretary McMahon lands the blow that puts the department on its back, gasping for air. But the oxygen tank isn't coming. Ladies and gentlemen, my one minute and twenty one seconds of the second round, the winner of SmackPam 25, a new champion of federal government wrestling, the Secretary of Education. In other news that you may not have heard, scientists have discovered why dogs shake like they do when they're wet. Most of us have seen it. I even have photographs of my chocolate lab Elsa doing it. Sometimes we humans do it too, especially if you have hair longer than mine. If my hair gets wet, I can shake my head all I want, but it's only gonna make me dizzy. Mice also do the shimmy shake when they're wet, so it was easy for scientists to study the behavior. And they did. By doing so, they discovered the actual neuron synapses, excitatory neurons that make hairy animals shake when a liquid is detected. Why we do it hasn't really been a mystery. Shaking off water, especially if it's chilly, helps us dry more quickly and conserves body heat and calories. Shivering uses up a lot of energy. But wet dog shakes can be caused by a variety of stimuli, including puffs of air, in addition to liquids like water and oil. Because of the research done on mice, we now know that there's a difference between shivering because we're cold and wet dog shakes caused by an air or liquid irritant. While I find this fascinating, I can't help but wonder what kind of applications it may have for the real world. I understand that the more we know about the human anatomy, the better, and one way to learn about ourselves is by studying the behavior of mice. But if we're using mice to study the behaviors of dogs and then applying it to ourselves seems like a circuitous route. Anybody who has a dog will tell you they train us as much as we train them. But getting back to the doggy shake thing, or whatever kind of animal is doing the shaking, we don't need mice to figure that out. You know what brain we need to examine to determine the origin of the doggy shake? The brain of the guy who invented the towel. Because humans have thumbs, we're able to use towels to dry our bodies, thus eliminating the need to do the doggy shake. So how long has it been since humankind had to do the doggy shake? I'm going to look that up.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

He's gonna look it up. He's really gonna do it. I want the truth!

SPEAKER_00 10:43

You can't handle the truth.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Well, the towel cannot be traced back to a single inventor, so we can't examine his or her brain. But sources indicate towels were in use as early as ancient Greek times. As for the form we find them today, that seems to have evolved from Turkish weavers. In most cases, the form of towels and related textiles were dependent upon the available materials and the best way to utilize those materials. So it's been thousands of years since we invented the towel, but we're still trying to find out why we shake like a dog when we're wet. And now we think we figured it out. All thanks to the amazing research done by a team led by a Harvard University professor. While that may sound trivial, and it kind of does, this discovery may help us more clearly understand the functions of mechanoreceptors and how they make us interpret both pain and pleasure. Understanding more about how we interpret pain and pleasure may lead to better pain medications and possibly recreational drugs that are both harmless and non addictive. I know we already have marijuana, but maybe there is another one. What I worry about is using technology to the extreme that we no longer feel pain at all. Pain has a purpose in our lives. Pain has a reason for existing. Pain tells us something is wrong. Without pain, more of us would die without warning. When it comes to proportion, without pain there is no pleasure. So be wise about how much pain you eliminate and how much pleasure you take for granted. Because there are people working on how to control what makes you want to shake it off and what doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Let's go back through the listening tube for this week in history.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

This week in 1839, a cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40-foot storm surge. The port city of Coringa was destroyed and to this day hasn't been completely rebuilt. 20,000 ships were swept inland, as were thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 people died. Climate change, said no one. This week in 1874, the United States Greenback Party is established as a political party consisting primarily of farmers affected by the Panic of 1873. The Greenback Party opposed a gold-backed currency, which both the Republicans and Democrats favored. About a hundred years later, President Nixon took the final step to remove U.S. currency from the gold standard. But back in 1874, there was still some disagreement about what constitutes currency, and how do we know it has value? Without the gold standard, the government was responsible for the value of our currency. American currency has a unique value among world currencies like the yen, euro, and dinar. Other currencies are judged as to how they compare to the dollar. Funny story, when I was on the radio in West Berlin, we always included the currency exchange rates in our newscasts. As I recall, it was the news, then the exchange rates, and finish with the weather. This was before the Euro, so we had the dollar equivalent of the West German mark, the French franc, and the British pound. These exchange rates would vary every day, even if only by pennies, but it was very important information to a lot of people. So this Army guy Den was doing the news one morning and forgot to update the currency rates before he went on the air. He gets to that part of the newscast and realizes his failure to prepare, and he says, and the dollar today exchanging at a rate of about three point two five marks seven point two francs and ninety-three cents to the British pound. Ask before you exchange your money. Anyway, it turns out the Greenback Party had it right. Our money today and since 1971 has been off the gold standard just as they wanted. But why did they want it? Well, greenbacks were created to help finance the North in the Civil War. Midwest farmers had the most to gain, as the added currency kept prices higher. It's the same old theory of supply and demand. The more money you print, the less valuable it becomes. Today, cryptocurrency is taking hold, filling a place in the economy that government guarantees don't control. China is overtly trying to displace the American dollar as the world's currency benchmark. Today's currency may be as malleable as it was back in 1874. This week in 1984, 37 top musicians gather in a Notting Hill studio and record band aid's Do They Know It's Christmas to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. Phil Collins, John Taylor of Duran-Duran, and the producer of the track, Midge Ur. The track raised 8 million British pounds for Ethiopia in the first year, according to Wikipedia.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

The listening tube will return at the speed of sound. Contact the Listening Tube by calling 570-601-1101 or email thesistening tube at outlook.com.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

My guest this week is a Renaissance man who now writes thriller novels about a liberal Palestinian named Cooch. Because of his research on the dynamics of the Middle East, I was interested in his viewpoints on the region and how things might shake out in the not too distant future. His name is Robert Cook, and he spent some time with me in the listening tube. You've had a very long and storied career path all the way from Eagle Scout to Vietnam veteran to entrepreneur to vintner and author. Are you primarily an author now, or are you still keeping busy doing other things?

SPEAKER_02 18:12

I'm primarily an author now, but I I do a few other things.

SPEAKER_03 18:18

And the books that you write are about the intrigue happening in Israel and the surrounding areas from the viewpoint of your anti-hero, a liberal Muslim. What was the inspiration for the storyline there?

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Well, when I wrote the first book, I had to figure out a protagonist and how to get some reach in terms of the story. So I gave my protagonist a Bedouin grandfather, a Bedouin mother, and had him go to Morocco for a summer. So that sort of set him up as the protagonist of this kind of anti-hero environment.

SPEAKER_03 19:06

And have you found it difficult to dig up the subject matter on which to write?

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Well, I have to do a lot of research for sure. And I haven't found it to be nearly as difficult recently as it was for the first one. Because Google knows everything and Wikipedia knows almost as much. And you can find a lot of information if you try Google and just play with it for a while. People are too impatient with Google, so I I find it really fascinating. Not so much work.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

How do your books reflect what's actually happening?

SPEAKER_02 19:49

Well, this one is serendipitously enough reflecting everything that's happening right now. The thesis of the Mahdi, the most recent book was uh the ability or inability of the Israelis to take land owned in the West Bank, owned by Arabs and making it illegal to own land if you're not Jewish. And they're working pretty hard on that right now. So it's right on right on schedule right in the previous book. Everything's going well in terms of matching the times and novels.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

So you as a writer, you have actually written or made accidental predictions about what's happening there?

SPEAKER_02 20:53

You know. Fiction always precedes reality. Because you have so many more tools to work with in fiction. But uh Yes, it uh in February 19 of 2018 I saw an article in The Economist that discussed Israeli confiscation of Muslim land in the West Bank. And according to the Economist, it had been condemned by the World Court of Justice and by the US and quite a number of other people that confiscation of land. And so I thought, oh, that could be a novel for me. And so I started turned research on and there was a novel there. And it's it's been great fun and it's it's working fine so far.

SPEAKER_03 21:47

Well, you've obviously done a lot of research in the region. Have have you personally visited the areas?

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Well, I visited uh Tangier. But I was only in Israel. For probably half an hour, 45 minutes. We jumped in there one time for some kind of political ceremony. And then you get in a truck and drive to the airport and go back to Frankfurt. But uh I was there for a little while.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

But you certainly you've looked into the motivations and the things that that are that are pushing and pulling in in the different directions for you know just for your own personal uh research and intrigue and and knowledge so that you could write about these things. What are some of the factors driving the decision makers in that region?

SPEAKER_02 22:40

The biggest decision maker that I can put a finger on that isn't obvious, is the Orthodox right in Israel. The Haredim, the far right Jewish population in Israel, thinks it's going to have an opportunity to get to the biblical uh representation of Israel, which includes uh Judea and Samaria. And so they want the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to be the part of Israel, and that will fulfill an ancient uh discussion in their Torah Bible. But I don't know that that's gonna happen. Uh it's a lot closer now than when I started to write about it, and once you start tracking that kind of thing, uh it's very interesting to keep up to date and see whether you were right or whether you were wrong. You know, my ending in my novel had the United States and Saudi Arabia and Israel getting together to bring the Middle East to modernity, uh, new schools, new everything. And and I thought it had a good chance. You know, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia is building a new city, he's building new universities. So he's trying to bring the Saudi population to modernity. But right now it's closer to being a world war than it is to go down that road. But that was the the way I wrote about it. That's why I thought should happen.

SPEAKER_03 24:16

Now, your latest book, The Mahdi, is the fourth in the series. Will the goals and objectives of the main character, Cooch, change moving forward because of the recent turmoil there, or because of the election in the United States, perhaps?

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Well, we we haven't uh really figured out what the election in the United States means yet. I say that Matt Getz is going to be attorney general, so it should be exciting. But uh the implications right now are not clear, and and I'm just keeping track. I don't think that my protagonist, Cooch, has to be anything other than what he is an imam in the Muslim faith, an Islamic scholar, and a badass. And uh he pulls the three of those off. I don't see any reason to have to go any place else. There's plenty of action still left in the Middle East. We'll see how Iran sorts it out with uh facing the United States and Israel right now.

SPEAKER_03 25:27

Yeah, that's certainly uh something that we're all keeping an eye on, no doubt. Now, the political leaders of Hamas have now been asked to leave Qatar, seemingly as a direct result of the re-election of Donald Trump. What else might we see happen in the region because of the upcoming change in leadership here in the U.S.?

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Well, Donald Trump seems to me to be a guy who is transactional. He wants a quid pro quo, this for that. And uh Israel's got to agree to some stop to the hostilities there, just as I think Lebanon or uh Ukraine and Russia have to be stopped. And he seems to have the tools to make that happen. He can tell Netanyahu, I'm gonna back into the hilt until January 20th or something like that. And then I'm gonna come in and say, let's get this over with. So I don't know what that means. That's just speculation on my part. But I think that's a reasonable transactional approach on the part of uh President elect Trump.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

What tools might he have that President Biden does not?

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Well, I'm sure there everybody's more wary of him than they are of President Biden. He tends to be fairly hot if he didn't get his way. So I think that Nelly's got to worry that Trump will turn. Say, well, I gave you a chance, and I'm not gonna give you any more weapons, which would be a disaster for Israel. If the United States wasn't there with a few of the NATO partners shooting down the incoming rounds, Israel would be in a lot of trouble. They they have an antiquated uh air defense system, and uh Iran and Hezbollah supposedly have 100,000 weapons left.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

That's a lot of drones. Yeah, that is a lot. And they're certainly they have come under a barrage, and so far it's been, I don't know, 97% defended or close, certainly not 100%, but it's gotta be hard to keep up with that.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Well, I don't know that the Israelis are noted for their truth ethic when it comes to things like this, and who knows what damage is being done. I know that they're shutting down newspaper reporters and people like that that are trying to report more damage taking place than the government claims. We'll see. It'll all come out.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Uh-huh. Interesting. Now you you studied the region about which you write. So, in a general sense, is religion the main difference between western and middle eastern cultures? And if not, then what is?

SPEAKER_02 28:30

But Islam is there are 1.9 billion Muslims in the world. So Islam's a big player in the Middle East, 250 million or so around Israel, 6 million in Israel of Jews. So the Jews are well outnumbered by the Muslims in the area. And uh religion is playing a big deal. I'm skeptical that Saudi Arabia will tolerate the uh ethnic cleansing that's going on right now in the West Bank of Gaza. You can't kill three million Palestinians, three million Muslims expect to be friends with Saudi Arabia given how recently they've come around to a more liberal view of the world.

SPEAKER_03 29:17

You use the term ethnic cleansing, and I I hear the uh I hear the phrase uh used a lot of uh extermination and genocide. Genocide. Is that really an accurate term?

SPEAKER_02 29:36

Ethnic cleansing or genocide? Either. Well, genocide is certainly a relevant term, but the fact that almost everyone they're killing is a Muslim makes it ethnic cleansing when Palestine claims to be a separate nation, it's been recognized by the UN and all. Palestine won't be there if they kill everybody or nearly everybody in the West Bank in Gaza.

SPEAKER_03 30:02

You did mention that in the ending of uh your your latest book, The Mahdi, that the ending of it seemed to indicate you know uh a new a new awakening among Israel and the United States and Saudi Arabia. If you were to eventually write about a lasting peace in the Middle East, how would we get there?

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Well, I think we were on our way with the Abraham Accords, which did team Saudi Arabia, the US, and Israel together, bringing it to modernity. But I don't know how we get there right now. We have a long way to go with what's going on, getting Saudi Arabia back to the table. But I think that the reason Hamas did that atrocious massacre on October 7th was to stop that progress on the Abraham, of course. It didn't fit their agenda. They're Shiites. Shiites and Shiites and Sunnis didn't used to get along, they're getting along better now.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

Yes, I recall there being some tension between the two factions, uh, especially during the uh the war in Iraq.

SPEAKER_02 31:22

A million casualties, indeed, between the two of them.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

Right. Obviously, the uh for those who who may not know that the the Abraham Accords of which you speak were uh a hallmark of the first Trump administration as far as peacemaking goes. As Trump prepares to return to office in January, do you think there is already some back channel stuff going on between Israel and Saudi Arabia in preparation for that?

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Well, I think the attempts are being made, certainly from the U.S. too, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia would like a closer relationship with the U.S. than they have, and Israel has the closest relationship the United States has. So I'm sure the US and Saudis are talking. I would imagine the liberal side of Israel and the Saudis are talking. But I haven't seen anybody say, well, let's have a ceasefire and try and make that work. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

I'm not hearing calls for a ceasefire as often as I was before. Is it just the the news cycle has changed, or has the realization that a ceasefire isn't coming finally settled in?

SPEAKER_02 32:47

Well, Israel says there won't be a ceasefire until their goals are achieved. And that's a long way to go in Gaza, even farther with Hezbollah. So I I think I I read to Hochstein, the the US envoy that's I think it's Amos Hochstein, something like that. He's saying there he's optimistic. Well, that's what diplomats say when there's nothing going on. And uh you get the same double talk from Israel. We're making progress. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

Now that the leaders of Hamas have been asked to leave Qatar, Qatar will probably not be hosting any types of truce talks between those factions that are involved there. Where do you see that progressing? As do we need a another third country to volunteer to be a host of that of those negotiations?

SPEAKER_02 33:51

I don't think it'd be trouble finding someone to ask, but right now the Egyptians seem to be at the head of the line in that. They they're involved in those conversations and they were involved in the ones with Abram Cord. And they're right on the border of Israel. I mean, that's the traditional enemy of uh of Israel. Of course, Nasser tried to fix that, and then he got assassinated. But uh it's there's still a pretty good relationship between Egypt and Israel.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

Your bio says you endowed the Robert E. Cook Honors College at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, an institution celebrated in Donald Asher's cool colleges for the hyperintelligent, late blooming, and just plain different. Which, if not all of those, are you? I'm certainly a light late bloomer.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

I mean, I'm not hyper intelligent. Yeah, I've met a lot of guys smarter than I am, and even more women. But uh I am different, so uh two of the three, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 35:04

Two of the three, huh? Okay. So a late bloomer. Now, does that mean you do you now underestimate the maturity you gained as an army major during the Vietnam War?

SPEAKER_02 35:18

Well, that was early blossoming. Maybe not bloomed yet, but it was early blossoming. And the thing about the military was that I didn't anticipate. When you are a lieutenant, you're given $25 million with equipment, 204 people, and you're responsible for all they do or fail to do. And when you make the first mistake, they say, hey, don't worry about it. It's okay. Here's the way you should have done it. And then if you do it again, they go whack, whack, whack. And you learn quickly that you should think about what you're doing, and that's part of blossoming, I think.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Okay. I just uh I just had to ask that. Uh that's the which which of those three might you be. So just just uh elite blooming and and plain different.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

Well, yeah, the honors college was at least the early stages of my idea of how we're doing it, and that was I would like to teach the same way we taught the Ivies in the 19th and earliest 20th century, which was the Western intellectual tradition. And and that's the way the honors college is taught for two years. You get two years of really good liberal education, and then you're in central Pennsylvania, so you have another two years to learn to do something because your parents expect you to have a job when you get out of there, and a good job. So it all came together in the in the honors college, and it it's been a good thing. It's been 4,000 kids that are a lot more capable, no smarter, but a lot more capable, good critical thinkers out in the world, and that's what we need. Critical thinking, capable people.

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Um, since you brought it up, critical thinking, in relation to the most recent election, it seems like the Democrats are doing some critical thinking right now about what may have gone wrong. How did you see it?

SPEAKER_02 37:27

I saw it as inevitable, and and I recall when the Republicans were in the same boat and couldn't figure out what they did wrong, and they figured it out. And the Democrats they went way to the left, and the populace wasn't there. And I don't believe they're gonna get any place soon to where they need to be. They've lost the momentum in the blacks, they've lost momentum in the votes of the Latinos, and those are solid, solid democratic voting blocks. And so Trump cleaned their clock. It was just, I mean, this is a mandate. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with Matt Getz being attorney general and Hageseth being the Secretary of Defense, when neither one of them have a background that would imply that they at least let's be infer that they would be capable of those jobs.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

I think uh another faction that the Democrats have have lost momentum with is men. In fact, I had a guest on on the listening tube podcast uh a little while back who who was a man from San Francisco who whose mission it is to get more men into the Democratic Party. And he and I I said, Well, I said, Well, are you trying to get more men to join the Democratic Party? He goes, No, I'm trying to get the Democratic Party to be more attractive to men. Good line. And that the this there's a there's a very stark difference between those two dynamics. And um, I think he was right. The Democratic Party seems to have abandoned men in many ways, and I think it all started when they when a Supreme Court justice nominee couldn't define a woman.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

I don't know when it started, but it it the thing that sticks in my mind is what the women I know that voted for Trump said before the election, which is I don't want a man in my daughter's locker room. I don't care what they call him. A fully equipped man is not supposed to be in that locker room running around you know waving himself around. And that was a big, big deal. I think the Democrats still have college-educated men, but they don't have the rest of them.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

Is there anything you'd like to share with our listeners that I didn't ask you about?

SPEAKER_02 40:07

Well, right now, my third book's in play, and it's Pulse. And that's one where the United States does a preemptive attack on Iran to keep Iran from nuking Israel. So it's coming into back into it, being a modern book, uh, contemporaneous serendipitously timed. And it's worth a try. So you have the Mahdi, the current one is about Israel. The one before is about Iran, the two are coming together on the world stage. Other than that, I think it's been a fun conversation, and we should do it again sometime.

unknown 40:46

All right.

SPEAKER_03 40:47

Well, I hope so. Yeah, we'll we'll certainly keep an eye on uh on things that are going on over there, and I I'm I'm sure you'll be inspired to keep writing by it all.

SPEAKER_02 40:57

Well, I hope so. We'll see what happens. But uh I've enjoyed the time spent with you. You ask good questions.

SPEAKER_03 41:04

Thank you, Robert. I appreciate that. To learn more about Robert Cook, or if you're interested in his nubbbles, visit RobertCooknobles.com. Thanks to Robert Cook for spending time in the listening tube. Thank you for putting your ear to the listening to support the show or text leave.