2 Men In Black and White: An Honest Conversation

MARK HAYES (00:05.924)
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another exciting edition of Two Men in Black and White, an Honest Conversation. We are just watching the development. Every day it's, wow, just an incredible shit show from Washington. And you never know what's gonna fall out of there, man. It has become the toilet bowl of all time politics with a clown car. Just.

driving the freaking thing right off the cliff. They've got no toilet paper for this shit show and there's nobody there to clean anything up. That's the problem. Thanks again all you triple fucking Trumpers. All right, let's get right to it. Brock Ganellis is here with me now, not in the lovely confines of the upper Hudson River Valley. He's chilling around the way today down on 125th.

And in Harlem town, Harlem, USA, man, what a beautiful town. You just got to love Harlem, man. I mean, it's eclectic, it's colorful. It's so corporate now. I remember a time when it wasn't so much so. After our St. Columbinus basketball games, my parents used to rush me down to Harlem for art lessons. And I'd be like, why do we have to drive an hour for art lessons? It made me crazy.

Brock Ganeles (01:26.862)
you

MARK HAYES (01:31.544)
But what are you doing in Harlem, bro?

Brock Ganeles (01:33.774)
Okay, so my wife's at an event and I tagged along. So I'm spending the night in the city and you're right walked up and I'm actually staying on 125th street right next to the Apollo, Apollo theater and hotels. But yeah, I mean, we walked up and down the street, right? It's Target. It's Whole Foods. It's, you know, there's actually a Victoria's Secret. I thought that they'd shut down. Is that like the last Victoria's Secret store left? It's right there on 125th street. When we get to Quick Hits, I'm going to ask

MARK HAYES (01:38.146)
Okay.

MARK HAYES (01:46.133)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

MARK HAYES (01:52.376)
Starbucks.

MARK HAYES (02:00.152)
There's a couple, know.

Brock Ganeles (02:03.728)
you couple of questions. One is I'm embarrassed to say I'm on 125th and Adam Clayton Boulevard and I don't know who Adam Clayton is. I know it's terrible right? I had to say that to my wife as we're walking down because I'm like it because it's the corner of MLK Boulevard and Adam Clayton Boulevard and I was like I got no history. don't know. We can either dive into that now or we can come back to that that tutorial.

MARK HAYES (02:11.46)
What?

MARK HAYES (02:23.095)
Right.

MARK HAYES (02:30.628)
We'll come back to it. There's so much to do. Yeah. We're in a war. don't know what the hell's going on.

Brock Ganeles (02:32.878)
There's a lot going on, right? We're in a war in the Middle East. My historical naivete, that just goes to show that black figures aren't really highlighted in your suburban white upbringing history lessons.

MARK HAYES (02:46.979)
Well, remember...

Yeah, the victors write the history books, right?

Brock Ganeles (02:54.37)
So who's going to be writing the history books in the Middle East? Because clearly, Iran gave us the big middle finger in announcing Khomeini's son as the new leader, right? As hardline as the father. So we basically just inserted a younger version of a maniacal cleric. So we didn't.

MARK HAYES (02:58.136)
Doesn't sound like us.

Brock Ganeles (03:20.334)
no regime change right it's a regime continuation so they're basically

MARK HAYES (03:21.188)
We do anything. Yeah, we didn't do anything. My goodness, that's what we're doing now.

Brock Ganeles (03:27.054)
Yeah, they basically said, Hey, we're going to this, you better be in for the long haul because we're not making any concessions. So I guess we're going to be bombing more and more. But what I notice is like, from my read, total indecision on Trump's part. I don't think he knows what direction to go now. Cause the market's tanking oil prices are high. He's trying to call us all like wimps because we can't handle our prices. Right. So there goes the affordability argument. Um, we're bombing us in Israel. We're bombing like.

water treatment plants and other civilian facilities that are supposed to be off limits in the rules of engagement. We've blown through that. We don't care about any of that. But Iran shut down the, in essence, the global oil market. So they're crippling the global economy. So we're bombing them, but they're kind of winning, right? Like they're dying, but they're kind of winning because

MARK HAYES (04:10.652)
here.

Brock Ganeles (04:26.934)
they're inflicting more pain on the West than we're inflicting on them. Yeah, we killed a bunch of people, but we killed an 86-year-old leader. I mean...

MARK HAYES (04:31.383)
Yep, then we are.

MARK HAYES (04:35.854)
Well,

MARK HAYES (04:40.118)
Here's the thing Brock, again, what's my famous saying? You can't kill your way to peace, right? You can't kill off a generation of thinking and ideology. And, you know, there are reports now out of Germany and Landstuhl, the hospital there, that so many bodies and KIAs are coming that they had to shut it down and say, we can't take anymore. That's a problem for us.

If we're losing that many soldiers, because nobody's talking about it, nobody's reporting it.

Brock Ganeles (05:15.118)
Now we're only like eight on the official report.

MARK HAYES (05:17.844)
Exactly. So, I mean, how many bodies does it take to shut down a military hospital? That's a lot.

Brock Ganeles (05:24.718)
think a lot. So that has to be from the drones. That's,

probably part of why we're calling more and more of our embassies home. So we're retreating from the region. So once again, if we're winning, we're winning, but we're running away. Yeah, we're running away by while winning. So still no end game, still no really strategic vision of how this plays out. Still, you know, in essence, a green light to Israel to bomb really pretty much anywhere in the region.

MARK HAYES (05:30.637)
Yes!

MARK HAYES (05:40.31)
In the price.

MARK HAYES (05:58.702)
What you feel like? Yeah.

Brock Ganeles (06:00.448)
I mean, you know, Lebanon's getting decimated as well along the way here.

MARK HAYES (06:06.02)
And as long as you've got a compromise on the Trumpster, you can do anything you want and make the US go along with you. You know, who's privy to those conversations? Who knows exactly, you know, what they have on him? I bet the CIA knows. I bet the information is that, well, the information was there when Patel and Bondi and those lunatic gangsters. They're probably gone now.

Brock Ganeles (06:31.542)
Yeah, there's no doubt. There's a lot of people that know what's it. I mean, that's why there's so many people involved in the cover up, right? Because that's so many people know.

MARK HAYES (06:38.276)
Thank you.

Brock Ganeles (06:42.926)
I they're probably afraid to be the one to leak it, although you said you're hearing some rumblings that there's, that there could be some leakage of additional Epstein files. Before you get there though, where Trump is winning, saw a story today that like two days ago, as of two days ago, Google searches for the Epstein files had declined like 96 % week over week, right? Which was the, right? The week before was all about Epstein files. Go to war in Iran, any American people,

MARK HAYES (07:09.976)
Right.

Brock Ganeles (07:12.88)
attention changes and you know no one's digging and so like I don't know yeah I don't know if that exact data is correct but directionally there's no doubt like that was a tangible way of tracking America's attention. You're hearing that things may be leaked.

MARK HAYES (07:17.582)
because we got the attention span of a gnat, right? Because we're idiots.

MARK HAYES (07:29.462)
Right. Right.

Yeah, so on the Iran 24 Twitter account, don't know how official it is, but there are reports that Anonymous has its hands on the entire Epstein files and is planning to release them. Now we know Anonymous doesn't fuck around. You know, they play, you know, for keeps. And it would be great if

They kept their word because what they're saying on this video on the Twitter is that they're going to release the files and all the names of everyone implicated. that means red, blue, independent, yellow, whatever you are, they don't care. at that point, now the question is what happens, right? What happens?

Brock Ganeles (08:26.422)
What happens? Yeah, no one's... I mean...

MARK HAYES (08:28.856)
Who's gonna be held accountable? Is Donald Trump finally gonna meet justice for the accusation of raping this child and not only SA-ing her, but physically assaulting her as well? I mean, that's an ugly account.

Brock Ganeles (08:51.118)
Yeah, I don't see how while he's still in power the mechanism is going to be in place to hold him to any account, right? Because DOJ will fire anyone, FBI will fire anyone, CIA will fire anyone. Like there's no law enforcement agent that's going to be able to work independently unless some of the states

But even if the states go after the president, he'll hide behind whatever that Supreme Court ruling was. Like, I just don't see the mechanism. Get them. It's just going to have to be popular opinion and more rumblings from the people that works its way to, God forbid, the media. And we get to the point where it just makes it hard for Trump to...

MARK HAYES (09:31.321)
Right.

MARK HAYES (09:37.656)
No.

Brock Ganeles (09:41.218)
do business because he can't cut through the noise. Like his word gets lost in the shuffle of everyone just wanting to talk about the Epstein files.

MARK HAYES (09:42.722)
Yes.

Right.

MARK HAYES (09:49.763)
Yeah.

MARK HAYES (09:53.368)
Yeah. And here's the thing, Brock. His dementia is really getting out of hand. He's got zero ability to stay on task. That speech that he blithered through earlier today was just, I mean, he was up there, up on stage grunting again and making the noises again. he's all over the place.

I don't know if they've got the prompter in front of him or not, if he's telling them to turn it off, but man, he can't stay with it. And because I can't imagine somebody has written, you know, the shit that he's saying because he's so far, so far gone and so far all over the place and, and, you know, and just not making any sense. And I just can't, I can't understand how America says, okay, well, yeah, this is, this is awesome.

Like who is saying, we got like 22 % of the population saying that this guy is, you know, the bee's knees. Like, what the fuck are we doing, bro?

the are we doing?

Brock Ganeles (11:03.874)
Okay.

And we had a huge affordability problem already, right? Everyone was already squeezed. And now anyone who has to drive to work where that's a part of their commute and has to be factored into their own personal profit and loss statement, right? To keep their head above water now is adding you're driving a hundred miles. Your gas is up 40 cents, right? You're adding another 40 bucks and that's chipping away. Like that becomes like,

MARK HAYES (11:14.818)
Ugh.

MARK HAYES (11:31.214)
D'ah!

Brock Ganeles (11:34.304)
you know, maybe half a day's work, right? Just slipping out, slipping out, like, what's that? One less.

think about how many less groceries that means or you know how much insulin that means right to just have money going out the door in another direction because your cost of living just went up in a way that you can't avoid it not a luxury item day to day I need this to get to work item much more expensive than it was just a week ago for no real apparent reason and it's not just oil prices right it's gonna work its way through because all the corporations that have energy

MARK HAYES (11:59.768)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brock Ganeles (12:15.056)
resources out of the part of their inputs are now going to raise prices because they're not going to want to take the hit. So here we go again. Same like with the tariffs. It's going to get passed along. I mean we're only a week into it. We feel it at the pump first.

MARK HAYES (12:25.646)
Yep. Pass it on.

Right, right. And it's so frustrating. I went to the pump this morning, I was on my way out, about to jump in that traffic that's just so maddening. And God almighty, I filled up the tank and it just, I mean, 50, 60 cents in a week for no reason, nobody can tell us why.

Nobody can tell us why we're doing this. know, because today he was like, yeah, you know, we had to go in and this has just been a, you know, perfect operation and, you know, but we had to go in because we just couldn't wait any longer.

Brock Ganeles (13:11.404)
Yeah, because they were a threat, because they were going to attack us, because the nukes that we supposedly had wiped out, you know, six to 12 months ago. So he couldn't use that argument again, right? Because he'd already bragged about that success.

MARK HAYES (13:25.132)
Right. It's frustrating. Again, there are no adults in the room.

Brock Ganeles (13:32.44)
They're telling us in the chat utilities going up to across the country, right? Electricity. Even in my little town, there's a big dispute about like the delivery charges from the oil company, right? Because everyone's trying to figure out a way to offset their own costs. So they're nickel diamond and hitting up the consumers at the end any which way that they can. So I mean, this story, it's another story. The economy's hardly been discussed either because of the Iran war with the horrendous unemployment numbers.

MARK HAYES (13:45.496)
Come at it, right? Right?

Brock Ganeles (14:02.444)
and what appears to be pretty high likelihood that we're in recession, if not on the brink of recession.

MARK HAYES (14:09.539)
Right.

MARK HAYES (14:13.688)
We're in there. We're in a recession. We're in there.

Brock Ganeles (14:15.244)
Feels like we're in it, right? It feels like we're in it. Which usually means we're in it, but the statistics haven't shown it yet. And or the statistics are being manipulated, right? Like we're, you know.

MARK HAYES (14:25.028)
Yeah, yeah, we're not getting the proper information, accurate information, let me say. They don't want to say it. Anyway.

Brock Ganeles (14:36.798)
Anywhere, anywhere. We're trying to blame Iran for blowing up their own elementary school. That's Trump's argument. Hegseth even was like, well, we're investigating. But Trump came over the top of him and just said, no, it was Iran that did it. We know he's lying, but he's just trying to not be responsible for a wartime atrocity on day one of the bombings.

MARK HAYES (14:42.884)
Thank

MARK HAYES (15:01.728)
Right. And Brock, the thing about it is that they don't have any regard for humanity. That's frustrating. There's no America first piece to this. So I thought the whole thing behind Trump

and his newfound popularity was, we're going to take care of America first and Americans first. Well, how did Israel get $33 billion for their health care and ours got cut? I saw that in a rant that went viral yesterday. And I was like, Israel got $33 billion and we got shit?

How, make it make sense. the Epstein files. Hmm. You either give us the money or we start letting some of these pictures flow. See, this is why you can't have morally corrupt people in leadership because they're subject to blackmail all day long. And think about who can blackmail him every country. Right. Every single country.

Brock Ganeles (16:22.376)
Anyone who had anyone could. But Mark, none of the arguments hold up, right? Because part of why we couldn't give as many weapons to Ukraine was because, you know, look at the cost that we're bearing. Why does America have to bear this cost? A, Europe needs to spend more money. But like, why? Why are we? We're America first. Why are we giving so much to say to Ukraine? But yet.

MARK HAYES (16:48.995)
Right.

Brock Ganeles (16:50.828)
then we go in and fight this war in Iran. At least in Ukraine, we can make an argument. We're defending democracy. Then we go fight this war in Iran. It's on a per day basis, 10 to 20 times what we were given to Ukraine. So not only is it our soldiers that are being put at risk and they're dying, but it's so much more costly. So the argument of America first, it was a fraud just like everything that Trump says is ultimately a lie.

MARK HAYES (17:06.884)
Alright.

Brock Ganeles (17:20.752)
and a fraud. It was just a way to get white America to think that they should be focused on kicking out the brown people and that their lives were going to get better because we were going to whiten up America and we're not going to spend on other people. But the money was never going to get spent on the people. Trump was just going to figure out a way to siphon off as much of it as he could. And he's continuing to do that. You see, like Don Jr. and Eric are starting a company that's getting involved with drone technology from

MARK HAYES (17:32.216)
Hmm.

MARK HAYES (17:37.699)
Mm-hmm.

MARK HAYES (17:43.395)
Right.

MARK HAYES (17:47.225)
Police!

Brock Ganeles (17:50.674)
Ukraine. mean there's so much fucking scam shit going on in that family that part of it never stops. Never stops. But the question will still come down to when when do the American people fed up enough?

MARK HAYES (18:01.485)
Ugh.

Brock Ganeles (18:08.302)
to actually act and do something. We're getting little things. We were talking, I don't if I mentioned at the top of the show offline about this congressman in California in CA3, which is like the Northern California on the border of like Utah district has stepped away from the Republican party or resigned from the party to become an independent.

MARK HAYES (18:11.938)
Right.

MARK HAYES (18:32.696)
Hmm.

Brock Ganeles (18:33.644)
Which I think is funny. It's almost like this is he you know, it's funny. Is he trickeration of the voters like the voters won't know he's not the same guy and now they'll vote for him because he's an independent instead of voting for the Democrat. I mean, it seems a little bit of a Hail Mary to try to stay in office against these shifting winds of voter sentiment. But it doesn't bode well for Mike Johnson in terms of.

you know, what is his, you know, advantage now? Is he one person, two people? Like how many votes does he actually have on anything if we're ever gonna vote on anything?

MARK HAYES (19:13.398)
Right. Right.

bro, like this is this is maddening like everywhere we turn their fucking things up Everywhere they can't get anything right They haven't fixed anything for the American people You know Yeah, who's that? My friends call me go. Yeah, he's stealing the midterms that's happening So, you know America exploding I don't know about that part, but he's stealing the midterms. Definitely. He knows he can't

But they've done nothing for the American people. Why do they think the American people want more of this? Again, you can't eat your racism. Your racism won't feed you or your hungry baby or your hungry children. Your SNAP benefits are getting cut. So if you're hungry, the government's not gonna help you eat. And if you're well-to-do white folk and you're stuck in the Middle East, the government's not gonna help you get home.

Government doesn't give a shit about the 99 % of us. In any aspect of our lives, from our lifespan to our health, to our healthcare, to our finances, nothing that gives no shits about us.

Brock Ganeles (20:37.58)
Yeah, this is really Israel and Saudi Arabia's war that we're fighting on their behalf. So like this really is not America's, you know, this is really just not America's war. Like the American people, Trump will not be able to get the American people to buy into this war. So I think he's even starting to figure it out, which is why he's wavering. I think he's already starting to figure, look for an exit ramp.

MARK HAYES (20:43.82)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brock Ganeles (21:07.825)
But there's not gonna be I mean he'll declare victory one of these days mark. He'll declare victory

MARK HAYES (21:08.068)
Mmm.

Brock Ganeles (21:13.73)
We won't know what we won, but he'll declare it because he's not going to be able to sell enough people on this. And at some point, even Israel's needs are going to start wearing him down and he'll feel like he's done enough for Netanyahu. I think that's going to come sooner rather than later. I do not see us staying in a protracted engagement here. It's just such a loser in terms of politically.

MARK HAYES (21:38.723)
Yeah. Well, did you catch him earlier this afternoon? He was backtracking big time talking. yeah. You're down in Harlem, USA. Down there Harlem shaking with it. But yeah, he's backtracking big time. Say, we're so far ahead in our four to five week timeline. And we're doing such good work.

Brock Ganeles (21:45.868)
No, no, I didn't see anything today. was traveling to New York. was walking around Harlem, walking around Harlem.

MARK HAYES (22:06.66)
We might be done with this thing. He's basically surrendering because there is no path to victory Yeah, yeah

Brock Ganeles (22:09.55)
Oh, because he, oh, he's pretending like he went into it with a four to five week timeline. And this was always just going to be a short engagement. yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we're going to roll out of there with the guy's son now running Iran and just, you know, a bunch of, you know, oil prices, $40 a barrel higher than they were before and declare victory because he saved America because of that imminent, that imminent attack from Iran. He, he cut it off. Yeah. He cut it off.

MARK HAYES (22:16.994)
Right. Bullshit.

MARK HAYES (22:23.053)
Right.

MARK HAYES (22:36.152)
that was never kind of like the caravans that never got here. Are those caravans still coming from 2016?

Brock Ganeles (22:43.246)
Those caravans are going to be coming again in like August and September and October of next year.

MARK HAYES (22:47.917)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's crazy what we're dealing with now. Wow, this Iowa State Legislature thing is crazy. But look, Brock, we've, yeah.

Brock Ganeles (23:03.822)
Oh my god, infamectin. We've destroyed our healthcare system here in America. I mean, we've absolutely destroyed it. The fact that RFK Jr. is still in his seat, right? No mechanism to get rid of him. He's what, one 14 now, measles everywhere.

MARK HAYES (23:09.132)
How long is it going to take?

MARK HAYES (23:22.616)
Yeah, it's brought. How long is it going to take for us to repair the health care system that that's that's a mess.

Brock Ganeles (23:29.838)
We're going have to get these scientists coming back to the U.S. We're going to have to convince them this is the place they should come and do their research. You know, like there's so much that has to be done, right, to rebuild the infrastructure and the knowledge base that we've let slip away.

MARK HAYES (23:46.37)
Right.

Brock Ganeles (23:46.702)
Yeah, we, mean, it's, it's, this is like a, this is a Shakespearean tragedy we're living through, Mark, but we're not doing anything about it. So the weather's warmer now, right? It's going to be 75 degrees in New York City tomorrow. absurd. Yes. I mean, everyone should be ready to march in historically huge numbers in some serious, serious shutdown, the government and society type of protest.

MARK HAYES (23:54.872)
No.

MARK HAYES (24:00.6)
Really?

MARK HAYES (24:09.508)
You're right.

Brock Ganeles (24:16.655)
I mean, I know there's a no Kings protest coming up. think in a couple weeks is a 27th maybe I mean, it's just that we can't even talk about numbers at like 10 million like we got to about like 20 30 million people on the streets like 30 million like 10 % almost getting up to 10 % of the population not this three and a half percent bullshit that some you know, someone wrote a fucking thesis paper

MARK HAYES (24:23.684)
Mm-hmm.

MARK HAYES (24:32.46)
Right. That's what we need. 10 % of population. Good.

Brock Ganeles (24:46.576)
on and said that, if you get 3.5 % of the people protesting, that usually means it's going to topple the leader within five years, like as if we have five years. like 3.5 % in America doesn't mean shit. We're too spread out. It's a bunch of, it's a bunch of small meaningless, you know, walks in the park scattered around the country. Trump doesn't even notice he's out playing his 18 holes of golf, which by the way, he keeps playing throughout the war. Like literally doesn't even have the

MARK HAYES (24:56.524)
Yeah, right.

Right.

MARK HAYES (25:06.083)
Right.

MARK HAYES (25:12.129)
Right.

Brock Ganeles (25:16.496)
even read the room enough to not go out and fucking play golf like a day after wearing his golf hat to Dover for the for the dead soldiers.

MARK HAYES (25:20.194)
Well.

MARK HAYES (25:25.41)
Yeah, yeah, right. I mean, how, how, how boorish, how?

Brock Ganeles (25:31.564)
Fox News had to doctor the video, right? They couldn't even show it. They had to show old video of him at Dover because they didn't even want to show their viewers how like what a chump and how bushy he is.

MARK HAYES (25:36.257)
Ha

Right.

MARK HAYES (25:43.872)
Right. Right.

MARK HAYES (25:48.376)
Yeah, he's such a

Brock Ganeles (25:49.824)
All right, Patty, got to, yeah, we're gonna stay positive here. We're gonna stay positive because if we protest and show energy and get on the offensive, we can be disruptive and we can feel like we are grinding this regime to a halt and we'll also get encouraged by our own numbers.

MARK HAYES (26:04.783)
Right.

MARK HAYES (26:09.654)
Right. And yeah, that would be amazing. All right. Let's get.

Brock Ganeles (26:17.006)
So speaking of numbers, noticed right away as soon as I parked my car and I walked in Harlem, it's like it's mostly black, but you know, probably maybe even more white people than I expected. But as I'm walking...

MARK HAYES (26:27.619)
Yeah.

MARK HAYES (26:36.478)
yeah!

Brock Ganeles (26:36.98)
As I'm walking back, this woman walks by me, she's wearing the earbuds. And you know, people will always talk too loud when they're walking down the street, when they're in a conversation with the earbuds thing. So she maybe gets like three steps past me and I hear saying to whoever she's talking to, like, a lot of white people up here today. I was still with an ear shot and I heard it.

MARK HAYES (26:41.188)
Uh-huh.

MARK HAYES (26:44.632)
Yeah.

MARK HAYES (26:55.467)
hahahaha

Brock Ganeles (26:58.958)
And it me to thinking, it's like, I wonder how many times Mark Hayes has heard like white people say like, damn, a of black people up here, right? And I'm like, a lot? Cause I was like, I think I've only seen like, you know, five or six. with this one. But I...

MARK HAYES (26:59.652)
Thank

MARK HAYES (27:11.936)
Right, right, right. Yeah, mean, you know, look, Harlem is one of the great enclaves in America, man. So much history there, you know, and, and it, man, it's just a beautiful place. I don't care when you go there, night, daytime, it's bustling, it's hustling. It's just a beautiful, it's just a beautiful city, man.

Brock Ganeles (27:38.424)
But I'm gonna admit, I gotta say I'm less comfortable. Right? Yeah, I don't, because maybe I'm surrounded by people who don't look like me. It's maybe built into me, maybe it's so ingrained in my head from youth that I'm always really wary when I'm in the city, because I'm a suburban kid, so I've never, even living in New York City, ever felt comfortable and safe in the city.

MARK HAYES (27:43.334)
huh. Why?

MARK HAYES (28:02.649)
And who did that to us, Brock? Who did that to us?

Brock Ganeles (28:06.274)
I mean, the cartoons that we grew up with, the TV shows, Starsky and Hutch and every police show that I ever watched in my entire life.

MARK HAYES (28:09.399)
and the media.

Immediately. Yep. Yep. You're exactly right.

Brock Ganeles (28:17.101)
I definitely felt a little bit more wary, a little less comfortable, maybe felt a little bit less safe. So I think there's things even as hard as I try to not be racist, right? There's definitely a different feeling up here. I'll be here for a few days. I'll see if I get more comfortable as the days go on. But I figured I would share that with you or admit that to you that that is, it's, you know, it's in there somewhere.

MARK HAYES (28:41.25)
Yeah.

It's interesting you say that. It's interesting you say that because I've been the only one in a room many, many times. I can't tell you how

Brock Ganeles (28:57.248)
I was thinking of you as I was thinking it to myself. Like, Mark goes through this all the time.

MARK HAYES (29:02.636)
Yeah. And I can't tell you how many times I went to bars with our high school classmates and I was the only one in there. And we went to one bar where those guys were the only ones in there and they had each other. they still really never got a feel for it. But, you know, I never let it bother me.

you know, unless there's some sort of confrontation going on and then I get concerned about the numbers. But, you know, because my parents walked through it, right, and didn't flinch, right, I learned to, right? It was never a big deal that we were the only ones there. You know, we'd go out to dinner in Peekskill. We'd be the only ones there. You know, Reef and Beef was one of my favorite restaurants growing up.

And oftentimes we go in there and it was us. And so you look around and you start to, and again, Brock, that's why it is such a blessing to have parents who don't ruin you and don't ruin your feelings for humanity and for others just because they don't look like you. And I was blessed in that regard.

I never heard my parents grew up in segregated South and I never heard them talk about white folk this or white folk that. And you know, they always, my dad always had a strategy. Well, then you've got to do this. If they do this, you've got to do this. And to me, that's how I tried to raise my kids. And you know, and you know, my wife was on the same page as well.

Brock Ganeles (30:54.414)
Well, I've walked around a lot. just kind of thinking like, I mean, I live 50 blocks away from here, but it was almost like a world away, right? 73th to 125th street, right? Like just, but just seeing things that are different even about the neighborhood. Like there's a lot of places that do braiding, right? No braiding up in the upper Hudson river valley, right? Nor was there, nor down on 72nd street where I used to live.

MARK HAYES (31:00.493)
Yes.

MARK HAYES (31:11.3)
Mm-hmm.

MARK HAYES (31:15.46)
There's no brain chops in Rhineback.

Brock Ganeles (31:23.618)
There was the black barbershop with all people sitting around in it. I walked by. It was good.

MARK HAYES (31:27.776)
Nope. Hey, if you need a haircut, stumble into a black barbershop, man. They'll cut your hair, and they'll do a night. They'll fade you up. They'll give you a nice cut. Good.

Brock Ganeles (31:37.305)
I buzzed it myself. But I did feel embarrassed, as I said at the top of the show, when I was on the corner of Martin Luther King Drive and Adam Clayton Boulevard. And I'm like, why don't I know who Adam Clayton is? I should know. Yeah. He's important enough that the entire Boulevard is named after him up here.

MARK HAYES (31:48.438)
I'm okay and

because nobody touched it. You can't know if you weren't shown.

MARK HAYES (32:02.585)
Exactly. He was the first African-American congressman from New York. He was a pastor in Harlem, had a big church down there, big following. And he's a lot older than us. by the time, he passed away, I want to say, in the mid to late 70s. So we weren't really paying attention back then.

Brock Ganeles (32:28.312)
Okay.

MARK HAYES (32:31.052)
But he was pivotal in the civil rights movement. You know, one of the well-known names fought for legislation for Black Americans in LBJ's presidency. you know, like I, look, I only know who he was because my parents took me to Harlem all the time. We lived in the Bronx. And, you know, when I said, who's this guy, you know, or if I saw a picture of him, you know, they would explain to me who he is.

And again, my parents bought African-American history books. So when we were kids, we would read about historic African-American figures. And Madam C.J. Walker, the first Black female millionaire, and people like that. The members of our fraternity, like Reverend Jesse Jackson, and so many of the people that

gave so much to American history, but got so little attention for it. so it's all about understanding. It's all about getting out of your comfort zone, like I always say. And now you don't even have to leave your home. You get on Netflix, but you should.

Brock Ganeles (33:52.655)
You don't have to, but you should.

Cause it's just interesting walking around the street cause people are just, you know, maybe dressed a little different. It's like there's a different energy and vibe in this neighborhood than I usually get when I come to the city where I'm in midtown most of the time. Right. I'm going into grand central. I'm in, you know, midtown. It's just, it's just different, but it is a little, it is, it is kind of mixed as that black woman said. Maybe there's a lot of people up here.

MARK HAYES (34:06.241)
Right.

MARK HAYES (34:10.926)
Right.

MARK HAYES (34:20.771)
Yeah. Yeah. And think about it too. Remember, Bill Clinton had office space in Harlem when he got out of office in 2000. the real estate has come back in Harlem, know, bigly.

Brock Ganeles (34:28.237)
Yeah.

Brock Ganeles (34:37.026)
Yeah, yeah. I mean, like you said, it's ultra commercial in this little four or five block radius, particularly is like just almost absurd in how many stores there are. Right. Magic Johnson's got his theater up here.

MARK HAYES (34:43.492)
Mm-hmm.

MARK HAYES (34:48.14)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

MARK HAYES (34:53.878)
Starbucks. Yeah.

Brock Ganeles (34:55.156)
out everywhere. It's almost like there's too many chains because I was actually going out looking to find some food. I wanted to find like a local place where I could do takeout and it's almost like it was too much like the big big box type of restaurants almost you know which I'm always disappointing because like the neighborhood loses some flavor when it becomes generic like that.

MARK HAYES (34:59.224)
Yeah.

MARK HAYES (35:10.456)
Right.

MARK HAYES (35:18.036)
Yeah, if you get a chance, I think it's on Nicholas. I'm going to text my people. But there's a place called Famous Fish Market. apparently the fish is, well, when I had it, was phenomenal. So yeah, it's good eating. Matter of fact.

Brock Ganeles (35:37.728)
Okay, yeah, shoot me. Yeah, shoot it to me. I I actually want to find places like that. Yep.

MARK HAYES (35:45.079)
I saw the New York Times do a feature on it on their YouTube page. So I'll shoot that over to you. You'll know it won't be hard to find either. Well, all right, my friend, you guys enjoy your evening in Harlem, USA. And we'll check in, rag it up tomorrow and see how Donald Trump is.

Brock Ganeles (36:03.394)
Okay, before we hop, we got Pee-Wack in the chat saying her high school only had one black kid in Iowa. And Frank called me ghosted. His was like his neighborhood majority black. But you know, kind of interesting, right? Cause there's not that many mixed societies in America, right? As we talk about, very few truly mixed.

MARK HAYES (36:09.853)
wow.

MARK HAYES (36:16.6)
Wow.

Yeah.

MARK HAYES (36:23.053)
No!

MARK HAYES (36:27.884)
Yep. Yep. But it was all by design. Levittown was one of the first segregated neighborhoods in America where the covenants forbid them from selling the black and brown folk. So matter of fact, there's a great documentary out on Levittown over there in Long Island on how that all came to be. Yeah.

Brock Ganeles (36:54.124)
How it happen? Yeah, I don't know that story very well. Because white guys, I don't know the story because we just figured that was normal. We wouldn't even think about it, right? I was just, that's, it just happened. It just happened that way. My core anchors, core anchors had no black families in it. I swear to God, never thought about why that was.

MARK HAYES (36:57.752)
Yeah, let me tell me.

no black people live here. Yeah. All right.

MARK HAYES (37:16.44)
Well, mean, and then think about it, like all the Black families at Walter Panis, except for two or three here and there, you know, came from from Waterbury Manor. And and that was and and my I told you my dad and his fraternity brother said, hey, they're letting us buy houses up in this, you know, place called Peekskill. You need to go check it out. Because my father has like five fraternity, but like Rick's dad.

Brock Ganeles (37:25.774)
One neighborhood.

MARK HAYES (37:45.348)
Mr. Green, Mr. Dern, Mr. Burks, he got like six fraternity brothers and they all moved into the same neighborhood because that was where they would allow them to purchase. So, you know, it's interesting when you look back at it, you know, and see how all this stuff was designed. And we were none the wiser when we were growing up.

Brock Ganeles (38:09.102)
Yeah, I just wonder how much real change has happened. don't know. Certainly not enough. Not enough for the country to feel integrated. I mean, we wouldn't have gotten to where we are today if we felt, if we actually lived together over time. But yeah, I guess we can pick up on that tomorrow.

MARK HAYES (38:13.623)
Bye.

No, not at all.

MARK HAYES (38:24.068)
Right, right. And that's part of All right, buddy. Have a great night. We'll talk soon. Yes, sir. Peace. All righty.

Brock Ganeles (38:30.638)
All right, Marco, it's a pleasure. All right, talk to you tomorrow.

MARK HAYES (38:37.923)
you