During this episode of No Laughing Matter with Cuba Pete, he hosts award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien. They will discuss how well-intended laws can, at times, create significant challenges for poor and middle class Americans. Soledad has produced documentaries related to substance abuse, the criminal justice system and veterans affairs that detail many of these challenges. The goal of their discussion will be to explore the role physicians can play in identifying laws that harm us and how to advocate for change.
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https://www.matteroffact.tv/about-soledad/#
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Cuba Pete (00:00):
Welcome to Cuba, Pete, from studio way in Las Vegas. No laughing matter today. I am honored to have one of the most respected journalists in this country and the world actually, who actually was a Newsweek magazine. If I'm not mistaken. Soledad named you, one of the 15 people that make our country great,
Soledad O'Brien (00:21):
Is it bad that I always think like why 15 doesn't 15 to seem like a weird,
Cuba Pete (00:27):
She was number one, Soldead is one of the most impressive people I have ever met in my life. She's honest. She's brilliant. She has a deep sense of social justice.
Luther Brewster (00:39):
Here comes the love fest, here comes the love fest.
Soledad O'Brien (00:39):
Are we recording this?
Luther Brewster (00:43):
We are, we are..
Luther Brewster (00:46):
Yes then you'll have your turn to, to love on him. Just wait.
Cuba Pete (00:50):
Shes won three MESP body, the DuPont, then the Gracie award. If I'm not mistaken, she is, uh, has her own show and she has her own production company, but she has her own show. Matter of fact, with Soldedad O'Brian she's with HBO's real sports, PBS news hour, she has made some of the most powerful documentaries she has experienced, some of the most disastrous things in people's lives, but most importantly, she's a soccer mom. She loves horses and she's been married to Brett for a while. There'll be a time when, the one time when I called her, she goes, I'm at a soccer match. Can I call you back? And she has a way of bringing things to it is. So this podcast is about the intersection between health or rather disease, policy racism, culture, the yards.
Luther Brewster (01:45):
Wait, wait, wait. Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. You didn't introduce me.
Cuba Pete (01:48):
Oh, I I'm sorry. This is Lou.
Luther Brewster (01:56):
Did you notice that
Luther Brewster (01:57):
He loved on you for all that time?
Soledad O'Brien (02:00):
No. And let me tell you that that would be a red flag as a TV anchor. We had a maneuver called the Pat O'brien. I remember Pat O'Brien. He used to anchor an entertainment show and the Pat O'Brian, if you worked with Pat O'Brian, it's a maneuver where you're standing together as an anchor team. Right. But the Pat O'Brian was, he would do a thing where he pretend like he was referencing you, but actually use the maneuver to step in front of you. Find yourself behind Pat. O'Brien like, Hey, hi, Hey, hi, Pat O'Brian on you. You have a Pat O'Brian done to you.
Luther Brewster (02:34):
I see that. I see that. I think I'm going to learn that maneuver. So to [inaudible] It's too late to introduce me now Joe. I am now under the bus Soldead , please.
Cuba Pete (02:51):
let me say,
Soledad O'Brien (02:52):
Uh, happy to talk to both of you. And, uh, before we get going, I have to say, Lou did me a very solid favor, not too long ago. Uh, and I'm just very grateful, um, really a super, super, uh, helpful in some professional stuff that I was trying to turn to work out. And I just really grateful. And I know you guys are busy and Joe you're, you're always there to answer my medical queries and, and, uh, and, and advice. Give me advice about things. So thank you to both of you. I'm really thrilled to be on your podcast, your new podcast. Uh, and I'm also just thrilled to know both of you. So a big thanks
Cuba Pete (03:27):
And going through that, we're starting a whole new med school and we're trying to get it right. And with our senior leadership, we have, because there's such a lack of diversity in medical education and our senior leadership, which has six members that we came out here from Miami of those four of the six are women, which is completely opposite of the statistics of, uh, uh, leadership in academic centers. About 10% of women are actually in leadership positions and I'm not mistaken. Three of the six are African-Americans two were born outside the United States. I'm counting Canada, but still it's it's, it's, it's Northern it's it's that I'm Hispanic. And we want to deal with the disparities, prepare the future workforce, come back to humble, empathetic, compassionate, clinically (inaudilbe), and physicians that actually respond socially. And they're accountable to what's going on in society. You know, for example, I, uh, I did an interview yesterday about the rise in alcoholic liver disease, uh, being admitted in the hospitals, 30% at USC, 50% at mass general. And they were asking me, are, was I surprised by that? I said, well, no, because after any disaster, there's always an uptick with alcohol and drugs, but the problem is in the alcohol and the drugs, the problem with the social determinants and the lack of behavioral health therapy in this country. And, uh, it's, it's something that we're not addressing and we need w we need to address that, but that's addressing a problem. If you were to advise us being that I found out you were pre-med, (laughs) what would you advise at a medical school,
Soledad O'Brien (05:14):
A gram of molecule of oxygen for you? That's about it as well, and maybe not even,
Cuba Pete (05:21):
What do we, what do we have to do in medical education to produce a type of physician that has all those qualities?
Soledad O'Brien (05:31):
You know, I think it seems to me as someone who has number of doctors in the family, that a lot of the business of medicine sometimes seems to derail doctors from the job. Uh, I know certainly for my siblings and my in-laws that often, you know, there are these sort of financial pressures around how much time you can spend with a patient, frankly. Um, I think there's a reason, right? The why the kind of runs in and spends a moment with you and then runs out for the most part, because financially it just takes a lot of time. And most of the doctors that I know would talk about, then they go home and bring all their billing home with them because they actually have to spend time not in the office doing that. So I think that's a piece of it. And then I think the other piece of it is I'm trying to figure out how do you spend the time that you're with the doctor, making sure that they, that they're listening, that they're compassionate, they, that they understand, you know, some of the, uh, some of the conversations around bias. Um, most doctors I would say are very confident and I, uh, maybe
Cuba Pete (06:37):
I would say lack of humility, but that's another
Soledad O'Brien (06:41):
You know. Um, I'm trying to be nice, but very confident. And, uh, and that's kind of nice when you're going in for surgery or you need a professional opinion, but I do think sometimes it means that taking a, uh, a tough look at your bias or, um, uh, where you, you don't, uh, you don't see patients necessarily as the same as you, or as empathetic, you know, human beings to empathize with. I think, I think that can become a bit of a problem. We're working on a series right now in, um, uh, for H for BET that takes a look at, um, structural racism. And one of the six part of the series looks at maternal mortality rates. And, you know, you just talk to some of these women around how they were seen by their doctors and, and how, you know, how they're trying to solve this, this disparity in outcomes for black women when it comes to childbirth, there's a problem. And I, and I, I think it's a multi-pronged problem. And I think we have to figure out how to confront it. And I piece of that is a lot of these women described just not being heard by their doctors, that their doctors don't really listen to them.
Cuba Pete (07:54):
Well, one of the things that we used to do in Miami that I insisted upon in the university practice, as well as my own practice was I had the doctor walk out and introduce themselves to bring in their own patient. I see that as a simple courtesy. The other thing that I got most of the physicians to do was not introduced themselves as Dr. So-and-so unless they were giving a title to the patient to shift that power differential. So the patient felt comfortable to give you a history because the history is really, you can make almost 80% of your diagnosis on a good history. Granted we're limited by time with these different things, but it becomes really important, but we're also, we'll have to look at the admissions criteria. I mean, if you look at our country's outcomes, we're doing something wrong in medical education, we're not producing the physicians we need.
Cuba Pete (08:37):
We might have more patents than anybody else in the world. We might have the best technology, but all this is great only when you're really sick. So we're not addressing the issues that need to the social determinants of health, the ethical foundations that need to be there looking for ethical conflicts, teaching students about policy te- . One of the big things we have with Marin Gillis, she's a philosopher and she is, uh, the chair of the Cambridge consortium for bioethics. And she does our, uh, learning innovations with studio design teaching as well as hackathons is having a philosopher, teach the students at the beginning. So we could teach them critical thinking skills because when these students come in, they're great at memorizing, but life is not an algorithm. And the complexity and the changes in medicine coming down the row is particularly accelerated by COVID makes it important that we change the way we approach education, not change the fact that the, the, that a student has to have this certain level of skills to be a, an excellent clinician, but what do we need to teach the student? And what do we, as faculty members have to exhibit the epitome of professionalism, the epitome of ethics, because if we don't do that, how can we require that our students do the same thing?
Luther Brewster (09:57):
But how do you balance those two?
Soledad O'Brien (09:58):
I just wonder, is it, is it a fear of being seen as weak? I remember when I was pregnant, I can't remember which pregnancy it was. Cause I have a bunch of kids, but I remember at one point there was like a tour of the, uh, medical students coming through my room and just like it unfolded. And, and, you know, I remembered it because as you were saying about introducing yourself, like the doctor never said, hi, I'm Dr. Jones. And these are, you know, students here at the medical center and I'd love for them to be here while we do a followup on your postpartum, blah, blah, blah. And I just remember being like, no one can touch me till I know like, who the heck are you guys in my room? It was so unsure
Luther Brewster (10:39):
They shoo you along because you had you, because once you agreed to being at a teaching hospital and signing that thing that said, yeah, I know I'm at a teaching hospital. As far as they're concerned. I don't need to talk to you about this again.
Cuba Pete (10:52):
But the proper way, the proper way is the physician comes in, introduces themselves and says, would you mind if some medical students came in? Because one of the things that I used to hate when I was on the wards teaching is you'd have these medical students come in, say, you'd hear an interesting sound in the lungs, on oscultation. And every student wanted to stick a Stu a stethoscope on the back at the same time. And you're going, you guys? No, no, no, no, no.
Soledad O'Brien (11:17):
I had my part being looked at like 8 times. I love students. I didn't mind, but it was like, you know what, before you jam a little cold stethoscope under my little flimsy robe here, maybe a first name would be a good icebreaker.
Cuba Pete (11:34):
That's right. I'm telling you right now. If I've had, if I have prostate problems, I'm not going to a teaching hospital. Sorry about that.
Soledad O'Brien (11:46):
Interesting thing happened to me when my mom passed away about a year and a half ago, but before she died, she'd been, she'd been sick for a while. And she had, uh, carcinoid tumors and we went to visit her in the hospital. And, uh, my husband, who is white light, brownish blondish hair, and me and my mom is a little black lady with a short Afro. And the entire time the doctor who had to be younger than me would only talk to my husband.
Cuba Pete (12:15):
Oh, good.
Soledad O'Brien (12:17):
Le me promise you, she's not related to him. Like I could not. And I would have to like, and my husband who is a very polite person would not. I'm like, he's not listening to you.
Soledad O'Brien (12:27):
Very polite.
Luther Brewster (12:28):
Hes very scared of me.
Soledad O'Brien (12:31):
And I just remember, like, here's a guy who really could use a conversation about why do you defer to the man in this thing when clearly right. Every sign would be like, Oh, this lady is this person's, you know, this is her daughter over here. My mom. And I looked a lot of like, um, and I just remember thinking it was such a strange thing, um, that I could not break the doctor out of. He just was very used to having a conversation with the guy and that's what he wanted to do. And by the way, that's what he did. And then I asked my husband like, so what did he say exactly? And he's like, I don't know. I wasn't really
Cuba Pete (13:08):
Well I mean that shows two things that are extremely evident in our profession, sexism and racism. And it was interesting cause we, with the black lives matter students at our prior institution at FIU, we were there one day and we were talking about, you know, what, if a physician, a patient comes in and says, no, I want to see a white doctor. How do you handle that? And then I asked the question to the student, a black male, and I said, one of the patient was a female. And she came in and said, I would like a woman doctor, how would you take that? I said, first of all, the studies show that they're better physicians. Uh, we are in much more empathetic and actually listened to the patient and maybe it was falling into that. It had nothing to do with your race, had all to do with your gender. We haven't done ourselves well. And our goal here is of the six of us that are the senior leadership of this medical school. Only two of us have MDs. We have Lou who I will now introduce,
Luther Brewster (14:12):
Oh, here we go. There we go. Here we go. See
Soledad O'Brien (14:16):
35 minutes into the club.
Luther Brewster (14:18):
Thank you. Soledad. That is the same way at his house. It's the same way on the street. I'm 35 minutes. He is very consistent, consistent.
Cuba Pete (14:30):
I've been in country many miles, okay.
Cuba Pete (14:35):
Lou did his post-docs at the university of London in community development. He also worked for many years for John Lewis. Apart from that, he has been in the real world in, uh, economic and community development at Harlem. He has more degrees than anybody I know, and actually know he Morehouse, Georgia state and university of Georgia and being from Florida, we hated Georgia. But after these recent elections, I told him I will bow down to Georgia for the rest of my life. Okay. I love Georgia. I'm buying. I'm buying peaches like crazy. Lou was also at the university of Michigan as a professor was a founding faculty at the FIU college of public health and founding faculty at the, uh, uh, college of medicine. He's also, the, Lou has this ability to see things from 30,000 feet as well as boots on the ground. And he, one of the most amazing things that Lou has accomplished is because my role at our last institution was to run block and protect them from doctors. So he could develop what's his household centered model of care. But what Lou was able to do was understanding both worlds and how social programming looks at the family medical intervention looks at the individual. How do you marry those two? Since we found out that the smallest unit of measure was actually the household, and then these were all the social determinants, all the things that affected it. And, uh, with that, you're on.
Luther Brewster (16:07):
Oh, I don't even know how to respond to that. Um, I would say though, with all of that, with all of that, I think the greatest part or the biggest intervention in that is Joe allowing me to do what it is I do. Sometimes people bring you on and they, and they say, okay, you're really talented. Here's what I want you to do. Um, and so Joe, Joe left me to my own devices. I don't know if he did that intentionally or he just fell asleep at the wheel. I don't know. But he, he allowed me to do what it is that I did. And I appreciate him for that, uh, infinitely. But honestly, so the biggest piece I think that we left behind was the ability to, to, to, to restore in some ways, the idealism in the faculty, students and staff who saw that, doing things against convention could still, um, lead to being recognized as highly competent, could still be recognized as being a good person. And that there's value in that. And so, um, that's, to me, that's the biggest thing I think we did plan to do, right? So we're here now and we can double down on it here. Um, because back there we didn't have a roadmap. Now we do.
Cuba Pete (17:26):
Not only that we, we have we're at a private institution, that's been around for a couple of decades, so we don't have to deal with state politics, but we get a blank slate to get it right. And we've actually been working with, uh, Dave Lawrence, who used to be the CEO of, uh, Kaiser Permanente like 25 years ago while he was on the board at KGI at Claremont. And, uh, he kept complaining of their, uh, medical school. He said it was too traditional, too traditional. So at the age of 80, as a retired olive rancher in Northern California, he took the job as Dean. So we've been meeting at least once or twice a week because he's developing, as we are also, a master's program to get first-generation students prepared for medical school. And what we've done is we've formed a council of deans. We have the Dean from Stanford, NYU long beach Hackensack, Geisinger, uh, Oregon, Kansas, and a couple others that we're, um, uh, Harry, uh, Charles drew to be able to get a pipeline of students that we ignore in this country, we throw away talent and we can't do that.
Cuba Pete (18:42):
I mean, just with the statistics we had in the last institution with 70, 75% of the students only getting into our institution yet every graduating class we've had has had the highest step scores and the highest pass rate in the entire entire state. So you got to re-look at admissions policies, you have to, re-look at a lot of things and you're going against the traditions of medicine. But the, and we'll be coming back to you many times because your advice is invaluable. Remember Uber wasn't started by a taxi driver and Amazon wasn't started by a retailer. So we keep looking at things through the lens of a doctor. We're going to keep making the same mistakes we're making. Now, Lou, you had a question for didn't you,
Luther Brewster (19:23):
I do have a question for you, so, so, okay. We've gotten all of the mundane stuff out of the way. I told you Soledad that, that you brought up that I, um, uh, helped you out with something. So now I'm going to give you a chance to return the favor by answering one question. Here we go. All right. So I have a series of, um, life goals. Okay. Somewhat non-traditional but life goals and one of those life goals and getting up my notebook. There we go. Here we go. One of those life goals is somewhat advantageous. It is a, um, chance encounter with Bryant Gumbel.
Soledad O'Brien (20:03):
Mmmm
Luther Brewster (20:06):
Okay, here we go. It's going to go further. So, um, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm very, I'm very well-prepared individual. And so I have this vision in my head that one day I'm going to run into Bryant Gumbel, and I'm going to want to hug him. And so my question is a two part question. I'm thinking you already got to answer the first part. One is Bryant Gumbel, a hugger, and two, if he is, am I the inside part of the hug or the outside part of the hug. Hit it.
Soledad O'Brien (20:40):
So let's step back a little help you with your
Soledad O'Brien (20:48):
Chance encounter with Brian Campbell. Because once we get through coronavirus, you know, uh, I can make it, doesn't have to be a chance encounter. I can literally bring you to the studio and you can just come and meet him.
Luther Brewster (20:59):
Can I hug him?
Soledad O'Brien (21:05):
I think if you warned him. You're going in for a hug. You could, I think he will lose all respect for you. So I think you might just want to roll him
Soledad O'Brien (21:14):
Hugging him on the other hand, you're not the first person who felt so moved that they just had to hug Bryant, Gumbel. So I think he would net, net be okay with it. Cause he'd be like, Oh yeah, he's a hugger. Um, but I think, I think maybe, yeah, you could hug him for sure. You just have to warn him, but I will set that up for you. As soon as we're back in the studio, we know we shoot. We're actually, I've got a shoot for HBO tomorrow. And um, you know, we, we just shoot in, in, on at home, everybody, you know, we set up all
Soledad O'Brien (21:44):
That stuff.
Luther Brewster (21:44):
Soledad you do know we're recording this ri-
Soledad O'Brien (21:46):
So when we're back in the studio, I, since you were constantly helping me and giving me advice, I will in turn, bring you to meet Brian Gumbel. And I'm going to warn him though that you want to hug him because you love him. So,
Luther Brewster (22:00):
Oh, then, then that's it. That's it like Soledad? That, that right there,
Soledad O'Brien (22:05):
It won't be a chance encounter because there's like layers and layers of security.
Luther Brewster (22:09):
It is we'll make it seem like it's a chance encounter.
Soledad O'Brien (22:12):
No, they won't be like a bumping into him. You'll like, you'll walk in and go and meet him. But he'd love to meet you.
Luther Brewster (22:17):
Oh, that's it.
Luther Brewster (22:17):
And I'll warn him about the hug.
Luther Brewster (22:20):
Yeah. Just like slightly don't don't make it creepy. Cause I want it to be like, sort of,
Soledad O'Brien (22:27):
Don't make it creepy. Like, hi, I'm gonna bring a friend and he'd like to hug. I, you know,
Luther Brewster (22:33):
I'll bring Joe, I'll bring Joe, Joe, it'd be like my hugging assistant. And then I'll wait 30 minutes to
Luther Brewster (22:40):
To introduce Joe.
Soledad O'Brien (22:41):
and you'e worried that I'm making it creepy. Okay.
Luther Brewster (22:43):
I'll wait 30 minutes to introduce Joe to Bryant Gumbel.
Soledad O'Brien (22:47):
And then 30 minutes later he can hug him. Okay.
Cuba Pete (22:50):
No, no, no. That's not my bucket. Not on my bucket list.
Luther Brewster (22:55):
Soledad I have you on tape Soledad, so now
Soledad O'Brien (22:59):
It's done. I don't even need to be on tape because that I have so little juice, but that I can get done.
Luther Brewster (23:05):
That's it? That's it. I'm done now. We can wrap.
Soledad O'Brien (23:08):
It's soon as this soon as the studio is back in and we're allowed to bring people in because we're through the pandemic done and done. I.
Luther Brewster (23:14):
'm keeping my beard. Then.
Soledad O'Brien (23:16):
I do. I love Brian Campbell and he's very, um, he's very, uh, he's very tough, but he's funny. But like you have to come very prepared doesn't he does not, he does not suffer fools at all.
Luther Brewster (23:30):
He strikes me as somebody who drinks Manhattans.
Soledad O'Brien (23:34):
I don't know the answer to that. I'm going to ask him that too. So, Brian, how do you feel about hugs and also Manhattans
Cuba Pete (23:41):
Before or after the hug?
Soledad O'Brien (23:48):
He's a fun guy. He's very smart, but like do not ever Hass app half ass it with Bryant Gumbel.
Luther Brewster (23:54):
Okay. So then that's a full hug then I'm going in. I'm going all in. I'm not worried about the respect part to be very honest with you. I'm walking away. Let's let that go.
Cuba Pete (24:12):
for a person. That's
Cuba Pete (24:12):
So they have very little juice. I know for a fact that you are one of the most philanthropic, you and your husband, people in this, in this country. I mean, you have set up scholarship in your parents' names, a significant, significant scholarships. You have a foundation powerful. You want, can you tell us a little about that?
Soledad O'Brien (24:34):
Sure. Yeah. Well, you know, we send, we send girls to, and through school to college, like occasionally we'll take someone who's kind of finishing up high school too. Um, it's been very rewarding. It's been a lot of fun to see, uh, young women, um, kind of go through a lot and come out the other side and be successful. Um, it's just really, it's just really nice to kind of root for them. So it's, it's great. The whole pandemic has been obviously way over-indexing and people of color and a number of our scholars have. Um, I think we've buried three parents, right? So it's been very wrong. It's been, it's just been tough on them and tough generally. And I know we had to kind of go back to the drawing board on, you know, does our foundation cover this? I mean, is this within the scope of what we do?
Soledad O'Brien (25:20):
And the answer was of course, yes. So, um, but I have just found it Brad and I, cause we do it together. I've just found it very rewarding to invest in sort of young people who, you know, you see them and, and, and they've got so much potential. They just kind of are on the wrong path or they just don't really believe in themselves. And, um, I was talking to one of our scholars, uh, the other day. Who's a great girl who, who ended up at IBM and just to see how she has just grown and flourished has been amazing and, you know, done some things really well made some stupid mistakes too, but just, you know, like life just figured it out. It's, it's been really, it's been really fun to watch them them grow. And so it's, it's been a very rewarding experience for me.
Cuba Pete (26:01):
And you say things have been tough for them. I know that in some examples they've been homeless and still going to school.
Soledad O'Brien (26:09):
Yeah. Students are homeless going to school, lost their parents and going to school, uh, eating out of food, pantries that during a pandemic, because everything goes online, the food pantry itself closes down. So still going to school. I mean, it's just very hard, whatever, whatever challenges happening in, in the country, in the world, you know, they are hit by it. You know, the over-index unfortunately in the problems. And they're trying, we're trying to keep them from taking on a ton of debt as well for their schooling, but they've just been, um, you know, they're just great young women and I have loved the, that they are interested in, in getting an education and, um, and, and recognizing how important that is. And so that's been, that's been just very, it really fun to watch them, you know, you get them at like 18 and now we've had some, you know, these young women now for 15 years, and it's just really fun to see them sort of blossom into these, you know, people grown people.
Soledad O'Brien (27:05):
It's, it's, it's really been a lot of fun, but yes, they have lots and lots. And we have a scholar right now who is Dean's list, brilliant girl, wonderful. Um, and trying to figure out her financial picture because her she's now an orphan, you know, her dad just died and we met because she reached out to ask if I would give her the $900 to get his body out of the morgue, she didn't have any money, you know, how do you, how are you, you know, we talk a lot about resilience, but I just don't know how you continually ask some of these young people to be resilient, you know, day in and day out and day in and day out and day in it's it's just, you know, it's very traumatizing, obviously.
Cuba Pete (27:43):
What, what in your upbringing gave you this deep sense of social justice and caring and compassion?
Soledad O'Brien (27:51):
I think it's having five brothers and sisters. And so you're always like, it needs to be equal. It needs to be,
Soledad O'Brien (27:59):
I think that's what I think you really just get off when it feels like it's unfair. I have a very friendly home sense of justice. Only a feeling like somebody might be getting something that I wasn't getting, you know, I don't know. I certainly think that a lot of what I like to report on, especially around race and social justice is more like history. You know, we, we, we're very ignorant as Americans about our history, so we don't connect the dots. And, and so it is about justice sometimes, but often it's also about this idea of, you know, did you know that this was the case we're working on this series now called disrupt and dismantle that looks at, um, uh, structural racism, you know, and, and people would be like, but why do all the black people want to live near the dumps and the recycling places? And you're like, okay, let's talk about red lining. You know, like there's, there are these reasons. And it's just frustrating sometimes that we don't have a good grasp of our history, um, to understand why things kind of happen today. And so I, I really, I think my interest is always in connecting the dots and helping people to understand the kind of, you know, how we got here.
Cuba Pete (29:10):
I had a physician tell me at a meeting two nights ago or tell the group actually, uh, we were talking about how do we get, uh, Hispanics and African-Americans Brown and black people to get the vaccine. And his statement was, I can't understand why somebody wouldn't want to take the vaccine at all. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Why are we having this discussion? And I was just floored. I was shocked.
Luther Brewster (29:41):
history.
Cuba Pete (29:41):
history. I said to maybe trust maybe the fact that we've ignored them, maybe the fact that they are the hardest hit group with this. So why should they, they trust our public health system. Why? I mean, the list goes on and on.
Soledad O'Brien (29:55):
There's like 10 extremely good reasons, some extremely good ones. And then there's a whole bunch of like pretty good reasons. Then there's just some good reasons. And then there's just the crazy conspiracy theory type stuff. But the list is about a hundred things long.
Cuba Pete (30:09):
No, that's exactly right. And I'm looking at it saying. This is an individual we consider educated and that's the other problem with, uh, medical education is we are great at the specialty we go into with poor understanding of history and of the world. I would rather take a liberal arts major that minors in the sciences because they have critical thinking. They have read history, they have read literature, they understand other cultures. Then one who gets straight A's in organic chemistry and biochemistry. And all they do is science because they, they, they would make a great bench scientist, but a better bench. Scientist is one that also understands what's going on in society and can direct their science towards resolving those ills.
Luther Brewster (31:00):
And we give, talk to so much power. So despite their limited exposure, they're given enormous amounts of power and access to be decision-makers.
Luther Brewster (31:12):
And so that's sort of, kind of, you always, you always talk about how, you know, doctors could be, you know, tremendous advocates for the poor, if, if armed and equipped with the right information, right.
Cuba Pete (31:24):
And they it's no one, 100%. And you know, at the same token, as European friends of mine that are physicians have told me, he goes, you know, every time we go to America, all you Americans doctors do is complain about your income. You make more than we do. I said, well, because that's the status in America. That's the way it is. I mean, it got to the point that at the hospital, it was about 20 years ago. I stopped eating in the doctor's dining room. Cause the conversation was so much better with the staff and employees of the hospital in the employee's dining room, the doctors dining.
Soledad O'Brien (31:59):
I do understand, I mean, for a lot of people who are super, super, highly educated, right? They're not choosing between their pay as a physician and something else equal these are the people who could go into the top tiers of any industry. Right. So they're comparing it to, if I didn't go to medical school and I decided to become an investment banker, if I didn't go to medical school and instead went out to Silicon Valley to, to, you know, oversee such and such. And so, you know, I, I do sort of understand this idea that we in America are not really good at, um, paying for some of the things that we value. I remember my obstetrician. I loved, I used to tell him all the time that, that one of the reasons I kept having kids was that I loved him so much that I loved him. He was a wonderful man, wonderful man. And, uh, but you know, he eventually quit the business because he's like, my malpractice insurance is impossible and he did high risk pregnancies. He assured me that I was a, um, there was a note on my chart that for very advanced maternal age, right. I was like, Oh, what's a M a, he's like, Oh, that's advanced maternal age. I was like, Ooh,
Soledad O'Brien (33:14):
(laughs) There's also (laughs)
Soledad O'Brien (33:19):
I understood that. Here's a guy who was super well-educated highly respected in his field, worked insane hours. Right. And at the end of the day, his, his malpractice rates were so high that he opted to get out of the business. And he was a wonderful, wonderful doctor. And, um, I, I, you know, I think he felt like there just other things that he could do where he would work less and maybe have, um, I think he loved delivering babies, but have know less of what he loved, but also didn't have to pay the malpractice insurance. And so I do think sometimes it's a little bit comparing apples and oranges. When you, you talk to people overseas because they're medical structure is so different.
Luther Brewster (33:59):
Yeah. Right. Well, we, so that we appreciate all the time you were able to give us today as always,
Soledad O'Brien (34:09):
I want to do this every week. I have my glass of wine Over here in the back, but you know,
Luther Brewster (34:16):
Well, I'm, I'm, I am going, you will have no one tracking the studio schedule for COVID like I will
Soledad O'Brien (34:26):
Done and done. I think, I think in a year, I think in a year we'll all be back in the studio and then I will absolutely, uh, introduce you to, to Bryant Gumbel. He's great. He's a great guy. You will love him. And he's very friendly with visitors. I've brought a couple of visitors. He's always very nice
Luther Brewster (34:42):
Wait till you see how much I'm following you. All social media networks.
Soledad O'Brien (34:55):
Security, Security. It was my pleasure guys. Thanks for having me
Cuba Pete (34:58):
Thank you So much. I mean, you are truly not the top 15, but I'm going to say the top one or two that make this country great.
Soledad O'Brien (35:06):
Where did they get 15 from? It's like couldn't
Cuba Pete (35:08):
They could only find 15 people that make the country great.
Luther Brewster (35:12):
Those damn algorithms. Those damn algorithms.
Soledad O'Brien (35:16):
Clearly, clearly nice to chat guys. Take care.
Cuba Pete (35:19):
Bye-bye this is Cuba. Pete from studio way in Las Vegas. It's no laughing matter. Remember how many problems we have in this world. We have to take time out to smile and to laugh. Thank you very much soledad. thank you.
Soledad O'Brien (35:34):
Pleasure guys.
Cuba Pete (35:35):
Bye bye.
Cuba Pete (35:36):
Enjoy the wine
Soledad O/Brien (35:40):
Stay. Well, gentlemen, nice to chat. Bye.