#293 – Writing Lessons from Off-Broadway: The Other Americans, NYC Mayoral General Election Pick and GOATs Doing GOAT $hit
Welcome to episode 293 of the Spun Today Podcast, hosted by Tony Ortiz—the show where writing is the anchor, but the content knows no bounds. In this episode, Tony dives into the creative heart of John Leguizamo’s latest Off-Broadway ensemble play, "The Other Americans," unpacking the storytelling, set design, and family dynamics that make the work both culturally specific and emotionally universal. Through the lens of writing, he explores how ambition and repressed trauma can become the real antagonists in a story, and shares actionable takeaways for fellow writers inspired to infuse their own work with personal and generational struggles.
But that’s just the beginning: Tony also offers insights into New York City's upcoming mayoral election—breaking down recent debates, highlighting the importance of character in leadership, and reflecting on bold policy proposals aimed at housing, education, and community uplift. And, as always, the episode includes a dose of inspiration with the "Goats Doing Goat Shit" segment, honoring recording artist and writer Kwame for his creative perseverance and business acumen.
Whether you’re here for creative motivation, political commentary, or just great storytelling, this episode promises plenty of fuel for your writing journey. Stick around for practical tips, universal truths, and the signature Spun Today blend of intellect, heart, and creative hustle.
The Spun Today Podcast is a Podcast that is anchored in Writing, but unlimited in scope. Give it a whirl.
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Links referenced in this episode
Check out The Other Americans: https://publictheater.org/theotheramericans
NY1 Mayoral Debates: https://www.youtube.com/live/ot6zbhPLs4Y?si=01MdKtJBAp8yryYg
Honorable mentioned fictional 3rd Debate: https://youtu.be/FWSM8pDKYkU?si=HTvK5YcIeWEDPY9Z
Kwamé on trusting his Instincts: https://youtube.com/shorts/PPr9D6uDQ4E?si=N4TX8ZNJs6BsXwdD
DON'T Take That $700K!" - Kwamé Exposes The Publishing Deal Scam That Destroys Artist Careers https://youtu.be/Vbq_J-3KJ7w?si=paW74h12pGsiSWyY
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Transcript
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Transcript 〰️
Tony Ortiz [00:00:00]:
Another big writing takeaway is ambition itself. As the antagonist. It's not like a literal villain that's chasing the protagonist or our lead character, it's the protagonist chasing himself. And in writing, those stories hit harder because they mirror real life downfall and how often we sabotage ourselves or our characters can sabotage themselves while being in the pursuit of validation or control. What's up folks? What's going on? Welcome to the Spun Today Podcast, the only podcast that is anchored in writing but unlimited in scope. I'm your host, Tony Ortiz, and I appreciate you listening. This is episode 293 of the Sponsor Day Podcast, and in this episode I have an absolute treat for you fine folks. I'm going to tell you guys about going to see John Leguizamo's latest Off Broadway play, the Other Americans, and share with you all of the cool creative and writing takeaways that I got from it.
Tony Ortiz [00:01:20]:
And also going to tell you guys a bit about my choice for mayor in New York City's upcoming general election, which, if you heard my breakdown of my choice in the primary, shouldn't be a surprise. But just going to share a few takeaways from the recent debates. And last but certainly not least, I'll be sharing in addition to your favorite segment and mine goats doing goat shit. Stick around for all that good stuff. But first, before we get into it, I wanted to tell you all about a quick way that you can help support this show if you so choose. Your support means a ton. I really do appreciate it helps keep the proverbial lights on here at Spun Today Studios and motivates me to continue putting out this type of content. There are a myriad of ways that you can support@spuntoday.com support where you find a bunch of affiliate links to do your Amazon shopping, for example, like you normally do, or discount coupons or things like AG1 or stitch fix codes and discounts for starting your own podcast.
Tony Ortiz [00:02:21]:
You'll find links there to all of my merch like T shirts and hoodies and notebooks, my fellow writers and creatives out there, coffee mugs or tea if that's your vibe, and a bunch more. So to support this show, please go to sponsorday.com support make sure to rate and review this podcast wherever it is that you're listening. It really goes a long way and it takes about 30 seconds to do so. And here is a little bit more about one of the ways you can help support this podcast and then we'll jump right into the episode. The Sponsor Day newsletter is available to each and every one of my listeners, absolutely for free. All you have to do is go to sponsorday.com subscribe and drop in your email address. What I'm gonna do is brighten up everybody's least favorite day of the week by delivering five curated things within my weekly newsletter. Every Monday at noon you're gonna receive a Photo of the Week, a recommended Podcast of the Week.
Tony Ortiz [00:03:21]:
I listen to tons of podcasts from an array of varied interests. I cherry pick the very best ones so that you can check them out. I also share a Video of the Week, which can be anything from a tasty recipe to a dope rap battle to an enlightening TED Talk. I also share a Quote of the Week and finally, for my fellow wordsmiths out there, a word of the week so that you can step up your vocab again. This curated list is yours absolutely free by going to spuntoday.com subscribe and dropping in your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time. Again, go to spuntoday.com forward/subscribe, drop in your email address and you'll get the very next one the Other Americans John Leguizamo has always been one of those rare artists who fuses personal experience, cultural identity and storytelling into something that feels universal. His latest Off Broadway play, the Other Americans, isn't a one man show like a lot of his previous ones have been. It's a full ensemble piece directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago Hudson.
Tony Ortiz [00:04:36]:
In it, John Leguizamo plays Nelson Castro, a Colombian American laundromat owner in Queens. Shout Out. Queens, the best borough whose family is quietly falling apart beneath the weight of secrets, ambition and buried guilt. Here's the official synopsis of the show. Emmy Award winner John Leguizamo is Nelson Castro, a Colombian American laundromat owner in Queens, grappling with a failing business and buried secrets in his new play, the Other Americans. When his son Nick returns from a mental wellness facility after a traumatic incident, Nelson's world unravels. Committed to protecting his family and business, he tackles racial and identity challenges to achieve his dream. Providing for his family and proving his success, Nelson must navigate the murky waters of morality to salvage his future.
Tony Ortiz [00:05:30]:
Will he emerge victorious or will his past consume everything he holds dear? As always, like we like to do here on the spontaneous podcast, a special shout out to the writers, in this case being a play by John Leguizamo, AKA Johnny Legs. Shout out to him for putting this great play together. Also want to give a special shout out to the rest of the cast, including John Leguizamo, who plays Nelson Castro Luna Lauren Velez, which plays Patty, his wife. You all may know her from being Lieutenant. I think it's Lieutenant Captain. Probably Captain Leguerta from the Dexter series. She was dope in that. And if you're a person of a certain age, as I am, you would remember her from New York on the COVID back in the day.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:17]:
Rosa Evangelina Arredondo plays Norma, which is Nelson's sister Sarah. Nina Hayong plays Veronica, which is the best friend of Patty. She was like the comedic relief, played a really great role there. Rebecca Jimenez plays Tony, the daughter of Nelson and Patty. Trey Santiago Hudson plays Nick, the son of Nelson and Patty. And last but certainly not least, Bradley James Tejeda, who plays Eddie, the love interest and fiance of Tony's. And it's also the right hand assistant to Norma, which is again John Leguizamo's sister. It was definitely a dope experience.
Tony Ortiz [00:06:57]:
Getting to go see this play went with my wife, my brother and my sister in law. Shout out to Zoila, David and Janet, all spontane alumni by the way, and let's get right into it. First I wanted to touch on the set design and the tone of the play. It felt deeply nostalgic. It largely takes part in the Castro home, not largely completely, but largely the living room and kitchen. That's how it's set up. And you know, they do a few like setting changes, if you will, to like the bedroom in the home or like from the outside looking in or from the inside looking outside or emphasis on the backyard where Nelson puts in above ground pool in for his son because his son was a really good swimmer before he had his incident, which we'll get into in a bit, but largely the living room and the kitchen. And it instantly transports you.
Tony Ortiz [00:07:47]:
It instantly transports you to like a blue collar Latino household in like the early 80s or 90s. There were so many things that we were pointing out while we were there before the play began. Whether it was the kitchen stools that had kind of like straw top, the countertop to the kitchen, the little fruit magnets on the refrigerator, which the refrigerator itself was like a common old style refrigerator that you would normally see like that yellowish color, the CD player in the living room. There's so many things a belong that he had there with La Vijay Maria on it. There were so many little details that each of us were just like pointing out saying, oh, remember that? Oh, remember this? That was really, really cool element of it. And John Leguizamo did say in an interview that he wanted people to come away with having seen a piece of their family in this fictional family. And just with the set design alone, I definitely took that away. And just from a writing perspective, a takeaway for me and my fellow writers out there is that the setup reminds me how powerful it is when a story feels specific yet universal.
Tony Ortiz [00:09:00]:
And John Leguizamo roots his family in a very particular world. You know, Colombian immigrants, laundromat owners, Queens. But through that specificity, he hits broader emotional notes like ambition and shame and identity and family tension. And as writers, that's the sweet spot, right? Showing one small world that reflects many. Now let's get into the main plot and family dynamics. The story was about a Colombian laundromat owner from Queens which moved his family from Elmhurst or Corona, Queens, that area to Forest Hills. And he was always trying to keep up with the Joneses. He and his sister inherited a handful of laundromats when their father passed.
Tony Ortiz [00:09:47]:
And his sister was more successful than he was at running her mats and continuing to grow them. And this caused a riff and resentment between the two. He was always going to her to borrow money. She felt obligated. But eventually winds up cutting him off financially. At home, he and his wife start off with seemingly loving relationship. Everything came off as normal. But you start to see that there is a strain within their relationship as well that's not too evident at first, which stems from his drinking and making the family move away from their old neighborhood, which apparently only he wanted.
Tony Ortiz [00:10:28]:
Also his get rich quick schemes. And the main underlier, which was the stress around having a son with mental illness that neither of them had the know how to deal with. They also had a daughter that struggled to be seen by her parents, even though she filled the shoes of the brother. Once he was committed to a psychiatric ward, she stepped up to help run the family business. But she also had her own ambitions, including getting married to her successful aunts assistant and ultimately moving to California with him to start their own thing. We soon find out that John Leguizamo's latest get rich quick scheme was to get another loan to revamp the laundromats instead of selling them because he thinks this big time developer is moving into the neighborhood and if he hold on to them, he can flip them to the developer for even more money instead of what he thinks the person that wants to buy them, which he assumes that's what their plan is. So he's like, why am I gonna sell it? To this guy so he can just flip it to the developer that he must know is moving into the area and is gonna pay, you know, much more than what they're worth. Let me just take out a loan so I can stay afloat, hold on to them, revamp them, and then I'll sell them to that big time developer.
Tony Ortiz [00:11:46]:
And he winds up being like the type of person that just tells people what they want to hear. Because while this is going on, he's also having discussions with his wife, who continues to show and express that she's not happy in that house. They should just move back to their old neighborhood. She misses it there, just sell the laundromats, so on and so forth. And he tells her that she's right, she, they'll move in that direction. But then on the flip side, he's making these other plans and deals and trying to make, trying to get somebody to give him a loan or to invest in the mats so. So that he can carry out this latest scheme that he has going on. Now, from a writing perspective, a takeaway for me is that the quote unquote, family business as a pressure cooker is such a classic setup.
Tony Ortiz [00:12:33]:
The laundromat becomes a metaphor of sorts for cycles of labor and cleaning and renewal that never end, which is relatable in and of itself. But it also gives the writer a symbolic way to show generational struggle, where the father that started the businesses builds them up to a certain point, the children inherit that business, they have their differences, run their own portions of them in silos. One is successful, the others not. The sister flourishes while Nelson's are squandered. And when a place, a setting, in this case like a laundromat, becomes a metaphor, it lets the story breathe symbolically without forcing those elements onto the reader. Another big writing takeaway is ambition itself. As the antagonist. It's not like a literal villain that's chasing the protagonist or our lead character.
Tony Ortiz [00:13:31]:
It's the protagonist chasing himself. And in writing, those stories hit harder because they mirror real life downfall and how often we sabotage ourselves or our characters can sabotage themselves while being in the pursuit of validation or control. Now let's speak about the son's story. So their son is released from a mental institution that he was in and is now back home, seemingly well adjusted at first. But after the father's what you need to do is come back to work with me. Pushiness, which was contrary to what he wanted to do along with the mothers, what you need to do is go back to school. Bushiness and smothering. He began to have mental health breaks and outbursts.
Tony Ortiz [00:14:17]:
Then the family began to treat him with a mix of, like, walking on eggshells and, you know, handling him with kid gloves on and frustration on their part as well, which naturally bubbled up. And the son learned in therapy while he was committed that he should confront and talk about his traumas. And he attempted to do so earnestly. But true to an old school Latino family that brushes the ugly parts under the rug, which, come to think about it, is probably more universal and less so attributed to being Latino. It's probably just an old school mentality in and of itself. Not specific to Latinos, I would venture to guess. But, you know, speaking about issues like that was seen as taboo. And the father wasn't into the idea.
Tony Ortiz [00:15:05]:
And the mother, per usual, just gravitated towards what the father wanted to do. And this exacerbated the son's frustration and the frequency of his outbursts and episodes that he would have. Ultimately, we learned that the central trauma that caused his son to wind up in the hospital in the front first place, happened when the family moved to Forest Hills, which is this upscale neighborhood in Queens. And he was bullied by the neighborhood kids for being Latino and also for starting to date a girl that one of the other neighborhood kids had a past with. And they jumped him and beat him nearly to death, like completely unconscious, bloody, blacked out, the whole nine. And he was never the same after that. And the father never wanted to speak to him about what happened, although therapy told his son that they all needed to confront what happened in order to be able to move forward. But the mother opened up to him and let him vent and told him her side of, you know, what happened after he blacked out.
Tony Ortiz [00:16:09]:
And when everything transpired in terms of him being committed, so on and so forth. And the mother told them that the father really did try to his best to, like, press charges against the perpetrators and their family, but that they were wealthy and they had pull within the police department. So those attempts were ultimately futile from a writing perspective. A takeaway for me was that we can always think about how putting repressed trauma and denial front and center in our stories can drive tension within our writing. Now, in the climax of the play, it's revealed that the father decided not to proceed with pressing charges. He decided it because the wealthy father of the kids that jumped his son could have been helpful to his laundromats in the form of capital investments. So he sold out his own kid just to get ahead and to keep up appearances. And that betrayal shatters everything.
Tony Ortiz [00:17:09]:
This revelation was the last straw for all of his family. The son ultimately commits suicide. The mother leaves him to move back to the old neighborhood like she always wanted to, like he promised that they would. The daughter is just completely broken. She winds up abandoning her aspirations and decides to stay in New York instead of moving to Cali just to try to help her mother piece things together and seemingly cut sides with her father completely. So by the end, every relationship had disintegrated. And true to his insecurity, to his narcissistic and borderline sociopathic behavior, which you can also add Machiavellianism to that list, which I just recently learned is someone who implements strategic exploitation of others and has cynical worldviews and emotional detachment. He winds up trying to leverage sympathy from others due to the loss of his son to continue to try to get investors for his laundromats.
Tony Ortiz [00:18:12]:
That's how fucked up and dark this character was. And from a writing perspective, as far as a takeaway from that, this type of revelation in the story mirrors a tragic flaw like that archetype where a character's ambition overrides the morality. So this story ultimately ends on tragedy and how denial corrodes everything, love, family, morality and reminds us as writers that every story about quote unquote success can also have a shadow side. And the deeper you dig into the price of that success, the more truthful your story becomes. And in closing, I just want to say that it was interesting to see how pride and silence and old wounds can echo through generations and the other Americans isn't just about one family. It's about all of us trying to navigate the gap between who we are and who we want to be. Like I mentioned in the intro, like Wasamo said in an interview that he wanted everyone to see a piece of their own family in this story story. And in my opinion, that's exactly what he did.
Tony Ortiz [00:19:22]:
And you didn't have to be from Queens or Latino to identify the struggle to belong, to succeed, to be seen. That's all universal. And lastly, to my fellow writers and creatives out there, after listening to this breakdown, I'd love for you to reflect on what secrets or sacrifices shape the families in your own stories or even in your own life. If you decide to free write about it, tag me or the show spuntoday on everything so that I can check it out. You never know what powerful truths might come from putting it down on the page. That, folks, was my little recap and review on the other Americans play that should be running through to around Thanksgiving time. So towards third week of November I believe it's scheduled for I'll link to everything in the episode notes for you guys to check it out here in NYC at the Public Theater if you so choose. New York City's Mayoral Election 2025 if you heard my previous breakdown of a couple months back of the Democratic primary debate, you know that I voted for Zoran Mamdani.
Tony Ortiz [00:20:32]:
I broke down then some detailed reasons why, as well as platform takeaways from all the other candidates that resonated with me that I did like, that I would hope that the future mayor would incorporate into their platforms and carry forward. Mamdani came out of that primary victorious with a very clear mandate from the Democratic populace of New York and went on to become the unanimous undisputed Democratic nominee for Mayor. Andrew Cuomo, former governor of New York State, which was his main competition within the Democratic primary, who I said then and I'll repeat now for folks that have not heard that episode, I wanted Cuomo before his shameful resignation as governor to run for President. I thought he was a shoo in and had things gone that way he would have been president right now. But for New York City Mayor, especially with everything that transpired with his resignation, his handling of COVID which in retrospect was pretty bad in terms of scandals and cover ups around, sending elderly infected folks back to nursing homes to kind of contain the virus there, thousands died because of that decision. And my more higher level takeaway from that situation is his lack of taking accountability for that over the various interviews that he's had since and debates, etc. That was a big red flag for me, a big character flaw if you will. And character for me plays a huge role in politics in my decision for who I vote for, because in this everybody is full of shit environment on both sides, you want someone whose character isn't as questionable, someone who win or lose, you know, will fight for and try to enact policies and thoughts and ideas that they ran on and that they said that they would not, that they would talk out of the two sides of their mouths and say one thing to the public and do something else behind closed doors.
Tony Ortiz [00:22:41]:
I think the only proxy to knowing if a politician is actually going to be that way or not is their character and how they act or don't. Within certain situations, like in Cuomo's case, not taking accountability or saying that he learned, you know, he did everything perfectly in the pandemic or there's no real takeaways to learn from it or if he had to do it again, he wouldn't do things differently. So on and so forth shows like a callous disregard for what happened and what for most folks seems obvious like come on, he could have still come out of that just with honesty and humility and and come off as the hero in that situation and say listen, at the time we thought it was the best move. It clearly wasn't. Hark was out to the families. This should be a lesson learned for moving forward and how to change certain approaches to this type of situation. Pandemics isolating people. There's a lot that we learned from it, a lot of things that we would go back and do differently if we could.
Tony Ortiz [00:23:46]:
But hindsight is 20 20, you know, so on and so forth and I don't think people would had judged him as harshly had he had that type of response because nobody knew what the fuck was going on during COVID Nobody had a crystal ball when it came to how to treat it effectively. Being vaccinated versus not vaccinated. Natural antibodies versus not social distancing masks. No masks. Ventilators. No ventilators. It was all a guessing game. And in retrospect a lot of things turned out to be contrary to what certain public officials said to do and pushed and contrary to what other counter narrative folks said to do and not do.
Tony Ortiz [00:24:31]:
But I digress and I say that just to say because of of that and what transpired after is why I went from the mindset of Cuomo should be president to Cuomo shouldn't even be mayor of NYC and then just to counterbalance the current direction of the Democratic party or right wing politics in general. You know I'm a liberal born and raised New Yorker, you know in my blue bubble that I recognize of being in but at least I think I do recognize that. You know I'm not, I'm definitely not a blue no matter who type of candidate. I'm not an extremist. But I do recognize the extremes of both sides, both on the left and the right. And I think that politics in general, especially at a federal level are much more right leaning at the moment. And although Zoran may be a ton much to the left of where I would like to be like in the center, I think that his candidacy serves as a good counterbalance to that right leaning corporate rule special interest that has taken hold in our politics and that left more people centric messaging and ideas that he clearly got a mandate from the folks within the Democratic primary. We'll see how it turns out in the general election.
Tony Ortiz [00:26:00]:
The clear mandate to push forward with for New Yorkers, I think the two together kind of counterbalance each other and is ultimately a good thing for New York. And then just from a campaign perspective, he's run a phenomenal campaign, right? Nobody, even his biggest detractors would say that if listen to him in interviews and debates, you know, he, he, he'll go on anything and everything from usual liberal or Democratic outlets to appearing on Fox to going on podcasts. He was on flagrant, which to me as a podcast a huge plus. And how he's able to maneuver within those spaces and rise to the level of each, whether it be with wittiness and humor, whether it be with ideas, with the facts of how or the stats rather of how to implement them and how they could be successful to the right amount of pushback is masterful. He's definitely an Obama esque political talent in that regard. The general election debates between Donnie Cuomo and the Republican candidate Curtis Lewa were phenomenal. They were great. There were two standout moments, one of which was Mamdani just owning Cuomo early on in the debate with Cuomo going on the offensive and speaking about how Zoran, his only experience besides being an assemblyman from Queens, which is experienced by the way, he's already an elected official, but they keep glossing over that is that he, he on his resume has that he worked for his mother's production company, her film production company and that the job of mayor you can't learn on the job.
Tony Ortiz [00:27:46]:
You need someone with experience. He doesn't have any experience. You need someone who's able to on day one handle a multi billion dollar budget. You need someone on day one who's going to be able to navigate dealing with the federal government, so on and so forth. And Mamdani just flipped it on him. Which you couldn't have scripted any better and was just like what we don't need is the type of experience that Cuomo has. The experience of sending thousands of nursing home residents to their deaths during COVID the experience of cutting funding for the mta, so on and so forth. The experience of having to shamefully resign from office.
Tony Ortiz [00:28:21]:
And what I don't have in experience, I have an integrity. And what you don't have in integrity you can never make up for with experience. It was just a like drop the mic moments after drop the mic moments. And there was one in particular when he actually takes a, a page out of Trump's book. With how Trump versus Hillary in. What was that, 2016 brought accusers of Bill Clinton and sat them in the audience. Zoran brought one of Cuomo's accusers to the debate and not only mentions that Cuomo tried accessing her private gynecological records, but that he also filed a defamat defamation suit against her so that she couldn't speak up for herself. And then Mamdani points all that out, says her name, says that she's here in the audience, and then he's like, and so she can't speak for herself, but I could speak for her.
Tony Ortiz [00:29:11]:
And what do you have to say to her and the 13 other women that filed sexual assault charges against you? And it was just like, holy shit. And, you know, Cuomo proceeded to walk back like he normally does, saying those were allegations, all these cases were dropped, so on and so forth. But that's just pointing out some memorable moments for me from the debate. They both did a bit of race baiting, in my opinion, with Mamdani saying that, you know, shameful that Cuomo didn't step foot in a Muslim mosque in 10 years of being governor and that Muslims just want to be seen and treated as equals with igni, which is valid. Right. Cuomo, on the flip side, would speak to how you said it, said it twice. He said that Mamdani stuck his middle finger to the statue of Christopher Columbus and that's a desk. And I don't like when either side, you know, devolves to that.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:05]:
That type of race baiting type arguments. But valid, you know, at some levels. Right. It just sucks that that overall is part of. Part of political discourse on the point of housing. I wanted to point out that Curtis Lewa had an idea that I thought was great, which was converting empty office space to affordable housing and how doing. Doing so would take a year, for example, to convert those spaces since they have the infrastructure in place versus building, which would take five years to build, like the equivalent in new housing, new affordable housing. I thought that was a great idea that either side should definitely implement.
Tony Ortiz [00:30:46]:
They had an interesting debate around schools. New York City public school system, where currently the New York City mayor has control, mayoral control of the school system, meaning that they could veto and implement things as they see fit. Now, Mamdani mentioned that he wants to redevelop the. The current mayoral control of school systems, where the mayor, like I said, can currently they can override the board, the school board, or parental concerns. He was a little cagey about how to revamp that and how that would be, you know, not taking accountability and so on and so forth. Were the, the criticisms that he got back or the pushback at least that I gleamed from the line of questioning. And I have an idea that I think, again, without knowing the details of what his version of revamping mayoral control would look like, I think it's a good idea to democratize it a bit and have like voting rights shares. Give the mayor 40% voting rights, give the school board 30% voting rights and the parental component 30% voting rights.
Tony Ortiz [00:31:55]:
This way, those three entities, it would have to be a two against three situation to amend the school system or to implement whatever changes they want to implement. It could be the mayor plus the parents. It could be the board and the parents outvoting the mayor, be the board and the mayor outboarding the parents this way. The accountability concern, which I think is a valid one because you need someone to hold accountable, right? Still stays with the mayor. Hence the 40% bonding. Right? But the board and the parents have substantial input and can outweigh the mayor's input if they join together with their 60% combined voting rights. So just a thought I had. I did like Mamdani's idea of community to classroom program where they want to hire 1,000 new teachers every year from these specific communities that speak the language of the, the kids that are within that community.
Tony Ortiz [00:32:51]:
And it to incentivize doing so, offer a $12,000 tuition incentive for all of these new teachers. Or in other words, pay for folks from that community $12,000 in tuition for them to get the credentials necessary to become teachers within their own community. I thought that was a pretty dope and long term visioned idea. I also like Curtis Lewis idea of giving charter and parochial school choice for, I think it should be for everyone. But he said specifically for the undocumented and homeless kids, which a crazy stat came out of those debates which I was just like in awe of, which is that one in five children in the New York City public school system are homeless, live in shelters or completely homeless. One in five, like my kids go to public school. So thinking of their class sizes of like 25 to 30 kids, that's that means 5 of the kids in their classes are almost children, which is fucking heartbreaking. And when I hear like all the types of pushback of when somebody like a Zoran comes around with these pie in the sky ideas and the status quo pushes back so hardly against them, it's like, no, I want those ideas.
Tony Ortiz [00:34:11]:
The way that things are isn't working. Right. You have this much homelessness within your school system. You have shit grades, low graduation rates, so on and so forth, and exacerbated funding. Something has to give, Right. Going back to the housing situation, something else that Curtis Lewa pointed out, which I was on board for, Curtis Lewa, again being the Republican candidate, is that he spoke about the landlord court, current rules that affect the small unit landlords, like the two to four unit landlords, you know, not speaking about these uber rich folks that own dozens of properties or dozens and dozens of apartments and huge apartment buildings. Talking about a landlord that lives in a unit of a two to three family house and rents the other, you know, one or two units. Those small landlords have to deal at times with the current landlord court system that exists with squatters that just stop paying rent.
Tony Ortiz [00:35:12]:
Then the landlord has to go through the eviction process, which could take months and months and months and a year or two to actually get the folks out of there. And all the time not collecting rent, which they need to collect to be able to pay their mortgage. Mortgage, right. And he pointed out how that system shouldn't apply to these small landlords, which I definitely agree. And the last thing I'll note is something that Glenn Greenwald said, whose opinion I respect, but I haven't heard from anyone else. So take with with a grain of salt. But I thought worth pointing out, is that he was saying that Zoron was walking back certain of his talking points and ideas in favor of the real estate lobby, the Wall street lobby, so on and so forth, because of the fact that he is meeting with former Obama and Clinton financial operatives and that they are now running his campaign, quote unquote, and they're doing things like helping to massage his messaging and making it more palatable, so on and so forth. I know Bernie was actually asked, I think, on the Daily show, if I'm not mistaken, by Jon Stewart about Zorn meeting with, you know, former Obama operatives, for example, and kind of like brushed it off, like, yeah, he's meeting with everybody and, you know, kept on going with the conversation.
Tony Ortiz [00:36:30]:
So he, like glossed over it. So that kind of reinforces at least the meeting aspect of what Glenn Greenwald was getting at. In my opinion, though, I don't think it's, oh, he's meeting with them, so that's it. He's a corporate. He's a, you know, corporatist, shill Democrat or whatever it is that they call him, and he's flipped before he even became mayor, so on and so forth. I don't think it's cause to concern for concern in like that regard. I think that if you are going to be mayor you have to meet with anyone and everyone. You are going to be working with anyone and everyone.
Tony Ortiz [00:37:03]:
Your pie in the sky ideas, which I'm all for definitely from a theoretical perspective. But when putting on my practical can this actually get done hat being able to implement even a fraction of his larger ideas like free childcare for all children under 5 if I'm not mistaken for 5 and under government owned grocery stores to cater to food deserts and folks that can afford those foods, otherwise free and fast buses, so on and so forth. These large ideas will require working with all these interests. You're not going to pass anything without sitting with and working with these folks. And if your avenue to getting to the table is a former Obama or Clinton financial operative, so be it. I just hope that when he's at those tables, that character that I mentioned earlier of actually being for the people, I hope that that's where it kicks in. Hit me up spun today on everything and let me know who you are choosing to vote for. And now it's time for your favorite segment and mine, Goats Doing Goat Shit, where I like to highlight folks that go above and beyond and do something that we can all take some wisdom from.
Tony Ortiz [00:38:25]:
In this episode's induction into the Goats Doing Goat Shit list, I'd like to welcome recording artist and writer Kwame. Kwame, I saw in an interview broke down the story of how he recorded a song or sorry, wrote a song called Switch for Will Smith and at the time he had a overall publishing deal with Universal where he would write songs for different artists and he wrote this one specifically for Will Smith and he had a good deal. But Universal wanted to renegotiate the placement of that song because Will Smith wasn't as popular at the time. He didn't want to and wanted to keep the deal as is keeping it for Will Smith, keeping the current terms of the deal because he was weary about the fact that they wanted to renegotiate things before it actually came out and renegotiate it in their favor, not his. So he told them, you know, let's let the song come out and see how it does first. After it came out, the song went number one in 20 different countries. Not necessarily the US but in 20 different countries. Because Will Smith is a Universal recording artist.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:34]:
Universal, not the company, although he was that at the time. But international or internationally known, it was number one in 20 countries. The song blew up so much so that afterwards, multiple commercials picked it up. And the way Kwame broke it down, the song ended up in spaces that. That he didn't even think of. In spaces that he. He didn't even think of thinking. Could be a revenue stream.
Tony Ortiz [00:39:56]:
For example, a coffee company in Germany picked up the song Contact Lens company, paid to use it in their commercials because they were speaking about switching out lenses. Remember, the name of the song Is switch. The NBA used it as their theme song for the 2004 finals. And since he had that great publishing deal in place, he made money off of each of those revenue streams, each of those occurrences, especially because he didn't, he had the foresight of not renegotiating it to, you know, take a different revenue split or, you know, take more money up front and give up the publishing rights to all those additional revenue streams, so on and so forth. And the lesson, or the main takeaway from it is that according to him, when someone tries to make you reconsider what you're doing, like, the thing that you're doing is not going to work, which is how they approach them. Be weary, because it usually means that what you're going to do is going to work out too well. And then they're gonna have to move you to a new financial level because he broke down how he recouped all of the advance money in like two months, which the company never wants you to do within, like, the. The period, whether it's a year or whatever the terms of the deal are, because they want to continue to only have to pay you that amount and nothing over that.
Tony Ortiz [00:41:17]:
But he recouped everything way faster than anticipated, which, per their contract, makes them have to bring the publishing artists up to a higher financial tier level and pay them even more money so they don't want you to recoup that money right away so that they could continue making the money from all these other revenue streams while you're still working on recouping the advance that they gave you. So special shout out to Kwame. And welcome to the Spun Today Goats doing goat shit list. And that, folks, was episode 293 of the Spun Today podcast. Thank each and every one of you for taking the time to listen. I really appreciate it. Please check out my fourth wall shop. Go to spontaneity.com click on the shop button at the top of the site.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:05]:
There you'll find the official sponsor day notebook, the dope new redesigned coffee mug, a few T shirts, hoodies, so on and so forth. Also, visit sponsored.comsupport for a myriad of ways you can help support this podcast if you so choose, including discount codes for things that you may already be in the market for. Again, go to spuntoday.com forward/support and I'll check you guys out next time. Peace. What's up folks? Tony here. I hope you're enjoying the Spun Today Podcast as much as I enjoy producing it for you. Here are a few ways you can help support the show. You can support the Spun Today Podcast financially by going to spuntoday.com support.
Tony Ortiz [00:42:47]:
There you will find a couple different ways that you can do just that, some of which will actually not even cost you a dime, such as using my Amazon affiliate link. When you go to sponsorday.com support, you'll see my affiliate link to Amazon. Click on it and it will take you to Amazon's website where you can do your shopping like normal. This will not cost you anything extra, but Amazon will pay me for driving traffic to their website. If you'd like to support the podcast more directly, you can do so by becoming a patron@spuntoday.com support. You'll also find my Patreon link. This is where creators such as myself can be paid directly by patrons like you. You can either make a one time donation or schedule recurring donations if you so choose.
Tony Ortiz [00:43:33]:
There are also different tiers of support and depending on which you decide to go with, you'll also receive some perks in return such as early access to content, free digital copies of my books, free bookmarks, etc. That is again by supporting via my Patreon link available@ sponsorday.com support similar to Patreon at that same location. You'll also find my Ko Fi link as well as my Buy me a coffee link. They work very similar to Patreon and are different ways you can help support the show financially. And last but certainly not least, you have the good old fashioned paypal donation button. Any which way that you choose to support is greatly appreciated. It all helps me do more of what I love, which is writing and podcasting. Again, go to spuntoday.com support.
Tony Ortiz [00:44:19]:
You can also support the Spun Today podcast by rating and reviewing the show. Wherever it is that you're listening to this episode, I'd really appreciate it because it really does help. Also, follow me on all socials, Spun Today on X, formerly known as Twitter, Spun Today on Instagram and spun today on YouTube where you'll not only find full length episodes of the podcast, but also chopped up clips and additional content. And of course you can Follow the facebook page@facebook.com spun today another way you can help support the Spun Today podcast and also upgrade that stale wardrobe of yours is by going to Spun Today.com support and clicking on the banner for Stitch Fix. Once you do, you'll enjoy a $25 discount to your first purchase. And the way Stitch Fix works is pretty cool. I use it and I've never been disappointed. You'll set up a profile.
Tony Ortiz [00:45:15]:
You'll put in all the sizes for your clothes as well as all the different brands and types of clothes that you like to wear. It's really simple and intuitive to set up. They'll show you pictures and pretty much give you a thumbs up or thumbs down option on if you would wear something or not. And you get to select all the brand brands that you already are used to wearing. With this information, there are thousands of passionate trend setting stylists will curate a Stitch Fix box for you. They'll send you five items that you get to preview before they mail it to you and you'll get to select based on the image if you like it or not. If not, they'll replace it with something else and if so, they'll mail it to you absolutely for free. You can try everything on and you have a few days to send everything back or keep the stuff that you want to keep.
Tony Ortiz [00:45:59]:
Then you can use that $25 credit that I mentioned towards your purchase of those items again. To freshen up your wardrobe and also support the Sponsor Day podcast, go to sponsor day.com forward/support and click on my affiliate link banner for Stitch Fix and enjoy your $25 credit. Do you want to start your own podcast? Have a great show idea that you want to get out into the masses but don't know quite how to get it from your head out into the world? Well, here's how. Use the podcast host Libsyn. That's who I use to bring the Spun Today podcast to you. And now you can use them the same way using the promo code Spun Spun. You can open up your Libsyn account today and get two months of free podcast hosting. Here's how it works.
Tony Ortiz [00:46:47]:
Once you record your show, you upload it to your Libsyn account where you can fill in your episode notes, upload your podcast art, and schedule when you want your episodes to release. Once you do that, Libsyn will take care of the rest. They'll distribute your show to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and all the other podcasters that you choose instantaneously and seamlessly Again, go to Libsyn.com and use the promo code SPUN S P U N to get two months free. Or use the affiliate link that's in the episode notes. Again, that's libsyn.com promo code spun. Take that great podcast idea from out of your head and put it out into the world. And as always, folks, substitute the mysticism with hard work and start taking steps in the general direction of your dreams. Thanks for listening.
Tony Ortiz [00:47:53]:
I love you, Aiden. I love you Daddy. I love you, Grayson.