#BecauseMiami: Welp...Earth is Screwed

Summary

Summary of "Because Miami: Welp...Earth is Screwed" – Episode Released July 25, 2025

In this engaging episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, titled "#BecauseMiami: Welp...Earth is Screwed", co-hosts Dan Le Batard and Stugotz delve into pressing local political turmoil in Miami and explore critical environmental issues impacting our planet. The episode is thoughtfully structured into two primary segments: the contentious Miami mayoral election battle and a deep dive into the environmental repercussions of modern agriculture, featuring insights from author Michael Grunwald.

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I. Miami's Mayoral Election Legal Battle

Emilio Gonzalez's Stand Against Election Manipulation [01:14 – 17:20]

The episode opens with Miami Mayor Candidate Emilio Gonzalez discussing his recent legal victory against the Miami City Commissioners, who unilaterally postponed the scheduled mayoral election without voter approval. This move effectively extended the commissioners' terms, sparking outrage and allegations of constitutional violations.

• Legal Triumph: Gonzalez proudly announces the court's ruling as a "win for Miami mayoral candidate" (Billy Cocaines, [01:26]). He criticizes the commissioners for attempting to "gift themselves an extra year in office," undermining democratic processes ([02:10]).

• Court Ruling and Appeal: Despite the favorable court decision, the Miami City Commissioners, led by Damian Pardo, have filed an appeal. Pardo remains "confident in the strength of our case" and optimistic about the appellate outcome ([04:16], [05:07]).

• Political Ramifications: The hosts highlight the city's negative publicity, labeling Miami a "third world shit show" due to these unconstitutional maneuvers ([02:10]). Gonzalez emphasizes the ethical lapse of the commissioners, noting, "the idea that people can have an election yanked from them four months before they cast their ballot is something that I just wasn't willing to stomach" ([01:30]).

• Internal Politics and Support: The conversation touches on the lack of solidarity among other candidates and political figures, with Michael Hepburn briefly acknowledging Gonzalez's efforts. Notably, Joe Carollo, a former Miami mayor embroiled in his own corruption case, offers limited support by filing an amicus brief in Gonzalez's favor just before trial ([06:44]).

• Disenfranchisement and Voter Impact: The hosts discuss the broader implications of the commissioners' actions, including disenfranchisement of voters and candidates, making campaigning and fundraising significantly more challenging ([15:15], [15:34]).

• Broad Coalition of Support: Despite political divides, a diverse coalition including Veterans for America First and the NAACP has rallied behind Gonzalez's lawsuit, underscoring the universal outrage against the election postponement ([15:56]).

• Future Outlook: Gonzalez remains optimistic, asserting, "We're going to have an election and this is going to be over very, very quickly" ([04:16]). He anticipates overwhelming voter turnout and widespread civic engagement come November 4th ([24:59]).

Notable Quotes:

• Emilio Gonzalez [05:08]: "These people did something that was against the charter. It was illegal."
• Billy Cocaines [02:10]: "Once again, the city of Miami getting international bad publicity for being a third world shit show."
• Emilio Gonzalez [17:00]: "People are pissed. They are pissed. And in this community, people tolerate a lot, but don't tolerate taking my right to vote away."

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II. Environmental Concerns: Agriculture's Impact on the Planet

Discussion with Michael Grunwald on "We Are Eating the Earth" [21:14 – 47:39]

Transitioning from local politics, the episode shifts focus to global environmental concerns, featuring author Michael Grunwald and co-host Ryan Reynolds. Grunwald's book, "We Are Eating the Earth: The Race to Fix Our Food System and Save Our Climate," serves as the foundation for their conversation.

• Agriculture’s Environmental Footprint: Grunwald and Reynolds discuss how modern agriculture occupies 40% of the Earth's land, contributing significantly to deforestation, water pollution, and biodiversity loss. Reynolds shares alarming statistics, stating, "We're going to have to manufacture more food in the next 30 years than we've made in the last 12,000 since the invention of agriculture" ([33:06]).

• Impact of Meat Consumption: The dialogue emphasizes the disproportionate environmental toll of cattle farming compared to other forms of agriculture. Reynolds advocates for reduced beef and lamb consumption, noting, "Beef is 10 times worse than for the planet and for the climate than chicken or pork" ([35:19]).

• Policy and Innovation Challenges: The conversation critiques Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's ban on the sale of cultivated meat, highlighting it as a setback for sustainable food innovations. Reynolds underscores the potential of lab-grown meat to drastically reduce land use and emissions, lamenting, "Other red states have banned cultivated meat" ([37:40]).

• Future of Sustainable Agriculture: Grunwald and Reynolds explore viable solutions, including vegetarian and vegan diets, to mitigate the environmental impact of food production. They discuss the necessity of technological advancements and policy support to transition towards more sustainable farming practices.

• Reluctance and Cultural Barriers: Despite the clear environmental benefits, there is resistance to change due to cultural preferences and economic interests. Reynolds compares societal challenges to the adoption of electric vehicles, suggesting that "cultivated meat is seen as Biden burgers," illustrating the politicization of sustainable solutions ([38:59]).

Notable Quotes:

• Ryan Reynolds [33:06]: "We're going to have to manufacture more food in the next 30 years than we've made in the last 12,000 since the invention of agriculture."
• Emilio Gonzalez [35:21]: "I miss steak, I miss burgers."
• Ryan Reynolds [37:40]: "It's a really exciting technology, but because, you know, just like electric vehicles were seen as sort of Obama mobile, now these kind of like fake meat is seen as Biden burgers."

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III. Additional Topics and Reflections

Cape Coral Housing Market and Environmental Degradation [41:06 – 47:39]

Later in the episode, the discussion briefly touches upon housing market issues in Cape Coral, Florida, and the broader environmental degradation exemplified by projects like the Everglades incinerator proposal.

• Housing Market Concerns: Reynolds references his article, "The Boomtown That Shouldn't Exist," critiquing Cape Coral's unsustainable housing practices and vulnerability to environmental disasters ([41:37]).

• Everglades Restoration Failures: The hosts express disappointment over stalled Everglades restoration projects, highlighting bureaucratic delays and the current lack of bipartisan support for protecting this critical ecosystem ([43:40]).

Notable Quotes:

• Ryan Reynolds [43:41]: "We are eating the Earth in the Everglades."
• Emilio Gonzalez [44:03]: "Citizens can fight back. Citizens don't have to sit back and take it."

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Conclusion

This episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz masterfully intertwines local political upheaval with global environmental crises, providing listeners with a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing Miami and our planet. Through passionate discussions and insightful commentary, hosts and guests alike underscore the urgent need for civic engagement and sustainable practices to safeguard democratic processes and environmental integrity.

Key Takeaways:

• Democratic Integrity: Emilio Gonzalez's legal battle exemplifies the ongoing struggle to maintain democratic integrity against manipulation and unconstitutional practices.
• Environmental Urgency: Modern agriculture, especially cattle farming, poses a severe threat to the environment, necessitating immediate and substantial changes in consumption and production practices.
• Policy and Innovation: Legislative actions, such as Florida's ban on cultivated meat, can significantly hinder progress towards sustainable solutions.
• Community and Activism: Both political and environmental arenas demonstrate the power of community and individual activism in effecting meaningful change.

Listeners are encouraged to stay informed, engage in local governance, and consider sustainable lifestyle choices to contribute positively to both their communities and the global environment.

Transcript

[Billy Cocaines]

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[Emilio Gonzalez]

You can Venmo this or their next show.

[Billy Cocaines]

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[Emilio Gonzalez]

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[Billy Cocaines]

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[Emilio Gonzalez]

Miami residents could be heading to the.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Polls as planned this November, a judge.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Now ruling it is unconstitutional to delay.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The vote without the people's approval.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

I'm happy that the court ruled the way they did and I appreciate the judge's ruling.

[Billy Cocaines]

A win for Miami mayoral candidate Emilio Gonzalez.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

The idea that people can have an election yanked from them four months before they cast their ballot is something that I just wasn't willing to stomach and I had to do something.

[Billy Cocaines]

Miami commissioners voted 3 to 2 to pass the ordinance last month. Commissioner Damian Pardo, item sponsor, said, quote, we are confident in the strength of our case and remain optimistic about the outcome on appeal.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

It makes them look ridiculous and unfortunately, if that's the route they want to go, fine, we'll go there. But they'll lose again.

[Billy Cocaines]

Once again, the city of Miami getting international bad publicity for being a third world shit show. Not only did the Commission 3 to 2 unilaterally vote to cancel or postpone an election for mayor and I believe two city commissioners, but they gifted themselves an extra year in office. So everybody who was elected to a four year term, got themselves another year, a five year term, effectively with all of the benefits that that bestows both economic and certainly political. Emilio Gonzalez, who had already filed to run for mayor, was suddenly found himself disenfranchised along with the rest of the voters in the city because there was no more election to run in, in November of 2025. And he did what everybody in Miami has to do, if you can afford to do it, in order to get the city government to behave constitutionally, which is to sue them. And Emilio Gonzalez, the former city manager of the city of Miami, now candidate for mayor, is joining us. Emilio? Well, first of all, congratulations on this, really. Incidentally, this was supposed to be a move to shift elections from odd year to even year in order to increase turnout. Fine. The argument wasn't really against the plan so much as it was the execution and the process, which was instead of taking it to a referendum of voters, the commissioners just decided themselves, which I believe was unethical for them to gift themselves that benefit. I don't know if that was the issue, you know, that you guys had in your hearing. But beyond that, you won. The city is now appealing, which I just think is a waste of time and a waste of money and resources and a further disenfranchisement of all of of you candidates who are supposed to be running for office here. Like, what is going on? What are the next steps here? And when is this going to be one way or another? When is this going to be over? And when are we going to know if we actually have an election or if they're going to cancel it?

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Listen, Billy, thank you. We're going to have an election and this is going to be over very, very quickly. I was beside myself when I started hearing rumors that these folks wanted to cancel this election. And then it came out, it came out to be true. I know the charter. I read the charter. These people, they did something that was against the charter. It was illegal. In fact, the judge, rightfully so, told them that what they were doing was a sleight of hand. I think was her term. Their defense was that, hey, it's really not a charter change. We just passed an ordinance. It's not a big deal. And to her credit, she said, yes, it is a big deal. You violated the city charter, you violated the county home rule charter, you violated the state of Florida's constitution, and you violated numerous statutes within the state.

[Billy Cocaines]

Is that all?

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Is that all? Yes. And then, and then on top of that, they really hang their Argument, because I had never been. I've never. I've never really been sued. So I was in this courtroom, and it was a zoom courtroom. And then they based their argument on what happened in the city of North Miami. It was like, well, essentially, if they did it, we can do it. And my legal team was like, well, listen, just because they made a mistake doesn't mean we're making one. And as a matter of fact, my lawyer is a former Supreme Court justice, so. So the case was laid out beautifully, and we thought this was going to be it. End of discussion. What do they do? A nanosecond after the judge rules against them, they file an appeal. The appeals court, to their credit, because it's an election issue, is going to hear this case on Tuesday. So I will be there with my attorney on Tuesday. And once again, the city of Miami will look ridiculous. And the only option they have after that, when they lose, is. Is to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, if the Florida Supreme Court decides to hear it. But. But the reason I say this is ridiculous and ludicrous, Billy, is we're paying for this. I am paying for my city to defend itself from an accusation that they stole an election. I'm paying for them stealing an election.

[Billy Cocaines]

This is always the way. You pay for them to disenfranchise voters with the unconstitutional redistricting. You pay with. For them to defend the corruption of Joe Carollo, who is lost time and in his individual capacity. So you're paying for his personal attorney's fees, for crying out.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Well, I'll give you one better. You know, and. And. And this one is for another day, but, you know, when I filed, I filed as a. As a. As a resident, and thank God that I have the ability and the resources to do this and to have the right attorneys. Billy, not one. Not one fellow candidate checked in to say, we agree with you. I take that back. No, no, I made a mistake. Michael Hepburn.

[Billy Cocaines]

Oh, Michael Hepburn.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Michael Hepburn reached out to me. Other than that, not one said, congratulations. Can we help? Attaboy. Can we write a check for your legal fees? Not one. Except. Except the day before the trial. 24 hours, almost to the hour. Commissioner Carollo decides that he's going to file an amicus brief on my behalf.

[Billy Cocaines]

Commissioner Carollo is always on the. Always on the right side of history. So, Emilio, this is a great segue, because the proverb says that success has many parents and failure is an orphan. Since you won first, I'm going to put up this mailer or this email blast that Eileen Higgins, the county commissioner, who's also, I guess I hadn't noticed, but is running for city mayor. Boom. Subject a victory for democracy. Eileen Higgins for mayor. Today's court decision declaring that not politicians. I'm running for mayor to build. I have to read this. An affordable and prosperous future for all residents. Because Miami deserves a government that works for you. I thought that nobody starts a sentence with. Because clearly that's a shout out to me. But here's my question. Where the hell has she been? I don't even think she gave a quote or a comment to the press about this.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

And on top of that, I think at the end of that mailer, because I got it too, I think, you know, push here for $25 contribution or something.

[Billy Cocaines]

Yes, she's fundraising on your court victory.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

They all are. They all are. Xavier Suarez was quoted as saying when he announced that. That he was part of my legal team or that he had provided.

[Billy Cocaines]

Hang on.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Guidance.

[Billy Cocaines]

Hang on. I'm going to. Now I'm going to play a clip. So Xavier Suarez, the former Miami mayor who was removed from office in 1998 for voter fraud, and his son, Francis Suarez, he is the current mayor. And now on the day that Emilio Gonzalez won his court victory, Xavier Suarez files to run for mayor. And he says this.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

What did you think about that proposal? I didn't agree with it and I helped. I actually recommended the law firm that did the litigation.

[Billy Cocaines]

And in his press release that he put out announcing his candidacy is filing for city mayor, he said very similar thing. Now, this is a lawsuit, incidentally, you were suing, in addition to the city, his son, Mayor Francis Suarez, as well as the three commissioners that had voted for this scheme. He was on your legal team. He was giving you legal advice to sue his son. What is he talking about?

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Yeah, listen, we ended up having to remove all the individuals from the lawsuit because had we done that, then it would have been like five separate trials, you know, if we're suing all of these people. But we just wanted to make sure we covered our bases legally. I'm telling you, I have a first rate legal team. They didn't. They didn't miss a beat. They did what they were supposed to do. They argued the law, and they argued the law. I'm telling you brilliantly. Miami's city attorney's office, they argued, well, you know, North Miami. In fact, their attorney, if I remember, he even said, you know, on the surface, it might appear that there's a conflict between what we did and the city charter of course there was a conflict. Everybody could see the conflict. And I'm still paying for you to see that conflict and still lose.

[Billy Cocaines]

So immediately, as you said, you win, I, amongst other local journalists and reporters, reported about your victory. And within, I mean, not hours, I get an email from Kenya Fallot, the spokesperson now for the City of Miami, working for the City Manager. Its subject is statement from the legal department. Good afternoon, Billy. Please see below statement from the office of the City Attorney and attached notice of appeal. The quote is from the City Attorney. While we respectfully disagree with the trial court's decision, we are confident in the strength of our case and remain optimistic about the outcome on appeal. To which I reply about less than 20 minutes later. Thanks, Kenya. Quick question. Is the office of the City Attorney more or less confident than they were about the strength of Joe Carollo's success on appeal? And I say that because, speaking of, you know, shit your tax dollars are paying for, this has been the line from Joe, because since he lost that 63 and a half million dollar corruption, Jud in his individual capacity and the city taxpayers have been paying his personal attorney's fees for as much as 15 to 20 million dollars. This is what Joe Carollo and the City Attorney have been telling us for two years. Joe Carollo was ordered to pay more.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Than $63 million for abusing his power at City Hall.

[Ryan Reynolds]

This is going to be overturned.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

We will prevail in an appellate case.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Of course.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

I'm excited for my appeal because I will win that appeal hands down. They're petrified of the appeal because they know there is no way they' to win that appeal. No way whatsoever. This is going to end up in two ways. Either they throw the whole case out or they say that there's going to be a retrace. The case against me is going to be thrown out against everybody in the city that they've sued will be thrown out later this year in appeal.

[Billy Cocaines]

We're working to get some reaction from Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo. A federal court denied his appeal to overturn a $63.5 million verdict against him. What do you think, Emilio? They're going to be as successful with the appeal against you?

[Emilio Gonzalez]

I, I was interviewed outside my home and, and I told these. Listen, this is ridiculous. You know, it really. And what's going to happen is, is we're going to win. It's going to be ugly. And the city is then going to sit back and say, well, if you notice the comment you got from the city, it wasn't Exactly. Like, overwhelmingly confident. No, we are optimistic that we might. No, guys, the only way you're going to overturn the court is if you find out that this lady, you know, did something illegal or improper. It's ironclad. You violated the city charter. You violated the county chart. By the way, I. I forgot to tell you. During the trial, there was actually a county attorney on. And a county attorney submitted a brief saying, hey, we want you to interpret the county charter the same way the plaintiff is interpreting the county charter. Yes, the city violated the county charter. Oh, and the Florida constitution. I mean, what else do you need to just stop and give the voters back? An election on November 4. They are trying so hard for people not to vote. And then, Billy, then they sit there and tell you, well, we are going to have an election. But you know what? You're not allowed to vote for anybody. You have to vote on. You have to vote on these two referenda items, one of which has to do with, you know, term limits, which really aren't term limits, because we had a carve out for a couple of. I mean, come on. Listen, this is not rocket science. And I will tell you, Billy, I will tell you. You know, we in Miami are used to a lot of. You know, we put up with a lot. One of the things that I found. And I find that a very humbling experience. I've never run for anything, okay? I go to Publix, I go pump gas. Perfect strangers knock on my door Stop me when I walk my bulldog. Thank you. Thank you. Finally, somebody is doing what needs to be done. Kick. I mean. I mean, listen, this is tame compared to the stuff they kick them all out, put them in jail, on and on. I mean, it really is a humbling experience. But what I think what we're witnessing is an upcoming tidal wave of discontent. People are pissed. They are pissed. And in this community, people tolerate a lot, but don't tolerate taking my right to vote away.

[Billy Cocaines]

But also, every day that this goes on, the uncertainty of it, the appeal is disenfranchisement. It's disenfranchisement of the candidates. It's disenfranchisement of the voters. It's tougher to campaign. It's tougher to fundraise. I mean, to be fair, know, candidates couldn't even file to run because there was no. For a while, there was no election to run.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Think of how ecumenical this has become, that a group called Veterans for America first and the NAACP have both chimed in to support my lawsuit. Okay, this Is, this is beyond.

[Billy Cocaines]

It's a big tent. It's a big tent on this one.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Circus tent, you know.

[Billy Cocaines]

Well, in Miami it certainly is, but.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

But, you know, this is no longer about Republican or Democrat, about, about left or right. This is about wrong or right. And people understand that you don't yank an election. If you were seriously thinking about doing this, what happened last November when we actually went to the ballot, to the vote? What, why wasn't it a good idea then? Why is it a good idea now? And why does it have to be now? You know, when we, when we do the census every 10 years, you take the census and then prospectively, you will inform states you gain three congressional seats prospectively. So that the next election they plan for three additional congressional seats. Here they want to go backwards. Listen, if you want to have elections on even years, fine, let the voters decide. If they decide, let's do it prospectively, you know, effective, pick a date, 2032, everybody stands for election, period. End of discussion. And they would have a great deal of people supporting them.

[Billy Cocaines]

And what you would have, what would happen of course, is that you'd have voters going into the polling place with the knowledge that you're voting for somebody for a five year term, for example, as opposed to now. The people who got elected for four year terms suddenly gave themselves five year terms. There was disenfranchisement on top of disenfranchisement in this, in this game.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

I, I publicly have said, look, if you guys want to do this, when I win in November, I'll serve a three year term. No buy in mute, mute crickets, nothing. I'll do a three year term. But, but there's another issue that people forget and we need to think about, and that is if you have elections in even number years, you will eventually have an election and a presidential campaign. So, so the day that Emilio Gonzalez, average citizen, decides he wants to run for city commission, I will be on the same ballot as a president, a governor, a senator, a congressman, a mayor. Bottom line, by the time my name appears on a ballot, it'll be on page 14, right? Secondly, when I go fundraise, everybody's going to laugh at you. Hey, look, I already gave to the presidential candidate Governor, so, so what you end up doing is you may, and I want to see the numbers, you may increase turnout, but you're going to decrease the number of candidates. Because at that point the only people that can afford to run right are these legacy guys that have existing packs and they're bored because you Know their wife has got too many things for them to do, of course. So they're going to run for office again and they got $200,000 left over. So you know, when they did it an even number of years, the logic back then was if you do it in the off years, then people can concentrate on municipal issues and not get lost on all the bigger.

[Billy Cocaines]

And listen, we've had this debate on the show before. Whether or not the even year election increases franchisement or not, whether a higher voter turnout of lower information voters is actually beneficial for democracy, whether candidates can compete because of the like. We don't have a deep bench in terms of campaign talent in this town. So there's going to be greater competition against congressional races and presidential campaigns to hire people. Advertising and printing and mailers are going to be more expensive and more plentiful in mailboxes you will not be able to penetrate. So this whole idea that Commissioner Pardo presented, that this is going to somehow improve the kind of quality of the candidates and the competitiveness of outsiders or is to me total bullshit. Because the only people who can compete are the political dynastic crime families that have been holding us hostage for generations.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

You interesting. An interesting anecdote during the, the trial. It was a zoom trial, but a lot of people were able to watch. And there was a lady who kept raising her hand.

[Billy Cocaines]

Can't do that during a trial.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

The judge, the judge, you know. Madam, what can I do for you? I'd like to speak. Oh, so. So check this out.

[Billy Cocaines]

They swear her in. What happened?

[Emilio Gonzalez]

The lady spoke.

[Billy Cocaines]

Get out.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

The lady was a resident of North Miami and she spoke to say that this business about voter turn is bs, that the people in North Miami are incredibly pissed at the fact that they had to extend their, their office holders. And she said, again, this is anecdotal, that in this election, whenever the local people appeared, they just skipped them. So the voters voted for other people and they left that blank because they were not going to legitimize people that were imposed upon them. Right. Against their wishes or they had no.

[Billy Cocaines]

Idea who the hell they were.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

I mean, listen, and to my point earlier, yeah, okay, let's say, let's say you can improve turnout right now. Turnout is miserable. Okay, but you know what? Show me the stats. I mean, there's got to be some empirical data other than the city of North Miami.

[Billy Cocaines]

But listen, bottom line, we should be able to have this conversation and debate when we go to a referendum to vote on whether or not to change the elections to Even which did not have, like. That's why I said there's disenfranchisement on top of disenfranchisement here.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

To your point, though, you know, they always talk about the low turnout in Miami, and we have an abysmally low turnout. Why is that? It isn't because people don't care. It's that we have a really poor candidate class of people. If I have to choose between bad and worse, I'm staying home. I'm not interested in giving anybody my vote. And historically, that's what we've had. And unfortunately, our political classes, by the way, I've changed. We've gone from politicians to political class. Now we have a political cast. Right? Our political cast. They like that. They like to keep turnout low. They want to be able to manipulate the absentee ballots and people voting at the senior centers and all that good stuff. And they're counting on being able to win an election where their turnout is maybe 12%. We just had an election in District 4 where something like 11% of the people showed up to vote. Okay, 2800 people now allow Ralph Rosado to vote on the future of our city.

[Billy Cocaines]

The best commissioner money could buy. Emilio, I've never had you on the show before. So while I had the opportunity, I have to ask this because we now are in a place where Miguel Gabella, the Commissioner Gabella, who's been on this show before, is the only elected official in City hall who has not been adjudicated to have violated the constitution, either the US or state constitution. Everybody else from the mayor and all of the other commissioners, the three commissioners who voted for this scheme, Joe Carrillo, to his credit, did vote against it. However, he's been adjudicated to have violated the First Amendment rights, of course, of the property owners in Little Havana. A case in which you testified in away from the commissioner entering court to face the first witness for 11:00am That's Miami's former city manager. The jury learned about his military and national security, past trusted county and then city administrator, who as boss of Miami's operations and staff, got along well with Commissioner Joe Carollo. Until the ball and chain controversy. The signs that the commissioner was targeting. His words. That and its owners, other business properties along Calla Ocho, a midnight tour of grievances, requests for code and police inspections. City staffers, Gonzalez told the jury, were afraid not to comply with a powerful commissioner. It's my understanding that this is the reason you. This issue was the reason you resigned as the city manager at the city ultimately and may very well play into the reason why you're running now for mayor. I'll give you the last word.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

Listen, I resigned more than anything else because my wife had gotten sick. And I have priorities. And my priorities were not going to a circus every other week at the Sea of Miami. It isn't what I said at a trial. It's what everybody else said, okay? When my police chief and my deputy, city managers and my department heads all come to the same conclusion that a lawful business is being targeted, it's wrong. That's wrong. And we should not allow ourselves to play that game. It is wrong. The trial took us to where it did. It was a jury trial. It was appealed. The man had his day in court and that should be the end of this. But the moral of the story is citizens can fight back, okay? Citizens don't have to sit back and take it. Citizens don't have to have their election stolen from them. Citizens have a say. And my expectation is, is that this November 4th, we will have an election. And we will have, I'm convinced, a tidal wave of people coming out to start all over again.

[Billy Cocaines]

Emilio Gonzalez. Emilio4miami.com thanks for being here. I hope you'll be back before the election that you insist is going to happen. You're promising us an election now?

[Emilio Gonzalez]

It will happen. It will happen. Much against the wishes of the power brokers at City hall, we will have an election this November.

[Billy Cocaines]

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[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Billy Cocaines]

This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Billy Cocaines]

To tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

If we made $15 bills.

[Ryan Reynolds]

But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial.

[Billy Cocaines]

Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for a three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of networks busy taxes and fees extra.

[Emilio Gonzalez]

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[Billy Cocaines]

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[Billy Cocaines]

Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. Support for this podcast and the following message comes from America's Navy the Navy offers new graduates hands on training and experience in careers like computer science, aviation and medicine, plus education and sign on bonuses. Parents help your grads start their career [e-mail] foreign so there are certain Miami must Read books, as I call them, because people will call me particularly through the pandemic, is, you know, the Roscoe Manbros started moving to town from every coast, up, down, left, right, sideways. And like, well, what do I read? Like what kind of helps me prepare for Miami to understand Miami a little bit better, the history and what I'm about to get myself into. My first advice is don't, don't move here. But if you have to move here. One of the books always on my Forever Miami must read list is the Swamp by Michael Grunwald. It's one of the best books about politics and the environment and Florida and things that really matter, but also in the most funny, compelling, readable way. Because like a lot of the issues that Michael Grunwald covers, it's pretty heavy shit. And you're gonna be like, I don't want to read about that. It sounds like homework. It sounds stressful. But you start reading it and you're like, why is this funny? Why is this so much fun? He's great to read and he's great to talk to. And he's joining us now on Because Miami, Michael's new book. This is why he's here. I should mention we are eating the Earth, the race to fix our food system and save our climate. See? Existential shit. We're literally looking for those of you listening and not watching, we are literally looking at the COVID of the book, which is orange with what is basically a plate with the earth painted onto it that is cracked in like half a dozen pieces. So as I was saying, it's really not an episode of Because Miami, unless we get into an existential conversation, because Miami is forever an existential kind of a place because we're one of the youngest cities. But we're also going to be the first to go, aren't we?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Michael, I appreciate your kind words and your and your optimistic take, you know, it's. It's great, Billy. I'm definitely trying to make the unpleasant and existential and boring more palatable. Right? Since, you know, 20 years of this.

[Billy Cocaines]

Now it sounds like a 50s or 60s, like, Roger Corman horror movie. We are eating the Earth. There should be like a there. Amen.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Soil and green is people.

[Billy Cocaines]

Yeah. So here's the problem with us humans. We got to fill our pie holes with something, right? In order to survive. And in order to do that, we got to make food, right? Which I guess means we got to grow food, which means we need Earth to do that. And what you're saying is that we are somehow, by just virtue of needing to stay alive, we are destroying our soul vessel here for humanity.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, that's. That's basically right. Right. This is like a pretty nice planet, right? It's got.

[Billy Cocaines]

It'll do.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know, it's got pizza. It's got reliable WI fi, breathable air.

[Billy Cocaines]

Speak for yourself. I live in Miami. We don't. It's Popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue. Is this infrastructure?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, you know, it used to be a natural planet. Used to have trees and grasslands and wetlands. You know, stuff like the Everglades, as. As you mentioned. And it has become an agricultural planet. Two of every five acres of land on this Earth are now farms or pastures. And by contrast, we talk about, oh, the sprawl is out of control. Well, one of every hundred acres of the Earth are cities and suburbs. So really, I mean, we are losing a soccer field worth of tropical forest every six seconds, and we're losing it to agriculture. So I'd written about the sugar industry a little bit in. In the swamp, but I really didn't know squat about. About farms. And it is not only a third of our climate problem, but it is, you know, uses 70% of our fresh water. It's the main cause of water pollution. It is the main cause of biodiversity loss. You know, if you care about the environment, you should probably care about agriculture, but nobody really does.

[Billy Cocaines]

Well, let's talk about that, because we hear a lot about, you know, greenhouse gas emissions. We hear a lot about sea level rise. We hear a lot about. There's a lot of things that we hear about with respect to climate change and the environment, but we rarely hear about this. Like, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but this is kind of the first time that I'm aware that the idea of our growing food is somehow a bad thing for the planet. Like, are we misguided? Are our Priorities out of whack with respect to this conversation?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, look, I mean, I can't get too preachy about it because, you know, six years ago when I started working on this, I knew nothing about, and I wrote a fair amount about energy and climate. I just didn't know about a third of the problem. I think part of it, I like to say that this kind of carbohydrate problem is more interesting than the hydrocarbon problem because at least with energy we kind of know what to do. You want to electrify the global economy and run it on clean electricity and we're even sort of starting to do it, despite what the yahoos in Washington are doing right now. But food, like, like we didn't even know what we need to know. And the problem is getting worse in a hurry. So it did seem like, you know, a kind of interesting thing to dig into. And what you really, you know, what you find is that this is a, this is the problem that, that we're not addressing.

[Billy Cocaines]

Well, you said like, I write about.

[Ryan Reynolds]

A lot of solutions, but, but so far none of them have much traction.

[Billy Cocaines]

Well, you said like what, 40% of the Earth is dedicated to this. And, but that's the thing too is there's more of us. We need more fuel for us. There's a stat that I heard you say the other day that we're going to have to make more food. You know the one I'm talking about?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Billy Cocaines]

Well, this is like a shocking fact.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, we're going to have to manufacture more food in the next 30 years than we've made in the last 12,000 since, since the invention of agriculture. And right now we are on track to deforest another dozen California's worth of land by 2050. And that's like really bad. I mean, not only for the, not for the, just for the bugs and bunnies and other critters that live in the forest, but remember, like, forests store a ton of carbon and they also absorb the carbon that we pump into the atmosphere with our fossil fuels. So I like to say that trying to decarbonize the planet while continuing to vaporize all these trees, it's like trying to clean your house while smashing your vacuum cleaner to bits in the living room. You make a huge mess, but you're also crippling your ability to clean up the mess. And that's essentially what the book is about, where we're eating the Earth and we got to start eating less of it.

[Billy Cocaines]

And you're kind of one of these people who starts to learn, as you said, and research and understand. And then you start to change your behavior as a result of. Of what you're like, oh, shit, maybe. Maybe I need to be doing something a little bit different here. And you have, like, a new diet, right, like, as a result of this book.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, look, if you. If I was going to be, you know, look, I feel like diets sort of like religion, right? You just find the level of hypocrisy that you're comfortable with. And if I was, you know, if I was going to be the really good food and climate writer, I would go vegan because that is the. That is the best diet for the climate. But it turns out, like, I really love meat, and I. Our ancestors started eating it 2 million years ago, and we actually evolved to, you know, we're sort of hardwired to enjoy it. So what I did was I cut out beef and lamb because it turns out that cutting out beef and lamb is about as good as going vegetarian, because vegetarians tend to eat more dairy. And really, cattle are the problem. They are like, beef is 10 times worse than for the planet and for the climate than chicken or pork. And it's partly because of the burps and farts that everybody talks about. And those are a problem. There's a lot of methane that, you know from flatulent cows.

[Billy Cocaines]

But the real problem in the studio, too.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. I've been around you, Billy, but. But I think that, you know, the real problem is that cattle just use an extraordinary amount of land. They are really inefficient converters of their food into our food food. And so while, you know, dairy is really bad, it's probably worse than chicken or pork, but at least because it's cattle. But they do make milk a few times a day, but they only make beef once in their lifetime, so. So beef just turns out to be, you know, beef is the baddie. And I know it's like, I. I miss steak, I miss burgers. But I just figured if I'm going to be this guy writing this. This book, you know, it would be, I better do something.

[Billy Cocaines]

So what do you. So you eat fish?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I eat everything else.

[Billy Cocaines]

Okay. Chicken.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Everything else.

[Billy Cocaines]

All right. Pork.

[Ryan Reynolds]

I always say, like, people ask me, like, what are the things you should do if you want to reduce the impact of your diet on the planet? And, like, I could give you a list of 50 things that would help, but beef is so much worse than all the other things. I just say, eat Less beef. Number two is waste less food because, you know, we waste about a quarter of our food food and that means we waste a quarter of the, you know, the farmland and the fertilizer and the water that goes to grow that food. We, we literally, we use a landmass the size of China every year to grow garbage. So that's dumb. But then it's like if I had to do number three, it would be eat even less beef because that's just that much, you know, it's an outsized part of the problem.

[Billy Cocaines]

Well, there's always a Florida connection. And the Florida of today is the America of tomorrow. We are the laboratory for democracy, the beta testing grounds of sort of every bad idea that you. That every, every lobbyist. Yeah. And we just, and then we export that Florida to the rest of the poor country. And last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that banned the manufacture, sale or distribution of cultivated, also known as lab grown or cell based meat in Florida. It went law went into effect last summer. DeSantis stated that the ban aims to protect Florida's agricultural industry and address what he termed the quote, quote, global elites plan, end quote. So what, what happened there? And does that help us eat the earth less?

[Ryan Reynolds]

I mean, it's so absurd. I mean, you know, first of all, right, like it's the free state of Florida and they're telling us what meat we can eat, right? I mean, you know, this is just an. Obviously, you know, this is partly because. Right Equal calls it lab grown meat. It's actually, I mean, the industry calls it cultivated meat, which makes sense because it's going to be grown in breweries, not labs. And I've tried it and it tastes like meat because it is meat. It's grown from animal cells. I've had cultivated sushi, I've had cultivated burgers, I've had cultivated chicken. It's not available for sale yet because they haven't gotten it cheap enough. And they haven't gotten, you know, some of the places they're just starting to get their FDA approval. But it can reduce, you know, aside from, you know, saving billions of animals, you know, it can reduce land use by 90%, reduce emissions by 90%. You know, you know, it doesn't require antibiotics, doesn't require hormones. It's a really, you know, it's exciting technology, but because, you know, just like electric vehicles were seen as sort of Obama mobile, now these kind of like fake meat is seen as Biden burgers. And it's just like trying to start A culture war. And you gotta, you know, like you say Florida, Florida comes first. But now six other red states have. Have banned cultivated meat.

[Billy Cocaines]

This is a very legitimate sort of potential solution to what it is that you write about, which is, of course, saving our one and only. Our one and only planet it here. And we have banned it and so have six other states.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It really is. I mean, the Earth is becoming an animal farm. Right. I mean, I talked about how, you know, two of every five acres of the planet are now. Are now agricultural. Well, two of every three acres of agricultural land are pasture. And if you include all the crops that we feed to animals, really like three quarters of our agricultural land are basically to, you know, to provide stuff for animals. Animals to eat before we eat them. So, you know, again, we're eating 350 million tons of meat every year. And it would be really exciting to have to be able to keep doing that without having such a dramatic impact on the planet. But, you know, that's woke. That's, you know, and of course, there are some cattlemen who showed up to, you know, Florida hearings wearing their cowboy hats. And, and, you know, that's Ron DeSantis. He listens to. He listens to the growers. He doesn't really listen to the eaters.

[Billy Cocaines]

Yeah, but nobody's going to stop them from doing what they're doing. This is to compensate for, like you said, that many more mouths that we have to feed and that much more. They can never produce enough cattle at the rate at which you're talking about that we're going to need right now.

[Ryan Reynolds]

It really, it's really true. You'd really would need a planet B. Right. And, you know, and if, and you know, we saw the market. Martians. Right. Like that place. I, I know that there's like, you know, certain people who would like us to start a new civilization up there, but I saw Matt Damon trying to grow potatoes on that, on that land, and it didn't. It, you know, it seemed pretty hard. We have a. We have a much better place to, to grow food. We're just making a hash of it.

[Billy Cocaines]

So before we go, I have to ask you, because there are stories that I see that, that make me think of you. If there's a story about Cape Coral. Because you've done a lot of writing about Cape Coral, which has been in the news in the past month.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Oh, yeah, it was really fun. When I went there for my daughter's soccer tournament, I was like, you know, I wasn't. They didn't really Hold. I held like a parade to welcome me.

[Billy Cocaines]

So the headline, Cape Coral has the worst housing market in America. You can set your watch to this headline, right? Like this is a headline, but it's a canary in the coal mine for me for a recession because. Or a housing bust cycle because you see Cape Coral and you're like, oh, shit, that's where it happens. Further, is that what we're looking at here is, Is it, is it the red flag?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, you know, I mean, as you know, I did write a story about Cape Coral called the, the Boomtown that shouldn't exist. And, and it is like, it's kind of. It's Florida's. Florida is what I like to call it. I mean, you know, the insanity of that place, the way they, you know, it's. It's the most. It's a peninsula popping off the peninsula. It's the most unnatural corner of an unnatural part of the United States. And there are all sorts of reasons to believe that that place is just like cruising for a bruising. But that said, you know, like in the past, like, this is probably a buy signal, right? Like, people probably shouldn't be living there. You know, they're right in harm's way. It's like, you know, it's our, it's our best hurricane alley. It's, you know, it's. They are living in the swamp. But, you know, the moral of Cape Coral is that it's about lies that came true, right? It was swampland that everybody, you know, that people passed off as like, buildable land when it really wasn't, but ultimately it was. And you know, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't buy a place in Cape Coral, but probably it'll. But probably it'll be worth twice as much in a few years.

[Billy Cocaines]

The only, the only guy in Miami who's not a realtor, Michael Grunwald. Before we go, last question. Speaking of the swamp, the Everglades, you know, in your book, it really is sort of like the bipartisan island where people could kind of come together. And no matter how divided and how much partisanship there was, we could come together about protecting, if not saving the Everglades. And now the gator gulag. You've got alligator Alcatraz contributing concrete and light pollution and sound pollution, not to mention the human rights violations and all the human beings that are becoming skeeter food out there. You've got the Miami Dade County Commission proposing to move the incinerator that burned down in Doral next to the.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, that'll show.

[Billy Cocaines]

Listen, like, what could possibly go wrong building an incinerator next to a concentration camp in the Everglades? But incidentally, the Democrats don't seem to be doing shit. We have a Democratic mayor of the county. She's like, just absolutely a spineless quizzling. Just her silence is pure complicity in this. I guess what I'm saying is now we're all just kumbaya on shitting all over the Everglades. Is that what's happened the last 20, like, quarter of a century?

[Ryan Reynolds]

You know, it's funny, you know, I end my new book. You know, I end we are eating the earth in the Everglades. Because in a way, the idea of that, the idea of this is just as agriculture has intruded into the Everglades, but also some of the projects that are actually trying to restore the Everglades, they're restoring peatlands. In a way. That's the best climate project you could have. That's the best bang for your climate buck. But no, as you know, the beginning of the swamp, I started it during the Supreme Court case, case Bush v. Gore. While that was being argued at the Supreme Court, you know, Jeb Bush and Bill Clinton were celebrating the Everglades at the White House, and they were celebrating Everglades restoration. Because, you know, it's not like every politician really cared about the Everglades, but you at least had to pretend to care. And. And that ship seems to have sailed. Right. I mean, I remember Mayor Daniela, like, when she was, like when the swamp came out, she was kind of this. I think she was like a volunteer for the Audubon Society. And she used to come to my book talks, and she would just come. I remember talking to her a little bit. The Everglades used to be this real, unifying, inspiring thing that we all had in common. And that really did seem to cross the political divide. But I think today nothing crosses the political divide. And, you know, the swamp is just, you know, it's not worth. Some. Some people are using it, like, hey, you know, because we don't like the people who are using the Everglades as a. As a concentration camp. So we're going to, you know, so that's a talking point. But you don't see anybody who really cares about the Everglades in public life right now.

[Billy Cocaines]

Yeah, not even. It seems the people who used to care about the Everglades either. The organization, some of the organizations used to kind of rely on being the watchdogs for it and saying, like the rest of us can, can go about our business because it's in good hands. There's good stewards sort of working. And that doesn't even seem to be the case anymore.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Well, I mean, you know, we're 25 years into Everglades restoration and you know, I wrote a book about it, so it's, it's a little more complicated than this, but it's basically a water storage project, right? Supposed to store more water in the, you know, in these reservoirs so that we don't have to dump it on into the estuaries or dump it into the Everglades and so that we still have some in the dry season and you know, for the Everglades water.

[Billy Cocaines]

Water's overrated.

[Ryan Reynolds]

And, you know, and, and honestly, we just finished the first water storage reservoir 25 years later. I mean, it's just, it's incredible. You know, this was supposed to be a 30 year plan. I mean, I think we're currently on, on track for 100 years. And it's just, you know, it's very depressing because it used to be, at least there was this idea that, you know, we love the gators, we love the Panthers. You know, we, we love the idea that there are no other Everglades in the world. Like Marjory Stoneman Douglas said, we love the idea that the Everglades is a test. If we pass, we get to keep the planet. Now it's like we're failing. Who cares?

[Billy Cocaines]

I'm more interested in a tequila storage project. Can we work on that? I'd like to work on that. Michael Grundman, author of We Are Eating the Earth I know what it sounds like, but, but it's, it's, it's actually really, if I can say it, fun to read and enlightening. And I'm not suggesting that you're going to quit red meat like poor, like poor Michael did, but maybe you'll eat a little bit more chicken. Eat a little bit. It's like a chick.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Exactly.

[Billy Cocaines]

I'm like a chick fil A.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Like the chick fil A. Cow. Eat more chicken. Eat more chicken. That's right.

[Billy Cocaines]

Thanks, Michael.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Thanks for having me.

[Billy Cocaines]

Billy Cocaines.