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--:-- Georgia Howe: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm Georgia Howe.
--:-- John Bickley: And I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's Saturday, December 21st. Today, we have a very special guest, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the LA Times. Dr. Soon-Shiong, thank you so much for coming on.
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: Thank you for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: Dr. Soon-Shiong, you've made some big headlines this fall for making changes at the LA Times. Can you tell us a little bit about what motivated you to make these changes?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: Well, when I bought the paper, I wanted it to be a voice of all people. And more importantly, I wanted our readers to understand the difference between news and opinion. When I first started this, obviously, Norm Polstein was the executive editor with me, and we had that same mission. Unfortunately, COVID happened, and I had to take my eye off the paper to focus on what I was doing on cancer and COVID. And I hired a new editor, as Norm retired, and the new editor, unfortunately, I think, pushed the paper into something I didn't believe was the right direction.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really interesting. How are your readers responding to these changes? I mean, obviously, it's a delicate dance because you have this subscriber base that's become accustomed to a certain tone at the paper.
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: Yeah, and I think, look, I recognize there'd be risks, right? As I said in my tweets, if you have to lead, you have to lead. Leaders have to lead. My concern was, were we writing opinions based on only one-sided views? And recognizing that California is a very blue state, but as you begin to see, I didn't want to be just the voice of California; I wanted to be the voice of the nation. More importantly, I want to be the voice of truth.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really clear. You've also been very vocal about declining to endorse a political candidate. Can you tell us a little bit about why you made that decision?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: Well, you know, as you said, leaders have to lead. We led. And interestingly enough, a day later or two days later, Jeff Bezos followed. Whether he followed us or whether he followed on his own accord, I have no idea. I have not communicated with Jeff on any of these issues. So whatever Jeff Bezos' motivation was, you have to ask Jeff. But my motivation was very clear. I did not believe in an echo chamber, prepackaged endorsement, which I have yet to see, but didn't believe in, of a candidate that I had some knowledge of. And both candidates I have some knowledge of. And I just wanted some fair, factual statements to be put out there.
--:-- John Bickley: That's really interesting. Now, you've also been very vocal about some of the incoming cabinet picks, particularly Robert Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Marty Makary. Can you tell us a little bit about why you support those picks?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: I have very strong feelings about some of them. When the president-elect nominated Robert Kennedy Jr., there was this furor around Robert Kennedy Jr. Having said that, what he says is fundamentally correct. We have huge amounts of toxic materials. Of a rising incidence of cancer. He was the first to announce about PFAS. I've been studying for the last five years the coloring and toxic materials in the food that causes cancer. My concern in life, or my entire career, was to find a cure for cancer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really fascinating. You've done a lot of research on this topic. Can you tell us a little bit about what you've learned?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: It is remarkable that since 2012, there are very, very strong, good scientific papers that show these yellow and blue and red dyes are carcinogenic. Very strong papers. So it is a settled science that these chemicals are carcinogenic. It is also a settled science that the chemicals that you and I use as Scotchgard or on our clothing or on nonstick pans called PFAS is carcinogenic. Yet we are the only country in the world to my knowledge compared to Europe that have not banned these chemicals or regulated these chemicals in our food and allow them to happen. We're the only country in the world that has never measured this thing PFAS that's in the ground and uses fertilizers and in the milk.
--:-- John Bickley: That's really disturbing. What can people do to reduce their cancer risk?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: Okay, let's go through one at a time. It is remarkable that since 2012, there are very, very strong, good scientific papers that show these yellow and blue and red dyes are carcinogenic. Very strong papers. So it is a settled science that these chemicals are carcinogenic. It is also a settled science that the chemicals that you and I use as Scotchgard or on our clothing or on nonstick pans called PFAS is carcinogenic. Yet we are the only country in the world to my knowledge compared to Europe that have not banned these chemicals or regulated these chemicals in our food and allow them to happen. We're the only country in the world that has never measured this thing PFAS that's in the ground and uses fertilizers and in the milk.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really scary. What about PFAS? Can people get tested to find out what their levels are?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: Not only is it going to be tested, what one farmer did, according to this story, and I want to go do this investigation myself, is because I think either the families or the children were getting cancer, they tested themselves in their milk and in their blood. And it was exceedingly high to the extent that what he's doing to all his cattle and his milk now is throwing it down the drain. And then he had to actually, unfortunately, euthanize his dairy cows.
--:-- John Bickley: That's really tragic. What can be done to address this issue?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: The good news about all of it, it's fixable. And that's what's so exciting. It's fixable. So, you know, when President Trump went out and said, they broke it, we fix it. I don't mean that as a political statement. There are so many things that we can do now because we can measure it, understand it and fix it, which really means we need to measure it so that we have a quantifiable data fact and no speculation, no right, no left.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really hopeful. You've also been very vocal about the need to improve our healthcare system. Can you tell us a little bit about what you think needs to be done?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: OK, again, I don't want to get political, but I presented this to President Obama. Think about that. And I visited the White House with Dr. Jim Weinstein, who was the president of Dartmouth. Dr. Jim Kim, who was the president then of the World Bank, and myself. Because we had a solution. The solution was to identify a system where the people who care for the patient, meaning the doctors, have real information about the chronically ill.
--:-- John Bickley: That's really interesting. What do you think is the biggest problem facing our healthcare system today?
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: I think we are losing the war on cancer with our empiric trial and error of toxic chemotherapy. And I think we are on the brink of curing cancer with immunotherapy, targeting the tumor and activating your body's immune system. If this change is made during this administration, we could see the results of that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's really exciting. Well, Dr. Soon-Shiong, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your insights with us today.
--:-- Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong: Thank you for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: And that was Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, medical entrepreneur and owner of the LA Times. This has been a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And don't forget to text "WIRE" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation information kit from Birch Gold.
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for listening to Morning Wire.
