Spouting Off, August 23, 2026
Spouting Off with Karen Kataline
Porcelli and Kataline 7-30-26 FINAL
Accountability, Culture Wars, Iran, and the Voices That Reach Us
Summary
Fauci, Pardons, and Accountability
The conversation opens with Vic Porcelli, Ken Williams, and Karen Kataline discussing Anthony Fauci, recent questioning, and whether he might face meaningful accountability. Kataline argues that Fauci's use of the Fifth Amendment, the scope of a presidential pardon, and questions surrounding authorization of an autopen pardon deserve further scrutiny. She describes Fauci in extremely condemnatory terms and compares his conduct to historical medical experimentation, while Ken expresses pessimism that any consequences will ultimately follow. Kataline pushes back against giving up entirely and says she hopes multiple investigations and disclosures will eventually become impossible for the public to ignore. The hosts also joke about media treatment of Fauci and play a montage of earlier broadcast voices praising his candor and service. Throughout this section, claims about criminality, pardons, and medical wrongdoing are opinions and allegations made by the speakers, not independently established facts within the transcript.
Gain-of-Function, COVID, and Institutional Distrust
The discussion then turns to gain-of-function research, COVID-19, testing, vaccines, pharmaceutical companies, and the speakers' distrust of institutions that shaped the pandemic response. Vic says he does not pretend to fully understand gain-of-function research and questions the logic of altering viruses in ways that could make them transmissible to humans. Ken and Karen discuss their understanding of the term and speculate about motives, laboratory research, and whether financial incentives influenced decisions. Pfizer, testing, vaccines, and Fauci's prior statements are all discussed critically, with the speakers arguing that important questions remain unanswered. Kataline broadens the subject into a larger political argument, portraying pandemic policies and ideological conformity as part of an attack on American freedom. The conversation later returns to masking, where she describes forced face coverings as symbols of submission and connects that reaction to her wider concerns about political and cultural control.
Sophie Cunningham, Caitlin Clark, and WNBA Culture
A second major segment focuses on Sophie Cunningham, Caitlin Clark, and growing interest in the WNBA. Kataline praises Cunningham's toughness, athletic ability, background at the University of Missouri, and public comments about sex and sports. She says she has become much more interested in women's basketball and now records games so she does not miss them. The speakers discuss Cunningham's defense of Caitlin Clark, protests around a Seattle game, and the hostile treatment they believe both players have received. They interpret some of the conflict through a racial and cultural lens, arguing that resentment of successful white athletes reflects a broader increase in racial hostility. The conversation also includes lighter basketball banter about Larry Bird, Tyrese Haliburton, unusually tall players, and Robert Wadlow of Alton.
Iran, Israel, and Political Strategy
The hosts and Kataline next discuss Iran, Israel, J.D. Vance, Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and possible political strategy leading into the midterm elections. Kataline says she was concerned by earlier criticism of Israel but wonders whether some public positioning might be part of a larger strategy involving Iran and Gulf states. The participants repeatedly acknowledge that they are speculating about Trump's plans, timing, military threats, diplomacy, and the possibility of Iranian surrender. Kataline is highly pessimistic that Iran's leadership will deal honestly with the West and refers to religious beliefs about martyrdom and the Twelve Imams. The segment then shifts to a Boy George song supporting Israel and Jewish people, which deeply moves Kataline. She expresses gratitude toward non-Jews who support Israel and describes Jewish people as "canaries in the mineshaft" whose treatment can foreshadow wider dangers.
Islam, Communism, Sharia, and Cultural Conflict
In a later segment, the group discusses a social-media post claiming that Islam and communism have been among history's most destructive ideological forces. Kataline argues that leftist politics, communism, and Islamist movements can temporarily cooperate because each sees the other as useful in weakening existing institutions. The hosts play an audio clip from an Iranian political refugee in Canada who says he has lived under Islamic law and fears growing accommodation of Islamist demands. Kataline extends the discussion to refugees from communist countries who recognize political patterns they believe resemble the systems they escaped. The group also discusses hijabs, burqas, Sharia law, and masking, framing compulsory covering as a loss of identity or a symbol of submission. These broad claims about religions, ideologies, political parties, and social groups are the speakers' own interpretations and are preserved as such rather than presented as neutral conclusions.
Health, Uncertainty, and the Butterfly Effect
Amid the political discussion, Vic describes a recent headache and elevated blood pressure, saying his wife checked him and that he contacted his doctor and oncologist. Karen urges him not to be macho about medical symptoms and to seek professional attention. A subsequent discussion of a reported death becomes a broader point about how quickly people adopt conspiracy theories before reliable information is available, with both Vic and Karen defending the value of simply saying, "I don't know," when facts are uncertain. The episode then closes on a personal reflection prompted by Good Morning, Vietnam and Robin Williams' portrayal of radio broadcaster Adrian Cronauer entertaining American servicemen. Vic becomes emotional describing the moment when the broadcaster realizes how much his voice means to soldiers who may never return home, connecting it to the uncertainty radio hosts often feel about whether anyone is truly affected by what they say. Karen tells him that meaningful work can touch people even when the person doing it never sees the reaction, while Vic contrasts radio with his earlier work as a cake artist, where customers' responses were immediate. Kataline invokes the "butterfly effect" as a metaphor for the unseen influence of words, ending the conversation with appreciation for the ways people can affect and change one another for the better.
Spouting Off
...because, you're better off, when you're Spouting Off!
Karen is well-informed and opinionated, but she also believes that protecting others’ rights to free speech protects our own.
Topics range from the timely to the timeless, but always includes a healthy dose of debate and discussion.
Karen has a healthy sense of humor and a nose for news. She stays on top of the topics people are talking about and often brings you stories you may not have heard. Whatever the subject, Karen usually has an opinion and she welcomes yours too!
If you can’t stand a little rabble-rousing or even some passionate disagreement, you may want to listen with caution. But if you just love mixing it up about the hottest issues of the day, tune in. You might have your mind changed or even change someone else’s!
Speaker Identification
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli, Host. Identified from the show introduction, the title in the source file, and Ken Williams directly greeting him as "Vic."
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams, Co-host / In-Studio Voice. Identified by name in the opening exchange and by later references to "Ken" during the conversation.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline, Guest / Commentator. Identified by the hosts' introduction of Karen and by repeated direct address to "Karen" throughout the interview. The automated transcript repeatedly renders her surname incorrectly; the source filename supports the spelling Kataline.
Speaker 4 - Prerecorded Media Montage Voices. Several unidentified broadcast or interview voices are heard in a short montage discussing Dr. Anthony Fauci. The speakers are not individually identifiable from the transcript alone.
Speaker 5 - Prerecorded Iranian Political Refugee. A male voice in an inserted audio clip identifies himself as a political refugee from Iran who had been imprisoned under Islamic law and who later chose Canada as a home. His name is not stated.
Speaker 6 - Show Bumper / Promo Voices. Short opening and transition fragments contain edited, overlapping, or repeated show audio. Individual voices cannot always be assigned confidently.
Speaker 6 - Show Bumper / Promo Voice: You're tough and smart, and I love Italian. So you're definitely Italian. At least I have this show to come and talk about it and let some stuff out. What kind of a show do you guys put on here today? The Vic Porcelli Show.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Good morning, freedom fighters. Kenny Williams.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Good morning, Vic.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: You know, you look like you could use a vacation. Why don't you work one more day?
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: I might. I might need to, and then take a few days off.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: It's our Thursday here - a big show. We love her. We love Karen Kataline. She leads us off here in just a bit, the one and only Karen Kataline.
Speaker 6 - Show Bumper / Promo Voices: [Brief edited bumper with several overlapping and unintelligible phrases, including a Yiddish joke, a reference to "too dumb to lie," and a superhero-cape joke involving the Star of David.]
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: How are you both doing?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: How are you doing?
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: How are you doing?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I just want to say, a couple of days ago we were talking about something on X, the three of us, and you said, "Yep, I'll be glued to my TV watching Fauci plead the Fifth." And I'll be damned - you hit it. He didn't answer what color his tie was.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Right.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: And that could be among the interesting things he could get charged with. He could be put in contempt, because there are rules for taking the Fifth. Not only that, the pardon already covers him, and - I mean, I wish I were a lawyer for times like this. I don't want to put out everything I was listening to yesterday, but I think there are some cracks in the armor.
The one thing I wish I could do, if I had a genie and could say, "Please, please give me a couple of wishes," is disavow and completely negate a fraudulent pardon, because that is the heart of it. Not just because he was pardoned for crimes he had never been charged with, but because, yes, you can have an autopen, but if they can't prove Biden actually authorized it, they can throw it all out along with a bunch of others.
I know it's harder to go for the big fish. To me, that's the big fish. And of course, like most people, we're desperate for accountability. I was posting furiously, and I said that this monster might get away with what I believe are his crimes against humanity. About the best we can hope for is for him to be humiliated and paraded through the streets naked, because that's what I'd love to see. The humiliation, the mockery - I think that would be the biggest punishment for him. He deserves the punishment that America metes out to all other human beings, but that could be a fate worse than death for him: the humiliation and the mockery.
I was calling him Mengele. I hate making those comparisons, but he is responsible, in my view, for medically experimenting on innocent people, which is what Mengele did. I believe he is guilty of crimes against humanity. He's a monster. There's just no question about it.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Ken?
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: I just think he's going to get away with it. I mean, more than ever, I'm worried about him actually getting away with it. You know what I'm saying? People are so aggravated and upset and so discouraged by the process now that if he walks away - which I think he will - people are going to be like, "It doesn't matter." The bedrock of this nation depends on things being run with law and order, and they're not.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I totally share your sentiments up to a point - that it is critical that accountability be meted out. But you're kind of projecting what you're saying you're afraid of, which is to give up and say it'll never happen. There's still a part of me that's optimistic because there are so many things in the works. The Fauci travesty is only one of them, and a lot of these things people are working on.
Do I think you could be right? Unfortunately, you could be. But there's a part of me that hopes and prays and is desperate to believe that before Trump leaves office, there will be a dump - a dump on the Russian-collusion story and all of these stories put together - until people can't not pay attention to all of them and connect the dots. That's what I hope.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I love that one of the senators asked him, "Did you lie to your diary?" I mean, it's a ridiculous question, but it was a great question.
Yesterday, Ken and I were kind of talking about Dr. Fauci in his pajamas in his room, lying on his stomach with his diary, his feet in the air. He writes, "Listen, girl. Listen, dear diary..." Then we joked about a "burn book," or whatever it was in Mean Girls.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Yeah, yeah, yeah - the burn book.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I have a question I was just thinking about. For five and a half years, we've been hearing about gain-of-function, gain-of-function. We can only speculate as to what that is because somehow this monster told us it was important, and we're still trying to think of what it is. Most people don't really understand it. I don't pretend to understand it.
But what it seems to me is that they were creating a deadly bioweapon virus so they could then create the antidote, right? Somehow it's important to create a virus that never existed so you can create an antidote, which to me is the dumbest excuse for creating a bioweapon and colluding with what I consider America's worst communist enemy to do it. To me, that's treason.
My question is: did they ever get to the "gain of function" part? No one ever asked that. They got to the virus part, but nobody ever talked about gaining function. We only talked about this virus taking away function and people's lives - if, in fact, it wasn't a fraud and it was really a bad flu. All of those questions have yet to be answered.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Well, I think some of it, Karen, was that COVID was part of the gain-of-function that was actually asked about. They say it was accidentally released into the wet market.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: What do those words mean, "gain of function"?
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: That means, as I understand what they're saying, making a virus that's in the animal kingdom transmittable to humans. It wasn't there before, but you're going to make it happen - a deadly virus that will make people sick and dead because somehow that's considered important to do.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: But nobody has ever said, what's the gaining of function? What? You're going to make people sick so you can make them -
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Well, obviously that's what he was trying to do, in my opinion, and making a mint doing it, which is always the way: they break your leg and then they sell you the crutch.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I think that's how Big Pharma would have wanted it.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Oh yeah. Let's make something and let's see if we can fix it. I asked my wife last time, when they were talking about tests - remember, we all had to take the test for COVID? I said to her, "Who made the tests?" And it was, beginning with Pfizer. So Pfizer had their nose in the tests, in the vaccine, and everything else. And then on top of everything else, he denied he was doing gain-of-function, and then they proved he was.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Yeah. Rand Paul brings that up, but just not enough.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Can I say one other thing?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: If you must. It's you.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: You missed your cue.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I must, I must, I must.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: There you go.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: We also have to drill deeper because there's so much here. Look at the people back then, and now, who were standing in line supporting this and marching in lockstep - all the communists, all the tyrants. They were all marching in lockstep.
So I think there's another level of people who had a vested interest in bringing down America - the same ones who are too dumb not to lie and are now telling us they're card-carrying communists. Those are the same people who, in my view, have it in for America. This was the greatest attack on America in human history. Whatever that was, I believe it was a communist attempted takeover.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: You're absolutely right.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: And so we don't talk about that either.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I have two questions. I know what your busy schedule is today, but do you mind doing a whole other segment with us?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: You're kidding. Really? Well, I've got something to do.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: You've got to get your hair done. You're going to get bagels and lox. What's the problem?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I've got to do my nails, wash my hair. Yes, I'd love to.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Well, Ken wants to play something that I love, and then I want to come back and talk about Sophie Cunningham, right? Because I know you're all hip to that.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Oh, isn't she great?
Speaker 6 - Show Bumper / Transition Audio: [A long run of repeated "I'm not sure" phrases appears in the automated transcript. It is treated as an audio-loop/transcription artifact and removed.]
Speaker 4 - Prerecorded Media Montage Voices: It's actually saying that you've done so much for this country in terms of this crisis, so I really appreciate your insight. Who better to give us answers we can trust than Dr. Anthony Fauci? Perfect person to answer our questions today, joining us now, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Dr. Anthony Fauci, appreciate your candor. Dr. Fauci, appreciate the candor. We appreciate your service to this country.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Very cool.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: You look like I changed my mind. I know, I know. It just makes me so nauseous to hear this - all the same usual suspects. If we could tell them that Trump wants you not to jump off a bridge, they'd go do it.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Yes. Right. When I was a kid, our mom used to say, "I guess if Johnny Finnegan jumped off the Empire State Building, you'd jump off the Empire State Building."
All right, let's take a break. Come back with more with Karen Kataline. You're okay with it, right? You know, the bagels and the water can wait. More with Karen Kataline. We never do that. We never say that. What's the matter with us? What are we, stupid? What's the matter here? 101.9/94.1 NewsTalk STL.
[Commercial / station break]
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: We kept Karen Kataline for another segment. We appreciate your time, Karen. We know it's valuable.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: My pleasure. It's fun talking to you guys.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Let's talk about Sophie Cunningham, shall we?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Yes, let's do. Sophie - first of all, when I found out the Fever traded for Sophie Cunningham from the Phoenix Mercury, I was very excited because I knew she was tough. I didn't realize she was a third-degree black belt in taekwondo. I didn't know that. That makes it even better, right? She's afraid of no one.
I'm a Mizzou graduate. I went to the University of Missouri. And now that she's come out and said girls don't need to play against boys in sports, boy, I just love her. I love her even more. God, is she a candidate for influencer? Okay by me.
She's gorgeous. She's model-beautiful. She's tough as nails, unbelievably athletic. I watched her shoot three-point basket after three-point basket. My God, I've become a basketball fan. I do remember the Nuggets when I was an adolescent, and I was a fan then, but I never saw women play basketball like that.
If you asked me 10 years ago, "Would you be recording women's games in advance?" I do. I record the games in advance so I know I don't miss them.
And the other night against the Storm - by the way, guys, the Seattle arena is called the [unclear] Climate Arena, or some kind of stupid crap like that. There were protests against Sophie Cunningham - "trans rights are human rights" and all that crap. And you know what she did? Like you mentioned, she came out and hit three-pointers in a row.
I love that she's the defender of Caitlin Clark. I love it. What I also love is that this rivalry, if you want to call it that, is symbolic of what's happening on the streets among certain unbelievably entitled Black people who, by the way, are, I would think, a big embarrassment to most other Black people.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Well, they're racists.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Because someone is white, or accomplished, or because they're getting attention, they think they ought to cut them down a notch. I mean, this is endemic of what was going on in New York City before what's going on now, where blonde women - not just blonde women, but white people - were being attacked on the street simply for being white. And now it's made it to the WNBA, and now we get to see thuggery. What are we going to do about it?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I'm no defender of the NBA, Karen, but I've got to admit, on social media there are a few players - I don't know their names because I don't follow the NBA at all - who are defending Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham. They're just saying, "Why are you people doing this? The two best players in your whole league, and you're treating them this way?" Then they were citing some of the things being done to them, which made total sense to me.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Isn't that exactly what they hate?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: To call them the two best players in the league? That's not allowed. You know, white people are not allowed to be athletic. And of course, we know that if you're polite, that's racist too.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Larry Bird didn't have to go through all this stuff, did he?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I don't think so.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Being polite, Karen, and being objective is "whiteness" or something like that, right?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: We're living with more racism today than back then in Larry Bird's time. Who cared what color he was?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Right.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: True.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I remember Larry Bird. And to get "bird," B-Y-R-D Bird -
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Right.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: We had a bird named Larry. Larry Bird.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Oh, you did? Seriously? You're kidding.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Yeah. He was a green Senegal parrot.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Oh.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: And if he's green, right, he was Larry Bird because the Celtics are green. He was green and his name was Larry.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: No, I didn't know that. I thought maybe it was just incidental.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: No, totally on purpose.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: That's much more satisfying - on purpose.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: So Tyrese Haliburton, who plays for the Pacers, has season tickets for the Fever games. He's courtside every game.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Isn't that great? Didn't even Michael Jordan stand up for Caitlin Clark?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Yeah, he did, which is just something else.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I didn't know women could grow that tall. Six-one?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Yeah, one of them.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: That's amazing.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: One is totally freakishly tall. I looked it up - over seven feet, something like seven-four, as tall as the San Antonio Spurs guy, or close to it. That's just mind-blowing.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: You know, the tallest human ever was from this area, from Alton. His name was Robert Wadlow.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Yeah, Wadlow. Eight-foot-one.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I remember him in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: From right across the river.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: All right, so let's talk about us and Iran. The president said if they messed around - well, you know what he did? He took a good mafia outlook at us: "So we hit them back. We hit them back pretty good last night. We'll hit them twice as hard."
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Who is that you're doing?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I don't know. I'm a monster.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Just as an aside, didn't you watch yesterday with the Fauci thing and feel like it was a throwback to the Kefauver hearings? Anyway, what are we talking about?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Iran.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Well, we can - whatever you want. It's important. I'm getting whiplash here.
You know, and I think you know this, I've been quite concerned about J.D. Vance by the way he spoke about Israel, shaking his finger at Israel about a month or two ago. That doesn't mean everything Israel does is right. But to say, "You can't solve problems by murder," was, in my view, outrageous and over the line.
And now I see a picture of J.D. Vance and Donald Trump and Netanyahu, all nice and pretty, happy - we're all at camp picture - and that just leads me to believe there is an underlying agenda going on that we know nothing about. I see some of that criticism of Israel as being for the benefit of Iran and the Gulf states. I don't know. I just know that it feels to me like four-level chess. That's what it feels like.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: What about you?
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: I think he's absolutely - I mean, if they want to hit us, like somebody says, they hit us, we hit them back.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: And that's what you think he's planning?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I know we're just speculating. That's all we do.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: It's fun to speculate, though.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I love it.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: What do you think he's planning in the timing? I mean, this is a man - Donald Trump - who really gets public sentiment, marketing, rolling out ideas, and the midterms.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: To me, the midterms don't really start truly in earnest until after Labor Day, because that's when people start thinking about it. Otherwise, they have amnesia usually. That being said, he's got to be either planning something huge to hit right before the midterms, or the timing is such that he keeps dragging his feet because he's got something big going on.
I'm just sick and tired of the threats, because people like you and me have seen too many politicians do that over the years, and all the Democrats saying, "Oh, we're really going to admonish them this time," when they had no intention of admonishing them or doing anything. It is all very perplexing.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: I think when it's total surrender from Iran - whether it be intentional or unintentional, if they have to say it because there's really, truly nothing left, or if they come to their senses and say okay - that's what I think will turn things around in the midterms.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: They never will. I mean, I am less optimistic about Iran doing anything but what it has always done for 47 years than I am that something actually is going to happen to Anthony Fauci. To me, it is a given. It's a done deal. They lie. That's what they do. They believe in the Twelve Imams. They want to martyr themselves if they have to. There is no way they're going to deal honestly with the West. They're in trouble, and Trump has to know that.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Okay. I think it's a perfect time right now. This was weird. I saw this on Tuesday after you and I talked, of course, after the show, and I wanted to play it for you because I thought it was going to be a big surprise. But you may have seen it or heard it already. It's Boy George's new song. Have you heard it?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Yes, I think I did.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Why are you laughing? You're laughing at me.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: No, I want to hear it. If I'm thinking right, I think it's the funny one.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: No, no. This is a song dedicated to Jews and Israel and supporting Israel. It's called "We Will Dance Again" by Boy George of Culture Club.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Oh, I did not see that.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Courageous, brave lyrics. Let's go. It should be ready to go now.
[Excerpt of song plays. Lyrics are not intelligibly transcribed in the source.]
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: He might be Jewish. I don't know.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I am certain - I didn't see this or hear it. He even mentions October 7th.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Really?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Yes, he does. He is in total support of you and Israel and the Jewish people.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: It makes me verklempt when I hear that. I'm just so touched and grateful to the non-Jews who not only support Israel and Jewish people, which is huge given our history. No, I don't want to be a professional victim. What touches me also is that they get it, like you do - that we're always the canaries in the mineshaft. And they get it. Nobody gets it better than you and Ken.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: We're pretty good goyim, right?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Oh God, you're great.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: But you know what, Karen? It's the defense of common sense. It really is.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: It really is.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: But we love you too.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I prefer to call you Gentiles, not goyim.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I'll take it.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Gentle Gentiles.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Oh, I like that.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: We're the gentle Gentiles.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Right. I love that.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: All right, Karen. We wanted you to hear that, and I'm glad you didn't hear it. I'm glad we were the first to play it for you.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Yes. Wow.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: One quick trivia question for both of you. The saxophone was named after a guy named Sax - yes or no?
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Yes.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: What do you say, Karen?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I have no clue.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: It is. Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: That's okay. That's another story for another -
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Wait a minute. Maybe I didn't say it right. I was terrible. I was like, "Adolf, Adolf." It's Adolphe, with an E at the end.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: Like Adolphus Busch, who made the beer.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Oh, Busch beer. Oh my God. It just goes on.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I know. Well, you guys have a great weekend.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: You too, Karen. Thank you so much. See you later.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Bye.
Speaker 6 - Show Bumper / Transition Audio: [Edited show bumper with repeated fragments including "You're talking to me?", "tough and smart," and "I love Italian." A long machine-generated repetition of "I love Italian" has been removed. Several additional words are unintelligible.]
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: [Preceding words unclear.] ...and I had a headache, and those were the symptoms of what happened to me, with the fear that I had to go get checked out.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: So what did you do?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I just waited for it to go away.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: No. Don't give me that. Okay? Get to a doctor. Don't be macho. Hey, just because you're Italian doesn't mean you get to be macho.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Listen, honey, I thought she was my wife. Listen, I called the doctor, called the oncologist, and they never called me back. "I'll have somebody call you as soon as they're done with this call. They'll call you back."
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Okay, you need your pushy wife to take care of that. I had to do that for my husband just a couple of days ago.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I swear to God, when I told her the symptoms, she broke out the blood-pressure cuff here. It was high. It was 139 over 94, which is pretty high for me, and she took my temperature and all that crap. You know, it all went away later on. But we'll see.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Hey, by the way, [name transcribed as "Lindsey Graham" - verification required] died of a widow-maker.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Did he?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: That's what they're saying. You're familiar with what that is, right? And that's what they thought. Remember my aorta thing? I had an aorta thing going on not too long ago.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Really?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Yeah.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Did you hear how the usual suspects both cheered because they're miserable, rotten, immoral creeps, and others said, "Oh, they were out to get him because of this vote or that vote"? They're already ready to believe a conspiracy theory before they've even heard a conspiracy theory. It's just amazing to me. People aren't comfortable not knowing these days. It's not a sin to say, "I don't know," or, "We don't know yet." Just saying. And may he rest in peace.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I have to stick up for this show because we say that all the time. I'd rather say, "I don't know what that is," than say something and sound like an idiot because you're wrong.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Right. And there's no sin in saying, "You know what? I jumped too soon on that and I screwed up. I was wrong."
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Yeah. All right. It's time for something we call "Karen Kataline X" - some of your stuff you put on X, which is great. I always love this.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: So, like Latinx?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: You're in my brain exactly. When Karen goes on, I think it's "Kataline X," like Latinx. But you reposted Insurrection Barbie - love her. She's really smart, with a conservative post: "The historical record is undeniable. The two biggest destroyers of civilization and human life throughout history have been Islam and communism. The Democrat Party has embraced both of history's most deadly ideas."
There you go, Karen.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: It's such a bingo. I mean, I don't want to be immodest, but I've been saying this for so long - so has Ken. Ken taught me everything I know about it, I'm telling you.
And it isn't one or the other. They work together until they destroy each other. And yes, one probably will - God forbid it should ever go that long. But one depends on the other. Democrats think they're using Islam to destroy America for their own benefit. Islam thinks and knows, in my view, that they're using Democrat liberalism and communism, which has to be there to set the tone of tyranny for which they intend to create a Muslim caliphate. You can't talk about one without the other.
And that's what we talked about at the end of last time, right? Because I sent an audio of a Muslim saying just that. I mean, he is from Iran. I thought you might do an audio on that.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I have it.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I love it. Don't let me say another word. Let's hear it.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I've got him in a holster like the Wild West. Draw.
Speaker 5 - Prerecorded Iranian Political Refugee: I'm a political refugee from Iran. I've been to prison. I've been under Islamic law, and I know how it starts and I know how it ends. It always starts with, for some reason, unity of the left and Islamists, and it scares me.
So I came here to be free. I chose Canada as my second home to live in a free country, and I'm beginning to get really scared because the way things are going, it looks like they're going to basically appease Islamists just to not raise any ruckus or something. They're just going to appease them step by step, and they're not going to stop. They see it as a sign of weakness, so they're going to take more and more, and I'm against that.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Karen, thanks for sending that to me, by the way. I've been seeing videos from Canada. They're doing calls to prayer almost every day in certain provinces at the steps of their capitals. It's amazing to me what they're letting happen in Canada right now. That's what's concerning this Iranian.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Well, can you imagine the shock of familiarity, which has happened to Chinese refugees - not spies, but actual Chinese refugees - and refugees from other countries who come to America, people who escaped Soviet Russia, and who now, people I know, watch what's happening in America and they're terrified? They have reason to be.
This is the greatest threat, in my view: the combination of both of these, because it gives way to all manner of evil, of perversion of values. We've talked about it so much. And you cannot allow anybody to tell you you're a racist for saying this, because what we hate is an ideology that people are falling for, not a person - an ideology, an incredibly evil ideology that is responsible for genocide, true genocide.
Why do you think they accuse people who are not guilty of genocide and horrifyingly accuse Donald Trump with no evidence, no reality, and no facts? Because there aren't any, in my view, and because they are exhibiting these very things.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: All right, I have two things. One is, there was a great meme I saw of AOC. It says, "You know Trump is homophobic. He always talks about the Strait of Hormuz. He never talks about the Gay of Hormuz."
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I love that.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: It's cisgendered. I love the way they come up with their own language.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: We should just say, "What?"
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Right. We do that. Anyway, the other one is very serious: liberal women who think they will thrive under Sharia law.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Yeah. Talk about a useful idiot. There are so many today who are being used for, in my view, the most evil of purposes.
We saw it at the beginning of Trump's first term, when women were lining up in solidarity to put on hijabs that covered their faces - liberal women. I watched it. I almost fell off my chair. Now it's commonplace. They tried to make it seem like, "This is power. We're powerful because we're covering our bodies and our faces."
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I read something about this on social media this weekend - that the burqa and all that stuff they subscribe to in the Islamic religion has other purposes as well as the ones we've always thought of, in that it dehumanizes and depersonalizes the woman. It takes away their identity. I never thought about that before. Why would a woman want to live under those conditions, Karen?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I'm looking on my bulletin board for something I've had on my bulletin board for seven years, and I can't find it right now. It talks about the psychology of forcing someone to cover their face and their nose and mouth. It is a forced submission. It symbolizes it. It's the psychology of it.
I wish I had it because I've got a few million things on my bulletin board now, and I'd have to step that way in order to find it. But I've had it there forever because that was why I was absolutely incensed. In fact, I remain incensed about the forced masking of an entire country. Same thing. Same exact thing. Some people had a visceral reaction to it. I did. Many people did not. They willingly subjected themselves, willingly subjugated themselves, to what I regard as a total lie based on hysteria and fear. We know that now, in my view. Nobody's ever apologized. Same thing.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Wow. You have a bulletin board?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Yes. I have a studio, you know. I have a bulletin board.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I want one. It's really cool.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: All right. So also, [date unclear], just three days ago, Karen Kataline put on X: "Have you seen anyone dare to speculate about why President Trump went back to old Air Force One? Perhaps Qatar isn't as trustworthy as it's being portrayed. It takes one to know one; maybe Tucker Carlson knows."
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I've never seen behavior like this where the president is under constant suspicion of assassination. Well, the suspicion is very real fear and concern. We know that. But to decide to go back to an older plane - many of us, when we heard Qatar was giving him a plane and he's accepting the plane, you have no idea how many people I know, including myself, went, "Oh God, please don't do that. Please, please. These people are not your friends."
There's so much complexity, and he gets into the belly of the beast often. But yeah, I think there's a connection.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Did you like the underplayed sarcasm?
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Of course. Of course, I loved it. Because people who don't understand what I'm saying will pass it by anyway, and those who get it will go, "Hey, yeah."
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I think if any two men on earth get you, it's Ken and me.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Yeah, you do.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Two things. One very quickly, and the other one is the story I want to tell you that just wrecked me emotionally yesterday. So actor Sam Neill has died.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Yeah.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: He was in Jurassic Park. He was 78 years old. This morning I said to Ken when I walked in, "Sam Neill - what's he famous for?" And Ken goes, "Jurassic Park." Then he points to me and goes, "Peaky Blinders."
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: You're not going to get away this time, Mr. Shelby.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: I'm sorry, that is a perfect impression of the inspector in Peaky Blinders. I'd like some response, some applause, some sort of something.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: This time, Mr. Shelby, you're not going to get by me this time.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Okay. Now let me tell you the story, and I'm going to try to get through it. Jessica and I were just - you know, we were done with everything. Sometimes you just get done. You've got to unplug from news and stuff. So, let's watch a movie.
Good Morning, Vietnam was on. That's my favorite Robin Williams movie, obviously.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Yeah, because he's a radio guy, right?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: And all that stuff happens. The bar blows up and they get yelled at all the time. Then it's the scene when they're in the Jeep and they're surrounded by American GIs and trucks. One of the kids goes - and this is so great - "Hey, Adrian Cronauer, say 'Good morning, Vietnam!'"
That kid didn't do it the right way because he's not a radio person. He's just a soldier from Arkansas or somewhere far away. Robin Williams' character didn't want to do it. Finally, he gets up and he entertains these guys for like five or ten minutes.
And then it hit me. Sorry. It hit me that was the moment when he realized how much he meant to them.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Being behind the microphone, you don't understand that. You don't know how you're affecting people or how much you mean to people. I don't know if we mean anything to anybody on the show. But he realized those kids might not even come back from war. He meant everything to them. It was the first time it clicked with me, all the times I've watched the movie.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I just love when you let it all hang out. You're such a mensch. You do it because you're touched and you don't know how much you touch people.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Who knows? I don't know.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: And I'm not sucking up here. I think he's a mensch. You touch many, many people, but you put it out there with your greatest intent, integrity, and love. What comes back is what comes back. If you've touched someone, sometimes you never even know.
Sometimes, in your profession or whatever you do, you see the immediate reaction if you're touching people, right? But when you're in radio, there's no response. There's no audience. It's not stand-up comedy.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: That's a good point, Karen, because I decorated cakes. I was a cake artist for many years, and I would see the immediate response from people. I would do this cake that I spent hours on, maybe, and I'd go out there and we'd present it to them, and their faces would drop, and they'd almost tear up sometimes. You see that immediately.
But in this profession, it's like, "Okay, we'll see you tomorrow." Before video, when you could watch stuff, nobody even knew what you looked like. Luckily, we have Vic Heads now that we can actually see some immediate response from them, and we love that, by the way. So we're just passing that message on.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: It's wonderful. There was a book a few years ago called The Butterfly Effect, which most people know, right? It is about that very thing.
Sometimes when I was doing radio hosting - which I don't really do very much anymore - I said to my husband, "You know, it's so pitifully little, what I'm doing. I mean, I'm not big-time. Come on." And he kept telling me about the butterfly effect. You never know how your words might affect someone and, God willing, change their life for the better, as I've allowed you both to change me for the better. In many ways, you have.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Oh, thank you, Karen. And I'm not even a rabbi.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Some rabbis don't know what they're doing. You know, they're only human.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: That's true.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: That's right. All right. Great talk.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Good talk.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Don't ever change.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: I shan't. I shan't change.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Okay. Thanks. We'll talk to you Thursday.
Speaker 3 - Karen Kataline: Bye.
Speaker 2 - Ken Williams: I'm not going to let you get away this time, Mr. Shelby.
