Spouting Off, August 9, 2026
Spouting Off with Karen Kataline
Mob Movies, Media Narratives, COVID Grievances, Iran, and the Politics of Cultural Memory
Karen Kataline joins Vic Porcelli, with Ken Williams appearing in a later segment, for a wide-ranging conversation about The Sopranos, Tulsa King, mafia films, Billy Joel, Charlottesville, Jewish identity, Shabbat, World War II memory, Dr. Anthony Fauci, COVID-era grievances, Iran, President Trump’s strategy, political hypocrisy, and the vigilante film Miss Meadows.
Guest Spotlight: Vic Porcelli
Vic Porcelli leads the interview segment with Karen Kataline, moving freely between entertainment, politics, religion, history, and current events. The transcript also includes a later excerpt in which Ken Williams joins the discussion, suggesting that the source combines material from more than one Vic-and-Karen radio segment.
The Sopranos, Vincent Pastore, and Mafia Culture
The conversation opens with humor about Italian identity, The Sopranos, and Vincent Pastore’s character Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero. Vic and Karen discuss Pastore’s final scene, his appearances in other productions, and the appeal of actors who became closely associated with mob roles. They also mention Tony Sirico, Goodfellas, the 1996 HBO film Gotti, and a Pepsi commercial in which Pastore plays a mafia-style character.
Tulsa King, Blue Bloods, and Steve Schirripa
Karen and Vic compare their reactions to Tulsa King, agreeing that the series began strongly but became stranger as it continued. They then discuss Steve Schirripa’s work in both The Sopranos and Blue Bloods, along with Tom Selleck and Magnum, P.I. Vic shares stories from a “Dinner with The Sopranos” promotion featuring Schirripa, Federico Castelluccio, and John Ventimiglia, including a humorous “Godfather test” before an interview.
Violent Films, John Wick, and Personal Viewing Limits
The pair reflect on why mob movies can be entertaining even for people who dislike graphic violence. Karen says she avoids certain violent films, especially before sleep, while Vic jokes that John Wick is treated as a love story by some viewers. Their exchange highlights the difference between enjoying stylized crime stories and wanting to limit exposure to disturbing material.
Billy Joel, Charlottesville, and Competing Political Narratives
The discussion shifts to Billy Joel, his father’s story, Jewish identity, and Joel’s public criticism of Donald Trump. Karen argues that the commonly repeated interpretation of Trump’s Charlottesville remarks was a political hoax and says the Southern Poverty Law Center helped reinforce a false narrative. Vic likewise criticizes Joel for accepting that interpretation. These are the speakers’ political claims and opinions and are not independently verified in the transcript.
Shabbat, Jewish Tradition, and World War II Memory
Vic asks Karen about “Shabbat Shalom,” and she explains the Jewish Sabbath as beginning Friday at sundown and ending after dark on Saturday. She describes the Sabbath as historically rooted in Saturday observance and calls Vic a “righteous Gentile” because of his support for Jewish people. Vic then recounts his father’s World War II service and possible involvement in liberating a concentration camp, prompting Karen to compare his silence about wartime trauma with the reluctance of many veterans to discuss what they witnessed.
Dr. Fauci, COVID, and Karen Kataline’s Airline Experience
Karen strongly condemns Dr. Anthony Fauci and describes the COVID period as a deliberate worldwide deception. She recounts being removed from an American Airlines flight, saying it was not simply about masking but about her emotional reaction and attitude toward what was happening. She connects propaganda, public coercion, and unwillingness to question authority with broader historical lessons, including how populations can be manipulated. These are her personal experiences and political interpretations.
Iran, President Trump, and Strategic Retaliation
In a later segment with Vic and Ken Williams, Karen discusses attacks involving Iran and supports retaliatory action. The speakers portray President Trump as pursuing a deliberate waiting strategy against a regime they consider untrustworthy and dangerous. A short Trump audio clip states that attacks will be answered more forcefully. Karen says she hopes the larger goal is to remove the Iranian regime and free the Iranian people, while acknowledging that the true strategy cannot be openly revealed.
Political Hypocrisy and Nazi Comparisons
The conversation then turns to accusations involving Nazi imagery and political double standards. Karen argues that some people loosely call political opponents Nazis while minimizing actual extremist symbols when those symbols appear on someone they support. The speakers frame this as an example of partisan inconsistency and selective outrage.
Miss Meadows and the Citizen Vigilante
The final topic is the film Miss Meadows, starring Katie Holmes as a prim, cheerful schoolteacher who is also a vigilante. Karen interprets the character’s phone conversations and tap dancing as self-soothing responses to childhood trauma rather than hallucinations. She praises the contrast between the character’s polite appearance and violent actions, while Vic suggests continuing the broader discussion of citizen vigilantes in a future segment.
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
Program / Audio Cue: Opening music, station bumper, repeated show-identification audio, or promotional sound clips.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli: Radio host/interviewer in the segment; leads much of the entertainment, politics, and cultural conversation.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline: Host/commentator; guest voice in the Vic Porcelli segment and lead personality for Spouting Off context.
Speaker 3 - Ken Williams: Co-host voice referenced in the later segment when Karen greets "Vic and Ken."
Speaker 4 - Donald Trump Audio Clip: Short clip of President Donald Trump used in the discussion of Iran.
Speaker 5 - Caller/Producer/Audio Voice: Brief audio or production cue where the exact live speaker is not fully clear.
Program / Audio Cue:
Vic Porcelli. Come on, you're Italian. You talking to me? You talking to me? Tough and smart. I love Italians, so you're definitely Italian.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Welcome to it. This is 101.9 / 94.1 NewsTalk STL. By the way, the great Ken Williams is on vacation today. He takes a whole week. Who does he think he is? Dear diary, Ken took a whole week off. I do not get to see him all week. But anyway, we are ready for Karen, so go right ahead.
Program / Audio Cue:
The one and only Karen Kataline.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Hey, do you know that I am nearly too attracted? I feel like using a Yiddish word for this. I am toiling in front of my computer. They're just too dumb to lie. He has the effect of six shots of scotch.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
I have to sit down. Is that okay? And that was the last line for Big Pussy Bonpensiero in The Sopranos. Hi, Karen. How are you?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
May he rest in peace. I saved all the mafia stuff for you. I want you to know that.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Yeah, and I am a little behind the times with The Sopranos. I did not watch The Sopranos.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Why would that be?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
I love The Godfather, but I have tried The Sopranos several times and just could not get into it.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Okay, so you did give it a try. That is fair.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
But I have to tell you, my husband and I finally watched the Sylvester Stallone one - Tulsa King.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Thumbs up or thumbs down? What did you think?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Thumbs up at the beginning, and then it got really squirrely.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
That is what I thought. The beginning was fine. It was very interesting. I loved Sly. I had more respect for him after that because he was not somebody I really followed. I did not watch a lot of Rambo movies growing up. But then it got a little weird.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
I know that you lost another Soprano alum. I heard you just as I was getting on the air. You said something about how you cannot really do a mafia in heaven, because that is probably not where the characters go.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
The actors do, but the characters do not. That makes more sense.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Salvatore Bonpensiero was his character name. From almost the beginning of the series, he is wired and talking to the FBI because he got arrested for pushing heroin. Once they figure it out, of course, they have to take care of him. Those were the last words he said on The Sopranos.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Now I have a bone to pick with you.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Okay.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Because last time I used that second word, I was told I should not use it.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Not by me. I can tell you that.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I was talking about the pink hats after Trump.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
That is a touch different than the character's name. His name was not Big Vagina.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Too funny.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Getting back to Vincent Pastore, there are so many movies and so many things where you can go back and say, "That is Big Pussy right there." Tony Sirico played mobsters in movies too.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I am looking it up now. He played a role in Goodfellas.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
This may surprise you. Do you know Michael Franzese?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I do.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
He thinks Gotti, the 1996 HBO movie, is the greatest mafia movie ever. He knew Neil Dellacroce, and Vincent Pastore is in that as well. Here is another one that may blow you away. There was a Pepsi commercial where Jesse Eisenberg's little sister goes to the counter and asks for a Pepsi. The guy gives her a Coke, and she turns into The Godfather: "I ask you for a Pepsi, and you give me this?" The guy behind the counter was Vincent Pastore.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
He is the quintessential mob figure.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Another one is the guy who was on Blue Bloods and was also on The Sopranos. I cannot pull his name up right now.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Steve Schirripa.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Yes, Steve Schirripa. He played Bobby Baccalieri. You look at him and he looks like a mobster, but he played a cop on Blue Bloods. He was great.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I loved Blue Bloods. I thought it was a terrific series.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Tom Selleck was in there.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Tom Selleck. There is a high road.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Calm down. She is getting all hot and bothered.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I never watched Magnum, P.I., but after Blue Bloods I went back and started watching Magnum and then I understood what they were all talking about. He was hot.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Enough, will you?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Okay.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
I have to give you a Steve Schirripa story. Back at the music station, we did a promotion with a woman who worked for HBO. She set up "Dinner with The Sopranos." You could win a seat at the table with the Sopranos. Steve Schirripa was there. Federico Castelluccio, who played Furio Giunta, was there. John Ventimiglia, who played Artie Bucco, was there.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
What a great name. I love all those syllables.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
The day came, and I interviewed Steve Schirripa on the air. I said, "Hey everybody, Steve Schirripa." He said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you think this is? If you want to interview me, you have to pass the Godfather test." I said, "Bring it on." He asked, "When Johnny Ola goes to visit Michael Corleone and Michael offers him a drink, what does Johnny say?" Do you know the answer?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
"Anisette."
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
That is exactly right. You could interview Steve Schirripa.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I would be a little sheepish because I thought he was great. I loved that he was not the typical pretty boy. He was one of the most stable, reliable, loyal characters on Blue Bloods.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Federico Castelluccio came to St. Louis and did an interview with me the day after the event. About halfway through the interview, it hit him. He said, "Wait, Vic Porcelli? I used to listen to you every morning when you were on DHA in New Jersey." He lived in Denville, New Jersey, and he used to listen to me.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
That is great.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
I do not know what it is. I do not usually like really bloody, gory, violent movies. But if it is a mob movie, I will watch it.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
If the dog dies in the movie, I cannot do it. A mafia guy gets his head blown off, I am all about it.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
My husband says John Wick is a love story.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
You have never seen the John Wick movies?
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
No. I am going to lay odds that Jessica will not like them. Most women do not, and men love them. I am reduced to watching the bloody mafia stuff on my laptop with headphones while she watches TV.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I know the names of the movies I want to avoid because of violence. It is not that I would censor them from other people, but I do not like it, especially before I go to sleep.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
All right, I am going to give you the option. Pick a card. Do you want to talk about Dr. Fauci or the guy who shot up the In-N-Out Burger in Idaho?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I am not up on the second one. I limit more of my news intake than I used to, which is funny since I still do talk radio.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
You mean you do not want to talk about Billy Joel?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Oh, I forgot about that. Sure.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Did you watch the Billy Joel story?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Unfortunately, this was a Substack post. It was about the real story of Billy Joel's father. I posted it because the story reiterates what I believe was a major hoax that has become so ingrained that people do not know it is false: the lie of Charlottesville and how the Southern Poverty Law Center helped create that hoax to smear Donald Trump. I felt the need to try, in my own humble way, to set the record straight. But the Billy Joel story itself was great and moving.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
I watched the documentary on HBO, and he told that same story about his father. He did a show with a yellow star sewn onto the lapel of his jacket. He said, first and foremost, he was a Jew. But then he talked about Trump and said Trump claimed there were good people on both sides. I thought, "Billy, what is the matter with you? Get facts before you jump on the I-hate-Trump train."
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
The minute I heard that claim, I was suspicious. When they said "Unite the Right," I had never heard that term as a conservative. Whenever you hear a term you have never heard before, like "alt-right" or "Unite the Right," and it has a lefty spin, you should be suspicious. Years later, in my view, we found out that hunch was correct: that it was a lefty fraud in which they were paying people they claimed to hate in order to smear Donald Trump. Even today, I run into liberal Jews who point to Charlottesville and "Jews will not replace us." I believe that was a hoax, and try explaining that to someone who has believed it all along. It is similar to COVID. People are dug in and cannot say, "I was wrong."
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Can you stay an extra break again?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I am fine.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Let's take a break. More with our favorite Jew, Karen Kataline. And now I have a new favorite song. It happens to be by Boy George. It is called "We Will Dance Again." Do you like this song, Karen?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Yes, I do. It sounds great.
Program / Audio Cue:
Break music: "We Will Dance Again."
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Did you have a good Shabbat Shalom?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Yes, I did.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
It means wishing someone a good Shabbat. I grew up hearing "Good Shabbos," but now a lot of people say "Shabbat Shalom." It starts Friday night at sundown and ends after dark on Saturday night. For twenty-five hours, Jews celebrate Sabbath every week. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews are much more rigid in their observance, but it is a day of rest. And I do not mean to sound snarky, but you guys are the ones who changed and we did not.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
What do you mean?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
The day of rest was always Saturday. It got changed later. In parts of our history, people were persecuted for not working on Saturday because it indicated that the person was Jewish. We never changed it. It got changed.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
So what would I be to you?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
You are a righteous Gentile.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
I will take it.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
You have such a heart for the Jewish people that it makes me choked up.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Part of it is that my father was involved in the war. He did not talk to me about a lot of war stuff, but he talked to my cousin Paul about playing cat-and-mouse games with his tank and German tanks. He was involved somehow in the liberation of a camp. Knowing that, watching World War II documentaries and movies, how else can you think?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Unfortunately, there are people not only forgetting but actively rewriting history, denying history, and calling perfectly decent people Nazis and Hitler while supporting actual Nazis and Hitler in their own party. When you said that, I thought you have something profound in common with Billy Joel. His father would not talk about it either. What people witnessed in the war was so traumatic and so profound that many could not even begin to describe it. It is similar to veterans who come home and do not want to talk about the war. I respect that, though it can be difficult on the kids who want to know.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Let's talk for a couple of minutes about Dr. Fauci.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Okay.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
We have been knocking him pretty good on the show.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Good. You cannot mock and humiliate him too much. Anyone who tells us to forget about it - I am never forgetting about it. It was one of the greatest injustices and hoaxes in the United States of America. It was worldwide. It was a deliberately perpetrated lie.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Do you want an apology for being called a science denier?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Of course I do. I want an apology for being ridiculed. I got kicked off an American Airlines plane. It was not for not wearing a mask. It was because they did not like my attitude. I basically got kicked off for crying because I was crying about what had happened to my country. I felt like I was living in a communist country. I was devastated.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
That was insane.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I grew up wondering how the Holocaust could happen. It happens with propaganda. It happens with gullible people who learn to be coerced, take what they are given, and never ask questions. That is one of the things that frustrates me about dug-in Democrats, particularly Jewish Democrats. Our tradition is to question and argue ideas, yet Jewish liberals refuse to argue liberalism. They will argue Judaism, but they will not argue the religion of leftism. Thank God there are more and more Jewish conservatives.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Did I do okay as the Vic sidekick this time?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Of course you did. I enjoy that role because we just talk about anything anymore.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Ken is gone all week. The nerve of him taking a week off.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Good for him. He is wonderful. Doing three hours takes a lot of work. I have done it a few times and went, "I am exhausted." I am also working on a different project that has nothing to do with politics.
Program / Audio Cue:
Repeat bumper for Karen Kataline and the Vic/Ken segment.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Good morning, Vic and Ken. It is so good to talk to you both.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
We love having you.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I love you too. Yesterday I said, "Are they stupid? Did they think we were just going to let them shoot at boats and be okay with that?" Now we are getting them back, and I think that is the right thing to do.
Speaker 3 - Ken Williams:
Oh, God, yes. Time to end this. It has been like a soap opera.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
In soap operas, writers used to say: make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait. This is making us wait. There is no chance that our president did not know he was dealing with a regime that cannot be trusted. The only thing you can trust about them is that they cannot be trusted. I conclude that, like many things today, it is all about timing.
Speaker 3 - Ken Williams:
That is a great way to put it, timing. I have been frustrated about this whole situation, saying there is no way the Islamic regime is going to go for any kind of deal. But now I think President Trump is playing the waiting game. He is saying, "We are going to keep doing this over and over. We are going to take out more of your people, and eventually somebody in that regime is going to say, 'We are done.'"
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I think he proceeds from the knowledge that we are in control. We are calling the shots. They are predictable. They have said what they want to do. They have said they want to kill Americans, Jews, Israelis, and non-Muslims. All you have to do is believe them. The question is the strategy. We have all been dying to know what the true strategy is, but he cannot leave this for the next president. He has to take care of business. I hope this is finally it.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Here is the president talking about the basic strategy.
Speaker 5 - Audio Clip:
They hit us, so we hit them back.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Wait, that is Sonny Corleone.
Speaker 3 - Ken Williams:
That is not President Trump at all.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Here is really President Trump.
Speaker 4 - Donald Trump Audio Clip:
Every time they hit us, we are going to hit them back much harder. We did it last night. They did a little something today, but it was really retribution for last night. They hit three boats, not two.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I am looking at the much bigger picture. This is a president who understands the big picture. It is not about the next attack. It is about where you want to get to. We hope the goal is to get rid of that evil regime and free the Iranian people and the Middle East from them. But he cannot tell these people. He has too many traitors in our own government.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Who would have thought the guy with the Nazi tattoo on his chest was a bad guy?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
They accuse people with no evidence and no tattoo of being Nazis and Hitler, but when someone has an actual Nazi tattoo on his chest, suddenly they say he had trauma earlier in life. It is preposterously stupid.
Speaker 3 - Ken Williams:
That tattoo is the least of his worries.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
You would think they would believe even an iota of what they lecture us about. Believe women, they say, unless the woman accuses someone they support. They call Trump a Nazi for ten years, and then an actual Nazi shows up and some of them say they will vote for that guy.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
I want to move on because Monday we did not get to everything you wanted to do. It was Miss Meadows.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Yes, Miss Meadows. My husband and I watched it again. We loved it the first time and I liked it just as much again.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Katie Holmes plays Miss Meadows. She is a delightful young woman who tap dances down the street and says, "Toodle-oo." The whole movie she talks to her mother on the phone, and toward the end, we see that her mother was murdered. So was she talking to a ghost? Was she hallucinating?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
I do not think she was hallucinating. I think she was coherent, and the phone calls were a self-soothing mechanism she developed after childhood trauma. Tap dancing was another self-soothing mechanism. It often came up after she had, shall we say, blown someone away. She is a vigilante. It was brilliant because she looks prim and proper, cute and adorable, and the contrast takes you aback.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
We should mention that she is a vigilante.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Exactly. She is the prim and proper female version of the citizen vigilante. The vigilante does not always have to be a former Navy SEAL who can fight hand to hand. Part of the message is that you had better watch who you mess with.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
We will reserve time Monday to talk more about citizen vigilantes. Can we save the Iranian man warning that Sharia law starts with unity between the left and Islam for Monday too?
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Yes. That is impactful.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Talk about a good cliffhanger for Monday.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Put it on your calendar.
Speaker 1 - Vic Porcelli:
Thanks, Karen.
Speaker 2 - Karen Kataline:
Take care.
