A Colleague Hit Play, And Now I’m Rethinking What I Say

Ever had your coworkers discover your secret creative life? That moment can flip a switch. We open with the jolt of being “found,” the urge to self-censor, and the deeper question creators face: how do you protect your voice when your audience suddenly includes people you see at the office every day? It’s funny, awkward, and a real test of boundaries, honesty, and courage.

From there, we dig into a headline with ripple effects across media and politics: Dan Bongino stepping away from a high-profile federal post and back to the microphone. What does that say about incentives in public service versus podcasting, the power of NDAs, and the performance value of “what I can’t tell you”? We unpack why platforms can outcompete institutions and why that matters for accountability, transparency, and trust.

We also explore policy shifts you can feel in your bones: airports bringing back guest passes for non-flyers. If visitors still clear TSA, are we regaining connection without losing safety? The change evokes pre-9/11 memories while raising smart questions about risk, community, and the emotional fabric of travel. Then we zoom in on a story that stings: a delivery driver allegedly stealing a cat. It’s a small, personal case that exposes a big gap—when local response lags, do federal porch piracy penalties fix anything, or does real trust still hinge on someone answering the phone and taking action?

Along the way, we challenge a popular narrative about misinformation and older generations. Are elders truly more gullible, or does a lifetime of analog trust collide with digital velocity? We talk source-checking, friction for better sharing, and how to teach verification as a habit rather than a shaming ritual. And we close on a holiday classic that somehow says it all about memory and identity: star or angel on the tree?

If you like thoughtful takes with a human pulse—part culture, part policy, all conversation—tap follow, share this episode with a friend, and tell me your topper: star or angel? Your stories and reviews help this show reach more curious minds.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:44 Coworkers Discover The Podcast
• 2:20 To Quit Or Keep Creating
• 2:42 Dan Bongino Takes The Exit
• 4:34 Airport Guest Passes Return
• 5:59 The Cat, The Camera, The Driver
• 8:52 Big Government Or Local Fix
• 9:52 Blog Plug And AI Generations
• 11:54 Question Of The Day: Tree Topper

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:30

Well, I'm gonna have to quit my job, change my name, move states. My co-workers have discovered my podcast, and now, okay, I'm just like totally I don't know. I one of the gals, there's you know, six of us that sit in a pod as they call them, and one of the gals, I'll call her Emma and not use her real name, and the other gal, I'll call her V. That's not her real name either. Um, so Emma, I come back from the restroom and start to sit down, and Emma says, Carol, I found your podcast. And I'm like, Oh no, oh crap, now I gotta move. And she said, No, I love it. And then V said, yeah, Emma said she found it. She said I wouldn't like it, but she loves it. I'm like, oh boy, oh boy. And the funny thing is, Emma and V, they're like best buds, they're inseparable, and it's so funny that they have different views on politics. Although I I mean I do talk about politics. Anyway, I told them I said I'm gonna end it anyway. Come as soon as I get done with these 40 some odd episodes when I hit a thousand, and Emma is like, no, you shouldn't stop it. If you enjoy doing it, you should keep doing it. And I'm like, I can't do it now. Maybe they won't listen to it any maybe they won't listen to it. Now I feel like I gotta self-censor myself. Ugh, okay. But we're moving on. The stories I have for you today. Let's see, I have to go over here on my X feed, which means they know where my blog is, they know my social media accounts. I'll have to shut everything down now. I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna shut everything down. Are you kidding me? No. Okay, sorry, I'm trying to find out of all the apps on my phone, I'm trying to find my X feed. Here we go. Excuse me, Dan Bongino to leave FBI Deputy Director job. We all knew this was coming. Now listen, I'm sure Dan Bon Gino is a good man. I have no problems with him whatsoever. The only thing that bothers me is that when he did his podcast, I never listened to it. I've just seen clips and highlights here and there. And he seemed kind of kind of gimmicky to me. And I know he went through that throat cancer thing, and I feel bad for him for that, but he's recovered. Everything's good there as far as I know, thankfully. Um, but then he got the everybody wanted him to get this FBI deputy director job. And I'm sorry, but as soon as he got that job, he turned into a whiny little girl. Uh to me, it seemed. Um so, and now nine months later, he couldn't even make it a year, and he's quitting. He's quitting to go back to his podcast. And I know a lot of people will say, Oh, he makes more money making his podcast. That's fine. That's fine. But you know, you want to you signed up to serve your country, and this is what you're just gonna quit. And he is not, his fans are probably thinking, oh, he's gonna come back and tell us everything. No, he's not gonna be able to tell you everything on his podcast. He can't. It's just NDA's classified information. He's not gonna be able to come over and start up his podcast and spill everything he knows, but he will lead them on. I guarantee you that. I'm sorry. I shouldn't even if I don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything nice at all. Well, if that's the case, I would not have a podcast, which is why I'm shutting it down. All right, we need to move on to, and uh you know what? Good luck, Dan. I hope you do well. I'm sure you will. All right, airports allow non-traveling public past security entrances for the first time in decades. So this is a new thing that's changing. I wonder if Sean Duffy is behind this. I'm sure he is. An airport tradition of years gone by is slowly making its way back to certain locations in the U.S. following massive changes in air travel security procedures after the terror attacks of September 11th. I remember back in the day when you could anybody could go, they didn't really have security. You show up at the airport, anybody could walk up to the terminal and watch you get on the plane. There was none of this pat-down x-ray machines, fill you up and down, scanning luggage or anything like that. There was none of that. I remember when you could smoke on airplanes, I have done it. Okay, so uh let's see, they're so they're bringing that back. The first airport, it seems, is in Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport in California announced this week it will be introducing guest passes for non-passengers, for example. I'm sure they're gonna have to all be padded down and go through the TSA security too. Visitors can proceed to the post security side of the passenger terminal to accompany friends or loved ones who are flying out the airport notes on its website. Well, that's good. You can go finish reading that. It's from the New York Post, it's on my X file if you would like to go finish reading that article. Next up, this is gonna be a short episode, y'all. Uh, because I couldn't find anything to uh talk about. Uh let's see. Excuse me. Amazon driver caught on camera stealing cat after dropping off the package. Is this was this a Somalian? Okay, sorry. Maybe he had made dinner. He's like, dinner. Like a thief in the night, an Amazon driver dropped off a package at a California home. So it wasn't in Michigan or Minnesota or wherever that is, uh California home, but didn't leave empty-handed, according to one furious feline owner, Diane Huff Medina, claims the driver stole her cat, Piper, after making a delivery to her Lakewood home in California last week. Why would this guy steal a cat? I don't know. The incident, captured on camera, of course, shows the alleged porch alleged porch pirate wearing an Amazon vest dropping off a package, but moments later the driver is seen to grab the cat by the scruff of the neck. Why? Why do you want to mess with somebody's cat? I'm sure the cat was just minding its own business. I had to rewatch it a couple of times because it is hard to see. It's dark and he doesn't carry her very nicely, Huff Medina told ABC. I see her a little tail and I was like, oh my god, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Huff Medina told the outlet that Amazon has identified the employee, but hasn't been able to reach him. Why then why not? That's that's sus. Uh that's bullshit. They're not telling her the truth. Well, you can't reach your employee. Don't they come into work every day? Uh, she also reached out to the Lakewood Sheriff's Department, but was told it could be weeks before someone can take her case. Weeks? Why? Why is it weeks? That is that is another BS thing. Get in early. Oh, let's see. The post reached out to Amazon, the Sheriff's Department, and Huff Medina for comment, but did not hear back. This isn't the first time an Amazon delivery driver has been accused of thievery. Back in March, a driver stole a package he delivered just 30 seconds after dropping it off at a Florida home. Yeah, okay. The Porch Pirates Act introduced in Congress earlier this month looks to enforce the same penalties for thieves who stole boxes delivered from the U.S. Postal Service and dropped off by private companies, including increased jail time. Okay. Here's I have a problem right here. This happened in a California community, this Lakewood, wherever, and the sheriff says they can't get to it for weeks. But here we have a Porch Pirates Pirates Act introduced by Congress. Why do we need this gigantic government overreach in all of our businesses? Uh knock it off. Let the local police hand the local police should be able to handle it. But no, apparently not with all the cuts and defund all of this crap nonsense. This is the this is the predicament we're in. I think big government is in on it. I think big government wants to defund all the local police so they could be in charge of everything. Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist. Who knows? Uh, well, let's see, where am I on my time? I'm at nine minutes, so not bad. All right, we need to do the question of the day. But of course, before we get to the question of the day, which is going to be an easy one, but it is Christmas related, I would like for you to go over and read my latest blog post. Not you, Emma, although you can if you want. Um Anamericanist.com. And I have my latest blog post up there is about the different uh generational uh things with AI. Here's the thing, it's not about the different generations remembering things and sharing bad information, it's that AI, this software program that ran this report, said that the older generation are bad because they share misinformation or or fake news or whatever. And look, I have to admit, I've been guilty of it in the past, but it also taught me a lesson to go look at things and dig into it before I share something. But I do have to admit, some older people do share some gimmicky stuff and the you know they don't know to go dig and look around. And that I mean that does happen. But the fact that the AI picked up on it and is not just saying that the older generation is doing it, but it's also flagging it like it's a bad thing. We remember things differently. We were grow we grew up before the internet. We know things we went through Watergate, we went through the um weapons of mass destruction that weren't there. So they tell it, you know, that everything tells us one thing, and then it turns out that it's not true. All these conspiracy theories are turning out to be true, right? And we never get closure, we never have gotten closure on anything. And so we took in news differently back in the day. We witnessed things and um where the younger generations they just scroll. So anyway, I think you should go read that art my blog post. I think it's pretty good. I think well thought out. I think. What do I know though? I'm just a girl with a blog and a podcast. Okay. Um, question of the day. Do you have on top of your Christmas tree a star or an angel? We have a star. We've had a star for the last few years. I've had angels before, but what do you have on top of your Christmas tree? A star or an angel? Okay, gotta go. Thanks for listening. Bye.