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Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chavis. Thanks so much for joining us because we've got a good show for you today. We've got Dr. Nicole Sapphire. We're going to phone a friend. She's become a friend and we're going to have a discussion about her and her life and how she became this doctor that has come into so many of our homes and our lives, particularly during COVID and
She's got an amazing life and story, and I can't wait to talk to her about it and tell you a little bit about some of these stories. I got a quick story about from the halls of Congress. And then we're going to highlight the stupid, because guess what? There's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. So let's kick things off. I just want to give a little riff on the news.
And I want to start by talking about the promise of Joe Biden. You know, we just surpassed the 100 days of the new presidency. They had the joint session of Congress last week. And as I sit back and digest it and compare what the promise of Joe Biden was versus the reality of Joe Biden and this administration, I think they're two totally different things. I think the promise of Joe Biden, quite frankly, was a bit of a lie.
It was this idea that we were going to bring the country together, that we were going to become united. But then to hear the people that are still there in Congress, you know, I served eight and a half years. I was there in the halls of Congress when it was Barack Obama and Joe Biden. But the promise of Joe Biden is so different the way traditional media has told this story. They just hook, line, and sinker, just regurgitate what he says, right?
That they positioned Joe Biden as being somebody that was going to unite us, that was going to bring us together, was going to do things in a bipartisan way. But after 100 days, there is zero evidence that they were actually going to do that. You know, I listened to that joint session of Congress and the first, I don't know, five or 10 minutes, Joe Biden talked about how great he was doing with the vaccine and the rollout of the vaccine.
And then you had some pundits that came on and tried to say, oh, well, you know, Operation Warp Speed wouldn't have happened without Joe Biden. Are you kidding me?
Donald Trump had the foresight at the beginning of this pandemic to engage the private sector and the good people at Pfizer and Moderna and AstraZeneca and these other companies. They started to go to work. And what Donald Trump and the administration did is they got rid of the impediments and barriers and red tape that slowed the normal process down. You know, it would have been if Joe Biden wanted to be the uniter in chief of
I think what he could have done is he could have given a tip of the hat or at least some acknowledgement to Donald Trump and his administration. Just one sentence out there would have done so much to bring the country together, but they just can't do it. Because the knee-jerk reaction to liberals in the left and the Democrats has been, you know what? We're the opposite of Donald Trump. If he says it's light outside, no, it's dark. If it says it's this, then it's that.
He can never have some acknowledgement. But, you know, leadership, it actually takes acknowledging the other side and trying to bring the parties together. They will say, you know, Democrats will want to say, well, you know, Donald Trump did more to divide this country than anything else. But that's just not true. You know, I went back and looked at the first public comments that Donald Trump made when he had become the president-elect and
He was going to answer some questions for the first time. He goes up to the microphone. You know what the first thing he did was? He thanked and congratulated Hillary Clinton, thanked her for her service, thanked her for running a tough campaign. You know, that never gets reported by the media. So this whole idea and this whole notion that Joe Biden was going to bring people together, it just hasn't been part of reality.
Mitch McConnell, the minority leader in the United States Senate, went literally weeks on end without ever having a conversation. I don't believe they've ever sat down together. And these are people that served for decades together as colleagues. Joe Biden has never had a conversation with Kevin McCarthy, who's the minority leader in the House of Representatives. You know, Donald Trump, when this pandemic happened, I think there were four relief packages that passed with more than 90 percent relief.
of the vote in the House and the Senate. That is bipartisan by just the pure vote of it. But what you've seen the Democrats pass thus far is Democrats and Democrats alone. I saw an interesting tweet, and this is kind of the last comment I'll make about this before we get on with things, but I saw this tweet
this tweet and it really kind of caught my eye because instead of talking in his, his joint session of Congress about freedom and Liberty and self-reliance and entrepreneurs, but Joe Biden spent the whole hour or so talking about was let's talk about government and its dependence and how we're going to,
cradle to grave, take care of you at every single step of the way. Now there's a proper role of government. I believe it's a limited one. I've been frustrated with Republicans in the past for their lack of fiscal discipline. But you know, this little tweet that I saw that really struck home with me, instead of talking about the Declaration of Independence, where we as Americans get to make our decisions and live our lives,
What Joe Biden was really putting forward to the country is the declaration of dependence. And I think that's right. I mean, the taxing that they want to institute upon America is just absolutely stunning. And that every single part of our lives has government in it. That's not the way our founders envisioned it. That's not the way I think our best politicians
path forward here now that we're past 2020. That's not the best path forward. That's not who we are as a people. But that's the direction the Democrats are taking us, and it's dividing us more than anything. I see the Democrats time and time again try to divide us on race and income and every other facet they can, instead of saying, look, we have a role to play as government.
to create safety and security. And of course, there's going to be a safety net. But law enforcement is securing our borders. These types of things are what government is supposed to be doing. But that's not what's happening in the first 100 days. That is not the promise that Joe Biden made to the American people that convinced a lot of people to vote for him. And I think they're going to pay a price, a heavy price in 2022. All right, that's my riff on the news.
Now it's time to bring on the stupid because there's always somebody doing something stupid somewhere. All right, let's start with Deborah Messing. You know her. She's been a talented actress. But this was I saw her tweet out last week and it says this at POTUS replace every lead pipe in America. So every child will have clean water. She wrote. Can you imagine voting against that?
Now, that statement into itself is not stupid, but I got to tell you, for her support of Joe Biden, what they're doing, if she thinks that that's the goal, that that's what they're going to actually do, I think it is aspirational that we work towards that, that we help clean up some of these messes. But I want to tell you kind of behind the scenes something that I've spent a lot of time in Congress working about.
I don't know if you recall, but in Flint, Michigan, they made a transition in their water system away from the Detroit water system to a different water system. And instead of spending what was literally hundreds of dollars for this particular treatment of the water, they didn't do that. And what happened is the water got tainted and it started going through these really old pipes in one of the poorest parts of our nation in Flint, Michigan.
The problem was that during that time, there started to be a lot of lead. The levels of lead in the water were astronomically high. The problem is that at the time they had an EPA administrator named Gina McCarthy. She had worked in Massachusetts and she had risen the ranks and now she was the EPA administrator. And they had some EPA folks that were working and doing the analysis of this water.
And you can look this up. It's out there far and wide on the internet. But the EPA actually found out what was going on and didn't tell the people for months on end. Months. These people continued to drink lead-tainted water time and time and time again to the point where you have abnormal readings from what people are consuming and
And it's one of the great tragedies of our country. And I had hearings on this. I brought in the Republican governor, Governor Snyder, brought in the EPA administrator. We brought in people from all sides. There's a lot of blame to go around there, but the EPA did not do its job. It made the situation worse, not better.
And so what I find ironic about President Biden's comments about cleaning up the lead was he was in charge as the vice president of the United States when he had an opportunity to do that and they failed. And he took Gina McCarthy, who was the EPA administrator, totally failed. She should have been fired. And what does he do? First thing he does when he comes back into office is
He promotes Gina McCarthy. She is now the green energy czar. So if you look at the food chain, if you will, there at the administration, you have the EPA administrator. Who's more senior than that? Gina McCarthy. She's going to be the one leading the directives on how we spend money and clean up the pollutants in our air and our water. But when she was in charge, she totally, completely failed.
That's why I get a little passionate on bringing on the stupid here when Debra Messing, so ignorant of what's going on, say, oh, isn't this great? Just vote for that. Imagine voting against that. Well, you voted for more of the same when you put Joe Biden and Gina McCarthy back in charge because they helped create the problem in the first place. All right. Number two, I got another one for bringing on the stupid. And this cannot go without saying because
Stacey Abrams was the failed candidate for governor there in Georgia. She's a political activist. She was, I believe, in the state Senate or in the state House, but I think it was the state Senate there in Georgia. Well, she wrote an op-ed evidently in USA Today, March 31st. And if you recall what happened in Georgia, they decided to Major League Baseball to adhere to what
Stacey Abrams was advocating and that is to boycott the state of Georgia and they moved the all-star game out of Atlanta, Georgia and moved it to Denver, Colorado. Well, she had written an op-ed that they're now trying to rewrite history and this is why it qualifies to bring it on the stupid because
Stacey Abrams must think we are just dumb and stupid. So she writes this op-ed, and I'm going to quote a sentence here from it. "The impassioned response to the racist, classist bill that is now the law of Georgia is to boycott in order to achieve change.
She went on to say, events hosted by Major League Baseball, world-class soccer, college sports, and dozens of Hollywood films hang in the balance. So those are quotes. That's what she's doing. She's advocating for boycotting. Guess what? The Major League Baseball adheres to that, does what she is advocating. They move the All-Star game and then the people of Georgia. For those of you listening to this podcast in Georgia, listen.
You know how bad that was. That was really bad. So what did they do? They've gone back now into the archive and tried to rewrite the op-ed. So it now says, this is what it says. If you were looking up for the first time, you would say this. Instead of a boycott, I strongly urge other events and productions to do business in Georgia and speak out against our law and similar proposals in other states, end quote.
How convenient, Stacey Abrams. Just go ahead and rewrite history as if you never said and advocated that. Because when Major League Baseball actually did what you advocated, guess what? It cost your state and the people and the residents that needed it the most millions of dollars in revenue at a time as we're concluding this pandemic. And for that, that is just stupid. All right.
Let's move on. I want to tell you, this is a stories from the halls of Congress. I got some feedback after the first time I did this that we should do more of this. Now, this one wasn't actually in the halls of Congress. But since we just had the NFL draft going on, I thought I would tell this story. It just made sense to me with the timing.
When I was in Congress, I do fundraisers. You got to raise money. And I was very fortunate in Utah's third congressional district. I represented seven ski areas. I had seven counties, but I had seven ski areas, including Deer Valley. I mean, one of the best ski areas in the country.
And so we did a little fundraiser up there. And at the end of the ski day at like four o'clock in the afternoon, I rented out this room at the hotel. I think it was the montage there up in, in deer Valley and had it catered with some finger foods, you know, little slices of pizza and cheese and, you know, some fruits and vegetables, you know, just little finger foods before you go out to formal dinner, people are coming back from skiing, they're hungry and,
And so about 3.50 in the afternoon, I wander down because the event starts at 4.00. That means people really aren't going to show up until about 4.15 in the afternoon to participate in this fundraiser. So I'm standing there. There's just a couple of us.
and all of a sudden these like little kids start running up and I think there were two of them as I recall and they start grabbing the food they grab the plates and they're they're piling on the pizza and all of a sudden dad comes running over and he's like I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm like
hey, I got kids, no worries. We got plenty of food and pizza. Well, as he approached Coach, he's like, no, no, no, don't do this, don't do that. And he was so almost embarrassed and afraid that his kids were ruining this nice little event. And I'm like, no, it's okay. Well, as he started to come into more focus and get closer, it was none other than
Drew Brees, one of the great NFL quarterbacks in the history of the game and certainly one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He was so nice and I said, "It's nice to meet you. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Here's what we're doing." And he's like, "I'm sorry, can I pay you for this? I'll get him out of here." I said, "No, just please. You can have whatever you want. The event hasn't started."
I cannot tell you how nice, how polite he was. And then he said, well, you know, if it's helpful, I'll stick around a little bit. And I thought, yeah, having Drew Brees at my event, I think that would be a good thing. And he was so nice. He just stood there and hung out, took some pictures and everything.
You know what? Just a super nice guy and one of those luck chances there in Congress, but a pretty cool story for a guy who's just retiring and has given back so much to our communities. And that little time he spent in Utah, we really appreciate it because he couldn't have been a nicer guy. And I'm glad we could get a little pizza in his kid's stomach as well.
All right, now it's time to call Nicole Sapphire. She is Dr. Nicole Sapphire. She's got a fascinating story and background. So let's give her a ring. Hello. Hey, Dr. Nicole Sapphire. This is Jason Chaffetz. Thanks for letting me give you a shout.
shape it thanks for calling well listen thank you so much you know i've gotten to to know you over a little bit of time here with the my being a fox news contributor and you being a fox news contributor and then seeing you on on television radio and all over the place and and also your new book you got a new book coming out called panic attack and uh i got a chance to see a
This is really impressive work and stuff and such a critical topic and so apropos for the time. But thanks so much for joining us, Nicole, because we really – I want to take time and kind of get to know you a little bit more behind the camera now.
And what makes you, you? So I want to, I want to start if we could, because, you know, you're a very accomplished doctor. You've got this wonderful, beautiful family. You're an author. You've got this new book coming out. But I want to go back when you were a little girl. I mean, start back like your early memories, like, I don't know, five, six years old. Tell me about life. And let's talk a little bit about your experiences you had growing up.
Well, you know me, I'm an open book. So let's see, where should we begin? Well, I'm similar to you. I'm from the Southwest. I was born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona.
My parents, however, were from upstate New York and South Philly. They just met. They were two hippies in love meeting at Arizona State University back in the day. And they found each other, fell in love and decided to stay in Arizona. And they had me. Yeah.
Well, that's kind of funny because my dad is actually from Germantown, just there in Philly. And then obviously I spent some time in Arizona. I was born in California, Arizona, Colorado, ended up in Utah. But Scottsdale, Arizona was a pretty nice place to be back in the day. Now, were you the only child or were you just...
or did you have brothers, sisters? So my parents divorced when I was very young. Um, I mean, what do you expect? They got married on a camping trip and I think I was conceived on that camping trip. So yes, again, hippies, but, um, God bless. My parents are wonderful people. So they actually divorced when I was two, uh, still best friends to this day. They actually vacationed together. If you can believe that. Um,
my mom remarried and she had two more children my brother and sister they're eight nine years younger than me and they still live in arizona but i did grow up having siblings um i was the oldest obviously and
I like to treat them like they were my little pets. I think now they say that I was a very nice sister, but I think they're lying because I don't remember being that nice. I remember being a little bratty. In fact, my father used to call me Baruca. If anyone has seen the original Willy Wonka, Baruca is the one who sings about wanting the golden goose or the goose that lays the golden eggs. She goes, I want it now. Apparently that was me.
Uh, so now were you in athletics? Were you playing music? I mean, what were you doing as a little girl?
Yeah, so I was a competitive gymnast. I went to public school. I excelled, you know, I was really good at math back in the day. And so I was always in the honors classes there. I had that group of friends. And then I was also the cheerleader gymnast, competitive cheerleading. You know, I ended up by the age of 17. I was on my third ACL surgery.
And then a few years after that, I had my rotator cuffs repaired. So gymnastics, it definitely –
definitely wore on my body a bit. But I think that's a lot of who I was made me today because that coach, I'll tell you, if I mess something up today during my day job or just anything, I have a dream that night about my coach telling me that I did a bad job. So he definitely pushed me to be the best that I possibly could be. And I
I think that is why going forward in my life that I never give anything less than 100% of all of my effort. In a good way? Or is that also, where's the right balance?
Well, you know what? I can tell you that I think that there is definitely the fact that I still dream about my gymnastics coach says that that is not a good thing. There is probably some negative connotations to that. But I do think that, you know, we've gotten so far away from that. I mean, maybe that's one extreme, but now we've gone to the other extreme where you can't tell people like there's no winning and losing anymore. It's like everybody gets a participation ribbon and, and,
I think it's okay to have competitiveness. It's okay to have discipline. Yes, I think you can take it to an extreme, but you have to be careful not to go to the other extreme where there's no longer feelings of competitiveness because you want to make sure people are giving their all and they are putting their best efforts forward and you don't want people to be rewarded for complacency. So how old were you when this was going on? I mean, how young were you?
Well, so I started gymnastics when I was about eight years old and, um, I, my plan was to do it through college and, um, but I was never planning on, you know, being a professional gymnast or doing the Olympics. I always wanted to go to medical school. Um, but as you're aware, Jason, um, something unexpected occurred during my senior year of high school that, um,
kind of put a stop to my gymnastics. And I essentially had a new hobby that I needed to take care of. Well, it was more than a hobby. And so you got pregnant, right? And tell us about, was there a choice in your mind? Was that a decision to have this baby? Was this something that you thought, oh, no, what am I going to do? I mean,
It's a little personal, I know, but what was that experience like at that age? Yeah, I mean, obviously, this was a pivotal part in my life and definitely defines who I am today. The summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I found out I was pregnant.
And, gosh, I remember it so vividly. I remember the moment I found out and I went and I pulled my friend out of school and then we drove to my mom's work because I'm very close with my mother and I needed to talk it through with her. And
While I had choices, I knew that there were choices that I could make. I could have an abortion. I could have the child, give the child up for adoption, or I can keep the child. For me, I knew that I was going to have the baby. I was persuaded by many around me to have an abortion. People told me that I would never be able to reach my goals. I would never be able to become a doctor and, you know, essentially be ruining my life if I decided to have the baby. And so I was like,
But I kind of think that maybe that pushed me even farther towards not having an abortion because now I'm just going to prove them all wrong. And it was almost a good driving force behind me in that I can prove everybody wrong because not only
am I going to have this baby and continue on with life, but I'm going to continue on and accomplish every goal that I set out before. Maybe I'm not going to go in that straight line that I was originally on before that path. I'm just going to take a different path to get to those goals. And I mean, my son just turned 21 a couple weeks ago now, and he is the best unplanned event of my entire life. And so he, uh,
We packed up. We finished high school. He was at my high school graduation as a newborn. I had him six weeks before I graduated, and he's been with me ever since. Well, he's certainly a good-looking kid, if I can say so myself. But that is – I mean –
That takes a lot of guts. I mean, from my vantage point, I've never been through pregnancy. I didn't go through that. But to have the baby and to have him there on your lap, so to speak, at graduation, that takes a lot of internal fortitude and decision-making that people at that age don't necessarily have.
Well, I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't lonely. I was dropped by a lot of my friends. The church that I went to asked me to stop going to the more popular masses because I wasn't a good example.
My gymnastics coach forebode me from going into the gym anymore. Not that I was going to, but he made sure to tell me that I wasn't allowed to go in anymore. And I mean, thankfully, my family, whether or not they agreed with my decision, rallied around me. And I mean, they, I could, I honestly couldn't have done it without them. I mean, my mother, my father, everyone truly just rallied around me and
There was an all hands on deck. Everyone contributed to making sure that I was able to finish college, finish medical school, get through residency. I mean, I was working 80, 100 hour work weeks when I was a resident and I was working 30 hour shifts. And so if I was having to work one of those shifts, my mom would come and spend the night with Nick. And, you know, we just we made it work and we did.
You know, it's almost, you know, sitting here listening and talking to you about it, it's almost embarrassing that those that should have been the strongest around you just kind of fled and said, you know, don't come here, don't be there, and don't, don't, we're embarrassed. That is, that's almost embarrassing to me. Well, it was, it was devastating. And, you know, at the time, I guess I understood. Looking back now, you know, it's almost comical to me because once
Well, I guess I was a bad influence in that I had an unintended pregnancy. But imagine how many young people I would inspire now retrospectively, knowing that if they've got themselves in a situation, an unplanned situation, not necessarily a pregnancy, but any unplanned situation, they're
that they can actually still live a life. They can still reach their goals. They just have to reach out to their friends and family around them. And so I don't think about that much. It was hard in the time, but I was immature, so it really hurt me then. But as I have matured, it certainly doesn't hurt me anymore. Well, I hope it's an inspiration to those that
may be the friend or may be the coworker or may be the person at the church or the gym or whatever, that somebody runs into a tough, difficult spot and that you just don't abandon them. That life is about second chances and making the most of situation. And what a devastating decision that an abortion would have been. You wouldn't have this beautiful, wonderful child who's
now just, you know, just going to add so much to your life and the society around him and everything else. And I do worry. I go in, I have the honor of going out and speaking to a lot of these pro-life groups out there. And I hope your story is an inspiration to a lot of people who suddenly, maybe they made a mistake and maybe something happened and, you know, they find themselves in an untenable position. But there is hope and there is hope.
a light at the end of that tunnel that is glorious. It's not just some burden that it has to take on. So I don't want to dwell on it, but good for you for having the internal fortitude and tenacity really to say, no, I'm going to make the most of this. So you graduate, you have your son. Now what are you going to do? I mean, you've got big goals, but how do you get from here to there?
Well, I had my original plan was to get to New York and do undergrad in New York. But now that I was a single mother, I was like, well, that's probably not going to work out. So I switched and decided to go to Arizona State University to stay close to home for obvious reasons. And I did. I graduated with a degree in microbiology and immunology, as well as Spanish and
four years later and I worked as a pharmacy technician about 30 hours a week while I was doing it. And, you know, once I graduated, I had, you know, my GPA was okay. I mean, for a single mom who's working 30 hours a week, I thought a 3.3 was pretty good. I mean, I felt like I was treading water. The first two years I was breastfeeding. I mean, it wasn't easy.
But, you know, all my pre-med colleagues, they, you know, they were 3.8, 3.9. And although, you know, I didn't feel inferior to them, I just know that I didn't have the energy or the time to put in to my studies the same way that they could. Why medicine? Like, why did you decide, hey, you know what?
I want to be, you know, a doctor. Where did that come from? Well, you know what? That came when I was like eight or nine years old. And I don't know. I, I just, it, there was no doctor. There are no doctors in my family. There are pharmacists and lawyers. And I decided I want to be a doctor and I couldn't tell you why I just did. And I at first wanted to be a neurologist. I had to see a neurologist when I was younger for severe headaches and
And so I really liked the MRI machines and I really liked neurology. And I don't know, it was something I was always drawn to medicine. And then when everyone told me there was no way I'd ever be a doctor having a child, well, now I will now have to be a doctor. I'm going to prove them wrong. But so my family doctor, my whole life had been a doctor of osteopathic medicine or a DO. So I applied to DO programs and,
And, you know, I went on my interviews, blah, blah, blah.
When I got accepted to one or during the whole decision-making process, I was talking to my Italian grandmother, my mom, I call her, and I was telling her, yeah, I'm going to be a DO. And she said to me, so is that almost kind of like a doctor? I was like, no, my mom, it is a doctor. And I don't know why, but like, I mean, she didn't see it as a doctor. Right.
So now I had to go back because I hadn't applied for any MD programs. And so I went to my advisor and she's like, you've missed the boat on, you know, applying for MD programs. You're going to have to wait and do an entire other year to reapply. And, you know, that's when I went into panic mode. I'm like, OK, so I can take a year off and then reapply, you know, do some extra classes, try and get my GPA up.
And then I just said, I'm like, I don't think I'm going to be able to do that. If I take a break, if I stop.
hustling right now, there's no way I'm gonna go. If I start working full time and I get comfortable, I can't stop that momentum. I didn't stop. I had Nick six weeks later, I graduated from high school. I started college that August and I haven't skipped a beat. If I stop, I'll never make it. So she said that she had a friend of hers was an admissions counselor at a school in the West Indies.
Obviously, I'd never heard of this school, but she said it was owned by DeVry. And so I looked into it and I sent everything to them and I flew to L.A. for an interview. And they said, we'll accept you right now and you can start in August like everybody else, not skipping a beat. So now it was all of a sudden, OK, I'm going to go to medical school. I'm going to move to the West Indies. Like, does that seem like a good idea? Sure. And...
And trust me, that was not an easy decision. But I knew that if I didn't go, I thought there would be a good chance I'd never go. So I did not take my son because I had no idea what it would be like. I left him in the care of my mother for the first semester. And I made a deal with my professors saying, I need to bring my son here.
But if I bring him here, I'm not going to be able to go to class because I'll need to be studying while he's in school because they have a little kindergarten for the professors, teachers at the school. I was like, oh, that's another thing. I need my kid to join the school. So anyways, long story short, my professor said, if you get a perfect score on your exams, then you don't have to come to class anymore.
And so the first test came out and there were 140 questions and I missed one. I missed one question.
So I went to the professor and I said, it's not a perfect score. And he said, actually, it is a perfect score because the correct answer is wrong in the key and you provided the right answer. So you did get a perfect score and you are now relinquished of the responsibility of attending class. You have permission not to attend class and only to attend the tests. Okay.
So my son came with me to the West Indies and I graduated not the top of my class, but the second to top of my class. And how long were you there? We're in the West Indies for about 19 months. The rest of it was...
in Miami. So we only really did our book work in West Indies. All of our clinical work in the hospitals were all in the United States. And then I actually did most of my third and fourth year at Mayo Clinic Scottsdale and Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, because I couldn't continue being out of state. I had to work out deals with certain hospitals. And because I scored in the 99.7th percentile on the boards, I
they allowed me into their programs. Good for you. And so it was in radiology, is this right? Well, that was med school, MD. And then I went and I did five more years in radiology at Maricopa Medical Center, because that's where I had been. And they had a great program. And then I went to Mayo Clinic Scottsdale for my fellowship in oncologic and breast imaging. And
Now I work as the director of breast imaging at the Monument site for Memorial Sloan Kettering. So, I mean, in terms of my professional life, I made it. This is, I am an expert in my field at one of the top centers in the world. So, pat on my back, good for me. Well, it is because not everybody achieves those goals and not everybody goes through the adversity that they have. But as we talked a lot on, you know, this previous podcast,
I find that the challenges, the adversity that happens in people's lives, particularly when they're young, gives them the character and the backbone and the fortitude to...
to buoy them up and make them stronger and better. And to your point that we talked about earlier, when you raise these kids and you don't have an opportunity to learn how to win, but also learn how to lose, you miss opportunities. I mean, you just miss opportunities to learn how to work and learn how to sacrifice and learn how to do all of those things.
And, and so to be at the top of your field from the Mayo Clinic and where you are today, that's, that's amazing. And I, and I just on a personal note, point of personal privilege, if you will, you know, my mother passed away from breast cancer. She was diagnosed when she was in her thirties and I, and I, you know, I'm older than she was when she passed away. And, and this was all in Scottsdale. And, you know, I just wish they had the
the medicine that they have today. You know, and I, I, I see these cancer patients and women. My wife, Julie has worked with, um, people who are suddenly getting a diagnosis that they didn't want and didn't expect and, and suddenly find themselves in crisis mode. And so I'm proud of the work my wife, Julie's done and just, you know, uh, proud and, and, uh,
glad that there are good people like you who pour their heart and soul and have studied and figured this out to, to help because cancer affects so many people. I lost my dad to cancer as well, colon cancer and, you know, and, um, and so I just want to say thank you for, for doing that. Well, I mean, absolutely. Cancer, unfortunately is still our second leading cause of death. And, um,
You know, when we listen to President Biden, other people say that cancer cures are within our reach. You know, it's great to hear that because it's great to hear people are finally putting attention on it. But I can tell you, as someone who delivers a cancer diagnosis every day, we're not there yet. And I agree.
It needs a lot more. And, you know, I know that people get standing ovations when they say, you know, it's in our lifetime to cure cancer. But I mean, it's going to take a lot more. And as long as we continue to bring attention to early detection and treatment, that's all we can do. Well, and it's going to take a lot more money. You know, I'm a fiscal conservative. My time in Congress, you know, I'm embarrassed by how much money the government spends on
But when cancer's killing 1,500 people a day, I think we could have the same sort of emphasis and financial commitment that we do to a pandemic. You would think that that would be our attitude and approach. And unfortunately, it's not yet. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Dr. Nicole Sapphire right after this.
This is Jimmy Fallon inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at foxacrossamerica.com. All right, so let's go back into life because you're now successful. You've got this great job and you're working. Tell us a little bit more about, I mean, we're diving so deep into your personal life. Might as well just keep going from here.
So you mentioned neurologist, right? But you ended up marrying one, didn't you? No.
Nope. I married a neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeon. That's right. Sorry. Come on. Brain surgeon. I haven't even met him yet. Isn't that what McDreamy was on that show? I never saw that show, but I think Dr. McDreamy was a brain surgeon. That's what my family calls my husband. Whatever. I don't say in my house it's not brain surgery. I just always say it's not rocket science, okay? Because we can't let it go to his head. Yeah.
So, yeah, so I met my husband, Paul, when I was in medical school. He was a fellow at UCLA at the time studying endovascular neurosurgery. So his specialty are ruptured aneurysms and strokes. And we I was doing research with some people also at the conference. And long story short, we technically met at a bar, but it was a bar gathering after the conference.
And so we met and he pursued me via long distance for a few years before I agreed to go on a date with him. But once he moved back to New York City, where he's from, I finally, like two years later, agreed. And he flew me out for our first date. And we've been together ever since. So now I live in the Northeast. And the one thing he said to me when we were getting married is,
I will live anywhere in the world with you except the suburbs of New Jersey. And here we are living in the suburbs of New Jersey. Well, sometimes the unexpected happens and you've got this beautiful, wonderful family. But tell me a little bit about this book because you've written a second book. It comes out here in May.
Um, but why did you, I mean, it takes a lot of effort to write a book. I've written a few books. Um, it takes a lot of time and effort. I mean, you got a lot going on in your life. Why did you, why did you want to write panic attack?
Well, you know, so my first book, Make America Healthy Again, was really about trying to educate people on how so much illness is preventable. And while you mentioned being fiscally conservative, while we keep clamoring that we're in such debt because of our health care, that's really because of our own doings. And so if we focused on our individual behavior collectively, that would really move us forward as a country. When it came to panic attack,
In the spectrum of this pandemic, you know, in the beginning, there was a lot of confusion. People didn't really understand what was going on. I didn't understand what was going on. I mean, we were getting new information every single day. But then I started seeing some things happening that was really upsetting. And it was...
People were taking science and using it for their own benefit, for their own narrative, being partisan politics, for one. And then anyone with contrarian opinions were being censored, whether they were being censored by big tech or by prestigious medical journals.
All of a sudden, they were being seen as anti-science. But what's really interesting is discord is completely normal in scientific discovery. It is completely normal for physicians, doctors, scientists, for people to disagree. And it's that disagreement which puts forth the whole trial and error experimentation. That's how we produce results. But that wasn't allowed to happen. And it was the knee-jerk anti-Trumpism that was really fueling that.
And unfortunately, anything other than full transparency without censorship creates skepticism and panic.
And that's what happened. We created a huge population of skeptics, as well as panic and this panic that didn't have to be. It didn't have to be as anxiety and panic provoking as it was. And yet you had politicians, mainly Democratic politicians, pushing forth narratives that fit the
what they were wanting to do. You had people having prolonged lockdowns, prolonged restrictions, even when the science didn't support them anymore. And all it did was create further harm. And so what I decided to do in Panic Attack was I took like the top 10 controversial topics of the pandemic from the origin of the virus,
to the World Health Organization and their either complacency or working in collaboration with the Chinese Communist Party,
to hydroxychloroquine and vitamin D and face masks and lockdowns and all of these other things that all of a sudden you had a science and anti-science sides to, but you really didn't. People took the science, they politicized it, and they created this discord that didn't have to be. And so I go through the science, I go through the facts,
and I show how it was distorted. Yeah, if people want the definitive word on what happened and how it happened, the panic attack is coming out. It's like in the next week or two by the time this podcast comes out. And I hope people, if they want to take a deeper dive into what really went down, I hope you're able to get it. Like I said, I've had a sneak preview of what's going on. Doctor, you've done an amazing, amazing job with that. It really...
You should be proud of it. And I hope people get it and they can listen to it. You recorded the audio yourself, right? That was all you. I did the recording myself this time because you said to. But let me tell you.
That was a lot of work. I know. So I just came out with a book too. It's called They Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste. The Truth About Disaster Liberalism is my third book. And I recorded the audio. It takes like four days to record this audio. And so you and I were talking and I said, no, people are not going to download an audio and listen to some dude read your book out loud. They want to hear it in your own voice. But it takes a lot of time to do it because you can't just do it on the first pass.
No. Oh, no. Oh, and let me tell you, my Chinese chapter about the origin, do you know how many Chinese names I had to say?
That was tough. I'm like, I should have warned you about that. There shouldn't be so many consonants together. You need a vowel. Can I get a vowel? Well, you can come on. You got your minor. Spanish. We know how Spanish and Chinese. That is a language of love. There are a lot of vowels in that. Anyways, I now feel that I can adequately pronounce Chinese names appropriately should I travel to Asia.
in some time in my life. I'm going to download the audio of the panic attack book. And then when I, when you get to that section, I'm going to speed it up. So, you know, you can dial it up so you can do it like twice as fast and it makes your voice even that much higher. I can't wait to, that'll be funny. All right, Nicole, you're not going to escape this podcast without going through my tough questions. So we got rapid fire questions. You cannot prepare for these.
And, you know, we were laughing earlier before the podcast that we've never heard the word bashful associated with you. So we're going to ask you some even more personal questions and let's see what you come up with. You ready for the fast ones? Bring it. All right. Favorite item at Taco Bell? Oh, Double Decker Supreme. What about the Chalupa? All right. Favorite childhood crush?
Well, my boyfriend in fifth and sixth grade was Brian Klein in Gilbert, Arizona. Mesa, Arizona. All right. Hidden talent that nobody knows about. I can pick up things with my toes. I have like monkey toes. Yeah.
Picking up things with your toes and having monkey toes are kind of two different visuals here. They're long. I have long toes. And now that my arm's in a sling, it's very useful having my toes. I guess the judges have said yes. They'll consider that a talent. So congratulations. All right. First concert you ever went to? Green Day. Green Day.
Green Day. That's pretty good. As people have listened to my previous podcast, I went to Michael Jackson in Denver's Mile High Stadium. That was my first one. So I'm dating myself a little bit. But...
I wanted so bad. I remember when the Rolling Stones came to Arizona State. It was like the pick. What was that? They had some songs. Start me up tour. Oh, I wanted to go to that one so bad, but I didn't go. But they were at the Sun Devil Stadium. Oh, that would have been so fun. All right. Person you'd most like to meet dead or alive can be anybody.
Yeah. I mean, there are a few people that I would actually really like to meet. Only get one, only get one. Well, I mean, I can be, it's, I can say someone, but no one's going to know who he is, but it's, um, professor Rudolph Verkow. He was, he's a German pathologist back in the day from, from like the 1800s. And he was an incredible pathologist who, um,
was really noted for people who were coming up with cures. He was the one who would evaluate whether it was truly a cure or if they were a charlatan. And he was tasked with coming up with, so he evaluated the tuberculin, which turned out not to be a cure at all. And it actually killed people from Robert Koch. And then also the cure for diphtheria.
I think this is the question I'm going to ask my doctor next time I go in. And if I say, you know, who would you most like to meet? And they say, gosh, I'd really like to meet, you know,
Paul McCartney, I'll be like, okay, that's a good legitimate answer. But you want to go to a doctor who wants to meet somebody like that. I don't even know who that person is, but I'm glad I've got a doctor that I know who thinks like that. Interestingly though, Verkow, we have in medicine, something called Verkow's node. And so this was named after him. And it's essentially if someone has an, uh, in a, um, like a cancer in their GI tract, specifically like the stomach, uh,
They can act, they can get a big lymph node right in their neck. And because that's the, that's the drainage. And so that's called Verkow's node. Well, that goes hand in glove with the next question. The next question I was going to ask, which is, do you eat pineapple on pizza? Absolutely not. That's disgusting. Yeah, exactly. I knew I liked you. That's a reason why pineapple, if it's wet like that, it should not be on a pizza. All right. Favorite vegetable.
I'd say, I guess carrots or actually no, you know what my husband makes he roasts asparagus and then he melts like a Parmesan cheese on it and then puts a fried egg on top of it. And that's amazing. Yeah. We were interviewing. I was talking with Madison Cawthorn and he went with
Still my favorite answer to that question, which was water chestnuts, which is not exactly a vegetable, I don't believe, but I thought it was a very interesting answer. And if you do go watch your Instagram, you do put a lot of food on there and you all do eat very well, I must say. So, all right, most embarrassing moment. So when I was a teeny bopper, I was like 12, I was at a skating rink.
And there was like some high school kids there. I think it was by myself. Like I was either waiting for my friends or I don't know why, but I didn't really have any friends with me and I was alone. And I was trying to show off in front of these high school people. Like I was like, yeah, look at me. I'm skating super fast. And then they got off the rink and they were all like gathered around and
And I lost control, and I ended up pummeling right into their little circle and landing on the ground in the middle of their circle. A little bowling ball just crashing the pins down at the roller rink. I buy that. That is an embarrassing moment. I can tell. It's still top of mind. Yeah.
All right. Just a few more questions. Last time you dressed up for Halloween, what did you dress up as? So first of all, we dress up every single year. We do a family theme. And so it was this last year, my husband and I did, I was the, he was Andy Warhol and I was Andy Warhol's depiction of Marilyn Monroe. So I essentially had a pink face and,
And like teal eyeshadow and teal lipstick and a yellow wig. So if you Google Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe, that's what it looked like. I look like a cartoon version of Marilyn Monroe. And my husband had on a white wig with a black hat.
a turtleneck and glasses and people knew exactly who we were. What I'm learning about you and your family is when you go in, you like go all in on all things. That is the message that I'm getting here because, you know, somebody asked me that. I just, I don't know how to answer it because just because Mr. Potato Head and I have never been seen in the same room at the same time does not mean that that's what I gravitated to. But yeah,
yours is a little bit more elaborate than mine. All right. Quick. Last few questions. Cats or dogs? Dogs. I had a cat though, growing up. Her name was mama kitty and I had her from birth until 18, but she was the only exception. I've only had dogs since then. Yeah. I had a cat. Her name was flower. She, but she only lived outside, but I'm all dogs all the time. All right. Coke or Pepsi? Neither. We don't drink soda in my house.
Bunch of doctors. Okay, I'll buy that. Worst thing, well, we already did that. All right, high school mascot. Tiger. A tiger? You were a tiger. Yeah, Gilbert Tiger. Of course, a lot of tigers in Arizona. That makes a lot of sense. So, Nicole Sapphire, thank you so much for joining us. Dr. Nicole Sapphire, she's got a new book coming out. It's called Panic Attack.
You can get it now online. It's just about to hit the bookshelves. You can download the audio because she's recorded the audio herself.
But thanks so much for joining the Jason in the House podcast and kind of opening up about your life. And I think it's fascinating when we see all these people on TV and let them, you know, into our lives and listen to their advice to really hear the story behind what you've gone through and what, you know, what builds the character within you. So thanks for opening up and sharing.
and sharing your story with us. I do appreciate it. Absolutely. I appreciate you having me on. It's a great, honest conversation. No holds barred. Thank you. Again, I can't thank Dr. Nicole Sapphire enough. She is just one of my favorite people. I just love how she just gets after it and does things and accomplishes things and
And I think she's got an inspirational story. So I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. All right. I got another little bit of inspiration for you. And it's just a short, sweet story, but I saw it on FoxNews.com. It was this great story about, and we talked about Drew Brees and what a nice guy he was, just a regular guy.
But hats off to Adam Sandler showing up at the IHOP with his kids wanting to get some pancakes. And whoever the hostess there was didn't really recognize that it was Adam Sandler. He's wearing a mask and doing what people have been doing during COVID. Just trying to get some pancakes, maybe a little bacon and some sausage there.
But being turned down, saying, no, we got a 30-minute wait. But I guess what really stands out for this is, you know, didn't know the camera was on him, wasn't really expecting it.
But for just being a good, decent guy, I just love the fact that he was just being such a good, decent guy. I love that about him. And I hear these stories about him time and time again. And he got, quote unquote, caught again. But just being a good guy, good dad, trying to have some pancakes with his daughters.
All right. Thanks again for listening to the Jason in the House podcast. Really do appreciate your time. You can find more from the Fox News Podcast Network over at foxnewspodcast.com. That's foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Need you to rate it. Need you to subscribe to it. Need you to review it if you could. If you liked it, that would be very helpful to me and to the podcast as a whole. We're going to be back next week with another fun guest. I hope you join us. I'm Jason Chaffetz, and this has been Jason in the House.
From the Fox News Podcasts Network. In these ever-changing times, you can rely on Fox News for hourly updates for the very latest news and information on your time. Listen and download now at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts.
