Let's go.

Welcome to Citizen.

We've got a special guest today from News Nation, Leland Vittert.

Best hair in news.

Is that right?

Was that still the case?

When's the last time they had a vote on

this shit the last the last vote was from i think 2008 in denver colorado and then that stays with me

forever which it has um i i'll however i've not been put up for best beard in podcasting

oh well there's a lot of those, there's a lot of those.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of people that look like me doing this stuff with mixed results,

but that's fine. I don't mind being confused with other people. Let's start from the beginning.

Where'd you grow up? Grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Oh, nice. How'd you like it there?

Well, Born Lucky is the story of sort of the worst parts of my life growing up.

So there's not much I liked about St. Louis other than some places with some good food,

at least growing up there. You know,

born lucky is this story of hope for every parent of a kid who's having a hard time. I clearly

had a very hard time. And I think St. Louis was probably the place that I hold most responsible

for those memories. Is that fair to hold St. Louis responsible or is it just a coincidence?

Oh, I don't know. I guess I don't hold the city responsible.

I think, you know, growing up, I had, you know, some real problems.

And, you know, I think about in seventh grade at this new school I was going to,

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