DMV Zone: October 15, 2026

Today, a busy day in the newsroom as it usually is, and federal authorities at this hour investigating suspicious letters containing unknown substances, some of them mailed to congressional offices on the Hill. The FBI, U.S. Capitol Police, and the Postal Inspection Service working to intercept any additional letters before they are delivered. The investigation comes as election officials in at least three states have reported receiving packages containing mysterious powders, one envelope with a return address of DSA at a New York address once used by the Democratic Socialists of America. No evidence the group is linked to the mailings. Former FBI agent Ken Gray with this. And Ken, we should say that this all comes on the 25th anniversary of that first letter that was sent back in 2001 on those anthrax attacks that we still remember. What do we make of where the investigation is at this hour? Hi, Marina. This is very reminiscent of the anthrax attack back in 2001. We had a victim of the anthrax attack here in Connecticut, so I'm quite familiar with that. You know, So the investigation is involving FBI, Capitol Police, and postal inspectors. And after the 2001 attack with anthrax, they have the ability, mailings, to where it originated from. It takes some time to do that. But really, they're in a lot better position now than they were back in 2001. Powder like this mailed through the mail. It has to be grown out to determine whether or not it contains something dangerous, whether it's anthrax or something else. So it takes time to be able to say if it's a real threat or not. The vast majority of mailings of white powder were all fake letters. That is, did not contain anything dangerous. But you never know. Right. It's been 25 years. In those 25 years, has there been any sort of protocols enacted by the USPS or by the feds at large to try and prevent the potential of these things mailed coast to coast and just anywhere around the country? So most federal facilities, at least, had started opening their mail outside their facility. They have a mail room separate from the rest of the facility so as not to contaminate the entire offices like what happened with Congress, where they had to come in and decontaminate large parts of the Capitol there. But as far as being able to detect suspicious substances inside an envelope, the postal authorities are somewhat silent about exactly what they do at looking at mail. But as I say, they do have the ability to track mail where it originates from. And in the 2001 incident, they were actually able to take it back to the mailbox where the original packages had been mailed from. So, you know, they can really track it down right to the origin. Yeah. I mean, look, the mail has been used as a criminal activity for, we talk about the Unabomber and how he also went after his victims, obviously the anthrax attacks. And now some of this, what can we expect as the outcome? How easy, how difficult is it for investigators to find the perpetrator behind these packages, whether or not they're real or not? So when we were working the anthrax case in 2001, we did not identify the person that we believe to be the originator, Bruce Ivins, and that was 2006. So it takes time. It really does take time in a case like this. They may be able to find out who mailed it earlier than that, but I would not be surprised if it takes a while to actually get to the person who puts the actual envelope into the mail. it's always helpful though to have somebody tell you and so who knows somebody might fess up to this or provide information that leads to the original attacker right i look at the pipe bombs right outside of the DNC on the eve there of January 6th and still it was years later that the government determined who they believe placed those and still were working through that case so It could be years to come as we find out who the originators are. We so appreciate it, Ken Gray. Thank you so much for your insight on that. Anytime. Top number two here, D.C. spending millions of dollars on programs designed to prevent gun violence, but a recent study raising serious questions about whether they're working. Researchers finding that one city-funded program was associated with a slight increase in deadly shootings in the neighborhoods it served, while another showed no statistically significant impact. The findings come as the programs now face budget cuts and scrutiny following a bribery scandal involving D.C. Councilmember Trayon White. Washington Sun reporter Jenny Gathright has been following this and has all the details on what these researchers found, researchers including from Johns Hopkins here. Where does that stand now for D.C. seeing that millions of dollars have been spent and yet this data is showing not only did it not decrease or stay stagnant, there was in fact a slight increase. Yeah. So the study looked at the time period between 2018 and the middle of 2025. And you're right. They found that these programs had no impact on reducing violence and, in fact, were associated in some cases with a slight increase in firearm fatalities. Basically, where this leaves D.C., I mean, I reached out to D.C. officials who said that they feel like this study doesn't capture some of the more recent reforms they've made to the programs in the last couple of years, particularly after some contractor misbehavior has come to light and after the bribery scandal. And so they argue that they're going to retool these programs, that they're already working with a model that is more evidence-based. But of course, there will be a new mayor in January who might start something else entirely new. Based on your reporting, there seems to be at least two, if you will, like committees, right that that have these violence interrupter programs one from the executive of dc from the mayor's office and a separate one from the attorney general and based on what i read here ansi which is the one that comes from the executive here it went from a budget of five million dollars in 2019 to a 28 million dollar budget in 2022 which would have been in the years that these researchers looked where there was no seemingly any sort of abatement on this crime Why were they giving it so much more money when nothing was being changed? So, yeah, the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement's budget grew really fast. And some of the experts I spoke to who have worked with these programs closely said that the budget was maybe actually growing too fast for their programs to keep up with, for the office to keep up with and monitor everything that was going on appropriately. One of the reasons why the budget exploded was not just investments locally, but federal money. you know, American Rescue Plan dollars that became available during the pandemic. The city devoted a lot of those to anti-violence efforts, in part because during that time, homicides were rising to a generational high in D.C. You know, they've since fallen really steeply since then. But at the time, the problem was really bad and the city wanted to throw everything at the wall to try to fix it. And part of that, you know, went to this explosion at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. But yes, some of the people who examined the programs closely argue that that explosion of funds didn't come, you know, with a real plan about sort of how that money could be spent most effectively. Right. And to that point, based on your reporting, there was all this money and no plan in place from what it seems like. As far as the Attorney General's violence interrupters program, they seem to have more of a tailored approach. And yet there are council members who say, let's get rid of this one from the executive's office and just go to the Attorney General, use that program, but there doesn't seem to be the appetite for it. Where do things stand right now with this? So the programs have merged under the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, and the Office of the Attorney General is no longer running any of the violence intervention street outreach programs that they used to. So they've now merged, and the city has just awarded grants to a new round of contractors to do this work. The grants are significantly smaller than they used to be. And they're asking the grantees to adhere to a certain strategy that involves working with the highest risk people, the people most likely to pick up a gun. So the programs are much smaller. And that means that a lot of violence interrupters, some of whom, you know, really dedicated their lives and put their safety on the line for this work, have lost their jobs just in the last couple of weeks. Right. You talk about the office out in the Trinidad neighborhood that's in the fifth police district there, it's hard to say that there was any positive impact when you've got things like the Metropolitan Police Department, which was also used to thwart crime and homicides. And now in the last year, the presence of the National Guard, which some will say those numbers have also have curbed crime here. Where do things go from now? We've got an outgoing mayor, incoming mayor come January. Is there any sort of retooling here, especially as it relates to the millions of taxpayer dollars, it seemed to have really done nothing. The Democratic nominee for mayor, Janice Lewis-George, says that she plans to overhaul and rebuild these programs, essentially. And she says she's looking to programs that have shown a bit more success in cities like Baltimore and Chicago as models. But it really remains to be seen how those plans are fleshed out and sort of what the future holds for this work, especially given sort of all of this disagreement in the field about what the best approach is for this work and what could be most effective. That's certainly how much money is being spent to do that. Jenny Gathright with the reporting there with The Washington Sun. We appreciate the conversation. Thank you, Jenny. Topic number three here, new documents obtained by The Washington Post shedding light on who's funding President Trump's $330 million White House ballroom project. Their investigation revealing some of the biggest donors, including a major tech company and wealthy Republican contributors raising questions about transparency and potential conflicts of interest. Washington Post reporter Jonathan O'Connell with the details here. And, Jonathan, I think what's interesting, and, you know, for some reason, we've all seen the people have been in the orbit of the Trump administration. To tie that to the dollar amount of the donations, I think, speaks very loudly. This is a list of people and companies and foundations who have, you know, they've contributed tens of millions of dollars to this project. and a lot of them did it anonymously. So about a year ago, actually, the White House announced 37 of the donors but didn't say how much they had given or when they had given. And since then, the public has basically zero visibility into how this project is being funded and also what the interests are of the people who are funding it. Money is a one-on-one part of everything that we do, especially as it relates to politicians. who are the largest donors here and what can we say they've achieved in that relationship with the Trump administration? I mean, I should say we don't know for certain whether the donations get the donors anything. It could just be that they want to fund and support the construction of a new White House East Wing and a new White House ballroom. And that, you know, that many of them have said that to us, that that is their purpose in donating. The problem is that, you You know, you mentioned some of the top donors. There are top donors here who have, like, NVIDIA, for instance, the most valuable public company in the world, and this giant chip-making company. They negotiated this extremely big deal with the Trump administration to sell chips in China, and a series of deals, frankly. And, you know, one could view these in many different ways. I mean, you could view NVIDIA providing $25 million toward the ballroom as something just patriotic as part of their interest in making sure the White House and the Capitol look good, which is part of the statement that they made to us. Or you could be nervous or concerned that possibly they will get or have received some sort of preferential treatment because of their donation. We'll let our viewers decide that one. Jonathan O'Connell with us with The Washington Post and the reporting. We appreciate it. And still to come here on the DMV Zone, we're checking in with NPR as the midterm elections are approaching. and more voters are turning to artificial intelligence. What that means on the other side. With the midterm elections approaching, more voters turning to AI to help them decide who to vote for. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude being used to compare candidates, research local races, and fact-check political claims. Joining us now is reporter for NPR, Maham Javid, with more on this. And it's interesting because we talk about AI and even the different types of them and their biases, And yet people go into them knowing that and having full on conversations for hours, you report. Yeah. So I did some reporting and, you know, we learned that people are using AI chatbots in various ways to kind of decide who they want to vote for in this election. And, you know, different people are doing it in different ways. There are some people who are kind of using it the way that you would imagine, which is like kind of going candidate by candidate in their district and figuring out like where each candidate stands using the help of the chatbot but in um in other people are using it in different ways where they're making kind of election tools to help other people or they're using it just to compare two candidates or they're using it for down ballot candidates where they say there's not a lot of information available i know you spoke with OpenAI and they told you to look at their safeguards page and it says quote they monitor bias in our models to keep ChatGPT's responses politically neutral we were just talking with a reporter with the Washington Post who was talking about some of these CEOs of companies that were donating millions of dollars to the administration are there people who are concerned about these conversations they're having with the bots and maybe the influence is coming inadvertently from the bots right right so yeah there are problems with this method of ballot research, right? First of all, we know that the bots can hallucinate, right? That's when bots can make up something. We know, you know, I spoke to experts and they told me that these bots can also be subtly persuasive in a way that users might not even realize. And we know that these bots are also agreeable to a fault. So what happens is you go in asking a question and you come out of that conversation thinking that you've learned a lot of new things where actually you've just been validated in your beliefs you may not have learned a lot of new things and that in itself like this is very problematic yeah what else i mean because it sounds like people i'm reading some of your your you interviewed a lot of people and people who use it for what other people would think about like menu planning or just like daily chores and they've always thought of it like this is their friend and and therefore this person should almost to some degree understand where they stand, roughly speaking, but it is like a positive confirmation bias. It's sycophantic is what one person called it. That's, I mean, that's exactly what the problem is. So, I mean, there are ways, none of these methods are foolproof, but I spoke to some experts to kind of learn what are some ways in which people can use it to kind of, you know, reduce those impacts, reduce the sycophant, the, you know, that element of it. And one thing you can do is don't log in using you know your username and all of that like try incognito mode um another thing you can do is like um don't ask leading questions you know ask like try to ask try to keep your question as neutral as possible and that way maybe the chatbot will also try and give you neutral information it won't try and be agreeable with you and that might help but again i will say these are not like you know lock like lock solid methods, they're just a few things that you can do to improve the experience, right and listen, we all know artificial intelligence is a tool and it seems as though some of the people you spoke with are very well aware of the issues that can arise with using these tools and trying to do the best to kind of decipher it, but not everybody is and that's why we're having this conversation to sort this all out, we so appreciate thank you so much for coming on the DMV Zone. Thank you, football fans, down to lock in your seats for next season. The DC Defenders now selling season tickets for the 2027 UFL season with packages for all five home games starting at less than 100 bucks, there's also an extra incentive to buy early. DC Defenders head coach Shannon Harris here to tell us all about it. Why do we need to buy in now, coach? Yeah, hey, thanks for having us on and uh greatly appreciate it and uh yeah, i think you know right now is the perfect time to buy into uh what we have coming coming about uh with DC football, with the Defenders football and uh you know this iconic expectation that come with our brand with the DC Defenders and we love to meet those expectations and to have been to the championship game three of the last four years, winning it last year in 2025 and being back at our home field in 2026, uh i mean it's a great thing to look forward to and we we excited about it. Yeah, you guys have priority access to playoff tickets, you get the same seat You get discounts over at the UFL shop, and here's the positive. You may actually catch a winning football game in Washington. Did I say that? Well, I'm still rooting for our Commanders as well. I mean, they're still District of Champions as well, so I'm rooting for those guys. They're not far out from the NFC East right now. So, you know, right now everybody kind of right there on the same page. But I think this is going to be a great thing to come for our Commanders, And I'm excited about that. And we'll be there as the D.C. Defenders fans will be there for the Monday night football game on November 23rd. So we look forward to seeing our fans. There you go. Tickets go on sale today. Coach, good to talk to you. Likewise. Thank you. We'll be right back. New sunscreen ingredient hitting U.S. store shelves for the first time in more than 25 years. The FDA approving Bemotrizinol as an ingredient already widely used in Europe that protects against both UVA and UVB rays. experts say it could offer a new option for people looking for effective sun protection without that white residue left by some mineral sunscreens we've got chief medical officer for HealthTrack Dr. Steven Goldberg and here's the thing we talk about sunscreen even in October because the theory is you got to wear it year round here so it's always important what's changing now i think marina this got approved uh because of two main reasons you you saw on the little video there when people apply sunscreen it can often be really thick and white and people don't like that this is the transparent material. The other is in FDA studies, this showed very low blood absorption. And while there's debate about whether that has meaning, the fact that it was low was reassuring. It's also been used for decades, highly effective at blocking both UVA and UVB rays. The UVA rays are associated with wrinkles, the UVB associated with burning. So it's effective, it's not thick it's transparent and it does not get absorbed uh so those are reasons why we think it got approved and uh was offered just recently so this is something that in Europe it's already been widely used and i know we've talked about some ingredients like benzene that are starting to be removed from our um sunscreens etc but in in fear i mean we talk about what this does does it have any like positive properties if you will like more reason to find the sunscreen that has this ingredient? I think what's positive is really the appearance and aesthetic of it. It's something that's highly effective, blocks both dangerous rays, but it doesn't go on and leave a thick white residue. It's transparent. And then the FDA study shows overall people studied well over 100, very low absorption. Those were the two key factors why it likely is now hitting the U.S. market. Okay. Anything else we should be looking out for? I know we talk about sunscreen and it's always, you know, people are saying, well, that's chemical on my face and we probably shouldn't go without it. What are doctors telling people about sunscreen? Well, my own view is that the FDA is very tight on this stuff. It's regulated as a drug in the United States. In Europe, it's regulated as a cosmetic. So we shouldn't feel comfortable with that. And to your point, When it's sunny in October, you have to have sunscreen on. So I'm telling patients it's a new offering. Let's use it to protect burning and wrinkles. All right. That's a good enough reason for me. Thank you so much, Dr. Goldberg. We appreciate it. We'll be right back here on the DMV Zone. Disturbing new allegations about conditions inside the D.C. jail. Inmates say they found dead mice and insects in their food that's being served and their complaints have been ignored. A new class action lawsuit accusing the district of failing to provide safe, sanitary meals inside the aging detention facility. Washington Post reporter Liam Scott with this exclusive. What does this class action allege? Because we just got into some of it. There's more. Yeah, thanks for having me. So this class action suit, which was filed on behalf of six current and former inmates at the D.C. jail, alleges that the jail fed them food that contained dead mice contained insects contained cockroaches that the jail knew about it and that the jail didn't do enough to fix the problem obviously you know there have been reports for years about concerning conditions in in the jail from mold to plumbing issues to inadequate health care and this really adds to this lawsuit really adds to that by focusing specifically on concerns with the food quality that inmates are eating. Yeah, we should clarify, this is a detention facility that is generally pre-trial detention. These are not people who have been convicted of anything. They're waiting for due process. They're waiting to go to trial. And there's also an auditor's report from last year, which affirms what they're alleging. Yeah, and you bring up a really good point that a lot of the people who are held in this facility are in pre-trial detention, And that gets at the crux of the lawsuit, which alleges that the poor quality of the food is a violation of the Fifth Amendment, which offers protections and standards for people who are in pretrial detention. And you're absolutely right. The D.C. auditor last year said there was an urgent need for a new jail because of the poor conditions at this one. So, Liam, I'm sure that their attorney feels like they've got a solid case here, positive. You've spoken to other experts here. Do they seem to think that because of the D.C. auditor's report and also prior allegations of the deplorable conditions at the D.C. jail that this is they've got a solid case here? Yeah, no, I mean, I obviously have spoken extensively with with the attorney working on on this case. They're definitely hopeful that this could lead to some concrete improvements in the food that's served to the people who who are held in this facility. That's definitely, you know, the primary reason that they brought this suit in the first place to, you know, make sure that people who are held here are served better quality, better quality food. Are they two things? Are they requesting damages or asking for damages in this class action lawsuit? And in the immediate, is the D.C. jail doing anything to remedy at least what they're alleging? They are requesting damages as part of the suit. They haven't requested a specific number, but they are requesting financial damages as part of this. The Department of Corrections has told us that they're concerned about food quality issues or that they take those concerns very, very seriously. They told us that they have regular pest management protocols in the jail. I think an important note here is that the contractor of the food services at the jail is currently up for review by the council at the jail. So it'll be interesting to see what what happens there and who ultimately is awarded that that contract. Have they had this contract for a long time with the jail? So it comes up for review every few years. It's been with Aramark for for a long time now, which is a food food services provider that operates at lots of lots of jails and in prisons around the country. So it will be interesting to see if it if it goes back to them. And I guess one final point worth noting is that in 2024, the D.C. Council passed an omnibus that included mandates for improved nutrition, improved food quality in the food served at the D.C. Jail. But the Public Safety Committee said that they couldn't actually enforce that because there wasn't any funding for it because of budget cuts. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with that as well. Is Aramark also named in the lawsuit, or is this just against the D.C. Jail? It's just against the D.C. government. Aramark isn't named as a defendant. Okay. Okay, so to be clear, I mean, it's very possible this food could be fine and just coming into what are conditions that have all these other things. All right, Liam Scott, with that exclusive, we always appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. All right, let's talk weather here because we went on a full roller coaster ride after that summer feel yesterday, and, well, it's fall again. Let's get you outside a live look right now from Reston Station. And, my goodness, that's some moody weather. Kaitlin Roth joining us now. Oh, man, the storms are coming back, and it looks like Halloween out there. I mean, here's the thing. It was 90 yesterday, Marina. right? It's like 60 with the clouds and showers right now. And then tomorrow we're in the 80s again with thunderstorms. I can't even keep going because the weekend, you know, it's like this. It's like the highs have been so high and the lows are so low. We're just like living day to day and it's tough to know what to dress. That's why you got to download the Fox Local app and keep you guys in the pocket because every hour things change around these parts. Thank you. Literal job security because you just don't know how to anticipate the weather this week. It has been wild the swings have been dramatic record-breaking highs yesterday we're kind of back to that fall field today but then tomorrow you are going to be amazed once that sun comes out temperatures will skyrocket and we have a severe threat so it's like we're right back into summer live look at downtown Frederick the rain is coming down and they are socked in with the low clouds and the fog temperatures at the airport here in DC 65 we've kind of been hovering in the mid 60s all day. Light winds out of the southeast. Visibility is still fine but there could be some pockets especially later on where maybe the fog is a little locally dense and the visibility is lower. So we know that temperatures are really only in the 60s even only in the upper 50s out along the mountains and this is obviously a dramatic fall off compared to yesterday. That 24-hour temperature change 20 to 25 degrees plus colder. I mean 29 degrees colder than this time yesterday in Martinsburg and fall as well as spring known for these you know very strong fronts that come through and and the big surges are then the big drops we're going to get another big drop friday into saturday but the fact that we hit 90 which was a record in itself the latest in the calendar year we've ever hit 90 degrees yesterday made it even more significant so there's satellite and radar not a lot of rain overhead but it has certainly made for a dreary afternoon because even though it's light, drizzly stuff, it still is kind of ugly looking, and there's a batch of rain that's now lifted inside the Beltway and inside the district itself. So for the evening commute and the rest of tonight, expect that rain to be off and on, but just kind of damp and dreary through the rest of tonight. It'll start off cloudy tomorrow, but then once the sun comes out, those temps jump ahead of a front, and this is the real game-changing front that we talked about. We've been talking about it all week. The weekend's going to be so much cooler, and then it's going to stay cooler. So tomorrow could be our last 80-degree day of the year. I mean, could be. We'll see. But I really think that we're going to turn towards fall and not look back beginning this weekend. Let's take a look at future, Cass. There's the showery stuff that's around tonight. I mean, maybe a little bit heavier as we get into tonight, but really the main event will be tomorrow. There's your cloudy skies to begin the day. It's not going to look very promising, but there's the big clearing window. Sun breaks out, and as a result, as that front gets closer, we see some showers and storms pop late afternoon. broken squall line of gusty showers that moves through during the evening commute getting into your Friday night it should be very quick moving uh and while some of these showers could be gusty i think the overall severe threat is higher to our north and east rain may get hung up a little bit into Saturday morning so if it starts off again looking drizzly and dreary we will clear pretty quickly on Saturday but uh yeah that slight risk is from DC points north and east for possible damaging wind gusts so this is a level two out of five kind of a higher level for severe tomorrow we'll be tracking it again i think the highest threat is to our north and east Baltimore to Philly but that will be as a result of this air mass clash you know very cold Canadian air coming into what is going to be a very warm day so the weekend itself yes it's cooler it's breezy it might be the fall weather you've been waiting for and the most important part about this weekend. It's sunny. It's our first sunny weekend of fall, and it's our first non-raining Sunday since early September. And so it's about time that we at least be able to get out there and enjoy these, yes, refreshing and cooler temperatures on a gusty wind there on Saturday. It'll be really cool into Sunday morning. Some frost and freeze headlines are expected outside the Beltway, but a beautiful, beautiful day. Sunshine, high of 60. I mean, it's time to just retire the summer wear and and move on now I know the weather's been so volatile and kind of up and down with our temps and into the weekend but next week looks like maybe things will settle a bit and upper 60s to around 70 is pretty normal for the second half of October October is usually a quiet month just been that it hasn't been so far this year but hopefully we settle into that sort of pattern marinas with some really nice fall weather we've had some nice weekday weather right it just hasn't lined up with the weekend so it's gonna be sunny but cold it's gonna be sunny yeah especially we've been used to the 80s right and now we're gonna get this big dip but it's okay it's fall it's about time okay so look at you the point of acceptance it's good that's right that's the stage of grief that i'm in right now i'll see you back at four o'clock thank you caitlin the mammoth 200 run and making waves drawing attention with its impressive scale and ambitious goals as participants take on the challenge the event testing endurance determination and the ability to push through every single mile. 200-plus, y'all. We're joined here by someone who is brave enough to take on the challenge, ultra runner and yoga studio owner Kat Wyman, joining us to tell us about her experience. First and foremost, congratulations. Thank you so much. How are you feeling? I actually feel really great. I mean, the first week or so was a little bit rough. I'm not going to shoot any feet pics anytime soon. But I feel really great overall. I feel like these last couple days I feel well-rested. And I ran this morning. I feel good. Wow. Okay, so most people, right, I mean, even a mile seems treacherous, and then you've got the people who get into the half marathons and 26.2 for the marathon runner. This is, like, a lot more than that. We're talking 200-plus miles, days of running, sleeping, like, limited. Walk us through your journey in California at the beginning of the month and what this was like. So we started the race on October 2nd, and to be honest, I've never done this sort of distance before. So this was, I've done 100, which is a single day, but this is my first time doing multi-day. So I really didn't know what to expect. I started off and I've told everyone the first 50 miles was the worst because your brain and body haven't come into agreement as to what you're doing yet. You're like, I'm tired, but I still have 170 more miles to go. I'm tired. I still have multiple days left of this. And then finally what happens is there's something miraculous that like clicks after you get through the 50, the 100. I mean by mile 180 I was like dancing I was running I was like we were having like a dance party we were having like a good time um but yeah like you go through everything I said you go through so many life evolutions self evolutions you go through lows you go through highs you go through how much did you sleep in this period about three hours and that's like generous like really generous yeah oh I can't even I'm trying to grapple with this we're seeing video of you and it's not just the distance what people don't understand is the elevation gain yeah a place like this or just anywhere really that adds so much more to a run and you we're talking thousands of feet in elevation yes so what's really wild is this race takes place between 6,500 feet in elevation and 11.5 so the average is 8,000 we're here at what 500 feet above sea level so there's this element of of elevation which you're not used to and then over the course you gain 31,000 feet of elevation and you lose 31,000 feet of elevation so we're gaining over Everest we're losing over Everest so you have to envision what that does to your body plus look around we don't have those mountains to train on so there's like that element as well and like you mentioned this the sleep is like a huge piece I mean my crew I tried napping in the dirt I my crew would literally like shove me in the van shut the door and be like we're gonna wake you up in an hour like it was going yeah just like keep going what do you say to someone who's like I want to run and Obviously, I would not recommend with 200 to start as an ultra runner because this isn't it's not just ambitious. It's aspirational. I mean, most people don't get there. And this is incredible that you did that and that you've even run 100 before that. Like, that's amazing. But what would you say to someone who's like, you know what? I want to try running. I want because I think you're right. A lot of it is not just physical. It's mental. I think the biggest thing and I tell everyone this is don't give up at the beginning because that's always the hardest part. And I've learned this from running really long distances and really running really short distances. those first couple miles are the hardest because you're you're not in any flow state you're fighting it you're like i don't want to be out here i want this to be over there's a million other things i can do give yourself an opportunity to get to a space of flow and actually get to a space of enjoyment like start small obviously like start with small chunks but give yourself an opportunity to enjoy it most people who don't like it are like oh i ran three miles and i hate it i'm like i don't like running three miles obviously you know i don't like running three miles so like give yourself some space to get to flow and don't give up in those early stages how long have you been running when did you take this up when did this become a thing so it's funny as I started I mean I've I've been an athlete my whole life I ran my first ultra in like 2014 but then took like five years off ran another in 2019 took five years off um and then last year I ran the Leadville 100 which is all elevation and then I kind of started toying around with this like I want to do multi-day I want to go further um and like in May I decided I was like you know what we're going to do this. Wow. Amazing. Five months, basically. Yeah. Four months to train, about four months to train. That's insane. How does one train in Bethesda, Maryland or in Montgomery County? Okay. So this, I want people in this area to get, to be okay with like going after these big goals and not being afraid because they're elevation. You just have to get creative like anything else. You know, I ran a ton, but guess what? We got a lot of stairs in the city. You know, I ran a lot of stairs. I did a lot of stair mill. I did a lot of lifting incline like hiking became my best friend like anything to toughen up your legs to simulate that like climbing and descent um it really does so i have the big question for you cat when are we doing it again oh my gosh i finished and my wife was like this is not the end is this and i was like oh absolutely not so we have a goal over the next year to open up a couple more yoga studios so i promise that's going to be my focus in 27 and then 28 i would like to um right now put the the Coconino 250 would probably be, like, the next race I would like to do. Wow, totally inspirational. Thank you so much for coming on and rooting you on. And we'll be watching for the next one. We'll be right back. In town, Folger Theater transporting audiences to the American South of the 1950s with its season opening play, Measure for Measure. We're joined here by award-winning director Salma Yianna, 24, actor, three-time Helen Hayes Award winner, stars as the virtuous novice nun Isabella Renia Brown, and actor from Netflix's House of Cards, who stars as the absentee duke nathan darrow here to tell us all about it so good to have you all with us and for those of us who may not be familiar with the play let's get them a quick plot summary here of what we're dealing with okay so so i play the duke who's like kind of the the hereditary boss of this town and this town has some laws on the books about uh sexual behavior which i yes indeed which i have neglected uh to enforce and so things have kind of gotten a little out of hand and so my strategy as a responsible leader is to take a well-timed vacation and put and so I put my deputy Angelo in charge and he's a guy who's real intelligent driven and seems to really want to enforce these laws maybe from some brokenness of his own we don't know but it turns out that I'm not actually leaving I'm going in disguise and I'm gonna pay attention to just how things are going and how my deputy's doing. Well, the first person to come under this law is a young man called Claudio, who all he's done is he has been with his fiancee and she's now pregnant and he's going to be sentenced to die for this. So he gets word to his sister, who is Isabella, who is played by Renia, and she is about to become a nun. And he says, go to this deputy and, you know, try to convince him to let me go. Well, the deputy falls into a kind of immediate obsessive lust with this character. yes indeed and then he offers her a quid pro quo, which is, I will let your brother go if you will have sex with me. And This is the issue of the play that then has to be worked out. Okay, I'm sweating, y'all, and I haven't even seen the play. All right, the 1950s, the American South is like new line on Shakespeare here. How does it all come together? Because this is an interesting time period here that we're talking about. Absolutely. So after I read the play and I thought about the themes of the play, which are power, hypocrisy, sexuality, mercy, Those themes felt like they were uncannily connected to this time period of the Jim Crow South in the 1950s. And then thinking about the relationships, like you have Claudio, who was mentioned, and his fiancée. Claudio is a black man. His fiancée is a white woman. So you also have him being condemned for an interracial sort of type of relationship. So interesting. All right, Measure for Measure, been referred to as a problem play that was written 400 years ago. How does that message, because we talk about, you know, you were talking about the 1950s a little bit, and some of those themes are still very relevant in 2026. How does that resonate today? Well, a power play, especially a problem play when it comes to Shakespeare's works, usually have to do with the ending. so if it's a comedy it ends in joy and there's usually people who are getting married. If it's a tragedy someone is getting killed but with a problem play you have both and an audience is sort of left to make a decision on their own of what they decided, whether the outcome was satisfying, whether it was right but there's no right or wrong answer that's given to you in the play which is why it seemed as a problem play but i i love what what you said is like after you read it you said i don't see what the problem is you decide and that's what it's all about where can people go and i know it's Folger Theater but when are you guys on stage and when do you all wrap up we oh i was gonna say we we close november 1st and also i can do the website, which is folger.edu slash MFM for Measure for Measure. Got it. All right, we'll be watching. Thank you all so much for stopping by. We appreciate it. Thank you. That's 730. Could you define a kiss for me, please? Because I am very, very torn on this subject. I have to take it to... Well, I mean, I think we were insinuating, you know, like... Lip-to-lip contact. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I mean, this is not like a kiss-your-cat-dog kind of situation. And then with sauce, I mean, interpret as you will, Chris. Yeah, I understand. Well, this is adults at 2 o'clock. I mean, Fox 5. There are a lot of different types of sauce out there, but I only kiss like one person. Oh, so does that mean that you prefer the sauce? I don't know. I can't make a decision. You can't do that. I can't do it. I can't do it. You can't admit that on television. I know. She knows. She's cool. She loves sauces, too. Listen, it's fall wedding season, as you know. October, it's a very popular month to get married. I'll change the subject, hopefully. All right. So David's Bridal just launched a new line of designer gowns. And you know what? They're for your dog. Brilliant. This is a million, billion, trillion dollar idea. I would never, but people will. Think of how many people actually include their pets in their wedding ceremony. And now you can put them in a dress. All they need is like a bow tie or like a veil. Oh, you know, all of those gems and couples out there. This is not for me. You talk about like the Halloween costumes and the spending on people's pets. Tell me about it. My kid has three costumes. They're children. How's that possible? From weddings to funerals, Pringles. Oh, God. They have an urn now. They're releasing a Pringles urn that you could be buried in. I'm very conflicted because one of my guilty pleasures, I haven't had a Pringle probably since the pandemic, but I think I ate a can of Pringles every day in the pandemic. That's where my stress level was. Okay. I love a sour cream. The thing is you could use any Pringles can. I don't think that you would necessarily need like a special one. This is so morbid. Oh, my God. This Zoom room is going to be just lit. No, no, no. We'll keep it fun. We'll keep it fun. Okay, we got 30 seconds. Hit me. Okay, ESPN is coming for your kids. They just launched a brand-new YouTube channel called ESPNJV. So if you have the option between parking your kids in front of Bluey or some sports and getting them hooked early. I would do sports. Yeah, I know, right? I mean, I'm trying to. My son already knows. Like, when we scream, he goes, touchdown. Oh, yes. So he's starting to get. But then he gets bored. He's like, okay, and he wants something else. They've got, like, cute, cuddly mascots and stuff to kind of ease kids into it. I'm here for it. It's way better than the cartoons. I like it. I like it, too. We'll see you in the Zoom room, 730. Let's do it. Sound like an intro, just don't give me that tempo. We're almost to the finish line. I know. Yeah, and finally, people putting their umbrellas to use today, so we're going to be talking about that. I could put those away. The big switch. The big switch in the weather. I tell you, that drop was like, whoa, man. Where'd it come from? Rollercoaster.