Hello, I'm Zeke and welcome to the Zekely podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. My guest today is a Democratic state representative for the 144th, which is in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He's a retired firefighter, ex-police officer, and served in the U.S. Navy with honors. And after he was diagnosed with cancer, he still kept a 98 % attendance record in Harrisburg while undergoing chemotherapy. Thank you so much for being here, Representative Brian Munroe.

I’m Zeke, a doctor, a Pennsylvanian and unapologetic supporter of Democratic values. You might have seen me on social media working my ass off for Democrats and meeting some pretty amazing people along the way - like President Barack Obama and Governor Josh Shapiro.

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

Thank you very much, Zeke. I really appreciate it.

It's so good to see you, man. The last time I saw you was when we were pounding the pavement together during your re-election cycle.

I tell you, you you don't realize how much stress and anxiety you're under until you're out from under it. That was a brutal campaign cycle. But you know, boy do I feel, I feel a lot better.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well I'm proud to have been part of that, so I'm really happy for you. Well I have a lot of questions for you and we're have a lot of fun, so let's get into it. You signed up to be a volunteer firefighter EMT at the age of 17. What inspired you to do that?

Thank you.

Let's get to it.

boy, I mean, to be honest with you, so I mean, lot of, lot of high school friends. I remember a group of us. so we all went to Conestoga high school and a group of us. I think what was that movie called backdraft? And, it was one of those things where, you know, someone came up with the bright idea of joining and, next thing know, I think there were about seven of us. and, you know, we just never looked back. It was a, it was, I think it was the largest group of young people they ever had in.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

The biggest added benefit is that we were actually allowed to respond to certain calls from high school. So yeah, so if you can imagine sitting there, yeah, it was completely nuts. I'm not sure if it was the best thing because I mean, when you had a big call that would go out and you'd have all these kids running out the door and you would just jump into the first moving car with blue lights, you know, and they wouldn't stop for you. You'd like jump into

From high school? That's crazy.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Just jump in.

We're going to do some small business spotlight. Are there any small businesses in your district that you frequented and you just want more people to know about it in Bucks County?

when I was running for state rep, like three years ago, I just stumbled upon this restaurant. My wife and I wanted to go do it, a really good breakfast spot. And so I was trying to Google something over in like Horsham and this spot in Warminster keeps coming up. Bullard's American Cafe, B-U-L-L-A-R-D-S, American Cafe. I'm like, what is this place? I had no idea, never heard of it.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So here they're in a strip mall. I've been in that strip mall a million times. I just never knew they existed. know, they not great, you know, optics from the outside or really the inside, but affordable. It was owned by a guy named Mike, which is fantastic people and really good breakfast foods. it's, and lunch, my wife. yeah. They, they have some of the best pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes. You know, the cream chip beef, they make it.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I love breakfast food.

Mmm. Mmm.

fresh right there, their own stuff. It's just really good stuff. So anytime I try to meet out with somebody, go... BULLARDS!

Yeah,

Bullards It's like brain food. Well, thank you. since you were in the fire department one point in time, we're going to play some firefighter trivia. They're all multiple choice questions. And let's see if you get them. All right. What does it mean if a fire hose has been discharged? Is it damaged?

Yep.

Okay.

Okay.

pressurized and ready for use, been safely stored away or pulled for safety reasons.

I would say discharge, I would assume it's meant that it's been used. discharged. I'm gonna go with, yeah.

Yep. I just searched these on a website. I tried to pull like

obscure firefighter terminology. You are correct. Pressurized and ready to use. You got it. You're off to a good start. What's the name of the tool a firefighter might use to break a window or to probe walls and ceilings for hidden fires? Is it a pike pole, jaws of life, fire hammer, or a truncheon?

We'll go ready to use. Is that one of them? Yeah. Okay.

I'll go with Pikepole. All right.

It's a pipe hole. You are correct.

You're crushing it, Fire helmets come in different colors for different ranks. Who would wear a white helmet? A regular firefighter, a probationary firefighter, a fire inspector, or a fire chief?

you for two.

I'm gonna say Fire Chief.

You got it. You're crushing

this. I'm trying to get you here. All right. What is the purpose of a PASS device? It allows two-way communication between firefighters, alerts a firefighter to toxic fumes, sounds an alarm if a firefighter stops moving, or monitors a firefighter's vital signs like heart rate and oxygen levels.

I'm gonna say it will signal an alarm if the firefighter stops moving. Is that what you said? Yeah. Yeah, you know, I'm not sure if we had those back when I served. So, yeah, I'm ancient, man. I'm ancient.

That is correct. You got all of them right. So far, that's great. You didn't have those at the time? Yeah.

I guess it stands for Personal Alert Safety System, PASS. And it's designed that if a firefighter stops moving within 30 seconds, it will alarm

Okay.

Yeah, that's a huge emotional thing for 9-11, right? Because you watch any of those videos, you can just hear them, you know, and you know why.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah. You probably were helpful in your district to get funding for the firefighters, so probably whatever funding you helped would allow them to get more equipment like this.

It

is. Yeah, I got them each. That was one of my promises. I mean, they had larger asks, but I got them each about 20, anywhere between 20 to $45,000 in my first term. But you know, these guys want new fire trucks, fire trucks over a million. But look, I told them I keep plugging away. You got to know the right people and appropriations. So that's what we're doing.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's right.

All right, this is the last question. What percentage of women are firefighters in America? Is it 7.3%, 10.1%, 15.6%, or 22 %?

Boy, I'm I'm gonna say just my own Experience I'm gonna say the low-sized seven that seven percent Yeah

Mm-hmm.

That's right. Seven point three percent.

It's unfortunately a male dominated culture. There are a lot of societal perceptions that, you know, it's not a woman's job. Lack of adequate support for female firefighters like maternity leave. Even I guess gear fitting is a problem. You have to have certain types of gear fitting. And, you know, sometimes there's workplace harassment, discrimination, which deter women.

do.

You crushed that game. I'm proud of you. What's something you'd like to learn to do, but just don't have the time to do it right now?

play the piano. So, yeah, you don't know much. So my grandparents, especially my grandfather, he was a world famous New York cellist. was one of the best cellists in the world. So he was the lead cellist for the New York Philharmonic. And my grandmother taught viola in Juilliard and they had this massive piano in their house and they had a house for it.

that's a good one. That's a good one.

That's cool.

Mm-hmm.

Right? So, and I remember being three years old, smashing my fingers on it. And when my mother, my grandmother passed away some time ago, but when my, were moving my grandfather out and he's no longer with us. He died at the beginning of COVID. When they were moving him out of his house, I saw my one cousin post on Facebook, does anybody want my grandparents baby grand piano? And

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm, I'm sorry.

Mm-hmm.

You wanted it. Yeah. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Right? Just from the sentimental value. I can't play it.

So quickly there's a, at least at the time there was a piano mover here in Ivy land. Got them on the phone. Of course it was not a baby grand piano. It's just shy of a concert piano. So Zeke, if you ever, you ever come over to my house and you walk in my door, the first thing that's going to happen is you're going to be like, you're going to go like that because there's a piano. It's gigantic piano.

Yeah.

I'm get hit in the face by a gigantic piano.

You know, this was not the house. You know, we've been here for about 20 years now. So this was not the house for that. But I couldn't let that go. So I would say I would say learn the piano.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, I understand.

Well for me, I want to take hip hop dance lessons. That's something I want to do. I mean, I see all these youngins doing dances on TikTok all the time. In my brain, I can do them perfectly. So I feel like it's something I want to do. So you can play the piano, the music, and I can dance. I can do hip hop right next to the piano. It's going be perfect.

yeah.

and you can do hip hop, all right.

We'll give her what five to ten years we'll give it. Start my clock.

Yes, I think it's a good goal for the both of us.

All right, we're going to play a game called Name That Committee, where we're going to talk about committees that you've actually served on in Harrisburg. And all I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about the legislation that you were going to try to get out of committee and then voting in the General Assembly or legislation to amend, know, acts to amend essentially. And then you're just going to tell me the name of that committee that you were sitting on. OK, all right. So

All right.

Okay.

There was an act amending Title 18, which makes it a penalty to produce certain types of artificial intelligence generated media without disclosure with a watermark. So which committee would that have been discussed in?

I want to say consumer protection. All right.

That is correct. Consumer Protection Technology

and Utilities Committee. That is correct. I think that's great because, you know, artificial intelligence is doing a lot of stuff and there needs to be disclosures about that. This next one An act amending the insurance company law to provide coverage of blood pressure monitors for patients.

important one.

it's an easy one. It's insurance. Yeah, the insurance committee,

Yep, you got it. And that's

huge.

The next one is an act amending Title 51 in Department of Military Affairs, establishing the PA Vet Connect program, which is an amazing program. the objectives of the PA Vet Connect are, you know, determine needs of veterans, find resources that meet their needs, and then connect veterans with the right resources. So which committee would that have been? Yeah, you got it, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, Veterans Affairs. yeah,

and that's that is an important one because it's something that we being a veteran that we provide in my office, you know, we we don't we're not the experts, but we bring people in. We're kind of like the conduit. So we bring people in that that actually know what they're doing in this case for vets.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think it's great. And additionally, it helps assist service members to reintegrate into the Pennsylvania communities following their military service. know, anyone who has PTSD or just some trauma from being overseas in a war zone, I think that's really great that Pennsylvania has those resources for our vets. Yeah. All right. what was it like serving on the USS Theodore Roosevelt?

Great program.

I think we probably went out on a Mediterranean cruise, a Med cruise, is what it sounds like. You're going out to the Mediterranean and it's usually six months. I think ours was about seven months. So when you first get there, it's awe-inspiring, right? You're seeing F-18s and back then, I think we had F-14s on the flight deck, landing and taking off and the blue jets that come out.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It's really, really, really cool. know, and then eventually you realize how much other work is involved. So when you're an enlisted man, you know, the first place they do is they throw you into the mess decks and you realize how hard it is to feed 6,500 sailors and airmen. and I, I originally got in, I was assigned the job of it's called Gunner's mate. So,

Mm-hmm.

I'm sure.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Okay.

We were responsible for the 50 cal guns and other small arms, as well as access to the compartments that house like the bombs and stuff. And but I didn't like not knowing what we were doing and where we were going. And so I did what's called striking, which means changing jobs basically. And I got it. I got into radar. So I got a got a NATO secret security clearance.

Okay.

I got to write on the board backwards and, and, but more importantly know exactly, you know, what, we're going and what we were doing.

Do you

have to get trained to write backwards? that part of your training? You're just naturally good at writing backwards.

No, that that part is you figure it out.

Yeah, listen, I can barely write forwards. So the fact that I could maybe it improved my writing. I don't know. Yeah, but it's that's just part of it. But, know, part of the job. But it was a it was a great life experience. The ports that I went to. Let's see if I can name them. I went to Haifa, Israel, and we went and visited.

that's interesting.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

you know, Jerusalem and Bethlehem. got to, there was a tablet where Christ was laid to rest. You know, there was a priest, I think they were standing over them doing prayers. And the only thing they give you, they give you your dog tags and a cross. So I threw that on there. So I still have that. I went to, let's see, after that we went to two ports in Greece. So Corfu,

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

and Rhodes, beautiful. It's it's you'd never guess on who the celebrity was that was anchored right off our ship. You'd never guess. So let's just say she's extremely wealthy. She was in the she's in the entertainment industry. She said she woke up the one morning and then next thing you know, there's this massive aircraft carrier. And she said to the captain, she said, what you know, who what is that? And the captain said it's the USS Theodore Roosevelt. She said USS like

No.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

as an American and once he confirmed that she's like I want to go on board ship. I want to meet all the sailors. I want to stay from dusk till dawn and she did and she met every single one of us and it was Oprah Winfrey. Yeah, totally changed. Yeah, you know a lot of people have a lot of different views of Oprah. I tell you what she gained massive amounts of respect from the people on the Roosevelt because she really yeah.

Mm-hmm.

wow, that's crazy. That's awesome.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, she met every

single person on that ship.

She stayed and signed every autograph and met as many people. Now a lot of people were in port. like, know, you're not, I see meet Oprah or, you know, go into Greece and, know, so those people didn't get to meet her. But she stayed there. She had dinner with the captain and then we had a closed circuit television. And so she stayed and she did like a late night like, you know, interview on board ship. she was...

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

She was probably there from eight o'clock in the morning until 10 o'clock at night. If I remember. Yeah.

That's awesome. That's crazy.

I took a tour on the USS New Jersey with my kids. Is it at all comparable to the Theodore Roosevelt or are they just totally different classes? I know there's different class of the ships and everything.

Yeah,

yeah, well, it's the the Roosevelt is a Nimitz class aircraft carrier. So it's one of the largest, if not the largest aircraft carrier ship, you know, in the world. I mean, you're talking about a floating city. I'm not sure about about the ship that you just mentioned. Yeah.

Okay, right. Yeah, the New Jersey is not an aircraft carrier.

But it was pretty fascinating to walk around it and everything. It's pretty cool.

it's

yeah, the Roosevelt is you thought that was cool. I've got to get you on the on an aircraft carrier. Those things are are massive.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, is it still is

the Roosevelt still functional or is it?

Yeah, did. you know, some stuff that happened during the campaign, you can actually pull up, you know, day by day where the Roosevelt has been and where they are. That's how I found out that I was involved in one of the largest aerial bombardments in European history at the time since World War II. But I think it's out in the Pacific now, so I don't think it's on the East Coast.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Okay.

Well, thank you for your service. All right, we're gonna move on to a game called ConstituWhat, where you're gonna tell us what some services you directly supply for your constituent in your district that they might not be aware of.

Thank you. Appreciate that.

All right.

All right. I'll start with some easy ones. So there are senior SEPTA cards. Most people don't realize that if you're 65 and older, you can use SEPTA for free, whether it's the train, whether it's the bus, you're going down to an Eagles game, you're going to the airport, you have to go down to Penn like me, you can take SEPTA if you're 65 and older, you can take it for free. So that's an easy

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

whether it's government red tape or it's just some sort of life circumstance and you don't know how to handle it, that's what we're there for. We've got people, their job is constituent services. That's what they're called. Constituent service advisor. Their whole job is to work for you. We had a lady once, she was a

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

she was disabled. she did, she was not 65. So she, I think she was about 60 and, her, had an old oil heat, unit and there in the middle of winter, it broke down. It was so old. It was over 50 years old. Nobody would repair it. So, and she didn't have the money to get a new HVAC system. So we were able to connect her with a group that got her the money for a new HVAC system. So, yeah, so really don't, don't hesitate to use us.

That's great. That's great.

Absolutely, thanks for putting that out there.

Spiders or snakes? They say everyone is scared of one of them. What's yours? Do you have an aversion to one? Yeah, me too. Me neither. Spiders have too many legs. Just bothers me. Even like the harmless daddy longleggers, they can just stay away from me. I actually grew up with a snake.

spiders. Yeah. Yeah, I don't care about snakes. Yeah, spiders.

It was a snake. It was a Burmese python. called Monty. Monty the python, if you can imagine. Yeah. I think it grew to be like 10 or 11 feet long. And it used to take us for like rides in our pool. We had a pool in the backyard. In the summertime, my parents would put it in the pool and it would just like swim. It was crazy to have a gigantic Burmese python in the pool.

Wow.

Yeah, that's... Yeah,

I don't know when you asked me that, I mean, I guess maybe I should have clarified about the size of the snake. I don't know if I wanna be... But I will say like, so we get orb spiders here all the time, you know, the big, just big juicy ones, you know? And you do this thing, they have this defense mechanism. So if you ever go up to one and you just blow on it, it'll try to scare you. So it'll start shaking the web.

Hahaha

huh, yeah. Ugh, god, just hate spiders. huh. No.

And let me tell you, when you do that and it does it for the first time, you know, that defense mechanism works because I, you know, I'll back off.

Yeah.

Yeah, don't.

Yeah, I have no desire to ever try that out on any spider, but thanks for that. Why did you decide to run as a Democrat and represent the Democratic Party?

Yeah, no problem.

So, know, I have, most people don't realize, I mean, I was a Republican for most of my life. I never realized how much of a kind of an independent I really was because when I look back at it, I actually never voted for a Republican for president. Believe it or not, I don't know if I should admit this, but I was a Ross Perot. I was very young, but I was a Ross Perot guy. I forget some of the other independents that had

Mm-hmm.

it wasn't until John McCain, who I was a big fan of, he ran against George W. Bush back in the early two thousands.

Mm-hmm.

Remember the South Carolina, I really bore you to death, South Carolina primary, some bad stuff happened. So I kind of, never liked George W. Bush, so that really gave me a bad taste. So I was waited for John McCain, but it wasn't until he ran against Obama and you know, that I just, I just was like, you know what mentally at that point I switched,

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

So if I had to put myself in the spectrum, you know, I would say I am leaning just, you know, just to the left of center,

environment's important, women's rights is important. I'm a firm believer in unions because I had cancer twice, right? And the reason why I was able to get through it is I had union negotiated healthcare. And we should all want that for ourselves and for our neighbors. And you don't want people going bankrupt because they got diagnosed with cancer.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right, right. Well, I'm happy you're a Democrat and I'm happy you're representing Pennsylvania and Harrisburg. It's great.

We're going to play a game called Where the Buck Stops, or Where the Bucks Stops, actually, a game where we see how well you know Bucks County. So I'm going to give you various places, and you're just going to tell me what part of Bucks they're located. It's going to be upper, central, or lower Bucks. All right?

All right.

Okay.

So the first one is Peddler's Village, a 42 acre countryside property in Bucks County. It 60 plus retail shops and a hotel and an indoor family entertainment center.

Yeah, so I'm going to say, well, people forget. So Bucks County is kind of like a rectangle like that. So when you.

Yeah, yep, yep. And I looked,

and I actually looked at a map when I was doing this to like make sure I wasn't going to get this wrong. So hopefully I did the, you know, geography correctly.

Okay.

Yeah, so I'm actually going to say, cause I always mentally, I always think of it as being north, but it's really mostly, east of me and a little north. So I'm going to say, I'm going to say middle Bucks. know exactly where it is, but yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yep, yep, it's

Okay, yeah.

I don't know. I know of it. I'm gonna, that's gonna be a complete guess. I'm gonna say, Southern Bucks. We don't like saying the lower bucks. So I'll say, I'll say Southern Bucks.

you say so, southern, so

it's actually northern bucks, or upper bucks. That's where that is. So what's occurring, is it northern, southern, and, am I saying that wrong?

Okay. Okay. Okay. Did not know.

I...we joke. I

mean, a lot of people say, you know, upper Bucks middle Bucks, lower Bucks. But, you know, someone just said this to me about three days ago. We don't like saying lower Bucks. So we say southern Bucks. So I kind of like that. Yeah.

huh.

Okay, Southern Bucks, I got

it. Yeah, I mean, you can always tell I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And so people say Lancaster. It's like, yeah, you're not from around here. So I understand. All right, Sesame Place. mean, who with children has not gone to, I went to Sesame Place when I was a kid. You know, they have Elmo and the water slides. It was great. What part of Bucks is a Sesame Place?

Yeah, you're right.

I'm gonna say... I'm gonna say Southern Bucks Again, I know where it is, but yeah.

correct. Yep that is correct, Southern bucks.

And then we have the last one, Shady Brook Farm, known for its seasonal events, a quaint farm, it has a deli and a nursery.

I'll say middle Bucks.

That is a Southern bucks. Southern bucks. There you go. I know it's the crooked thing. I know it was fun looking these up.

That is southern. Okay. See, it's that crooked rectangle thing. Yeah.

You were diagnosed with cancer, a very rare case of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, right after you were elected in your first term for the state house. And yet, as I said before, you still had a 98 % attendance rating while you're undergoing therapy. I can't imagine what your family was going through. You certainly could have taken some time off. What compelled you to be so present?

Mm-hmm.

while you're going through this extremely tumultuous time in your life?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Township supervisor meetings and I didn't miss a township supervisor meeting I did all those meetings over the phone and I did it because I didn't want everyone to see that I was bald because I did not want to make the announcement until I had beaten it and You know, I it's sometimes I get emotionally even think about it, but I didn't want to announce it until I've beaten it And it's kind of the same thing. So when I got diagnosed a second time

You know, it's I know now that like a cancer diagnosis is not necessarily a death sentence. There's so much that they can do for it. So I knew that I had a lot of options. And I won't lie to you, it got close. So there was a before we had remote voting, there was the governor called a special session and we didn't know about it. It was until Friday. I believe it was Friday.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

before the Monday we were supposed to be in session. So they called us, we had a meeting. Jordan Harris at the time was the whip and I just texted him. said, did you say Monday? And he said, I'll call you when done. And so he called me, he's like, all right, what you got? And I told him, have a surgery Monday morning. And he said, well, can you reschedule it? I said, absolutely not. I said, kidney was being damaged. I said,

I need to have a surgery. said, I cannot go through it. I'm going to have to go through general anesthesia. I said, I could postpone it a couple of days, but I can't postpone it three weeks, a month. So we tried to work with a doctor and he just, we couldn't move it. So I just told him, said, look, I'll, you know, I'll Rambo it, you know, I'm aging myself, but for those of you that know what Rambo is, look it up. You'll figure it out. So I said, I'm going to Rambo it, which means that I'm going to go through the surgery. I'm going to come out of general anesthesia. I'm just going to have my wife there.

Yeah.

to clean me up and whisk me off to the house floor. So I had to be on the house floor literally two hours later. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the doctor.

Mm-hmm.

my gosh. my gosh. That's crazy, Brian. I bet I,

I can only assume how pissed off your doctor was. You didn't tell your doctor, did you? You definitely did not tell your doc. You did or you didn't? You told your doctor what you were doing? He must have been, or she must have been so pissed off.

I did. I did. Yeah. I did. I know. Because he usually. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, it was a, he basically said, highly discourage you from doing this. And I told him, said, I got no choice. I'm going to do it. This was an important vote. It was on protecting kids from sexual assault. And I just said to him, just give me some pain meds. That's the reason why I told him. said, cause I needed, I needed something to get me through the, the day or two. But it was fine. I, you know, I got there.

my God.

my god.

Napoleon, you know, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel. just told Napoleon to make sure to nudge me. Napoleon Nelson, he's the represent, he sits right next to me on the floor. And I just told him I could make sure I hit the right button. And he's like, yeah, you got it.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

my god, that's wild.

You're a badass. That's amazing. Well, I'm glad that you survived both diagnoses.

it.

Thank you. The doctors at Penn, they're unbelievable. The research that they do now is unbelievable. A CAR T cell was not available to the general public three months prior to my diagnosis. So it had just come out of trials. And so what they're able to do now and the cutting edge technology that's coming out, you know, really month by month, it's really impressive. And why we have to fund research, we have to fund medical research.

Mm-hmm.

wow.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. I know that some of the legislation that you've helped carve out focuses on supporting nurses in Pennsylvania. A lot of that stems from your time undergoing your therapies, right?

Yeah, a thousand percent. know, the doctor, you know, they see you. In fact, we were arguing about that bill in caucus and there was there was a lot of back and forth and I got angry. I got really angry because I'm sitting here and I'm looking at these paperwork and it tells you who's opposed, who's against. Well, the people that they're talking about are hospitals, know, doctors, know, nurses, unions and all this kind of stuff. No one was talking about patients. Nobody.

So I stood up and I spoke in caucus very emotionally as a patient. And I remember when I went through chemotherapy, the fifth chemo treatment put me in the hospital. I woke up the day before Thanksgiving with a fever. It's called neutropenic fevers. It's just something that they have to keep an eye on. And they whisked me away to the hospital. They put me in isolation. So I was there. That was rough, spending, you know,

Yeah.

an important holiday away from your children and your family. Yeah. And, and it was, there was a nurse, I remember his name was Kevin and he would come in and look over me. You know, I'd, I'd wake up and fevers and you know, he'd like make me take medication. Like it's the nurses are the ones that oversee your care, you know, 24 seven, the doctors just whisk in and whisk out. It's, the nurses that do the heavy lifting and they need to be treated accordingly.

Yeah, away from your family in isolation, yeah.

or definitely.

Thank you.

and that I think eventually led to you retiring from the force. It must have been difficult to leave the force under those conditions. you ever miss it?

yeah, I went out kicking and screaming. So yeah, I didn't let them take me out right away. It was about a year later when they realized I had to have surgery and that I just never really recovered from it. I tell cops, know, just as much as I have a soft spot in my heart for nurses and cancer patients.

Yeah, yeah.

I also have a soft spot there for police as well. And it's because it becomes your identity. So when I retired out, in fact, I'll show you. So when I retired out, you know, they gave me this, which is basically a retirement badge. And so you'll see, it's backwards there, but it says retired on their, you know, police corporal. And that meant a lot to me because, you know, you are, you're, you're, you know, who, who's Brian? Brian's the cop that lives down the street, right?

Mm-hmm.

becomes part of your persona. And so for that year until I started getting involved in what I do now, I had to find myself. So it was pretty difficult. Now, I mean, I'm the only fraternal order police member on the house floor. Out of 203 reps, who would have thought that? I am on the commission called the MOPEC, it's MOPEC, which is the Municipal Police Officer Education and Training Commission, oversees all...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

police education in the Commonwealth. Yeah, so we just voted on increasing the police academies, five new police academies, Bucks County Community College is gonna be one of them. So now I'm still involved within the law enforcement community just in a different way, exactly.

Okay.

great.

Gotcha, different capacity. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, the nurse one would be a biggie. I didn't write it, but that's the one that I spoke passionately on. There's so much that we can do in gun legislation. mean, we just had another one, right? mean, when are we going to do something about it? mean, we all wait for, it's always someone else's kid.

Mm-hmm.

I know.

but like the extreme risk protection order, banning ghost guns, right? That should be a no brainer. Yeah. It's not, and you're not technically banning anything. All you're doing is you're saying it has to have.

That would make, should be a no-brainer, yeah.

It has to be registered. things like that. I really think expanding and protecting health care for members of our community has got to be something important. Nobody, nobody should go bankrupt. Nobody should have to make critical decisions on their health care.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

No, nobody should have

to start a GoFundMe page in America to pay for your medical bills. Well, I'm definitely going to keep working for Pennsylvania and try and get that trifecta someday because I know that the Democratic Party is trying to push those those measures forward. Well, I have two more. I I know I know we're going to get there one election at a time. Every election is the most important election. I have two more questions for you. What gives you hope?

Exactly.

We're three seats, three seats in the Senate.

I agree.

So I like to answer it this way. when I was coming back, we were down the shore years ago and my girls were younger and the car broke down. We decided to leave late at night, it was like 11 o'clock and the car broke down right at the entrance of this gas station. So we were not at a bad location, but the amount of cars that drove by and pulled over.

Mm-hmm.

and said, are you okay? there anything that I can do for you?

people see each other as fellow human beings, we can do wonders for each other.

I agree. I agree. And my last question for you is what plans do you have to get through these these next few years?

So I actually haven't taken much of a vacation these, these last two years. So my wife and I are planning, you know, to actually get away, you know, for a week or two. you know, it really is the last two years I've, I honestly could say I've never worked harder in my entire life. you know, from the moment I got elected to four days after my, after the election, and I found out that I was a state rep exec.

Mm-hmm. Okay.

elect. This started going off because constituents started calling that and these are people with serious needs, you know, that I had to deal with. So it's, it's being accessible in the community, you know, great constituent services, great staff and so on and so forth. I really, I've not taken any time for myself and for my family. So that's probably what I'm going to do. I mean, outside of that, yeah, I'm outside of that. It's just doing what I, what I've been doing. I'm bringing in a new

Mm-hmm.

It's a good plan.

Chief of Staff, I'm losing Nicole Rainier. She'll be the new tax collector here, but I'm bringing in Leo Greenberry, who's gonna be a fantastic Chief of Staff. So I look forward to expanding what we're already doing.

Okay.

So family time and expanding access for your constituents services. That's great. Well, Brian, this has been awesome. Thank you so much for being my guest. I am extremely grateful to have been a part of your campaign. And I'm extremely grateful that you're back in Harrisburg and Pennsylvania is lucky to have you.

Thanks, Zeke, I really appreciate it. I love the job, it's hard, but I love it. And I treat it with the respect that it needs to be treated. So thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you everyone for joining me here on the Zekely podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved. And until next time, let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.