This week Joey and Ben sit down with Rafael Arroyo, candidate for Nevada State Senate District 12, for one of our most unique episodes yet. Two completely different conversations woven into one.
In the first half, Rafael walks us through the story most candidates won't tell. Born in Puerto Rico, moved to Las Vegas at six years old. Opened his own business at 22. Got visited by a detective with a gun in his first three months telling him his entire business model was illegal — and pushed back until the state admitted they were wrong. Then in 2019, when the DMV tried to shut down his entire industry, he flew to Carson City, chased the committee chair down three flights of stairs in dress shoes, waited two hours outside her office for a five minute meeting, and saved over 170 small businesses with one piece of legislation. He ran for Assembly in 2024 and lost by 257 votes out of 36,000. Now he's running for Senate District 12 with the unanimous endorsement of the Nevada GOP caucus and Governor Lombardo.
We get into the inner workings of Carson City — the lobbyists, the fraternity dynamics, the high school cliques, the secret societies underneath every state capital, the unwritten rules a freshman senator has to figure out fast. Rafael shares why he won't take the trades that compromise his principles, what data centers in Henderson actually mean for Nevada's water and energy, and how a Republican wins a 6-point GOP district that elected a Democrat in 2022.
Then we pivot. Hard.
The second half is the Christmas rabbit hole. The real Saint Nicholas was Turkish, not Norwegian, and reportedly punched a heretic in the face at the Council of Nicaea. The name "Old Nick" has meant the devil for a thousand years. The Nicor in Beowulf are water demons from the Nephilim bloodline of Cain. The Christmas tree comes from a pagan oak grove that an Anglo-Saxon monk named Boniface chopped down in 723 AD. Krampus is the half of Christmas America completely deleted. Modern Santa is essentially a poem from 1823, a political cartoon from the 1860s, a Macy's parade from 1924, and a Coca-Cola advertisement from 1931. And we tell our kids that a man named Nick watches them sleep all year and judges their behavior, and we wonder why the next generation doesn't trust authority.
Three men. Three perspectives. A senate candidate who loves Christmas and won't lie to his kids about Santa. A Christian researcher who puts Christmas lights up because his kids use them as night lights. And a host who admits the psyop worked on him and he still loves it anyway.
🎙 Ground Zero Podcast — hosted by Joseph Charafi & Benjamin Richau
🎤 Guest: Rafael Arroyo, candidate for Nevada State Senate District 12
Learn more about Rafael's campaign at rafaelarroyo.com
Full episodes on YouTube, Spotify & Apple Podcasts. New episodes weekly. All speculation. Draw your own conclusions.
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