Love Outweighs Hate - The Secret Sauce

Sarah Milken (00:00:00) - Hi good peeps, this is the next episode of the Flexible Neurotic Podcast. I'm Dr. Sarah Milken, the flexible neurotic. Today I have an awesome guest. She's a businesswoman and founder and CEO of Pizza Girl. She began her career as a fashion model, working for Diane von Furstenberg, had the right agent provocateur, and sell McCartney. She has since played small roles in Hollywood films and TV series, held her own summer residency at the hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, and recorded a line of stand singles with Republic Records. In 2021, she joined the cast of MTV's reality television series The Hills New Beginnings and as a fab and gorgeous Entrepreneurially awesome as she is, she is here today as a standard upper for the Jewish people and Israel. And guess what? She's not even Jewish. She has won the hearts of thousands across the world since she started posting about her personal dismay and devastation over the Hamas massacres in Israel on October 7th. Her name is Caroline Damore. How are you? Hi. I'm good.

Sarah Milken (00:01:13) - You kind of just gave me the chills there. Oh, yeah. That was really a crazy. Yeah. Crazy intro. Yeah. Intro. It was really beautiful. Oh. Thank you. It's it's you're it's true. And the pink hair, outer beauty. Inner beauty, the whole thing. I used to actually have a pink stripe of hair. Yeah, yeah. I was like, yeah. My kids were I think my kids were in elementary school, and I was like, serving on the school board. And I'd show up and I'd be like, yeah, I have this pink stripe here underneath. Like, I thought I was like, so cool, but you, like, went all pink. So much more ballsy.

Caroline D'Amore (00:01:52) - Yeah, it's been pink for many, many years now, so it's almost like I just it's.

Sarah Milken (00:01:56) - Part of it's your identity.

Caroline D'Amore (00:01:57) - Yeah, literally. And it happens like slowly over time. And then people were like confused when all of a sudden I wasn't pink.

Caroline D'Amore (00:02:04) - So. Yeah.

Sarah Milken (00:02:05) - Are you now you're like the chick who's has the pink hair who stands up for Jews. Right?

Caroline D'Amore (00:02:09) - It's the gist of events in my life ever. But, you know, sometimes you just have to go with your heart and that will resonate. You know.

Sarah Milken (00:02:19) - I love it. I mean, I've been following your Instagram and your amazing, organic and exquisite tomato sauce called Pizza Girl organic, organic, organic. And then I started seeing your beautiful face shining up on Instagram, going, The Jews Israel. And I was like, wait, what? The pink hair. Beautiful girl in the Jews. Oh my fucking God. You know, it's been amazing watching you. And I want to say thank you before we start because what you're doing is amazing. I know that it's so hard to sometimes stand up for things, especially when it has a really scary quality to it. It's not like you're just standing up for a cause. Homelessness. This domestic abuse like this is scary with severe and big consequences.

Sarah Milken (00:03:12) - Like, are these people going to come find us? Like, do they know who we are? It's super scary.

Caroline D'Amore (00:03:19) - Yeah it is. And I've had a lot of people reach out to me and be like, are you like, you know, aren't you worried? Like, are you like scared? And I'm like, no more scared than a lot less scared than.

Sarah Milken (00:03:32) - I know.

Caroline D'Amore (00:03:33) - Higher, you know, Jewish community and also. Yeah, just all innocent lives need to be protected and need to be stood up for from terrorist organizations first and foremost, and then the people who are defending terrorist organizations in these actions. As far as as trickle down to our schools, our school campuses, I won't stand for it. And I understand that it is so complex. And it is it's so complex and there's years and years of history, but if you cannot condemn the brutal violence, murder, the massacre that occurred on October 7th, then I don't need you as a fan or so.

Sarah Milken (00:04:14) - Caroline, before we get into what's going on in this fucked up, crazy world of ours, I want to know a little bit about you.

Sarah Milken (00:04:21) - I know you're a a girl who grew up in Malibu and Santa Monica. You're. Tell us about your your parents business. Tell us what happened with your mom. We want to know, like who the Caroline is behind. Like this woman who has balls and just shows up.

Caroline D'Amore (00:04:38) - Yeah. I mean, listen, I. Wish there was a more feminine term for balls.

Sarah Milken (00:04:46) - Totally. I know, it's like balls.

Caroline D'Amore (00:04:47) - I'm like I said it one time, I was like, oh, I was like, no. I was like, I have a big vagina. But that doesn't work either. I'm like, think about it. Vaginas are so much stronger and more powerful. Oh my.

Sarah Milken (00:04:57) - God. Totally. Have a I have a vintage one now because I'm 48, right? Yeah.

Caroline D'Amore (00:05:04) - Vintage. Yeah. You have a. Yeah. Um, no. Listen, so I yeah, I started my life, like, out of the gate with a lot of sadness and darkness and confusion about the world watching, you know, my mother, you know, die slowly and really unfortunately.

Caroline D'Amore (00:05:26) - And she died of Aids. She got it from a blood transfusion. My father then hid the fact that she died from Aids. Because back then, there was such a stigma. He really just didn't want us to be, you know, considered like the Aids kids. Literally. It's hard and sad to know that anything that happened to my mother had to be kind of, like, kind of hidden from us, you know, and I understand where he was coming from. But I was very angry for a long time. When I found out, I found out through other people, not from him, but I understand where he was coming from. And I think there's a level of protecting your kids, but I think there's also making them aware as well. So there's a fine balance, and that's the kind of balance that I'm going through right now. Obviously, she's confused when we're walking into her school and these moms are coming out and giving me hugs and crying and fearful. So finding ways to explain to her what's going on has been my latest kind of balancing.

Caroline D'Amore (00:06:25) - She's eight years.

Sarah Milken (00:06:26) - Old, Caroline.

Caroline D'Amore (00:06:27) - Eight. Yeah. She's eight. Yeah. I feel like it's, you know, without scaring her, I feel like it's important because the main thing I've instilled in her always is standing up for others. That's just my most important kind of value and quality that I that I stand by. So I tell her, I say if someone's being bullied in in class, it's your responsibility to go up and and make them feel better and protect them. Absolutely. So that's kind of just something that's been instilled in me my whole life. And now into my daughter's life. So I feel like when the I mean, I know we keep going there and we're not ready to go there.

Sarah Milken (00:07:07) - No go, no, no go. But but I feel like.

Caroline D'Amore (00:07:10) - So no, I'm not scared. It was one of the easiest things I've ever, ever decided to do. And I'm sorry that more people aren't doing it.

Sarah Milken (00:07:17) - Now, look, you are a businesswoman. You're a mom, you have a serious boyfriend, you have a whole life, and you have a company that's public.

Sarah Milken (00:07:29) - Yeah. How did you just wake up? You know, a week after the Hamas massacre and be like, oh, okay, I'm going to put everything out on the line, and I'm going to stand up for a group of marginalized people that I'm not even a part of. What was that thing that, like, made you pick up your phone and just start recording? Like, that's a big leap.

Caroline D'Amore (00:07:51) - It is. And, you know, but but it didn't feel like it to me because it was like it was pretty damn simple. The moment I had actual friends giving me personal accounts, like my friend Sylvia, she's in Israel right now. She was there just for a vacation and a trip. She decided to stay. So now I'm like, literally FaceTiming with this beautiful home of people who've taken her in and she refuses to leave and she just wants to help. And I'm getting actual, like, firsthand accounts from people that I that I know, and everybody's lost somebody on October 7th and not just lost them.

Caroline D'Amore (00:08:32) - But it was terrifying and terrible and murder and rape.

Sarah Milken (00:08:39) - And I'm such chills every time I talk about this. It's like reliving the same thing. And you and I are here. And can you imagine the people they're living this I can't.

Caroline D'Amore (00:08:50) - No, I cannot, and that's why it was so easy for me to speak up because I was like, oh my God. Like literally. And I was so angry when I saw people in my DMs and in and all over, like college campuses literally cheering for this, saying that these people were freedom fighters, saying that this is just because people being oppressed for years and years listen, I care just as much for the innocent Palestinian lives I do. But terror is not how we're going to get peace, right? And we can never say that this is okay or that we if you can't condemn these terrorist acts on October 7th, then something is is clearly wrong.

Sarah Milken (00:09:35) - It's so strange because it's sort of like thousands of people are not acknowledging what happened.

Caroline D'Amore (00:09:43) - Right?

Sarah Milken (00:09:44) - It's like sometimes I say to my friends or my husband or my kids, I'm like, did I miss a fucking memo? Yeah.

Sarah Milken (00:09:51) - Like, am I the only one who missed a memo that says, ignore the Hamas massacre, ignore all the death and murder and rape and hostages and just let's talk about the Palestinians. And it's not that I don't care about the Palestinian people, but we all do. But Hamas started this reign of terror, and it's without getting into all the politics of it.

Caroline D'Amore (00:10:18) - And that's exactly it. There was already a cease fire in place.

Sarah Milken (00:10:23) - Correct.

Caroline D'Amore (00:10:24) - So how can people scream cease fire when all it's going to, when they're just going to continue their goal is to like Hamas's goal is to wipe out Israel. There is no conversation about peace. Right. And clearly that was made very evident. So the question I keep asking is, what is the right response to people that want to wipe you off the planet?

Sarah Milken (00:10:51) - Why can't anyone answer that? I don't understand like they do. These people want Hamas living next door to them. It's always okay when it's in someone else's backyard.

Caroline D'Amore (00:11:03) - But you know what I'm noticing? Like, I'm starting to see more and more videos of Palestinian civilians screaming that this is because of Hamas, right? And somehow that message from their mouths to the college campuses got misconstrued.

Caroline D'Amore (00:11:19) - Nobody wants to live under a terrorist rule, right? Nobody wants to live in those conditions. And you have to think logically. If they have money to build these insane tunnels that we're seeing more and more that go for miles and miles, they have money.

Sarah Milken (00:11:36) - Themselves, but not their civilians for.

Caroline D'Amore (00:11:39) - Bombs they have money for. Why are they right? So where is that money going? And how is the murder that occurred on October 7th? Their solution, like we cannot, we all need to kind of realize that nothing can be peaceful until these terror terrorist organizations are taken out. Now, if we are seeing that Israel and I'm am seeing this right, like Israel is is dropping leaflets, letters saying where they're going to bomb Israel is warning people that they are going to bomb this in that place. Israel did not get that leaflet letter about. The Hamas attacks on October 7th. Right? Nobody warned them. Nobody said, hey, you know, we're going to do this in order for the Palestinians to be free from this sort of open air prison, like there's it's not an equal playing field, right?

Sarah Milken (00:12:41) - I know, and the like Hamas won't even let their people move too.

Sarah Milken (00:12:46) - So that's like the flip side of it. So we're supposed to let the Hamas let Hamas continue on business as usual, and they don't want just Israel like they want everywhere. Like Europe is a scary place right now, and the US is scary. Like, I have a kid on a college campus.

Caroline D'Amore (00:13:06) - Yeah, yeah. And that's and ultimately, that's what I knew in my heart. There is no two sides to what I am saying. There aren't there's there's struggle for years and years, of course, that needs to be handled. And yeah, and it's.

Sarah Milken (00:13:20) - Like, give the fucking hostages back and then let's talk about it. But it's like, oh, just let Hamas run wild, keep the hostages. And most of them, unfortunately, have probably been tortured, some of them deceased. I mean, they're finding them right now and they're identifying them by their skulls because there's nothing left.

Caroline D'Amore (00:13:43) - I know, and and.

Sarah Milken (00:13:44) - I don't see what other people don't see.

Caroline D'Amore (00:13:46) - I cannot get these images out of my head.

Caroline D'Amore (00:13:49) - I really can't. And honestly, when I see the sad images from from the Palestinian side, I feel I know pain, I feel so much pain. And I think about whose fault it is, and it's Hamas's fault. And that is as and if we don't all all get together, both country, both sides, everybody get together and get rid of Hamas and any terrorist organization, then it's just going to continue on like this for forever.

Sarah Milken (00:14:18) - I know there's unfortunately there's no quick solution to any of this, and there's a downside in every possibility. But I think for Israel to just lay down and surrender is not an option either.

Caroline D'Amore (00:14:32) - Well, clearly, because every time they do, they get they have some sort of crazy massacre coming their way.

Sarah Milken (00:14:39) - I know, it's just it's insane to me. I did not think that this could ever happen, obviously. Number 1 in 2023. Number two, I didn't think that so many people across the world would would actually stand up and say, they're yelling for free Palestine.

Sarah Milken (00:15:00) - But a lot of it is antisemitism. It's people hating Jews.

Caroline D'Amore (00:15:04) - Yeah, but I don't even understand that. I mean, I think a deep rooted thing, honestly, from when I was a little girl, I remember the story of Anne Frank. That is the one story that like, really like really like just.

Sarah Milken (00:15:17) - And you're not even Jewish.

Caroline D'Amore (00:15:19) - Right? But I remember the story, and I remember thinking and asking people like, how, how is this possible? I never thought it could ever be possible. I was so confused. Just like I was so confused about slavery. Just like, you know, as a little kid, you hear these stories and you're like, terrified and upset and you're like, how could humans be this way? Right? And then you start to. And that's why. Listen, like, I took my six year old at the time, we made posters and walked for the BLM movement. You know, I've spoken up for trans rights and gay rights. And anybody who I think is being bullied, really, and I just don't understand why that doesn't that doesn't matter when it's Jewish people, right?

Sarah Milken (00:16:04) - It's like for BLM, we've changed our school curriculum, we've changed our books.

Caroline D'Amore (00:16:09) - When people are raped or even, you know, talked to and appropriately, we start the MeToo movement. How is this rape and massacre not equal to all of that? How are not all of the the rights groups speaking up for these people? It's it's I just.

Sarah Milken (00:16:30) - Don't I think what's interesting, I think you bring it up and I bring it up a lot on my platform, too. You don't have to be a political expert. You don't have to be a land expert. You don't have to know about the accords. You don't have to know about dissolutions of this or that. Like it's literally fucking humanity.

Caroline D'Amore (00:16:48) - Yeah, I literally have to say this to every single person who comes into my DMs and says, you should not be speaking on this. You are not educated to the fullest extent. And I go, I'm educated enough as a mother and as a human to know that this is wrong, that we cannot cheer on and be be supporting. People that want to completely remove Israel off the map, completely wipe out Jewish people.

Caroline D'Amore (00:17:22) - And if you look at the imbalance, there's 12 million Jewish people in the world. Something about what is it, a billion, over a billion Muslims in the world. So the messaging, no matter how much the Jewish community shouting it out, the messaging is very imbalanced. Right.

Sarah Milken (00:17:40) - And half of the Jews live in Israel, right. There's 7 million Jews in Israel.

Caroline D'Amore (00:17:46) - And you asked people, okay, where should they go then? They don't have the answer, okay. Why can't there be some sort? I mean, it's just I.

Sarah Milken (00:17:56) - Just don't understand how we're into sort of the free Palestine. It's genocide of the Palestinians. But like something else came first. It was going into Israel.

Caroline D'Amore (00:18:07) - Genocide. The numbers of Israeli and Jewish people are still less than before the Holocaust. So I don't understand it doesn't. I really do want to know. I'm not saying I know the answer to this.

Sarah Milken (00:18:18) - I don't either, and that's why I never say I'm a political expert. I'm a land expert, I'm Jewish, but I'm a fucking human and I'm a mom.

Sarah Milken (00:18:28) - And just like you, I'm like, let's acknowledge what happened in Israel as human beings, right? There's no other side to what happened to that.

Caroline D'Amore (00:18:39) - Exactly. And there is no long history that I need to know that validates that brutality. End of story.

Sarah Milken (00:18:47) - You have friends who are cleaning up deceased people in Israel.

Caroline D'Amore (00:18:51) - So my friend Tomer Peretz, everybody should follow him. He actually was in I think he was in Tel Aviv.

Sarah Milken (00:18:58) - You spell that for us?

Caroline D'Amore (00:18:59) - Yeah. Sorry. Let me just get you his Instagram is actually I'm going to go on Sunday. Okay. So we should talk about this because he is doing a an art installation this coming Sunday. Okay. So it's at here we go to Emre. P e r e t z. Art. Tomer Peretz. Art. He was there. And this is why it's like I have firsthand friendships with people who have told me these horrors and who have seen. So anybody denying the mutilation to these bodies and the and the the hours of suffering that these people went through from just pure like hatred and these monstrous acts, you can't tell me that I don't know them firsthand.

Caroline D'Amore (00:19:52) - Tomer Peretz was there. He was he stayed. He was there for a vacation, stayed. And to clean up these bodies, he saw the bodies. He's explaining them on his Instagram. So I can't as a human being see that and ever just march and say like, yeah, this was okay because of this and that. No, we absolutely do need to free Palestine, but we need to free Palestine from Hamas. And that is so clear to me, just based on. How terrifying this all was and is, you know, and they're just going to keep doing it. It's not like this was a one time thing.

Sarah Milken (00:20:32) - It's so scary. And I think I think also just like as a mom, it has to like a lot of the women coming on my Instagram platform, obviously there's a ton supporting Jews in Israel because I'm Jewish and I'm here, you know, but there's also a lot of them who are like basically baby Jews. What about the Palestinian women and children? And I'm like, yes, I understand that.

Sarah Milken (00:20:58) - And what about all the hostages that are still stuck in Gaza? What about all the people brutalized, murdered like raped upside down and sideways? I don't get it. And did you miss that memo?

Caroline D'Amore (00:21:13) - These bodies were raped so badly of children, they just confirmed children. Teenage girls and grandmothers were raped so badly that their pelvises were looking. Their legs were ripped in half. This is all confirmed. So everybody needs to be on the right side of this, which is which is getting rid of these. These monsters and the monsters I speak of are the terrorists that could go in there and do this, and they are admitting it. We have videos of them verbally admitting that they were told to behead this video of this, of this woman who had just she's crying. She was in there trying to like, help clean up the bodies as well. And she was crying. And she's supposed to be one of the, you know, strong soldiers who are trying to help. And she's crying because she just saw an eight year old girl who bled because her arm was cut off.

Sarah Milken (00:22:03) - I saw that.

Caroline D'Amore (00:22:04) - What in the human f.

Sarah Milken (00:22:08) - Almost feel like so many people are disconnecting from what happened and just yelling Free Palestine and R and tearing down posters. But then when you ask them why or like you said, well, what is the correct response? There's no answer. And I think part of it is this, like spiritual vacancy that we have where there was like a poll that said that 50% of 18 to 24 year olds said that Israel kind of deserved it and Hamas was justified. And I'm like, did TikTok raise you?

Caroline D'Amore (00:22:42) - So are you saying that the government, the people in government deserved it? Or did the little baby deserved to be put in an oven? Exactly. And you could hear the screams while the mother, the mother was listening to the screams while she was being murdered of her baby, like, how could you ever say to anybody deserves that? No single human on this entire planet deserves that. Like, I'm so just appalled by people who say that that's the answer.

Caroline D'Amore (00:23:11) - And that and that. That was a freedom of fight for freedom. It makes the antisemitism part.

Sarah Milken (00:23:16) - People are saying, well, I'm not anti-Semitic. And I'm like, okay, I understand that, but you're saying free Palestine, but you can't answer why and you're not willing to acknowledge what happened in Israel. So you can't help but think that.

Caroline D'Amore (00:23:30) - But I am noticing that some people like like I just posted a video on my story of a man who walks around and he's asking these college. He's like, hey, we want to sign up on want to sign this petition for Free Palestine, right? And they go, yes, right away. Then he goes, okay, you just have to agree to these few things which, which means this, this and that. And then they go, absolutely not. Right. I do not sign for, you know, basically the, the, the brutalities of, of Hamas. So I do think more people in their hearts are their hearts are in the right place with freeing Palestine and wanting a better life for.

Sarah Milken (00:24:08) - Yes, and I totally agree with that. But we have to do certain things to get that correct.

Caroline D'Amore (00:24:14) - But the message has been misconstrued and it's giving. It's giving a space for bad people who do just want to hurt people on college campuses, in the streets like that, you know, like all these different people who are now just storming a Tel Aviv, I mean, a airport in in Russia that flies in from Tel Aviv, and the people that, you know, are breaking into houses and screaming free Palestine and scaring families and writing terrible like gas. The Jews, even in my own hometown on the walls. What is happening is this movement, unfortunately, is giving them a safe space. There's good and bad in everything, but we cannot give a safe space to to basically people who want to wreak havoc. I'm all about the peaceful marches I am, but I just posted a girl who was speaking at one of the rallies, literally saying that everything was justified and that that's.

Sarah Milken (00:25:08) - The school that my son goes to.

Speaker 3 (00:25:11) - Oh, God, I'm so sorry.

Caroline D'Amore (00:25:14) - And that's, like, so scary for the kids to watch and see.

Sarah Milken (00:25:17) - Scary.

Caroline D'Amore (00:25:18) - Like, it is not justified. And that is why it was so easy for me to speak up. And yeah, I've had people be like, oh, you know. You know, you could your business, your your livelihood, you're this and that. And I'm like, well, you know what? Life's short. And I do believe that karma is real. And I do believe that if you stand up for innocent people, you're doing the right thing no matter what.

Sarah Milken (00:25:46) - I agree, and I think people who listen to this, I mean, I'm sure tons of people will be like, oh my God, that's amazing. I love both of you. And some people are going to be like, oh my God, Palestine, oh my God, this. But you know what? I don't even I.

Caroline D'Amore (00:26:00) - Want to march for Palestine. Yeah.

Sarah Milken (00:26:02) - That's what I'm saying.

Sarah Milken (00:26:03) - It's not that we don't feel badly for the people of Palestine, right?

Caroline D'Amore (00:26:08) - You just condemn these terrorist acts.

Sarah Milken (00:26:10) - Yes. And the scary part is, is that we can't even have Moses on our doors anymore. We are afraid to send our kids to school. My son is going to school, and thankfully there's a ton of security because I was just there and they're managing it. But then, like if any kids were to stand up and say those things about another marginalized group.

Caroline D'Amore (00:26:33) - Imagine could you imagine? You imagine they were like, yes, murder, death to all of any other group in the world of any other in the world. I can't even think of anything that would be allowed. Okay. Or say that that any, any terror terrorist acts that are justified to women, to all gay people, to all, you know, the black community, like, no way. But why when it's the Jewish community. And that's why my my posts are very heavily like in support of the Jewish community, because I feel like they're the only community.

Sarah Milken (00:27:08) - It's so weird. It's okay or.

Caroline D'Amore (00:27:11) - Supposed to be allowed. I don't understand that.

Sarah Milken (00:27:14) - So that's why I keep thinking I missed a memo. Like, I like, went to bed for two weeks and I didn't understand what happened.

Caroline D'Amore (00:27:22) - Me too. Because I'm. I pride myself on being super liberal. I always have my entire life. And now somehow I'm not in alignment with, like, the liberal way of thinking. How did the liberal way of thinking become it's okay to torture Jewish people. Sorry, never did back that up. What did you say? I'll never back that up. Sorry, I.

Sarah Milken (00:27:43) - Know I can't. I can't handle it either. And that's why I wanted to talk to you so much. Because I was like, we're not experts. We're just moms. Yeah, you're. You're not Jewish. I'm Jewish. We're moms who are like, we're humans. What is happening here? Can someone please say something and stop what's happening? Tell us what happened at your daughter's school.

Sarah Milken (00:28:05) - I heard you talking about that on Instagram.

Caroline D'Amore (00:28:08) - Yeah. So, listen, I wasn't there, but it was confirmed through a parent kind of WhatsApp through the children and then reconfirm from the teacher, the other teacher who came in and had to speak to all the kids about what had happened. It was a substitute teacher who came in from actually one of the high schools for a day. And I think it was right after, you know, some real sadness. You know, it's a heavily Jewish community. And when you. Are showing up for solidarity with something that just happened. You? Why not? You know, people are now saying, well, why were there, you know, Israeli flags in the classroom. And I'm like, because everybody in there lost a family member and they're trying to show the kids like, hey, like we're supporting our people, you know, like we feel bad for what happened. And this is a showing some love. It's sort of like little.

Sarah Milken (00:29:01) - It's like having BLM things in the room during that time frame, which my.

Caroline D'Amore (00:29:07) - Daughter and I made artwork for. You know what I mean? So that's exactly what I could actually show you. The artwork. I've saved it. But, but so when these kids made some artwork on these pencils with these little flags, the teacher basically, I guess, you know, was really against it. And but also you can be you can say like, hey, guys, like, let's not, you know, overdo politics in the classroom, but you can't go so far as to call a kid a white supremacist. It's an eight year old that goes so far as to call them names and say what they're doing is is wrong and vile and, you know, all of those things. So that's when I always draw the line. When it goes too far. And yeah, that teacher was actually fired. And it was great. Yeah.

Sarah Milken (00:29:48) - Because that's not happening on college campuses.

Caroline D'Amore (00:29:51) - You know, told me what happened and sorry, did I cut out again?

Sarah Milken (00:29:54) - No, I was just saying that's great because on college campuses that doesn't seem to be happening.

Caroline D'Amore (00:29:59) - Yeah I know I don't. Well, is it not starting to happen a bit. There's a there's.

Sarah Milken (00:30:03) - A few here and there.

Caroline D'Amore (00:30:04) - I'm actually starting to I don't want to say I'm feeling for the idiots that are ripping down posters, but I do know that these college kids do not know what they're doing. They think that they're standing up for a movement, but years to come, their face is always going to be shown as somebody who was ripping down the poster of a of a hostage of a baby and calling it propaganda when it's actual truth. So it's like they're going to regret that. And that's one of the things I'm saying, like, like their whole regret management of just like saying and doing things that you're just kind of joining in with the crowd, like, really think about what you're doing. You know, with me, like, I went against the crowd because I, I'm really thought about what it's saying in my heart, you know what I mean? So I ask all the kids to do that before.

Caroline D'Amore (00:30:55) - Before you just kind of like, want to be included and you want to feel. You know, like you're part of a group. Just don't be a follower and think about what what it means to the people and the families that you're ripping down their posters, because that actually doesn't help free Palestine. It doesn't help anything but hurt the actual families that want these babies to come home.

Sarah Milken (00:31:20) - You know, and I don't think a lot of these kids can, can put themselves in those shoes of, hey, I wonder what it would have felt like to have my brother blown up to pieces in front of me, and my mom raped and killed right in front of me. Or that one kid whose entire family was killed when he went out on a run and came back and everyone was dead?

Caroline D'Amore (00:31:40) - Yeah, this whole family. And it was just his bat mitzvah, right?

Sarah Milken (00:31:43) - Yeah, yeah, his bar mitzvah was coming in a week, and his whole family is dead.

Caroline D'Amore (00:31:48) - Yeah. And it's I'm.

Sarah Milken (00:31:49) - Like, what?

Caroline D'Amore (00:31:50) - You're going to rip down post like like, who knows what's happened? I actually have heard from people of bad things that are happening.

Caroline D'Amore (00:31:57) - And I've heard first like to my face firsthand accounts of things that are happening to hostages that are terrible and it's being sent daily, like to that parent's phone. So it's like, yeah. So it's just and then to know that you ripped down maybe that girl's poster when her parents are. So worried about her every day. I think these kids are really going to regret it. And hopefully. I don't know, it's just.

Sarah Milken (00:32:28) - So there are so many people who are afraid to stand up, which I totally get because the world is really scary. And you see what a lot of these people are capable of. And the world is very public, and you can find people and you can look up people's names and the whole nine yards. What I find. Interesting about the way you position it is. You say you guys, it is scary, but the world without standing up is even scarier. And that's what I'm saying too. And then you take it another step further and you're like, you will feel so much lighter and better once you actually do stand up and say something.

Sarah Milken (00:33:08) - And I agree with you, because there's so many of us who are sitting and holding it all in and we're crying and we want to explode. And then we put that one little story up, and then we say something and we're like, oh, I feel a little bit better. I feel a little bit better.

Caroline D'Amore (00:33:23) - It's true, because you're in alignment with your with your heart, right? You're in alignment with what you really feel like. If you're hiding that, you know, that's that's why people who can't come out as gay or, you know, straighten different families. And that's why people feel sad and, and confused, you know, because they're not in alignment with what they're really thinking and feeling. So I've absolutely felt stronger, happier, proud. So I do, if that helps anybody out there who is scared to speak up and you want to come and see how I'm surviving it, I am.

Sarah Milken (00:34:01) - Do you read the hate messages or you just kind of get the feel and ignore?

Caroline D'Amore (00:34:05) - You know what's funny? As I was in the beginning and I was getting really upset about it, and then I would post something that I almost like was just out of emotion and like, I can't do that.

Caroline D'Amore (00:34:15) - I need to like, really just go, okay, that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to hurt your feelings or trying to say something mean. And it's really stupid stuff to people are like, oh, well, all they have is a greasy haired, pink haired, whatever type girl. You know, they say like, really stupid, so.

Sarah Milken (00:34:31) - Mean, so mean. And you're like, if you have enough time to write a two paragraph essay on why.

Caroline D'Amore (00:34:37) - You're cutting out again, it must be saying.

Sarah Milken (00:34:39) - This. If you have enough time to write a two paragraph essay on my post about how stupid I am to support the Jews, and that I don't understand, and lands and politics and religion, you need to get a part time job.

Caroline D'Amore (00:34:55) - Yeah, exactly. You're really spending a lot of time on page. And that's the thing. It's really starting to fade into the background. Like, I don't really even see the hate anymore. You know, sometimes it's hard when it's like a friend who, when it's a friend, I, I find that I, I spend more time on the, on those ones and even the friends when I ask certain questions, they just don't have the answers.

Caroline D'Amore (00:35:14) - And they say, right now the most important thing is a cease fire. And I'm like, you know, and then we go back and forth. But it is definitely helpful when people are willing to have like, heart to heart conversations, I find. But, you know, those are few and far between. It's a lot of people that just want to be heard screaming and say something ridiculous.

Sarah Milken (00:35:39) - To me, a cease fire sounds like surrender right to Hamas. And it's like, why don't you surrender the with the hostages? Thank you.

Caroline D'Amore (00:35:50) - So, so I guess I thought about it too. I was like, well, of course we want all the bombing and everything to stop. But but there was a cease fire in place on October 7th and that was ignored. So what are they supposed to do? You know, what is the answer?

Sarah Milken (00:36:04) - They're saying that if there's a cease fire, it gives Hamas more time to plan, to plot, to figure things out. And it's like there is no more time.

Caroline D'Amore (00:36:14) - And think about the stuff that we're seeing on all of these tunnels. Just shows you how much time that they've had to create entire worlds underground to continue to do these things. I don't know, it's definitely.

Sarah Milken (00:36:28) - And how do you free Palestine without getting rid of Hamas?

Caroline D'Amore (00:36:32) - You don't.

Sarah Milken (00:36:33) - That's that's what I don't that's what I'm confused about. And that's why I feel like I'm missing some of the cards in the deck.

Caroline D'Amore (00:36:40) - Yeah. And that's why that's why for me, it's like until until there's a, you know, a solution there where terrorists are being and they don't.

Sarah Milken (00:36:51) - Even follow the rules of the agreements anyway. Right. Which is even more bizarre. I don't know, it's never ending. But you've been in the weeds of this for, what, three and a half weeks now? And you've been watching the hatred and the crazy and all the stuff. Is there something that you've learned personally from this journey? Yeah, that you didn't think you would have learned or that you were surprised by?

Caroline D'Amore (00:37:20) - Yeah, I mean, I've definitely learned that words don't don't hurt me.

Caroline D'Amore (00:37:26) - They're not going to, you know, like it's so much more powerful to absolutely stand up for for human rights and what you believe in. Then worry about some hate messages, right? That doesn't. They start to fade to the background when you get thousands of them. It's like, you know, it becomes less of a of a fear every day. But I also realize that it's very. Very hard to change people's minds. It's almost like, I don't want to say it's a mood point because I pray that it's not. But some people are just so dead set on their way of thinking that it's very hard to have intelligent conversations. And that's why I'm really looking for people to have nice, intelligent conversations with. Someone did reach out to me and say like, but what about, you know, Palestine? And what about the and I mean, a lot of people have reached out to me and said that and a.

Sarah Milken (00:38:15) - Lot of my messages.

Caroline D'Amore (00:38:16) - Yeah, and I agree with them. I say yes, like, this is I feel for each and every one of them and we need to what is the answer? Where are those conversations coming from? The people that can actually do something about it, you know what I mean? So I don't know.

Caroline D'Amore (00:38:31) - I mean, I've just learned that it's okay to not be a people pleaser. You're never going to please everybody when you stand up for people, you know.

Sarah Milken (00:38:43) - Have you been surprised by, like, anything? I mean, obviously you went to high school and you've done mean girl bullshit in high school like we all have. But like, has there been anything like, interestingly surprising about this?

Caroline D'Amore (00:38:57) - Yes. I mean, listen, I what I have to say is the Jewish community is so incredibly beautiful and like like when they're being treated, it's true. Like when they go low, the Jewish community goes high. And it's like it's it's been really cool to see. It's like they come together in moments of darkness in a way that I've never seen. They're not sitting there plotting on how to like, you know, harm and hurt. They're not marching in the streets saying that they want death to all Palestinians. They're not, you know, chasing down kids. You know, unless I'm not seeing them.

Caroline D'Amore (00:39:41) - Send me the video, that's what.

Sarah Milken (00:39:43) - No, but that's what Jews do. We show up for people, you know, and I think people like you see that. Yeah. And feel like you're an Italian Catholic. So you get that. I feel like Italian Catholics are very family based, just like Jews are. And you fight for what's right. You try to create as much light as you can, and you don't fight darkness with darkness. You fight darkness with light. And I think some people are seeing Israel as like the enemy, the Dark one, but they're actually standing up for what is right and protecting peace.

Caroline D'Amore (00:40:17) - And like when I go to these homes and these dinners and people are scared and they're sad and I see them say like, okay, but we just need to be the light, you know what I mean? And that's what I'm noticing. I'm noticing a lot of like, support and love and not so much. And that's why it's actually like helped me to continue on this path because and I'm noticing first and foremost, I am noticing if I can give any sort of like hope to you all.

Caroline D'Amore (00:40:46) - I'm noticing people are starting to speak up a bit more, so I hope to have helped in any way. But I am noticing, like even when you see someone like okay, let's let's all say we haven't agreed with anything she's done so far in this, but when AOC actually has to post guys, anti-Semitism is bad and this is happening. You now know that even someone like her is seeing how much this is ramped up and how scary this is. So I do see people starting to speak up. I think that there is going to be a big kind of I think the bubble is going to burst on some of the ignorance and the hate being allowed. We're seeing a lot of CEOs, like not wanting to hire these kids, and they should have the right. Honestly, I wouldn't want to hire somebody who would run around spewing hate into my company. By no means would want to work with somebody like that.

Sarah Milken (00:41:42) - So they say they didn't know what they signed or they didn't know what they were talking about.

Sarah Milken (00:41:46) - You wouldn't want that working for your company.

Caroline D'Amore (00:41:48) - Right? And listen, I agree that everybody can make certain mistakes and things like that. But you need to come out and you need to say like, I was wrong, and I hope that I can now be the voice of change. And, you know, I would love to see people walking in peaceful marches from from all walks of life, trying to come up with solutions to remove the hate and the terror.

Sarah Milken (00:42:14) - That's really and I think, like we've talked about earlier, it's like we've done it for so many other movements. Right? And it hasn't been done for this yet. And I'm just hoping that with all of the people standing up and the light and people like you who are standing up and shining the light, that will somehow get to that place of kind of love outweighing the hate.

Caroline D'Amore (00:42:36) - Yeah. And that's what I'm noticing. That's what I'm noticing. And that maybe.

Sarah Milken (00:42:40) - That's the secret sauce. That is the secret sauce. Maybe that's the pizza sauce.

Sarah Milken (00:42:45) - Yep.

Caroline D'Amore (00:42:46) - The love and every. When we get angry, I'm like, no, you need to come from a loving place. You need to come from a loving place because it does change things and it does start to overcome. That's why I believe, you know, the Jewish community survived as long as they have being as as small as they have, surrounded by, you know, hate all over the place. It's because of the love. Right? So inspiring to me.

Sarah Milken (00:43:08) - And watching the Holocaust survivors re witness this, I'm like, I'm devastated. I can't or.

Caroline D'Amore (00:43:17) - Yeah always used to say like I.

Sarah Milken (00:43:19) - Never.

Caroline D'Amore (00:43:19) - Again happen. Yeah. And then when you realize, yeah people aren't looking at certain people as humans that that's how it happens, you know what I mean? That's how these type of things happens when you. Yeah, when you stop looking at them like they're humans, it's really scary and it's very real. And that's why we all need to stand up and speak out. My gosh.

Sarah Milken (00:43:41) - Well, you say at the end of the day, you're just a mom and a Prius looking out for people. We are all saying that you are gorgeous, stand up human inside and out and continue to shine your light. We just say thank you from the Jewish people. Before we wrap up, Caroline, please tell everyone where they can find you, your amazing posts and your fab Pizza girl sauce.

Caroline D'Amore (00:44:05) - Absolutely. So you can find me on Instagram at Caroline Damore. You can follow my company at Pizza Girl Official, you can check out our delicious products at Pizza Girl and hopefully soon at a store near you.

Sarah Milken (00:44:23) - Are you in like 500 stores?

Caroline D'Amore (00:44:25) - Oh, more than that now we're in about 2000. Oh my.

Sarah Milken (00:44:28) - Gosh. Well, I guess I had old information.

Caroline D'Amore (00:44:31) - Yes yes yes. Yeah we're in. And it's all.

Sarah Milken (00:44:34) - Organic.

Caroline D'Amore (00:44:35) - All organic. There's no added sugars. It is certified kosher. And it's just the best delicious sauce you'll ever have out of a jar. It's comes from my heart.

Caroline D'Amore (00:44:46) - It is my grandmother's recipes. It is the cleanest ingredient, and it's the only one you can eat out of the jar with a spoon because it actually is fresh, and we make it in small batches. And hands down, it's the best sauce you'll ever eat out of a jar.

Sarah Milken (00:44:58) - Liquid gold for sure.

Caroline D'Amore (00:45:00) - Liquid gold. Exactly.

Sarah Milken (00:45:01) - And I've heard, I've heard you speak about how you're going to be at the LA mission cooking for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Tell us about that.

Caroline D'Amore (00:45:08) - Yeah. So they've reached out and asked me to be the kind of celebrity chef for the mission for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. And I immediately said, yes, I'll be bringing my daughter as well, because I think it's important to show our kids, you know, giving back. And it was funny because I, I was I did a post that I was, you know, I saw some some orders came in and they were, you know, asking me to basically donate these 24 jars to in honor of feeding the 200 held people held hostage.

Caroline D'Amore (00:45:48) - And I said, you know, I'm going to do a hell of a lot more than that. So in my heart, I'm definitely like dedicating, feeding all of these mouths to all the hostages and victims.

Sarah Milken (00:46:00) - Wow. And are you actually. So you're actually cooking on those days? Oh, yeah. I'm working.

Caroline D'Amore (00:46:05) - Sleeves up. I got to be there at four in the morning. Oh my.

Sarah Milken (00:46:07) - Gosh.

Caroline D'Amore (00:46:08) - Yeah, yeah, yeah. My daughter is going to have to like get out of bed.

Sarah Milken (00:46:11) - So is it just like a whole team of chefs.

Caroline D'Amore (00:46:14) - Yeah I mean it's me another chef and then a lot of volunteers, you know. Yeah.

Sarah Milken (00:46:20) - Are you using pizza sauce?

Caroline D'Amore (00:46:22) - Of course I'm using pizza girl sauce, which is. Yes, gravy, the gravy that you can use for anything. So yeah we're definitely going to make pasta. It's going to.

Sarah Milken (00:46:30) - Be like an Italian Thanksgiving.

Caroline D'Amore (00:46:32) - It is. Yeah. Like well by the way everything's giving in. My house had pasta, red sauce and things like that.

Sarah Milken (00:46:39) - I don't know if we even mentioned this that you, your family owns dear Moraes Pizza and Malibu, which of course we all eat. And then my whole house fights over who gets to eat the cold leftovers the next day, and my son usually makes it to the fridge first and I'm like, oh my God.

Caroline D'Amore (00:46:57) - You know, it's good, good pizza when it's cold and it's still delicious.

Sarah Milken (00:47:00) - It's like the best. It's so good. Well, I want to thank you for being a guest on the Flexible Neurotic Podcast and a new friend. I love this chat with you. And I love kind of wrapping our arms around how love outweighs hate, and how standing up for what is right and what you believe is the secret sauce to life. And you're doing that. And thank you so much.

Caroline D'Amore (00:47:24) - Thank you for having me.