Black-ish Star Marcus Scribner, Dr. Robert E. Marx on AI, and a Faith Testimony from Owen Wilson

Black-ish Star Marcus Scribner, Dr. Robert E. Marx on AI, and a Faith Testimony from Owen WilsonThis edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with actor Marcus Scribner of ABC's Black-ish, a show Neil and his wife catch up on every weekend. Scribner, who has grown up on the series, reflected on auditioning as a naive newcomer who assumed the show would simply run thirty years, only to learn how quickly most pilots come and go, making a run like Black-ish all the more special. He praised the series for telling a fresh story every week and reflecting the diaspora of cultures across the country, and marveled at how it can tackle prickly subjects and poke at every group without leaving audiences feeling attacked. He spoke about his character reaching the milestone of graduation, an honor he called super special, and about weighing his own next steps, from college classes to what comes after a childhood spent on set. Warm and grateful for a role that shaped his coming of age, he clearly relishes being part of a show he believes tells the story of the American people.Neil then hosted a Dr. Robert E. Marx Show simulcast in which the veteran oral and maxillofacial surgeon, once a skeptic, came on as an enthusiastic new convert to artificial intelligence. Marx said his early wariness came mostly from unfamiliarity, but that the more he looked, the more he saw enormous potential with minimal drawbacks, and that the technology is a juggernaut no one can afford to ignore. He and Neil talked through the debate over AI data centers and their demand on resources like water, and made the case, as their own opinion, that the United States and its allies cannot afford to slow down while other nations race ahead, arguing the country should embrace the tools rather than fall behind out of fear. Both framed AI as most powerful when it augments human work rather than replaces it, and Neil, who had earlier helped introduce Marx to the tools, noted how far the doctor's enthusiasm had come in a matter of months. They offered the political dimensions of the debate as their own views rather than settled fact.The program closes with a faith testimony from Owen Wilson, a New Zealand aircraft mechanic and pilot, not the actor, featured in Daniel Fasina's book and set to appear at the Power of Testimony event at Shelter Rock Church in Syosset, New York, on September 12th. Wilson recounted a gorgeous late-autumn afternoon flight he took to celebrate a friend's birthday in a small aero-club plane he had flown and trusted for years over the rugged, ocean-lined Marlborough region. Partway through, he said, the engine fell silent with nowhere to land, and as he and his passenger prayed, it sputtered back to life in just enough bursts to clear a ridge, revealing a hidden airfield below where he set the plane down safely, a spot he had never once seen in years of flying that coastline. Having marked every possible emergency landing spot on his maps over four years, he had never known that airfield existed, and he credits the whole chain of events, and the tricky landing that followed, to divine intervention. Tickets for the September 12th event are at events.artoheaven.com, and Marcus Scribner can be seen on Black-ish.