Utah’s First Minority Attorney General, Sean Reyes on Politics, Leadership and AI

Wynn Silberman (0:00)

Welcome to another episode of Flip Your Friday. I'm your host, Wynn Silverman. This is my co-host, Casey LeBlanc. Casey, we have an amazing guest today and former Attorney General, Sean Reyes, the former Attorney General of Utah. Sean, thank you very much for being here and taking some time to hang out with us, man.

Sean Reyes (0:16)

Bro, I'm so excited to be here.

Wynn Silberman (0:17)

Yeah.

Sean Reyes (0:18)

Truly. Thanks, Casey.

Wynn Silberman (0:19)

You are. Your energy, you are. Yeah.

Casey LeBlanc (0:22)

We were in the golf simulator earlier and I was like...

Sean Reyes (0:24)

I was warming up.

Wynn Silberman (0:25)

It's rare that someone will just walk in and even close to match Casey's energy. So I knew when you came in with your golfing energy and your swing, which also matches Casey's swing. So it's about 90s, mid-90s, but...

Casey LeBlanc (0:36)

So we should get along just fine.

Sean Reyes (0:38)

Yeah.

Casey LeBlanc (0:38)

That's right.

Wynn Silberman (0:39)

But thank you for being here. I'm super excited just for your story, because I got to tell you, I don't think there's a lot of kids that wake up and someday say, I want to be an attorney general. I mean, maybe you wake up, you want to be a doctor. I guarantee.

Sean Reyes (0:54)

There are no kids. Yeah.

Wynn Silberman (0:55)

You maybe want to be an athlete, but the attorney general, that's a pretty powerful position in the land. I think what I really wanted to start with is, talking a little about your journey of getting to there, then I want to teach the audience really what the role of an attorney general, all that. But I want to get into a little bit of your origin and talk to me a little bit about your journey of getting to that position, and then we'll take it from there.

Sean Reyes (1:18)

That's good, because the journey is, I think, interesting. The role itself, you might put some people to sleep.

Casey LeBlanc (1:25)

We can ask some questions about it. We can make that interesting.

Sean Reyes (1:28)

Well, fellas, let me say first off, though, thank you again for having me on. This is season three, right? So you guys have had some success. Wynn invited me on a long time ago, and I was like, bro, I kind of want to see, make sure you guys can make it past episode 20

Casey LeBlanc (1:43)

It's like a wait and see. Let's have a couple of people go first.

Sean Reyes (1:47)

His football career, his representation career. No, he's a superstar. I met Wynn and instantly we bonded through our mutual friend, Kenny the Hurricane Hansmeier, and for a love of sports, but also people and just the passion that he has for helping people. And he's like, you got to come on. And he's like, my partner, Casey, we're a little bit yin and yang, and we're complimentary, but he said he's incredible. And now that I met you guys, I get the dynamic. It's pretty cool. So again, congrats.

I get asked to be on a lot of podcasts, and frankly, I just don't have enough time to hit the majority of them. But this one I had marked on my calendar, and it's remarkable. Maybe some of my excitement is because when I was a kid, I never thought I'd be sitting, getting interviewed by super successful people who've done amazing things. Why? Because my dad's an immigrant from the Philippines. He grew up in the Philippines, came to the US.,

seeking a better life and some protection. He was an amazing story, and I don't want to get too far afield another time. I wish I could really delve into it, because he was like the Elvis of the Philippines. He was opening for Bob Hope when he was a young man. He was a talented artist. He literally was a personal artist for the Pope, the Holy Father, and the Vatican when he was like 18 years old. Spent time there doing large portraits and pictures. He did feature length films as a producer for MGM Studios as a young man, had his own radio show, TV shows. Very successful, but left all that in part because of political persecution and turmoil. His uncle had been president of the Philippines only a few years before, and at the time, the president, my dad, had opposed, and so there was some friction, I'll put it that way.

Wynn Silberman (3:45)

Nothing like dealing with the opposition.

Sean Reyes (3:48)

You know this from working on some international campaigns. I mean, I don't know who knows this, but congratulations, you helped President Fernandez, amazing work that you've done. And so, it was a much safer environment for him to come here, but he knew nobody, he had nothing, came just with his faith and his work ethic and his desire to build an American dream.