Matt Walsh’s Oscars Snub + CEO & Author Maha Abouelenein

Summary

Adam Carolla Show: Matt Walsh’s Oscars Snub + CEO & Author Maha Abouelenein
Release Date: December 12, 2024

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Introduction

In this episode of The Adam Carolla Show, host Adam Carolla welcomes two distinguished guests: Matt Walsh, a political commentator, author, and filmmaker from Daily Wire, and Maha Abouelenein, a CEO and author specializing in financial independence and self-reliance. The discussion delves into Matt Walsh’s recent experiences with Hollywood gatekeepers, the dynamics of modern social movements, and Maha Abouelenein’s insights on self-reliance and creating value in today’s society.

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Matt Walsh’s Career Trajectory and Transition to Filmmaking

[03:35] Matt Walsh:
Matt Walsh shares his unexpected journey into filmmaking, a path he hadn't envisioned during his high school years. Starting his career in radio in his early twenties, Walsh hadn't considered venturing into movies until Daily Wire announced their foray into film production around 2020.

[05:13] Matt Walsh:
He elaborates on how this announcement propelled him to brainstorm movie ideas, leading to projects like "What is a Woman?" and "Am I Racist?" These films aimed to provoke conversations around sensitive societal topics, reflecting Daily Wire’s mission to challenge mainstream narratives.

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The Impact and Dynamics of Modern Social Movements

[05:13] Adam Carolla:
Adam initiates the conversation by highlighting the rapid rise of movements such as COVID-19 response, Black Lives Matter (BLM), and the Transgender movement. He observes how these movements swiftly captivated society, fostering an environment where ordinary people felt compelled to conform to prevailing narratives out of fear and social pressure.

[06:26] Matt Walsh:
Walsh concurs, noting that while these movements existed prior to 2020, they gained unprecedented momentum during this period. He emphasizes the simultaneous explosion of these movements, questioning the societal susceptibility to what he terms "social contagions."

[07:12] Adam Carolla:
Drawing parallels to marketing phenomena, Adam likens the rapid adoption of these movements to mass adoption of a sports team jersey purely based on social influence rather than genuine support.

[09:07] Matt Walsh:
He discusses the role of media personalities like Taylor Lorenz, whose stringent COVID protocols during events exemplify the extent of obedience and the subsequent backlash when such measures were relaxed, revealing that adherence was more about conforming than genuine belief.

[11:11] Adam Carolla:
Adam expands on the psychological underpinnings, suggesting that the movements tap into fundamental human responses to authority and community, making individuals more likely to comply with collective demands.

[12:37] Matt Walsh:
Walsh introduces the concept of the slippery slope, arguing that leftist agendas often start with reasonable goals but escalate to extreme demands without a coherent plan, leading to societal destabilization.

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Media Gatekeepers and the Oscars Snub

[54:56] Adam Carolla:
Adam addresses a recent Variety publication piece criticizing Matt Walsh for submitting his documentary "Am I Racist?" to the Oscars. The article claims that the Oscars are inherently left-leaning and not open to conservative or right-wing narratives.

[55:46] Matt Walsh:
Walsh defends the submission, arguing that the Oscars should consider his film based on its success and impact rather than ideological alignment. He contends that media outlets like Variety are losing their gatekeeping power as platforms like Daily Wire operate outside traditional Hollywood ecosystems.

[61:46] Matt Walsh:
He reflects on the futility of trying to gain acceptance within an insular Hollywood system, emphasizing that alternative platforms are becoming more influential and audience reaches are expanding beyond traditional media gatekeepers.

[63:49] Adam Carolla:
Adam further criticizes established media for their diminishing influence and highlights how independent creators can now achieve greater reach without relying on entities like Variety or the Oscars.

[65:50] Matt Walsh:
Walsh shares his perception of left-leaning media gatekeepers as out of touch with the broader American audience, leading to ineffective and mocked attempts to maintain ideological control.

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Seven Rules of Self Reliance with Maha Aboueleneen

[74:38] Maha Aboueleneen:
Maha introduces her book, "Seven Rules of Self Reliance," emphasizing the importance of self-dependence and investing in oneself before seeking external help. She argues against societal expectations that individuals should rely on others without first building their own capabilities.

[77:20] Adam Carolla:
Adam relates a personal anecdote about how he sought free work to gain opportunities, aligning with Maha’s principles of creating value and building trust without immediate returns.

[77:57] Adam Carolla:
He discusses the concept of "creating value for others" as opposed to a transactional mindset, illustrating how giving without immediate expectation can lead to long-term benefits and opportunities.

[80:09] Maha Aboueleneen:
Maha elaborates on the importance of long-term thinking over instant gratification, advocating for consistent effort and relationship-building as keys to personal and professional success.

[83:01] Adam Carolla:
The conversation shifts to workplace dynamics, where Adam and Maha discuss the pitfalls of avoiding accountability and the benefits of proactive value creation in professional settings.

[85:21] Maha Aboueleneen:
She shares her experiences, emphasizing the necessity of hard work, building relationships, and taking initiative to create opportunities, reinforcing the themes of self-reliance and perseverance.

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Work Ethic, Accountability, and Networking

[86:01] Maha Aboueleneen:
Maha underscores the critical role of accountability in business, advocating for taking responsibility for one’s actions and maintaining integrity even when facing setbacks.

[88:23] Adam Carolla:
Adam highlights common workplace issues such as avoidance of responsibilities and the dangers of a lack of accountability, tying back to Maha’s principles on self-reliance and value creation.

[89:04] Adam Carolla & Maha Aboueleneen:
The dialogue explores practical strategies for building professional relationships and advancing one’s career through consistent effort and dependable behavior, illustrating how these actions align with self-reliance.

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with Adam Carolla and Maha Aboueleneen reaffirming the importance of self-reliance, hard work, and creating value in both personal and professional spheres. Matt Walsh’s experiences with Hollywood gatekeepers and the critical analysis of modern social movements provide listeners with a comprehensive exploration of contemporary societal dynamics and the enduring principles of personal accountability and resilience.

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Notable Quotes

• Matt Walsh [05:13]:
  "The idea of seriously considering doing movies didn't really occur to me until the Daily Wire announced they were getting into movies. That kind of took me off in a direction I wasn't expecting."

• Adam Carolla [07:12]:
  "It's like the number of people that are really down with the Black Lives Matter or the Trans and even Covid was minuscule compared to the reaction they had."

• Matt Walsh [11:11]:
  "We were told it's a fallacy. It's not. But this is exactly what we were saying. We're saying, well, look, if you accept this, here's what that then you have no reason to not accept this thing."

• Maha Abouelenein [77:21]:
  "If you can learn how to create value for other people, you can get your foot in the door or you can ultimately create value for yourself."

• Adam Carolla [83:01]:
  "I've always worked for free. It was about money, of course. I wanted to get paid. I wanted nice stuff. I wanted to live in a house. I wanted air conditioning."

• Maha Abouelenein [87:23]:
  "Building relationships is important. You can do it virtually when you don't have a lot of time by just helping support other people."

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Key Takeaways

1. Navigating Media Gatekeepers:
   Independent creators like Matt Walsh are increasingly bypassing traditional Hollywood gatekeepers, leveraging alternative platforms to reach broader audiences and challenge established narratives.

2. Dynamics of Social Movements:
   Movements like BLM, Trans rights, and responses to COVID-19 can rapidly gain and lose traction, influenced by societal fear, obedience, and media portrayal.

3. Principles of Self-Reliance:
   Maha Abouelenein’s insights underscore the importance of building personal value, fostering relationships, and maintaining accountability to achieve long-term success.

4. Work Ethic and Accountability:
   Consistent effort, proactive value creation, and taking responsibility are crucial for personal and professional growth, countering prevalent attitudes of entitlement and avoidance of accountability.

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This episode offers a profound exploration of contemporary societal shifts, media dynamics, and timeless principles of self-reliance, providing listeners with both critical analysis and actionable insights.

Transcript

[Adam Carolla]

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[Matt Walsh]

If your day sounds like we need the report asap, you deserve Medela if you've persevered through, you deserve this rich golden lager with a crisp or refreshing taste. Or if you overcame.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Two more rests, two more.

[Matt Walsh]

You deserve this ice cold reward. Madeleine the Market Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Import, Chicago, IL.

[Adam Carolla]

In this episode from the Daily Wire, Matt Walsh. You know all the guys docs taking the country by storm. Anyway, Matt Walsh is on and we'll talk to Maha Abulaneen as well. She's a financial lady. She's an author as well. We'll do all that right after this.

[Dawson]

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[Adam Carolla]

Hey fans of Freedom and open discussion. I'm heading over to Substack and there's an ad free audio and video version of the Adam Corolla show that's going to be waiting there in the near future. You'll even be able to watch ACS live unedited as we record it. Participate in the show via live chat. That'll be coming up very soon. You also get an ad free version of the Adam Kohl and Dr. Drew show. You also get an exclusive to my new podcast Beat it out where I share unpolished ideas with my comedian buddies. The first series of episodes is going to be Jay Moore. You'll get all this and more for the low, low price of nine bucks a month. A pittance for all we're going to bring you. Subscribe [e-mail] substack and I'll see all of you in our new speakeasy called Substack.

[E]

From Corolla One Studios in Glendale, California. This is the Adam Carolla Show Adam's guest today, political commentator Matt Walsh and CEO and author Maha Abu Alanin. And now reminding our California listeners that hanging balls on your Christmas tree is technically a gender normative microaggression, Adam Carolla.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. Get it on. To get on a chosen amend date. Get it on. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for sharing the show. Matt Walsh is back on the show. Good to see you again, Matt.

[Matt Walsh]

Hey, Adam, good to see you. Thanks for having me.

[Adam Carolla]

Hey. An unlikely movie star and documentarian, Matt Walsh. I mean, it's funny, I don't know if you'd envision, I mean, what is a woman is great. And it really started a conversation and sort of began a turning point. And then Am I Racist? Came out and that continued the conversation on a separate subject, by the way, available on Daily Wire. Plus, is this what you thought adult life was going to be for you or what were you envisioning when you were like, in high school?

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, probably not. This. I got. Sorry, go ahead. You know, I started in radio back in my, in my early 20s and so, and I'm 38 now. So I think for most of my adult life I had kind of imagined, you know, the broadcasting trajectory. And of course that's taken some weird turns and all that, you know, as you get into podcasting and everything. But the idea of, like, seriously considering doing movies didn't really occur to me until really probably three or four years ago when the Daily Wire announced that they were getting into movies, which I didn't know. You know, I was. I've been working Day Wire for a couple years. When they made the big announcement, I think it was back in 2020, they're getting into movies. And I didn't know that that was going to happen. And as soon as they announced that, I just thought, well, you know, if they're doing movies, I work here, so I need to start coming up with some movie ideas. And that kind of took me off in a direction I wasn't expecting.

[Adam Carolla]

And they're both themes that we've experienced in the last few years, very recently, sort of historically. There's Covid, there's Black Lives Matter, there's the trans movement. All things that they immediately captured society with. And somehow whether, you know, very different subjects, Covid versus the Trans movement versus Black Lives Matter. They immediately captured society and took regular people and made them scared and fearful to talk about things that were sort of obvious and that they knew or didn't or disagreed with. And it was really kind of, it should be studied in future generations, should Study this because you've essentially said there's a thing that doesn't really seem like it's happening that most Americans don't believe in, and then immediately captured everyone and got them to go along with it, which is pretty insane in a very short period of time.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah. And they all kind of captured society around the same time, too. I mean, yes, these things obviously. Obviously preexisted. But, you know, BLM came about, I think, in. I think it's, you know, technical birth place was. Was really before Ferguson. I mean, it'd been around since, I think, like 2012 or 2013. But 2020 was the big year when it, you know, in a very literal sense, exploded. And a bunch of us, you know, cities and neighborhoods went along with it. Same for the trans phenomenon. I mean, this. You could date. You could go back to the mid 20th century to find the beginning as value, go even further. We can go back to the. To the end of the 19th century, but same kind of ideal that around that same time is when it exploded in public consciousness, and it was like it was everywhere all of a sudden.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Matt Walsh]

And then, of course, we know. We know Covid. We know Covid as well, is the same thing. So, I don't know. You talk about studying it. That's part of the study is what is it about, like, that.

[Adam Carolla]

That.

[Matt Walsh]

That period in history, that particular time, 20, I don't know, 17 to 2021, that made society so especially susceptible to all of these social contagions exploding simultaneously almost.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. And in terms of marketing, it was sort of akin to saying, look, we're gonna need everyone in America to love the Carolina Panthers. And then someone goes, well, they don't win that much, and they haven't won any Super Bowls. Why do we just do it? And then, next thing you know, everyone's walking around wearing a Panthers jersey. And then I stand up and go, well, I'm a Rams fan. And then I get pulled down off the Internet, and it's sort of like, how did it happen so fast? And how did they convert people? And by the way, the people wearing the Panthers jerseys weren't even Panthers fans. They just put the jersey on because they were scared and pretended to like it. It's really a phenomenon, like the number of people that are really down with the Black Lives Matter and. Or the Trans and. Or even Covid was minuscule compared to the reaction they had. And then it became. You go back and you look at some of these photographs, like, you see all the Congress people led by pelosi with the African prayer shawl on, all taking a knee in the rotunda. And it's very comical now when you get a little bit of distance from it and go, what are these ass kissers doing over George Floyd the felon.

[Matt Walsh]

But like, pow.

[Adam Carolla]

Worked. Dangerous and scary, but kind of interesting.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, I agree. I think what you said about people pretending to go along with it because they're scared. I think that, that, that does explain a lot of this. And I was thinking about this the other day because there was. I forget what it was. It was Taylor Lorenz, the crazy whack job journalist, I think was with the Washington Post, and now she's doing whatever substack or something. But anyway, she's. There was some post that went viral of her from this past week, you know, in the year 2024, almost 2025, talking about how she was doing a book launch and she wanted to be Covid safe and everybody had to wear masks and all this. And she said that people who don't wear masks are, quote, raw, dogging the air. And I'm looking at this and it kind of, for me, it raised a question which is, obviously, she's insane. We don't have to explain why you're still wearing a mask in 2020. It's crazy. But my question was, why aren't there more people like her? Because if you had asked me in 2022, in fact, in 2022, or say 2021, walking around these cities and seeing all these people masking, I thought at the time that all these people, their brains have been broken and that 10 years from now half of the country would still be wearing masks because their brain had just been destroyed. But it turns out that it's really. It's only just a small amount. Like Taylor Lorenz, her brain was totally broken and it would probably never be made. Her brain was never great to begin with, but it was completely destroyed by Covid. So it's almost like considering how many people were compliant with it and went along with it, I don't know if I'd prefer to think that they all had their brains broken or if actually everybody knew it was nonsense and it was pure obedience the whole time. And at the time, I didn't think that. I didn't think it was pure obedience. I thought that people actually were terrified. But now I'm starting to see that it was probably like 95% pure obedience and people actually weren't that scared. So I think you're right about that. And it also applies to, as you said BLM and even a lot of.

[Adam Carolla]

This, no, it's the exact same part of everyone's brain. It's not that there is a big difference between the trans movement, BLM and Covid, but it hits that receptor in all the obedience people's brains the exact same way. It feels the same. You know, BLM speaking out against George Floyd or BLM would have been, would have felt exactly the same as speaking out against Covid or vaccinations. And that would have felt exactly the same as speaking out against the trans movement during the time when it was at its zenith. You know, so people, you know, you say obedient, which they are, but I don't think they're being obedient to the rule makers. You know, you drive from LA to Vegas, you get out on the open highway, everyone's doing 105 miles an hour, they're going 25 miles an hour faster than the speed limit or 30 miles an hour. People are not obedient when it comes to rules, but they're obedient when it comes to other people in traffic. And we, you know, we can ignore the mayor and we can ignore the CDC and we can ignore the governor, but we can't ignore all our neighbors. And those, those are the, that's what kept people in line.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, I think that's right. And that also explains why when the fever breaks, it seems to break pretty quickly. And it's. And you know, talking about how these, these social contagions seem to either came out of nowhere in terms of COVID or they really exploded on the scene all at the same time. They're also kind of being dismantled at the same time in a very rapid succession. And I think it's exactly what you're saying. It's just the domino effect. It just takes a couple of people to say, to give you cover. It takes a couple of people to stand up and say this is crazy, I'm not doing this. And then it starts to give everybody else cover. And we certainly look with the trans thing and I've said before when we were making what is a woman? And this was back three years ago when we were actually in production on it, going around to these different cities around the country and talking about this issue not just with the so called experts, but also with the people on the street, the average American. And I distinctly remember that experience of walking around these cities talking to people, simple questions like what is a woman? Is it okay to have men in the women's locker room? Should we give you know, should we sterilize and castrate children? Those kind of questions, really simple, easy questions. And I can distinctly remember how difficult it was to find anyone who would get on camera and say, no, that's crazy. We're not doing that. No. You don't treat kids, though. No. Of course, if you're a man, you don't belong in a women's room. A woman is a female. It was very difficult to do. But I could tell just by talking to them, especially off camera, it's like they know the answer. They're just afraid to say it. But once a few people just very unapologetically stood up and said, this is crazy. We all know this is crazy. This is nuts, guys. And then it kind of gave everybody else permission. And now. Now I think if I went did the exact same thing again, and I went to the exact same cities, exact same street corners, asked the exact same questions, I think it would be flipped. It'd be like 95% are giving me the right answers, whereas before it was 95% the other way. Because that's just how quickly the whole thing falls apart.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, it takes a few courageous people to sort of poke their head up and get a little traction, and then it becomes a movement in the other direction that happens as fast as it happened their direction several years ago. Here's a hypothetical. And, Dawson, you can find Taylor Lorenz talking about Raw Dog in the Air. I think it's pretty funny. I think it's a clip or tweet.

[Matt Walsh]

I think it was a tweet.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay, we can find that. Well, you love comedy. You're comedy fans. That's why you're listening to this podcast. And the funniest comedians in the world are on tour right now, and you can get tickets to see them live near you. So they're traveling and you're bringing the mountain to Mohammed. They're coming to your town. You don't have to go to their town to see them. And they got huge names in comedy. Otsuko Okotsuka is coming out. Maybe not a household name, but I bet if you're listening, you know comedy, you love Otsuko, Bill Burr. Well, there's a guy, you know, Sebastian Maniscalco is coming to town near you and so many more. All kinds of shows, all kinds of venues, all kinds of funny. So head to livenation.comcomedy to get your tickets today. That's livenation.comcomedy. and get caught up on all the comedy. Life can throw a lot your way in the morning. You might be battling drop off times while your kids are battling imaginary monsters or their shoelaces. But no matter what life brings, Life Cereal puts a smile on everyone's face. With 24 grams of whole grains, an unexpected sweetness in every serving, it's sure to please even the pickiest eaters. Help start your mornings with Life Cereal. I really love my life. So here's a. Here's here may make this point, but I'd be curious what your take on it would be the first election where Trump was voted in as president. For the sake of argument, we'll just say he got 60 million votes. Out of that 60 million, what percentage of people back then would say out loud that they voted for Trump? I think it would be less than 50%. I think there were a lot of Muranos and a lot of real quiet, closeted, I'm not going to admit it thing. Then he got elected six weeks ago, reelected. For the sake of argument, we'll say 60 million people again. Even though it was more, I think a much higher percentage of people would say they voted for Trump this time around than the first time around. So something changed people's fear level and they're being persecuted is what they fear. Being ostracized is really what they fear. We talk about taking away your job, but it's more being ostracized, being sort of shunned. We don't want to be shunned. One of our strongest sort of instinct is not to be shunned. And that's how all of this worked.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, I think it'd be interesting. I don't know if there's any way to quantify that, but how many? I certainly agree that many more people this time around would admit that they voted for him, admit it proudly, or I think even more significant, not even the people that are super proud about it. But it's just like, yeah, I voted for him. It's just, it's not, it's I voted for him, whatever, I voted for him. It's fine because, you know, you've always had the die hard Trump Trumpers that had the MAGA hats and all that, but I think the kind of people in the middle who support Trump aren't necessarily wearing a MAGA hat, aren't going to the rallies. People in that crowd that has grown and also the people that are willing to admit they're in that crowd has grown as well. Part of that is, and this goes back to the other three things we talked about, that the narrative is unsustainable. Part of the problem for the left is that they. I think that leftism has been lying to Americans and lying to people for decades. But over the last 10 years or so, the lies that they're telling that they expect you to believe are so outrageous and so contradict what we can all see in front of our faces that it just can't last that long. It's just not sustainable. I think a kind of lower grade lie is a lot more sustainable. You get people to accept it for a lot longer. But these days, it's like, men can have babies. Covid's gonna kill you if you don't wear a mask. It's okay. When mobs of people are burning down neighborhoods. And on Donald Trump, rather than them just say, oh, he's a bad president. Criticizing him in the terms people always criticize politicians. He's literally Hitler. He is Hitler incarnate. That's the lie they want you to accept. And the fact is, it just wears off. You cannot convince people to pretend they believe that for eight years. I mean, maybe for that first election you could, but now you can't.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I agree. It's too egregious. It's like a Ponzi scheme versus other ways of removing money from people's pockets. Meaning it's like you have to borrow money from other investors to pay off the other. Like, it'll fall apart fast. It's too aggressive versus some membership you signed up for, for some cable thing that just takes $9 out of your bank account every month. And it's been seven years and you don't even notice. You're not even looking for it. This is too big, like too bold, too aggressive. And yeah, the asks, you know, they used to sort of say things like, they'd go, well, look, these immigrants who come here illegally actually add more to society than they take. You know, they pay taxes and they do work that we don't want to do, and they don't commit crime at this high rate. And we kind of went like, okay, yeah. But then it became an open border flood. You know, people sleep in, in the streets in downtown Chicago. And it just came. It's funny because if I were in charge of them, and I would have, you know, and it was 10 years ago, I would have said, look, we got a pretty good thing going here. We have most Americans sort of agreeing with us and a little bit scared to disagree with us. Now when you start yelling, you know, all cops are killers, and trying to open up the bathroom so boys could use the girls room Biological boys and have them play on the volleyball team. We're going to lose people. It's too crazy. It's like, it's too much. So let's just slow and steady wins the race. I don't know why they got so far over their skis. Like they made, you know, Bill Maher just go, you guys are batshit crazy. I'm not going along with a lot of this. This is nuts. They turned him out. He was a staunch supporter and ally. Now in the last several years, I've heard him talking more crap about the Democratic Party and he never had to. If they would have just sort of kept it in some sort of reasonable lane. But they got so insane, that sort of basic pragmatic thinking, people just kind of went, well, look, I could go pretty far in this direction, but I can't go full blown. Dots.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, I mean, the race stuff is probably the quintessential example of this. Because if you go back, you know, 10, 15 years ago, the left, the basic leftist narrative is basically what it is now. That although just not as extreme, but the narratives, cops are kind of racist. This country is systemically racist. Maybe not as bad as it used to be, but it still is. That was kind of the narrative. And I think probably 15 years ago it was kind of generally accepted. And certainly in mainstream culture it was any movie or show that had anything to do with cops, you'd always find that in it, but in a slightly more subtle way. And so they'd kind. I think their narrative, it's sort of been cemented. But then we get to George Floyd. And then I think it was, if we had to point to one thing, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that happened with George Floyd that was egregious. But then they came around and said, defund the police. And that was the moment when even a lot of people on the left said, well, wait a minute, get rid of the police. So we can't do that. That's crazy. And in a certain way, it was a logical progression from the basic premise of leftism, which is that cops are systemically racist and they're out killing black people. And if that's true, which it isn't, but if it is, then okay, you can kind of see how when you follow the thread, you get eventually to, yeah, I guess there should be cops anymore. So I think the flaw in the logic was always there. They just hadn't. They hadn't followed it. This is what the slippery slope is. This is why people on the right for decades have been talking about the slippery slope. Look, one thing leads to another. If you accept this premise, eventually it leads to that. Eventually it leads to that. And conservative have been totally right about the slippery slope. We were told it's a fallacy. It's not. But this is exactly what we were saying. We're saying, well, look, if you accept this, here's what that then you have no reason to not accept this thing, which means why don't you accept this? And then eventually leads to full blown insanity, which is what we've seen, essentially. We've seen kind of the. The bottom of the slippery slope, the abyss that lays at the bottom of the slippery slope on all these different issues. And we kind of arrived there at the same time. And then that's one of the problems I have with some of these leftists who say, you know, who say, well, the left left me and they've gone too far. And okay, I can see why you would say that. And I appreciate anybody who comes out and is reasonable. But at the same time, look, guys, we told you, we told you 15 years ago this is where it was going to go. It's actually not that shocking. We kind of. But you didn't listen. We were trying to tell you. You didn't listen because a lot of this ultimately was foreseeable, I think.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, I agree. And you have to kind of first try to figure out motivation, like, what is it they want? You know, is it chaos? Is it nihilism? You know, is it sort of the destruction of society as we know it? And I don't know, like what AOC wants. Exactly. Now what I'm saying is they start by saying whether it's the, you know, LGBT community or the Black Lives Matter, right? They start in some place, you have to start in a reasonable, logical place to begin your discussions, you know, so you go, we want to be treated equally whether we're black or whether we're gay. We don't want the days of a separate hotel for the black musicians to stay in and another one for white musicians to stay in. We don't want two different drinking fountains. And as a gay couple, I would like to be married and have it recognized by the state and be afforded all the same benefits that a heterosexual couple would receive. And I would like to be treated just as an American, not as a gay American. And then people like me go, well, that sounds very reasonable. That all sounds reasonable. So that's their stated goal. At some point, it turns into Drag queen story hour. And we want you to pay reparations for blm. And we'd like to paint BLM in this, every intersection in America. And George Floyd is a hero and a martyr. And then normal people like me go, well, wait a minute. No, no, no, I didn't sign up for that. I signed up for the part where you didn't have to stay in a separate hotel and you were treated fairly and with dignity and afforded all the rights that white people or heterosexual people. That's what I signed up for. I didn't sign up for your son using my daughter's locker room in junior high. That I didn't sign up for. So the question is, is that all they ever wanted? And if so, why do they always slide into the insane abyss when at some point, Lori Lightfoot, mayor of Chicago, saying, I'll do press conferences, but only with black reporters? And they're like, that is not what we started with. We started with one drinking fountain. Not separate, not discriminating against Asians at UCLA so more black kids could get in. That's not what we. That's what we talked about. We talked about normal, rational, reasonable stuff. You guys won't stop. And the question is, what do you truly want? Because if it's not what you said you wanted at the beginning.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, I think, yeah, you have to. Part of what complicates this is that we're talking about several different kind of movements that have now converged into one thing that we would call leftism or wokeism or whatever, but have not always been the same thing. So I would. So taking, for example, civil rights, racial civil rights, you go back 70, 80, 90 years. That was a movement that wanted particular things, to your point. And the things that it wanted were certainly quite reasonable and correct. But here's. And then you compare that for, you know, let's say if we would take the LGBT quote, unquote, LGBT rights movement and you go back to the, whatever 90s now, I would argue that with the, with so called LGBT rights, that the fundamental goal all along has been to treat the, you know, the nuclear family, what they would call heteronormative families and societal structure, to kind of dismantle it and get rid of it because they see it as an evil. Now, that's that. But over here with civil rights and racial, you know, the racial equality and all that, that was not part of the goal 70, 80 years ago. But here's what happens if you have a good and reasonable goal, which is we shouldn't have to have separate drinking fountains, etc. Well, once you achieve it, once that's happened, well, it's like, well, you won. It's over now. Let's go live our lives. We could put that behind us. Now it's over. But then once that. Once it's achieved and then you look and it's like the movement is still here and it hasn't gone away. Well, they don't want that anymore because that already happened. And so then you start questioning. Well, now this has become something else entirely now. And I think we found that with blm. I mean, because then it became. You look back on BLM's website a few years ago, and I think they took it down. But they had kind of their pillars, their agenda items. They had it laid out. It was very explicit. And one of them was something like dismantling the patriarchy or stuff like that. It's like, what does that have to do with racial. What does that do with anything that you're supposed to be about? Because all these movements have converged. They're now basically the same thing.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, it's like, I don't know, whatever The ACLU was 50 years ago and what they were conceived for does not resemble who they are today in any of these groups. So it's an interesting phenomenon. I always just put it this way, Matt. I just said it's called a progressive movement. What part of that title suggests it's ever slowing down or stopping? It's got Progress and movement right in the title. It's gonna just keep rolling. It doesn't matter how absurd it gets. That's what it does. And what it will do, though, is ultimately these people have no convictions. They're greedy and mostly cowards. So they're immediately change on a dime. Kamala Harris wanted to end fracking and have folks in prison transition. And the second she heard that nobody liked that idea, she immediately just gave it up. But conveniently said she still stands on her principles, even though she's changed and modified her standing on everything. So they will immediately abandon these things. At least politicians will for sure. Especially if it means they're never going to get elected.

[Matt Walsh]

And once. Yeah, once. It's not useful to them anymore. I mean, the Kamala Harris campaign, maybe. And we can't say this with any definitive certainty now, but maybe the history books will pinpoint that as sort of the true beginning of the end for wokeness, for at least this iteration of what we call wokeness, because of what you just said, that this was this. She just kind of abandoned wholesale all of these things because she recognized you can't get elected on it. The trans issue is a big one. I mean, Trump was running ads on the trans issue, hitting it from the right, and rightfully so. And that ended up being, you know, very compelling. It's one of the reasons, one of the things that swung the swing voters in his direction. Kamala Harris, on the other hand, she didn't want to talk about it. You know, you go back four years, and if you're a Democrat politician, you're bringing up trans rights any chance you get because it was perceived as a popular thing, a popular position. But how many times did she, on her own, unprompted, ever bring up trans rights at all? I mean, I don't know if she did one time. It was only when she was asked about it, which she wasn't asked about it very often, by the way, because the media recognized that this was embarrassing for her. So they did her a favor by not bringing it up. But that really kind of tells you something. That tells you that where the country is.

[Adam Carolla]

Do you think I'm going to tease this? I got a question I think you'll find intriguing. I've never thought about it before, but you're uniquely qualified to answer it. But I'll tease it. Am I Racist? Is the name of the film. It's very good. I saw it. I should tell you, I was almost bit by a rattlesnake when I saw it. It's available on Daily Wire. Matt Walsh is with us. We'll take a quick break. Come right back with Matt right after this. Hey, I'm Adam Kroll. That's Brad Williams and Jay Leno. Hey, everybody over there. We're doing our third annual comedy fantasy camp. That's going to be January 23rd through the 26th, right. In Hollywood, California. Where else would it be? These guys are be there. So remember, two out of every three comments. Make it big or one and a half. Do I get paid for this? Please tell me to get paid for this. Go to comedy fantasy camp.com and get in on the fun. Yeah, Simply Safe right now. That's the best time of the year to get some home security. Simply Safe. Well, they're extending their Black Friday deal only for my listeners. Last chance to protect your home at Simplisafe's. Lowest prices of the year. We all use Simplisafe here. We've used them for years. Over a decade they've been a sponsor. It's great because everything is modular. So if you move, you can pick up your system and leave and take it with you. That's Simplisafe. They have active guard. Outdoor protection changes the game by preventing crime before it happens. That's right. Let's not find find the person in your house. Let's find them outside your house. If someone's lurking around acting suspicious, agents see them in real time, talk to them directly, set off the spotlight, even call the police. No long term contracts and no big time fees. It's about a buck a day for the Simplisafe protection. It's Simplisafe, right, Dawson?

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[Adam Carolla]

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[Matt Walsh]

Dreaming of some wise.

[Adam Carolla]

Privilege just like the HuffPost Sandy had in popcorn tins he was pissing as a child.

[Matt Walsh]

He would listen to his mom shout.

[Adam Carolla]

Freak out in locked room he streaming.

[Matt Walsh]

Of some white.

[Adam Carolla]

Privilege with every dumpster he would die. His early days were to merry or bride wind digging ditches on construction site. Matt Walsh, a perfect guest to hear My White Privilege Christmas song, is beaming in from Daily Wire headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee. Am I Racist? Name of the film available Daily Wire. So I'll give you a thought and then I want to get into this Variety publication hit piece on you and the Oscars and am I Racist? The trans subject that we're talking about quite a bit in our dialogue, it doesn't affect that many people statistically. And some of the arguments I hear from folks on the left and they always kind of. It's funny, I'll hear Howard Stern do this. Like, they always oversimplify. They go, what do you care if that couple's gay? Like, what do you care if that's a couple? And they. And they go, I don't care. By the way, that would make me a bigot. I don't care. Or at least obsessed with gay relationships. I'm just talking about materials and books that might be distributed in school libraries. That's something I would think about. But I don't care if the person there's a gay couple lives across the street. They always twist it a little bit to make you just a little bit homophobic and racist and everything else. And then self congratulate them because they're the evolved of the two of us, the, the trans movement. To me, when people push back against the trans movement, they're not doing it from a pragmatic standpoint per se. You know, I have kids. They're twins. They're 18. They're not trans. They don't have friends that are trans. They're very happy to be a boy and a girl thank God. I think most Americans push back on it. Just like when Kamala Harris doesn't want to talk about it is it stands as a metaphor for you being batshit crazy and wanting to usher in a whole bunch of other stuff that's equally crazy that I don't want. Defund the police is right up there with the whole trans stuff, which is. It's a crazy idea. And I think you're probably for both of them, and you're against fracking and a stout border and all the other stuff I want. So it's become kind of a metaphor for America to push back against, not because we inherently don't like trans or that we think it's going to even affect us.

[Matt Walsh]

Yes, and so I'll answer that, but I'll back up a second just to this, because I hear the same thing all the time. Of course this doesn't affect you. This doesn't affect you. Why do you care? And really, my first response to that always is, well, there's a few things. Number one, the people saying that they actually want us to care a lot. They just want us to care a certain way and come to certain conclusions.

[Adam Carolla]

Right.

[Matt Walsh]

And which is why, you know, the lgbt, they say, why do you care? But then you're doing pride parades in the street. You're walking down the street with the banners and flags. I mean, you made a flag to your sexuality. You're literally waving a flag. You obviously want us to care, otherwise you wouldn't be doing that. But you want us to agree with you while we care, so that's really your issue. And second, I think even if I were to agree, oh, it doesn't really affect me. Isn't that what basically they are promoting? Being self interested, Being selfish? I mean, isn't the definition of being selfish is I don't care about anything unless it affects me personally. So the definition of being unselfish is you care about things even if they don't personally affect you. So there's that. But on this issue, I think that you're right that there are people, obviously, especially if you're a parent, me as six kids. So I have a reason to be invested in the transition. I don't want my own kids to get indoctrinated into this nonsense. And I look at the horror stories of other parents whose kids have fallen into it, and it's like suffering the death of a child. I mean, you lose your child in a very real sense, and then oftentimes, because of how this goes, you might lose them in the physical sense also. So you do have that kind of very immediate personal reason to care. But even if you take that out of it. Yes. People just don't. Even if they wouldn't necessarily articulate it this way, a lot of them would. But even if they don't, people don't want to forfeit truth itself. It's just what makes a life good.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. I think for the folks who resist it, they see it as a eerie harbinger of a possible crazy future that we don't want any part of that. The same people who think this is a good idea are now gonna be in charge of taxes and the border and energy production. And I don't want anything in the midd military and I don't want them. There's like sort of. It's like when I drive around LA and once in a while you see a guy and his car is filled with garbage, newspapers, you know, up at fast food wrappers up on the dash, the car's a mess. I go, I know everything about that person from driving next to them on the 101 for 15 seconds. I know their apartment's a mess, I know they're a mess. I know they're mentally not there. You know what I mean? I don't need to follow them home and see where they live. I get it. I got a snapshot. It's junk all over the dash of their crazy. I can tell they're crazy from being outside of their car. And if this is a big thing for you, then I can tell you I don't want you governing me. It has really nothing to do with trans. It's everything else. And for them, I think it's them going, if we can push this along, if we can get them to believe them, then everything's on the table. Because this is the craziest of all.

[Matt Walsh]

Well, it's also. I don't. There are a lot of things people say that aren't true. And you could walk by some crazy guy on the sidewalk who's declaring that he's Queen Elizabeth or whatever and I'm not going to get into an argument with him to convince him that he's not. Because that is an example of. Doesn't affect me at all. There's no greater thing going on here. There's just one crazy person saying something crazy. I can move on with my time. But when an untruth, when you've got powerful forces in society insisting on the untruth, telling you you have to believe it, well then that tells you something. That tells you you can't just ignore this. And if you go along with it, then you've just sacrificed truth at a really fundamental level. It's like, look, geometry is not something I walk around thinking about all the time. But if all of a sudden there was some movement afoot in academia and in the media and in Hollywood to tell us all that squares are circles or that the two shapes are the same actually and there's no difference, then even though I haven't spent any time thinking about shapes and it doesn't seem to affect my life all that much, it's like, well, okay, well, now I guess I have to have this argument because you guys, as the powerful forces in society, as the institutions are insisting that I have to accept this. And it's just, I don't, I didn't decide for this to be a big fight. But I live in a world where squares and circles are different things. And you're telling me for some reason that I have to pretend I don't notice that. And sort of to your point, I have to. Now I'm like, well, okay, that's. Why do you want me to accept this so much? You're up to something here.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Matt Walsh]

So I just can't go along.

[Adam Carolla]

My theory is that it's more grievance than it is the subject matter. They are sort of. Anybody who's been in a bad relationship can tell you that when the other partner sort of gets into the grievance mode, there's really nothing. You know, you could surprise them with tickets to Maui for the Christmas break and they would find a way to argue with you later on that night. As a matter of fact, what I've found from a sort of psychological standpoint, which is when somebody is agree, when they have grievance, when what's propelling them is grievance, not we need equity or equality or we need rights or we need to be treated or dignity or seat at the table. That's what they say. They can't say we're grievance based. BLM is grievance. They say we want this, they say we want that, but every time you turn your head, they're lashing out about something and it seems more and more insane. So the question is, just like the relationship, the marriage that's going bad, is this person really want these things or are they really just angry at you and lashing out? And I think most of what we're discussing are grievance based groups. And that's, by the way, why they get so angry and so agitated. And the grievance groups, once they get what they wanted, they got Obama, they got two terms of Obama, BLM got two terms of a black president. They have to up their game. They went harder in the grievance paint once they started getting their way.

[Matt Walsh]

Right. Because they can never. They, they can never win because if they win and then the grievance is over. And that's. But that's. This has also been leftism. I think the defining feature of leftism is when you say grievance, it's, It's. This is why in leftist circles the word dismantle is used. It's like the only place where you can go where they use the word dismantle as a positive right anywhere else. It's like dismantling things is generally not what we want to do. But they want to. That's what they want to do. They want to dismantle and not just dismantle anything. Not dismantle things that aren't working, but rather dismantle the things that not only are working, but that society is built on. They want to dismantle those things, things like the family. And not because they have any great plan for what to do in its place, but just because they have a grievance. They just hate that thing. They hate it. They've blamed that whatever it is for all their problems and their own unhappiness. And so their solution is just destroy it.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. I say, I think there's a dynamic that runs deeper that I, you know, I did Loveline for a decade, and I sat next to Dr. Drew and I talked to angry teenagers and a lot of angry teenage girls in particular. And they were angry at their dad because their dad abandoned them and didn't love them and possibly abused them. And they had this very. It works for males and females, but females don't do as good a job of hiding it as males do once they go out into society. But they had a problem with male authority figures and they wanted to lash out against that authority. Now, it was really a sort of micro problem is between them and their dad or them and their stepdad, who never showed them affection or whatever it is. But at some point, they became an adult and got a job at an airport. And then when I started coming down through security, I became that authority figure. I became that male authority figure. And society is that it's the man, it's the authority. I mean, Donald Trump is a poster child for white male authority figure, you know, rich, white, male, heterosexual, whatever the Trump derangement syndrome is a lashing out against that. It's not like I disagree with some of his policies. It's a crazed. Which started because your dad abandoned you and left and moved to Florida with his younger secretary, never sent you a stuffed animal for Christmas. So I think some of it is a dynamic, like a deeper psychodynamic that has to do with the sort of parental issues and especially a matriarch. They always want to get rid of the matriarchy. Right. Women who love their dads and respect the shit out of their dads don't want to destroy the matriarchy or the patriarchy, I should say.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, yeah, I know you've been talking about this forever, but the fatherless, that's. It doesn't, I mean, we don't want to get too Freudian and all that. There's a lot, there's other things going on. But I think we look at the rise of leftism, especially this kind of radical leftism, and you can also track, you know, the rise of fatherlessness through the decades and then look at where those kids are now, how old they are. What do you know? Those are all the green haired weirdos running around saying destroy the family and burn the cities and all that. So there's certainly a connection there, which is a good thing for people, those of us who are fathers, to know that, look, you can't, I mean, your kids are going to grow older, they're going to make choices, they might make bad choices. It can't all be on you. You can't literally control what they do and say. But if you just raise your kids and no one does it perfectly, but if you raise your kids and you actually love them and you care about the kinds of people they turn into and you spend some energy on not just their physical safety but their moral formation, if you do that, which is kind of bare minimum, the chances are really good that your kids won't turn into one of those people, at least.

[Adam Carolla]

Agreed. Now, Variety has headlined Hot off the Press is about you submitting Am I Racist? Which is interesting and we'll read it to you. Matt Walsh is a hypocrite for submitting Am I Racist to the Oscars. Why are right wingers seeking liberal validation? I also don't know why publications who are there to report on entertainment have to out themselves constantly as sort of left wing rags. But I guess that's where we're at. How say you, Matt Walsh?

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, I think there's a few things that are funny about it. And first of all, they're basically admitting. They're acknowledging, I guess, that according to them, Hollywood is for the left and the Oscars are an award meant for leftists. It's a very insular club. That's what they're saying. Now, our point is. And in fact, there's a line in there. I don't remember what it is exactly, but the writer says something like, oh, so does Matt Walsh think that the Oscars have to prove their credibility by considering his film for a nomination? And the answer is, yeah, basically. Now, I'm not saying that the Oscars have no credibility if they don't give us an Oscar, but if they won't, even if we can't even be considered, if we can't even be in the running to be considered maybe for a nomination, if we aren't treated as a credible possibility, then, yes, that would mean by definition, that the Academy Awards are fully insular. It's not actually meant to award the best movie. It's just meant to award the movies that are ideologically aligned with, you know, the mainstream Hollywood political position, which would mean. And that's. If you want to have an award ceremony like that, you're perfectly allowed to do that, but that's what that would mean. So it's just kind of interesting that we get this. This reaction, especially when, look, our, you know, Emma Racist was the top grossing documentary in the box office of the decade. And does that mean that, again, that that alone is a reason why it should be awarded, you know, the best documentary at the Oscars? No. I mean, there's. There's plenty of movies that make a ton of money. You know, I'm not saying that every Marvel movie, they all make a billion dollars. Should they all win best Picture? No. But when you have a movie that is by far and away the most successful film in its genre, then of course it should be at least considered for an award. There's nothing absurd about the creators of that film submitting it and saying, hey, guys, we made this film. We're proud of it. It was super successful. Check it out. Consider us too. So you wouldn't think that that would be an absurd thing for us to do or certainly it's not something that's worth a hit piece. It shouldn't even be newsworthy, really. The attitude should be, well, of course they submitted it. Why wouldn't they? Obviously they'd. But this is. These are people that believe that, although they usually won't say it out loud, they believe that. No, you know, what the Oscars are for us. Hollywood is ours. And not just that, movies in general, the art of moviemaking is ours is what people like this say, people that wrote that article, it's like that's how they see it. The moviemaking art itself belongs to the left. And if you try to make a movie and you're on the right, then you're intruding in their area and you have no right to be there.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, well, I have several thoughts. One is, it is funny that they still feel like they wield some power. You know, the New York Times, Variety, L.A. times, they're mostly made fun of by people on the right. When they try to do a hit piece on them, the subject matter, the subject of the hit piece normally laughs at them. Like, we're ridiculing Variety now versus you on the phone with your publicist going, we gotta get that article taken down. It's now amusing to us because they don't wield any power anymore. And because you're operating outside of the system, when you're operating inside of the system, then you need Sundance and the Oscars and Variety and Dramalog. You need these. And LA Times, New York Times, you need Tribeca Film Festival. You need these entities. We're not in their sphere anymore. And they act like you want to be in their sphere, but we don't want to be in their sphere. And so they act like they're gatekeepers, they're bouncers in front of a club that we don't want to enter, but they act like there's a line going around the block and everyone wants to get into their crappy club. So it's funny and it's good that Daily Wire exists outside of that ecosystem and many other entities and podcasters and beyond Substack and now X and everything else. So a they write these articles like it's 1996. They don't realize nobody reads it, nobody gives a shit, and they become mock worthy, number one. Number two, they end up outing themselves, as I said, by writing hit pieces that you're right. There's no reason you made the most successful documentary monetarily in the last decade. You should submit it to the Oscars. That's not a story. The story is them doing a hit piece on you and that outs themselves. I make documentaries. Tried to submit them to Sundance and Tribeca and all always rejected, immediately, summarily, just rejected. Even documentaries about subject matter. They would like. Documentaries that were very well received. No, not gonna touch it. So it's become abundantly Clear. It's exactly who they are. And it would be a waste of time for people like you and people like me to try to exist inside of their system. We will then exist outside of their system. They created this. And now you have people turning to podcasts versus cnn, MSNBC, or the LA Times to get their information. They created it.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah. That's why it's always my. What I always wonder anytime I see one of these hit pieces is how do they think I'm a hippie against me in one of these public. I was like, the person who wrote this. How do they imagine I'm going to react to this? Because how do they imagine I receive it? Because I have to think that they wouldn't write it unless they thought somehow that I'm going to see this and be like, heartbroken or nervous or my gosh, this is a crisis. You're right. It's exact opposite. The funny thing is that that hit piece, I think my pr, our PR team here at Daily Wire sent me that. The article. They were the first ones to see it. You know, it's their job to be looking for stuff like this. They sent it to me, but it wasn't like, we got it. We got a war. We got a war game. This thing we got to figure out, this is a crisis that you got rejected by Variety? No, it was like. I think they sent it with a link, like, lol. This is great. It was fantastic. I read it. I was like, oh, wow, this is amazing. I'll talk about this on the show tomorrow. It's a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun with it. They're promoting my movie too, at the same time, so it's fantastic. So I think that this is part of their problem. If they understood how the rest of the country views them and if they even understood just their own ideological opponents, which they obviously consider me to be one, then they would stop writing these articles entirely. Because they would realize that when you write that article, you're playing right into my hand. By the way, if you do think that I submitted the Oscar, submitted to Oscars purely for publicity and as a troll, well, then, mission accomplished. In that case, I got Variety to talk about it. So if they understood this at all, what they would do is they would just not say anything. But I think they don't understand us. They don't understand American culture at this point. And they also can't help themselves. They just can't. They think that their opinion. They think so highly of themselves and their own opinion that they figure that, hey, I work for Variety. If I say this, of course it's gonna be devastating to the person I'm insulting, but it just isn't.

[Adam Carolla]

No, they can't help themselves. It's kind of interesting. It sort of reminds me of Leslie Stahl interviewing Trump. Sir. No, that can't be. No, it can't be proven. The laptop can't be. It's like you're outing yourself, sweetheart. Stifle yourself. Let him talk. And then say, well, we haven't verified the laptop, but when we do, we're gonna get back. But she couldn't stop herself. You know, they can't. It's like the ladies from the View, you know, they start yammering, and the next thing you know, they call Kyle Rittenhouse a white supremacist. And the next thing you know, they get sued because they can't stop it. They think they're smarter than they are because they're formally educated, but they're not smart. But they. To them, formal education is the end all and be all. That's the yardstick that you measure intelligence. And they're formally educated, and they're so insulated in the circles they run with that they think everyone thinks like them, and then they out themselves. And honestly, they make fools of themselves, and they lose market share by reacting the way they react instead of doing it in a more agnostic sort of way. I shouldn't know how you vote just because you write for a publication. And once I do know, then I'm now questioning the articles you write. I don't know why. I don't know why the LA Times and New York Times, I mean, I know it was different this time. I don't know why they endorse a candidate it two months before the election. Because now I would tend to not believe you when you write hit pieces against the person you didn't endorse or lavish loving love letters to the person you did endorse. I shouldn't know this about you.

[Matt Walsh]

Yeah, what you said about formal education, I think that also is a big part of this kind of the snobbery. And. And because what they're seeing with podcasting, with not just the Daily Wire, but, I mean, angel studios also making movies kind of outside of the. And others making movies outside of the Hollywood ecosystem. So where they're seeing all that is just all of the formal gatekeeping processes are being rendered totally irrelevant, which means that them being the gatekeepers, they are also being rendered irrelevant. And then on top of that, that insult to injury. A lot of us who are in this space, you know, as the outsiders, doing these things. We also didn't even go to college. And so now we've completely. We've gone around all of the gatekeepers, all of the people that we're supposed to go through in the process to sort of earn our right to be taken seriously and to do all these things, and we've skipped all of that. And in many cases, we're now accessing a bigger audience than they are. And I think that they. To go back to what we said earlier, they just can't help themselves. It makes them so angry.

[Adam Carolla]

I know. It always cracks me up when they go, what do you mean he's not a journalist? He's not a journalist. I tend to believe the non journalists a lot more these days than the trained journalists. I like when they get the, how dare they attack journalists. You know, that guy's not a journalist. It's like, okay, I don't know what they think we think of them, but you tell me journalists now. And already that's like strike number one. So it's weird. They love titles. They love Dr. Jill Biden. She's a doctor and he's a journalist and they love all that stuff. But they don't realize we make fun of Dr. Jill Biden for wanting to call herself doctor and we make fun of that guy for calling himself a journalist. They don't. They're catching on, but they've not really gotten there yet.

[Matt Walsh]

And they can't really get there because to admit that, okay, well, these people don't care what I think. I'm a joke to them. If I'm a journalist, my very profession has now become a joke. Well, if they fully admit that to themselves, then where do you go from there? I mean, you'd have to. It's admitting that you're a joke to the majority of the American people, I think is probably a hard thing for someone to confront. And then you're left with the question of what do I do next? And I think they just don't want to confront that. So this is what they're stuck with.

[Adam Carolla]

Matt, let me give the movie one last plug. Amiracist available Daily Wire. Plus lots of good stuff going on over at the Daily Wire. Matt, always good catching up with you and always excited to think about what your next project is. I imagine you're thinking about it because now you got to keep going, right?

[Matt Walsh]

We're definitely thinking about it. We do have to keep going. But it's, you know, Each new one, you feel like you have to top the last one. So we're, we got some ideas. That's all I can say. Some ideas.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, Godspeed. You're doing the Lord's work. Thanks for the chat, Matt.

[Matt Walsh]

Thanks, Adam. Appreciate it.

[Adam Carolla]

Appreciate it. All right, we'll take a quick break and then we'll come back with the writer and financial analysts, Maha Abu Alain, right after this. Better Help. This show is sponsored by Better Help. Well, the holidays are coming. I like the winter. It's too hot during the summer, so I enjoy it. But it gets a little gloomy and some people get seasonal depression. And that's where BetterHelp comes in. And by the way, they'll take care of all your seasons over there. Therapy is a great way to bring yourself some comfort that never goes away. It's not like that Yule log. That thing burns out eventually. Even when the season changes, you still feel good because you've gotten your head right. I love therapy. I've always talked about it. Drew's loved it. He's always talked about it. And that's where BetterHelp comes in. You give it a try. It's entirely online. It's convenient, it's flexible. You just fill out a brief questionnaire. You'll get matched with a licensed therapist and you can switch therapists anytime at no additional charge so you get the right fit. It is better help, right, Dawson?

[E]

Find comfort this December with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com Corolla today to get 10% off your first month.

[Adam Carolla]

That's betterhelp.com Carolla All Family Pharmacy Write that name down. All Family Pharmacy. All about medical freedom and making health care simple, accessible and stress free. Looking for some ivermectin? How about some hydroxychloroquine? How about some mebendazole or other essential medications? Stock up on Ivermectin starting at just three bucks a capsule so when the next poop goes down, you're ready. Mm. Customize your order and get it shipped in two to four days. They even offer bulk ordering to stock up for a full year. The best part is you do not need to see a doctor. Trusted by families since 2019 offering over 200 medications online. Don't wait for the next emergency. Stay safe, stay prepared. Visit all family pharma.com Adam do it today. Once again, that's all family pharma.com Adam.

[Dawson]

Pluto TV is a place for movie fans like me and TV fans like me. They've got something for everyone and It's I love free and I love Jersey Shore. For me, it's the Godfather, SpongeBob SquarePants. I am Patrick. Patrick is me. Oh, Forrest Gump. Come on, Criminal minds Solving crime after bedtime, whatever you love to watch. Pluto TV makes it easy with thousands of free movies and shows. Pluto TV stream now pay never.

[Adam Carolla]

Oh. Oh. O'Reilly Auto Parts. O'Reilly Auto Parts is in the business of keeping your car on the road. They offer friendly, helpful service and parts and knowledge that you're going to need to maintain and do the repairs yourself. I've always used O'Reilly. I've used to hit the one up on Foothill when I was in La Crescento renting a house, keeping that Isuzu trooper on the road. And they got thousands of parts and accessories in stock either in their store or online. So you have. Well, you don't have to worry. If you're in a jam, you can go online and get your stuff. You can go into a store and get your stuff. The team at O'Reilly Auto Parts can test your battery for free in or out of your car, which is nice because sometimes it's tough to get those babies out of the car. You need your windshield wipers replaced, brake light fixed or a quick service? Well, they'll help you find the right part or point you to the nearest local repair shop as well and get help there. Whether you're a car aficionado or an auto novice, you're going to find the employees at O'Reilly Auto Parts are knowledgeable, helpful and best of all, they're friendly. The professional parts people at O'Reilly O'Reilly Auto Parts, one stop shop for everything, especially if you're do it yourself or for your car in store online. You can stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts and do it today or visit us online. O'Reilly auto.com Adam that's O'Reilly auto.com Adam.

[E]

Here's a memorable moment from the Adam Carolla Show's ACE Awards archives.

[Adam Carolla]

Man, there's a lot of good stuff. My new thing now is micro impressions. Sean Connery is asked whether he would like to vacation in Spain. Okay. Yes. Christopher Walken sees a particularly good magic trick. Wow.

[E]

Don't miss the 2024 ACE Awards this December. Now back to the Adam Carolla Show.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, Maha Abu Elain.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Adam, how are you?

[Adam Carolla]

Good, my friend. Good to see you. A book, seven Rules of self Reliance and available Barnes and Noble, Amazon, wherever you find finer books.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

So let's talk about that. I know inspired by your Father?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

What lies within the jacket of this book?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Well, I think today people have a lot of expectations that people need to be doing things for them. And they expect people to just deliver things to them because they think they deserve it. And I profess that you should rely on yourself first and invest in yourself first before asking for help or learning the things you need to know how to do in today's society and world that'll put you on the best foot forward.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, it's hard to argue with that.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

But I do think it's a societal thing. And it always bothers me when politicians. It always drives me nuts when there's a politician who's a woman or a person of color and they go, we gotta get somebody in there to work for us because we're people of color, we're woman, or we're gay or whatever. I always want to go, they'll do nothing. They can't. By the way. They're not motivated to do anything for you after the election. But even if they were motivated, really, what is it could they do for you specifically? And we sell it, we pitch it. We need someone who looks like us. We need someone who understands us, people. Well, nobody's really going to do anything for you.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Exactly.

[Adam Carolla]

Mainly unless it benefits them. Right. And because they would like to benefit themselves the same way you would like to benefit yourself. But if you can. I just told someone this story the other night because I hadn't thought about it in a while, but I wanted to become a boxing instructor.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Really?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. I won't get you mired in it, but that's what I wanted to do. I went to the gym and the guy, white collar place, doctors and lawyers and stuff. But he said, we don't need you. You're not an ex champion. We only hire champions, so we don't need you. And I said, okay. And he didn't want me, which, okay. But then I looked in the back and I saw there was a bunch of stuff on the floor. Speed bag stations, heavy bags, they're laying on the floor. So I stop. I said, do you want those things hung up and put up and mounted? And he goes, yeah. And I go, oh, I'll do that. I'm a carpenter and I'll do it. And then when I do it, you let me teach boxing. And all of a sudden there was something in it for him.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

Because when it was just something in it for me, he told me, there's the door.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Well, you just practiced one of the rules of the book, which Is creating value for other people.

[Adam Carolla]

Which number is that?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

That's number two. Number two, if you can learn how to create value for other people, you can get your foot in the door or you can ultimately create value for yourself. So you basically gave him a reason, you created value for him. You showed him what you're capable of doing that he didn't think of. And that's exactly what the rule is about. How can you anticipate needs or create value for somebody else of maybe something they didn't know they wanted or that they didn't think you were qualified to do?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. So get out of the mindset of what can can people do for me? Yeah, but they will do a lot for you if you prove to be valuable.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Exactly.

[Adam Carolla]

And I said too, I hadn't said it in a while, it's not what you know, it's what they know.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah. And it's not what you think is valuable, it's what other people are think is valuable. So you have to figure out what do people care about and then try to deliver that if you have good intentions to like, do something for a good reason.

[Adam Carolla]

And I told this guy too, I said, now look, look, once I hang all your stuff and do all your work here, I just need the opportunity to teach a class. If I'm no good, you don't have to keep me, keep me. I just want a chance to do it. And so now this guy's just getting his heavy bags hung and no guarantees on whether I'm going to teach there or not. So he has no risk or no liability. He's just going to get his stuff done.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

But you did another rule of the book. You put a deposit in his trust bank. Basically you decided to do something that you knew was of value to him because when you asked him, he said, yeah, I'd like to do it, but you're putting a deposit in his trust bank Whether he keeps you or not, you don't know.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Because you want to do things because you have good intentions or you're trying to prove yourself for somebody but like, you may not. So we live in a world today, Adam, you know this. Like everyone wants to do instant gratification. I'll do this for you if you do this for me. But what if we become long term players? What if I decide to do something for this gentleman because I feel like there might be a pay out or a payback? I don't know what the outcome will be because I don't know if I'm going to be A good instructor. If the students will like me, if they'll get attached to me, if I'll bring value to the students. And then the instructor is like, oh, the. The owner thinks you're doing a good job. I just feel like we live in a world today where everyone just wants something for something. I give and a take.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

And I talk a lot about in the book. And one of the rules is like, be a long term player. Don't just do things because you want instant gratification or somebody wants to do you a favor. What if you just wanted to do something good for somebody because you felt that was valuable and by having good intentions, it'll come back to you tenfold in other ways. Also, it's not something we teach in society.

[Adam Carolla]

No, we don't at all. It's not. You know, I think sometimes people think it's karma. It's not karma.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

It's not karma. It's hard work.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. And also, I don't think people realize, like, how fast time passes. Like, you go, I don't want to volunteer to whatever for six months. That's a long time not to get paid or whatever. It's like you blink your eyes, it's gone, and you get into a position. I mean, I always worked for free. That was my thing. Okay, so here's the deal.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

I talk about that too. I did that a lot, man.

[Adam Carolla]

Who wrote this book, me or you? This thing of like, look, I worked at McDonald's. I would not work at McDonald's for free. No, I needed to get paid. It was three bucks an hour. But I would not stand over a griddle and flip burgers all day for free. There's nothing in it for me. But when I tried to get into radio, I worked for free because I was like, I want to be here. I want to show them what I got. Also, nobody knows if you're a good boxing instructor by looking at you. Nobody knows if you're funny by looking at you. Like, you got to show up the part where somebody mows your lawn or flips your burger, fine. But this, I knew they didn't know what I could do. I knew they were looking at me going, you don't look very funny. And you don't look like you can teach boxing either. So I was like, I know they know that. They're not thinking that highly of me. I'm going to have to show them and I'll have to show them for free.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, I worked several times for so many people for free because I wanted to get my foot in the door. I wanted to get a better opportunity. I had to show them what I was capable of. I had to bring them value. I had to put my ego aside. I had to, like, put in the hard work and let my hard work speak for self. I tell a story in the book of. I moved to Egypt when I was 27. I'm born, raised from Minnesota. I lived in Minnesota my whole life. I'm. I'm from Minnesota and I moved to Egypt and I get this job as a secretary for this billionaire. And I was like, this is horrible. Like, I don't want to be a secretary for a billionaire. I was working at General Mills in sports marketing. I have a master's degree. I'm overqualified. Why am I going to be a secretary for this billionaire? Well, I didn't have the advice, and it was the insight that my father did. My father's like, you should take this job and prove to him what you're capable of doing. Get your foot in the door. Learn how to build relationships. Learn how to do business here. Build your own network. Put your head down and put the hard work in and let that speak for itself. And by turning that, I turned that job around into what I wanted it to be. But I had to take what they wanted to give me first. Yes, it's hard to do.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. But none of it is rocket science.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

No.

[Adam Carolla]

By any stretch of the imagination. Show up early, be in a good mood, be consistent, do not be value added. You know, there's so many people, like, there's so many people at work that are just trying to kind of get out of stuff all the time or.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Get stuff from the employer without trying to put in the work first. Like, what's in it for me?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of that. The most successful people I know are not transactional that way. They just do a lot for a lot of people and ends up. They end up having great relationships with a lot of people and thus the money sort of follows.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah. And think about your career. Didn't you build trust, put deposits in trust banks over years and years and years, you're building relationships over time with a lot of people.

[Adam Carolla]

I showed up when I was trying to do morning radio. One of the guys who was in the morning show was Bean of Kevin and Bean. And I saw his car had a big scuff in the side of it, like someone took a dress shoe and made a big black scuff on the side of it.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

His car?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. It was parked down the street, I knew which car it was for some reason, and I'm a car guy. I just walked past it, and it had a big thing in it, you know? And the following time, I was supposed to come to the radio station and work for free. I brought some rubbing compound and my rag and stuff, and I just stopped by his car and I buffed it out on the way to the studio. And then when I got up, I was like, hey, Bean, that big scuff in the side of your car. I said, yeah, I know, I hate that. I said, I just buffed it out. Looks brand new. And he's like, oh, thanks. And I knew I was trying to make a positive impression on him. I wanted him fighting for me. I wanted. You know, some weeks later, probably the whole morning team was going to New York for the MTV Awards, and they were like, should I go? Cause I'm not really getting paid. And they'd have to buy me a plane ticket and stuff like that. And I wanted Bean fighting for me. I wanted him going, no, he's a good dude. He should go. He should go. Because I buffed his car out.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Did you go? Yeah, because you. You did something that he showed you. You showed that you're a go getter and you're willing to do something without being asked, that you're willing to see the details, that you care, that you're trying to add value. You didn't know that doing that would get you a trip to the MTV event.

[Adam Carolla]

No.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

But you knew that it was the right thing to do. It's something you valued. You thought it was. You had good intentions, and you know that that's something that you were uniquely qualified to do.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. People have a weird thing where they think it's kind of kissing ass or brown nosing with the boss or something.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

And it's not even if you're doing it because you have good intentions also.

[Adam Carolla]

Look, having the boss like you and feel positive about you is what you want.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yes, of course.

[Adam Carolla]

And the boss, you know, I don't know when it becomes brown nosing and when. It's just a compliment, but the boss does like it when you. When you go, oh, I saw you on this thing the other day. Oh, real funny stuff. That was great. You know, they go, oh, good. Like, I like to be around this person.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, you're following their careers. You care about. You're interested in what they're doing, you're paying attention. Like that matters.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. But again, none of it rocket science, it's all just kind of calorie burning and showing up.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Showing up is everything. I was talking to somebody the other day about, like, a. Networking is just so much work. I hate networking. I don't want to sit and set up virtual coffees and do all these. Networking is just a daunting thing. But building relationships is important. And I said, you know what you can do? You have 15 minutes every day. Do you have 10 minutes every day? And she was like, Yeah, I got 10 minutes. I'm like, okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to get on your social media for 10 minutes a day and share your friend's work. Make comments on their posts, promote what they care about, forward their articles. You know, that's networking. That's showing up for somebody. Like, you can do it virtually when you don't have a lot of time by just helping support other people. And it takes you no time and it's free.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

What's a simple thing you can do that's not rocket science, but also shows to people that you care? We all need a moment to really breathe. So here's your chance to take a deep breath in.

[Adam Carolla]

Now give a nice long exhale and.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Repeat another 10 or so times. This healthy suggestion is brought to you by Regents Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon. Together we health.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, everybody I know that is somewhere did a lot of pro bono freebie work. And that's another thing that people need. I'll tell you the number one thing. I don't know if this in your book, but the question mark. So if I said to anybody, you just work at this place for free for six months and three years from now, you're going to be running the place and making tons of dough.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Wow.

[Adam Carolla]

Then everybody would go, I'll do it.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

I'll do it.

[Adam Carolla]

I'll do it. You would do it. It's the same thing I do with people all the time. It's what I call my $10,000 rule where they go. I go, you said you were gonna do XY move all these boxes out of the living room by the weekend, but they're still there. And I go, yeah, I was really busy, man. And then I go, well, what if I said, I'll give you $10,000 if they're out? And then they always go, yeah, I would have done it. And then I go, all right, well, then just do it. Just be that person.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

So if you said to anybody, you work for free for six months, and then three years from now, you'll be running this place they'd go, oh, yeah.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Okay, I'll do that. Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

But now the equation is work here for free for six months and then who knows? And now that's when people drop off, of course, because nobody knows, because nobody did know. Because it's unknowable.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

It's unknowable. But think of what could you do to create an opportunity out of that where you can gain something from it?

[Adam Carolla]

Oh, look, if you get a little bit older and you watch people sort of travel through this process, none of it is coincidental. And there's not any magic or smoke and hokum to any of it. It's just, I saw, I met Jimmy Kimmel when he was 26. He would show up at the radio station at 4 in the morning with a pile of newspapers and stuff cut out. And you know, and I'd be like, why? Yeah, I'd be like, jimmy, you're doing the sports. Like, what are you coming in with all this other stuff for? And he's like, I got stuff that they might want to use in other segments that's not my segment, you know, but that they need to do that this would help the show, you know what I mean? And he'd just show up so early, you know, I mean, he had to start at 6am, but he didn't need to show up at 4 or 4:30 or whatever it is. And he certainly didn't need to bring all this material for other aspects of the show. But he did, and they quickly relied upon him. They're like, oh, we gotta keep this guy. And now we gotta keep him. We gotta move him up and we gotta pay him and so on and so forth.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

He's resourceful, he's reliable. He's putting in extra effort. He's doing things we didn't ask him to do.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes, yes. And then, you know, next thing you know, he's hosting the Oscars. That's just kind of how it works. It sounds insane, but it's really not the same.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Nothing replaces hard work and effort.

[Adam Carolla]

Right?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

That's why you have to put in the hard work and the effort in today's society. I think a lot of people want the shortcuts and they want the money and they want the VIP title and they want all these things, but they don't want to put in the effort. And I think our relationship with time has changed dramatically. Like now we don't want to wait three seconds for a video to load.

[Adam Carolla]

Yes, this is a big problem. And by the way, I wanted the money too. That's why I work for free and put the effort in. It was about money, of course. I was like, I want to get paid. I want nice stuff. I want to live in a house. I want air conditioning. I don't want to drive a truck. It was pretty practical. Yeah, it was practical. So I was like, okay, I want all this stuff. I'm not trying to get a job driving for Uber that I could get tomorrow. I want a job where I make tons of money doing a very low percentage job. I mean, that's the other thing too, people. If it's a low percentage job, you better get after it. You want to drive for Uber, you want to work at Burger King, don't worry about, that's easy. If you want to play shortstop for the Yankees, that's going to be a low percentage job and you have to act accordingly.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Be the first one in, last one out, put in the reps, learn, put your head down. Let your hard work speak for itself. But you got to build your relationships are key.

[Adam Carolla]

People do. Also, I do notice a bit of, a fair bit of self sabotage that people do in kind of work relationships.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, I do.

[Adam Carolla]

Which is weird. They just don't ever say anything like, I'm not going to do that or that's, don't say, that's not my job. That's not my job. When the second the boss hears that's not my job, he puts you in a category of like, all right, that's not a long term person.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah. And they don't, they're not there to like actually bring value to the business. They care about their career and their lifestyles and what they need to do to get home on time to go watch Netflix.

[Adam Carolla]

Right? Yeah. So don't say, I'm not going to do that. Don't say, that's not my job. And don't say, I tried my best when you screwed something up.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, I think the biggest thing in business, at least what I care a lot about, is accountability. Like, take accountability. Like, I always, like, try to, like you do something, give them clear expectations, make sure they're committed to it, and then hold them accountable. Nobody wants to be held accountable.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, there is a new ish thing where everybody under 40 has a quick answer for everything. And it's really trying to get away from the accountability part. It's a strange thing I've said to people many times when you say, okay, you fuck something up and then you go, I fucked up, I'm sorry, it's not gonna happen again. Where do we go from there? What am I gonna do? Going. I just go, okay, good. I can't. We're not gonna keep going around, and I'm not gonna beat you up verbally. You just owned it. Said, I own it. I'm sorry. It's not gonna happen again. I go, okay, moving on. Yeah, now we move on.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

But if they mess up and they don't do that, that's where I have a problem.

[Adam Carolla]

They. There's something ingrained in every person under the age of 40 where they just fire back with something. And now we're gonna go down this path where I'm gonna address what you said.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yep. And now we're wasting all this time talking about it, and we're gonna be.

[Adam Carolla]

In the beginnings of an argument here that you don't wanna have. So I don't know why you didn't just sort of eat it and say, my bad. Yeah.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Cause if you do, it immediately disarms everybody. Like, if you take accountability and said, it's on me. I messed up. I'm happy with that answer. It's when they don't do that that I'm like, get really upset because I'm like, listen, if you think that you can pass this on to somebody else or you're not willing to take accountability, what else are you not able to kind of see through to the end or not take accountability for? What else are you avoiding? Or what shortcuts are you trying to take? I've. I feel so many times in business that generations of different workers in different fields feel like, you know, it's not on me. It's like, it's the companies, you know?

[Adam Carolla]

Well, it's also whatever it is you think you're. You're doing with this argument, possibly winning, you're not. The boss is walking away, and he's shaking his head, and he's going, all right, that guy's an idiot. Or is not trouble or not a team player. Like, whatever that thing is, it's. It's basically. It's like you think you're winning an argument with your wife or your girlfriend, but are you really winning that argument? I don't know.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

No. And it's so easy right now, Adam, with the workforce, that there's our choices. Like, I don't need to just pick people that live in my city now with remote working. There's not that people are disposable, but, like, you have a choice to find somebody else in that role who could do it remotely, and you have choice for other people.

[Adam Carolla]

I was looking down on your resume, I was kind of interested that you manage communications for companies like Google. Netflix in the Middle East?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

In Dubai.

[Adam Carolla]

In Dubai. So, like, what is Netflix in the Middle East? How does that. Or is it any different than Netflix here?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, so Netflix, Yeah, Netflix used to only be in the US and then one day they decided to turn it on in 130 countries around the world. And that was like 2016 or something. It didn't used to exist in every country in the world. It was only available if you had a U.S. account. And so I was living in Dubai. I was head of communications and public policy at Google for about four years. And then I left, went back to my consulting firm and Netflix wanted to launch in the Middle east. And, you know, they were going to start to build, you know, they wanted to have all the libraries that were available everywhere else in the world to be available in the Middle East. But like certain shows, you have to have licensing for those regions. So they started like, we want to have Netflix available in the Middle east where anyone who has Internet connection can get it. And then now it's several years later. Obviously now they have Arabic content on there, they have different shows on there. But for the longest time, Netflix, this is, you know, used to only be available if you had a US account or in the US now they subtitle in French and in different languages and in Arabic and in other markets. And so we launched them in the Net in the Middle east so people could get it. And then they started to get all the shows. At the time it was Orange is the New, Black, House of Cards, Chef's Table, those were the hot shows that were happening back then that they started launching in the region and the Crown and all these other shows. And they would help basically introduce these shows to the Middle Eastern market. 300 million people, more people are watch YouTube in the middle east than any other country, any other block in the world. Consumption is per capita. Per capita? Yeah, like a subplot. Saudi, which didn't have movie theaters, now they do. But YouTube's numbers were off the charts. Snapchat, one of the largest markets in the world for Snapchat is the Middle East.

[Adam Carolla]

Why do you reckon that, like YouTube watching in the Middle east per capita?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

I think two things. One is they're very digitally savvy. They're mobile first. It's very common for someone in Dubai to sit at a dinner table and take out two phones. So they're consuming more. They are digitally first. The population in the region is like most of the population. More than 50% of the population is under the age of 35. So you have a consuming market of young people and a lot of gamers. A lot of big gaming things happen in the. Like it's just a young audience. And so they're. They tune into technology more than we consume technology. I mean, I'm 55.

[Adam Carolla]

So what age group and were there cultural restrictions like on Netflix that this group doesn't they take offense to that or they don't want depictions of this.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, I think the nuances they are like they nudity and all these kind of things like the shows that they would put on. They have to make sure that they weren't culturally offensive to people. If there was things in the culture like in television, you can't just turn on the TV in Egypt or Dubai and watch any nudity whatsoever. Netflix had a bunch of content on there that has different variety of topics and stuff. And they've never had, never up until I was working there never had had any content be requested to take down. And they didn't the whole tenure. I was there for about five years working with them. They never had any issues with shows that were controversial. In fact, they kind of started to invest to make sure that they had things that people like there to watch, like cooking shows in Arabic and comedy. The number one genre for content in the Middle east is comedy.

[Adam Carolla]

Really?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

You gotta come.

[Adam Carolla]

I wouldn't have guessed that. The number one genre in the Middle East.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, it's hilarious.

[Adam Carolla]

It is. When you say genre, are you talking about stand up comedy? Talking about just comedy sitcoms or stand up comedy.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Comedy shows. Comedic programming, sitcoms. But mostly it starts with stand up comics.

[Adam Carolla]

Is it because it's something that's newish and they're hitting it harder or is it almost a compensation or has it been around?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

It's part of the culture from the beginning of time. Like I think people.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, but, but, but Richard Pryor wasn't huge in the Middle East.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

No, no, no. It's. It's local. It's people from like. It's Egyptian. Local. Egyptian comedians. Local Egyptian or local Saudi comedians. Local talent.

[Adam Carolla]

I had an Egyptian roommate for a while.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

No way.

[Adam Carolla]

One of my best friends, Umgad Abu Zamzam.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

No way.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. And he always had a big laugh and was kind of funny and kind of.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Egyptians are known. Egyptians are known for being really funny.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, he was, he was funny. Well, I was funnier than he was, but he was, he would laugh it up like he was. He was a little Bit jolly, which you wouldn't think, you know, you think that we think of that culture serious, you know, like Middle east and very.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Serious people, you know. So Egypt exports a lot of the film, music, television. Egypt's like the Hollywood of the Middle East. Like, all the creators come out of there. The comedians come out of there, the actresses, books, film, like, all comes from cinema. Egyptian cinema, like, it comes from Egyptian cinema. And Egypt has, like, a very unique dialect of how they talk. It's very slang. And so a lot of people will recognize you if you're Egyptian, by the way that you talk. And it's like, that's the culture of films and television and music there. Huh.

[Adam Carolla]

And I wouldn't have thought. I mean, it's kind of nice to think that comedy's a good forecaster for cultures. I think it's good. Like, when there's no comedy, it's like. I'll put it to you this way. I come from the San Fernando Valley. There's no standup clubs in the San Fernando Valley. And that's not good because it means culturally, they're kind of behind, you know. Then you go to New York, and there's a standup club every half block. Right. And it just means culturally. And you can feel that this culture is, like, more advanced and more into life and culture. And this one's a little more stilted and slowed down and a lot of stucco and aluminum windows and flat roofs and, you know. So when I hear that a region is in. Is into comedy, I think good. That's a good sign.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah. Comedy and satire. Like, there's a lot of satire. A lot of the most popular films and television shows coming, especially out of a market like Saudi, have to do a satire.

[Adam Carolla]

Hmm. And is there. So there's like, a Bollywood version?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, version of it. Yeah. It's not as big as Bollywood. It's massive.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, they have the populace to support it. I don't. Egypt is.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Egypt's 100 million people.

[Adam Carolla]

Egypt is no joke, but it's not 1.3 billion or something.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, but Egypt is no joke. At 100 million people, the traffic is atrocious.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah, that's bigger than I would have thought. So it's about 20, 30% in the United States or something.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah. You got to come out. Abu Dhabi has a huge thing called Abu Dhabi Comedy Week. It's massive.

[Adam Carolla]

Okay. And do they have restrictions on things you can say and can't say?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah, I mean, of course. Like swearing and any offensive topics. Yeah, you got to be careful. You can't just say whatever you want.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, see now we're not quite there.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yet because at a certain point that's true.

[Adam Carolla]

You just say what you want. Because I mean, we, I deal with that a little bit here too, you know, but what I'm saying is the problem with the offensive subject matter is.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Who'S deciding who's deciding who's offense. Yeah, yeah, it's true. Yeah. I just think there's a cultural, there's cultural norms like anywhere in the world. And I feel like theirs are very much, you know, rooted in that. And so I feel like they want to, I mean, being funny and self deprecating. Humor is something that exists 100%, but I feel like there are certain, you know, things that they, they want to make sure that, you know, you just don't go wild and say whatever you want.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Accountability.

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah. No, listen, if you do network TV in primetime, if you do a late night set on a late night show here, you gotta run your set past the censor.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

And they'll let you talk about this and that, but you don't get to drop any shits or fucks. And if you said you don't get to do things that are patently offensive because whatever that standard they have is.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

If you want to be in this format, which is doing late night set.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah. And you don't want to like inflame people and get them to do things that.

[Adam Carolla]

I don't know, Is that why they do it?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

They don't want people to go rogue here?

[Adam Carolla]

You mean inflame the populace?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah. About a certain topic or.

[Adam Carolla]

No, I don't think that. Well, I don't think standup comedians have that degree of control over the populace. I just think there are things that people don't like or want to hear. Usually hard truths.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

They wanna be entertained. They don't wanna be bold. Truth.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, some, some people's form of being entertained is hearing like really provocative, tough truths. You know what I mean? Like really hard edge roast jokes. Some people love that shit. You know, I love it too. But it's got to ring true. If it doesn't ring true, then it's not funny. But if it doesn't ring true, it also doesn't sting.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yeah.

[Adam Carolla]

You know what I mean?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

That's true.

[Adam Carolla]

And there are, you know, there are times when you roast somebody and they get legitimately pissed. You know, it can happen. All right, let me give the book a plug out. 7 rules of self Reliance.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yes. Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever.

[Adam Carolla]

You get your books and savvy talk is the pod, right?

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yes.

[Adam Carolla]

Find that wherever you find finer podcast.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

Yes, sir.

[Adam Carolla]

Also, yeah, I'm gonna be in New York doing a standup show for Fox.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

You are?

[Adam Carolla]

Yeah.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

I want to go to that.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, you're gonna be in New York when? Could be a little offensive.

[Maha Abu Alaineen]

No, I want to laugh.

[Adam Carolla]

Well, nobody said that was a guarantee. If you're in New York, you can come by. I'm gonna be in Solana beach doing stand up, belly up. That'll be June. Sorry, January 19th. I think Jay Moore is going to be there as well. And until next time, this is Adam for Maha and Matt Walsh saying mahalo.

[E]

Pick up your phone and leave us a voicemail at 888-634-1744 and then get tickets to see the Ace man and Adam Carollet.

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