Shane Ginsberg: Courses vs. College: The Smarter Investment?

Summary

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Digital Social Hour – Episode Summary

Episode Title:

Shane Ginsberg: Courses vs. College: The Smarter Investment?

Host:

Sean Kelly

Guest:

Shane Rich (of Street Polar)

Release Date:

August 19, 2025

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Overview

In this provocative episode of Digital Social Hour, Sean Kelly sits down with viral street interviewer Shane Rich to explore whether independent courses offer a smarter investment than traditional college degrees. The conversation pulls no punches, diving into the pitfalls of higher education, the potential of online learning, street-level views on political topics, and the success stories (and failures) emerging from creator-driven businesses. Shane shares unfiltered insights from his own unconventional journey and expands on the cultural programming he believes is enforced by mainstream education and media.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. College vs. Courses: Value and Scams (00:00–03:59; 06:30–08:25)

• Shane’s Critique of College ([00:00–00:29], [06:38–07:23])

  • Shane argues it’s contradictory to call high-ticket educational courses scams while accepting that college costs far more yet often provides underwhelming or impractical instruction:

    "How is somebody going to call a course seller a scammer for selling a $3,500 course, but college is 60 grand a year over four years. You don't even know the student loan agreement that you're signing. And you learn business from a professor that never even owned a business. So why is that not being called a scam?" (Shane Rich, 06:38)

• Practical Skills vs. Academic Theory ([03:04–03:38])

  • Shane points out the absence of practical life skills in college curricula, favoring direct learning from practitioners over theoretical instruction:

    "Why are these kids learning X2Y to, like, why are they not learning how to pay their taxes? Why are they not learning how to start a business? ... That also plays into the fact that most of this population is brainwashed." (03:21)

• Courses for Real-World Skills ([06:44–07:23])

  • Shane suggests there are high-quality paid courses in e-commerce, networking, and real estate, advocating for learning from experienced entrepreneurs.

• Host’s Personal Experience ([07:27–07:35])

  • Sean shares his own story about a marketing professor with no business successes, highlighting the disconnect between academia and real-world accomplishment.

2. The College Environment & Brainwashing (03:59–06:30; 08:06–08:25)

• Social & Ideological Pressure ([06:06–06:30])

  • Shane recounts stories about college essays penalizing conservative viewpoints and characterizes the ideological environment as stifling and biased:

    "I've heard stories where people have been assigned, you know, are you pro life or pro choice? ... If they say that they're pro life, they get a F automatically. ... That's what causes the massive brainwashing." (Shane Rich, 06:13)

• The Student Experience ([07:42–08:25])

  • Both discuss the sometimes poor living conditions, unhealthy cafeteria food, and “loser” or “degenerate” peer groups, contrasting delayed gratification with early wealth creation:

    "All the other kids are mostly losers ... The majority are very degenerates. And so they're like, I want to go to college. Just have four years of having fun. It's like, why not create wealth now? Amass that and then have fun for the rest of your life." (Shane Rich, 08:06)

3. Shane’s Unconventional Path & Street Interviews (02:59–04:25; 05:25–09:49)

• Dropping Out and Building Businesses ([02:59–04:25])

  • Shane shares he dropped out in eighth grade and quickly built a credit repair company, later selling it and pivoting to viral street interviews inspired by political frustrations.

• Expanding Street Polar Media ([00:40–01:10])

  • Shane discusses growing a network of street interview teams across multiple major cities.

• Motivations and Joy in Street Content ([08:31–09:06])

  • For Shane, passion—not money—drives his work:

    "My passion and what's fun is going on the streets, building an organic presence, showing people the truth, and taking over from the legacy media." (08:31)

• Double Validation of Street Interviews ([09:06–09:49])

  • He credits the format’s authenticity and relatability for its viral success:

    "Street Interviews is the best format to get the truth because it's a double validation ... This controversial opinion that's being said isn't so controversial anymore. Like, I feel that I can say it out loud, right?" (09:06)

4. Politics, Media Bias, and Campus Culture (01:39–06:30; 05:25–06:30)

• Encounters on College Campuses ([01:39–02:43], [05:37–06:30])

  • Shane describes frequenting liberal universities and protests, calling many participants unthinking and “programmed” by the media.

• Media Manipulation and Polarization ([02:50–03:03], [08:31–09:06])

  • Both discuss alleged media “brainwashing,” with Shane specifically blaming biased mainstream outlets for harming American public discourse.

5. Personal Wealth, Crypto, and Early Investment (10:20–13:22)

• Shane’s and Sean’s “Rags to Crypto” Stories ([10:29–11:09])

  • Both discuss their early crypto investments, revealing hustle and familial influence:

    "I went and did lemonade stands on the weekends to make like a hundred bucks a weekend and put that into crypto." (Shane Rich, 10:47)

• Predictions and Skepticism About Crypto Markets ([11:11–13:22])

  • Shane opines that Bitcoin is undervalued and the price is manipulated downward by exchanges. Quotes Michael Turpin’s "Bitcoin Super Cycle" and claims institutional adoption is accelerating.

6. Viral Moments and Memorable Clips (09:49–10:13; 13:22–14:18)

• Street Interviews & Viral Questions ([13:22–13:40])
  • Shane references a viral interview question:

    Sean: "Would you rather date a liberal or an illegal immigrant?"
    Shane: "I'd rather date an illegal immigrant. Because if she talks back to me I can call ICE and get her deported." (13:32)

  • Shane recalls how irreverent answers to such questions resonate and drive virality.

7. Social Media Censorship and Platform Expansion (00:40–01:10; 14:02–14:18)

• Dealing with Bans ([00:40–01:10]; [14:02–14:18])
  • Shane describes frequent bans on TikTok (10 times) and YouTube (twice), leading to the creation of Street Polar Media with distributed teams.

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Notable Quotes and Moments

• On College vs. Courses:

  "I'd rather learn from somebody that's done the business ... Then I go to school to learn marketing from a professor that's being paid 80 grand a year that never actually marketed a business or owned a business. Like it's backwards."
  (Shane Rich, 06:44)

• On Political Discourse on Campuses:

  "Liberals are dumber than a bag of rocks. Like they don't even know what they believe in ... They just want to feel like they're a part of a movement. ... I'll sit here and debate a liberal until they want to walk away. And they always walk away."
  (Shane Rich, 01:45)

• On Street Interviews and Truth:

  "Street Interviews is the best format to get the truth because it's a double validation."
  (Shane Rich, 09:06)

• On Wealth and Purpose:

  "The importance to me is doing what I believe in. Like, dude, if I wanted to tomorrow, I could make way more money ... but at the end of the day, like, that's not my passion."
  (Shane Rich, 08:31)

• On Crypto Origins:

  "I went and did lemonade stands on the weekends to make like a hundred bucks a weekend and put that into crypto."
  (Shane Rich, 10:47)

• Viral Moment:

  "I'd rather date an illegal immigrant. Because if she talks back to me I can call ICE and get her deported."
  (Shane Rich, 13:32)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–00:29: Critique of college and course pricing
• 01:39–02:43: Political activism at universities and protest culture
• 03:04–03:38: Shane’s dropping out and self-education
• 06:38–07:23: College professors vs. practitioners debate
• 08:06–08:25: Social environment and future orientation in college
• 09:06–09:49: The power and impact of street interviews
• 10:29–11:09: Early investment in crypto and entrepreneurial hustle
• 13:22–13:40: Viral interview moments and questions

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Conclusion

The episode delivers an unfiltered takedown of higher education’s value proposition, champions alternative learning through real practitioners, and extolls hustle, controversy, and firsthand experience as the new path to success. Shane’s raw, opinionated style and street interview bona fides make for an energetic debate—leaving listeners with challenging questions about where to invest for personal growth and financial independence.

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Transcript

[Shane Rich]

Selling a $3,500 course. But college is 60 grand a year over four years. You don't even know the. The student loan agreement that you're signing. And you learn business from a professor that never even owned a business. And it's like, so why is that not being called a scam? And I'm not saying that, you know, some of these courses aren't scams. We both know some of they are. But there are great courses out there that you can learn, whether it's E commerce, content creation. Right. Just networking.

[Sean Kelly]

Okay, guys, we got Shane here from Street Polar. You've definitely seen this guy's videos before. You get a stupid amount of views these days. Yeah, thanks for helping out.

[Shane Rich]

Thanks for having me, bro.

[Sean Kelly]

Where's the latest interviews you've been doing up recently?

[Shane Rich]

Like what platforms, location, locations? We've been. So now, you know, when I first started creating straight interview content, it was just me and. But I got banned so many times. I've been banned 10 times on tick tock, twice on YouTube. And so now we have Street Polar media. So over 15 different in house Street Polar. We have a team in New York, Miami, Tampa, we have a team in Texas, we have a team in la, and we're just continually expanding there.

[Sean Kelly]

Wow, that type of content's been crushing lately.

[Shane Rich]

Yeah, I think, dude, like, you know, with all the AI content on the feed and you know, all the content that is just not realistic. I think people really want to see the truth. Right? Like, that's why your podcast is thriving, because you're having all sorts of voices left, right, non political political. Like you give everyone a platform, right. Which is something that is not traditionally done within the legacy media. And so, like, that's why creators like you are also thriving because you're giving, you know, you're giving the audience a chance to hear from people that they normally wouldn't hear from.

[Sean Kelly]

Right. So do you go to liberal universities everywhere?

[Shane Rich]

Yeah, all the time. Like we were just at the no Kings protest weeks ago.

[Sean Kelly]

That must have been sketchy.

[Shane Rich]

It was sketchy, bro. Those people are stupid. Those people are dumb, bro. Liberals are dumber than a bag of rocks. Like they don't even know what they believe in. You know, I think that they have nothing to do. And so for them, they just want to feel like they're a part of a movement. And so if they go to these protests, whether it's the pro Palestine, whether it's blm, whether it's, you know, a protest in LA about the illegal immigrants and the Mass deportations. Like, they don't care what the cause is, but it allows them to feel a part of something. Right. That's why they go out. And so, like, they always walk away. You know, me, like, yeah, I support Trump, but, you know, I like to say I have common sense. Right. Like, I don't, I don't align with one party one way or another. I believe what I believe in, but I'll sit here and debate a liberal until they want to walk away. And they always walk away. When you ask them why, it's, it's nuts.

[Sean Kelly]

Just saying why.

[Shane Rich]

Just saying why. They won't ever expand on it. It's like, you don't think that if you are so strong in your beliefs that you, you're so strong in your beliefs, you don't think that you'll be able to expand on those beliefs? I mean, I would, you know, if you ask me why.

[Sean Kelly]

No. Well, because you base yourself in facts.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah.

[Sean Kelly]

A lot of people have these opinions and they can't explain why they have them because they've been programmed.

[Shane Rich]

Yeah, they've been programmed by the media, which is. That's the biggest threat to the American people.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Shane Rich]

But with mainstream media, when you have.

[Sean Kelly]

Data on your side and common sense, you can argue from a logical position.

[Shane Rich]

And the education system, I mean, look, like I dropped out of school in eighth grade. Wow. So I.

[Sean Kelly]

That's the youngest I've heard.

[Shane Rich]

Yeah, it's probably illegal. Looking back on it. Like, they suspended my license, but I still drove anyway. But I wasn't, I didn't go to high school. I didn't go to college. I don't have a GED or any degree. And so I had to kind of shape my own view of the world. Right. But when you go from, you know, K to 12 and then four years or six years or eight years of college, that mental programing that you're subject to, you know, why, why are these kids learning X2Y to, like, why are they not learning how to pay their taxes? Why are they not learning how to start a business? Why are they not learning what an S Corp is and what distributions are? And so I think that also plays into, like, the fact that most of this population is brainwashed.

[Sean Kelly]

Did you have a plan when you dropped out or you just dropped off?

[Shane Rich]

I mean, I had a credit repair company in eighth grade. I was 16. Wow. Yeah. So I started selling credit repair. It crushed. And I sold that to a funding company, and I just started making these street interviews, and I, I, I didn't even really want the money. Like, I just. I was so frustrated with Biden. He was so. Like, I always say the only good thing Biden did is he solved obesity because nobody could afford food. But beyond that, like, I was so frustrated with what he did with the gas prices, with what he did with the Afghanistan withdrawal, that I just started going out and talking to, like, earth urban voters, you know, who love Trump. And I don't think that was showcased enough or really at all that, like, black people love Trump, Hispanics love Trump, and they did back then, and they still do now. And so, like, I just found a unique edge there, and then eventually was able to capitalize and build a business off.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah. So you're doing interviews in the hood?

[Shane Rich]

In the hood, bro. Like, in deep in South beach, in the hood of la, In Atlanta. I spent, like, two years out there in Fulton county going to Lenox Mall, and it was. It was a good amount of time. It was fun, though.

[Sean Kelly]

Did it ever get hostile?

[Shane Rich]

No, only on the left.

[Sean Kelly]

Really? Ever on the right?

[Shane Rich]

I mean, if you ask the black people about the transgenders, they get a little upset. Like, it just offends them, you know? Yeah, they don't like that. That sort of topic. But, no, never really, like, hostile at all. I mean, they love Trump, like, especially during the indictments, during the mug shots and just, like, how bad Biden was doing, you know, they loved it. All that. All that stuff that.

[Sean Kelly]

All right, guys, Sean Kelly here, host of the Digital Social hour podcast, just filmed 33amazing episodes at Student Action Summit. Shout out to Code Health, you know, sponsor of these episodes. But also, I took them before filming each day. Felt amazing. Just filmed 20 episodes straight, and I'm not even tired, honestly.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Much like this, where it's just based.

[Sean Kelly]

Off, you know, the code. The codes that are in the saline solution. Code Health has been awesome. Feel the drop and then go code yourself.

[Shane Rich]

They did against Trump. The law fair backfired heavily.

[Sean Kelly]

Do you have to go undercover when you're doing the left interviews?

[Guest/Co-host]

No.

[Sean Kelly]

You don't care?

[Shane Rich]

No, I don't care. I love controversy. Like, I want them to know I'm there so they can come up to me and talk to me.

[Sean Kelly]

Which college campuses stand out to you?

[Shane Rich]

University of Georgia. Georgia was like, the. The biggest. The biggest shocker, just how stupid people are. Like, one of my buddies said he went there and he had a transgender professor, and then he dropped out. Uga, ucla, usc. I mean, really, any college, you know, like, any college, because even if you're. You go to that college. And you are a conservative or you believe in. You can't talk about it.

[Sean Kelly]

Right.

[Shane Rich]

You know, like I've heard stories and again, I never went to college, so I don't know for, for a fact. But I've heard stories where people have been assigned, you know, are you pro life or pro choice? And explain this in a college essay. And if they say that they're pro life, they get a F automatically. Wow. And it's like that ideological part of college comes down to the institutions and the teachers and that's what causes the massive brainwashing.

[Sean Kelly]

What do you think of Trump cutting funding to Harvard?

[Shane Rich]

I think it's great. Yeah. I mean, look, dude, like, you speak to a lot of course sellers, right?

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Shane Rich]

So how is somebody going to call a course seller a scammer for selling for, let's say they're selling a 3, 500 course, but college is 60 grand a year over four years. You don't even know the, the student loan agreement that you're signing. And you learn business from a professor that never even owned a business. And it's like, so why is that not being called a scam? And I'm not saying that, you know, some of these courses aren't scams. We both know some of they are. But there are great courses out there that you can learn, whether it's E commerce, content creation. Right. Just networking, real estate. I mean, there's so many different, you know, niches. And I'd rather learn from somebody that's done the business. Right. Like if you launched a course tomorrow on how to start a podcast, like, I'd pay for it. Because look at the empire that you've been able to build. But then I go to school to learn marketing from a professor that's being paid 80 grand a year that never actually marketed a business or owned a business. Like it's backwards.

[Sean Kelly]

That happened to me. I was literally in marketing class at Rutgers and he said he had literally like three failed businesses. And he's a marketing professor.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah.

[Sean Kelly]

And he never had a successful business.

[Shane Rich]

And how much, how much was the tuition at Rutgers?

[Sean Kelly]

Well, I was in state, but even in state now is still like 15, 20K.

[Shane Rich]

I think that's insane.

[Sean Kelly]

Out of state's like 40, 50K a year.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah. A year.

[Sean Kelly]

Isn't that nuts?

[Shane Rich]

And you don't even know what you're signing.

[Sean Kelly]

No.

[Shane Rich]

As a young 18 year old fresh out of high school, like what's the interest rate?

[Sean Kelly]

And the dorm I was in was built in the 60s, literally as soon as I got in my room, there was a letter saying there might be asbestos in the building. That was my college experience. And the food they give you, oh, my God, we could go so many ways with college. But, yeah, you're just being poisoned in not only knowledge, but with food, too.

[Shane Rich]

And with your environment as well. Right. Like, all the other kids are mostly losers. I mean, some of them now, good kids come out of it and you find and you network, but, you know, the parties. Right.

[Sean Kelly]

Like, the majority are degenerate.

[Shane Rich]

The majority are very degenerates. And so they're like, I want to go to college. Just have four years of having fun. It's like, why not create wealth now? Amass that and then have fun for the rest of your life.

[Sean Kelly]

Right? So that was always your goal, get wealthy early.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah.

[Sean Kelly]

Where does money rank in terms of importance to you?

[Shane Rich]

Oh, it's not. It's not. It's not the importance. Like, the importance to me is doing what I believe in. Like, dude, if I wanted to tomorrow, I could make way more money. I could launch a course probably tomorrow. You know, even Street Interview course. I literally could do that tomorrow. And I've thought about it, but at the end of the day, like, that's not my passion. My passion and what's fun is going on the streets, building an organic presence, showing people the truth, and taking over from the legacy media. Because CNN is so biased. FOX is so biased.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Shane Rich]

Like, people need to hear the truth. And Street Interviews is the best format to get the truth because it's a double validation. Right. So you. You see a random interviewer and a random interviewee, and then you're on the other end of the screen like, oh, my gosh. Like, this, you know, controversial opinion that's being said isn't so controversial anymore. Like, I feel that I can say it out loud, right? It's similar to what Elon did, buying X. Right. Like, Elon bought Twitter, rebranded it to X, and then you had people like Sean McGuire and Sequoia Capital now coming out and donating to Trump. Like, that would have never happened. You have Meta now and Google and all these platforms that have stopped censorship. Yeah, Right. Because of Elon. So, like, all it really takes is one person to pioneer an industry, and then from there it just. It spreads like a wildfire.

[Sean Kelly]

There's been careers built off street interviews. Hawk to a girl.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah.

[Shane Rich]

Came from A street one viral clip, right?

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah.

[Shane Rich]

And she rugged that meme coin.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah.

[Sean Kelly]

That was the fastest downfall I think I've seen.

[Shane Rich]

I've never seen a rug pull that fast though. And she didn't even make that much money. I've seen some crazy.

[Sean Kelly]

But she refunded everyone. I think she did, yeah.

[Shane Rich]

Wow.

[Sean Kelly]

Like way after.

[Shane Rich]

But Yeah, I like 25% of.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah. When influencers get into crypto, it's. It's a bad idea.

[Shane Rich]

No good. Oh, have you ever got into crypto and done.

[Sean Kelly]

That's how I made my money in crypto. No, I never launched my own coin, but that's.

[Shane Rich]

What were you buying? Bitcoin, eth, everything.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah, all the top stuff. I, I dabbled in the meme stuff in when I was in college.

[Shane Rich]

So what year was that?

[Sean Kelly]

Six years ago.

[Shane Rich]

Six years ago I started buying Bitcoin in 2018.

[Sean Kelly]

Damn. ETH was.

[Shane Rich]

ETH was 100. Bitcoin was 3K. I remember I first bought it, I was 14 because my dad sold all of his stocks and bought bitcoin. Wow.

[Sean Kelly]

Good for him.

[Shane Rich]

And sold a house and bought it.

[Sean Kelly]

Good for him.

[Shane Rich]

And it was 6K. Bitcoin was 6K. And I'm a little 14 year old kid. My dad's like Shane, you gotta go buy this. So I went and did lemonade stands on the weekends to make like a hundred bucks a weekend and put that into crypto.

[Sean Kelly]

The hustle.

[Shane Rich]

And it was 6k. And then Bitcoin went to 3k and everyone said it's a scam. They said sell now. Thank God I didn't listen. Thank God I didn't buy. And now what is it? 118.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah. Just hit all time high.

[Shane Rich]

It's significantly undervalued as well. Like the exchanges are not giving us the real price. I think right now the price of bitcoin is probably 180, 190k. It's not, you know, what's being shown on the exchanges.

[Sean Kelly]

There's people thinking, saying it will hit a million.

[Shane Rich]

Oh, that it'll hit a million. It'll hit far beyond that. I mean a million's programmed at the end of the day. Like people didn't think it would hit 100k. Nobody thought it was 100k. I remember when I'd go to sleep, bitcoin was, you know, 7, 8K. I'm like, what if I wake up tomorrow and I see a hundred K? Like that was so out of reach. Then it broke that psychological barrier. I mean a bunch of other stuff happened in between. But it broke that psychological barrier and now it dips under a hundred and it comes right back. It just keeps creating new all time highs. It's been through you know, disgusting bear markets that would have wiped out, I mean it has wiped out most of the crypto industry other than bitcoin itself, you know.

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[Sean Kelly]

Go anywhere without it.

[Shane Rich]

There was the Mount Gox in 2014, then in 20, you know 17 when it went to 18K and then it just tanked and it went all the way down to 3K. Then there was FTX in 2021 and 2022 and the meme coins and the, and the NFTs. Then there was you know a dip there, went back to 60, went all the way down to 20. And it's the only one that keeps continually making new all time highs. I mean we've never had a currency with only 21 million circulating supply. That's just unheard of, you know. And then we have now companies adding Bitcoin to their balance sheet. Like how much, how much bitcoin does Michael saylor own? Like 597,000 bitcoin. Yeah, like Tesla has it. We now have the institutions buying in a really good book. I don't know if you read it Michael Turpin, the Bitcoin Super Cycle. No, look into that. It's a really interesting book and it just talks about how the four year cycles are gone.

[Sean Kelly]

Michael lives in Vegas, I've met him a few times. I'll definitely give that a read. Yeah, we'll end off with this question. Would you rather date a liberal or an illegal immigrant?

[Shane Rich]

I'd rather date an illegal immigrant.

[Sean Kelly]

Why?

[Shane Rich]

Because if she talks back to me I can call ICE and get her deported.

[Sean Kelly]

That's a blunt answer, but yeah, yeah. And that was one of your viral interviews I saw, right?

[Shane Rich]

Yeah, that was one with Gary the numbers guy. Gary the numbers guy. I love Gary, dude, he doesn't hold back. Yeah, and, and somebody asked him would you rather date a liberal or date an illegal immigrant and he's like I don't want to date a liberal. They're whores. You know, they always run their mouth. They talk and then a liberal woman comes right over and proves his exact point. And that's why it went so viral is it just resonated with the audience.

[Sean Kelly]

Yeah. Where could people find you man?

[Shane Rich]

Let them know they could find us. Shaney Rich on Instagram S h a n e y y R I c c h Instagram x ban like 15 times on TikTok so not there and then street polar S t r e e t P o l l e.

[Sean Kelly]

R Check them out guys if you want some authentic interviews. Peace.

[Shane Rich]

Amazing. And make subscribe to the digital social hour podcast. Make sure you add it. We need to get number one on iTunes, number one on Spotify, subscribe on YouTube wherever you guys are watching and show as much support as you can. Cuz Sean has the number one podcast in the game because he doesn't give up.

[Sean Kelly]

Thank you bro.

[Guest/Co-host]

Yeah.