Earn Your Leisure Podcast: "What You Watch Online Is Destroying Your Life"

Hosts: Rashad Bilal & Troy Millings
Original Release: December 2, 2025
Podcast Network: iHeartPodcasts

Overview

In this thought-provoking episode, Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings discuss how the online content we consume shapes our mindset, finances, and future—and how it's often to our detriment. They break down why endless digital distraction, gossip, and mindless entertainment are undermining personal progress, productivity, and generational wealth, especially for Black communities. The hosts urge listeners to take accountability, focus on substance over fluff, and intentionally seek knowledge that uplifts, empowers, and generates real change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Stark Wealth Inequality & Misdirected Attention

• [03:26] Rashad opens by highlighting global wealth inequality: "You have the top 81 billionaires in the world have more wealth than 50% of the world's population... It's pretty amazing and discouraging. When I go on social media, what I see is debates about fantasy football... food debates... and a bunch of other random nonsense that has no real significance."
• Key insight: While world-changing developments (AI, Mars colonization, disease eradication) happen, most people are preoccupied by trivial online debates.

2. Digital Distraction as 'Voluntary Slavery'

• [04:32] Rashad equates mindless content consumption to a new form of self-imposed digital slavery: "You will be a digital slave and this time your slavery will be voluntary. You signed up for it and you, you gave no fight.”
• Accountability is stressed for both content producers and consumers; both should feel “embarrassed” for perpetuating cycles of distraction instead of progress.

3. Self-Accountability & The Productivity Crisis

• [07:24] The hosts challenge listeners to recognize their own choices: “At some point you have to take self accountability and realize... as we enter a new world... are you comfortable with this or do you want better?”

4. Economic Realities & Media Priorities

• [07:26] The co-host (Ian) brings in hard-hitting financial facts:
  • National debt at $33 trillion
  • Credit card losses rising rapidly
  • Most IPOs in 2023 are 'trash'
• Critique: Media beef and entertainment gossip get more attention and clicks than real business lessons or financial news.
• Notable quote: “Too many opinions, not enough assets.” (Ian, [08:31])

5. The ‘Attention Economy’ & Its Costs

• [11:08] The hosts dissect why educational or financial content can’t compete with sports or gossip: “Attention is the most valuable commodity. This is why it’s so sought after.”
• Rashad: "It's impossible for you to know every single thing that's happening on Shade Room, on academics, on Hollywood Unlocked... and still be at a highly productive level. It's impossible... I know billionaires and I don't know any billionaire that knows any of this stuff." ([12:33])

6. Struggle-Based Entertainment & Mental Health

• [14:41] The co-hosts reflect on how online culture commodifies real-life struggle for entertainment.
• Troy: "We capitalize on struggle, but nobody talks about solutions. In fact, when solutions are made... everybody dumbs them down or push them to the side."
• They recognize their own guilt—scrolling YouTube rabbit holes isn't inherently productive.

7. Growth, Maturity, & Edutainment

• [16:24] Rashad uses a Wu-Tang Clan lyric to underscore the difference between consuming substance versus noise: “Mostly the dumb are intrigued by the drum.”
  • The rise of 'mumble rap' and surface-level content mirrors this cultural shift.
• Idea: Real learning must entertain (“edutainment”), but depth and maturity are required in content and audience.
  • "You can't feed a baby steak... you have to feed it applesauce... there's growth and maturation." ([17:53])

8. Long-Term Plans vs. Instant Gratification

• [25:20] Rashad notes a culture of impatience: “Our long term planning is next year, like Friday. That's our long term planning... that's not a formula that's sustainable.”
• Leaders like Mark Zuckerberg (+100-year plan) and Japanese CEOs (multi-century plans) serve as models—but the community focuses on short time frames.

9. Financial Literacy Is Still in Its Infancy

• [27:03] Rashad emphasizes that the Black community is still early in its financial literacy journey: “We just had the rights to vote 60 years ago... the financial literacy information we're providing is so revolutionary because the vast majority of people... never knew about stocks or real estate.”

10. Changing Information Habits Across Disciplines

• [27:29] Surprising insight: Even among professionals, financial knowledge is scarce.
• "There's some at the top that have the knowledge, but as we go, we're meeting people... I never knew what that was... That's why you guys are so important."

11. Generational Compounding & The Need for Speed

• [29:00] Using the analogy of compound interest, the hosts push for urgency: "This becomes the new compounded interest. Where we look at the time, the information is now the rate..."

12. Celebration, Escapism, and Lack of Ownership

• [39:48] Rashad unpacks the notion of endless celebration (nightlife, partying) as escapism for pain, noting that even in Black countries, Black people aren’t owners of party venues—just customers, staff, or promoters.
• “The people that's really getting rich off of this are the liquor companies, which we have no ownership in. The owners of the nightclubs... are not black people.” ([41:31])

13. Online Choices, Real-World Impact

• [32:46] With information so accessible, choosing ignorance is no longer excusable: “At this point, you're making a decision to be like, nah, that's not for me."

• [34:34] On intersecting entertainment and education for the younger generation: Balance is needed, not a total cutoff. Find the lessons where kids are.

14. Pursuing Greatness, Rejecting Mediocrity

• [38:04] Rashad’s personal ethos: "Why would you strive for mediocrity? Why would you not take your life serious? ...You only get one shot at it."
• Aspires to inspire listeners to find their "passion," make sacrifices, and embrace discipline every day.

Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• "You will be a digital slave and this time your slavery will be voluntary. You signed up for it and you, you gave no fight."
  —Rashad Bilal, [04:32]

• "Too many opinions, not enough assets."
  —Ian (co-host), [08:31]

• "Attention is the most valuable commodity. This is why it’s so sought after."
  —Rashad Bilal, [11:08]

• "We capitalize on struggle, but nobody talks about solutions. In fact, when solutions are made and solutions are highlighted, everybody dumbs them down or push them to the side."
  —Troy Millings, [14:41]

• "Mostly the dumb are intrigued by the drum."
  —Wu-Tang Clan lyric quoted by Rashad Bilal, [16:39]

• "An abundance of street credibility will only leave you bankrupt financially. I've never met anybody that was able to cash in any level of street credibility."
  —Rashad Bilal, [15:54]

• "You can't feed a baby steak... there's growth and maturation."
  —Rashad Bilal, [17:53]

• "Our long term planning is next year, like Friday. That's our long term planning... that's not a formula that's sustainable."
  —Rashad Bilal, [25:20]

• "The higher we go and the more people that we meet... the less knowledge. There's some at the top that have the knowledge, but as we go, we're meeting people. I never knew what that was. I had no idea. Thank you, guys. That's why you guys are so important."
  —Troy Millings, [27:30]

• "At this point, you're making a decision to be like, nah, that's not for me."
  —Rashad Bilal, [32:46]

• "Why would you strive for mediocrity? ...Why would you not take your life serious? You only get one shot at it."
  —Rashad Bilal, [38:04]

Memorable Moments

• [29:39] On how DEI initiatives quickly disappeared post-George Floyd.
• [41:01] On the contradiction between public celebration (“champagne for the pain”) and underlying financial pain.
• [42:32] Shocking reality: Lebanese own most nightclubs in Lagos, Nigeria—underscoring lack of Black ownership, even in Africa.
• [16:58] – [17:47] The importance of lyrics (substance) over beats (surface) as a metaphor for choosing knowledge over empty entertainment.

Important Timestamps

• 03:26 – Wealth disparity and the distraction epidemic
• 07:24 – Self-accountability and digital slavery
• 08:31 – Economic realities get less attention than gossip
• 11:08 – The power (and cost) of attention
• 14:41 – Society’s obsession with struggle-based entertainment
• 16:39 – Wu-Tang lyric & substance vs. surface
• 25:20 – The fatal flaw of short-term thinking
• 27:03 – Financial literacy is a new revolution
• 32:46 – Access to information is not the problem—choices are
• 38:04 – Choosing mediocrity vs. pursuing greatness
• 39:48 – Party culture, escapism, and lack of Black ownership
• 42:32 – Black consumption in entertainment without ownership

Tone & Delivery

• Direct, challenging, passionate, and urgent
• Culturally grounded with numerous references to hip hop and Black experience
• A mix of tough love, accountability, and empowerment

Summary Takeaway

The episode is a clarion call to recognize the ways online distraction and entertainment are undermining personal and collective progress. The hosts urge listeners to wake up, take self-accountability, reject mediocrity, and intentionally consume content (like Earn Your Leisure) that builds knowledge and wealth. Entertainment is not inherently bad—but strive to learn from it, and always maintain focus on the big picture: economic empowerment, ownership, and generational advancement.

For anyone who wants to level up financially or break the cycle of digital distraction, this episode delivers a necessary reality check and blueprint for intentional living.