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- [00:00]
Tim Miller
Get more than you expect with the.
- [00:02]
Cameron Caskey
Five dollar meal deal. Part of new McValue.5 gets you a.
- [00:05]
Tim Miller
McDouble or McChicken and a small fry and a small drink and a four piece McNuggets. New McValue at McDonald's.
- [00:11]
Cameron Caskey
Prices of participation may vary. McDouble Meal, $6 in some markets for limited time only.
- [00:15]
Carlos Espina
The Democratic Party, not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, but as almost.
- [00:19]
Tim Miller
It's godless. It's godless. I mean, Cameron, Cameron is godless. He's an atheist. And you know, I'm agnostic.
- [00:26]
Cameron Caskey
I think it's insane to say that, you know, God is real. I think that is an insane thing to say.
- [00:32]
Tim Miller
The godless Democrats. So if we have to choose between the godless Democrats or the pretending to be Christian Republicans.
- [00:40]
Cameron Caskey
Hey, everyone, my name is Cameron Caskey.
- [00:43]
Tim Miller
And I'm Tim Miller. And this is Fypod where we talk about youth and youth issues and I experience all of my wrinkles one at a time. We've got a good guest today. We're going to do it in Spanglish. He has 13 million TikTok subs. His name is Carlos Espina. What's happening, man?
- [01:02]
Carlos Espina
Really excited. I mean, lots going on.
- [01:06]
Tim Miller
13 million. Is that real? Are those Russian bots or some other. Is there like a, you know, Venezuelan bot ally to Russia or what do you think's happening there?
- [01:15]
Carlos Espina
Nah, they're definitely real people. Not just on TikTok. I also have almost 4 million on Facebook. So across platforms I'm almost at 20 million. But yeah, I've been on.
- [01:24]
Cameron Caskey
You have more.
- [01:24]
Tim Miller
Let's not, let's not take out our follower dick, all right, this early in the show. Okay?
- [01:28]
Cameron Caskey
You know, there's more followers cross platform than there are Jewish people in the entire world.
- [01:34]
Carlos Espina
Oh, wow, that's a new statistic to me.
- [01:36]
Tim Miller
Are you feeling that when you're out in the streets or people like, you know, throwing bras at you and, and stuff and like screaming at you?
- [01:43]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, no, so it's very common. For example, I would say at this point, like 99 of restaurants I go to, the kitchen staff will always come out and be like, hey, you're the guy on Tick Tock. I mean, they'll say it in Spanish, right? But basically, go anywhere where you, you see working class Latinos, any part of the United States and I'll immediately get recognized. I go to soccer games too. And you know, it's just, that's my audience.
- [02:09]
Tim Miller
I wish that. I wish it was the kitchen staff calling me out it's like. It's usually like the ladies that are, you know, shopping for handbags.
- [02:17]
Carlos Espina
I mean, sometimes what happens, you know, I'll just. They'll send me free food, and I'll be like, oh, why'd I get free food? And then, like, oh, just because. And then later I find out, like, everyone in the kitchen knows me. Like, oh, that's nice. So it's always nice little gestures like that.
- [02:30]
Cameron Caskey
It's like, the coolest kind of cred to have. Damn, man. That's sick. I was actually a fan of yours before you came on the show, because I was at trending Up.
- [02:38]
Carlos Espina
Oh, okay.
- [02:38]
Cameron Caskey
You did the panel with Max Frost, which is pretty sick.
- [02:42]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, no, that was a good experience a couple months back. But, yeah, it is interesting to see, I guess, just going out and getting recognized and feeling people's love and, you know, support is really special.
- [02:52]
Tim Miller
All right, well, for the gringos listening who have no idea who you are, give us a little bit of, like, a first date. Like, where'd you come? How did this happen? How'd you end up with all these tech talk subs? Like, what? What's your story?
- [03:03]
Carlos Espina
Yeah. So my dad's from Uruguay. My mom's from Mexico. But I grew up in College Station, Texas, and, you know, around 20, 15, 16, when I was a junior slash senior in high school, at that point, I wanted to be a professional soccer player. But I started getting interested in politics thanks to Donald Trump. I remember turning on the TV one day and, you know, all over the. He called Mexicans rapists and criminals. I'm like, what's going on here? This guy's. I don't know much about politics, but this is not true. So I started, you know, kind of digging into the issues and just getting interested in politics. And I was like, hey, you know, I have a voice here. I can do stuff. And started realizing that, you know, just something as simple as being bilingual was a huge power and a huge tool that could help many people. So I started getting active in community organizations, nonprofits, political work. Went to college at Vassar College in New York to study political science. And my goal was after, to work in nonprofits. But when the pandemic came in 2020, that's when I graduated May of 2020, I was gonna work for an organization that fell through. And while I was figuring out what to do, I was like, oh, I guess, you know, let's start doing stuff on social media. I was already doing a lot of citizenship work on the weekends. I was like, why don't I teach citizenship classes online in Spanish. Started doing that on TikTok, blew up almost overnight and been doing it for five years ever since.
- [04:21]
Tim Miller
I bet that organization feels lame that they passed on you, man. Like, boy, what a blip.
- [04:27]
Carlos Espina
It was a mutual thing. I mean, so at that point I was like, I don't want to move, you know, and leave my parents behind. And also finding housing during the pandemic. And at that point no one knew what even two months out, one month out looked like. I'm like, how can I, you know, commit to something and then things get worse. So it was really a lot of uncertainty, as I'm sure we all remember. But hey, out of all that, you know, chaos came the opportunity for me to move my work onto social media. And like I said, people loved it almost instantly because when I started in that era, there was almost no one doing informative content in Spanish for Latinos here in the United States. You would have Spanish speaking content creators, but they'd be in Mexico or in, you know, other places, but no one here in the US speaking to the Spanish speaking population here. And so I grew unparalleled and almost without competition for a solid year, two years, almost to by that point I had a couple million followers and I just kind of kept going from there. It's always, you know, when you get in something early and you get in hard, it's always a big advantage over the rest.
- [05:25]
Tim Miller
That's what she said.
- [05:27]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, there you go. But no, I mean, it was just a bit of luck, but also persistence. I mean, I've been making probably 10 to 15 videos a day for the past five years now. So do the math every day.
- [05:39]
Tim Miller
Like you don't, you don't take off like Christmas or not only go to Mayo or anything.
- [05:45]
Carlos Espina
I haven't taken off any, any days actually. Maybe there's some days where, you know, I'll post a little bit less. But no, I mean, I don't have breaks. And most of the reason why is, you know, everything that's going on, especially now, is just so in the moment. For example, let's say yesterday I was like, I woke up, I don't know what my content is going to be for the day. Look at my phone. Oh, Donald Trump said Alligator Alcatraz. Well, that's the content for the day. And you know, every day is just like a, it's not like other content creators, you know, that you can plan out your content and on Friday I'm going to post this. That, I mean, it just really depends what's going on in the moment. And I just have to adapt to it. And the thought of taking a day off and then, you know, war breaks out or something massive happens and I'm on some sort of vacation, it's like. Just can't afford to do that right now.
- [06:27]
Tim Miller
Cameron, are you vaping right now? Are you just kind of sucking on your finger?
- [06:31]
Cameron Caskey
I'm, I'm. I was going like this.
- [06:34]
Tim Miller
I don't know, I was just wondering, I kind of what flavor vape it was. If you're just like kind of. I don't anything, man is my little anxiety pen. Anyway, I'm not Tom Holman here. I'm not asking you for your papers, but like, you grew, you grew up in College District, you're born there or like, do you ever. Were you ever in Uruguay?
- [06:51]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, it's an interesting story. So my parents were living here in the United States before I was born. My dad's actually a university professor. He came to the United states in the 80s at some point, he's from Uruguay, and back then there was a dictatorship. You know, he got an opportunity to leave the country and come here to study. So he got his Master's and his PhD in Hispanic Studies, Spanish language here in the United States, became a professor at Texas A and M. He was living there. Then he went to Mexico, met my mom in Mexico. My mom came to the United States. They had my older brother here in 1996. But in 1997, my mom was deported to Mexico. So when she got deported, my dad started the process to become a U.S. citizen. And then he would go visit her. She got pregnant with me, she moved to Uruguay. I was born in Uruguay, but it's very interesting. So by the time I was born.
- [07:44]
Tim Miller
Montevideo or what?
- [07:45]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, Montevideo. I was born there. But when I was born, my dad had just, you know, a couple months back, become a U.S. citizen. So they took me to the U.S. embassy, and I actually have a consular birth certificate saying this is a US citizen born abroad. So I am a natural born citizen born in Uruguay. But I wasn't able to come for, you know, a few years because my mom was barred from coming into the United States. So obviously I'm not going to come here, you know, just by myself. So she was able to fix her situation. By that point, I was around four or five years old. She came back to the United States and we've been living in College Station to this day. My dad's a professor at Texas A and M, so that's why My family is still there.
- [08:24]
Tim Miller
Do you worry at all about, like, so my buddy jvl, my colleague wrote a newsletter about this today. I should have sent it to you before we talked, but it was like, like they're talking about denaturalizing, like, and they're doing all that kind of shit. And like, you know, there's a lot of these edge cases. I'm not saying you're as an edge case, but like, people don't think about this, right? It's like, oh, you're either illegal, can you swam across the Rio Grande, or were born here and you're an American, right? Like, like those are the two categories, like regular old white people in America have in their head, right? And it's like there are all these like, more complex edge cases, you know, if, like, what if you were adopted or what if, like there was this case last. A couple weeks ago, I was reading about a guy. Yeah. Military base maybe. I'm sure you read that like consular baby. Like, I don't know, like, does that worry you at all? Like, it feels a little bit more edge, I guess, with these fucking assholes that they're like, we'll, we'll come up with some random, you know, pretend.
- [09:15]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, well, it's not something I think about. It's obviously, you know, anything is possible. I mean, yesterday, Donald Trump was talking about, right, he wants to deport some of the bad people who were born here in the United States. It seems like nothing's off the table, but I'm not really like, stressing over every day. I'm more worried about, you know, the people who have no sort of protection, no sort of, you know, who are dropping their kids off at school and then get picked up by ice or want to just go to work and don't know if they'll be back by the end of the day. I mean, that worries me more than my own personal situation. And at the end of the day, I do feel very protected also by the community that supports me. It's like, you know, these high profile cases, we've seen it already in a few occasions where the Trump administration wants to, you know, deport someone or take their permanent residency away or all these other stuff. And after a legal process and public outrage and all that, they actually end up, you know, taking a loss. So it is interesting to see, even though the Trump administration is very powerful, they haven't been able to achieve everything that they want to in some of these very edgy cases, as you're mentioning. But I guess only time Will tell.
- [10:19]
Tim Miller
Are you getting, like, feedback? Like, I imagine that you get a lot of, like, random people, like, messaging you about shit like this, because you know what I mean? And so, like, I figure out what's true and what's not. But, like, how does it compare now to, like, during the Biden administration? Right, because they were deporting people during the Biden administration. Like, do you feel like a tangible difference in, like, the types of stories or anything that you're.
- [10:39]
Carlos Espina
Oh, yeah, there's a huge difference. So, like, the deportation. Deportation statistics are very, you know, people just see the numbers, but they don't really break them down as they should. For example, Trump gets compared a lot to Obama. They say Obama deported so many people, Obama this, this and that. But the majority of people Obama was deporting were people who were actually arrested while crossing the border. You have the people who are crossing the border, and then you have the people who are already here. Obama and Biden even less, you know, interior enforcement, as it's called, workplace raids, finding people, you know, where they live, and all that was very limited to people with criminal records. I'm not saying they didn't take any innocent people. You know, that's always part of it, but not to the scale we're seeing now. I mean, during the Biden administration, we had four years without a workplace raid, without a race, at a rate, at churches, without a raid, you know, any public spaces. It was very targeted operations. So if you look at Biden's deportation statistics, he deported very few people who were actually already here living in the United States. For the most part, people were calm. Obviously, you're not always 100% sure because you do. You have no legal status. But there also wasn't that fear that, hey, I'm going to go out to work and they're just going to show up at my workplace or pick up me up while I'm leaving my kids at school. Now the environment is completely changed. I mean, people are fearful. And to your point earlier, you have people who are fearful who aren't even undocumented. You have people who have, you know, permanent residency. And they're writing to me every day, hey, what if I leave the country and they stop me at the airport and they detain me? Or, you know, what if I'm a mixed status family, my parents are undocumented, and I shows up at my house and takes me. I mean, it's real fear that's being felt all across the community, and it's having a real impact. You go to Restaurants and places that were vibrant and full of people, now they're empty. You know, people kind of hide. They're scared. You just feel it in the air. And it is a very depressing mood, honestly.
- [12:30]
Cameron Caskey
How do you handle the weight of that kind of community leadership? Because, you know, I have a gun control background, and people used to come up to me and say. And tell me the entire graphic story of them losing a family member to gun violence or tell me a long story about where they were when they saw the Sandy Hook shooting happen. And I remember these people would break down to tears in front of me, and I wouldn't know what the fuck to tell them to make them feel better. All I know knew was that if I listened and validated how they were feeling, I could maybe help a little bit. And I was a fucking teenager. And I just can't imagine how many messages you get from people and how many people come up to you in person and tell you how scared they are. Like, how do you manage that?
- [13:08]
Carlos Espina
Well, it is very hard. I mean, I'm still learning. I'm gonna be honest. A lot of I've heard so many stories and seen so many cases that to a degree, I am very desensitized from kind of everything going on. Not in a bat, like, to the point where I don't care, but, you know, you just kind of get used to the sad reality that's going on. And so I always, you know, just try to be there for people, but it is very overwhelming because the degree of suffering now is like, you know, before going back to the Biden years, like, there would be an injustice, Case of injustice in the community, whatever you wanted, you know, any example, and it would be huge outrage because it was, like, a very unique thing. Now it's like an everyday occurrence. That part of my job is like, okay, sorting through as a content creator, like, what should I give attention to? What should I not? Because if not my content just becomes 50 videos a day of, oh, they did a workplace right here. They did one here, they did one here. And that is part of the Trump administration strategy is just like, you know, flooding the zone and so much going on that people just don't even know what the hell is going on. But part of me, too, you know, the reason I, in many ways, am able to get through all of this is because I genuinely do feel like I did what I could to try to prevent all of this. And I go back to it. And, you know, a lot of Latinos don't like to have this conversation. But the reality is, you know, we're in this mess because many people in our community voted for this guy. I mean, you know, you talk about, oh, I'm mad at Trump and this. I tell people, hey, you know, you, your brother voted for this, your uncle voted for this, your parents vote, your children. I mean, and so those are the conversations I'm having every day. Like, we are so we are reaping the consequences of our own actions. And I'm one of the people who, you know, really stuck my neck out and it's like, hey, I don't agree with Kamala on a lot of things, but we need to vote for her because this is going to be a disaster if Trump wins. I got a lot of hate. I was called a sellout, that I was fear mongering. Now people are coming to me like, hey, I'm sorry, but you know, you were right. I actually saw that a lot in Miami. I was in Miami a week ago. I had a bunch of Cubans and Venezuelans who were like, hey, you know, I really didn't like you last year because I thought you were like, exaggerating and you were a paid Democrat shill. And now I realized, you know, you were kind of right. And I'm sorry, they'll just tell me outright.
- [15:15]
Tim Miller
So I just said I was talking to a buddy of mine that was, It's Haitian that lives in Miami. And you know, the Haitians been targeted by the MAGA folks for a while now, like specifically during the campaign with the dog and cat eating stuff. But you know, not just that. And, you know, they live in South Florida, you know, as Cam knows from there, like, with the Cuban. And those communities are kind of close together and all that, but, you know, there's a little bit of tension over, over all this, like the Cubans going for Trump while the Haitians are being targeted as cat eaters. And the guy I was talking to was like, you know, we've been noticing a lot of the raids in the Cuban community and the fact that a lot of the people are mad and some of us have been like, what the fuck? Like, where were, like, where were you? Like, why did you guys go along with this? Like, I mean, do you feel like that's real? It's hard for me to tell, like, how much of that is anecdote and how much of that is real, you know, as far as, like, those communities are concerned. What do you think?
- [16:11]
Carlos Espina
Well, it's definitely real. And the way I know this is, if you look at the Three members of Congress that represent South Florida, which are the three Cuban Americans, Maria Vida Ballard and Carlos Jimenez. They've broken on with Trump on immigration in many occasions now because they're feeling the press.
- [16:28]
Tim Miller
They're voting for the shitty bill, though, that builds a bunch of ICE prisons.
- [16:32]
Carlos Espina
And so you see, like, publicly they're trying to save face. You know, privately they're doing the same, you know, trash as always. But at least publicly, they're trying to save face because they're running the numbers and their polls and their statistics are showing that, you know, the Latinos who voted for Donald Trump are, you know, rapidly. He's rapidly losing their support. And it's for good reason, because not just on the issue of immigration, but a lot of people said, you know, yeah, he's going to do bad stuff on immigration, but the economy is going to boom under Trump and, you know, we're going to live so much better. And it's actually, like, interesting. It's happening a lot where you have Latino business owners who consider themselves to be more successful than the average Latino. And they voted for Donald Trump because they're like, oh, you know, my business is going to boom. And now their businesses are having to shut down because they have no clients. No one wants to go eat at their restaurants. No one wants. I've seen it a lot in the industry of entertainment. A lot of, like, promoters for clubs and bands and concerts, they from. And now they have no one to go to their events, and they're like, oh, shit, you know, so it. It is a real reckoning for a lot of people. And I do think that this is a good opportunity for the Democrats to come in and say, hey, you know, we told you so. But at the same time, how can we move forward and how can build a coalition around this? But it is a huge mess overall in Florida especially.
- [17:49]
Cameron Caskey
It's going to be interesting to see how everything goes, especially since I just saw that Ron DeSantis said he was going to deputize his. His minions to be judges.
- [17:59]
Carlos Espina
Oh, yeah, I saw that.
- [18:01]
Cameron Caskey
I'm thinking like, what is, what is Florida going to see from this? Because I am. I don't. What would you say were Trump and Desantis is big sales pitches to Latinos? Do you think it was primarily the economy?
- [18:14]
Carlos Espina
Yeah. So one thing that Republicans did very effectively and, you know, Democrats kind of slept on, was really wedging the Latino community among nationalities. What do I mean by this? The ideology and the voting patterns of Cubans and Venezuelans particularly are very different than Mexican and Central Americans and Republicans were very good at pitting communities against each other. What I mean by this, they sold to the Cuban community, right, that you guys are going to be fine, you're going to be protected. We're going to go after. They wouldn't say it outright, but, you know, underlying tones. We're going after the Mexicans and the Central Americans. Whereas the Mexicans and the Central Americans, they were, you know, sold to believe that Trump was going to go after the lazy Venezuelans who crossed the border in the past two, three years and they're living in free hotels in New York City and he's not going to mess with the hard working Mexicans who have been here for 20, 25 years. And now the reality is being shattered that he. They're going for everyone. They're going for everyone they can. And then there is also, you know, the, the politics from the home country. A lot of Cubans and Venezuelans are very susceptible to the, oh, Democrats are communist. And you know, Ron DeSantis whole thing. We're fighting woke in Florida and we're fighting, you know, all these social issues and all this stuff. And that is a very effective strategy. But I think people are starting to quickly realize that they were basically, you know, duped and not even duped because they weren't, you know, tricking people. They were being outright.
- [19:40]
Tim Miller
But people just, I kind of just pull those apart though, because if you try to think about like, what did the fuck do the Democrats do? I was, who was I talking to? I was talking to a pollster today for the main pod and he was like, he gave me. I knew that the Hispanic vote had moved towards the Republicans. I didn't know how much like the gap between Hillary And Kamala was 16%. So it's like basically one in five. A little more than one in five, like a little less than one in five. I mean, Hispanic voters like either switched or dropped off and came back on, but like a pretty like significant shift. And it's like, okay, so there's the economic messaging is like one part of it, right? They're annoyed about inflation. The small, the stuff you're talking about, the cultural stuff maybe is some of it like the woke and transgender, whatever. Okay. And then like the Republican scaremongering around, like communism is maybe part of it, right? Like some of them like saw how bad it was with communists leaders in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba. It's like of those three, like buckets, like, what, how, you know, what do you think? Like, how, like, what does, what do the Democrats have to do to kind of claw back, you know, some of that support?
- [20:47]
Carlos Espina
Well, I think there's, you know, a couple ways to go about it. And this is a very, you know, controversial topic to hit on. But I do think that most Latinos align mostly with the kind of center left wing of the party. For example, a lot of, like these very progressive slogans, like not saying that the Democratic Party officially adopted them, but they did were mixed in with the Democratic messaging. Like, for example, defund the police is like, I've never met a Latino every day who's like, hey, I wish the police didn't exist. In fact, a lot of, you know.
- [21:20]
Tim Miller
Latino, maybe the ICE cops. Yeah, the masked ice, exactly.
- [21:24]
Carlos Espina
Like those kinds of things are, you know, we're starting to see some shifts. But other stuff, even, for example, on the issue of immigration, like, there was a point where there was a big, you know, movement to essentially end all deportations and all this stuff. And most Latinos I know, they favor a system which, you know, helps people who are here working, paying taxes. But at the same time, as I said, you know, if you're, you know, beating your wife on the weekends or drinking and driving or assaulting people, these are crimes that, you know, migrant crime. As Trump likes to frame him, he always likes to pull up the cases of, you know, Lake and Riley and all this stuff. But when an immigrant commits a crime, it's almost overwhelmingly against another immigrant in the same community. So people see that and they're like, hey, you know, I do think that we should have consequences for people who are breaking the law. But at the same time, what people don't agree with is, hey, going after one person who broke the law and then taking 100 people who are working hard, paying taxes. So I found a lot of Latinos are just very, you know, in the middle, I would almost say common sense on a lot of these issues. And I think the messaging really got lost there. I also do think there is a religious component where the Democratic Party, not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, but.
- [22:34]
Tim Miller
As almost it's godless. It's godless. And Cameron, Cameron is godless. He's an atheist. And, you know, I'm agnostic.
- [22:41]
Cameron Caskey
And so I think it's insane to say that, you know, God is real. I think that is an insane thing to say.
- [22:48]
Tim Miller
The godless Democrats. So if we have to choose between the godless Democrats or the pretending to be Christians, Christian Republicans.
- [22:54]
Carlos Espina
So that that has led to a lot of, for example, and I saw this I started seeing this break a lot after the Roe v. Wade overturning, where religious messaging got just got really hammered home on Latinos. And Republicans would just say, oh, Democrats don't believe in God. Democrats are enemies of God. They want to take, you know, and I do think there is a way for Democrats to incorporate almost, you know, religious messaging, but in a more humanitarian way. The way I do it in my content, which is very effective, is like, hey, you know, Republicans love to talk about the Bible. The Bible says, you know, we should welcome strangers, we should help immigrants, we should treat each other with respect. So there is like a religious messaging. But here in the United States, you know, it's very different than in Latin America because, for example, if you look at the Catholic Church in Latin America, in many instances, you know, they have been at the forefront of social movements, whereas here, you know, churches are very conservative and all that. So it's a different dynamic. And I do think the Democrats need a, you know, those who are, I'm not going to say if you're not religious, then, you know, become religious to win over Latino voters. But there are a lot of religious.
- [23:56]
Tim Miller
People in the Democratic, social justice, Catholic vibe. Democrats could maybe like, for example, like.
- [24:01]
Carlos Espina
You, you see, you go to the border. Most of the organizations doing humanitarian aid and, you know, help for immigrants who are arriving are Catholic organizations. They're Catholic charities. Something that's actually, you know, done really well in my content recently is, you know, the Pope will send like these little digs at Donald Trump and his immigration policy and like, framing that as like, hey, you know, the Pope is saying, like, being anti immigrant and all these things is not a good value to have. And it's, it's, it works really well with my audience. One, because I agree with it, but because I also do think the religious component is still really important in the Latino community.
- [24:37]
Cameron Caskey
By what means did MAGA infiltrate various Latino communities and turn people against each other? Because, you know, in terms of conversations being had at the dinner table, conversations at church and in local communities, what, what were, what were they doing to get this messaging in everybody's head?
- [24:56]
Tim Miller
Ads, Radio? Yeah. I don't know.
- [24:57]
Carlos Espina
Well, I think the biggest issue has actually been social media. And I've been fighting this fight, you know, almost alone, I'm going to say alone, because there are other content creators who are doing good work. But social media, we'll give it to you, is a landscape, especially in Spanish, because you think about a lot of, oh, you know, regulations in social media, but most of that Applies in English, in Spanish, you can kind of just say whatever the hell you want to say. And, like, the algorithm will never pick it up. So we see a lot of this misinformation. And I started to notice it a lot during the pandemic because I would. I was a big proponent of, like, hey, you know, stay inside, follow the guidelines, get the vaccine. And people would tell me, like, how could you do that? You know, the vaccine is the mark of the beast. And in the Bible, it said that you're going to go to hell if you. And I'm like, I would be like, okay, where are these people getting this information? And it's like social media videos, which then end up in WhatsApp groups and then end up on Facebook. And since there's no regulation, or almost no regulation when it comes to, you know, information in Spanish, people just say the wildest things. And. And it sticks because it goes into what we were saying earlier. It plays on people's religious beliefs, their fears. And I think social media was really that main avenue. And then obviously, there's other places, you know, when you go to church every weekend after, you know, Roe v. Wade being overturned in pastors telling you or the preachers telling you abortions, murder, and Democrats support murder. Well, obviously, that has an impact. But I do think, really, social media was, like, such an untamed place where, you know, conspiracy theories just completely overtook what I saw a lot of before the election was Kamala Harris is the antichrist. Kamala Harris hates God. Trump is gonna restore. I don't know. And the deep state and this, this and that. And you're like, I mean, it's messaging that works, but it's just so. It's so harmful.
- [26:41]
Tim Miller
That is so interesting.
- [26:42]
Cameron Caskey
What you just said about regulation really resonated with Tim because I guarantee you, he just Googled. How do you say in Spanish, I do.
- [26:50]
Tim Miller
I do like to be able to. I do like to be able to use impure words, Carlos. I really do. But it also resonated with me because, like, for good reason, like, pro democracy folks, whatever. Progressive, anti, like, big tech people. Like, you've been very harsh about, like, Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and all these platforms about the degree to which they're not doing content moderation, but, like, they. They really were doing content moderation up till 2024. It just wasn't that good. You know, there were a lot of holes in it, but, like, the gap between the English content moderation, which was at least, like, on the margins, they were doing some versus that wild West. Yeah, I hadn't even really thought about that. That is fucking that, like, does that. That resonates a lot more with me than like, the people that are like, Trump's corny ads where he was like, viva la Trump. Those cheesy ass ads they did where the. What worked? I was like, that can't be it.
- [27:46]
Carlos Espina
It's, it's, it's, it's a build up of things. And that's why I think it's just so complicated to like, you know, really reduce it. And, you know, people try to go to, like, other factors. For example, a lot of people think, oh, you know, you're just making all these theories up because you don't want to admit that Latinos would never vote for a woman. That's why Kamala lost. I'm like, hey, you know, that would be true, except Mexico has a woman president with an 85 approval rating. And Mexico is a super conservative country. You know, Latin America has had many women presidents, for example. So yes, maybe there's that one guy or a few. I'm not going to say just one. There surely are people who's like, I'm not going to vote for her because she's a woman. But going back to what you said, I mean, Latinos voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton, who's another woman. So, like, there's a lot more to the conversation than what we see. You know, Latinos are, are conservative and they're sexist. And then there's. And that, like, I'm not saying those aren't things that are a problem in the community, but the reason why so many people voted for Donald Trump is, you know, it's a lot more complicated than that. And then there is also the reality that I think is breaking a lot of people's brains right now is they thought that, you know, Trump's second presidency was going to be like the first one. And obviously I think it was a very flawed first administration, but objectively, it was nowhere near as bad as this one is. So people also have that like, pre pandemic nostalgia where they're like, you know, back in 2018 and 2019, I could afford stuff, and then Biden came and I couldn't afford anything. So I want to forge stuff again. So I'm going to vote for Trump. And now those people are realizing like, oh, shit, Trump's not really doing anything. If anything, it's worse. So I think those are the opportunities for people or, you know, for the Democratic Party to pick up voters again. What my caution Is, is, hey, you know, frustration with the Republican Party and Donald Trump does not automatically lead to Democratic voters. If anything, I've seen a lot of people who are now like, well, we tried the Democrats, that didn't work. We tried the Republicans, that didn't work. I'm just not going to vote at all. And I think that's a very scary place to get to. So how can we win the messaging back and, you know, move forward?
- [29:48]
Cameron Caskey
My Republican friend said to me last night on the phone, my Republican friend.
- [29:52]
Carlos Espina
Said.
- [29:54]
Cameron Caskey
Do not mistake my hate for Donald Trump with love for the Democrats.
- [29:58]
Carlos Espina
I mean, that's, that's, that's the sentiment, you know, And I really do think, how can we get back to that? And, you know, you, you did mention something in passing that is also a very controversial topic. But I do think we love that Latinos feel like the Democratic Party has almost become too soft. What do I mean by that? Like, if you look at leftist parties in the United, in Latin America, they say stuff that's like, you know, very, like, out there, you know, like, and even I've noticed it myself. Like, for example, in Spanish messaging, you can say stuff that maybe would get you canceled. In English, a good example. Hopefully I don't get canceled. So I'll say, like, I'll usually say, like, I've said it a couple times. I said it about Marco Ruyo. I'm like, Trump, which in English would be like, oh, he doesn't have the balls to face Donald Trump. Which if I said that in English, people be, oh, this guy's sexist. Because, you know, you don't have to have.
- [30:52]
Tim Miller
No, I was working on this one. I've been on Google Translate, right? Is that good? Is Marco a conio?
- [30:59]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, no, I mean, like, that kind of out, you know, not to say, like, I'm not saying like, oh, make the Democratic Party racist again or sexist again. But like, there are times when, like, you know, we need to focus more on the actual, you know, substance. And I see it a lot because it happened especially among, like, young working class Latinos my age, which maybe don't have an education to understand. You know, hey, you shouldn't be saying these things or you shouldn't be doing, you know, but they are working class. They care about the same issues we do, but they just felt more accepted in the Republican Party because they feel like they can be themselves without getting judged. And hey, look, I went to a small liberal arts college. And I'm gonna be honest, my experience there, I love Vassar College. But it can be a little bit too much when you have to constantly, you know, like, oh, if I say this word, I'm gonna get canceled. Or if, like, you know, not saying, hey, let's be racist, sexist, and do all these horrible things, but chill out, you know?
- [31:49]
Cameron Caskey
Carlos, welcome home. You are on the right show.
- [31:52]
Tim Miller
There's one word that we're not allowed to say on the show because we get demonetized. But now that I know that we can do this. What about this? That's Cameron. Cameron is that if you can't tell me what it means, we can't say it because we'll get demonetized.
- [32:08]
Cameron Caskey
When we bombed Iran, I saw some tweet that was like, Trump sending us to war because a couple guys wanted to say retarded at work. And I think that there's an interesting conversation to be had about that because, you know, I've read bell hooks. I've read All About Love, all lowercase. I've read the Will to Change. I. I would say 65% of my friends are women. I identify as a radical feminist. I identify as more feminists than I would say 80% of women. But Marco Rubio is a bitch. Like, what am I? Until there's a woke version of that word, like, that's what Marco Rubio is. I don't like saying it, but the solution to that is Marco Rubio not being a bitch anymore.
- [32:49]
Tim Miller
I agree with that.
- [32:51]
Carlos Espina
And so I guess it's just a lot of factors. I mean, we've gone probably like, five, ten different factors, and I think all those things kind of build up. But I do think, you know, and I've always sustained it. I do think Latinos are the ultimate swing voters. And, you know, they talk a lot about, oh, the right word shift. And this isn't that. I mean, if the Democrats do things right, these voters will be, you know, back in the party within the next year. I mean, because Latinos, as opposed to other communities, for example, I know growing up here in. In a smaller, ish town, now, College Station is not that small anymore, but it was when I was growing up. You have a lot of, for example, you know, white people who are like, I vote Republican because my whole family has always voted the same way. And, like, you have black people who are like, you know, my grandparents are part of the civil rights movement, and it's just part of their political culture, whereas Latinos don't really have that political culture identity here in the United States, because we are, for the most part, a much newer group to the United States. So I don't have that tradition of, like, I vote Democrat because my grandparents voted Democrats because my grandparents never voted in the United States. So we are, we're still trying to find a political home. And we don't have that long hit, for better or worse, we don't have that long history here in the United States, at least the vast majority of us. Obviously, there's been Latinos who have been here for many years, but the, the majority of Latinos don't have that, you know, strong cultural identity, political affiliation, which allows us to, hey, one election be this way, one election be the other, and just go wherever we feel more comfortable.
- [34:20]
Cameron Caskey
So what would you say would be a strong first step for the Dems to regain trust with these communities?
- [34:25]
Carlos Espina
Well, I think the biggest issue that has happened is the lack of results. And I've been very critical, you know, and I, you know, did stuff with the Biden administration. I even made a TikTok with him and everything. But I told him, I was like, hey, you know, you shouldn't campaign on stuff that you can't realistically achieve or that you're not even going to fight for. So Biden energized a lot of people because he said, you know, after the first Trump administration, everyone knows the immigration system's broken. I'm going to come in and I'm the guy who can work across the aisle, and we're going to find a solution to immigration. And you can point for many factors to why that didn't happen, but the fact is, it didn't happen. And the average voter doesn't look into the details about the Senate parliamentarian and about the filibuster. They just see results and they say, hey, this guy promised he was going to legalize hardworking immigrants. He didn't do that.
- [35:12]
Tim Miller
That.
- [35:12]
Carlos Espina
And now we're frustrated. So a lot of the Latinos who voted for Donald Trump wasn't because they liked Donald Trump. It was what in Spanish is called El voto de Castigo, or in English would be like the punishment vote, which is the theory that you literally just vote for whoever's not in power because you're mad at who's in power. So when you win, you know, you regain control, but then you don't change anything substantially. You know, people get frustrated, and that's what I'm really fearful that the Democrats are going to do because they've done it before. You know, right now they're talking about unmasking ICE agents and doing all these Things which are popular. But if you win back control and you don't actually work on doing those things, then you know what the hell going on.
- [35:48]
Tim Miller
Yes. You think that is popular? So this is my question. I think. I feel like a lot of the Democrats are. I don't know how to pronounce the Spanish word weak on. On the immigration stuff. Because they're a little scared. Yeah, that. Because like, they lost on it right now. They don't really want to talk about it that much. And I don't know, man, I feel like a Democrat could really do well at Hispanics if they kind of butched up on the, like, when you're talking about how they're. They seem weak. Like, what's a way to seem strong? Like, really get in the grill of these ICE goons, right? Really be like, look, I'm not for whatever open borders. I think people that beat their wives should go to jail. Like, I'm not one of these whatever far left folks, but this fascist ICE shit is horrible and we gotta fight it. And I will rip their fucking masks off and that we will not be doing this anymore. You know what I mean? Like, do you. Is there a way to kind of have a. A tough attitude, taking on the ICE goons while not seeming like you're whatever to a far left. Defund the police person. That. That won't. That the. That the community won't. Like, what do you think?
- [36:52]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, well, there is a. A messaging that really has worked with me that I haven't seen at a national level. And it's, you know, for example, with Cubans and Venezuelans, we, you know, you came fleeing a dictatorship where you would have masks, you know, goons for the government doing the dirty work, like wearing sneakers and headbands and all messed up. And now you're seeing the exact same thing. So I've done a lot of that. Hey, is this image from Venezuela or is this image from Los Angeles? And you can't really tell the difference, you know, that kind of image. Because people still do understand that, you know, having, you know, you come from a country where. From Mexico, where you have the military on the streets. That's not a very popular policy to have people don't want to see armed, you know, military, you know, national guard on the street. So playing into that a little bit, but also just, you know, focusing on. It's almost like the civil rights movement once again. This is kind of controversial, but, you know, you look at the story of the civil rights movement, in many cases, they chose who to defend and who not defend. You know, the whole story of Harriet Tubman. She wasn't the first one to sit on the bus. But why did she become so popular? Because you have to find these cases, like I think it is kind of hard to defend someone, you know, who's done very questionable things. But we've seen a lot of these cases where for example, Ximena aria, she's this 19 year old college student from Georgia, came to the United States when she was four years old, was here her whole life. She got arrested by ICE after supposedly doing a wrong turn, which turned out to be bullshit. Hey, those are the cases that you really need to hit on because this guy's talking about the worst of the worst and the criminals and the drug dealers and hey, this is actually who's going being affected. You know, a lot of these images that have come out of courthouses of them arresting children and their family in, in Los Angeles because yesterday there was a video of somebody, she looked like 60, 70 year old lady selling flowers on the street being picked up by ice. I mean, really focus in on those cases and be like, hey, we're not against immigration enforcement, against people, you know, who have committed crimes. But you're going to tell me this lady selling flowers on the streets of LA really deserves masked up ICE agents to roll up and you know, in tactical gear and pick her up. I mean, that's really the breaking point. So we just have to find what I think is a common sense policy. Hey, you know, you're not a risk society. Let's try to help you out, let's try to legalize you. But like you said, if you're doing stuff you shouldn't be doing, there also has to be consequences.
- [39:08]
Tim Miller
Are there any Dems that are that like, are good in Spanish, that are compelling, that like jump out at you?
- [39:14]
Carlos Espina
That's the other issue too. And I mean it's really frustrating. The Republicans have better messaging in Spanish than the Republicans.
- [39:22]
Tim Miller
And it goes back to like W. Even W spoke that Texas twang Spanglish. At least he was trying right now.
- [39:30]
Carlos Espina
And so it's really frustrating. I mean, and I've, I've said it. You know, it's not to like judge anyone who doesn't speak Spanish fluently and all that stuff. But the Democrats need to find some people who can actually communicate.
- [39:40]
Tim Miller
Can Ruben speak Spanish?
- [39:43]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, he, he speaks. He's getting better at it. I've done a couple videos with him. He does speak Spanish and he is getting better. And I think he's going to continue to get better. And I think he's practicing it a lot. But that's a. That's a good thing. That's a good sign. Yeah, but, you know, you have a lot of these. These Congress members from Florida. Maria, particularly Maria Vida, she's been very successful. She's the one who represents, you know, the Miami Hialeah, all that area. And she used to actually work for Telemundo before running for Congress. So she understands very well how Spanish communications work. And she's on Telemundo and Univision all the time talking about Donald Trump this, this, and that. And the Republicans don't. Or the Democrats, I mean, they don't have a counterpart. And once again, not to, like, be a hater, whatever, but, like, for example, the Castro brothers in. In Texas, they don't speak very good Spanish.
- [40:31]
Tim Miller
You know who does speak Spanish in Texas? Cameron.
- [40:34]
Carlos Espina
Who does?
- [40:35]
Tim Miller
Our boy, I think Beto speaks Spanish, doesn't he? Is better Spanish.
- [40:39]
Carlos Espina
Sure. I know. Surprise.
- [40:41]
Cameron Caskey
I thought you were gonna say Olivia Juliana.
- [40:43]
Carlos Espina
So I did a video on this. I did a video on this. It actually did really well. So I was in Capitol Hill for. What was it? The State of the Union, and I did a video with Tim Kaine, and I was like, how is it that this guy speaks better Spanish? Like, all, you know, and his Spanish is like. I wouldn't say perfect. I would say like 95% there. And people were like, wow. Like, I had never heard, you know, a Democrat message like this in Spanish. So I think it is very important to find people. In fact, I was looking, you know, during the election, there's a clip of Kamala met back when she was, you know, still in California, Senator. And they asked her, what's your biggest regret in life? And she said, not knowing Spanish. I genuinely believe, and I'll stick to this and I'll die on this Hill. If Kamala Harris spoke Spanish, she would be president. Right now, I'm 100 sure. Why? Because going back to the misinformation, we saw so much misinformation on social media in Spanish, and she couldn't respond to it because she doesn't understand Spanish. And I'm saying she's great on many aspects, but I think we are reaching a time where speaking Spanish is a huge benefit to anyone who wants to run for higher office, especially a political party who wants to win elections.
- [41:52]
Cameron Caskey
I just found an article from the New York Post. NYC mayoral candidate Zoran Mamdani accused of using AI to fake Spanish fluency. But socialist Says critics are loco.
- [42:02]
Carlos Espina
Did you see that ad? I did see the ad. I don't know if he was actually speaking in Spanish or not. Like, because I did see then after, maybe it was AI, but it was a really good video. I mean, for someone who maybe doesn't, you know, have no idea what's going. I, I'm gonna be honest, I didn't really pay too much attention to the New York elections. Why? Because I'm a big, and God bless you for it, I'm a big believer. And people were like, hey, give your opinion. I'm a big believer that, you know, you should respect different constituencies. And I'm not going to tell you in New York, a city I've never lived in, how you should vote, what you should do. But I did see, you know, some of the campaign he was running and it was really interesting to see how he was using Spanish messaging. And I think, you know, the Democrats have just really not done a good job in Spanish messaging. I hope they improve on it. But, but at the end of the day, part of it is to running candidates and finding candidates who understand and who speak Spanish.
- [42:51]
Tim Miller
I think Beto speaks Spanish. We're going to call our friend Beto after this. And Pete supposedly speaks seven languages and he doesn't have a job right now, so he could really bone up on his Spanish. What about aoc? Does, can AOC speak Spanish?
- [43:01]
Carlos Espina
I don't, I'm not sure to.
- [43:03]
Tim Miller
Well, I feel like we would know.
- [43:04]
Carlos Espina
There's an interesting dynamic here which is also kind of complicated hot button issue in the Latino community, right? So if you have a, a white person or black person or anyone you know who's not Latino, who tries to speak Spanish, people will appreciate it because they're like, oh, he's making an effort. But if you have a Latino who doesn't speak Spanish, well it like people will just kill him for it because they'll be, oh, he's a safe self hating Latino. How can Latino and not know span? So there's like a very interesting dynamic where non Latino politicians can get away with a minimal level of Spanish and are actually rewarded for it, while Latino politicians who have very broken Spanish, it just looks bad. It's an optics thing. Not saying it's good, not saying it's not makes sense.
- [43:47]
Tim Miller
Cameron, I've got a really disappointing tweet for you I have to read right now because I googled AOC speak Spanish and Carlos, you might be resonating with us. So maybe this is why we don't see it as much because she goes, she says this, this is in 2019. She did a Univision interview. She said, I'm really proud of this interview. Growing up, Spanish was my first language. But like many first generation Latinx Americans, I have to continuously work at it and improve. It's not perfect, but the only way we improve our language skills is through public practice. Pallante. So she Latinxed herself while explaining why she was working on her Spanish. This is a problem.
- [44:26]
Cameron Caskey
I wait until the Latin and then a letter person I'm talking to says their version of it and then I just say whatever they're saying.
- [44:34]
Tim Miller
Oh, good, good.
- [44:35]
Carlos Espina
It is a very. Because even then, for example, you have people like my parents who, I mean, they speak English, they understand English perfect. But they still consume media in Spanish because they just feel more comfortable in it. I mean, it's just even myself, I grew up here, but I love. I'll watch a soccer game. I don't watch it in English, I watch it in Spanish because there are certain, you know, modes of communication that.
- [44:55]
Tim Miller
The announcers are better.
- [44:56]
Carlos Espina
Yeah. You know, the. And it goes to the same information. Why have I had, had, you know, maybe so much success on social media? Because I am able to express my thoughts very clearly in Spanish in a way that if I didn't, I just wouldn't have that success. So I think it is something that the Democrats need to look into and evaluate a bit more their Spanish messaging and what that looks like and how they can improve it. Because unfortunately, like I said, I do think Republicans are doing a much better job, which is not something you would really expect. But going back, it's even been going to the Bush years. I remember Bush had a, had a song they made for him in Spanish and everything. I mean it's, it's a powerful tool that really needs to be invested in a lot more.
- [45:34]
Tim Miller
The Marines. You're a Marine, Is this right?
- [45:37]
Carlos Espina
No, I'm not a Marine.
- [45:38]
Tim Miller
No, that was a Marine. What was it? What is this about?
- [45:41]
Carlos Espina
Okay, so at the dnc and I'm still mad about it this to this day, I guess they switched me up with someone.
- [45:47]
Tim Miller
Like I was like I was trying to figure out what was happening.
- [45:52]
Carlos Espina
Introduce me. Okay. So I didn't like, I didn't hear it because I was so in the moan. I'd never given a big speech like that. So I just walked out. It turns out like the loud voice had introduced me as like US Marine. I don't know where they got that from. I don't know how that happened. And I was actually like, teddy Goff.
- [46:09]
Cameron Caskey
If you're listening to this, we know this was your fault.
- [46:11]
Tim Miller
This was your fault.
- [46:13]
Carlos Espina
After, like, people were messaging me. They're like, wow, I didn't know you were a Marine. I'm like, I'm not. Like, what the hell? I. I just got off the stage. I was checking my phone, like, that's a. And I was like, what the hell are these people talking about? And my brother calls me. He's like, bro, on cnn, they said you were a Marine because that's how they introduced you. And I was like, what the hell? I was actually like, really, dude?
- [46:33]
Cameron Caskey
They stole valor for you?
- [46:35]
Carlos Espina
No. And I was, like, upset because then people, like, were like, you. You. You know, presented. I'm like, I didn't. No, I gave him my bio. I even, like, made a video clarifying, like, hey, this is what I sent them. Like, at no point. Point would I ever claim to be a Marine. So it was really frustrating. But, yeah, I don't even know how that happened, why that happened. But, yeah, even to this day, there'll be people who will be like, oh, you know, you're a Marine. I'm like, I'm not. Respect everyone who's in the, you know, armed forces. But I'm. I don't. I don't know how that happened. So that was really disappointing.
- [47:03]
Tim Miller
That. That's. That. That sucks. And Teddy Goff is going to write you a handwritten apology note and the rest of the DNC convention team, because that was your moment. Moment. You know, it was your big moment in the sun.
- [47:13]
Carlos Espina
No, I mean, the moment itself was really good. People love this speech.
- [47:16]
Tim Miller
Speech was good. I watched it. I watched it this morning. It was nice.
- [47:18]
Carlos Espina
Yeah.
- [47:19]
Cameron Caskey
As far as false accusations go, being a Marine isn't a bad one.
- [47:22]
Tim Miller
Yeah, I would roll with it.
- [47:24]
Carlos Espina
No, I was just like, this is. I don't know how that happened. Like I said. I just try to. I. I clarified it a few times.
- [47:30]
Tim Miller
I was reading your bio, you know, because unlike Cameron, I prep for the podcast. And I was like, you know, he's doing volunteering. You know, he went to college. He's doing. And I was like, like, he's only 20. How old are you?
- [47:41]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, I'm 26.
- [47:42]
Tim Miller
26. He's only 26. So I thought. I'm like, when was. How did he fit it in? So. So to speak. All right. Lastly, maybe this is also fake news, but I'm told you cry a lot. But earlier. Earlier today, you said that you, you know, Were you were getting emotionally distant from the stories, but then the New York Times wrote a profile of you and said that you're a crier.
- [48:04]
Carlos Espina
Yeah, I, I do cry from time.
- [48:07]
Tim Miller
To time, giving what's made you cry recently.
- [48:09]
Carlos Espina
So I think, I don't know what context they that in. I did get a little bit teary eyed when I did the video with Biden. That's actually, it was actually really popular.
- [48:18]
Tim Miller
Just because you're so surprised you're still alive or.
- [48:21]
Carlos Espina
Well, actually, because, you know, in that moment it was just like I'd never been. I. I had been to the White House a few times previous to that, but never like it was the Blue Room, it's called. And yeah, it was just like in that moment, like the perspective of like, damn, I'm here with the President of the United States. Like, like I'm 25 years old, you know, just been helping people my whole life. Started doing stuff on social media. Like the fact that my parents came here for a better life and now their son is like, with the President. It was like a very overwhelming moment. So there are times, you know, like, even after the dnc, like, not during the speech, but after I was just like walking off, looking at the crowd, I'm like, how the hell did I even get here? Like, there are moments where like, I feel like these past five years since I started social media, I've just been moving like so quickly and like growing and hitting. Where I take a step back and I'm like, Damn, I have 13 million followers. Like you said, like, my, my dad's from Uruguay, a country that has a population of 3 million. Like, I have 10 million more followers than the population of your. You know, like, that's a lot of people. And so there are moments where I take a step back and I really start to think about everything and I'm like, wow, this is actually kind of impressive not to hide myself up, but I have accomplished some things that like, like I never in my, in a million years expected. So yeah, I do get emotional at that. There are other times too where like, you know, even despite everything going on, there's like some cases that are just like, so, so like impactful that you're like, damn, this is like new levels of, of horrible, you know, situations. So like, I, I will get emotional at that. But you know, it is times that things just get to you. But I think you save space for feelings.
- [49:57]
Tim Miller
We can.
- [49:57]
Cameron Caskey
This is the show where men come to talk about our feelings. Yeah, I mean, I literally asked Tim how He was doing last week.
- [50:03]
Carlos Espina
How were you doing last week?
- [50:05]
Tim Miller
You know, I'm surviving out there. Like, I haven't been sent to El Salvador. I haven't been sent El Salvador. It's funny, I cry. I. I said, I don't know. I haven't had a break. I haven't cried since he won. I think I feel like I've rocked myself off from my crying because I cried a lot in 2016 and I don't know, I, like, I think I. I don't know, I've either become too cynical or something, but I've not, I've not cried. I do get feelings. I get verklempt from time to time or get like little goosebumps and stuff and. And the fucking shit about the people in El Salvador drives me like, does almost get me to cry a couple times.
- [50:36]
Cameron Caskey
I don't cry even in extremely sad moments for me that make me depressed for a very long time. I have been struggling with loss in the past couple months and I've cried about it almost barely at all. But then I'll be watching like an okay movie.
- [50:52]
Tim Miller
Like we, like we bell to Zoo.
- [50:56]
Cameron Caskey
No, like I'll be watching a fucking Marvel movie. And at the emotional climax of this movie that had 12 different writers on it, it, I will tear up and I'm like, how am I more in sync with my feelings when I'm watching, like okay content.
- [51:09]
Carlos Espina
Yeah.
- [51:10]
Cameron Caskey
Than when I am actually dealing.
- [51:12]
Tim Miller
We Bought a Zoo is what it was. I did, I did cry during We Bought a Zoo.
- [51:15]
Carlos Espina
There was another video, for example, recently comes to mind. So Rokhan invited me as his guest to the State of the Union, which was pretty cool. I didn't expect it, but anyway, that was a cool experience. But I was making a video like as I was about to like, you know, go in because you have to leave your phone. You can't have a phone in there. So I was just making a bima, about to go in. You know, I got invited to be a guest at the State of the Union and I don't know why, like while I was making. It wasn't my intention. I just kind of started like getting emotional because going back to it, I'm like, damn. Like, I don't know how many people you know, especially like 25 year olds. 20 or was I? I was 26 by that point.
- [51:50]
Tim Miller
Getting 25 and a half.
- [51:52]
Carlos Espina
Yeah. You know, get invited to stuff like the State of the Union and just like to be in this moment and everything and the. There are times like that that'll be get to me.
- [52:00]
Cameron Caskey
That's sick, dude. I got state of the union invite myself, but it was Swalwell and Rokhan is way cooler than that.
- [52:06]
Tim Miller
Yeah, going with swallows, like barely getting invited at all. Might as well rather stay home on the couch.
- [52:11]
Cameron Caskey
Might as well just live stream.
- [52:13]
Tim Miller
All right, I have two. I have a rapid fire thing for you. And then we got to do the mailbag. Then we leave. I love Uruguay. Punta del Este is amazing. Yeah, Montevideo is amazing. And so I've been eyeing it as like the place I have to flee to if I, you know, because it's almost time zone.
- [52:29]
Carlos Espina
Recently there was a. An I think in CNN is like the safest countries in case World War III breaks out and Uruguay is on the list. So.
- [52:36]
Tim Miller
Okay. Dives are good there. Still, I'm not up to speed on like what the government's like, you know, but if I do have. If like, you know, Cash Patel comes for me if they don't let me back into the country next week or. What do we think about Uruguay as an option? Pretty good or.
- [52:48]
Carlos Espina
Well, so actually Uruguay is a very unique country in Latin America because of its stability. So obviously Uruguay went through a period of dictatorship, but. And ever since getting out of it in the late 80s, they've been a pretty solid democracy where they've had right wing governments, left wing governments, and you know, there's always been transition, peaceful transition of power. It is a very socially liberal country for many aspects. First country to legalize marijuana, Latin America, other, you know, it's kind of. It's a chill place. I mean, it's. It's very chill. You know, everyone that I've met, when I tell them, hey, I'm from Uruguay, they're like, oh, I love Uruguay. And this is good, good perception at a Nash at an international level. So, yeah, I think it's cool.
- [53:30]
Tim Miller
I'm gonna start looking at property. All right. Lastly, Boomer mailbag. This is more of a comment than a question from the Boomer and Boomer mailbag, but it's too good not to share. Her name is Adele. She's 61 years old. So young Boomer. She asked this, why do zoomers have no sense of humor? I recently made a joke around some young people about how they don't have sex when in fact old people do. And no one laughed. I was horrified. Is it because young people grew up using technology based interaction rather than face to face? A few hours later, Adele sent a follow up email. After I hit send, I realized that perhaps I'm the one without the sense of humor. You may disregard my previous email. You wanted boomers to send emails about sex? We do. So I'm going to give you advice that you need to remember when you reach late adulthood. Never waste a good hard on.
- [54:18]
Cameron Caskey
Wow. I feel the same way because I so rarely experience carnal desires that if I ever get horny, I'm like, okay, I need to maximize this opportunity because I. I just. I. I very rarely find myself wanting sex. It's not something that's of very much interest to me. I mean, it's like, you can't read while you're doing it. You can't record videos with Tim while you're doing it.
- [54:40]
Tim Miller
College, you're doing 10 to 15 videos a day. Are you making time for carnal desire?
- [54:44]
Carlos Espina
So this is actually a very interesting. You know, it's something I've actually thought a lot about and I've talked about it. So ever since Trump took office, I just feel so overwhelmed and overworked with everything going on that, like, the days will just, like, flash by.
- [55:00]
Tim Miller
I'll.
- [55:00]
Carlos Espina
I'll start, like, for example, yesterday I wake up. What are we going to talk about today? Oh, Trump said, alligator, Alcatraz, and then all this. I don't even know what's happening every day. By the time I'm done making videos, it's like, midnight. So I've become almost. I've always been a hard worker, but I've become a workaholic, like, to the extreme over the past few months. And part of it is also because I feel a big responsibility to, like, you know, keep people informed and supportive and all that. But to the personal life, yeah, it definitely has taken a toll and many of, like, my personal life decisions, like, for example, I don't see my friends as much as I usually do. When I do see them, you know, I'm always on my phone when I'm with my girlfriend. I'm always on my phone when, you know, like, it is a very difficult time to navigate. But, yeah, I guess it's the price one pays to be a. A social media, you know, whatever I am.
- [55:50]
Cameron Caskey
All right, and now after this conversation, the next time I'm in a situation where I'm about to have sex, I'm probably gonna think about Tim in the boomer mailbag.
- [55:56]
Tim Miller
So. Thank you, Adele. And just in case anybody's wondering out there, not a problem for me. No problems here. I'm able to multitask. So thanks, everybody. This has been a great show. Cameron, take us out.
- [56:07]
Cameron Caskey
Gen Z does have a sense of humor. Carlos is hilarious. I'm hilarious. Tim and I are funnier in private and off camera than we ever will be on the show. Please like and subscribe for more. We'll see you all soon.
- [56:20]
Tim Miller
Bye.