Ep 529 - Weed & Gambling (feat. Saagar Enjeti)

Summary

Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast
Episode: Ep 529 - Weed & Gambling (feat. Saagar Enjeti)
Release Date: November 19, 2024

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Introduction

In Episode 529 of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, hosts Matt McCusker and Shane Gillis delve into the intertwined worlds of weed and gambling, with special guest Saagar Enjeti joining the conversation. The episode explores personal anecdotes, societal impacts, and broader cultural observations surrounding these prevalent vices.

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Personal Anecdotes and Experiences

The episode kicks off with Matt and Shane sharing their personal experiences with gambling and weed. Matt reflects on past ventures into selling weed and his struggles with addiction:

Matt [01:53]: "I was selling weed from 2008 up until whatever. Pretty embarrassingly recently."

Shane echoes similar sentiments, discussing his time in politics and the toll it took:

Shane [07:31]: "And he's definitely like hooking up with like very young girls and like hanging out with sketchy people and getting blackout drunk like all while he was a congressman."

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The Impact of Gambling

Societal Consequences

Matt and Shane highlight the devastating effects of gambling addiction, emphasizing how it drains individuals financially and emotionally. Shane cites alarming statistics from New Jersey:

Shane [26:34]: "In September in New Jersey alone, New Jersey betters lost $200 million gambling online in full. Online gambling, they lost 400 million. They were gambling on sports. And a total of 900 million in a single month of September."

Comparison with Other Vices

The hosts draw parallels between gambling and other addictions like weed and alcohol, discussing how all these vices contribute to societal decay:

Shane [26:34]: "All vices, disaster. If you look at the amount of money that is being sucked out of people's pockets, it's horrible."

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Critique of Current Gambling Systems

Online Gambling Manipulation

Shane critiques the business models of online gambling platforms such as DraftKings and FanDuel, pointing out their high hold percentages and manipulative practices:

Shane [26:34]: "The hold for DraftKings, FanDuel, and all these others is way higher. Because traditional gamblers and casinos, they'll bet the money line or they'll bet the spread. But these retards on sports gambling are buying and doing all these parlays that get algorithmically pushed."

House Advantage

Matt explains the inherent house edge in games like sports gambling, emphasizing the slim chances of consistent wins:

Matt [31:25]: "If you are any good at sports gambling, you're banned. And so if you win consistently on DraftKings or on FanDuel, they will cap your bet size to, like, $2. They're like, oh, you're allowed to bet $2 and 14 cents."

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Personal Stories about Gambling Losses and Addiction

Matt's Gambling Journey

Matt recounts his highs and lows in gambling, illustrating the addictive nature of the pastime:

Matt [38:58]: "I won every time. I just went, oh, yeah. I'd win, like, 200, and I'd win 200. I'd just get right out, and I would spend all of the money I won gambling."

Shane's Experiences

Shane shares his own encounters with gambling, highlighting the emotional rollercoaster it induces:

Shane [37:00]: "It's not the winning or losing. It's just going from thing to thing, and your brain's totally focused again."

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Religion and Society

The conversation shifts to the role of religion and spirituality in modern society. Shane and Matt discuss how organized religion provides a vehicle for self-transcendence and community bonding, contrasting it with the growing secularization in America.

Shane [80:02]: "We need to acknowledge the downsides. That's all I'm asking. Everybody's asking, like, sports gambling is the greatest thing ever. It's about freedom. You're gonna get."

Matt adds his perspective on how religion historically offered structure and community, which is now increasingly lacking:

Matt [139:08]: "You have to... have to be keeping that up every day. And so I'm like, can we get security over here?"

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Media's Influence

Matt and Shane critically examine the media's role in shaping public perception and political ideologies, arguing that media has always been partisan and sensationalist, similar to its past iterations in the yellow journalism era.

Shane [86:54]: "People don't want to be informed. They want to feel informed, formed. And I think that is like the most deeply true thing about media that I've ever read."

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Immigration and Population

The hosts delve into the immigration debate, advocating for a merit-based system over family-based migration. They argue that current immigration policies strain the civic foundation of the United States and contribute to social and economic challenges.

Shane [106:22]: "We need to dramatically shift to an actual merit-based immigration system."

Matt underscores the importance of educational investment and socialization in ensuring the next generation's success:

Matt [123:06]: "You have to spend money on your kids' education. That's all I was trying to say."

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Caste and Indian American Success

Shane briefly touches upon the influence of the Indian caste system on the success of Indian Americans, highlighting how cultural values around education and family have contributed to their achievements in the United States.

Shane [130:07]: "But no, but I'm saying our family has generations. Makes sense. You wouldn't be revering like education, family... we've got to..."

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Importance of Education

The discussion emphasizes the critical role of education in personal and societal development. Matt and Shane contrast public and private schooling, stressing the importance of socialization and community engagement in shaping well-rounded individuals.

Shane [135:25]: "If you have the money to go to private school. If you look at the stats, private schools send the vast majority of their kids to Ivy League and to other schools, especially if that's what you want for your child."

Matt shares his ongoing journey in selecting the right educational environment for his daughter, balancing quality education with socialization:

Matt [137:38]: "I was thinking that I went to Waldorf school today. My favorite familiar. It was just, like, almost creepy."

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Notable Quotes

• Matt [26:34]: "This is horrible. So, dude, mass sports gambling has been a fucking disaster."
• Shane [37:00]: "It's not the winning or losing. It's just going from thing to thing, and your brain's totally focused again."
• Shane [86:54]: "People don't want to be informed. They want to feel informed, formed."
• Shane [106:22]: "We need to dramatically shift to an actual merit-based immigration system."
• Shane [135:25]: "If you have the money to go to private school. If you look at the stats, private schools send the vast majority of their kids to Ivy League and to other schools."

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Conclusion

Episode 529 of Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast offers a candid exploration of weed and gambling, intertwining personal stories with broader societal critiques. The hosts, supported by Saagar Enjeti, provide insightful commentary on addiction, media influence, immigration, and the evolving landscape of education and religion in America. Their discussions underscore the complexities of modern vices and the societal structures that both perpetuate and challenge them.

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Note: This summary focuses exclusively on the content segments of the podcast, omitting advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections as per the user’s request.

Transcript

[A]

We're live. Sagar. Thank you, dude. Thank you for coming.

[B]

Thank you for having me. I like your setup. Thank you, man.

[A]

Thank you. It's, it's, it's.

[B]

Since I'm in politics, you know, I kind of think I, that's what I, I, I, I vibe with the set more.

[A]

I think, I think it's a good look for you too. I think you look good on it.

[B]

Really. There's something now I feel really self kind. I should have worn my suit. The only reason I didn't is because I'm going out after this. You know, I'm like going to be about.

[A]

For sure.

[B]

You don't want to be walking around Austin, Texas just sweating. I did it yesterday after Lex Freedman's podcast and I was getting a lot of looks.

[A]

You guys both wore suits?

[B]

Yes, we both wore suits. That's right.

[A]

That's kind of nice.

[B]

But he's the black suit. His is different. He has like a uniform.

[A]

He does.

[B]

And I like to change it up.

[A]

He's like an alien fighter. He dresses like Will Smith from Men in Black.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

It's kind of, there's something nice about that. I've always wanted to do the Steve Jobs thing where I wear the same thing every day.

[B]

You could do it. I think you could do it.

[A]

I feel like I could. I know one guy who's been wearing all white for seven years and I might jack his swag.

[B]

In comedy, do you think it is useful to have a uniform or no? Because I noticed that comedians have been getting very like fashion forward.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And sometimes I'll go to a set and I'm like, honestly, what he's wearing is kind of distracting me right now.

[A]

Yeah. I don't understand why. I mean, I, I have like a loose uniform. It's just jeans, usually these sneakers and I just switch a plain color T shirt.

[B]

That's fine. See that, that's not just, that's like, that's comfortable. I could see that working. But sometimes I'll see these guys in like crazy ass Gucci stuff.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm blinded by you right now. I can't even hear what you're saying.

[A]

I, I never understood that too, because it's like, dude, you're supposed to be making people laugh.

[B]

You tell me. I don't, it's your, it's your profession.

[A]

I don't, I don't know what it is. I see people go way fashion forward on the stage and I'm kind of like, dude, you're kind of, it's like a Distraction.

[B]

Totally.

[A]

And nobody cares. I totally agree. It's like nobody cares. Your job here is to play the fool. Like, you're trying to dress like a cool guy. It's like, I. I think it detracts.

[B]

I. I'm with you, man.

[A]

We get tracks. If I. If I ever wear anything that is remotely eye catching, I'll think about it on stage the entire time. Really, I can't. Yeah. They took me forever to. This is my order ring. It's just for tracking my biometrics. Took me forever. I would meet every. Every person I met. I'd be like, I'm usually not a two ring guy.

[B]

You're the only aura ring person I know who's a guy I know so well.

[A]

They track their periods.

[B]

I know. That's why every women I know is like, they're obsessed with period tracking. So how does it feel to be a guy wearing an aura ring?

[A]

Well, me and.

[B]

What do you even get out of there?

[A]

Me and nick sax from 311. I'm not the only guy 311 wears.

[B]

Real men. Real men wear whoop straps.

[A]

Whoop straps are cool. But here's the thing. Sleeping with something on my wrist. I, I, I get it. To track my sleep.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

My sleep is way up. I just. Too clunky on my hands.

[B]

Too clunky on your hand.

[A]

It's too clunky. I tried doing the apple watch sleep and it's just. I can't get with it.

[B]

I'll tell you, when I got my wedding ring, it took me months to get used to this.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's just. Even now, I'm always like this.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

I noticed subconsciously, I. Banging on.

[A]

I felt weird for the longest time. And then now if I don't have it on, I feel like a right, Like a naked boy.

[B]

Do you ever get terrifying that you're gonna rip your finger off? I think about that all the time.

[A]

How are you gonna rip your finger off?

[B]

I don't know, like the. The trunk or something. Like something will catch just exactly the right way.

[A]

Oh, so you're gonna come into it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In.

[B]

Your entire finger is going to be completely ripped off.

[A]

Then it's. Well, look, if you rip your ring finger off, then it's on. You can do whatever you want to be like, bro, my bad.

[B]

What do you even tell your wife? Put the ring on the nub.

[A]

Yeah. It's like, I lost my ring. You just cheat on her all the time because you don't have a ring finger.

[B]

Like, I don't have a Ring finger, it's gone.

[A]

Our vowels are over. Yeah. If you lose that finger, you're a batch. You're a bachelor.

[B]

I like that. Wait, you remember those rules in the 2000s? I love watching, you know, 2000s movies or actually 1990s, like, American Pie, when they're like, it's not cheating if you're in. Not in the same zip code.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

And rewatching it, 25 laser. 25 years later, you're like, that makes no fucking sense. You're like, what are you talking? Like, how is this conventional wisdom in.

[A]

2001 that the hall pass was another big one?

[B]

Like, that was. There was a whole Friends episode. Like, what's your hall pass? And I was like, but that's not real. It's totally fake.

[A]

Yeah. You're a lady in a hotel room. Like, stop acting like it's a cute thing to do. Yeah. I was literally just thinking about hall passes yesterday. I was like, they try to push that for a little bit.

[B]

It was a huge 2000s trope, as if all relationships functioned on. If you're not in separate area codes, you're not married or you're engaged. Hall passes were apparently, and allegedly a thing. What else was there?

[A]

Work wife, work wife, work life.

[B]

Huge thing.

[A]

That shit pisses me off. Yeah, I don't like that stuff.

[B]

The entire work wife concept is fucking weird. You know, I understand how it arises, but it's like, it's not your work wife. You're cheating on your wife.

[A]

You're having an emotional relationship.

[B]

You are having an emotional affair that's.

[A]

Going to bleed over.

[B]

Right? Yeah. Things were weird in the 90s.

[A]

Things were. And there was also. In the 90s, it was, like, very in vogue. We talked about this before, but it was, like, very in vogue to, like, jail bait. The concept of, like, having sex with underage women was just like, yo, bro.

[B]

That was a big. That's another big American Pie thing, too.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, man, they don't age well, but they are still hilarious.

[A]

Dude, they're so funny.

[B]

They should remake it. They should do it again. They. We need. What was the last one? American Wedding. Is that what it.

[A]

I lost track. American Pie. I saw that. That was, like, a huge thing to see. When I was younger, I kind of jumped off that. And Hangover. I didn't really follow the Hangover as well. So good comedy's got. They stopped making comedy movies.

[B]

Yeah. But the whole reason I'm here is because Shane is filming time.

[A]

I know. The emergence. It's reemerging. And that technically is a show. The comedy, the great American comedy there was like the Farrelly brothers. All these people, you don't have. They don't. You don't have like a comedy in the theaters.

[B]

And the weirdest thing too is that the director, Todd Phillips, I mean he made so many of those movies that I love. Old school he made. What else did he. Road Trip, I think is an incredible film.

[A]

Road Trip is nice.

[B]

Road Trip is so good. But now and then he did the Hangover, he became filthy rich. But then he just made. He made the Joker movie and then he made Joker 2, which is adorable.

[A]

Why did they do that?

[B]

I don't know. I mean the Galaxy Brain case. Tarantino had a really good quote. He's like, joker is Todd Phillips saying. You know the way he talks, he's like, joker is the Todd Phillips saying way of saying fuck you to the audience. And that's why it's brilliant. And I was like, I don't know, Tarantino. I think you're galaxy braining yourself. And out of this shitty movie is actually really. Yeah, it's just bad. It's just empirically bad.

[A]

I know. Even even though to be like. Yeah, because for me, I always think of like the mood, like the. I guess if you're already. You have that track record, it's like people will still invest in you.

[B]

Well, that's thing as fuck you money. And also he's a super weird dude. One of my favorite books I read about Hollywood was Molly's Game. Actually also became a movie, which is a good movie, I think it's on Netflix and it's about that girl who ran the high stakes poker game in. In Hollywood. But I ended up reading the book and I found out Toby Maguire is a complete and total psycho. So. Toby. Yeah, I had no idea. So Toby was part of the quote unquote pussy posse.

[A]

He was.

[B]

So I knew that. But then I'm reading about these weird psychological mind games that he would play in the book. And he would. At one point he had a quote where he's like, poker is not about winning. Poker is about destroying people's souls. And he would string people along and bring them and get them into debt. And he was constantly charging this girl, the girl who ran the games. And he was fucking with her and her livelihood and he would take the game. He's a multi hundred millionaire or whatever.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And he's constantly. He's charging her for using his automatic shuffling just weird power game shit. Like hot, like true Hollywood.

[A]

He's like an evil nerd. He's like an evil nerd psycho.

[B]

What the. Reading that book, I was like, dude, you are an actual psychopath. Like this Seabisc, he's the jockey. That's Spider Man. That's all I know about this guy. I was like, oh, man, this is.

[A]

Well, he's probably upset. His parents died when he was younger and he had to become a superhero. Spider, he's got that.

[B]

And then. Yeah, the more I learned. And Todd Phillips was in the book too. That's what made me think.

[A]

So this is all like weird biographer basically, like digging into these people.

[B]

She wrote the book. She was like, my journey. This is like poker.

[A]

Got you, got you, got you.

[B]

She was like the assistant to some rich Hollywood and he brought her to run the games and then show. She got in with like Toby Maguire. Apparently Leo came and Toby got Leo to come and. Yeah, but Leo is also apparently, like, didn't talk to anybody and just put his headphones on the entire time while he was playing poker.

[A]

Dude, I've heard a headphone story about Leo.

[B]

So that's what reminded me of the other.

[A]

You know, the song he listens to.

[B]

No, what is it?

[A]

Oh, dude, it's a fucked time to pretend. He listens to time to pretend while.

[B]

Someone who's wearing, like, basically extremely young women. I mean, look, I don't get it.

[A]

Time to pretend, dude.

[B]

What in what?

[A]

She's 27. It's time to pretend she's 27, but she's no younger.

[B]

What's it. What's the point?

[A]

I'm saying she's 18. He's pretending.

[B]

Oh, that's right. He's trying to pretend that she's 18.

[A]

He's trying to pretend she's 27, but she is 18.

[B]

The whole thing is very strange. The Leo thing, I don't get it. I love Leo. He's such an incredible actor. He's got great instincts. He's actually a very, very smart guy. But yeah, his personal life, it's weird. I think we need to call a spade a spade.

[A]

It is. And it's also one of those things where I think Bill Maher is like another avowed kind of like, Yeah, I fucked 19 year olds. 65. And he's like.

[B]

He's older than that. I think he's like 67, bro. He might even. He might be pushing 70, actually.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

And he. It's another one where it's like. Yeah, it's. It is weird. It is definitely weird, dude, because it's the mental difference is crazy.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, we're talking like order, like statistical, like, like think about how many standard deviations.

[A]

It's like a vampire. It's like you're an immortal vampire at that point. You're 70 talking to an 18 year old.

[B]

18 year old girl.

[A]

You're kind of babysitting her.

[B]

Absolutely you are. There's no question that I don't know.

[A]

And if it's like, dude, like, you could be like, I can make a, you know, I can make a geometric case for their breasts. It's like, all right, dude. Well like, dude, just stop being such a pervert. Go jack off. You don't have to date an 18 year old. Just go jerk off. You don't have to like, try to make it a lifestyle.

[B]

I love this because this is a very just natural way of us, like, you know, bringing ourselves to being like. Yeah. You know, there's actually really something about. You should just get married, bro. Be normal. Being normal is good. It's actually a good thing. People who aren't normal are fucking weirdos. And I mean, you know, you and I are in a unique position. We actually probably eventually get to meet some of these famous people that you see or you get to just hear little things and.

[A]

For sure, for sure.

[B]

Like, and you're like, oh, yeah, there's a real cost of this, isn't there? You're like. And I'm like, I'm not really sure. You like, I don't want to fuck with this. This is not the way that I choose to live my life. And I don't really want to be associated.

[A]

Well, dude, there comes a point where you're either involved in this, like, you know, because. Yeah, you're absolutely right because you get to like, you know, they're like the rarefied air of like Hollywood and all the stuff. And it does turn into like a diabolical power game. And it's like we all have those instincts to participate in some level, but there are people who give their entire lives to like, you know, like looking at another guy's car or be being like, he got what project? Fucking motherfucker. Yeah, where's my 19 year old girlfriend? I need to fucking eat her pussy.

[B]

Right out of context, like weird consumerist, like idolatry of the self. Yeah, it's like everything that I've learned, you know, in life is just like, all of that is horrible and it's bad. Yeah, there's a good political, you know, thing to this too. If you stay in Washington, the thing Is lots of people who are young come to Washington, 22, 23 years old, wide eyed, bushy tailed, all of that. Most people burn out by 27. So I'm like in my mid-30s now. And so I'm in the cohort. Like, we made it. Like the people who actually got the job, stayed in the lifestyle and all that. But this is also, you know, there's this cringe show about how I met your mother. And there's a very important concept that Barney lays out in that show where he's like, relationships. And I think life is like this have off ramps, like an exit where it's like relationships is like one year, three, year five, year 10, year 25, something like that. You're. And if you look statistically he's not wrong.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

In terms of like when divorces and breakups and all that stuff happen. But for. Yeah, for like professional DC or honestly, any career where it requires you to give fucking everything to it. But then you start to see. One of the most important pieces of advice I got was like, look at where you are and then look at the guy who's 10 years in that same path. And I was in the White House briefing room, for example, and I was looking around. I'm like, wait a second. I don't want to be any of you people. I need to get the fuck out of here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm like, this is. I'm like, if we're on this track, I'm like, this is a bad track. We got to get out.

[A]

What was the White House briefing? What do you. Is that like when you sit and ask questions at like.

[B]

Yeah, that's where. Well, I didn't even get to sit. I had to stand like a bitch in the corner.

[A]

But excuse me, just yelling questions.

[B]

It's horrible, man. Yeah. So actually, I'm hopeful with the new administration that we can change some of this up. So the way it works is that the White House Correspondence association is like a cartel. And even though it's unofficial, they run everything. So all the briefing room seats are assigned by the White House Correspondence Association. I was working for the Daily Caller at the time, which is a conservative media outlet, and if you want a seat, you have to apply. And applying takes years to get a new seat. And so if you don't have a seat, then obviously you have to get there early. So I would get there hours early, ahead of time just to be able to stand in the, in the, in the hallway, like on the side, and you're literally crammed in up against like all these different people. There's all this jockeying and there's like.

[A]

Foreigners, like the stock market.

[B]

Literally it looks, it's like a movie, right. And then you just sit there and you kind of like poke your hand. I was lucky because I'm tall. So I actually get my hand above. There was a short girl behind me and she was like, can I get in front of you? I'm like, sorry, bitch.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I was here 5am It's.

[B]

A dog eat dog world. Like get here earlier. Yeah. I don't know what to tell you that. That's the, that's what I'm talking about though. I don't want to be that person that actually sucks.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Or there was this girl who, she's like, hi, I'm shooting a documentary, I'm from England and all this. And I was just wondering if I get my shot. I'm like, yeah, but if you get your shot, I'm gonna get my question. So it's like. And then my boss is going to chew my ass out. So it's just not going to happen. Yeah, it's like. And you don't want to be in that mind space is more what I'm saying. So for sure that's probably.

[A]

It takes a toll. It does take a toll.

[B]

Hollywood, finance, politics, all these other things all function the same way in that if you want to be in the top point 1% of your field, you have to give everything to it. And that's it. There's no other choice.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And you know, people should be real with that. So if you're listening and you're like thinking like, oh, I really want to do something like that. Just be, just understand what it takes. Understand what it actually takes to get.

[A]

Oh, dude.

[B]

Yeah, for sure.

[A]

And dude, it's funny because I'm, I'm viewing schools now for. And it's like kind of related. So I'm looking at schools for my daughter. She's going into kindergarten next year. So we're like looking at. And it's like, dude, schools now are. And I think it's good. But they're what I've been seeing. It's like they're educating people to like do something for everybody, to like bring something to the world rather than like, you know, we were in school. It's more like build yourself up so that you're a high value individual that you can just take resources for yourself and just, you know, like fuck off. And it's like, yeah, but the problem is they sold everyone that dream. But the reality is most people aren't going to get those.

[B]

Well, and it's.

[A]

Most people are going to become doctors.

[B]

Most people don't want to do that. You don't want. Like, I'm Indian, so I know a lot of doctors. It's like, do you want to know how hellish medical school is? Be real whenever you like, for real. Do you want to spend 8 years in school, 4 years making shit money with $300,000 in debt, working 89 days, hours a week, getting shit on by the attending physicians, then hoping, hoping and praying that you get your placement or whatever for the next. So by the time you're my age, you can finally get your first paycheck. Oh, but fuck you. Even though you get your first ninth paycheck, 90% of that is going to be going to clearing off of your medical debt. And you've lived 10 years. You're probably now addicted to smoking food, like some vice. There's no way. Again, you know this too. When you work really hard, like, it takes it all from you. You're going to be addicted to energy drinks, nicotine, whatever. Like, you need something. Yeah, it's not possible to do it natural.

[A]

It's. Dude, it's true. I've gone back and forth and it's like. I'm like, no, I don't need anything. And I had like a pretty harsh caffeine phase for myself. I'm like, sensitive to it. Yeah, I had to stop that because I wasn't sleeping.

[B]

But how do you. Because you travel a lot.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's brutal.

[A]

I recently. It sucks. I've recently introduced melatonin. I'm a very, like, natural type. I don't want to take anything, but I've. I've succumbed to just like.

[B]

Interesting. Just give you a warning about melatonin, though.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So Andrew Huberman says not to take melatonin.

[A]

I know, man. I know. It's not good because he's not right.

[B]

It was something about some. He said, like, the label on the bottle can be anywhere between like 2% and 100, 1000% of what's actually in there.

[A]

What?

[B]

Yeah, and he said something. Don't take my word for it, but it was something along the lines of. I've seen them give melatonin to rats and it shrivels their balls. So it's like, I think that it messes with testosterone.

[A]

Enough said, dude. I'm done.

[B]

My opinion, you should stay off.

[A]

I'm off it.

[B]

Stay off the melatonin.

[A]

I'm off it's, it is a. I, I, as soon as I started taking it, I was like, I get why Michael Jackson had a guy with like an IV in his arm. I'm like, dude, that was a whole other level, man.

[B]

That's like prop. What was it? Propofil.

[A]

Propofil. It was Propofil. But you start like, dude, it's like you're just sitting there reading a book and all of a sudden the melatonin just starts to like weigh. You're like a stone statue. And then you're just like, did you.

[B]

Read about this Matthew Perry thing? Oh, so fucked up.

[A]

So what actually happened to Perry?

[B]

So, I mean, it's really sad. I read his book actually after he died and Perry was obvious. Everybody knows he was a drug addict, but you know, it's his parents. It turns out his mom was like the press secretary for Justin Trudeau's dad was a prime minister. Yeah, he was actually apparently beat the shadow Justin Trudeau when they were kids.

[A]

Which is why Matthew Perry beat up Justin Trudeau. Matthew Perry, that's kind of boss.

[B]

Yeah, it is cool. But so Perry, it turns out when he was like a really little baby and he was crying, his parents would give him like benzos, like benzodiazepine.

[A]

What?

[B]

Like really fuck. And he was like, yeah, when some of my parents funniest stories is about me as a baby just sitting there like drooling out of my mouth when they were plugging me full of benzos because I was crying, he was like colicky. And so his theory of why he's so fucked up and addicted to drugs was because at a very early age that he had benzos. And he's talked about how the very first time he ever felt like anything was good in this world was when he was drunk at 14 years old. And that was the rat race. And then he becomes a fucking hundred millionaire centimillionaire, whatever, from friends. And that's why you can see his weight wildly fluctuate on the show, because he was either drunk or he was on pills or he's on oxy. But dude, the thing is with Perry is he died of a ketamine overdose, I believe. And they Los Angeles District attorney filed this case against a so called like ketamine queen. And they have text messages in there of the doctor and the girl who was selling him all this illegal ketamine being like, how much can we take this rich asshole for, you know, charging him thousands of dollars per hit of ketamine, of which they're buying it's not very chill.

[A]

Ketamine community.

[B]

Deeply exploitative shit. Like, really bad. I have a horrible.

[A]

I have. A lot of people are really into ketamine. I have a very kind of like, weird thing, because I knew a lot of like skeptical evil hippies who were like, oh, they got like addicted to that shit. They called hippie heroin.

[B]

What's called K hole, right?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, dude. Before it became main mainstream, it was known like, people like, oh, it's hippie heroin. Because they would like nod out.

[B]

What does it do? Because I thought that it helps dissociative. But there's the depression as there's like the therapeutic aspect. And apparently he'd been having ketamine in a therapeutic setting. But then I guess he got addicted to that. And that's why he died in that hot tub, man. Because. Yeah, dude. And it was like his assistant, his little drug assistant, they were working to procure him drug and charge him thousands of dollars because they were ripping this guy off.

[A]

That's not right. They're. It's called custody and someone out. They're costing them. You treat them custody prices. Yeah, it's not a good thing to do. But yeah, I. I've heard people who swear by it, they're like, if you do like. Because you can do like, you know, they've like, they make like little lozenges and stuff. So you could like lay there. My brother's all about it. He's like, you lay there.

[B]

He's a big K guy.

[A]

Big K guy, Big special K guy. He was really selling me on it. And it was like, you know, I'm like. And I get like, if you're laying there, it's like a 30 minute ordeal. You come out of it, he's like, it is. It's good. It's like, you know, blah, blah, blah. But then there's doctors, like, we'll prescribe you a little bit. Like, you can just kind of have it to kind of like. Because you can either like get into a K hole or just kind of take the edge off. I knew like these dudes that would just snort K constantly, but if you snort too much, then you'll just be sitting there like the other K that.

[B]

I see signs for everywhere and I actually don't know what it is. Is crate is a Kratom.

[A]

Kratom. Kratom, yeah.

[B]

What is Kratom? It's signs for this everywhere. Cbd. Yeah, Kratom. I don't know a single person has ever used Kratom. I don't know what? Kratom.

[A]

I know.

[B]

I just know it exists. But it's everywhere. It's literally everywhere. It's every gas station in America.

[A]

Gas stations sell, like, drug. Like, full on. You sell drugs or you can sell weed legally at gas stations. Now it's. Dude, they did it. See, the hemp farm bill allowed thca, which is weed, the active ingredients. Thc.

[B]

Is that the same as. Was it spice or whatever those.

[A]

No, it's. Dude, so what's that? Spice is a synthetic. So it's like, if you take, you know, Delta 9, Tetrahydro, whatever it's called, there's the exact molecule that's illegal. Spice is, like, let's remove a couple carbon molecules and, like, a hydrogen, and now it's like, very similar, but it's legal because it's not technically the same. So it's like an analog or whatever you want to call it.

[B]

Sure, sure, sure.

[A]

So what kratom is. Well, with the THCA stuff, it's like, it th. Like, weed picked off the plant is thca, because there's a carbon molecule. That's why if you have to make brownies, you have to heat the weed up to decarboxylate it. And that's like, THC is illegal, but THC is legal. So now you can grow hemp, which is just weed, with thca, which is just thc, and it's legal, and you can sell it at a gas station. It makes. It's completely schizophrenic. It makes no sense. It makes no sense, but, I mean, I think it's sick. You can mail it right through your house, but.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Oh, yeah. You can just get it mailed. Right.

[B]

Are you a big weed guy?

[A]

I was for the longest time.

[B]

Smell weed in here, you know, it wasn't me. Okay?

[A]

It wasn't me. I know you hate it.

[B]

Yeah, that was you, bro.

[A]

You were blazing. Me and Saga. I like that.

[B]

Don't put misinformation out there. Right? The moment my. Moment I came down here, my nostrils flared. I didn't want to say anything, but I did suspect you. I'm not going to lie. I immediately suspected you.

[A]

I was a big weed guy since I was, like, in high school through college.

[B]

But you quit, right? So it's a success story.

[A]

I cut it out. But here's the thing. It becomes too much, like, especially when you have kids. It's like, I just can't. I can't be high.

[B]

Can you tell that to more people?

[A]

Yeah, some people claim, but, like, for me, Personally, it's like having like a. Like. Like a weird panic attack in a playground.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Not serving your family. Oh, dude, that's got to be brave for my daughter.

[B]

But everybody says it's chill. It's chill, dude. It's totally chill.

[A]

Dude, the thing is the weeds. Different. The weed is so strong.

[B]

Thank you, please.

[A]

It's a different dude. I have. And I've. Dude, I've literally. I was selling weed from 2008 up until whatever. Pretty embarrassingly recently. But the whatever. I don't even remember. Philly PD, maybe 2009.

[B]

Is weed legal?

[A]

I knew a guy who got. It's totally. It's medical.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I knew a guy who got caught with coke in. Outside of the, you know, whatever. Delaware county. And apparently they. The Delaware. Like, whatever township police call the Philadelphia PD and they're like, we caught this guy with cocaine. We also think he's been buying weed from Philadelphia. And, dude, the Philly PD just went hung up on. He was in the room. He was, like, in trouble for it.

[B]

I mean, to be fair, they have, like, actual problems.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Murders.

[A]

Yeah. And they were just like. He's like, dude, they. The Philly PD hung up on township police.

[B]

They're like, dude, we don't care about that.

[A]

But it is. Dude, with the dabs. It has become drugified. So I, like, watched weed develop for years, like, very close to it. And it was like. It became a thing that was like, dude, this is like, dude, like, it was like. Everyone talks about this. Like, in the 70s, it was like 7% THC. Then you get like 14. 15 was like, wow, dude, it's like 30. Some of them are like 28 to 30%. It's too much.

[B]

And they also. The percentage was that are sold to you. It's kind of like what I just said about melatonin. You have no idea whether that's correctly in there or not. So, yeah, let's stay off the weed. Let me. That also. Allow me a weed dietribe.

[A]

That's fine. I'll give you one. My thing is now it's like. So now they're starting to regrow it and introduce the. Grow it. So it's like only 7% with CBD.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

And that's very relaxing. And it's not as psychoactive. It just. It really can like, make you. It's like the founding father weed. That's like the hemp George Washington smoke.

[B]

Oh, is it?

[A]

It's very chill. You're not like. You might get, like, you know.

[B]

Well, he was doing Opium too. Do you think other people.

[A]

Was he doing opium?

[B]

Of course. They all were doing opium back then. I didn't know painkillers happened. Yeah, true.

[A]

I guess.

[B]

Forbidden. Part of the 1900s. And nobody ever talks about the shocking number of opium and cocaine addicts that were. Up until, like, the 1920s, a incredible amount of society was addicted to morphine. Opium, cocaine. You could get it readily across the counter. A lot of the doctors were going to prison because they were coke addicts and they were prescribing cocaine to different people. It's actually pretty wild.

[A]

Yeah. I think you can get it in prison. You can get, like, opium in prison in like, the 20s. I think you could order it on commissary.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

I think so. I just read. I read a book about like an old, like a burglar from, like, 1890s.

[B]

Way to spend the time, you know, you're already locked up.

[A]

Yeah, you can just gobble it up. You can just take. Yeah, exactly. You could just gobble it up. I think. I think it was like either the guards were selling it, but I. I remember the guy was saying in the book, he just ordered some opium from the.

[B]

Well, it wasn't illegal for. For a long time. Yeah, I mean, it took a long time because there was a lot of. It's the same problems we have now, the opium addicts at the time that it's like, for a while, they're an opium. They can't afford opium. You start robbing people to pay for your opium and. Yeah, it's like. They're like, okay, we got to get rid of this.

[A]

Yeah, this is a problem. The kratom now is. Kratom is a. It's not.

[B]

What is it?

[A]

It's technically an opiate. It's a plant. It's a natural plant. But it has.

[B]

This is what they say about. It's natural.

[A]

It's natural.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, it's natural. What did you just talk about? Oh, the cross plays with this.

[A]

Yeah. 30, 40.

[B]

Now it's like. That's not fucking exactly that you're asking the red tomato in a grocery store.

[A]

I totally agree. I. I think they've totally. They've ruined weed now. It's called type 2 cannabis. They're walking it back. And I think that because, dude, I couldn't. I would just, like, freak out. I'm like, this sucks. This isn't fun at all. Or. I do think, though, and this is like a. It's. I do like saying this people. Because people get very, like, bullyish with weed. They'll be like, dude, fucking five milligram, I could take a 50 mil. It's like this. Because you're a dumbass, you don't have anything going on in your brain.

[B]

So it's like you've actually cooked so much of your IQ off that you no longer have the iq.

[A]

No, I'm saying naturally they're a dumbass. People who can do like 200 milligram edibles. It's like, yeah, cuz you're a fucking dumbass. You don't have anything going on in your mind. You're just sitting there like you look like a dog gets a brownie. You're just kind of like. Or you metabolize it differently. I don't know. Okay, yeah, but dude, yeah, the Kratom, they do snag people with the natural stuff, but it's like it mimics opiates so people will use it to get off of like you could be sick for like methadone heroin if it was a plant. But it also is different. Like if you take a little bit, it's energizing. If you take a lot, it's like you ate like four Percocets, dude. And people get addicted to it, man.

[B]

No, I do know that, that's why I brought it up because there is a lot of this weird stuff that like Kratom, obviously weed now with the mass legalization and nobody ever talks about, you know, if you look at the weed graph, like over 20% of weed users are using it on a multi daily basis. So that is like imagine if 20% of people who drank alcohol drank like straight liquor all day, every day. That's not even close.

[A]

What is the percentage of people who.

[B]

Drink alcohol daily who are daily drinkers? I think it's like 7 to 8% actually. By the way, I'm not putting alcohol.

[A]

Off the for sure.

[B]

It's really bad. People who are alcoholics, it ruins your life, you know, it will kill you early. There's all this stuff and actually weed and alcohol, almost all vices actually have the same effect where between like 7, it's like the Pareto principle where 7, 20% can be responsible for 80%. And so 20% of weed users consume almost all of the weed because they're using it every single day. And it's extremely high THC and it's psychoactive. Anybody who knows, anybody who's ever owned a liquor store, it's like the vast majority of your sales are going to the same like alcoholics. Honestly, it's really sad.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then gambling is the same way. Like, a huge percentage. Percentage of casino returnees. Like, you know, every people go to Vegas and they have fun. But, like, if you have ever spent time in a casino, like, the people that come every single day just like pissing their lives, it makes you really sad. That's the saddest part. Like, that is really sad.

[A]

It's so I. When you see especially the old people there and you're like, damn, your kids stop talking to you. You've worked your whole life.

[B]

Do you have sports gambling advertisers? Do you?

[A]

Oh, big time. Yeah.

[B]

Oh, do you?

[A]

Okay, you can talk whatever you want.

[B]

Okay, all right, well, then I'll say it.

[A]

It's unfettered free speech. You think I'm gonna respect.

[B]

All right, all right. Sorry. DraftKings and. And FanDuel and all these other people. Okay, good. All right.

[A]

Well, we've definitely had that before.

[B]

Have you?

[A]

Say whatever you want.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

All right. Yeah, I'm not worried about that.

[B]

Well, I don't want to get you in trouble, but, you know, can you.

[A]

Get me in trouble?

[B]

I have become totally convinced by the cards on the table. I actually like to go to the casino. I think casino gambling is really fun, but I think it's very important that I have to go to the casino to a physical location. The stats right now on sports gambling, it's just like weed. All vices, disaster. If you look at the amount of money that is being sucked out of people's pockets, it's horrible. So in this, in September in New Jersey alone, New Jersey betters lost $200 million gambling online in full. Online gambling, they lost 400 million. They were gambling on sports. And a total of 900 million in a single month of September. Just if you include also casinos. So you can see that almost half of the money that New Jersey bettors lost, by the way, Jersey's not that fucking big. So we just talked about a billion dollars got sucked out of the market. People are addicted to sports gambling, man. It's terrible. And the other thing is, if I studied, I went and I read a little bit about how casinos operate and casino profits. Like, the amount that they take is called the hold, like on a game. And the hold for DraftKings, FanDuel, and all these others is way higher. Because traditional gamblers and casinos, they'll bet the money line or they'll bet the spread. But these retards on sports gambling are buying and doing all these parlays that get algorithmically pushed. You have no fucking Ch. Of winning your parlay. Sorry, sorry, you're not going to win your parlay. And don't ask me. Check the stats and look at the profits for where all these people are coming from. So, dude, mass sports gambling has been a fucking disaster. Like you've seen, domestic violence has gone up in the places where it is. Bankruptcies are up. You're seeing a huge amount of credit card debt, 25% increase amongst the people where it is legal. And actually, I just read an article about Brazil yesterday where basically it's a social transfer program where the government is cutting checks to working class people. Those people are gambling almost 40% of their paychecks away on a consistent basis. So it's like a mass wealth transfer that's happening right now. And yeah, I mean, sadly, because you can do it online. Just imagine if you could take your phone out and there was an app on your phone where you could drink alcohol. Do you know how popular that app would be? Yeah.

[A]

Or see naked girls.

[B]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, that's a big one. We'll get to that next. We're going to come next. This is going to be the Killjoy podcast. But imagine if you could, like, suck marijuana from an app that was out of your phone. People would be addicted. That gambling is honestly worse.

[A]

It's a double addiction. Because the phone's addictive.

[B]

Yes, exactly.

[A]

And then you put addiction on top of an algorithm.

[B]

You have phones and you have money. That is now at stake. Every single state where this has happened, it's been an absolute nightmare. And, you know, if all you have to do, the thing is, is that the gambling companies, legally, they have to disclose all of this. So all you have to do is go and read their profit and loss statements. And look how much of this is coming from the parlay bets. It's the vast majority of their profits. And yet you idiots keep signing up for it. And I get that it's fun, but it's not funny. Whenever your wife is like, hey, baby, can we buy these berries for our child? And you're like, oh, I actually pissed it all away on a parlay last night. And now you have guys who are. You've seen this explosion. And people are like, I'm gambling on women's softball or in Korea. And I'm like, bro, you have a problem.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, you have a problem. That's always been people like, that's a degenerate behavior. The World Little League, World Series is like, you're a degenerate. You're degenerate.

[B]

You are a degen, bro. And this is. Okay, this is my case. I think gambling should be legal. I think. But it should only mean casinos. Because one of my favorite parts about going to the casino is you meet the characters, right? You go to the craft stable and you see a guy who hasn't showered in three days and has got his colostomy back on. And by the way, he will teach you how to roll the dice. And so shout out to that man showing me, showing me how to do it. But seeing him, I'm like, I don't ever want to be even in the same, like, universe of, like, whatever this dude is. But you can't see that when you're on the couch. You don't understand. You're the sucker. Last thing on this that I found out from Nate Silver's book is that if you are any good at sports gambling, you're banned. And so that's kind of fucked up. So if you win consistently on DraftKings or on FanDuel, they will cap your bet size to, like, $2. They're like, oh, you're allowed to bet $2 and 14 cents.

[A]

That's bullshit.

[B]

Yes. And. But you know what? And then people are like, I'm actually really good at sports gambling. I'm like, oh, how you been on the app? They're like, three years. I'm like, you're not any good at sports handling. I'm like, it would have banned your ass.

[A]

Yeah, that's. Everyone know, I'm like, breaking even, basically.

[B]

And it's like, it's like, well, first of all, you need to win 52% of your bets just to beat the house. Because 2% is the vague that goes to the house.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

But then over that, it's like, the. Look, you're not winning if you're still gambling consistently on the apps, you have not won. And there you're the sucker. That's just.

[A]

You know, they should do an easy amendment to this that wouldn't be such a suck. Is that when you lose your gambling money, it's held from you for six months. They get to make money on the interest, and then they send it back to you. So you're, like, momentarily penalized.

[B]

I just read in New York.

[A]

I mean, why would they do that? They would be like, fuck you over. Keep it all. How about we keep all of it and make interest?

[B]

These guys are making the biggest killing in the planet. And, like, the best part is all the states are doing it too, because they want the money. But, yeah, the thing Is, look, they're gonna pay for it because it's one of those where you're getting this fake tax revenue. But yeah, when you have to come and send cops to Johnny's house because he went fucking broke and he beat up his W or his girlfriend or whatever, you're paying for that, you know, he's blowing.

[A]

He's blown off some steam.

[B]

Right. Parlay goes down. He's going to house one of those plastic bottles of whiskey from Costco.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And we all know what happens next.

[A]

It is weird that, like when, like, it's like when jobs are scarce, like, it just. People just end up beating up girls. Like, if there's not good stuff going on, people like, well, I guess I have to beat up a girl now. It happens across, like every culture.

[B]

It's every culture. Actually, a lot of people got mad at me on the show because I was talking about. It was during one of our immigration debates. I think you talked about it a little bit, actually, on your show. And, and I was just like, look. And by the way, just full disclosure, I married into an Irish family from Philadelphia.

[A]

Oh, there you go.

[B]

All right, so I, I have no discrimination against the Irish. But what I'm saying is, back in the day, I think it was reasonable to be like, well, you know, all these people are coming over here and they drank a lot of whiskey. And yeah, so here's the. Nobody knows this. The very first thing that women did whenever they voted was ban alcohol. That's why the temp, the temperance movement was entirely driven by women. Whoa. And if the reason why is because they were getting the absolute shit kicked out of them by their drunk ass husbands who are drinking a liter of whiskey per day on average to deal with, you know, the industrial revolution for sure.

[A]

Yeah. All this.

[B]

But it was also, let's. Let's be honest. It was part of their culture. Right. Yeah, but. And so that, that's what people don't forget is like that for some reason, it's intrinsic, like alcohol, gambling, and beating the shit out of your wife. It's. It's just a package deal.

[A]

It's one big deal.

[B]

You are signing up for that. You are 100%.

[A]

Yeah. It's just impulses ruling the roost. And then eventually the curtain closes and you're like, right, yeah, well, really what.

[B]

I think it is is just somebody for the first time is showing the reality of what you've done, where you can rationalize your parlays away, you can rationalize all this. But the very first time, like I just said, we're like, hey, can we pay to go see. I don't know, like, I want to go see my mom next week or whatever. Can I get a fly? They're like, no, we literally don't have any mom.

[A]

Yeah. And. Or the ultimate being like, I told you the chiefs weren't going to kick a field over. Shut the. You didn't know that. Yeah, it. Well, it is funny. There is a huge. Because you know, my whole. I'm all like, Irish Catholic doubt and it's like, yeah, like we've seen someone fall at a wedding. I'm like, man, it's like, it's so normal. And like, my wife would like cry. Like, that's not really. I'm like, that's so sad. I'm like, dude, my in laws and their family are not like, people fall at weddings. It is what it is.

[B]

I just being a baby tweet, like, you know, I. I left Dublin and I moved. I forget what. They moved like somewhere in South America or something. And they're like. And what I thought was we were all having a good time. It turns out we're just crippling alcohol.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Like, family beach trips were just like adults hammered for seven days. And I'd just be like, all right. Then the kids would get hammered. They would pass out.

[B]

Beach culture is weird.

[A]

Oh, it's crazy.

[B]

It's crazy. I had no exposure to it because I grew up here. But yeah, I went to like, I think went to Rehoboth, which is like the nice beach, right? But even then I'm like, man, these ladies are hammering Tito's at like 9am in the morning. Like, there's some crazy going down.

[A]

East coast beach culture is like getting. It's like quiet. That's not like as like cool like Margaritaville. It's just people just quietly, quietly.

[B]

Dj.

[A]

My uncles, yeah. My uncles would be like, they would all joke. They'd be like, ah, man, who's gonna crack the first one? They don't give a. I'll do it and just crack a course light. Now, they don't let you drink on the beaches like that.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They're taking a lot of people doing it well. And they're doing in the solo cups.

[A]

That's what I'm saying. They used to. And they'll still come around and police you. I grew up going to Sea Isle and you. Dude, it was just beers, whatever. Now it's like you have to have a cup and they'll come around if they. If you have alcohol in your cup. They'll write because they can just write you a fine. Because everyone's going to drink on the beach.

[B]

Of course they are. Yeah. See, See, I. And this is where my, like, nanny state instincts kind of. I'm like, all right, well off.

[A]

All right.

[B]

They. People are also on the beach. And you. That's just a money grab for what? We need rules. But really what it is is, like, we just need a better. We need a better culture around this stuff. Because. No, you. We just got to acknowledge the downsides, right? That's. That's all I'm asking. Everybody's asking, like, sports gambling is the greatest thing ever. It's about freedom. You're gonna get. And look at their ads, right? They're like, you're gonna get rich. You join free. $15.

[A]

We'll give you $500.

[B]

$500 deposit. I'm like, once again, bro, like, if you ever been to a casino, that shit doesn't get built based on winners. Like, 99% of the people who walk out of there are fucking losers. The odds that are you is almost 99%.

[A]

So I think the gambling companies would be happier doing this because they do do that little disclaimer, like, by the way, guys, if. You know, if a case you.

[B]

Yeah, but that's mostly bullshit. And a lot of it is because they're required by the state to put it in there. And then what the states do is they take part of these losses and they fund these gamblings. But it's like, you are the receipt. The rise in sports gambling addiction has created the need for these gambling addiction centers. So it's like, just don't have it in the first place.

[A]

The weirdest part about gambling addiction is that it's not even about winning or losing. Like, I forget.

[B]

I read they like when they lose. That's. That's the craziest part. They love it when they lose.

[A]

Or it's more like the flow state of just being like. It's not the winning or losing. It's just going from thing to thing, and you're just. Your brain's totally focused again.

[B]

I get it. I like it. I love to play Bakker.

[A]

I don't like to gamble. I've never. I'm just filled with anxiety the whole time.

[B]

When I love games of chance, poker is more. Actually, I think I could justify poker because I wouldn't even really call it gambling, although it is technically, like, kind of a game of chance. But there's a lot of strategy and obviously, like, the Famous rounders quote, it's like the same 10 people may end up at the finals for a reason. It's not a game of chance. Whereas if you go to blackjack competitions or bach rock competitions, fucking you get lucky. That's how it works. I see the appeal of both. But there is something. This is where I'll flip the script, man. The magic of the cards. Like when the baccarat thing, exactly what it is. You're like nine, nine, nine. You're just sitting there. That moment, the anticipation and it's fun. And when you hit it, oh my.

[A]

God, it's so fun. Yeah, it's unbelievable.

[B]

I play like $15 tables in Charlestown, West Virginia, next to toothless Chinese women who are getting their Chinese. I prefer. Honestly, I'd rather be around them. I love them. Shout out to the yeah, yeah. You always want to gamble with Chinese. If you're playing baccarat. Chinese and Vietnamese, they know what's up.

[A]

That's a good idea. That's a good call.

[B]

And the less teeth they have, the more. The more good at the game they are. They have all these superstitions about dragons and colors.

[A]

That's the thing though, man, because I was like sitting there one time backstage at a comedy show and they were like playing dice, like in the green room as like they had this little box. And I was like, it is just people interacting with magic. People are attractive. Gambling, it's. It's. It's just.

[B]

It's magic.

[A]

Like a divine thing. You're like.

[B]

And everybody craps is also definitely most fun in the game, the casino. Although it is minus ev every single bet on the. On the craps table. So. But when you play, the magic of it is a crowds game. Because I love craps gurus, right? Like I was talking about the diabetic guy and he's like. He's like, yeah, he threw it over here. Threw. Threw it over here. It's like the first time throws to the right, he's going to roll seven, which means we all get fucked. So he was like, he's like, he about to roll that. Take your bet off. And I was like, all right, got it. Got it. He was right.

[A]

I was like, dude, my only know something, my only time playing craps, a guy was like, just do what I do. And I was up 1300 very quickly. Holy very quick. 100 very quickly.

[B]

Whoa. And I was just playing higher stakes than I am.

[A]

I think I was just drunk too. Just like. And then event, I got cocky. I was like, I know what's going on. As soon as I start doing my own thoughts. I was back down to 600. I just picked it up. I was like, thank you, sir. And just walk. I was like, I'm.

[B]

I mean, you left up. That's, you know, that's.

[A]

I will do that. I'm ruthless at a casino. If I win a hundred bucks, I'm out. I'm like, get me the out of here. I just won a hundred bucks.

[B]

It could be 200 hundred.

[A]

That's to me. I'm like, yeah. I get so disgusted when I lose.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Feeling I get. I just. I'm like. I think about just them just, like, taking, like, the time I spent into, like, work in life. Especially when I was, like, just working a job where I was like, I could be like, oh, that was a day of my life.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And I would just think of that just getting, like, sucked into a vault, which is a huge chamber.

[B]

Free drinks for these alcoholics. It would kill me sitting in the slot machine.

[A]

Like, no, it would kill me. The worst part is if the I. I don't really gamble much anymore, but it was like, when I first did it, I was in Vegas for my cousin's bachelor party, and he was like, you know, do this, do that. And I won the first four times I gambled, I won every time.

[B]

Was it blackjack?

[A]

Oh, and I just went, oh, yeah.

[B]

Very high variance game, though. That's the problem. You win so easily, dude.

[A]

I'd win, like, 200, and I'd win 200. I'd just get right the out, and I would spend all my. My code was every. Every dollar I won gambling, I'd spend it on everyone around me immediately. Immediately. And it worked.

[B]

You got to spread the love. You got to get the juju. You need the luck just.

[A]

Exactly. And then, like, I tipped the dealers heavily, and then, like, I, like, was like, I think I'm good at blackjack. And I instantly lost, like, 700. So, so fast, dude. Oh, yeah. The fact that 15 minutes I was just.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Because that's. That's what they do because it's a high variance game, and they know they can wipe you out way before you're going to wipe them out. So what they want to do is just deal all those hands per hour, and already blackjack. I think Blackjack is a 5149 game. I'm pretty sure. Even with perfect base. Were you playing basic strategy? Like, perfect, perfect.

[A]

No idea. There's a guy. Yeah, no idea. And there'd be guys like, dude, you Gotta hit. And I'm like, no.

[B]

Yeah, I'm sure they get mad at you, actually.

[A]

Serious.

[B]

If you don't play basic strategy correctly, they. Because if you it up, you're gonna. The whole shoe up for the entire table. And so they get very upset.

[A]

I. They were very. They were very displeased with me. But I was like, bro, this is not my problem. We're not on a team. You're not sharing your money.

[B]

Gamblers know this. This is gen pop.

[A]

I'd be like, dude, we're not on a team. We're not splitting this money. This is my call.

[B]

Nobody is a team. Because if you the math up, then he's going to hit it. He's going to get the wrong card because he's playing math and you're not. And so. But Dana White, that's his problem. Yeah. Dana White is like, sometimes you got to go to war with the shoe. And you got to. You got to. He's like, you got to turn basic strategy on the shoe. I was like, I don't really think that's how math works. But I mean, he's super rich, so he doesn't care.

[A]

Yeah, I heard he likes to gamble. Oh, he's heavily.

[B]

Me and my friends who like to go to the casino, we will hype ourselves up with Dana White clips. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, because he has. He has, like, a love of the game. Like, he. He's like. He's like, you know, I'm rich as hell. I can get on the jet and I can go anywhere else. If my kids are gone, I'm going to casino. Yeah, he's just like, that's what I. He's like, that's what I do. It's what I do.

[A]

It's just Gary, once you're that rich, you have to play with big sums to excite yourself.

[B]

He plays for millions. Like, I think he. He said his dream is to play $1 million per hand on baccarat. A million dollars a hand, he said. I think the highest he's gotten is like 300,000. To be fair. One of the reasons they probably won't let him. And that's one of the reasons I like baccarat is Baccarat is an actual 50. 50.

[A]

That's what I thought.

[B]

I thought house edge is like 0.005. So you actually have pretty. I mean, you have, like, good odds, but, like, better than blackjack, for sure.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Any of these, especially crap. Craps is a show. It's most fun game in the casino. But every single one of the games, like I said, is minus ev. You're almost certainly going to lose money, like, whenever you play, especially in the long enough timeline. So if you do win, like, you just get out of there if you're up. Like, if you have a hundred and you won 200, get. Get the out immediately.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Same with roulette. Do not play triple zero. Roulette. That is the biggest scam in the entire casino.

[A]

What's triple zero?

[B]

So on roulette, you know, they. If you could just bet black or red. The way that the house has its edge is in the old days, they had a green zero. So after a while, the casino execs were like, what if we had two zeros? We're like, maybe these idiots in Vegas and, you know, people are drunk and they're like, oh, there's only two zeros.

[A]

I don't even think about the zero.

[B]

The math goes from like, 49% or whatever to, like, the house edge goes from like 1 or 2% to like 7%. And then after a while, they couldn't add three zeros, so they added, like, whatever. The casino. No, they added a third one. So they go zero, then double zero. And then they have, like, the MGM logo on the wheel. So now the edge is like 11%.

[A]

I thought you were saying they added 1 0, 1 0, and then a third, but it was a double zero.

[B]

No, no. So there's a zero, then there's a double zero, and then there'll be. So, like, MGM or Caesars or.

[A]

Or just blank space.

[B]

You're just pissing your money away. Like people, you know. You know, there's the meme. It's like, if you win, you're like, put it all in black or whatever. Well, check the zeros, because if there's triple zero, you're fucked. All right.

[A]

Not good odds, dude. That's the. You know what I've done, though, with. With the poker or not poker. The last couple times I've been in a casino environment for, like, stand up or something. A lot of times they give you chips.

[B]

Really?

[A]

So something. I've had fun. Yeah, they'll be like. They'll give you like a couple.

[B]

Just let me know the dates. I'll come with it.

[A]

I'll give you like, 100 bucks. I'll give you like, $100.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

You could break that down.

[B]

We could turn that. Yeah, we could turn it into 150. Yeah, yeah, we'll turn into 150.

[A]

Dude, what I started doing Is when they give me chips, I put it on. I go to roulette or blackjack. I put it all on one hand, and if it wins, I give it to the dealer. So here you go.

[B]

I love that. That's kind.

[A]

It's kind of. If I lose, I go, hey, man, you know, whatever feels good.

[B]

That does. Yeah. I mean, they make. Dude, you know, the people they have to deal with, like, what a shitty job. Like, I'm sure they make a lot of money. Some. At least some of them, but, yeah, probably the good ones, but. Oh, God, I can't imagine. Oh, you're dealing with the absolute, like.

[A]

Dregs of humanity, Especially, like, at, you know, at their worst, like, up. And like, I hate that too, when.

[B]

People get mad at the dealers and they're like, it's your fault.

[A]

That guy sucks.

[B]

I'm just like, dude, you. But then you also don't really want to do anything because you're like, this guy's kind of crazy. So I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna be a whole white knight like you put your hands on, maybe, but, like, you know, up until that, you're like. I'm like, can we get security over here?

[A]

Yeah, dude, it's. It's a. I've never got bit by the gambling bug, man. I, I.

[B]

That's good.

[A]

I tried to be a bookie for a while.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

I tried, and it was just like, yeah, but how.

[B]

Where were you getting your lines from?

[A]

Oh, I. It was like, my friend knew another book. It was like a sub bookie thing where I was like, sending them kind of just bets, basically. But it was my job to, like, collect them all, really. It was just my friends.

[B]

And then, like, what about when they don't pay?

[A]

So here's what happened. They were like, I don't watch sports like that. So I didn't know what the was going on. So they were just. If they lost, they would call my. And they. I didn't. Like, they would just leave me voicemails all weekend, being like, put another one. But they just kept doubling down, doubling down, doubling down. And then eventually, like, some of my friends owed me money, and I just got to the point where I was like, I'm not taking your money for this. And I just, like, told the guys, like, I'm not doing this anymore. I just felt bad. Like, if you, like, sell something to somebody. Yeah, that's like, yes, you gave me that. But to be like, yo, the bears lost. You owe me $250. Just.

[B]

I was like, and you actually have to collect it too.

[A]

Yeah. And I was like, I don't want to do. Yeah, exactly. That's the big thing, man.

[B]

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, east coast most sports gambling culture has always been there. I don't know. I mean, I grew up here. I don't remember thinking or hearing like other parents. I guess I grew up in a Bible belt area, so I'm. They wouldn't be doing it, but I don't remember a lot of money changing hands on college football. But now these days, college football is actually even more where the actions because apparently it's like there's the mismatches or whatever. There's like underdogs and you know, for somebody who hates gambling, I know way too much about gambling.

[A]

I had it. It's a love hate relationship. That and weed too. You don't know a lot about weed. You don't know a lot about weed though.

[B]

I don't know a lot about the experience of weed. But.

[A]

Have you ever smoked weed?

[B]

I think I smoked weed when I was very drunk when I was in college once.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And that's pretty much it.

[A]

That makes sense. That's fair.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

What'd you blaze?

[B]

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, dude, you're at a party.

[A]

Blue dream passes you.

[B]

Whatever. It probably was fake. It was probably like not even marijuana. It was like somebody's grass that he had bought off of somebody else and got ripped.

[A]

Dude, the K2 is big and pretty prison. That's like the stuff you're doing that.

[B]

I have friends that are like, lose their mind.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Is that right?

[A]

Yes. These guys, you know, they'll do anything like speed balls. And. And I have friends that are like, bro, the K2 is up.

[B]

Really?

[A]

You're in jail. You're like at the county jail. You just blaze K2 and have like an absolutely satanic experience. He's like, dude, it's for real, like terrifying.

[B]

I think I saw some videos about that. For Some reason my YouTube feed has been pushing me. A lot of prison content. You can go down a serious rabbit hole. It's Prison tube. Shout out to Johnny Mitchell, by the way, the Connect. You should have him on your show.

[A]

What do you do?

[B]

He's a comedian. He's like 6, 7. But he does this show called the Connect where he interviews he. When he went to jail for as a weed dealer. And he interviews like other people who were drug dealers and then also talks about their prison experience. So I actually did a show he's an interesting. He actually likes politics. That's why Guy. We talked a little bit, but some of his content is really good.

[A]

Dude, it's the best.

[B]

He interviews like, you know, like high level drug kingpins.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And he'll be like, tell me about the story. But then also like, what was it like to be in federal prison or whatever? Yeah, what a nightmare.

[A]

I. I just finished a book about an LSD dealer who got caught in the early 90s. So he got sentenced for like 20 years for it. Never even got caught with acid. It was just all he was doing. Western conspiracy. Yeah, exactly. Got a conspiracy charge, 20 years. And it was during. He was in jail during the race riot, like the crack laws.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

And he had a altercation with a lieutenant, like one of the guards, and he was a white guy. And when the crack riots happened, it was more. It was just black inmates having riots or doing riots. And the lieutenant was like, he was. He incited the riot, sent him to fucking Marion, which is like a super max. And he had to do like, I think like three years in Marion or he ended up only doing five years out of the 20 years.

[B]

Well, I think everyone likes prison content because it's like, what would I do?

[A]

Exactly, exactly. Exactly.

[B]

I thought about that too. I'm like, well, I'm not white, not black, not Hispanic and everything.

[A]

You're another. You'd be another.

[B]

You're another.

[A]

That's what it's called.

[B]

But how many others are there?

[A]

Not a lot.

[B]

The other Indians in prison are going to be like doctors for Medicare fraud. You know, like, hello, Doc. You know, like.

[A]

I think it's called others. I think you're. It's like Inuit.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Indian Inuit. Yeah. It's like.

[B]

Actually they're probably pretty good, right? They can fight.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Pretty.

[A]

Jack, the numbers. Your numbers are. Are not great.

[B]

No, it's not good.

[A]

So, yeah, it's. I think it's like I did. I got so deep into prison, but it's like. Yeah.

[B]

So then my. What would your strategy be? My strategy would be getting my parents put money on my books.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

And then we pay the others for protection.

[A]

That's the big thing you can do. My plan was always to pay the Muslim Brotherhood. Oh, so you can pay the Muslim Brotherhood to protect. But then it's like, yeah, it is like racial.

[B]

But I could fake it and I could just grow my beard and say that I was Muslim. Right?

[A]

Yeah. And you can get a good. You can get the Muslim diet too. Oh, you have to answer.

[B]

Food is better.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. People do the kosher diet. That's a big thing. Thing, really, if you can prove, like, you're Jewish and you're allowed to switch your religion every, like, six months or so to get a different diet. I swear to God.

[B]

I read that Ramsey Yousef, who was the. He was the World Trade center bomber, the 93 bomber. He. He apparently stayed in his cell for, like, 10 years straight whenever. Because he refused to do a strip search because he said it violated his religion. But then apparently he was like, okay, I'm now converted to Christianity, but apparently the warden and all them don't believe. Believe him. So it's set up for. I don't really know what's going on, but I think he has started to, like, he's finally left his cell after 13 years. He's a Christian now. Well, he claims he's Christian.

[A]

Are they gonna scope out his butthole or, like, he's like. He's like, all right, I'm ready.

[B]

Well, I think you have to do that thing where you. With the squat and cough or whatever. He refused to do it. He's like, I won't do it. So he literally. He did not leave his. His cell in supermax, in ADX, Florence or whatever for, like, 13 years. Like, it was totally crazy.

[A]

And fine. After 13 years, he's like, I think, bro. Yeah.

[B]

I mean, it's understandable. It's like, he spent 13 years. You literally haven't. I. You have never laughed.

[A]

You're like, okay, that's so impressive. I would make 13 minutes and I'd be like, you know what? I'm going to show this guy my asshole and get it over with.

[B]

You know, they say they sleep a lot. That was the interesting thing.

[A]

Yep. That's the big one.

[B]

You can train yourself to sleep 12 hours a day, but it's like, what do you do all day? You know, even when you're awake? Like, that just sounds.

[A]

You work out, sleep a lot and in your cell. Yeah, Just right. Yeah. And it's the guy in the book I read about, the LSD dealer, Joel Blazer. He was saying, like, he got schooled on, like, masturbation techniques. Yeah. Like, just nothing. Nothing. Hands on. He never. He said he never was a punk. That was his term, a punk. But he was, like, going into it how like, you, like, use a sock and you flip it inside out so you're hitting, like, more of the soft area. And then at the very end, he said you'd apply force to the under part of your head. He's like. And it's so funny, him writing. It's like my orgasms were intense and powerful. And it's like, damn.

[B]

Yeah. But I mean, that's all he's got. Did you watch the show Escape at Dannemora? It's in. It's on Netflix. It's really good. It was created by Ben. Ben Still. And it's Javi, was it? No, Benicio. It's Benicio. And then the guy from There Will Be Blood, the guy who's the twins, anyway.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Paul Dano. That's his name. Paul. And so those two are inmates who like, basically sweet talk this woman, this, like, obese prison worker, and then they both start a relationship with her, and they get her to smuggle in tools and then they literally tunnel out of the prison. It's a real life story. It happened in 2015. So I watched the show, was a fantastic. Really good acting. And then I went the red. The real story. Dude, it was wild. Like, it's a high. They're both in there for murder. Like, one guy literally murdered a police officer. The other guy, like, butchered and kidnapped an old man for money. These are like, no shit killers.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Locked up in this high security prison in. I think it was in north New York. Like, you know, upstate New York.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

It was in the Adirondacks.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And yeah, so they were up there and they were able to get her to smuggle in, like, hacksaw blades. They cut their way out of their cells, were able to make their way, like, through the pipes and everything. Use a sledgehammer, hammer through multiple walls, and then cut a hole in a drain pipe or whatever. Crawl through the pipe, come up out on the other side, call. Crawl through a manhole. And they were on the run for, like, 23 days. One guy almost made it to Canada. They shot him, like, 10 miles from the Canadian border. Yeah. One guy was killed. The other guy. Sorry, spoiler alert.

[A]

What year was this?

[B]

2015. It wasn't that long. Yeah, dude, it was like you shot him at the.

[A]

I guess y. That high profile.

[B]

Well, they were a trooper was like, hey, who are you? And he just, like, took off running. And the other guy apparently was, like, a drunk. And they would find. They would find, like, hunting cabins. And he would just be like, all right. Just grabbing whiskey.

[A]

He's like a bear. He was like a bear. He literally is like a bear.

[B]

That's a good way of putting it.

[A]

He's like, we need to pill. He was just walking around.

[B]

Yeah. So that the other Guy left him. He was like, fuck this dude. He's, like, turned into a drunk. He's never going to make it. And then, so then he got. He got killed. And then the other guy actually almost made it to Canada.

[A]

Damn.

[B]

Yeah, I know. He almost. I, I. The weird part of the show is it's structured really well. The first, like, six episodes, you're really rooting for the prisoners. And then before you get to the last episode, they do a flashback that shows what they did. And you're like, wait, these guys? Like, this is terrible because you don't know what they're in there for. You know, they're in prison. But then they're like, oh, he literally murdered a cop. And then the other guy, like, kidnapped this man and tried to extract extort money from him and, like, butchered him and cut him up into little pieces.

[A]

You're like, yeah, his parlays didn't work.

[B]

I'm like, we gotta get this guy out of here. Like, this is not good.

[A]

Yo, guys. Welcome to the advertisement portion of the podcast. I'm on my Assassin's Creed right now. You guys can't even see me. I was doing this earlier to ensure audio quality because I'd up the audio of the ads because I was recording through my laptop like a dumbass. Now I kind of like the look. Now they got my phone out. All right, guys, here, big thing. And I try to add some tranquil music to the ads because it's. It's kind of jarring. You're just listening to a podcast. You give your brain over to the podcast, and out of nowhere it's like, hey, listen up. We got enough. And it's like, man, how about a heads up? So what we're doing, we're going to add a little gentle music and kind of get in the zone. You can chill, you can kind of use this time to kind of drift off, whatever you want to do. But we are going to do the advertisements. And I also, I got to say, here's my number one advertisement right now. I up and I got. I'm doing shows. Well, hear me out here. I failed to promote my shows in the Irvine improv SoCal. I'm so SoCal, I forgot to do the ads or make a flyer for the Irvine show. Oops, my bad. It's next weekend, Thanksgiving weekend. Friday, November 29th, 9th. Saturday, November 30th. Two days, faux shows come out to Irvine Improv. And I'll be honest. I'm not just saying. I'm not just saying. This Because I'm doing a show. I love Irvine. There's Irvine was the first place I went to in California. And I was telling someone recently, I'm like, I love Irvine. And they lived in la. And like, you love. Are you like, are you kidding? Are you trying to be funny? I'm like, no. Why? And apparently everyone from LA just snubs Irvine. Like, I would never. You guys. Dude, Irvine rules LA's Irvine. We're talking Laguna Beach. We're talking Newport Beach. Conservative ass stronghold down there in SoCal. Dude, come out. I love Irvine. It's literally the first place I went to in California. I. I'm very excited to go there. I'm gonna bring my whole family. We're all gonna do Thanksgiving out there. It's gonna be sick. So IRVINE IMPROV Friday, November 29th Saturday, November 30th 30th. Let's go. Let's show these LA pussies, dude. Who's really SoCal. They're not SoCal, they're North Irvine. Bruh. This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Take a moment to say thank you to someone in your life, including your therapist. If that's someone you'd like to shout out. If you have multiple reads this month, perhaps highlight someone different each time. Well, let's see. Last week I highlighted my mommy. I'm thankful for my mommy. I was going to do my daddy this week. I'm very thankful for my daddy. But you know what? No. I'm gonna know who I'm gonna thank this week. Our almighty creator. Guys, how awesome is God? Come on now. How awesome is the fact that you can call it the Big Bang, whatever you want to call it. The universe was created out of an info. Infinitesimal. Infinitesimal, however you say that. A teeny, tiny, incomprehensibly small void. Nothingness. And the universe has exploded out of nothingness. And that nothingness is the substratum of all that exists today. And it still exists in the universe. That's basically God. How awesome is that? Thank you so much for that. I'm so grateful. Guys, this month is all about gratitude. And along with the person person, the cosmic deity I just shouted out, there's another person we don't get to thank enough ourselves. It's sometimes hard to remind ourselves that we are trying our best to make sense of everything. And in this crazy world, that isn't easy. Here's a reminder to send some thanks to the people in your life, including yourself, and that this is the time for a personal endorsement. That's what they're asking for. Yeah, I think, you know, therapy is, is good. You gotta, you gotta do something, man. You gotta get outside of your. Just your ego. That's, that's the thing that's keeping you in, you know, your egoic struggles of just I want more, I'm not enough, blah blah blah. And therapy is one conduit to escape yourself and to try to like forge a better life. Or you can just become one with your creator. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give better help a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapist at any time for no additional character charge. Let the gratitude flow with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.commssp today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H E L P.commssp Prizepix is the best place to get real money sports action. That's right. With over 10 million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings, Prizepix has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. 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The geniuses at Lucy came up with a brilliant way to fix both those problems. They put a mini liquid capsule inside each breaker's pouch. And I haven't done these, I haven't tried the breakers pouch. But I'll be honest. Josh Cabazo, one of our producers, he's. Honestly, Josh is one of my favorite people. He is the absolute man behind. By the way, Josh was. He tried a, a breaker pouch on this very episode, like while he was recording it. And Sagar gave him one. He had one as well. And Josh was like raving about it. I forgot all about it. He's like, dude, that was awesome, by the way. He liked it. So I can't give you a personal endorsement. I haven't tried it. But Josh has tried it and I trust his word. And he was. He loved the liquid surprise. Let me tell you guys, he's said it perked him right up. Guys, let's level up your nicotine routine with Lucy. Go to Lucy Co Drenched and use promo code drench to get 20 off your first order. Lucy has a 30 day refund policy. 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[B]

Warning.

[A]

Morning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Yes. You know what we all need to get more of off our ass. With bold flavors and a refreshing citrus kick, Mountain Dew will get you off your ass and have you feeling like you're on an actual mountain. A mountain where the weather is always perfect, your friends are ready to hang, and a day of epic proportion awaits. They gotta fire the guy who wrote that piece of paragraph, guys. But guess what doesn't suck. Look at. Look how blue that is. What is this voltage? Look at this. Look at that. Dude, you can put this in a Windex bottle and go. It's like, no, I'm just drinking voltage, everybody. Don't you squirt it right in your mouth. Look at this. Motherfucker's crazy. You go, maybe I am. Let's get off our ass together, brother, and hang on. The perfect mountain. A day where epic proportion awaits. That's what I like. That's the kind of fun times I like to have with my friends, guys, when we all drink our voltage and our Baja Blast, you know what game we play? You know what fun and competitive social activity we engage in that I'd like to talk to you guys about? Let me tell you guys, man, look, we drink regular Mountain Dew. I told you already. We wrestle. We drink the blue ass. Look how blue this is when we drink this. Oh, my God, dude. We play a secret game. Me and my friends, we play a secret game in which. How do I say we all take our turn doing something fun and the last person to h. Dare I say, arrive at the party has to chug the voltage full of. You know what the. I'm saying? You guys don't even know what's going on there. Voltage. Mountain Dew. What the hell was I. Sorry, guys, I blacked out. I don't even know what the hell I was talking about. Guys, the mountain is calling. You should answer. Grab your friends. Grabbing ice cold Mountain Dew wherever refreshing beverages are sold, and do the Dew. Yeah, the prison culture shit is, like, fascinating, man. I'm absolutely. I've wanted. I like, almost I'm glad I went, but I kind of was like, damn. I kind of wish, like, I.

[B]

How much weight were you moving then when you were selling marijuana?

[A]

Decent amount.

[B]

Like, like pounds?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Whoa. Yeah, you could have gone. You actually could have gone.

[A]

I could have went to jail in Philly. It was like, you could have £5 and you wouldn't really. You could, like, get locked up, but you wouldn't do, like a sentence at a certain point. But that's what I've heard. But like, before, though, like in the. See, like the 2000s, it started getting more lax. More lax? More lax. By the end of it, nobody was going to jail for weed. They even, like, the cops would find a half pound of weed on you and Jesus Christ and just take it, make the out of here.

[B]

How does it all work, though, like, in terms. Not the cost. So are you selling to other dealer because you had enough?

[A]

Yeah, eventually it was like, I would do both. You would, like, you would get like. Like the way it would work is you'd have to, like. I remember, I like, Saved all my money so hard. And I eventually saved up sixteen hundred dollars and I bought a half pound. And then I got to, like, actually make money off of this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then eventually I started. You get upfronted to you, like, find somebody from me, like 30 pounds of weed.

[B]

Yeah. That is. The interesting thing I read from Johnny's podcast is like, there's a lot of consignment, a lot of. In the. In the drug business.

[A]

And then double consignment. I would get something, front it, and double consign it to other people. And then you have to kind of.

[B]

What if he doesn't pay you? And then you got to pay the guy.

[A]

You tell him, hey, man, I'm falling on tough times. That's the. That's the thing. It's like, I. You're never supposed to meet that person, like the top level person, because they want to keep, like, an air of like. Because they're going to tell the guy, like, tell him I'm a. Like, I'm murderer. But I met the guy. Really? It was. You know, it wasn't.

[B]

Were you ever physically threatened? Did you ever see weapons?

[A]

I got robbed at gunpoint. Yeah.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

What was that like, what happened?

[A]

It was surreal. It was like. So it. I got. I got. I got threatened with a club one time. That was embarrassing. I gave in to the club just outside. This guy was like, I want to hit you with this.

[B]

And I was like, what kind of club? Like a handmade club, Wooden.

[A]

Just a. Like a 1920s police officer baton, dude. He's like, but I was in West Philly, like, trying to buy.

[B]

You did the right thing. Yeah.

[A]

And there was like seven guys around me, and I was like, we're. Seriously, guys, where are my Percocets? And they're like, dude, we'll bash your brains in. I was like, all right, you guys can keep the 200. You win. You win this round. But, yeah, it was that. And then I had a guy one time, he got robbed and blamed it on me. I think he just took my money. But he came out, like, we were in an apartment. He was like, something's got it. He, like, cocked a gun and walked towards me, and I was like, oh, shit. That time it was just like. Everything just goes super slow. I remember being, like, very slow. Terrified, too. People are like, dude, if someone pulled a gun on me, I'd. It's like I was frozen. Totally frozen.

[B]

Yeah. It's fight or flight. Yes, exactly.

[A]

Second time I.

[B]

You got robbed twice?

[A]

Oh, well, that time I got, like. I had already. I, like, paid this guy money to go get something and bring it to me. And he's like, I got robbed after you gave me the money. And I was like, bro, it's fine. I like, yeah, it's like, it's all good, man. He's like, nah, man, this is up. And he just, like, cocked a gun, like, walked. Because he was like, did you do it? I was like, how the. Did I. What are you talking about?

[B]

Oh, like, you did. I set him up. Set him up, right?

[A]

I was like, why would I do that?

[B]

Oh, man, whatever.

[A]

But that was the whole thing. And then the. The second time, I was in an apartment, and it was like someone had owed me a bunch of money and I was bringing them more stuff. So I had, like, the money they owed me and, like, about four pounds of weed. And there he was going to give it to some other guy. And then this just. Dude comes up in a ski mask with the kid who was, like, supposedly his customer. And the kid set it all up. But that one, I was like. Like, I remember everything slowed down again, but I was able to read their faces. And the kid I knew was very much afraid. And the other kid, I was like, he's pretending to be afraid. And then once the. The guy with the ski mask left with all the money and stuff, I was like, you did. You did that?

[B]

Did you beat him up?

[A]

I started choking him good pretty badly. And then like, a kid I knew was like, stop. Because I was like a blind rage. You're almost. You have, like, a gun in your face. You're terrified.

[B]

That's horrifying.

[A]

I was just. Just holding this kid's neck like, I know you fucking did that. And the kids, like, stop. And like, thank God. I was like, okay, yeah, you know, But I don't. I don't think. I wasn't violent like that, though. I was never. That was the only time. It was all. It was like, almost all my money.

[B]

That's crazy, man.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How did you get out of this? What got you out of it? This podcast, really.

[A]

I wasn't on Percocets. I was selling. I never.

[B]

Oh, you were selling Percocet?

[A]

I'm not a vice. I was never, like, a vice ridden man porn. Obviously.

[B]

You were true direct. You were a true leech on society.

[A]

I was absolutely. Yeah. I had no.

[B]

You are. Honestly should have gotten to prison. I'm not going to lie. I think you owe three years of your life to the state.

[A]

I think I should actually. But Now, Now I do service through High Podcast.

[B]

Yeah, that's right. You're doing a service.

[A]

But I. I do. I honestly, it's not like a sexy tale because, yeah, usually you have the redemptive arc of like. And then I got caught. But I was always. I was pretty principled. Like, I. I remember, like, I was like, pills are evil. I didn't know anything about them. I'm like, oh, these are very addictive coke. I was like, this stuff's no good either. But weed, there was a thing where it was like, this is good for people. Because I was smoking so much of it. I was like, weed is good for people. I was like, people need weed. It's good for you. I thought it was good for me. You know, I was obviously killing it in life.

[B]

People need to be more like you. Like, if you smoke weed, you can also end up in West Philadelphia with a club in your face.

[A]

That was for pills.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

That was. Reveals.

[B]

We were.

[A]

Weed was chill. I was high forever. You go, I remember I tried to start a policy with every customer. I would smoke a blunt with them and end up smoking, like, nine blunts. And it was just.

[B]

How do you even puncture function?

[A]

I didn't. I wasn't functioning.

[B]

Oh, so do you still smoke a lot? You said no.

[A]

No.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Now it's like, very. I honestly try to. There was a big impulsive element of it, but now I. I've been trying to do it where I've tried to do this for years, where, like, I almost, like, incorporated into a meditation practice. But then you get into it. You're like, well, why do I even need that if I meditate? You know? So that was kind of like, well, so now it's like special occasions.

[B]

How much better did your sleep get?

[A]

So much better. That's the thing with weed. You don't. You can even say, like, well, I'm sleeping better. But your REM sleep is trashed.

[B]

Yes, thank you. Thank you. It's about to bring up.

[A]

It's like, totally true.

[B]

There's a lot of people. There's a big psy op by the weed guys who are like, oh, if you smoke a bowl right before bed and it's like, actually, you're nuking your REM sleep. It's like people. You know when you get on an airplane and people are like, just gonna have a glass of wine just to go to bed, I'm like, actually, you're, you know, sleep way shittier sleep. Yeah. It's like, you're actually not sleeping at.

[A]

All, dude, nobody wants to hear semi.

[B]

Conscious, but nobody wants to hear this.

[A]

I tell people all the time. It's like. And the weed does up your REM sleep. You don't dream. You don't dream. And everyone knows. When I stopped smoking weed, I have crazy dreams. Like, that's because you're rebounding.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

Same as alcohol. Oh, dude, it's. Yeah, it's like I. I was completely, like when I was younger also, I was making a living off. And I'm like, weed is awesome. This stuff rules. Everybody needs this stuff. Everyone needs to be selling this stuff under me. That's what happens with heroin, though. Heroin. If you're using heroin, you try to convince people to do heroin because you want to start selling it to them so then you don't have to pay. Really. It's very. That's kind of. Yes, it's very, very evil. And you, like. You're like one of. Reject them, too. Yeah, I remember someone explained that to me, and I was like, someone offered me to sell heroin. I said, no. I said, no, thank you, sir. I mean, heroin's evil. The pills are evil, but no one knew what the. They were. Yeah, I came out of it. I got a.

[B]

Is Percocet the same as Oxycontin?

[A]

Oxycodone. Yes. Percocet is Oxycodone mixed with Ace, Tylenol, basically. Okay, so Oxycodone and Oxycontin and Percocet are the same thing that.

[B]

Is it the same strength? Is that.

[A]

No.

[B]

What was the whole, like, pill thing in the 2000s then? So that was OxyContin, right? Or OxyContin?

[A]

It was all of them. It was Percocets. There's a bunch of them. It's Vicodin. Was hydro something. Hydro.

[B]

Hydrocodone. That's right.

[A]

That's vin. Were less desirable. If you had Vicodins, people be like, fine. But Percocets, people wanted them. And then the oxies came out, which was just like 5 milligram percocet. 10 mil, you know, whatever it was. Oxy would have been like 40.

[B]

Yeah, 80. Right. I read a. I read a book about it, and I remember I watched some documentary about the Sackler fan. That is evil, man. Dude, it was of the cash programs and those pill mills, and they had total knowledge. That's really what led to the heroin spike. All the black tar heroin, dude.

[A]

And it was.

[B]

People had no idea.

[A]

It wasn't. It wasn't just the Sacklers. It was every doctor in the country, dude. I got, like. I would give a sore throat from my college campus, and they do on Percocets. And I'm like, no.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But I. When I. I was, like, 19 or 18, and I got my wisdom teeth out, and my friend was like, bro, I will pay you. You. He's like, you'll get. If you get pills, I'll buy them off you. And I'm like, whoa, I'll give you 200. I'm like, what? I was like, for sure? Yes. I hate medicine. You get my medicine. And, dude. And it was like, I. I remember coming out, like, of my wisdom teeth in a haze, but remembering, like, I asked him, I was like, what can I. Like, what am I gonna get? And they were like, we're just gonna give you, like, ibuprofen. I was like, I'm a real baby with pain. Is there anything else I can have? Like, yeah, we'll give you, like. I think it was, like, Percocet or hydro. And they just gave me a full vial. And that's. That was the whole thing that set the whole thing off, because I made 200 off of it. And then once I went to college, I was like, I got to find more of those things. And my friend was like, yo, these things are awesome. So I didn't do them.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

And then I watched, dude, I watched firsthand a whole. There was, like, this apartment complex, because at a certain time I was getting. I ended up finding, like. I would get, like, 2500 Viking at a time. And I remember my friend would bring them into this, like, apartment complex, and they all get distributed throughout there. And I. Dude, I watched this whole, like, like, little ecosystem of people, like, degenerate. Yeah, that's when I was like, oh. And I'm like, 1920 at the time. And I was like, this is bad.

[B]

No, it's bad. So, yeah, the pills, man, that.

[A]

That should go to jail, dude. I'm such a piece of.

[B]

You just gotta give back to society.

[A]

I do. I do, though. I do. I'm telling you, that's my. I'm all service now. I'm all service.

[B]

All right.

[A]

I'm wildly overpaid, but I'm wildly overpaid service. That's all, dude. For real, though. The thing is, is, like. And I. This is why, like, I've been researching the world religions a lot. There's a really good book called the Religions, the World's Religions by Houston Smith. And he goes into, like, the connective tissue between, like, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, you know, Everything else, Islam and I, I do like growing up in a Christian, like, environment. It was. They don't sell it very well to young people. It's like, this sucks. I'm not. It's like, it's just a bunch of shit you got to take on face value. I started researching Hinduism when I was like, like, I mean, it's a classic stoner move. Just be like so high and be like, oh, there's nothing more annoying than white guys. I know.

[B]

Than George Harrison wannabes in India. They, they literally laugh at you. They're like, yeah, we'll take your money.

[A]

But I know.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

But it is a beautiful religion.

[B]

Yes, it's.

[A]

It's a very. And it was like, for me, that was. It gave me a concept of God from researching it from that angle that I was like, oh, that kind of makes sense.

[B]

Good. Yeah, that's great.

[A]

But I like their, Their, their relationship with pleasure, from what I've read is like, it's not as. And correct me if I'm. It's not as like, forbidden. It's like, yeah, if you want pleasure, go get it till you're tired of it.

[B]

Or is it kind of. Well, it's hard to say, man, because, you know, even calling Hinduism a religion, obviously it is a religion, but it is intrinsic to the land of India. And I'm really convinced of that. As in, like the practice of Hinduism. Like, you don't go on Sunday, you just have temples everywhere. People stop on their way and off from work, like at the end of the day for special occasions, for little stuff like you'll go and you'll ask a blessing. It's not, not in the. The Abrahamic faiths require, like, rigid practice. And this is much more like a part of daily life. So the religion itself doesn't like, say yes or no or whatever about, I don't know, pleasure, hard work, etc. It doesn't like, prescribe rules. But the Indian culture definitely also plays, like a huge part of it. So I'm not really convinced. That's why I think Buddhism is a religion. I think that actually is a religion and that's one that can transpose into, you know, Western society or whatever. But Hinduism, like, you really, you really gotta be in India if you want to be a real Hindu, I think, or at least practice it in the way that it's meant to be practiced. You can try, obviously, and everybody can do their own thing. But there's a huge amount of people who are Hindus, who are atheists. They don't even Believe, like, in God.

[A]

It's more. You're saying it's more cultural.

[B]

It's part of the Indian culture. Like, it really, like, when you're there, it just makes sense. Like, that's how people practice their lives. Like, each village has its own deity. The way that, you know, there's a certain type of blessing, or what they call it a puja, which is a cerem, which is the type of puja that you would do for this milestone in your life or whatever. Whereas, like, Abrahamic fates is like, on Sunday or on Friday, we pray. We pray five times a day, and we do it at this time. And the, you know, the. Whatever, the chant of the prayer and the meat that we eat is like this. Where, you know, even Amongst Hindus, like, 40% of Hindus are vegetarian, but 60% are not. So, you know, there's no. There's no yes and no on life, on how to live. Like, it's just. It's just very much. Yeah. Part of the culture. Over 8,000, 9,000 years.

[A]

Yeah, that is. It is. It is such a funny stoner move, though, to be like, dude, I think I'm so used to mushrooms and yoga.

[B]

It's like girls who are into yoga, it's like, shut. They're like my Shavasana.

[A]

Like, oh, yeah, that is. That is. That is tough. When they start, you start, you know, like four Sanskrit words, and you're like, yeah, yes.

[B]

Or the ohm. Tattoos. You're just like, yes. Spare me, man.

[A]

I will say, dude. I will say, though, if I'm like, just like a.

[B]

Isn't that a Hindu. Isn't that the Hindu deity? Kind of looks like it. What do you got going on over there? Yeah, that is.

[A]

Might be.

[B]

That's Sanskrit. That Sanskrit down there?

[A]

Yeah. Oh, this? No, no, no. Oh, dude, this was a shirt I designed to try to sell his merch, and it's a very low seller. Yeah, dude. I do think, though, there's something religiously. Let's just say in the United States, it's like Christianity is. It's cool. It's getting a resurgence.

[B]

I don't think so. Statistically. No.

[A]

Yeah. I guess maybe that's just the Internet memes.

[B]

I think you're thinking of trad wife.

[A]

I'm thinking of trad wife.

[B]

If you take a look at the stats, Christianity is never. I mean, not Christianity, religion. We have never lived in a more secular country.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Honestly, even coming back here is shocking. Like, to Texas in the modern. I mean, I literally grew up here. This was a. A deep Bible Belt State. That's what I remember.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And to watch it become like Cosmopolitan is weird. Honestly, even when I go back to College Station, I mean, I don't know, I guess I just don't feel the same. I don't live there anymore. It's just kind of different. But it doesn't just feel the way that it did back then. And in general, stats wise, the evangelism, Catholicism, all practicing religions and the rise of people who just call themselves spiritual, it's never been high.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And that's really, I mean the right wing trad people are the ones who blame that for where we are. But honestly, kind of to make it political. I think that's why Trump is the first like real secular president. Like everybody knows like he loves the Bible.

[A]

What are you talking about, dude? He loves it.

[B]

Yeah, he loves it so much he sells, sells a copy. But you know, 30% of the people who voted for Trump are literally pro choice, like over 30. That's crazy, right? If you think about it in terms of the abortion election and all that. So the mass secularization of America has made being conservative like just so the, the Texas I grew up and George W. Bush was literally my governor.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That type of, you know, conservatism, it's gone.

[A]

Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. I, I, I think they're, well, my, to bring back to my main point, I think the, I do think like there's a lot of people who have left organized religion who are going towards kind of spiritualism. But now everyone has a very, I think now it's like everyone has a very strained relationship if people are trying to like practice some form of like God in their life. I, I do feel like researching other religions helps people kind of like conceptualize it because you're like, yeah, I'm not going to do this, but you can read that like. Yeah, that kind of makes sense if you look at like a giant conscious.

[B]

And then even then, I mean, I, I could defend, there's, what, what are.

[A]

Your stances on that?

[B]

What? Religion?

[A]

Yeah, religion. God. God, like believing in God.

[B]

I'm not religious at all. I mean, I grew up around here, so I still have a very like side eye view of a lot of the Bible belts. Yeah. But I, I think it's good for people now that I've been removed from it for quite a long time. Yeah, look, there's, you know, it's like the south park episode about Mormonism. We're like, look, this is some batshit crazy stuff, but the truth is like, they're living a better life than you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, so it's like maybe then maybe we're the crazy ones, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, they're the ones who believe in Planet Colob or whatever, but they have nine children. They're really happy. They help each other. The Mormon Church has no debt. They make sure that you get very cheap education at BYU. If you stay in the faith. They take care of you, they take care of each other. I grew up around a lot of Mormons. They're some of the happiest people I know. They have, like, multiple children. They settled well. They seem like they're doing, like, really well in life and they get to, you know, they have a big community aspect where they. You always have just dozens of people who share your values, who are around, who, if you're out of town, somebody can come watch your pets or if you need help with your kids or whatever. So, like, they're the winners in life, man. Like, that's. That's the. That's what people need to take away.

[A]

That's. That's my. Yeah, that's my question is like, that's what I'm. What I've been trying to, like, read about and like, think about a lot is like, what is the grounding force for, like, people's lives? And if it, you know, if it dissipates into, like, if there is no. That's like, what religion has been forever and now people are like the antidepressants. Like, all that stable is now, like, you have to like, back up the molecules in your brain because you're sad, because your worldview is absolutely, apparently kind of bleak.

[B]

Very, very well said. And also, I mean, like, wokeism, quote unquote, is a religion any sort, or being anti Woke is also. It is politics is a religion, for sure. Religion will find a way in its life whether you find religion or not. The thing is about it is what I, you know, would advocate for is that I think especially in big cities and like, in elite circles, there's a real sneering at religion, but they don't look at it in the way that I just said, where it's doing quite a lot of good for people who are in the faith, in the community. So for me, I'm just like, look, you know, do whatever you want to do. And actually having lived all my entire adult life in mass secular America, we have a lot of problems, right? Like, the gathering place of the secular American is the bar. It shouldn't be. That's weird, actually. Like waiting until you're in your mid-30s to even try to start having children. And then by that time, like, I don't know, I just think they should.

[A]

Be turning it into Christ's blood. They should be turning into Christ.

[B]

There's just choices that you make that make it all about you. And one of the things that are really important about religion is like, actually, no, it's not about you, it's about other people. And so by doing that and by choosing the secular elite path, you are literally pursuing something that is just all about you. It's about the pursuit of your own pleasure, about your own money, about all this. But it will strip away any of the great things in life that will genuinely make you happy. So if you're not religious, then you have to actually consciously seek that out. And you know, you probably tell you about this, you have children now, right? Like, it's probably harder to connect and find like groups of other parents. Whereas in. And if you grew up in Texas in the 90s and you went to church, that's dusted, bro, you're dying. Day one. It's sold. Like someone will be at your house when your wife gives birth. They will have food waiting in your house. But if you don't have that type of community, that's really hard. The number of people. Actually there's a really interesting American family studies study that shows that the number of friends, particularly among men, the number of male friends that people have, has an all time low. I think the record number is actually in the zero to one category of people who consider themselves like close friends. And so if you think about it like in that community aspect, people are lonelier than ever. They're having difficulty really finding a mate. They're really having problems in terms of fostering close friendships. So they're doing what, betting parlays on gambling in order. They just want to feel something.

[A]

So stimulate the brain.

[B]

Stimulating the brain. Yeah.

[A]

That is sad. That's my problem. Problem is like there needs to be some sort of cohesive organizing force and most of them are negative. Where it's like, you know, again, it's like, you know, proud boys, all that you could. Like the things are. And it's, it's not even like, you know, a lot of it I think does come down to the media because it's like, you know, it's like you don't have to take your worldview or your life prescriptive path of the media, but it's like they are experts, they are this. And it is looked upon as like, this is an authoritative source of information. Yeah. And it's just mean. Like, everything you see is just like, he's a fucking. This guy is such a loser. Let me tell you about this guy. It's on both sides.

[B]

Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

I think that's bad for people mentally.

[B]

Like, well, definitely. But I, I will give. That's some. That's a bit cope also because people blame the media and it's like, look, that's what people want. Like, at a certain point, like, it's true. I could be so much more successful, wealthy and famous if I just did that. I actually am actively giving up.

[A]

That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.

[B]

No, I know, but that's a choice. But I'm making. But the truth is that that is what most people want. Most people want to fulfill their base instincts. They want to have that, you know, that dopamine rush of saying. Yeah. I mean, honestly, Shane's bit about the Fox News dad. I mean, I actually, the first time I met him, I was like, you know, that really is like one of the. Probably one of the most important bits you've ever done because it's deeply true.

[A]

It's in the vernacular now people will say, I have a Fox News.

[B]

I have a Fox News. It is a deeply true. Like, it's a bit. It's a comedy bit, but that is like an archetype and something that really does exist, like in American society.

[A]

No, it is. It's true.

[B]

And it's. I would flip it and say there are also MSNBC moms out there.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Who are just as bad on Wine Moms and all that, but it is a cancer on American society. But honestly, that's what they want. Like, I was talking with Lex yesterday and I brought up one of my favorite media quotes, and it's from a book called the Loudest Voice in the Room. And it's a biography of Roger Ailes, who was the chairman of Fox News and the creator. And he said people want to be informed. People don't want to. People don't want to be informed. They want to feel informed, formed. And I think that is like the most deeply true thing about media that I've ever read.

[A]

Yeah. Though that's true. I guess what I'm saying is, like, it's just bad. It's like, it's bad because it's like, it's like you were saying there's a financial incentive to be like a major. Which when I, when I first saw reality tv. I was like, this is bad.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is going. This is creating a pathway. Right. But it's being just a absolute.

[B]

Yeah, it's so good, though. It's bad for America.

[A]

If you were smoking weed back then, you would have been like, what the. Dude, this is so up. I remember I was just high watching reality tv. Like, this. This is modeling a type of behavior that also pays off. Genuine racism, which taps into people's, you know, own, like, biological drives. And I was like, this is not good. That's what's being modeled. That's what you're pushed unconsciously to do. And like, you were saying, like, dude, if you wanted to, like, really double down, anyone, any of us can do it. Oh, hang American flags back here and be like, let me tell you something.

[B]

I get so annoyed. Be like, you're a grifter or whatever. I'm like. I'm like, I could make way more money.

[A]

I could grip.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. If I wanted to grift, I would grip you. You. Oh, yeah, yeah. Like. Like, if I just sat there and be like, look at these liberal tears that are flowing from their faces.

[A]

I'm telling you, all the channels, you put an American flag behind you, you sell your merch hat, and it's just.

[B]

Like, especially for me. Brown guy be like, brown guys loves Trump.

[A]

And I know, I know, I know.

[B]

So poor. The problem is, is that I get bored, man. I find. I find those people so utterly born boring that I have no interest in even talking.

[A]

It's embarrassing.

[B]

Yeah, it is humiliating.

[A]

You could make a lot of money.

[B]

I have a ton of money.

[A]

If you're. Especially if you're a black. Black guy is the top of the market. If you're a black guy, red hat. Let me tell you something.

[B]

It's like, you'll be famous overnight. MAGA Memaws will be sending you five bucks a month and being like, have you seen this nice young man?

[A]

But, yeah, I do hope we can, like, somehow move to a. Something that animates people. Other than you think people will ever be animated other than their base instincts by the masses or you think there will be, like, an actual, like, gen pop?

[B]

No, Gen pop will always be.

[A]

Always be.

[B]

Yeah, look, look. America, society. These matt rise of mass media has always looked exactly the same. Like, people think it's worse now than it ever was. Total. If you go back and you look at the yellow journalism era, like, it was insane.

[A]

That's true.

[B]

You know, slamming each other and. I mean, imagine this. American. America's News in the 1800s was literally political. Like, when you would read the news, you would read the Kentucky Democrat or you would read, like, the Kansas City Republican. Like, your literal newspaper was the party that you supported. And one of the ways that people would get interested and instigate politics is socialists. And others would be like, we're starting a socialist newspaper because the news itself was a political vector.

[A]

That's crazy. I didn't know that. Oh, yeah, because I was totally bought into. Like, dude, it's never been this bad.

[B]

No, absolutely not. It's bullshit. So, like, the thing is, is that in the old days, the rise of yellow journalism, of the penny papers, people like William Randolph Hearst and others, and before him, like Joseph Gordon Bennett, it was all sensationalism. Tabloid. That's where it all comes from. And that was overwhelmingly popular. What happened is, is that the old days that we romanticize is actually a very unique time in America, American history, where the vast majority of Americans were getting their news from the network TV. So in the 60s and the 70s, everybody romanticizes Walter Cronkite, all this stuff. Let me tell you something. The news was just as fake back then as it is today. It's just that, thank God we have the Internet to be like, no, no, no, no. It's fake and it's bullshit. Because so book, it's a slog, but people should read it. It's called Personal History by Katherine Graham. She ran the Washington Post. She was the owner of it, and her father bought the paper, and then her son is the one who sold it to Jeff Bezos. But so she ran the paper for basically her entire life. Her husband ran it, then he committed suicide, and she took over and ran it for decades. And if you read that paper, actually, if you've ever watched the movie the Post, it's directed by Steven Spielberg with Tom Hanks, and it's about the Pentagon Papers. Meryl Streep plays her in the movie. And it's really like, when reading that book, you're like, you know, she's getting politicking with Kennedy, is at dinner, and he's like, giving them advice on how to write in the paper. Paper. And her husband, who was owner of the Post, is friends with jfk, and he's skewing the coverage in a certain way. So everyone has this romantic nature about the 60s and cronkite. It's like, no, they were just as partisan as people are, as today as Rachel Maddow and these people. They were. But America didn't know they had much more higher, like Institutional trust and cable news exploded that obviously after the network era, but. And then the rise of blogs and everything. But people were really romanticized this. Oh, the news was fair and balanced. It's like, no, it's not that. The news is what got us into Vietnam. You know, it wasn't fair and balanced. These people were writing columns and justifying all this bullshit. They knew what was happening. They didn't report any of it. It was only in like, what, 1968, we finally tell everybody the truth. By that time, 500,000Americans are sitting in Vietnam. JFK, we used to go and hang out, and all of his secretaries, McNamara and all these guys were hanging out in Georgetown, which is a very rich neighborhood, at their fancy ass mansions, secretly telling them what they should write in their papers. Like, dude, it's. It's always been like, as crap. People just didn't know it.

[A]

Yeah, I feel like Trump did kind of crack the. He, like, he like parted the veil to be like, this is actually a lot of. This is bullshit.

[B]

The roots of Trump are in. There's a famous clip. 2012, Newt Gingrich was the Republican debate, South Carolina debate. And the opening question, even I will admit it's a crazy question. They were like, Mr. Gingrich, your wife. He like, I don't know the circumstances. He's on his third wife and he like divorced his wife. I think she was going through cancer or something. Like, oh, it was terrible, it was.

[A]

Cancer, it was bad.

[B]

And it was the second time that he'd done something like that. Anyway, like, that was the opening question. And Gingrich is like, let me tell you something, that was one of the most disgusting acts. And the mainstream media is a direct participant, something like that in the Democratic Party. And the crap, the pop, as you would say from the audience, oh, roars like you can hear it on the microphone of like, whoa. And all of that. And I watched that clip because all the ingredients for Trump were there the whole time. It's just like, you have to go and look for it. Like, Michelle, he was the first one.

[A]

That tapped into that.

[B]

Well, he was the first one who attacked this media on the stage and flipped the debate and made it about them. And it was a referendum. It was like, no, fuck you. Actually, when they. And you could see John King is kind of taken aback because he's never experienced this before. And now it's the norm in Republican politics. People expected at that time, it was crazy. It was shocking. But yeah, I mean, I watched that clip a lot because I'm like, that's it. That's where Donald Trump, 2015, the famous debate. And Megyn Kelly's like, Mr. Trump, you've called women pigs. He's like, only Rosie O'Donnell. And they was just.

[A]

Everyone.

[B]

Crowd just roars, man. And it's like that was it. Like that's the moment that he won, in my opinion, in the 2015 primary. Broke politics forever. But ingredients were there.

[A]

They were all there. It's funny that he was like, like that was like one of the first dominoes that toppled the mainstream media. And he was just trying to get a fourth wife. He was just trying to get some new. He was like, bro, nothing's gonna stop me. Yeah, the entire mainstream media.

[B]

No, I think what it is, is in all of this is that that the base has always hated the media. It's just that the politicians, they need the media. I mean, this is another like fakery out of all of this. Is that the idea that the Republicans hate the media. Like, nobody craves media attention more than Republicans, for sure. Specifically mainstream media. There are some good ones out there who actually understand that the news is bad and like, don't want to give them access. But in reality, like, as much as they say they hate it, like they want to be on cnn, bro. They like it. You know, they want to go on fox. They want, they don't. I don't know. I.

[A]

So speaking of the politician stuff. What. So Matt Gates, that's something I can't like wrap my head around. He got, he had appointed.

[B]

That's his name, Attorney General. That's right.

[A]

Attorney General.

[B]

Yeah. He's nominated to be the Attorney General.

[A]

And what the big, the big thing about him is that he might have trafficked kids. Man, that's a weird, that's a weird one.

[B]

Details are very strange. So. And, and to be fair, the DOJ did drop their case against. So they investigated it and they leaked a lot of the details. So he was never convicted or even prosecuted of any of this. And there genuinely was some weird. I'd have to go back and look at the details, but somebody was trying to blackmail him for like $25 million. And that's how some of this stuff came out. But like, empirically, he was definitely like hooking up with like very young girls and like hanging out with sketchy people and getting blackout drunk like all while he was a congressman.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So the detail, as I understand it, 2021 for to now, there's been a three year investigation in the House Ethics Committee about Gates and his Behavior from that was instigated by an attorney who filed a complaint claiming to represent an underage girl who says that she slept with Matt Gaetz whenever she was underage. Now, obviously, though, she may claim that, but as I understand it, the feds did investigate at least some of these claims, and of course, they haven't brought charges.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

So the report itself was due to be released I think, tomorrow, actually, when from the day that we are taping. And that report now will not be released because what happened is that Gateway got nominated to be the Attorney General. He resigned as a House of Representatives. So the House Ethics Committee, two days later of his nomination, was supposed to release that, but they will no longer release the report because he's no longer a sitting member of Congress considering his resignation. So there's some background that's kind of sketchy. Yeah, look, I mean, his behavior has also made it a little weird in terms of, first of all, just what he admitted to is wild.

[A]

Also, why would he be appointed, though? It almost seems like he'd have perhaps dirt on djt.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

You know what I mean?

[B]

I don't think it's a dirt thing. Dude. Gates is just one of it. Like, he's one of his biggest.

[A]

He's one of his bros. Yeah.

[B]

No, not bros. He's one of his biggest defenders on television. He's one of those people who like, anything goes. Like, he's all in. I mean, look, it seems tactical.

[A]

I'm saying they like to abandon Congress, have a higher job two days before potentially, the shoe drops.

[B]

You could read that into that if you want.

[A]

That's awesome.

[B]

I mean, but at the same time, like, why would Trump go along with that scheme then, right? Like, because for this, Trump would have to be like, okay, Matt, I'll bail you out.

[A]

But that's what I'm saying. That's. Hence the dirt. I don't know. I'm just wildly speculating. I'm trying to figure out why appoint somebody with such a sketchy record.

[B]

Oh, I mean, I think that the case is a true believer. That's what it is. He's been all in for Trump for eight years. He was his biggest defender on television. Trump loves him. He always goes on Fox and he's always. Matt Gaetz is always like, I'm all in for Trump. To be fair, Gates is an interesting guy. Like, from my perspective, he has generally been anti war. Like, he's been sponsored a lot of stuff with progressive Democrats about trying to end forever wars. He's somebody who wanted to pardon Edward Snowden. He opposed the Julian Assange stuff. You'll like this. He's very pro weed. He's one of the most pro marijuana members of Congress.

[A]

I don't care. I like mushrooms.

[B]

Okay, well, we're coming for that next. But he had, he. Yeah, he's, he's actually quite libertarian is the way. He's pro bitcoin. You know, he's been a heterodox guy for a while. So I'm actually, I'm not that, you know, worried about. People hate Matt Gaetz because, you know, I mean, look, he's, he's kind of an like, media wise, for sure. He's got a reputation about town and he likes to come in and he blow like he, he likes to mouth off. Can we put it that way?

[A]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

He's got a bat. Like, the Republicans hate him because he's, he's the one who mounted that coup against Kevin McCarthy and got Kevin Mc. McCarthy kicked out. So a lot of the establishment types hate him. But Trump loves him because he's loyal and he wants him to like, root out a lot of the people who are in the Department of Justice who he would see as like, you know, deep state or enemies or whatever, for sure. And I honestly think Gates would do that. But I mean, it is crazy because AG is like a real dude. You're the chief law, like, legal officer of the United States. Like, you have to determine the legality of President's actions. You direct, direct the Department of Justice and the FBI, like, what type of cases we're going to prosecute or not. Like, you make the call on some, like, really big decisions. Like you have to write the legal justification sometimes for what the President is doing, work with the White House Counsel's office. I mean, it is a real, no shit job. Like, it's a real job. And yeah, I'm glad you said that because I had.

[A]

That was my next conversation. I had to go look it up.

[B]

I had to go look it up because I was like, yo, does he even have a law degree? But he does. Yeah. But I was like, I don't know if he's a lawyer.

[A]

You know, that's fucking wild. So it is about, we're about to enter like, you know, what's. The Senate and the House are Republican now. Two Supreme Court picks, most likely.

[B]

Yeah, Alito and Clarence Thomas.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

They'll probably resign. Although Sonia Sotomayor, one of the Democrats, she's 70, but she does have type 1 diabetes and Democrats have tried to get her to resign because they were like, hey, you need to go so that Biden can. But she pulled an RBG and she's like, I'm not going anywhere.

[A]

Whoa.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Damn. Because they wanted one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Can you enter into like a what's up?

[B]

Can you believe that she didn't. These people are such narcissists.

[A]

Yeah, I can totally believe.

[B]

So believes in power and that and like not even being part. I mean, look, I don't really care, but it's more from a liberal perspective. It's like, if you think this is fascism and the end of democracy, I'm like, bitch, then resign. Like, what are you doing? You're literally type 1 diabetic, 7 years old and you're obese. Like, what do you think's going to happen? Look at a fucking actuarial table.

[A]

Like, dude. It is sad though, if you think about like even like what happened to Biden. It's like being that old and being driven by kind of like the power drive until like your brain just falls apart. It's pretty fucking terrible.

[B]

I mean, I say it's sad, but it's also like pathetic and deeply ego maniacal and narcissistic and that at the end of the day, you know, that's what it takes to be a politician. Like, that's the truth. Is he, by the way, has been the same his entire life. So I talked about this book yesterday with Friedman called what It Takes is written in 1988. It's about the 1988 presidential campaign. Campaign. That's where Biden had that plagiarism scandal. He's been an egomaniacal narcissist, chip on his shoulder guy for his entire life. So you know what they say about when you get old is it just makes you more of what you already are. Like, you're just more, you're just. If you're already an arrogant fuck, like, you're just going to be more of an arrogant fuck when you're old.

[A]

It's so sad, man.

[B]

It's true.

[A]

Yeah, that's so sad. That was my overarching point with religion. It's like you need, I feel like as a society we need a vehicle for self transcendence so that you don't become a just, just 80 year old walking around demented, like trying to lead the country.

[B]

Yeah, it's. I mean, I, at the end of the day, that's like genuinely like self idolatry. He's like, I am the one. I will stop Donald Trump. I'M the most important figure. Nothing is bigger than me. I, you know, it's, it's pure narcissism. And he's chiefly responsible for both for being a terrible president, but also for the loss of the Democratic Party. It really, I mean, it's, it's crazy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If I were them, I would be freaking out. I'd be, I would, I would be so furious. I mean, nobody has fucked their party more than George, than Biden since George W. Bush and his handling of the Iraq war.

[A]

Yeah, for sure. What do you, what do you think the future of the Democratic Party is going to look? Because I thought the same thing. Like, dude, if they don't, like, I think they're going to need an outsider, they're going to need a Democratic Trump.

[B]

Yeah, that was my prediction. Not necessarily Democratic Trump, but if we're in an era. So for example, like Obama like rose from the ashes, right? Because you know, he was a no name senator. He gave it a great speech. No. 4, big fucking deal. Okay? Yeah. But then he came out of nowhere. He had anti war credentials and Harry Reid is actually the one who was like, you should run for president. He's like, you're not a good senator. He's like, you don't like it here. He's like, get out of here, go run for president. He's the first person who put that in Obama's mind, but with the rest of them, like if we look in the past, Bill Clinton also came out of nowhere in 92. We had 12 years of Republican rule. 1980, Reagan. It was Reagan and it was Bush and Clinton. I mean he was a no name governor from Arkansas, but he created this thing, the Democratic Leadership Committee, which like basically moved the Democratic Party much more to the right and made it more of like a neoliberal thing. And that's how he was able to win like a major victory in 92. So somebody will come. I think that person needs to come from the ashes though. I think anybody tainted by the stain of like Wokeism from the 2010s and the great awokening onward word on top of like the Biden and all the trans shit and all this, plus you know, this whole last decade has been a nightmare, right?

[A]

It collapsed in on itself and it.

[B]

Collapsed in and of itself. So anybody really tainted by that at the national political level, they're gonna have a tough time, in my opinion. That's why even though I think Gavin Newsom's very talented and I think that Josh Shapiro, Gretchen Whitmer, Pete Buttigieg and all these other people, I think that they, you know, they like to believe that they could overcome it and maybe. Right. Like, Trump could fuck everything up and he could be a nightmare. Right. In terms of his popularity and it'd be easy to beat him. Anybody could. But if. If he doesn't and if he governs Even reasonably well, 40, 50% approval rating, you're going to need somebody with, like, real political entrepreneurship and skills to be able to rise out of that.

[A]

Yeah. And they have. They kind of. The Republican side has a kind of like a. I feel like a deeper roster. They could. People they could tap that are also like, you know, like. Like rfk. He can, like, talk. He's not like, Like a total robot.

[B]

He's not Republican. Right. So he's. Whatever independence is. Yeah. He's an independent. He's endorsed Trump. Yes. Although I don't think RFK will ever run again.

[A]

I don't think he will. I don't think he will. But I'm saying they seem to have, like, a Tulsi Gabbard, like, they have, like, a deeper roster of people. Maybe that's just me because I'm biased, but it's like, maybe. I don't know if anyone, like you're saying, like, these, like, Newsome buddy gadgets is like, I really think they need a new person.

[B]

Absolutely. You need somebody who is totally untainted by the system. And that's real. That's what Obama was. That's what Bill Clinton was.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, the appetite for. Although I will say the appetite. The thing is about the Democratic base is now it's rich white people. And the thing is about rich white people is they don't really give a shit about a lot of stuff. They just want to win. Like, I'm serious. Like, they are just like, we want to win. They're like, oh, you need to say what? Okay, whatever. You know, like, say it. Just win. So it is a little different this time, because this time around, as whatever narrative they're sold about what will beat Trump, that's who they're going to nominate. That's why they nominated Biden. They didn't care what he stood for. They were like, we need something, somebody. We need Trump out of here. Yeah, that's what it's going to be like.

[A]

Bring out the dancing black ladies. They threw everything. They were like, Beyonce, Cardi B.

[B]

So were you as shocked as I was that they get paid? I had no idea. I had no idea.

[A]

I didn't know.

[B]

I was so naive. I Thought celebrities just did it because they supported them.

[A]

If they didn't get paid events because they're at the Diddy parties. So, like, you better. Like, you better show my W2.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's just so weird to be like.

[B]

We'Re gonna have dollars to Oprah. A million dollars.

[A]

Million bucks.

[B]

Dude, she's a billionaire. What the do you need a million dollars for? What are we doing?

[A]

I mean, it's a nice little treat. Yeah, sure. But we'll give you a bill.

[B]

She' don't you already support Kamala? Like, just. Just do it, you know, and that's the thing is I don't think they're getting paid to say something that they don't already believe, but if you already believe it, just do it for free. Like, why would you.

[A]

I don't think they believe it. You can't. You can't.

[B]

Maybe you're right.

[A]

You can't get. Like, there's no way. There's no. Like, you know, again, it's like, Republicans. I'm not like a big Republican guy, but I really, like, zoom in on, like, the liberal Democrat, like, the modern liberal Democrat type. It's like, I don't really see a coherent vision at all. It's. It's all. It's too bought in on the. The postmodernism, which is in itself is self contradictory and goes nowhere, definitely. So that's kind of what happened to them. They like, it was their. Like, Trump was the rights energizer battery pack. Theirs was like the postmodern racial power versus, you know, worldview.

[B]

Yeah, it was very. It's very odd, and it just.

[A]

It just literally collapses in on itself and it contradicts itself. Like, you know, there's no hierarchies. It's like, well, who do you prefer, Trump or Biden? Well, there's a. There are all that bullshit, but it's like, they all. They're gonna have. If I were a Democrat, like, leading the campaign, outsider candidate, and I would come by and be like, if you're a Trump supporter, I still love you, man. That's all they have to. That's all they have to do.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, the whole dictator fascist playbook that they ran this time, that was very stupid. You know, they did so. I don't know how they're gonna do it, man. I. I really don't. I have confidence that they will figure it out just because. Because people are too triumphalist. As in, I know. I was talking about the 2008. Obama wins.

[A]

Right?

[B]

They're like, we will never lose an election again. James Carville literally wrote a book called 40 More Years about how the Democrats will be in power forever. Demographics are destiny. It's over. It's a white party. And now Donald Trump has won two out of the last three presidential elections. The last one, he won the popular vote, and he won Latino men. He basically completed a racial realignment of the US politics. Imagine going back, you know, to 2008 and telling me that. That was only 16 years ago, man.

[A]

And Obama lost his juice when he, they, like, they trotted him out to be like, go yell at young black guys. Like, dude, it just is like, you.

[B]

Sneering just like, that's. I look, I, I have Obama derangement syndrome. Like, I hate Obama. And like, not for the reasons that, like, white boomers hate him. We're like, he's destroying this country.

[A]

I was working construction when he got elected, and it was a somber day for, like, white, yeah, like, boomer age white guys. They come into work and be like, they, they were just mad he was a black guy. That was it. It, it were just. They came in and they were going. They were so. It was kind of funny.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But I, I do agree. I, I, I think there's something very sinister about wrapping yourself in that, like, cultural identity.

[B]

And I call him the Instagram president. He, he's this, you know, he's just this cultural elite. He's everything that he's supposed, supposedly stood against. And the way that he governed, you know, he came and he was supposed to end the Iraq war and the financial crisis he was supposed to solve. He fucked both of those up. We had a horrible economic depression for the, you know, the entire period. I mean, look at it. If you want to look at the wealth inequality, the explosion, the lack of wage growth, that all happened under Obama. He got lucky that Mitt Romney ran against him. All the ingredients to be able to beat him were there. Romney just ran a terrible campaign. And then immigration in 2014, he overinterprets his mandate and he's like, you know what? Fuck this. I'm gonna do whatever I want on immigration. And he goes all in and he does daca. And honestly, that is responsible for Donald Trump. Because what he did is he both polarized the liberal base on the issue of immigration, which was amnesty first, maybe border security sometime in the future. But he also energized the Republicans who were like, oh, my God, when they have power, they're going to mass legalize literally millions of illegal immigrants and that it leads to the 2014. That 2014 executive order leads directly. One year later, Trump comes down the escalator and says, no, we're going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it. So there are direct consequences for these actions. And immigration is the number one reason, in my opinion, why Donald Trump was elected. Like, no question.

[A]

What do you think about the population collapse that's going to come when all like the boomers go?

[B]

I think.

[A]

You don't think, you don't think we're going to have to be just importing people?

[B]

No, and I think that's a very convenient explanation. I mean, look at a certain point too.

[A]

How if the numbers dip, how's it, how's it not real?

[B]

No, what I'm saying is that the idea that first of all that we're gonna have population collapse and we're like Japan is just like, not true. But there's, yeah, there first of all. But the second is there's this presumption that the only way to do it is to import like basically like second class citizens from South America.

[A]

Do you ever read the Next Hundred Years by George Freedman?

[B]

I have not read that book. I think I'm familiar with the thesis.

[A]

That's his big thing.

[B]

So I mean, this is a very popular way that people justify like mass migration. First of all, like there's another way which is you could try both economic and social incentives to change the picture. But the other thing is there's something like really sick about this idea that the only way to like the birth rate itself is the only thing that matters and not like what the actual makeup of the United States is. And all the secondary and the third, the secondary tertiary effects of what mass illegal immigration like, does to the US economy, to US society. It makes a mockery of like US Law. And like the entire way our immigration system works is just totally fucked up. Like people don't understand. Like our immigration system is totally unique in the western world. The entire rest of the western world has basically merit based immigration. We are the only country still left on family based chain migration. So the way what that means is that, so I'm a US Citizen, right? And so because I was born here, I was born here in Bryan, Texas. Texas. But the way it would have worked is my parents who immigrated here, their family members have a preference in the US immigration system. If they were able to sponsor someone to come to America. It doesn't matter whether those family members are, are they college educated. Like, who are these people? Right? Like, do you Have a degree. Like what's your job? Like, are you gonna support yourself? That makes sense. If you migrate to Australia, they're like, they have a points based immigration system. So they're like a college degree. Cool. Oh, you speak English. Much higher up at the list for sure. Right. That's how it should work. It should be merit based. It should be based upon. Are you going to benefit the America now people get very squirrely about this because it is contrary to the way that what I talked about earlier, the 1800s, mass immigration.

[A]

Yeah, that was my mom's dad. Okay. But oh no, it was the 1900s. Right.

[B]

But here's a good quote that I heard. We don't make immigration policy for our grandparents, we do it for our grandchildren. So just because some. So in the 1800s we had what, industrial revolution. We needed a shit ton of basically just like bodies. Dumbass shovel. Oh, you can swing a shovel. Cool East. You're fucking Slovenian. Who cares?

[A]

Whatever.

[B]

But that's not how the US economy works. Yeah, the US economy is a service based economy. Our manufacturing jobs, our high tech manufacturing, like you need to be able to speak English to function in America. 12 million people illegally entered this country in the last four years. The 27% of them don't have a high school diploma in Spanish, by the way. So they're barely literate in Spanish. 20 something percent of them have barely completed, completed a high school education by Latin American standards or wherever they came from. And then only a small portion are actually college educated. So look, be real, look at the stats. What is that going to cost the United States? Are they bad people? Absolutely not. But it makes a mockery of this idea of first of all of just order. Like in terms of being able to just come here no matter who you are, you just raise your hand and fake say I fear for my life. Yeah, you're in economic migrant, let's all be honest. And if you interview these people, they'll tell you the same. They're like giving me for a job. I don't begrudge you. That's fine. But the point is, is that you can't allow that system to be in place where basically the cost of the bill of all this is going to come down to us. So we need to dramatically shift to an actual merit based immigration system. That's number one. But two, what we really need to do is also consider after that period of massive immigration, of European migration, we had social, social chaos in this country. We actually were becoming like ethnic. There was a whole war over this Teddy Roosevelt gave a famous speech. There is no hype. We are done with hyphenated America. And hyphenated me, like, you know, like I'm a Slovenian American. He was like, no, we're all Americans. We need to be done with hyphenation. And that led to a complete shutdown basically of U.S. immigration from the 1920s up until the Immigration Naturalization act of 1965. That immigration moratorium actually allowed for assimilation where the term white became popular. Because it's like, as you know, if you read a book, it ask white Protestants. Were Irish people white in 1920? Absolutely not. Okay, like Lithuanian. They're like, you're Lithuanian, you're not white. Okay, that was bad. Just so we're all aware, that was bad. And so the change in that, we need to go through that again. Like we need to completely change the way that we've. Our foreign born population has never been as high than previous from the 19, I think the late 1900s, right around when we had the same immigration moratorium. We're signing up for the same levels of problems where our heterogeneous population is just way too removed from each other. We don't have a common civic understanding or any of this. And the truth is, is that if you just keep importing 1 million people for a year per year, and then the vast majority of them are illegal, no disorderly process us, like, dude, this just breaks the civic foundation of the country. Like, it's just not gonna work. And I say this to somebody whose parents came from India, like, but that's my point is I'm here now, I'm a citizen. Like, I have to care about my children, my grandchildren, what country are they gonna grow up in?

[A]

Yeah, and it's also, it's, it's like, so it is kind of a thing to be like, well, since your, you know, parents came, you have to decide. It's like change my mind.

[B]

Exactly. By the way, they left the third world so I could live in the first world and I can make up my own mind.

[A]

It's amazing. Yeah.

[B]

The best part of coming to America and to the west, anybody who is from like a western or a non western country will know this. In the non, in non western countries, you're kind of like told what to do. There's a path and there's, you know, there's a class, rigid class system and there's like, this is how we live our lives. And like that's the best part about coming here, man. You can do whatever you want. You can say, whatever. The social mobility here is better than anywhere else in the entire world, dude.

[A]

And that's. That was the problem. I went to school for social work. Like, when I went to. I got my graduate degree in social work, and. And you were like, if you brought up social mobility, the teachers would thrill, like, be like, that's a myth.

[B]

No, no, it's not.

[A]

No, it's not. I was literally like, that's. No, it's not. They're like, that's a myth.

[B]

Does wealth give you privilege? Absolutely. But actually, I think I read that people who are born in the upper quintile, if you look at the. Across generations, after like, three generations, their kids are usually back down shirt sleeves.

[A]

The shirt sleeves.

[B]

Yeah, shirt sleeve. Exactly.

[A]

It doesn't have money. Extreme money has a degenerative effect. It like, it's obviously, it's incredible, you know, bounty to be born a ton of money. But, dude, it like, kind of warps people big.

[B]

One of my favorite books is the Fall of the House of Vanderbilt. And it's exactly about this. And it's basically, I think, a hundred years after Cornelius Vanderbilt died, his generations, not a single one of them was a millionaire. Not one. And the first Vanderbilt after Cornelius Vanderbilt to make anything of himself. Himself was one of the only Vanderbilts not to be born with money. His name is Anderson Cooper. He is the first Vanderbilt member of the Vanderbilt family to not be born with money. The first one who was broke, who made anything out of himself.

[A]

What the.

[B]

Yes. Yeah, that's it. Anderson Cooper is the first successful Vanderbilt in like 200 years.

[A]

Since Cornelius.

[B]

Since Cornelius. The Commodore. Commodore.

[A]

I didn't. I've heard he's a Vanderbilt, but it's.

[B]

Always like, he's a CIA Was Gloria Vanderbilt. Yeah. And, yeah, I mean, you read their stories. The money just destroyed them. It destroyed their family. All of them just became like degenerate dilettantes who became. I mean, they were addicted to alcohol and drugs, and they would blow it on these gigantic houses, and they got caught up in the British rat race and they all became Dollar Princess. I love the term Dollar Princess.

[A]

What's a Dollar Princess?

[B]

A Dollar Princess is in the 1800, American industrialists were filthy rich, and the way to have social mobility is they were like, we need to get our daughters married to English lords. But the English lords were broke, and so they were like, oh, we'll marry your kids. So Winston Churchill's mother, she was a Dollar Princess. Jenny Churchill. And they. They hit the Duke of Marlboro. I forget exactly what his name. He was another Churchill. I think it was Randolph Churchill. He married one. One of Cornelius Vanderbilt's, I think a granddaughter, a great granddaughter. Same thing. It bailed him out so he literally. He could rebuild his house. And after they got married, he was like, by the way, I don't give a. About you at all. He's like, I literally don't care. He's like, I married you for your money. He's like, I'm just gonna go do whatever I want to do. Like, I'm just gonna go live my life. Yeah, that's kind of. No, it's horrible. It's horrible. Her life ended up. It was a nightmare, unfortunately for her.

[A]

Yeah. Well, it's also very rigid. I know if you have generational wealth, it's like you're. You have to. You can get cut out of the will. Then you're.

[B]

Yes, there's stuff like, there's all that. And then, you know, you have that house, the Biltmore down in. In North Carolina, the largest house literally ever built in the United States. It was built by a Vanderbilt. You know, you read about them. Like, this guy would have, like, seven marriages in the course of his life.

[A]

Dude, I. I did work in Arlen Spector's estate. He was dead, and it was, I think, one of.

[B]

Senator from Pennsylvania.

[A]

Yes. Yeah, I painted this out. I, like, really. My friend. Friend helped paint his house.

[B]

You're asking about jfk, huh? About jfk?

[A]

They were dead. He was dead. I should have asked him. But that's why I think he got a nice little estate. But the dude, it was. It was just like his surviving family members, and it was for real, like, sad, man. Like, we were in there, like, using oil primer, and, like, the lady came in was just like, this smells like. Yeah, we had it. Yeah, it's right. Oil paint. She's like, well, I have a party coming in. We're like, okay. Yeah, dude. She started spraying. Just walking around as if you were like an inanimate. She would just spray perfume in the room. And if you were staying standing there, she would just go, like, right in your face. My mom. My mom was a maid for the Duponts, and she said it was the same thing. She was a maid at the house of the guy who was like a. It became like a psycho killer wrestler guy.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

She was down there and she said it was like. She was like. I remember being like. It was a very sad. It was just like a sad vibe in the house.

[B]

I mean, after 100 years. Yeah. Basically Destroyed them all. And it is very sad because most of them the burden of. And it's not just them. I read another book about the. The Astra family family. I mean, John Jacob Astor was like one of the first like real millionaires in the United. He was a slumlord in Manhattan. He was like this Dutch slum lord. He was like, hey, yeah. He's like, how many of you immigrants can I charge $20 today? But. And then. And you know, and his family, like they become these titans of society and all of that. And one of his great grandson, I think died on Titanic. He was the one. He was the richest man on the titan Titanic and he died on Titanic. His 19 year old wife who just impregnated. She got off, she had a baby. He became the Titanic baby. And because, yeah, because he was literally in his mother's womb whenever she was. She was saved off of the Titanic. But basically after him and he was by the way, ended up being like some degenerate playboy, you know, it's just like, didn't really live up to it.

[A]

That is the funny thing you can achieve. It is very funny though to be like, you can achieve at the highest level. Devil. Just so your grandson can just like crash a boat while he's like coked up, right?

[B]

Yeah. I mean, one day it happens.

[A]

All blow up on a river.

[B]

The Rockefellers, you know, John, John D. Rock, he was kind of a psycho actually. But his, his son actually was relatively successful. He seemed like a good guy. His grand. His son's Nelson Rockefeller. He the vice presidential nominee for the Republicans Governor of New York. But after that, you know, things start to drift off and now we're in the, you know, the fifth and sixth generation. You're like, who happened to the Kennedy family, dude? You know, it's like the longer you go down the Kennedy family, you're like, is there anybody impressive in the. I saw JFK's grandson going around the DNC when I was there, like filming Tiktoks and stuff. And I was like, bro, Ah, that's.

[A]

The kiss of death.

[B]

John F. Kennedy's grandson. I know, I want to shake him. I'm like, live up to your goddamn father, your grandfather.

[A]

It's got to be a crazy family to be part of.

[B]

Oh yeah. I just want to be like, if your great grandfather, father, the patriarch could see you, he'd be sick. It was like looking around, just dancing. Yeah. He's like taking selfies like, hey guys. Like, you suck, dude.

[A]

This Lady Gaga, like, yeah.

[B]

I was like, dude, this guy blows. He's a dandy.

[A]

It is, it's absolute dandy behavior. Yeah, it just does suck because it's like you want to do well, but it's like if you kind of like, you know, if you just try to go for the absolute top. Yeah, it does. Like if without a vision of some sort, you just end up just kind of like.

[B]

I think that anybody, anybody who comes into even like a modest amount of money, like, you probably need to do some serious thinking. You do. You really need to be like, okay, like, what is my life going to look like? Look, children.

[A]

Like, this is why people need to sell a lot of weed when they're 20.

[B]

Oh, really? I did this.

[A]

I had the hero's journey. I came into like, I would make like $4,000 a week and just be like, dude, I was killing it. Well, 4,000, I lost all of it.

[B]

4,000 times 52 is how much. That's 200 something thousand dollars as like.

[A]

A 25 year old dude. And I got to like, I got.

[B]

You know, even paying taxes. Yeah, I pay taxes.

[A]

No, you get the ego inflation. And then like I got by the rug swept out from under me. So that was one of the best experiences of my life. To lose all, to get like the ego pump and then to have it just ripped away from you. Because otherwise. Yeah, dude, if, like, if you, if you catch that, like it gives you the thing, like when things are going well, I have an understanding. Like, yeah, you think you're a boss. They can definitely not go well very quickly.

[B]

Oh, absolutely. Also, I would just say I've met a lot of people who are like super wealthy and all of them are pretty weird. Like every person I know, every person I've ever met with a hundred million more net worth, I'm like, dude, you're a weirdo.

[A]

Well, you can't connect with everybody. You can't talk about, like, if you even broach certain subjects, 80% of people are going to be like, you want to know funny. I was talking nice and I was.

[B]

Like, yeah, you know when you're in an airport? And he's like, oh, I haven't been in an Airport in 20 years. And I was like, whoa. I was like, oh, because you fly private. I was like, I've never even been on a private plane. I was like, that's a crazy. That was, it was just so casual. He's like, I haven't been in an Airport in 20 years.

[A]

I know.

[B]

I was like, whoa, okay. What a life. Yeah. Like what does that Even look like.

[A]

Yeah, dude, I. I was talking to somebody one time, excited about, like, flying first class. And he was like, dude, my kids have never not flown private. And I was like, I didn't think about that.

[B]

I was like, yeah, but that. That probably really fucks them up. And what are they gonna do then? Whenever they have to fly Economy either.

[A]

They'll be stoked. Oh, here's the thing. I remember I grew up in, like, a upper middle class suburb. So, like, I moved to West Philly and I was in the hood, and I was like, this is so cool. And then. So maybe they'll just be on an airplane. Like, wow.

[B]

Yeah. But, I mean, you know, sometimes you're. What is it? Like C on Southwest, and you're, like, trying to go for the middle seat or whatever. You're like, my life sucks.

[A]

Yeah, true. That's.

[B]

That's talking about plane. And now I'm talking about, you know, this. Your northeast guy. Mega bus. Like, when you're taking, like, a midnight mega bus to New York City, the cheapest one, and you're like, well, well, I'll take a bag. And when I get there, like, changing a bathroom and megabyte.

[A]

We did the. There was a Chinatown.

[B]

Oh, the Chinatown.

[A]

There's a pregnant lady driving it. You're like, what the. But, dude.

[B]

Yeah, it's stomachs up against the steering wheel.

[A]

Yeah, for real, dude. There was real pregnant lady driving it before.

[B]

Drug addicts are, like, freaking out in the back, and someone's like, hey, can y'all keep it down back there? Shut your goddamn mouth.

[A]

Yeah, that is true. It is. It does kind of set the bar too high. And then it's like, you. All you can ever do is be disappointed in life or, you know, like. I guess, you know, I did eventually become very disillusioned with life in the hood. I was like, this is sad. This is so sad. It's so. Dude, it's real. So sad because it's.

[B]

The systems are, like, designed to just keep everybody down. And, I mean, look, they have individual responsibility for sure, but, like, also the way the entire thing is designed, it's like they keep it contained. Nobody cares. Everyone just wants to pretend like it's over there and it's.

[A]

Dude, it's real. Like, it's like. I remember me. I. I bought a house in West Philly with my brother when I was, like, 21. It was like, the house. Dude, the house was $27,000. I lived in there.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

Yeah, it's pretty. It was pretty awesome.

[B]

But, yeah, did you hang on to it? Did you sell it?

[A]

We sold it and then it got knocked down. To me it was structurally it had a tree growing through the basement. It was bad, but the. But I remember like going into like my neighbors house and they were like. It's funny because when you live there like there are a lot of like, like you know, when you grow up, like I grew up my parents watching Fox News. It's just the news being like black guys are up to no good again. It's like so you get this like skewed picture and then you meet the individuals and you're like damn, these are like some of the nicest people. Then there's obviously there's people like just doing monstrous behavior. But I remember like the first time I walked into somebody's like their. My neighbor's house. It's like visually jarring because it's like everything's just up like every. There's no symmetry that everything's built up. And it's like I remember like being t. You know, there just like bugs.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Just being like dude, that's it was like just crazy.

[B]

I know.

[A]

But then it's like that's why you have to do good. It's. That's like the brutal reality behind all of like the, you know, let's save everyone political messaging. It's like dude, nobody. You have to bail yourself out at the end of the day. You just have to sad. It's not fair.

[B]

Yeah, I look at it.

[A]

You have to do it two ways.

[B]

As in you. We have to of course like design and move systems to create like a quality of opportunity. But you also have to have a responsibility given the circumstances. For example, like I don't know, any money, anything, anything that you're working with. I'll often be like, what a bullshit. For example. And you guys probably have this too. I, you know, Crystal and I co own our shows. We're small business owners too and we have to deal with all the small bit and all of the paperwork and all the accounting and all the behind. It is mind numbing. It's stupid. It makes no sense. It's genuinely not fair because these major corporations and all these other people get all of these crazy tax breaks and we're sitting here trying to figure this stuff out and it sucks all of our time and it's super stressful. And I could just be like, oh, it's not fair. And it's actually not fair. The people who are small business owners, you get fucked. Like that's the reality. Yeah, but you just have to do it right? So I'm like, okay, I'm just going to sit here. I'm going to spend 10 hours of my goddamn time learning the ins and outs of all of this to make sure I'm not getting ripped off on my account.

[A]

Why don't you just pay an account? Oh, you double check the account.

[B]

You got to double check, man. You're. I'm like, you. You know, Patreon and all this. I want to be a good steward of other people's money. Like, I don't. Pissing people's. It's not nice. You can't do that to people.

[A]

That makes sense. Yeah.

[B]

I mean, it's a serious responsibility when you're like, hey, pay me $10 a month. Like, it's not a fucking joke.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You're like, actually, you have to become a steward of that money. For real.

[A]

Hold on. Give their money, man. That's. Yeah, but no, I agree. I agree. You got to give them something. You got to do something. You can't.

[B]

You're working for them, and you can't just, you know, it's also money. It's like, look, I grew up Indian, so, you know, we're fun. We. Money. It means something, you know, you're taught from a very young age. And I don't care how much money you have, like, a hundred dollars will always be a hundred dollars to me. Exactly. What I know what it means and what it does. And, like, it's still.

[A]

It's funny because it's in. Where I'm from, in G Valley, Pennsylvania, there had. There's been, like, a massive influx of the Indian population. All. Everyone I know, like, people have, like, landscaping companies. They're like brothers. They're, like, just haggling on the lawn. He's like, their lawns are this high.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They're like, I'm not paying. It's like. My cousin's like, bro, they haggle me to death. It's really funny.

[B]

Yeah, him. But. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

That's what he gets. Yeah, but, dude, it is a. Yeah, it is. Like, it's one of those things. I feel like Indian. It's like they were out of the race conversation for a long time.

[B]

Of course we are. Yeah. We're. We're the inconvenient minority because Asians in general are completely invisibleized by us. Racial discourse time.

[A]

I mean, look, you guys are killing it, dude. Yeah.

[B]

We're the richest people in America. It's awesome. Yeah, I think it's cool. I Mean, I mean, I'll say this. It's not really fair because Indians in America are like so called, like the twice selected elite. And so why do they say that? Because India is a billion people. Okay. But the caste system where Brahmans, which is the top caste. Oh, I know those people. Oh yeah, so you do know Brahmans. 40%. I think it's only like 1 or 2% of India. My math could be wrong. So Indians, but you know, 40%. So 1 or 2% of India, but 40% of Indian Americans are Brahman. So that means 40% of the people here are part of the top 1 to 2% already of the Indian caste system.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Yeah, because they're doctors, engineers, lawyers, people who are highly educated. So part of Brahman culture. That's where I come from too, by the way. But no, but I'm saying our family has generations. Makes sense. You wouldn't be of revering like education, family. We don't drink alcohol. We're like, this is how we live our life. Our life is about family. It's about furthering the next generation. Individualism really as a concept is not part of that. And that's actually why I think it meshes really well with America is America will drag you to individualism. America will drag you to a little bit of consumerism. A little bit of you can be whoever you want to be. But the backstop that you have is like, no, no, no, no. This is not what we do. Like money. We don't spend it on stupid. When we have money, we spend it on books, on education. So the. My upbringing was like, the budget is limitless for anything educational. The budget is like zero for anything stupid, for around. And no offense, white people, but I have noticed you have proclivities for new cars and for nice.

[A]

Check my ride, bro, check.

[B]

And nice kitchens. And you know, you'll be. And so I'll be like, so your kids got 25, $5,000 in debt and you've got a new fucking kitchen. Interesting. In our culture, that shit does not fly. Yeah, but that's why I would say Indians are very successful in America because it's like we're. We're both obviously highly educated. That's number one. But two, I really think the culture is a huge aspect of it is the way that you revere money. You think about family. There will. There are no Indian parents out there who have the money, who are not paying for their child's college education. It's just, it would never happen. And in white fans Families, there's this weird hyper into the like, they got a this like boomer mentality of like, they've got to figure it out. Because back in my day I'm like, well, have you looked at inflation?

[A]

Like what the. I know.

[B]

And you know, like, well, they'll get it when I die. And I'm like, yeah, but it's actually way more useful to help your child out when you're. They're 18, 19 to 25. Those are the foundational years of your life. So that was, it's a mindset difference.

[A]

That was the one. No, no, dude, I, I appreciate you saying that. That was the one thing. Thing my parents were actually really good about is like, don't go into debt if you ever avoid it at all costs. And also keep a low profile. Like, don't, don't try to. My dad does spazz. He like, he'll get. He has like phases where he has like 57 bicycles in his basement. He's doing. But they were very. And now my parents weren't like educated really. They, you know, they went to high school and they got out. That was it. But they were very like. That was the one thing. I think that's the thing I'm gonna copy off of them. They like sent us to like an all boys Catholic high school, paid for our college. And it's like, that's the one thing with my kids. It's like we're. I'm looking for schools for my, my daughter right now. And it's like I was telling my wife, I'm like, is it your mom's big on. A lot of people I know are like, the public school is just as good. And it's like, I don't think so. Genuinely don't think so.

[B]

It's like, I'm assuming you live in a nice area. It probably.

[A]

Yeah, it's pretty nice.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, a lot of Indians. A lot of Indians.

[B]

You're probably fine then, man.

[A]

But that, But I went to public school. Yeah, no, I, but no, the public schools around me are. It's like, it's newly nice. So the public schools are. But it's like you compare it to a private school school and it's like, I mean, you've done well.

[B]

I'll give you two cases. I'll give you the case for.

[A]

My point is. Sorry, before I cut you off. My point is if you, if you can't afford it, you should spend money on your kids education. That's all I was trying to say.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so in that case, it's interesting. But more what I meant in terms of that is sometimes people will be like, I don't know. Like, I knew a girl who wanted to take a, like, a graduate test, like, study for the gre, and she was like, oh, my parents won't pay for my green test, you know, thing, but they have the money to pay for it. They're like, you have to work to go for your GRE test prep. I'm like, what? Like, who are your parents? Yeah. In my head, I'm like, that doesn't even fly. Like, it's just, you know. But if I was like, hey, dad. So if I was like, dad, I need $5,000 for a GRE prep course. And I was like, 23 or whatever. Be like, absolutely. But if I was like, I need $5,000 to go hang out in San Tropez or what? It's like. He's like, what?

[A]

Like, no way. No, that does make sense.

[B]

That's what I'm talking about.

[A]

Well, in a lot of the suburbs, like, that I'm from, I've learned that many of the families are just debt. It's just like the whole thing runs on a giant balloon of debt.

[B]

And it's like, kind of Americans are obsessed with debt. Americans are obsessed with consumerism. And, you know, I can't. My dad, when he was making good money, was rolling around in the 1988 Mazda with no air conditioning in 150 degrees. It's such a pieces with his windows rolled down. And he refused to get it. He eventually sold it for $1,000 after he put 200,000 miles on it. So it's like, that's where I come from. And it's like, do you need a new Raptor truck? Texas? Probably not. It's like these guys. No offense, but if you look at the average car payment, Texas is the highest average car payment in the nation because all of these idiots are rolling around in trucks. You don't need a brand new truck. Trucks are like, $80,000 raptor. It's ridiculous. Like, sorry, you need a Toyota Camry or a Hyundai or like, any of these other car. They're great cars. They'll get you. So I am actually a big proponent of Dave Ramsey for the vast majority of people. I think Ramsey hits what you were just saying. I think his, like, common sense approach, if 95% of people followed their life that way, they would be better off. He preaches, like, avoid debt. You know, don't use credit cards and all of this. I personally Am a big credit card point fiend, but, you know, I paid my balance and all this stuff. But here's the thing. I think what he gets at is what we were talking about with impulse control and all that. It's. Look, look at the stats. People can't control themselves. They're only paying the minimums. They're taking out 35, 40, 50% debt or whatever on their APR HELOC loans. And all this he has taught me about financial products I didn't even know existed. I'm like, wait, so people out there are taking two mortgages and then another mortgage on top of that one? How do you sleep at night?

[A]

Dude? It's insane.

[B]

Oh, my. My God. I actually cannot imagine. So if for anybody out there who's listening, if you listen to Dave and you actually take, at the very least, like, take some of that advice to heart, you know, the number one thing is budget, too. No matter how much money you make, you still need a budget. And the reason why is you just need to know where your money is going and you need to be conscientious about every dollar that you spend. So, like, you were just saying, like, you need. You and your wife need to sit down and make a choice and be like, we're sending our kid to private school. That means this is our nut. We need X, Y, and Z amount per month. This is how it looks like. And we're saving. And this is what it looks like with.

[A]

I'm still. I have an open mind right now. I'm like, I'm. I've looked at like four schools, and it's like, I've noticed a huge difference between. But it's like, if I see a public school that works, I would go. I don't. I don't like one or the other.

[B]

But I went to both, so I can make the case. So I was very lucky. So I grew up in College Station. I went to public school for the first 16 years of my life, my last years of high school, my parents. Parents, we moved to Qatar and I got to go to a very fancy private school. They didn't. It was part of the deal.

[A]

Like an international.

[B]

The American school of Doha. Right.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So I went from a school where probably the median income of the parent was like, let's say like $40,000 to a school where the medium income of the parent was probably like $300,000.

[A]

Yeah, like an elite school.

[B]

It was. It was an outrageously nice school. And we, like, we were flying for school trips. Like, everybody there, their parents Work for Exxon. And dude, that was one of the.

[A]

Schools we looked at. Like, we're Gonna send your 4th grader to France for a week. I was like, what the.

[B]

I was like, no, that's what my last years of high school were like. And I will tell you, I definitely loved it. I loved it. But I would worry that if I had grown up in that environment and anybody out there. If you've ever interacted with people who are in that bubble, there's a lot of downside that, man. Like, that's when you were talking about the first class thing. We were on a school trip once, and one of the kids had never flown economy before, and we were all flying economy together. He was like 17 years old.

[A]

What the is that?

[B]

He had never been in economy class. He only ever phoned first. And frankly, he was a pampered little bitch. You know, it's like. And I. The people like that, like, there is. There is something important. And I think about it too, where, you know, about the people that I grew up with. I didn't even love them that much, I'll be honest with you. But there was. It was. It was important. I got to interact with people from all across different walks of life. I think public education is very important. And I actually think at a young age too, you know, I think in high school, I could make a really good case. If you have the money to go to private school. If you look at the stats, private schools send the vast majority of their kids to Ivy League and to other schools, especially if that's what you want for your child. But K, through what? Middle school, it's not really about education. It's about socialization.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so for socialization purposes, I don't really want my children, just me personally, like, to be growing up in a box bubble. And in that bubble, like, I. I've spent enough time now in elite circles that I can see how dangerous that it really can be to the mind and. And to how that person can eventually use that privilege in others. And first of all, they're over interpreting their own success like this idea. Like, they'll be like, oh, we're doing pretty good. I'm like, you are not doing. Yeah, I'm doing good. You're not doing good. Like, you have not done anything thing. And dude, it is.

[A]

It is weird, man. That's. That's the kind of the thing I've been struggling with. It's like, you know, because I don't want to be like, get them older and be like, what the. You could have sent me to a nicer school. And I'm like, I don't want you.

[B]

To be a. Yeah, but you can also just track each of your children. And, like, what if them. One of them is real? Like, there are different types of schools. There's magnet schools, there's math schools. There's sports, there's drama. There's, like, all these other ones. Like, you gotta. What I would do is I would be like, okay, first of all, again, K through 8 is about. It's not about education. Actually, a lot of that education, my man, is on you.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

If anything, you're trying to pay somebody else to teach your kids how to read better. That's. That's about you.

[A]

You gotta do.

[B]

You need to step up in the house.

[A]

I'm. Dude, what are you talking about? Dude, we spelled her name.

[B]

That's what I'm saying. We. You gotta be keeping that up every day.

[A]

Tutors and after school.

[B]

Not even tutors. You seem to be engaged. You need to be making sure that you're sitting there and making stuff. Is this stuff done? Because that's where the parent really is. Is the most important. Of course. You know, middle school, high school. When we start talking about SATs. And that's when I think education and the quality of teacher can really make an impact on them. But that's. By the time they're starting to become, like, formed as a human being.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

May have an idea of what they want to do, but those initial years, I think it's really just about learning how to, like, be a person in the world. About how to interact with others. Following rule. Like, what does it mean to, like, live in a society and be in, like, this ordered.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Thing that we call. So that's the purpose of school, man. Like, at the end of the day. That's why homeschool people are fucking weirdos. Can we all be honest? Have you ever met a normal one? They're freaks. All right. It's true, man. Like, it's true.

[A]

I know. I know. People who are homeschooling right now, they're be pissed at you. Dude.

[B]

I don't care. I mean, every.

[A]

We met one homeschooled.

[B]

Sometimes they do it in pods and they're okay.

[A]

We met a homeschool kid in my baseball team, and, like, we drove him to tears.

[B]

Yeah, you should.

[A]

It. It was.

[B]

And he deserved it. Yeah. Honest. He deserved it. Dude.

[A]

There is a huge aspect of the socialization. For sure.

[B]

Yeah. It's important.

[A]

For sure. But that it's like, with the public schools, like, what are they getting socialized into? Then you look at all the other they had going on with, like, you know, like, when. Like, don't tell your parents. If you want to trans, come to us and we'll send you.

[B]

That's fair.

[A]

That was the. That was free.

[B]

You're living here in Texas, dude. What are you worried about?

[A]

You, actually, dude, these schools, dude, now all this. I'm in Austin.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So the schools are like, dude, they're pretty. They go pretty hard with that. And that's the stuff that I'm like. But I don't know. I'm.

[B]

What about the rest of the burbs around it? Round Rock, Fredericksburg, all those other places can't be there. I mean, I grew up around. Around here, man. Like, that's those people. There's some Bible belt.

[A]

You've been going for a long time, dude.

[B]

Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

[A]

You left, bro.

[B]

Yeah, that's. That's your guess.

[A]

That's. That's kind of. Yeah. I don't know. I went through a wall. I won't buy. We can get out of here soon. How long have we done, Josh? Damn, dude. We almost did a Rogan. Yeah, I'll let you out here in a second, but.

[B]

Sweet.

[A]

I was laughing. We. Today we toured a. Because again, it's like, I'm going to public schools. I'm just trying to find, like, I just. That's the one thing I will try to give my kids the best in education.

[B]

Well, you should. I mean, look, there's nothing wrong with doing private school.

[A]

I will say today. So. Sorry. I was thinking that I went to Waldorf school today. My favorite familiar.

[B]

I know. I know. I'm familiar with what it is.

[A]

Dude. I've never seen anything like that in my life. And it was like, almost. I. Theoretically, I'm like. It's all the stuff I like. I like. And I saw the reality of it, and I was like, no, it was just, like, almost creepy.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

There was a There. At one point. There's one. There's one dude in the tour. No matter what the person said, he would go.

[B]

Go.

[A]

Oh, that's so important. And, like, at one point. At one point, they were like, we have climbing trees. We have trees. We don't climb. Those are the climbing trees. And he goes, oh, yes. And then they were in another room, and they're like, for math, we have a tactile, sensory aspect where we have these marbles and they're actually counting the mar. And the guy literally over marbles goes, oh, yes. I was like, dude, would you shut the up?

[B]

That's so weird.

[A]

There becomes a point of it where.

[B]

It is like, there are some millennials.

[A]

It's like a fake savior. Like, we did the entire Odyssey school play in fourth grade. It's like, yeah, all right, dude. Like, who's this?

[B]

Millennial trends, like the Waldorf. I don't. I need to look more into. I'm not 100%.

[A]

I think they do Well, I think it has, like. But go ahead. I'm sorry.

[B]

Well, I was going to say gentle parenting is the one that I've become familiar with this millennial trend of being like. They don't say the word no.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Everything is about redirection. And the Indian in me is like, how can you possibly turn out like a well formed adult? Like, actually a huge. Well, I would say majority of adulthood is learning how to deal with the consequences of the word no. That's what you want, a job? Fuck you.

[A]

No, there's a giant fuck. You know, there's a giant. No. Hovering over your entire life.

[B]

Yeah. It's really like you're like. Or like, oh, you want to go on a date. It's like, what are 99% of these women going to tell you? No, absolutely.

[A]

I know.

[B]

You're a loser, actually. Yes.

[A]

Yeah. I go back, so it's like I grew up in like the rigorous old school. Like, you have, you get in trouble, you get hit, all that stuff. I do think that's not a good idea to do, probably. I think, I think it's genuinely. It's like, you know, it's. I. I don't think it's the end of the world. Especially if you're not like getting drunk and like coming in for no reason. If there's like a rhyme and reason to it, it's not the worst thing. But I do think the punishing physically makes you as a kid. Like, I'm not going to tell my parents anything. I don't want to get smacked.

[B]

No, but they need consequences.

[A]

They do need consequence.

[B]

Right. Like, you need to take away the things that they like. Or be like, you're in the silence treatment or stuff. Like, I. I do. I think consequences are really important because, man, when you get shielded from it and honestly.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, even. Even I remember like that first time when you're 22 years old and you graduate from college and you're actually out on your own and you really are like, you're like, oh, my God. Like, this is this sucks. Like, you feel like sometimes you make a bad decision and you're sitting there, you know, and you're like, holy. And this is on me. And I'm by myself right now. Nobody's going to bail you out right now.

[A]

I'm telling you the worst. The worst possible is when you're making bad decisions. And it's paying off because eventually it all hits you and you go, oh. And it comes for everybody, dude. And you go, oh, man. The older you get, you go, there's no way I gotta live my way through this now. And it's like, bro, dude, thank you so much for coming. I can talk to you forever. I can talk to you forever.

[B]

I really enjoyed it. This is actually pretty fun, dude.

[A]

Thank you, man. Appreciate you.

[B]

Thank you.