Episode 3119 - The Scott Adams School 03/20/26

Summary

Podcast Summary: Real Coffee with Scott Adams – Episode 3119

“The Scott Adams School – 03/20/26”
Date: March 20, 2026
Theme: Exploring world news and current events through a persuasion filter, honoring Scott Adams’s legacy of rational thinking, nuanced debate, and community engagement.

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Overview

This episode, hosted by Erica with regulars Marcella and Owen, brings the Scott Adams community together for a lively, thoughtful discussion in honor of Scott’s legacy. The hosts dissect recent news—local government fiascos, international developments, energy debates, and social reframes—always keeping persuasion, open-minded dialogue, and humor at the forefront. Listener-driven content and Scott’s pivotal reframes make this episode both a tribute and a practical guide to critical, adaptive thinking.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Community Highlights and the Spirit of Scott Adams

• Meetup Updates: Community meetups (organized by @ScottAdamsMeet) have surpassed 100 gatherings, emphasizing local, in-person connections among Scott’s followers ([03:17]).
• Inspirational Listener Story: Grant Turner proposed a nuclear energy expansion in Boulder City, Nevada—directly inspired by Scott’s encouragement to “always be involved in at least one thing that could change the world.” Grant leads an exploratory committee aiming to provide free power to residents ([04:11]–[06:47]).
  • Quote: “In Scott’s words, part of energizing myself is that I always like to be involved in at least one thing that could change the world.” – Grant Turner ([06:13])
• Dr. Drew Shout-Out: Dr. Drew mentioned the Scott Adams School on his own podcast, further validating the show’s impact ([08:25]–[09:17]).

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2. Local Governance & Public Expenditures

• School Pool Referendum: Owen recounts defeating local pool and football project tax hikes, highlighting how individual votes can sway close elections ([09:35]–[11:04]).
  • Quote: “It was the only time in my life where I felt like my vote mattered…” – Owen ([10:18])
• Government Project Overruns (Butterfly Bridge/Fraud):
  • The much-maligned “butterfly bridge” in California, conceived to protect wildlife, exemplifies bureaucratic excess and cost overruns, including arcane regulations, environmental studies, union-mandated labor, and elaborate “biodiversity” rituals ([12:45]–[18:09]).
    • Memorable Exchange:
      • Owen: “…the nursery’s co-manager makes an offering after collecting seeds, sometimes including pieces of her hair.” ([17:34])
      • Host: “Her hair, special hair, it’s indigenous hair. It’s hard to get.” ([17:52])

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3. Science, Studies, & Energy Efficiency

• Open-Mindedness Outperforms Ideology: Owen shares research suggesting that “actively open-minded thinking” is more effective at resisting extremism than simply adopting liberal ideology ([18:33]–[19:46]).
  • Quote: “Actively open-minded thinking outperforms liberal ideology in resisting extremism and irrational beliefs…” – Owen ([19:02])
• Insulated Homes Don’t Always Save Energy:
  • Irish studies reveal minimal real-world energy-saving differences between the highest and lowest-rated homes, contradicting theoretical models. Retrofits may cause more financial disruption than benefit ([24:27]–[27:03]).
    • Hosts reflect on misleading energy “guilt trip” mailers and high retrofit barriers (i.e., outdated wiring).

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4. International Developments

• World Happiness Report: Finland remains the world’s happiest country, due to social welfare, homogeneity, and resource wealth. The U.S. is ranked 23rd ([19:57]–[21:42]).
  • Quote: “Finland for the ninth time…The next one running up is Iceland, then Denmark…” – Marcella ([20:59])
• Global Politics: U.S.–Japan Relations:
  • President Trump hosts Japan’s first female PM, Takaishi, marking a strengthened alliance—including a $40B nuclear reactor deal and cooperation on maritime security ([28:08]–[31:08]).
    • Comic Relief: Trump’s “Pearl Harbor” retort to a Japanese reporter ([29:58]).
• Middle East & Iran:
  • Exposure of regime-linked academics at U.S. universities raises questions about foreign influence and loyalty in higher education ([32:28]–[38:16]).
    • Hosts debate the merits and dangers, weighing empathy against security and national interest.
  • Regional escalation: Iran’s military strikes, U.S. arms deals in the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia threatening direct military action against Iran. Energy supply disruptions are already driving up oil and gas prices, risking global food shortages due to supply chain impacts ([42:52]–[47:01]).
    • Economic Impact: “Oil prices have spiked up to $110 a barrel…stock market may be going down.” – Marcella ([45:09]–[45:33])

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5. Persuasion Reframe: “People Think Like You”

• Reframe Reading (Pg. 189):
  • Host reads Scott's advice on avoiding the mistaken assumption that others share your thought processes and priorities. Real power lies in appreciating cognitive diversity and updating beliefs with new info ([47:31]–[53:13]).
    • Key Quote: “The usual frame: ‘Others think and feel approximately as I do.’
      The reframe: ‘Others are unimaginably different.’” – Scott Adams ([47:50])
• Co-Hosts Reflect:
  • Marcella and Owen share real-life challenges and benefits of embracing diverse perspectives in business and community ([53:13]–[57:17]).
    • Quotes:
      • “A lot of misunderstandings…is thinking [others are] thinking like you.” – Marcella ([54:44])
      • “I try and stay curious about what other people are thinking or why they believe what they believe.” – Owen ([54:46])
  • Host urges listeners not to “banish” those with a single differing opinion, highlighting nuance, adaptability, and the pitfalls of mind reading ([57:17]–[59:39]).

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6. Upcoming Community Events and Closing Thoughts

• After-Party Details: Weekend meetup to be hosted by Marcella (times to be posted).
• Next Week’s Guests:
  • BJ Dichter (Wed) and Steve Cortez (Thurs) to return for deep dives into new topics.
• Farewell Sip for Scott: Collective toast to Scott Adams and his influence ([62:14]).
  • Quote: “We miss you, Scott, so much. We hope we’re making you proud…” – Host ([62:06])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [06:13] Grant Turner (inspired by Scott): “I listened to leverage my talent stack and utilize all of Scott’s persuasion lessons to accomplish this mission.”
• [10:18] Owen: “It was the only time in my life where I felt like my vote mattered, like, helped defeat that.”
• [17:34] Owen: “…the nursery’s co-manager makes an offering after collecting seeds, sometimes including pieces of her hair.”
• [19:02] Owen: “Actively open-minded thinking outperforms liberal ideology in resisting extremism and irrational beliefs.”
• [20:59] Marcella: “It’s Finland again. Finland for the ninth time. Oh, wow. Again.”
• [29:58] Trump anecdote: Reporter: “Why didn’t you tell us about the strike before you struck Iran?”
  Trump: “Why didn’t you tell me about Pearl Harbor?”
• [47:50] Scott Adams (read by host):
  “Others are unimaginably different. When others act in ways you would not, don’t assume they are necessarily lying, selfish, stupid weasels. ... Instead, assume all you’re seeing is a difference in priorities or a difference in who brainwashed each of you.”

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Section Timestamps

• Opening/Community Meetups: [00:00]–[06:47]
• Listener Story – Grant Turner: [04:11]–[06:47]
• Dr. Drew & Show Shout-Outs: [08:25]–[09:17]
• School Pool Tax & Voting: [09:35]–[11:04]
• Corruption/Fraud Stories (Butterfly Bridge): [12:45]–[19:02]
• Open-Mindedness Science: [18:33]–[19:46]
• World Happiness Report: [19:57]–[21:42]
• Japan/Trump Visit & International Security: [28:08]–[31:08]
• Iranian Influence in U.S. Academia: [32:28]–[38:16]
• Energy/Insulation Studies: [24:27]–[27:03]
• Global Energy Crisis/Rising Prices: [42:52]–[47:01]
• "People Think Like You" Reframe: [47:31]–[53:13]
• Upcoming Events & Farewell: [59:39]–[62:18]

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Tone & Style

Lively, conversational, and at times irreverent—balancing humor and candor while prioritizing rational discourse in tribute to Scott Adams. The hosts encourage nuance, vigilance against groupthink, and give space for differing opinions, always inviting engagement from their community of listeners.

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This summary provides a clear, timestamped guide to the episode’s important themes, stories, and takeaways—highlighting not just the news, but the mindset Scott Adams advocated for understanding, persuasion, and community.

Transcript

[Erica]

Own.

[Marcella]

Here we go.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Who's first? Who's first? I'm dying.

[Marcella]

Somebody won. Good morning, you guys.

[Owen]

Hey.

[Marcella]

Samville got in first.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Sandals, like, even.

[Owen]

And hello, Stephen. We do see you, although we're slightly disappointed.

[Marcella]

Do you see him, Owen?

[Owen]

Of course. He looks great today.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Does he?

[Owen]

And Kobe. Slap it.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Jackie, Andy, how's it going in Alaska?

[Marcella]

Gregory, Persuasion Club.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Look at. Everybody's here. Where's my beaver? If you know, you know.

[Marcella]

All right, Beverly.

[Owen]

I don't know, but interesting.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

You have an idea where it might be?

[Owen]

Maybe.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

I mean, it's Friday.

[Owen]

It's Friday in theory. Hypothetically.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

I know. It's, like, Fun Day Friday. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Scott Adams School. It's Friday. We're so happy. I'm so happy I'm taking a nap. After the show, maybe. Wait, I still have to take down my Christmas tree. And I'm not even joking. Maybe I'll do that. Oh, it's the first day of spring. I think I'll take down the tree today. Maybe that'll be a new tradition.

[Marcella]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Welcome. Welcome, you guys. We have a fun show for you today. After we do this sip, just want to give you another second to come in. So I'm going to get spring before you, Marcella, and before you, Owen. It comes in at, I think 1046 Eastern today during the show.

[Marcella]

Ooh, during the show.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yes.

[Owen]

What will you. But will you use your small window of being exclusively the only one with spring?

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Probably sneezing because the trees are starting to bud. I get to sneeze before you. Maybe I'll have you stumble and YouTube.

[Owen]

I don't have allergies, but my wife does sometimes.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Oh, and, like, stop being so perfect all the time.

[Owen]

No, I'm not. I'm just. I. I feel bad for my wife and for you.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Thank you. All right, you guys, there's something we gotta do, and we gotta do it now. Are you ready? Let's go.

[Erica]

Let us enjoy the real reason you came here, which is the simultaneous sip. Yeah, that's why. And you don't need much to enjoy the simultaneous sip. All you need is a cup or a mug or a glass, A tank or chalice or stein, A canteen, jug or flask, A vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. Have you heard? I like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better. The simultaneous sip.

[Owen]

Go.

[Erica]

Oh, yeah. Excuse me. Gotta grab my notes. Hold on. Don't go anywhere.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Oh, My God, I swear, any extra noise after the sip makes me laugh so hard every time.

[Owen]

The rare vintage pre. Mug. Mug.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yes. I think the sips are going from, you know, back in the day, and we're working our way forward, so we'll see the evolution. So good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. All right, you guys. So I wanted to just do a little bit of housekeeping, which is Jimmy from Scott Adams Meetups asked me to let you guys know. So they've done over a hundred meetups already. He has a new and improved website that it might be up live already, but if it's not today, it'll be tomorrow. So he said DM him for any questions. So this is anyone in any city or town or area or county. If you want to meet with other sippers on Twitter, his handle is at Scott Adams Meet. And then you just hit a link in his bio right now, which will take you to a place to make a little meetup in a coffee shop or a restaurant in a park, if it's nice. Some people bring their mugs and you just get to chat with people who get it, you know, who get this whole community. So, please, we'll drop the handle for his X account in the chat. If anyone's listening. If you could put that in there for Jimmy. It's at Scott Adams Meet. And he is also going to be on locals subscribers with us, I think. Oh, I forget what. Day one, one night next week. And so we'll talk about the meetups and how fun they are. The other thing I wanted to tell you. So I love this. Let me pull this up. So one of our sippers here, he. Okay, his name is Grant Turner. He sent a DM to me and said I could share this with you. So I'm going to read it to you. Okay. So he said, let me open this bigger. Sorry. So he's in. Okay. I am okay. I also wanted to share with you. I am doing much of which is inspired by Scott. Boulder City is the largest city in Nevada in terms of land, but has a population of only 15,000 residents. We produce huge amounts of energy thanks to Hoover Dam as well as 4,000 acres of solar fields. But our utility bills keep climbing. I made a proposal to the city that we expand our energy production to include nuclear energy, a concept I learned about from Scott along with a data center lease, with the benefit of the residents being free Power for life. They love the idea and immediately formed an exploratory committee and put me in charge. In Scott's words, part of energizing myself is that I always like to be involved in at least one thing that could change the world. In the end, Scott did change the world and he inspired me to do the same. I listened to leverage my talent, my talent stack and utilize all of Scott's persuasion lessons to accomplish this mission. If you are interested, I'd be happy to keep you informed of my progress. And that is so inspiring, you guys. So here's Grant, who was like, yeah, I want to do one thing or something to help improve the world. And he just suggested an idea based on the things he learned here and what he learned about nuclear and oh my God, how amazing is that? So maybe the data center lease will give the residents free power for life without having a bill. That could be an amazing trade off for the noisy data center. So what do you guys think about that? Oh, and what do you think?

[Owen]

That's awesome. I mean, sounds like he's really being useful and I'd love to see more creative ideas like that. I have a friend who did something similar more in the healthcare arena. He lives in Tennessee and he's been. He's working with some of the legislators to get some different policies passed. And he's having a lot of success. And so I think, you know, if you're ever thinking, oh, I can't make a difference, you can. You really can. You know, you don't have to have any special credentials, you don't have to have any special position. You can just have a good idea. And as Scott always said, the best idea is really the person in charge.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

And I think we've seen that, you know, politicians in general really don't have any good ideas. I don't know why, but they don't have any good ideas. Marcella, what do you think?

[Marcella]

Well, I think it's great that he shared that with us. You know, maybe other people can share that with you. Don't. Don't overrun the DMS of Erica. But, but I think it's great that Scott inspired all of us to feel like we can make changes and we can do it in our own way. I'm just so in awed with everything that has happened after his death. Like I said yesterday, I thought I would be very sad and crying all the time, which sometimes I am. But, but it's, there's, there's some joy in what, you know, in all of us because of what he brought to us. Anytime we think of him or anytime we do something, laugh and all that. So it's great that all of Us can make a difference, like Owen said. And.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yeah, and like Grant. Grant is doing. So he's going to keep us informed, you guys, so we'll keep you posted. And hey, Grant, maybe you can come on locals with us and tell us the process and was it scary? And what'd you do? And did you get your fear out of the way, which obviously you had to do? Oh, also, guess what? So Dr. Drew, friend of the show, he had Walter Kern on last night on his show, and Dr. Drew gave a shout out to the Scott Adams School, and I was so excited to hear that. And you should all know that Dr. Drew listens as many days as possible. He would listen every day if he wasn't traveling, but he does. He really. He makes it part of his day. He loves what we're doing. He's proud of us. And, yes, he will be a guest professor soon. I can't give you the date yet, but he is absolutely coming on.

[Marcella]

He.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

He's thrilled to do it, and he's really looking forward to it. So, like, shout out to everybody here. That's keeping it going. I'm so proud of all of you, and I know Scott is, too.

[Owen]

And hi, Drew. Hope you're having a Good Friday.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Hi, Dr. Drew. We love you. We can't wait to see you soon.

[Marcella]

Happy Friday.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Happy Friday.

[Owen]

I noticed Andy asked about my school pool tax. There was a referendum in my. Where I live, they wanted to spend massive, many, many millions of dollars on a pool, and it was just going to raise our property taxes yet again. And, yes, it was defeated. It was. It was voted against. So they were. They're back to the drawing board. They're still saying, oh, we want to spend still millions of dollars on it, but they're scaling it back to about a quarter of what they were trying for. And I'll try and shoot that down, too.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

So no pool for the school. Cool. Okay.

[Owen]

But I told the story probably on one of my spaces, about how they had an even bigger one for a different pool idea. This was. I think they wanted, like, a hundred million dollars or something, or it was at least 60 million. It was. It was a massive amount of money, and they had to do a referendum to get the funding. And it was voted against, but, like, by less than 100 votes. Like, it was really close. And so it was, like, the only time in my life where I felt like my vote mattered, like, helped defeat that. And if I and just a few other people didn't show up, it would have gone through. And they tried again. And then they got shut down again. So hopefully they'll start listening.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

That's one of my biggest fears. My friend Mindy and I always talk about that, like, what if we don't vote? And they're like, and it lost by two votes. And we would be like, oh, no.

[Owen]

Yeah, there was. I think there was a mayoral race recently where it was one vote.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

One vote. Yep. Whoa. I don't know if it went the way they wanted to, per se, but

[Owen]

one vote, you know, I might be demanding a recount on that one.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yeah.

[Marcella]

Know when. When these projects come up, like the pool, or like, we had a football, whatever needs to be done usually comes overpriced. Part of the reason, you know, is I. There's been. There's been people prosecuted for this in California that it was just kind of like, used to give money, it was fraudulent in order to give favors to certain lobbyists or certain companies, you know, So I don't know if that's possibly like. Like Scott would say some. Sometimes the budget being as high as it is, it might be because of all the fraud that's going on. Not saying that the pool was a fraud project, but it's.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Marcella.

[Owen]

Yeah, I mean, I. I do think it was a real project, and they probably would have actually done it if it passed. But I will say I. I've seen several times in my local government where we're going to hire this consultant to do this study, and we're going to pay him a hundred thousand dollars to do just a study. I'm like, what the hell are you doing? Like, it's basically just to tell them what they think the government should do. It's like, you guys are in charge. You guys are the leaders. Why do you need some consultant to

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

tell you, yeah, they should resign and the consultant should be the CEO then. Yeah, that would be better.

[Owen]

It would just happen all the time. And of course, they have all the DEI and other stuff going on, too.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Well, speaking of that, I mean, I don't know if you guys have this at the ready at all, if you even know about this, but this reminds me of this butterfly bridge in California. So technically.

[Marcella]

So the news has. Go ahead and tell the story because. Fake. It's a little bit fake.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Okay.

[Marcella]

About the butterfly.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Okay. So there's this. They're trying to build this bridge over a major freeway. And it's. Because there's. This is. This is me talking and. Wait, where's my son? This is my opinion. I don't really know the story that well. So they're trying to build this, like, overpass that's going to be like really wide and have like vegetation on it and dirt and whatever. It's not for cars. And then it has like two ramps and an overpass. So I guess there's like a problem with the cougar population. Like, they can't. They're getting hit by cars when they're trying to cross this freeway. I don't know what butterflies have to do with needing an overpass to walk over. I think they could fly, but what do I know about butterflies? So anyway, they allocated, I don't know, 40 or $50 million, maybe even more of taxpayer money to build this butterfly bridge. Of course, they built the overpass part first. They put all the vegetation stuff on there, but there's no on and off ramp. So it's just sitting there and they're out of money. And now it's like up to $150 million. And now they're asking the good people of California to donate money to them so they can maybe get the little ramps on there. So it sounds like it's going as well as that high speed train. So it's like a bridge to nowhere and a train docked at a station. Am I close?

[Marcella]

Well, I mean, it wasn't meant to be. You know, the whole issue of using the word butterfly. I mean, a lot of voters in that area voted for it because it's dangerous for the freeway to have bears and mountain lions and coyotes passing through that area. So it has become an issue. And it can also, I don't know, I mean, I'm not okaying it, but at the same time, there's this issue of the mountain lions coming through the, the road. And then sometimes it could cause death for the drivers because the, the impact, obviously the, the mountain lion. So this was a way to avoid that issue. But it hasn't. It's been years. It has yet to be opened.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

And imagine, Gavin News, they're just using fraud.

[Marcella]

Yeah.

[Owen]

So Christopher Ruffo apparently went after this person to expose all this, and apparently the woman who's running it responded by blaming the weather and unprecedented biodiversity collapse. That's her excuse for why it's like $20 million over budget and still not done.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Mary West. I am completely okay with a bridge also for this type of thing, but this is out of control, like, you know, bridge.

[Marcella]

So not to defend the lady, but I am part of, I worked in government in California, so part of the issue is the rules that you are governed by, like, for Example. I'll give you an example. I was waiting in, in, in an LAX for the flight to take off and I guess there was some issue with the airplane. But, but because it's, I don't know, this might not even be connected to California. They had to get mechanics that were union employees to come to fix it. And they were about 40 minutes away. They couldn't use any other type of airline mechanic. They had to be unionized. So the rules that that lady might have to deal with, she might have not known that there's certain things where you have to get a union employee to build this thing and then you have to do an environment mental study. And so whenever you want to build anything in California, it takes millions and millions of dollars because of the system, that it's within the system. And, and I don't think she's able to change that. So she might have not known all of that or maybe she should have, you know.

[Owen]

Okay, but wait a second. So I'm reading about this and it says that a big part of this is kind of a patronage system where they're hiring a bunch of people to work on this bridge and to work after the bridge is up. And it said they prioritized hiring indigenous team members to help steward the plants that will vegetate the bridge.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

So the plant, the bridge, you guys already has the vegetation on it, but there's no way to get on top of the bridge, just FYI.

[Owen]

And the nursery's co manager who's working on the plants for this thing, I guess, says she makes an offering after collecting seeds sometime, including pieces of her hair.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

God bless America.

[Marcella]

That costs a lot of millions of dollars, I suppose.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Her hair, special hair, it's indigenous hair. It's hard to get.

[Marcella]

She sounds very. She must be maga.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Must be. Yeah, they were blaming it on the tariffs and this and that, but whatever. It's California as usual. No shade to you, Marcel.

[Owen]

Yes, but they also have an expert that's a fungi expert. So he's, he's, you know, you need those, right? To scrutinize the root samples under a microscope.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Shout out to Uncle Fungus. Yeah, he's a fun guy. All right, all right, so that's, that's your corruption update, y'.

[Owen]

All.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Nothing new in California. All right, Owen, give us, give us another juicy news story.

[Owen]

All right, Well, I wonder if there is any science that they didn't need to do today. Oh, here's something. Actively open minded thinking protects against political extremism better than liberal ideology. Oh, I mean, that's shocking, isn't it? I mean, you know, who would have

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

guessed that open minded thinking. Interesting. Anyone know about that? Open minded thinking? Or as Scott would say, you could have just asked Scott.

[Owen]

Yeah. It says actively open minded thinking outperforms liberal ideology and resisting extremism and irrational beliefs. It's a cognitive style seeking contradictory info, tolerating ambiguity and revising opinions on evidence. The take home. There's a quote from the person study. The take home message of the study turned out to be that actively open minded thinking comprises the good part of liberalism. Specifically, being liberal without displaying actively open minded thinking is no advantage at all in avoiding suboptimal thinking.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Who did this science study?

[Owen]

I don't. The person's name I just quoted was Keith Stanovich, but I don't see the institution.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

It's because he's a Keith. All right, well that's, that's your backwards science, that's for sure. Oh my gosh. What do you have?

[Marcella]

Yeah, so in, in the most obvious news we have, the 2026 World Happiness Report has just been released and they picked the happiest country. I don't know if you want to put it in the chat. What country you think is the happiest?

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

I have no idea. You guys put it in the chat. What do you think?

[Marcella]

What do you think going, who's the happiest country?

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

I can't wait to see the guesses because I legit have no clue. I haven't heard this. Mm.

[Marcella]

Someone got it in the chat.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Denmark, Finland, usa, North Korea.

[Marcella]

Not Canada.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Not Canada. Nepal, Poland, Somalia, they're happy over there. They have voter id.

[Marcella]

Somalia, they have lots of money.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

I think my guess would be, my guess would be Denmark for the obvious reasons. But. But what is it?

[Marcella]

It's Finland again. Finland for the ninth time. Oh, wow. Again. And then it says that it's because they have strong welfare, excellent education, safety and deep connection to nature. And lots of winter. The, the next one running up is Iceland, then Denmark, which you were pretty right about that one. Costa Rica and Sweden and then the U.S. when, where do you think the U.S. came in? And I don't know, it came in.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

I don't want

[Marcella]

23rd, Poland, in Canada. Canada came in 25th.

[Owen]

The thing I have to explain about this whole Finland thing is, and a lot of those countries is they have a lot of oil revenue and they use those to pay most of their welfare and taxes. And so it's almost like they have a ubiquitous, you know, system there where, you know, there, there aren't there aren't any poor people, not in Iceland, in Finland, like oil and, and I think they are having problems now with crime, with some of the migration stuff going on. And I think they're starting to realize that mistake. But you know, they're, it's like a very homogeneous country otherwise, like they're all the same race. So you don't have any racial divisions. You don't have a lot of socioeconomic division. So you know, they have a lot of sort of natural advantages. And they're also obviously a lot smaller than the United States, so not nearly as diverse. And so it's really hard to compare those things. I mean, one of the things you mentioned, education. A lot of times people point to places like Finland or Denmark and be like, why can't we have an education system like theirs? Because their, their scores are so much higher. But what if you dig into the numbers, if you match them up by income, like how much the families are making, they're no better than the United States. They're exactly the same. And so it's really just the fact that we have a lot more poor people here that, you know, have more struggles in education.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Not to do a sharp turn on this, but as a chat, trying to tell us that Chuck Norris died. Is that what's happening?

[Marcella]

Yeah, it's just been reported.

[Owen]

I don't believe it.

[Marcella]

TMC just reported in 86 he had

[Owen]

Chuck Norris invaded heaven kicking.

[Marcella]

Oh, I'm really. Here's the sad about that.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yeah. Chuck Norris. Shout out to you, man.

[Owen]

To Chuck.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Chuck, here's to you, bruh.

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[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

All right, we'll have to watch a Chuck Norris movie this weekend just to celebrate his life.

[Marcella]

Condolences to his family.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Work out with his machines. Ah, okay. Thanks for letting us know, you guys.

[Owen]

All right, well, I, I have a story about energy usage in homes. Apparently insulated homes don't use less energy. There was some kind of Irish review that found very little difference between what they call A rated and G rated homes that they, regardless of the rating Use pretty much the same amount, like 10,000 kilowatt hours per year. If you want to do this deep retrofit to get A rated, it can cost like €43,000 plus another 24,000 in disruption costs while they're doing it. And then they found that the, the G rated homes use just 3.7% more energy than A rated. So they basically are saying it's just hardly any difference at all. And you know, it doesn't match the theory at all. The, the, it says the F and G rated homes use 56% less than the theoretical models predicted. So there you go. We got models that were showing that they would do very well, but in reality they don't.

[Marcella]

Guess who would.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

That we're not saving money with all the things that we're trying to do. So that little flyer I get, they're like, your neighbors are more efficient than you might just.

[Owen]

I get those all the time. Do you get them too? I, they, they, it's like this total guilt trip flyer from the energy company. And, and I, I don't believe it. I don't even believe it's real. I don't believe that like I'm using. Because it looks like I'm using like almost twice as much energy as supposed efficient neighbors. And I'm like, okay, who are these efficient neighbors? Because I don't. All the houses look just like mine. They're just. I know my neighbors, you know, I live in a 100 year old house. So yeah, it's got lots of leaky whatever and it doesn't have very good insulation. And by the way, the reason it doesn't have good insulation is because it would cost a fortune to do that. Because like I, the cheap way to do it would be to blow in insulation, right? Like you just, there's a service you can buy where they just come in with this big hose and they open up your floors under your attic and they just pump in a bunch of like, you know, whatever pellets. And I would be very willing to do that. It's not that expensive. It would be, you know, great and I would use less energy and my house would probably feel better just based on being able to keep it warm and cool here. But the problem is I, I have knob and tube wiring.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

You won't use less energy. You just read the study.

[Owen]

Well, that's probably true. And so it makes me feel a lot better.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

But you're saving money by not spending the money your goofy neighbors spent.

[Owen]

But so the reason I can't do it is because the. With knob and tube wiring, what that means is you have like cloth wrapped wires that in theory degrade over time because they're not the plastic that probably lasts forever because they're forever plastics. And. But the reality is it's actually totally safe to do this. Like you, you. Because when you put in knob and tube wiring, what they do is they staple one of the wires to one side of the joist and the other one to the other joist. So they're like a foot apart. Right. There's no chance of a fire or a short or anything. It's just totally. It's like a lot safer than normal wiring. But in order to do this, I would have to rip out all that wiring and put in all new circuits and it would cost like tens of thousands of dollars just to get to the point where I could insulation. So I just said screw it. Not doing it.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

All right, well, you're ahead of the game. Apparently I have the same kind of wiring too. We have a very old house too. Love it. All right, who's up? Marcela.

[Marcella]

President Trump rolled out the red carpet for the Japanese prime minister. I'm gonna about to butcher her name. Takaishi, hosting her at the White House. The historic visit. Yeah, my Japanese is not so good. I need to practice. Historic visit marks the first trip for the first female prime minister since taking office. She's a great friend and partner, Trump said, praising their close ties. He in the, you know, he talked about how he supported her run and how her and him had a, you know, basically they, they, they were, you know, a landslide election for both of them and they were just joking around lot. She doesn't speak too, too much in English, so there was a lot of translation in Japanese. But he did indicate jokingly that she has about her strong English skills. That's what Trump said. Hey, you have strong English skills. Knowing full well that she can't really speak much English. But that was funny. The two leaders had a toast. They talked about trade and the cherry blossoms and so on and so forth. Takaishi was really good at saying that he was the. He still believes in him, in Trump, and then he believes he can still bring peace to the world. But the funniest moment came and I think some of you must know this already. A Japanese reporter asked Trump, why didn't you tell us about the. The struck the. The as before you struck Iran? He said. Trump said, why didn't you tell me about Pearl. Pearl Harbor? Yeah.

[Owen]

So he's like, who knows better about

[Marcella]

Surprises than Japan when, when. Okay, so you have to see it. When Trump said that to the reporter, he was looking away from the prime minister. But then the prime minister was looking towards Trump because she didn't know what was going to be asked. Immediately when he said that, she was like, o know, because she, she understood that a lot of it was being translated for her. But she, she got that immediately. She was like.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

And I heard someone go, oh.

[Owen]

But they also announced a $40 billion small modular nuclear reactor deal, and apparently that brings the total investment to 550 billion, which sounds like a really big number. Japan's also joining the Golden Dome now. I think during that meeting, they said they were not going to help with the Strait of Hormuz, but I have another story that says they are now and a handful of other countries have changed their tune and now they're, we're going to have a several countries that say they'll, they pledged to support what Trump wanted for the Strait of Hormuz.

[Marcella]

They were, they were saying that the US Obviously has the strongest navy, and then after that is China from what they're saying. But the next strongest navy is Japan. So having them on board is very important.

[Owen]

Yeah. So Trump made us a true social post about this. You know, kind of reading in the riot act about how, you know, they're, they protect everybody or we protect everybody, but nobody protects us. And so, you know, he, he kind of put the, you know, almost mocked them with the, with his truth social post. But apparently now Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands have pledged support after initially refusing to help.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Oh, they did.

[Owen]

That's the story I have. It's being reported by. Let's see. This is 100% fed up. So I don't know exactly what that is, but yeah, I've seen a couple stories about this. So it looks like it is true that several countries are now saying they're going to pledge, at least pledge their support to the straight hormones. I guess we'll see if they follow through with it.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

We need to wrap this up. This excursion needs to be like, let's go. Oh, all right. So let's go on to the next

[Marcella]

Iran. I'm sorry, I'm not going to have a lot of Iran stories, but the next one is Iran's regime secret US Campus network exposed. So it shockingly, the US Higher education had, has hired or had hired a few children of the Iranian leaders. So an explosive New York Post investigation reveals that several close relatives of the Iran's top regime had been professors at prestigious American universities. You know, when you ask like, oh, why are children so left of center? You know, why are they thinking this way? But some because they're being taught by these type of people. Among them are Laila Katami, daughter of former president Mohammed Khatami, who teaches mathematics at Union College in upstate New York. Fatima Ardashir Larijani, daughter of Ali Larijani, who was killed recently. He was the leader in the IR gc or who was an assess. Who was an assistant professor. She was an assistant professor in oncology and hematology in Emory University. There was. She was let go and fired in January. So I don't know how people feel about this situation. There's another, there's several other professors that were children of these Iranian leaders. I mean, part of it, as Scott would say, it's like, that's your parents, that's not you. But it'd be interesting to see why Lara, Johnny's daughter was fired in January, before this was, even before the Iranian war or Operation Epic Fury started.

[Owen]

I mean, I. How I feel about it is send them all home. I mean, I think, you know, I feel the same way about all the children of the CCP officials that come here. Like, they're clearly not our friends, they're not our allies. And even apart from that fact, we should be educating our own people first, America first and our universities. And so I don't see why we would reserve all these slots and almost prefer these foreign students.

[Marcella]

They're not students, they're the professors.

[Owen]

Well, even that, I mean, I would say I'd rather give the job to an American than someone from another country. And, you know, let's promote our own people, let's educate our own people, let's have our own professors. And you know, a lot of these are taxpayer funded institutions. So we should be making sure that that's going to the benefit of Americans, not foreigners.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yeah, I agree. Especially with our colleges becoming indoctrination camps, like, God only knows what's going on in there.

[Marcella]

Of course, I don't agree, but that's always the case.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yeah.

[Marcella]

Well, I think of, I think this way, if you are like the daughter of a leader in Iran and maybe you don't agree with them and that's why you left and you came here and tried to like do your own life, you know, are they citizens? Probably. It does. The story doesn't say whether they're citizens of America. Yeah.

[Owen]

I think at a minimum, you should require them to renounce their citizenship from Iran.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yes.

[Marcella]

I agree, if that's even possible. But yeah, they, they could, you know, because a lot of the times it's like you think, why aren't they over there? Maybe because they don't agree with their father, you know, like, how many times have you agreed with your parents? You know, and then you're like, no, rebel. I'm gonna go, yeah.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

But you know what I. I see. You know, I might not have felt this way years ago, but now looking at, like, Ilhan Omar and what's her name, Rashida, they clearly are not. America are for their, their home country first. And that is really hard to stomach. Seeing them, you know, in Congress and cheering for Somalia and poo pooing America, it's like, no, no, no, no, no. So I feel the same way about colleges because Steve Cortez will be back on with us next week. But remember what he was saying about, like, China infiltrating the universities, that when they have football games now they have to have Chinese commentators speaking all they're taking the place of American students. And why is that? So? I think it's a, it's not to say slippery slope, but it is because we're just, we're like, so accepting of this that the ball's been rolling and now it's snowballing and America doesn't look like America anymore. Like, there are colleges, our universities. A lot of taxpayer money goes to a lot of these places. Why aren't they filled by Americans? Americans only? Now, I. You can be from Iran, renounce your citizenship, become a citizen here and do that. But if you're like, even dual citizenship, I'm not into it, and I'm really against all the, the foreign students coming in. Like, maybe make 1% of your students foreign. But what's happening is, like, I just can't even wrap my brain around it. Like, what are we, what are we doing? I don't know.

[Owen]

Big numbers. And then we have the birthright citizenship issue with this apparently very large program of Chinese people that come here to have their babies and then raise them back in China. So they just bring them here to get citizenship, and then they bring them back to China and they're raised with that culture and that ideology, and when they reach 18, they can vote. So there's like 100,000 potential votes, and I think it might even get up to 1.5 million over time. 100,000, I think might be per year where, you know, you could have millions of foreigners voting in our elections with mail in ballots from China, and they could swing all sorts of elections and there's nothing legally we could do to stop it. If we allow this birthright citizenship to

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

continue, it is suicidal empathy. You're right. It's.

[Erica]

It.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

You know, you have to be very careful because, you know, it's so funny, you know, I wish I had the four. Not that I could have done anything, but the foresight to see, like, what the anchor baby situation would turn into now. And, you know, we didn't think about it before because it wasn't like, necessarily a problem. But yeah, I mean, if two Chinese people, I'm just picking on China because we're talking about China and they're not our friend, but if two Chinese people come here or one lady comes here pregnant and has her baby here. No, like, you need to be a citizen for your kid to be a citizen. That's such. Oh, excuse me. But you know, it's just like, what are we doing? And then I have friends who are here trying so hard to get their citizenship the right way. They have spent upwards of $20,000. It's been more than like 10 to 13 years for some of them trying to do this the right way. And I'm like, what are we doing? You know, so there are people that are here now to trying so hard. They're so deserving, they're working, they're paying taxes, they're, you know, doing all the right things. And then we're like, hey, drop a baby off and now your kid's a citizen. We have to, we have to reset. And it might be like we're like the bad parent, you know, like, oh, big daddy's home. But somebody's got to do it. Somebody's got to set this straight. So that's why, I mean, if it

[Marcella]

will be the site of pretty soon in the. The Supreme Court will decide whether that

[Owen]

stays or goes, unfortunately. I think it's probably leaning towards. They're going to say we still have it, but I'm hoping that. I'm hoping to be surprised.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Andy. Andy said stop the sexy talk, Erica.

[Marcella]

He likes it. He likes it, he likes it.

[Owen]

So apparently Iran is heating up. The Trump approved over $200 billion in war supplementals, bypassing Congress. I think this is separate from the $200 billion they're asking from Congress to do emergency arms to the Gulf allies. So the UAE got like $8 billion. I think it's 4.5 million for the THAAD missile system, 2.1 billion for counter drone systems. There's the AMRAAMS, which I think is another missile system for 1.2 billion and a bunch of munitions for F16s. Kuwait got $8 billion in radars. Jordan got 70.5 million in support. So things are ramping up in the region. It looks like we may end up having some, some of the. Iran's neighbors joining in the effort. So, you know, it's looking like it's ramping up to me. And Iran got hit by a missile strike in Tel Aviv. So there's more going on there. There was some video I posted about that where that showed some of the damage in one of the residential blocks. I think it hit eight different sites. Two people were killed and. Yeah, so there's a lot of casualties on both sides at this point. And then Saudi Arabia is threatening military action against Iran. So the foreign minister says they reserve the right to military action. They posted this kind of aggressive looking video of all their military capabilities with their J fighters and things like that. And it said the, the Prince Faizal said the kingdom will not succumb to pressure. On the contrary, this pressure will backfire. We reserve the right to take military action if deemed necessary. So we may have Saudi Arabia joining the fray.

[Marcella]

I mean, this changes everything. The Gulf states like Dubai and Saudi Arabia and all that, not Dubai is not a country. The United Arab Arab Emirates, like before it was open to tourists and people to move there and it was a haven of peace. But now since Iran has hit them, it's become, they become more active and more supportive of the United States because it's, it's really hurt. It's. It's really going to hurt their tourism.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yeah, yeah.

[Owen]

And, and energy. I mean, you know, there's a story I posted about Qatar's liquefied natural gas. They're describing it as worse than Nord Stream. With the damage that was done to it, it's gonna take many years to rebuild. So that's one of the reasons oil prices are so high right now and natural gas prices are probably following, but it's gonna be offline for at least months, probably years. They're thinking Europe's gas prices might double. So it's like a real big deal for the liquefied natural gas industry. And I think I saw in a SE that the US is pumping out their liquefied natural gas, like at capacity, like as much as they possibly can. So if we have more shortages, I don't think there's necessarily anything much we can do to make up the gap.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

No time for full TV shows. TikTok has endless short dramas you can watch Anytime. Fast paced, easy to follow and hard to stop. Download TikTok now and start watching. Yeah, I, I think. Would they say that that was like 20 of the world's fueling place that. Oh, I mean, that's really scary, you know, and I, I think it is interesting because Iran is, you know, shooting at its neighbors now and people that normally wouldn't have even felt threatened by them necessarily. And so they're really just like isolating themselves further. So I am not saying it's good you guys understand what I'm not saying. Like, oh, it's good that that happened. It's not good that that happened. But what's good is it just makes people want to rally against Iran. So that's the good news. You know, so now they're just kind of like sitting there and they've pissed off everybody around them. So it just makes everybody else unite more is what I see.

[Marcella]

But in, in, in, you know, in connected news, the oil prices have spiked up to $110 a barrel. I don't know right now. It's probably gone up since I started the show. We started the show.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

I think I heard 119.

[Marcella]

The stock market may be going down.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Owen.

[Marcella]

Owen.

[Owen]

Oh, it's down, it's down.

[Marcella]

Don't check it, don't check it.

[Owen]

The S and p is down 56 points right now. It's not looking good on the stock market today. So don't check your stocks. But yeah, no, the economic impact is pretty big. And I think there's stories I've seen that it's going beyond just energy because one example is when you extract natural gas, there's a whole bunch of other chemicals that come out of that that are used for agriculture, especially fertilizer for food.

[Marcella]

Food.

[Owen]

And I think it's like 40% of the sulfur that is used in agriculture comes from that region. And so it's a pretty big percentage of our food supply that depends on these chemicals that are coming from this region. And so if you disrupt all of the oil and natural gas supply in that region, we may have food shortages next year. And that's unfortunately just part of the supply chain of all this, that there's a lot of other things that's used in pharmaceuticals and other things too. So there's a lot of chemical processes that are using, whether it's ammonia or sulfur or other things that come out of that natural gas extraction process. So, you know, there, it's great that we're doing more and we're at capacity in terms of what we're doing in the United States, but I don't think that's going to make up for it. So, you know, it could end up being a worldwide crisis if this continues for a long time or if there's a lot more damage in the region.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yeah, I fear about how long this is going to last and what's going to happen. Will you guys indulge me for a minute? Because it is Friday, and I just. I know this is me taking another sharp turn. Yeah, I'd love to read a quick reframe, you guys. And it kind of fits in well. It fits in for every day. So, you know, talking about. Well, we'll talk about it after. I'm gonna read it. But I am obsessed with this reframe, and I really want you guys to soak it in.

[Marcella]

Get your books, everyone.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

It's gonna be page 189 in the paperback, and it's called people think like you. And this is, like, so important for everybody listening to remember, like, even when we have differences of opinion about things, you really never know why. And so I love how Scott wrote this out. And I'm just going to read it, and then we'll discuss it. Okay, so page 189. People think like you. One of the worst misconceptions of life is that other people think the same way you do. Humans are similar in a lot of ways, but in any specific situation, your basket of preferences and mine will be different. That means you can't reliably predict what people will do or why they will do it unless money is involved. But we imagine we can predict well because we make the poor assumption that people are working with the same set of variables and intentions we are. That is rarely the case if you don't understand someone's motives and you end up guessing based on how you would feel in the same situation, you're indulging in nonsense. The usual frame. Others think and feel approximately as I do. The reframe. Others are unimaginably different. When others act in ways you would not, don't assume they are necessarily lying, selfish, stupid weasels. They might be exactly that, but that's not the first explanation you should go with. Instead, assume you are all seeing. Is all you're seeing is a difference in priorities or a difference in who brainwashed each of you. The power of this reframe is that it helps you understand why you can't change people's minds. You might be looking at the same facts, but the process processes in your heads are as different as porcupines and bowling balls. And I wanted to bring that one up because, you know, oftentimes, like, so we're giving our opinions here. You know, it's my opinion. But what you might not understand is maybe I have a. A method to my madness. Maybe I'm saying something just to be provocative, but you don't know that. Or maybe. Maybe I got information you didn't get, or I had a life experience that made me feel a certain way. I do. Maybe there's a lot of nuance to what I'm thinking. So, like, if somebody gave me, like, a. A list of a thousand questions and said, you know, how do you feel about each one of these things? You could never predict my answers on those because I have so much nuance in me, Erica. I have so much nuance in my thinking. I'm not, like, left or right or center. I am all over the place on every different issue. So I say that one. I'm bringing this one up because being on here subjugates us to criticism and opinions and people telling us what to do and how to think and listen. That's, like, fine. Like, it doesn't bother me when people do that. Like, I kind of get where they're coming from. But it is who you were brainwashed by. So we have to allow people to have their own opinions and. And to think differently than you. And like I said, you never know the motive behind it. Like, I'll. I'll make a random Twitter poll. Who would you rather be aligned with? And I'll give you the choice of, like, Don Lemon or Joy Reid. And then people are like, oh, my God, you know, or, you know, I could be like Don Lemon or Tucker Carlson and be like, oh, I see what you're doing here. And I'm like, you don't see anything I'm doing here. So it's like. Like, you know, it's that silly, you guys. So I just want to recommend that we understand that everybody has different opinions about things for all sorts of different reasons, none of which you can predict or know. Like, you might think, like, oh, I've known Erica for 10 years on here, and this is how she'll feel about it. But something might have changed my mind last night, and I might take a sharp turn and. And I could take a sharp turn again the next day and make a U turn and spin around. So just try to let everybody have their own free thinking opinion. And I think it's okay to bring other ideas and opinions to people and to have A discussion. But we can't be so sure that our opinion is the only way and be so dug in. And I also want you guys to understand that when new information comes, it's okay to reassess what you think and maybe find some nuance in it or understand. Understand how it could be another way. And I, like I always say the superpower is. Is if the information changes and you can change your opinion and publicly do so and not be afraid. You have a gift. That means your ego is not ruling you. Your friend group isn't ruling you. You are a free thinker, and there is nothing better. I mean, Walter Kern talked about it yesterday, you know, or we heard it yesterday when he spoke at Scott's memorial service, that he was free. And I hope every one of you know that you can be free and. And be in charge of your own life and your own thoughts, and you can allow others to do that, too. I'm going to toss it to Marcella first. And you can see us here, like, you know, we. We have differing opinions, the three of us. We're. We're three very different people. But, like, I'm obsessed with them. Like, I love them so much, and it doesn't matter. I do. I love them so much, and it doesn't matter, like, what we think. Like, we're. We still have affection for each other. So, Marcel, what do you think about this reframe?

[Marcella]

No, this reframe is great because a lot of the times, you know, at work, home life, anywhere, it's like sometimes you're thinking, oh, these people all think like me. They all know, like, a lot of us here that are part of the community, in Scott's community, he would always remind us, like, all. All the things that, you guys know, that's like 1% of the rest of the population. So if you go out there, you know, you go to your Thanksgiving dinner or you go to, you know, any kind of social setting, and you talk about, like, oh, Joey Reed and, you know, Don Lemon and all that, they'd be like, who? So a lot of it is realizing that. That we are very different even with. With us compared to people that are not. That don't know about Scott and all other things. Always remember. I always have to remember that people, you know, are very different when I speak to them in regards to certain things. They're like, what is that? What is this Iran? Where, you know, so a lot of things are going to be different. And you have to realize that we all are here together in this planet. So we have to get along. And a lot of the misunderstandings between people is the thinking that they're thinking like you. So I love it. I love the fact that you brought this up today.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Oh, good. Oh, and your thoughts?

[Owen]

Yeah, I mean, I love that other people have different thoughts or different opinions. I don't. I think it'd be a very boring place if everybody thought exactly the way I did. It would be kind of redundant, I would think. And I always try and stay curious about what other people are thinking or why they believe what they believe. And I try to be respectful of those differing opinions, but I also try to seek out those opinions. I mean, I. I would say at work when I've gotten in trouble, usually on projects. One of the common reasons is because we just didn't talk to the right person. Like, we didn't include one of the stakeholders. And so we, you know, come up with a set of recommendations or things. And I kind of assume, okay, everybody's aligned to this. I've shared these ideas. They all say, that's great. And then they say, oh, well, we got to get approval from this person, and it might be someone I had never heard of before. And then all of a sudden, we put it in front of them, and they're saying, this is BS and this is not at all what we should do, or this isn't even solving the right problem. And all of a sudden, the whole perspective changes, and it comes back to just saying, well, if we had included that person from the start, maybe we would have been able to convince them that this is a good idea, or maybe we would have at least found out without wasting a whole bunch of time that we had to go in a different direction. And, I mean, even very smart people can have great ideas that aren't the right ones. I mean, my experience at my startup was like that, where we had this initial idea of, like, here's the product we're building, here's who we're selling it to, here's the benefits, here's the reasons they would all want it. And then we started approaching those people pretty soon after we started and found out the people you're trying to sell to don't want to buy it, but there's this other group of people that absolutely do want to buy it for totally different reasons, but they would actually need the product to be pretty different than what you were planning for it to be. And so we basically had to go back to. To scratch and say, let's redesign this whole thing from the ground up to Serve this other customer. And then it took off. Then it was like, okay, everybody wanted to buy it. You know, our typical response when we'd put in front of the customer would be like, why didn't anyone do this before? This is, like, such an obvious and great idea. Why. Why isn't. Why is this the first time I'm seeing this? And, you know, it was. It was a very big success, but if we had just stuck to our initial idea and said, no, no, no, we're selling to these people, and this is the important functions, and here's the features, it would have flopped completely. It would have just been terrible.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Oh, and I didn't know the CIA was so complicated. Yeah. Like, so flexible. That's so nice to know. I mean, I. I just like, for example, you guys. So also, if. If there's someone you like, okay. And they're, like, measured or thoughtful or smart or whatever, and then they say something that you don't like on one topic, just relax. Like, we don't have to, like, banish them to hell. Okay. It's okay. Like, I. You can't possibly agree with one person on everything. It's just not possible. And if. If that's how you're going to judge people and have relationships, you're going to be lonely. And, you know, the other day I got lambasted by a few people because. And I didn't even make an opinion. I said nothing. But this. I mean, Scott used to get this all the time. I. I love to listen to, like. Anyway, I'm going to. I'll just say this. I listened to a podcast. I don't know who was interviewing who. I think Brett Weinstein, who everybody knows, is measured and calm, super intelligent, and has been through hell and back. He. I think he interviewed Tucker or Tucker Carlson interviewed him. I can't remember who. Who was who. It was such an amazing podcast. I didn't even say why I thought it was amazing, but it was one of the best podcasts I've heard in a long time. Again, I didn't say why. I mean, it could be a million. It could be the clothes they were wearing, the lighting. It could have been whatever it was. But I posted that, and some people got so pissed off, and I'm like, calm down. Like, it's okay. I can say I like it. I can promote it. I thought it was an amazing podcast. I could have listened to, listen to 25 more hours of it. It just really grabbed me, and it was making me think. And I didn't tell you what it made me think, but it was making me think. And I appreciated listening to two intelligent people having a deep conversation. Long form. I thought it was. It was fascinating. So. But it's okay, you guys. You know, it. It doesn't matter what it was that I thought about it. That could be a private discussion if somebody wanted to have that with me. But, you know, so let's not jump to conclusions. Let's not say, like, oh, Erica's out. You know, I'm assuming something about it. Yeah. Or like, don't mind read her.

[Marcella]

Don't mind.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Yeah, don't mind read me. I am very complex, and so are you guys. And, you know, we have to remember that we are complex beings. Owen, I have a question. What is happening tomorrow for the after show? The after party?

[Owen]

So I am not available tomorrow, but I'll put this to Marcella. If she's available, she can host it. Are you up for that?

[Marcella]

Yeah, sure. Do people want me to host it in the chat?

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Do they think I should On Marcel? It doesn't have to be five hours.

[Owen]

No, it doesn't.

[Marcella]

I think it just has to be eight.

[Owen]

Yeah, well, the most important part is just doing it at the right time and having the simultaneous sip. And that's the important part, to get it started. And, you know, even if it only went for an hour, that would be great. I think it does typically go probably closer to three hours, but that's just because I let it go that long and people have a lot to say, and so it's typically a great conversation. And so I think Marcel will probably be posting an invitation to that, and I'll repost it on my timeline so you can find it. And then we'll have the after party as scheduled.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

I love that, you guys. We have. What I can tell you so far for next week is on Wednesday, BJ Ditcher Ditchter will return. We're going to cover some of the things our Canadians wanted to talk about that we didn't get to. So he returns on Wednesday and Thursday. Steve Cortez is coming back. He's working on new projects, and I just think he's such an interesting and smart guy and a useful person. So we have him to look forward to. And what else is happening next week? I'll let you know as we come closer. But you guys are amazing. We had so much fun with you this week with Walter and BJ and our guests. Like, it was just such a fun week, and I hope you guys are enjoying the show. And if you are, please, please, hit the like button. Hit the thumbs up on YouTube. Give a heart on locals when you are on here. It's so helpful for us and share it with your friends. Repost it. We appreciate you so much. Owen and Marcella, have a great weekend. All the beloved and everybody on here, have the best weekend. Touch your grass, be useful. Think of ways to be helpful and kind and go after your goals with your systems. Okay? All right, closing sip. To Scott. We miss you, Scott, so much. We hope we're making you proud and, and to Shelley and you guys have a great weekend. And hey, Dave Adams. Shout out to you, Dave. To Scott.

[Owen]

To Scott. Be useful.

[Host (possibly Erica or main moderator)]

Bye, everybody. Great show. Thank you. Okay, happy eye doctor. Get your, get your last chat in there. I'm ending the stream in 3, 2, 1.