The Scott Adams School - 05/25/26 Memorial Day w/ The Home Team

Summary

Real Coffee with Scott Adams

Episode: The Scott Adams School – 05/25/26 Memorial Day w/ The Home Team

Date: May 25, 2026
Host: Scott Adams (in segment)
Panelists: Erica, Marcella, Owen
Main Theme:
Examining current events and deep cultural issues through the lens of persuasion, individuality, and practical solutions, with dedicated reflection on Memorial Day’s meaning.

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Episode Overview

This Memorial Day episode balances heartfelt remembrance for fallen service members, analysis of new tech developments (specifically, home-cleaning humanoid robots), an in-depth exploration of patent security and Chinese IP theft, and a centerpiece whiteboard lesson from Scott Adams on the limitations of collective identity frames in addressing social disparity—urging a shift to individualized solutions. The panel engages with Adams’ ideas, applying them to education, parenting, and contemporary challenges around group dynamics and social responsibility.

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Key Segments and Insights

1. Memorial Day Reflection

[00:33–05:47]

• Erica opens with a written statement honoring the sacrifice of fallen service members and the families who carry their legacy.
  • “Freedom has a cost, and there are people that we will never meet who paid it on our behalf.” (Erica, 02:02)
• Owen shares personal stories from his time in the military, expressing gratitude and new insight gained through service.
  • “It totally changed my perspective on it… I certainly gained a lot of respect for what the military does for us. And I never forget that.” (Owen, 03:50)
• Marcella, as an immigrant, expresses deep appreciation for American freedoms, tying them to the sacrifices noted.
  • “Their sacrifice made this freedom possible, and I’m grateful for them.” (Marcella, 05:16)

Notable Moment

• Panel’s emotional acknowledgment of the “real” meaning behind Memorial Day, urging listeners not to take their freedoms for granted.

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2. Light-hearted Segment: Hot Dogs & Holiday Banter

[05:47–07:09]

• Brief, playful detour on holiday protein content, focusing on hot dog nutrition.
• Joking about pre-cleaning before the cleaner arrives, classic family dynamics.

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3. Tech News: Humanoid Robot Cleaning Services

[07:09–10:25]

• Owen introduces “Gatsby,” a maid service using humanoid robots for $150 in San Francisco.
  • “Gatsby ran the first ever consumer cleaning by a humanoid robot in the United States.” (Owen, 08:15)
• The discussion pivots to privacy, tech adoption, fears (robots gossiping?), and labor disruption.
  • “I’d be like, what are you doing? And you can’t use that on that surface!” (Erica, 09:09)
• Marcella: “I don’t think I would have to clean for the robot because they wouldn’t gossip about me… like the cleaning ladies do.”
• Sidelong jokes about Elon Musk’s possible involvement.

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4. Intellectual Property, Patents, and China: Palmer Luckey’s Perspective

[11:20–16:21]

• Scott presents a Palmer Luckey monologue (full quote, see below) criticizing U.S. patent laxity and proposing a solution: wider use of classified/national security patents, especially for key technologies.
  • “Patents are Chinese instruction manuals… all that really means in practice is that for 20 years or so… China can just rip it off right away.” (Palmer Luckey via Scott, 11:20–13:02)
  • “We need to massively expand the national security patent process…” (Palmer Luckey via Scott, 13:32)
• Panel Reaction:
  • Marcella: “They should all be confidential. I’m not understanding why certain technological patterns can be read by anyone in the world.” (15:04)
  • Owen on broader espionage: “They’ve been doing this type of espionage for decades, and we don’t seem to do very much about it… we should treat it like warfare.” (16:56, 18:27)
  • Erica highlights contemporary product knockoffs (e.g., Temu, Amazon marketplace).
  • Discussion on legislative vs. executive solutions: “President Trump can pass an executive order as well, if you want to.” (Marcella, 19:36)
  • “When Scott said China is not safe for business, I think he meant it.” (Owen, 17:37)

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5. Whiteboard Lesson: The Individual Solution Frame

[23:20–35:44]

Scott Adams’ Whiteboard (Core Quotes)

[23:20–35:14]

• Discrimination frames have evolved:
  • White vs. Black → Intersectionality → (not granular enough) → Individuals.
• On the limits of ‘average’ analysis:
  • “Every time somebody gets you into a conversation of outcomes or differences in the average white or average black, they’re talking about somebody who doesn’t exist. There’s no average person.” (Scott, 28:33)
  • “If you accept any of these frames, you’re accepting an absurdity...” (Scott, 29:03)
• System vs. Goal:
  • “The left and right were accidentally heading in the same direction… It just doesn’t go far enough. You’ve gotta go all the way to what makes every person unique and then you can solve their problem.” (Scott, 26:00–27:12)
  • “…until you get to the individual level, there’s no system solution. And this cries for a system solution.” (Scott, 32:50)
• Persuasion warning:
  • “Don’t let them make you think past the sale. Individuals are the only frame that’s worth talking about. Everything else is political manipulation.” (Scott, 34:05)

Panel Discussion:

[35:14–48:00]

• Owen: Frames black/white and intersectionality as systems designed to divide and incentivize “victim points” rather than promote achievement.
  • “It’s this inverted moralism… you’re elevating someone based on their victimhood, not based on their achievement.” (Owen, 36:52)
• Marcella: Personal story as an ESL student in California—refused to be defined by group “labels;” argues that group-based approaches most hurt those they ostensibly help.
  • “They are just given this label. They’re told they’re never going to amount to anything… It should always be based on the individual.” (Marcella, 43:34 & 47:00)

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6. Extending the Lesson: Education, Parenting, and Group Accountability

[48:00–59:32]

• Erica: Recalls media (Oprah) rewarding only those in victimized groups, never the “average” responsible person; laments resultant shift in social values.
• Owen: Local example of “suicidal empathy” in schools—removing honors tracks “because not enough minorities were in it,” hurting all students.
  • “You’re taking away opportunity for those minorities that were in there… You’re basically just saying, everybody’s down at the lower level now.” (Owen, 38:27)
• Collective group behaviors (“teen takeovers”):
  • Erica and Marcella debate whether these arise from group culture or the labels imposed by society.
  • “I feel like somewhat of a collective problem within black culture. And I’m allowed to say that even though I’m not black, I’m observing things.” (Erica, 53:15)
  • Owen: “If you treat people as individuals, that means you apply the rules the same way to them you would to anyone else.” (Owen, 50:03)
• Parenting’s collapse called out: need for mentorship, structure, and personal involvement.
  • “I think parenting has gone downhill… I think parents used to be a lot more involved with their kids in that sort of mentoring thing…” (Owen, 57:49)

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7. Call to Action: Everyday Mentoring

[59:32–end (63:28)]

• Erica: Encourages listeners to act as mentors if possible, formally or informally, even via situational advice.
  • “Everybody should just really do their best to be useful… If you can help mentor when you can, do it.”
• Owen: Stresses receptivity—advice only works if wanted: “Giving someone unsolicited advice doesn’t work very well… But if you ask them, hey, do you want help with this? And they say yes, that’s a great opening.” (Owen, 62:02)
• Marcella: “It’s good to give them information they’d never have heard otherwise.”
• Panel closes with a “closing sip” toast to Scott and a reminder to “be useful.”

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Memorable Quotes & Whiteboard Highlights

• "Every time somebody gets you into a conversation of outcomes or differences in the average white or average black, they're talking about somebody who doesn't exist. There's no average white person. There's no average black person. There's no average person."
  – Scott Adams [28:33]
• "Don’t let them make you think past the sale. Individuals are the only frame that’s worth talking about. Everything else is political manipulation."
  – Scott Adams [34:05]
• "It’s this inverted moralism… you’re elevating someone based on their victimhood, not based on their achievement."
  – Owen [36:52]
• "Their sacrifice made this freedom possible, and I’m grateful for them."
  – Marcella [05:16]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:33–05:47 | Memorial Day reflections
• 07:09–10:25 | Robot cleaning tech discussion
• 11:20–16:21 | Palmer Luckey clip on patent security
• 23:20–35:14 | Scott Adams’ whiteboard lesson
• 35:14–41:00 | Panel discussion: victimhood dynamics & education
• 43:34–48:09 | Marcella’s ESL/immigrant experience
• 48:09–54:33 | Parenting, “teen takeovers”, group vs. individual responsibility
• 59:32–63:28 | Mentorship, practical takeaways, calls to action

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Conclusion & Tone

The episode is an engaging blend of deep-dive analysis, personal reflection, and practical philosophy on individuality as the cornerstone of social progress and persuasion. The tone alternates between earnest, humorous, and strongly solution-focused—moving the listener from honoring sacrifice, through the pitfalls of collectivist solutions, toward personal action and mentorship in everyday life.

Core message:
Don’t be seduced by group labels or political manipulation: see, mentor, and support people as individuals. Be useful.

Transcript

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with

[Erica]

a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.

[Scott]

Please, for the love of everything good

[Owen]

in this world, stop with Mint.

[Erica]

You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments.

[Scott]

But that's weird.

[Erica]

Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] where's everyone? Good morning.

[Owen]

Happy Memorial Day.

[Marcella]

Happy Memorial Day.

[Erica]

And I'll just say Memorial Day. It's Memorial Day, you guys.

[Marcella]

Including Democrats.

[Erica]

So, yes, Democrats too. Okay, you guys, we're so excited you're here. I saw somebody in the chat say the big question is, did Erica Upgrade to Windows 11? I'll tell you after the sip. Is everybody ready? Are we ready?

[Marcella]

I'm ready.

[Erica]

Oh, let me just make sure the stream starts. I see. Okay, we're on. Okay, let's go with the sip.

[Scott]

I think it's time for the simultaneous sip because we've gone two days without it. You need a cup or a mug or a glass of tank or chalice or style in a canteen, jug or flask, a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure at the dopamine. End of the day, the thing that makes everything better, the simultaneous sip. Go.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Ah.

[Erica]

How did he know we didn't have a sip for two days? That was amazing.

[Marcella]

That was. That was.

[Owen]

It's the simulation talk.

[Marcella]

Simulation. Oh, my God. At the same time.

[Erica]

So I want to first. We want to first recognize Memorial Day. And, you know, that's why when they were like, happy Memorial Day. Yes, we always say happy Memorial Day, but the reality is Memorial Day of what it is. You know, so we. I wrote it out so I don't sound like a total fool. Okay, you guys, so I just quickly want to say before we get started today, we want to take a moment to recognize Memorial Day and what it truly means. Today isn't simply the unofficial start of summer. It's a day to honor and remember the men and women who gave their lives in service to this country and to recognize the families who carry that sacrifice with them every day. Freedom has a cost, and there are people that we will never meet who paid it on our behalf. To those families and to those we remember, today we offer our gratitude, our respect, and our Promise not to forget. Thank you. And please don't you guys, I mean, it's true. Once the ceremonies are over and they get handed that flag and, you know, they go back to their life without their loved one who gave the ultimate sacrifice. And now that family has to continue on with that ultimate sacrifice. And, you know, kids are still playing their video games and people are still on TikTok doing their thing. And some somebody's mother, father, son, daughter, cousin, friend just died, so you could keep doing that. So don't waste a day. Always be useful and never forget and always be thankful. And Owen, as our designated military man, would you like to say something also?

[Owen]

Well, I certainly have a lot of respect for everyone who serves and, you know, certainly those that made the ultimate sacrifice. It's just, you know, it was an eye opening thing for me going through the process of being in the military. I was lucky never to be deployed. So I'm not a veteran and I don't claim to be. But you know, it, it, a lot of it, what was just, it taught me what they do and taught me the role they play and, and even just why we sometimes have to go to war. And so it totally changed my perspective on it. And you know, even just serving in my reserve unit with the people that I trained, I, I had a lot of respect for them too. And one person in my unit died when I was there and they had a funeral for him and it was a little bit of that for me. It wasn't a combat death, but it was just somebody had a heart attack. And I saw what it meant to people. These people are really close. They're like a family. And my unit went to the Persian Gulf before I was there, and they went to Iraq and Afghanistan after I left. You know, I don't know what ultimately happened to some of those people, but I certainly gained a lot of respect for what the military does for us. And I never forget that. And certainly Memorial Day is one of the days that's meant to help everybody remember that people are out there protecting us. They're out there keeping us safe. They're out there keeping the people who want us dead. And there are people who want us dead from doing that. And so I just really appreciate everything that the people in the military do for us.

[Erica]

Amen. Marcella.

[Marcella]

Sorry, I'm going to get emotional, but yeah, so just, you know, when you're out there today, remember them. Remember the soldiers that gave the ultimate sacrifice. As we say, they did it with resolve, without asking. They did it for Us in being an immigrant and having come to this country, you don't understand how. How much freedoms you guys have. And maybe some of you do, but they definitely. Their sacrifice made this freedom possible, and I'm grateful for them.

[Erica]

Thank you. I know it's tough. So I do want you to know I did some investigating in case you're going to barbecues, which you should be if you can. If it's not pouring where you are.

[Marcella]

Schumer.

[Erica]

Oh, don't eat Chuck's Burgers. But if you're gonna have a hot dog and you're watching your protein, it's 16 grams of protein. So that's your useful Memorial day barbecue information. 16 grams of protein in a hot dog? Who thought I just happened to look and I was pleasantly surprised. That was your useless information of the day?

[Owen]

Might depend on the hot dog, but okay.

[Erica]

Well, yes, And I will say it's not like a little ballpark frank, because size does matter. It's a little bit. It's like this big. It's like this one. Okay, so it's a hot dog about this big.

[Owen]

Where are we going with this, Erica?

[Erica]

It's like, not a little, tiny ballpark frank. It's a bigger not, but not like a big one. I'm assuming these would be, like, 32 grams of protein, but this one's 16. Just FYI. I don't know why Owen's laughing, but whatever.

[Owen]

I think a lot of people know I'm laughing. Erica.

[Erica]

I don't understand the girth.

[Marcella]

Yeah, I can see you blushing from

[Erica]

there through his picture.

[Marcella]

Yes.

[Erica]

Okay, so get your protein. Okay, so, you guys. So exciting. We have so many fun stories for you today. But Owen. Owen's gonna show me how much of a chance I had of having a robot clean my house and do all my domestic goddess duties. Owen. So what's that story? And I'll put up a little picture while you tell it.

[Owen]

Yeah, well, apparently there's a service that is now deploying humanoid robots to clean people's houses and potentially undercutting maid services. And it's 150 bucks in San Francisco, so I'm guessing that's relatively cheap. I think a lot of times you pay more than that for any sizable house to have people clean it. But there's this service called Gatsby that uses humanoid robots, and they clean floors, countertops, other surfaces autonomously. The price point, they're saying, is significantly lower than traditional professional cleaning services. Their quote is, we just made us history today. Gatsby ran the first ever Consumer cleaning by a humanoid robot in the United States. We picked someone random off our San Francisco wait list, they booked a cleaning, we delivered the robot and it cleaned their entire apartment on its own. No humans inside. This is the first of its kind in the US and we are proud to be the pioneers writing this line in the history books today. So one more step in terms of both humanoid robots doing tasks, but also potentially taking away jobs.

[Erica]

One more giant leap for the tradwives. Good lord.

[Marcella]

Say which robots, which type of robots they were using, like which company?

[Owen]

I don't remember. I don't think it said in the part that I took out the story. But you know, I think it was that one that has like the sort of circle head looking thing, the figure. Yeah, probably.

[Erica]

What if like your dog or cat gets in the way or what? Whatever. There's so many what ifs. I don't want to what if it to death?

[Owen]

They'll clean your dog too.

[Marcella]

Survival of the fittest.

[Erica]

Yeah, survive now, don't you think? I. This is just me, but I think if I saw that thing making my bed the way I didn't want it made, I'd be like, what are you doing? And you can't put that like that. You can't use that on that surface. I don't know, it's gonna take a long time, but. Do you guys in the chat want a robot cleaning your house?

[Owen]

Would you hire one, Erica?

[Erica]

No, no, no. I like to yell at people. Just kidding. I'm just. That's true. I could actually. I could start yelling at people. That would be fun.

[Owen]

Would you have to. Would you think you had to clean your house before the robot comes?

[Erica]

Yes, I do have a friend that cleans for me.

[Marcella]

I do.

[Erica]

Once a week. Lady comes, I clean the whole house before she comes. I'm not cleaning it. I'm just straightening it up. Like if I don't pick up, then she can't, you know, the more I do, the more she can do.

[Owen]

I understand. Yeah, my mom kind of a funny situation.

[Erica]

Oh yeah, My mom used to be like, hurry up, clean up your room. You know, the cleaners are coming. I'm like, what? Okay, just shut my door. Was always like, just shut my door. She doesn't have to do my room. Marcela, would you want one?

[Marcella]

Oh, the robot. Yeah, definitely. Because I don't think I would have to clean for the robot because they wouldn't gossip about me.

[Erica]

True.

[Marcella]

Like the cleaning ladies do.

[Erica]

Or would it?

[Marcella]

Maybe.

[Erica]

I mean, if it would be different gossip. I mean, The Claude robots are like self organizing and teaching each other how to further advance. They'd be like, did you see Marcella's place? She made me clean so much she flipped me off.

[Owen]

Yeah, I would definitely wait for the optimist. So that Elon Musk is the person spying on you instead of the Chinese.

[Erica]

Yeah, good point. Oh, can actually. That was a perfect segue, Owen. You didn't even know it. So I pulled a random clip from one of our favorites. I would love to say friend of the show, Palmer Lucky, but listen to this. You make a good point. Ready? I thought this was interesting. I think it's like a two minute clip and then let's chitty chat it.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Stop patenting everything. Patents are Chinese instruction manuals. You're taking your most valuable stuff. You are.

[Scott]

Look.

[Ryan Reynolds]

So the founding fathers never predicted a world where you would have a globalized economy, where the entire patent office could be downloaded every single morning and then ripped off and then used to fight a war against you. The problem that we have right now is that Western companies patent things so that they can trade temporary exclusivity on an idea in exchange for eventually it enters the public domain. And all that really means in practice is that for 20 years or so between when you file for a patent and when somebody could launch a product that is a ripoff, it means China can just rip it off right away. And Western companies can only rip it off after 20 years. And then you repeat this cycle over and over again for every single generation, and it's killing us. And so I don't hardly get patents anymore. There's a few things here and there, mostly defensively, because unfortunately, our patent system allows people to sue you when they think they're infringing. We need to really fundamentally revisit the patent system. And I'm not just complaining here. I've got a possible solution. I think we need to massively expand the national security patent process. You can, you can obtain a classified patent, you can get a patent on something that you are not allowed to disclose to anyone, but you still maintain the exclusivity on those rights. We need to massively expand that program and also massively expand all the categories of things that are covered by mandatory national security disclosure laws. In. During the Cold War, a lot of sensors and microcomputer technology was covered by this because the government said, oh my God, if the Russians get this, it's over. And we put in all the money, we put in all the time, they're just going to be able to Rip it off. If we let them rip all the stuff without paying any of the money to get there, then all of their money will go way further than us, where we're doing the fundamentals of all of us. I think, for example, that a lot of the things, Google patents around artificial intelligence, they are of national security importance. They should be allowed to get a patent, and it should absolutely not be disclosed publicly. And you should have to be a US Citizen to gain access to these patents. Maybe it's not classified. Right. We can't require, you know, security clearance for every engineer on these things. But I'm suggesting something where it's much broader, but the bar is lowered quite a bit. And so you can imagine a world where you kind of maybe have to. You go to a. Go to the Library of Congress to access these things, or you have to use a cap card, and people say, palmer, the spies will get in. The spies will get stuff. Okay, fine. Maybe we can make it where it's at least a little hard. Because right now, again, they can go to the US Patent Office website and download every single patent that Google and Apple and everybody else put in every single morning. We can at least try to do a little better than that. Maybe I can't buy 20 years, but maybe I can buy 1, 2, 3. If I could buy a year, that would be enough to be worth the effort.

[Erica]

So interesting. I love that guy. He's. He's great. I'd like to think if I was a bajillionaire, I would look and dress just like Palmer. Lucky. He's so chill. So, I mean, you know. All right, so first of all, what I loved was there's a problem, right? That's a big problem, but he's also giving you a solution. And that's my favorite type of person. Like, I've always said, like, in any business I've owned, please, if there's a problem, come to me with a solution. Like, don't just throw problems at me. Like, tell me how we can fix it. So I love that kind of a thinker. Obviously, these guys are all brilliant, but Marcela, holy cow. So what do you. What do you think about that?

[Marcella]

No, he's right. I mean, they're able to get all this information. I'm sure there's classified patents, but from what I gathered, you know, this is

[Erica]

not my area of law.

[Marcella]

But from what I gather, from what he said right now is that that classified patent section is, like, very nuanced, is very narrow about what it covers. So it wouldn't cover everything that he would have to patent because the, the government might not consider that in need of a classification or be classified or confidential. But I mean that they should all be confidential. I'm not understanding why. Certain technological patterns can be read by anyone in the world. We have, in the court system, we have very few cases that can be read, civil cases, probate cases. But then there's certain other parameters that are put into it where you can't access the case. And if you want to access the case, you have to actually go down to the court or you have to explain why you want it or subpoena the documents for a specific reason. So I think he's right. But, I mean, you're, you're completely correct, Erica. Like, he gives you a, he gives you a solution. But is that solution. Are we going to have Congress create new law?

[Erica]

You know, I think they should absolutely. I'm sure somebody's seen this clip and they should absolutely have him as an advisor on this. He's got, he's got an amazing team of people that could all get on this. Yeah. And it, and it is crazy to think that, you know, it's like, it's like Biden leaving all of our military equipment in Afghanistan. It's like, what are you doing? So now you just gave all of our technology to the enemies. This is the same thing. It's just another type of warfare, in my opinion. Owen, what, you know, what do you think?

[Owen]

And the problem is a lot bigger than just patents. I mean, that is maybe an egregious example where they can just download all the plans and whatever specs are in there and copy them. But I think they're, they've been doing this type of espionage for decades, and we don't seem to do very much about it. And I've, I've read stories in the past where they're saying other countries like Australia and, you know, Japan and others, they're at least trying to stop it. Like, they're, they're doing what they can to keep China from stealing their intellectual property, but the United States just doesn't seem to care and doesn't seem to do much of anything to stop it. And then you have all the Chinese people that are coming here to university and getting into our graduate research programs, and they're exposed to all the things going on in our graduate research programs. And then if you do business with China, they, A lot of times that basically they force you to do some kind of joint venture with them, and they force you to give all your intellectual property over to them as part of the deal. So when Scott said China is not safe for business, I think he meant it. And I agree with him that they're not playing fair. They're, you know, they, they come out with copied products all the time. And, you know, it is something. I mean, I think I've heard similar stories on Amazon where, you know, you'll launch a new product and then days later or very soon after, there'll be all these Chinese knockoffs and happened to Scott's books. Yeah. And, and so it's, It's a big problem everywhere, and I think we should take it more seriously and we should take. Treat it like warfare, because that's really what it is.

[Erica]

I mean, also, isn't that kind of the gist of temu? You know, it's like TEMU is like everybody's idea with a, like a little, let's just zhuzh it down and make it a dollar. I think that's all. I don't know if those are patents. Like, I guess they're product patents, but if you change one little thing. Right. Then it's different. I don't know.

[Owen]

Well, I think the problem is that China just doesn't respect the patents. They, you know, they're. I don't think they necessarily grant or enforce them the same way there that they do here. So even if they are violating the patent, it doesn't necessarily make them stop doing anything.

[Erica]

Yeah. And, and I, I worry about, like, all of the, you know, like you said, the students that are here from China, the, the spies, everything. I don't know. I, I think Palmer Lucky would be doing us a really, really big favor if he could advance that somehow to the White House, to the right people. I don't even know who it would be, but the patent department. But something I thought that was so interesting to Congress. Yeah. Oh, God. I mean, like, what do you think

[Marcella]

about to legislate new law? But President Trump can pass an executive order as well, if you want to.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Marcella]

Come on, President Trump.

[Erica]

Come on, Trumpy. Yeah.

[Owen]

I wonder, I wonder if that, that Supreme Court ruling would, Would make it harder, though, because didn't they basically say that the executive branch can't just make up their own stuff anymore? They only can do what Congress told them to do. So that may actually force or require, I wouldn't say force, but require Congress to be the one that would fix this. I don't know for sure. I mean, it may be that they've given them explicit enough instructions that the Patent office could change things in a good way. But, you know, I'm wondering if that Supreme Court ruling might mean that a lot more things are really stuck in the legislative branch for a solution.

[Marcella]

Yeah, I mean, eventually it will stop the executive order, like most executive orders, but, you know, in the meantime it can help. But you know what's interesting is that Elon does a lot of business in China, which is the only one of the few companies, American companies that does do actual, like has the Gigafactory over in China.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Marcella]

So, you know, it would be interesting to see his perspective, but I, I think he's just like, copy me, I don't care. I guess that's the way.

[Erica]

I mean, I guess he's probably so far ahead of the last thing he's doing that he's just like, go ahead. By the time you do that, I'm, I'm way ahead of you.

[Owen]

But there is that other side of the argument that it's like a lot of, it's more about execution, manufacturing capability, things like that. And I think that's where Elon has a lot of talent and that's really what makes the difference for a lot of his products. But I do think for a lot of people who invent things, you know, they, they want that protected and they want to be compensated for what they invented. And, you know, they don't want to just release that information to the world. And the patent itself is supposed to be kind of a deal. It's like, okay, I'm agreeing that I'm going to give this technology to the world and anyone can do whatever they want with it in exchange for having protection for 20 years. And so, you know, if you don't respect that, then you're basically just asking them to give up their stuff for free and not giving them anything in return.

[Erica]

All right, well, it's interesting. Thank you, Palmer. Lucky, you're a genius. Obviously. So yesterday Owen had his after party show on Saturday and then he had his subscriber spaces yesterday and he was talking about Gad Sad's book Suicidal Empathy, which led into like other discussions. And I was in there and so we were, you know, I, I think it's kind of cool to stay on this theme of suicidal empathy. And one thing I had brought up was, you know, about, you know, race, like not being afraid to call out different things. And, you know, I, I think I know what Scott thinks about the whole situation as far as race. I think we're not like, not like what you guys are thinking. Like the Whole, not this, not that Scott was right about everything meme. But.

[Marcella]

He was.

[Erica]

But, I mean, he was. But I, I found a lesson from him and I just think it was really interesting. And we miss him. Couldn't we all use a whiteboard on Monday? I mean, g. This is going to be so good, you guys. So let's just start with what, you know, Scott's opinion was about things like this and move forward accordingly. So this is going to be sit back, relax, heat up your coffee, and smoke a cigarette if you want to. It's going to be about 15 minutes of our beloved Scott. So we'll see you on the other side.

[Scott]

I'm going to tell you where things are headed. You ready? Whiteboard time. Well, I'm old enough to remember as many of you are as well. Let me give you a clearer look here. When. If you're talking about discrimination, the biggest topic of discrimination was usually white versus black. So there was a time when it was just a white versus black conversation. But as you know, that was not good enough. And that eventually evolved into something called intersectionality. Now, if you're not aware of this term, this is intersectionality means that you might be discriminated against for more than one reason. For example, you could be black, but also a lesbian. So that's the intersection. And that's important because the, the problems of just being black would be different from somebody who's black and lgbtq. But let's say you could throw disabled in there. You know, people are differently abled. So you'd have a number of categories that you could be more than one. You could be several things right now. Why is this better? Why is it better to look at intersectionality versus just to see things as race? Well, I'll tell you, your common sense is very clear on this, which is that it's not close enough that the people who have these unique problems have problems that are pretty unique. Right. If you're Hispanic and LGBTQ and you've got a disability, your situation isn't quite like anybody else's. Would you agree? You have some things in common, but your situation's different, so it makes sense. I think everybody would agree left and right. It makes more sense to get down to some granularity. So suppose we wanted to improve on this yet again. So just looking at black and white, it was too big a category. You can't do enough with it. Go to a little more granularity. Well, you might be black and also this or this and also that. That's better. Wouldn't you say more granularity? Yeah. If you're going to fix a problem, you want to understand it as well as you can understand it. And this moves you closer to understanding. So what would be the next logical place that this should go? If we continue to be rat. People or actually person. Because it's individuals. Individuals. Now, if you understood discrimination and everything else in terms of individuals, which is really where this was getting to, it was getting closer to the individual. But if we go all the way now, we can really do something. Because if this is the problem, white versus black, what are you going to do about it? What's your plan to make that better? Well, there's some things you can do, improving education, et cetera, but doesn't seem to be working. So then getting to more granular. Well, maybe we can do something if we understand it at this level. Level. But how about going further? How about going all the way to the individual? Because each of these individuals has unique problems and it's not just their color and their sexual preference or anything like that. They're just different people. So how about creating a strategy that is the right strategy for each person, which takes into account far more than, you know, the discrimination. It takes into account where they live, how old they are, what's their parent situation, is there a good school in your town, what's your personality, what's your character, what things do you need that you don't have? These are all solvable problems. If you give me an individual, they might not take my advice, but I can certainly tell them what to do. I don't know how to solve these other things. Like I don't know what I could do as an individual. But if a person is in front of me and they're not succeeding in life and they want to know how I could totally help that person. So I would say that the left and the right were accidentally heading in the same direction, which is the framing of white versus black wasn't getting you enough. What do you do about it? The instinct to go to the next level of detail was the right instinct. It's the right instinct. It just doesn't go far enough. You got to go all the way to what makes every person unique and then you can solve their problem. Now, here's the persuasion frame on this. Do you notice that there's a whole lot of making you think past the sale in this, especially the white black model, but also the intersectionality model. They both have the same characteristic. The characteristic is they ask you to accept that this was the Right way to look at it in the first place, if they're making you talk about. If they're making you talk about the difference between black and white performance or outcomes, then they've already made you think past the sale that this was ever the right question in the first place. You see that? So every time somebody gets you into a conversation of outcomes or differences in the average white or average black, they're talking about somebody who doesn't exist. There's no average white person. There's no average black person. There's no average person. We are not just different on race and we are not just different because we all have some different intersectionality thing going on. We are infinitely different. We are infinitely different. So if you accept any of these frames, you're accepting an absurdity that looking at the average of white people and the average of black people tells you something you could or should do something about. Do you know what I care about the average difference between any two groups? Nothing. I don't care. I have zero interest in fixing this average. Now that makes me sound like a terrible person, doesn't it? But the reason I have zero interest in this is that it's a trick and it gives you no solution. It only gives you in victimhood and transfer of money. It doesn't give you a system to fix it. So you have a goal. It's a goal. We'd like, you know, different groups to have similar outcomes. That's a good goal. But what's the system? The system you don't really have. Let's say you go to the next level and you complicate it or go down to more granularity. It's moving in the right direction, I think, but it still doesn't give you a system. What are you going to do about it? All right, so you do have an Elbonian, disabled bisexual. So. And they have different outcomes than the Asian American, I don't know, non binaries or something. So what are you going to do with that? That makes sense. That isn't discriminatory. But let's say you take it to the next level of individuals. So, all right, so individuals have different outcomes. So Scott, you keep complaining about systems. What's your system? Just because you divided it this way. Well, my system is sitting behind you. Right there. Now these are two books that I wrote, but you wouldn't have to buy my books. These are both teaching you how to develop a system for your own personal success. So if you divide it by individuals, you don't just have a goal but you have a system. Oh, there are self. There are basically skill development books of all kinds. There are probably 10 books that if you read all 10, your odds of succeeding are close to 100% right. Unless you get sick or you have some terrible bad luck. But if you just did the things that people who are successful advise you to do. And it might not be my advice, you know, I don't call my stuff advice. There's a reason for that. But you have so many different sources for how to fix your individual problem. You also have an infinite number of mentors that would be willing to help. What can a mentor do? If you're looking at the world as it's black versus white, what does a mentor do? It's hard to be a mentor in that world. And the same with intersectionality. But the moment you say everybody's infinitely different and my problem isn't like your problem just because we're both Elbonians, I have a different problem than you do. As soon as you go to that, then the systems open up. Oh, here's. Here's a system for building skills. Here's a system for networking. Here's a system for improving your educational outcomes. Here's a system for studying. Here's a system for your fitness. So because that helps you in every way, here's a fitness for your diet, right? Here's a fitness for your appearance. So until you get to the individual level, there's no system solution. And this cries for a system solution. That, ladies and gentlemen, is my whiteboard for today. And I would further encourage you, if you want this kind of frame to be the dominant one, that when somebody tries to bait you into a conversation about the average difference between black and white performance, tell them you're not interested. But tell them you are very interested in the success of any individual for which you could probably help with some advice. I mean, if the only thing you did is say, hey, you need help succeeding, yes, I do. Well, I'm not much of a mentor, but I could recommend five books that would really get you going. So every one of you can be a mentor just because you know of a book to recommend, probably more than one. So do not buy into the frame of what the average non existent imaginary person is doing compared to the average non existent other person is doing. Just don't buy in. Don't let them make you think past the sale. Individuals are the only frame that's worth talking about. Everything else is political manipulation.

[Erica]

Okay, good night. See you guys later.

[Marcella]

No mic drop.

[Erica]

That's so good. And that. That's. That's how I feel too. Like, just everyone's their own self. And I just. I always get nuts watching, you know, the news and politicians lumping people together. Black people are this. White people are that. No. You know, and I always. I don't know why I go right to Dave Rubin being like, don't lump me in with that whole crazy pride flag thing. You know, like, we're all just people. So, Owen, I'm gonna come to you first on this one. Go ahead, give us your breakdown on that. It's just perfect.

[Owen]

Yeah, well, it's. I think it's great. I think, you know, the. The part that you might not have really been talked explicitly about is that I think there is a system behind the first two, but it's not to help people. It's to divide people. I think the intent of the system on the black versus White, I think is just very clearly to divide and make those groups fight each other and not. Not interact and be friendly and integrate and assimilate and have any kind of shared culture. And I think the intersectionality part was more about basically scoring life on victim points, where if you have an extra thing you can throw in there, like, I'm, you know, I'm not just a woman. I'm black. I'm. I'm not just woman in black. I. I'm a Muslim, or, you know, whatever you want to throw in there. And then they get to say, oh, well, you can't talk about me because, you know, you don't know my lived experience. And so it's really just a way of trying to one up people. And it's this inverted moralism, which I think Gad Said also talks about in suicidal empathy, where it's like you're. You're elevating someone based on their victimhood, not based on their achievement or meritocracy or anything. It's just you're, you know, saying, oh, if you're the biggest victim, then you're better than everybody else. And they're potentially an oppressor because they didn't have your victimhood. And it's encouraging people to focus on how they're a victim and being powerless. And it's just. It's the opposite of helping someone succeed. So I think there is a system behind it. It's just not a good system. And I think he's very much right that I think treating people as individuals is the best way to go. And as much as you can to personalize things to individual needs, I've talked about that recently with the education system, where I think we should be having the goal, which maybe Scott wouldn't like that word, but I think we should be having the goal of getting every student to their highest potential. But that means treating everybody as an individual and saying, okay, if some people are able to go faster through the material, we should put them through the material faster. And if other people need more time, we give them more time. And if other people need a different way to learn, because some people are more auditory, some people are more visual, some people are more kinesthetic, and if we can tailor those approaches, I think we could have much better outcomes for each individual, and it would probably also mean we'd have a better outcome overall. But if you start dividing people into groups, it does the opposite. And I have an example of that in my local school district where they said, oh, we're going to get rid of the honors track, because not enough minorities were in it. And it's like, totally backwards. It's like, okay, you're basically taking away the opportunity for those minorities that were in there to be in the honors track, and you're taking it away from everyone else, too. You're basically just saying, everybody's down at the lower level now. And they claimed, oh, you can still get honors credit, but you have to do, like, this extra credit stuff on the side. But, you know, colleges would know that's not the same thing as being in the honors track, because with being in the honors track does mean you go, like, 1.5 times as fast or twice as fast through the material. So they know that those students that are in the honors track are much at a much higher level in terms of being college prepared and able than other people, and they judge schools and students accordingly.

[Erica]

And that is suicidal empathy.

[Owen]

Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. And that lasted exactly one year until the parents realized how terrible it was and that they were ruining the college chances for everyone. And they reversed it, but they tried it, and it was all just based on this thing. Like, we're trying to make it fair for everybody, and we don't want to discriminate. But basically they're just saying, we don't want to treat anyone differently because they have higher intelligence or an ability to learn faster or a harder work ethic. I mean, there could be a lot of things in there as far as how someone qualifies for that honors track, but they're basically just saying, we're going to make everybody the same. And that means make everybody the lowest common denominator and just treat everybody as if they were the same, even if they're not. And so I think it's, again, destructive, and it just makes sense, leads to worse outcomes overall. And so I'm. I'm, you know, I'm very much in agreement with what Scott was saying, that I think the best solution in most cases is to treat people as individuals. And, you know, I think the underlying thing that he didn't really say is that it also means you kind of treat everybody the same in a certain way, where it's like, you don't. You know, you don't treat someone different because of their color of their skin or because of their gender or because of their disabilities or abilities or whatever. It's like you're. You're treating everyone like they are an individual. Everyone is an individual. And it's a lot more unifying to say everyone's unique and there we're also, you know, the same in a lot of ways. And so I think it's a more unifying system as well.

[Erica]

I don't know if anyone. I don't. I don't even know if this is a good example, but this is in my head. The. Do you guys remember the first time maybe you felt like people were being rewarded for being in groups? And for me, if anyone's around my age, which. Do I have to say it? No. You were watching Oprah every day, right? And so you would see Oprah rewarding particular groups of people, whether they were poor or they were, you know, teachers who didn't have a big income or, you know, whatever. And so I loved watching. We all loved Oprah. She was like, the thing. Then I started realizing, like, wow, nowhere ever in her shows does just some average person win a reward, ever. It was always like, some kind of victimized group. And, like, in theory, I was like, oh, I get it. But then I was also like, well, what are the people who, like, show up every day, try to build futures for people and employ people, and, like, they do right by their bosses and whatever. They're so passed over. And I was like, doesn't everyone just kind of want to be like, that contributing member of society? But I just clearly remember the Oprah Winfrey show being like. And not that, like, you get a car and you get a car, but it was always like, just everybody with a victim story. And the more stories and the worse it was, like, the more attention and. And glorification they got. And then every show just, you know, all the other shows were the same way. And I was just like, well, all right, so for everyone else minding your business, doing your thing and doing, you know, doing the right thing and paying your taxes and just playing, plugging along without complaining, you know, sorry, you don't qualify for anything exciting. But Marcella, so how do you see this? Especially as somebody who came from another country, you know, here. And I always talk about like so amazing how you speak all these languages. This was not your, you know, first language or where you were born. But you've achieved so much and you've become an attorney and you're self sufficient and you know, you're not a victim. You are. And you could act like a victim if you wanted to, but why would you, right? Some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion dollar swings, there's a money side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe [e-mail] starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into sign up for your $1 per month [e-mail] specialoffer.

[Marcella]

You know, I never believed in collectivism. I always believed in the, in the individual. My, my father was always a person that taught us that each of us was the best at what we could be. If you were a janitor, if you were an engineer, that you had to be the best at whatever the thing that you did or you worked for. When I first came to this country, it was a shock to me that I was expecting that everybody spoke English. No one at the district I went to, I moved to California, spoke English. They all spoke Spanish. And I was just, I went, I was very distraught. I went home and I told my mom, oh my God, these people speak Spanish. And they speak it. They don't speak well either. So I was so shocked. Eventually I went to a different school where they actually spoke English. This was a general public school. But at the public school where I was put in the English as a Second Language esl, they had us in the back of the room. The teacher at that time, they decided that all ESL students, English learners, had to first learn their own language. Because some of those students that Would come in, did not even know how to read their own language. So they had us go in the back of the room to learn our own language. Of course I knew Spanish. So the. The lady was like, I don't know what you're doing here. But eventually I spoke to that teacher, my. My main teacher, and I told her, I'm not like them. You got to put me up there, or I'm leaving or whatever. You know, I was like fourth grade or some fifth grade or something. And she was like, oh, my gosh, what's going on? And they realize that I didn't. I didn't go past the sale. Like, I didn't. I wasn't sold on your collective. You're part of esl. You're gonna be here because that's what. That's what we think. That's what that label is, what we put on you. So the labels that you talk about in phase one and phase two that Scott talked about are labels that hurt people that are from different countries, that hurt people that are minorities. They hurt them the most than the majority. Because most of those kids that I went to ESL with, they eventually never amounted to anything. They just stayed in esl. And I wasn't going to be. Somebody told what to do. I was telling them what I could do do, and I was reading at higher level, whatever, you know, different schooling, different background. But the point is that Scott makes. Is that it should always be based on the individual. You know, you shouldn't be basing anything on a collective of this is how they are. And on top of that, those people, the label, the collective, or the. Or the victimization of these individuals, like Erica was talking about Oprah, those are the ones that profit from that. The people within those classes, within those labels, do not profit from it. They are just given this label. They're told they're never going to amount to anything. Later on, I became a teacher for, like, two seconds. And all my students when I was there, I told them all of them could achieve anything they put their mind to, as long as they worked hard and they had systems versus goals. And they were just amazed. They were so happy to be in my class. And they were so, like, nobody's ever told them that. And I found it to be sad because I was teaching. This one class that I taught was a high school class. So they were freshmen, sophomore. They've never heard of such a thing. And I was just like, you know, a lot of the things we talked about, Owen talked about the education system and getting Rid of, you know, gate and all the genius labels or anything like that because there's not enough minorities. That's. That's. That's like saying that minorities cannot achieve that.

[Erica]

Right.

[Marcella]

You know, so that in itself is racist in my mind.

[Erica]

Like, black people can't get ID to vote and actually.

[Marcella]

Right. Or women. Married women.

[Erica]

Oh, yeah. Right, right, right, right, right. Because we're too busy baking. Yeah. We're barefoot and baking all the time. Magi, you were so funny on X the other day. Somebody really got mad that I said that minorities, you know, that that is such a. Such BS that people can't get an ID because he was having an issue with his wife. And I'm like, listen, like, stop. Figure it out with your wife. But it's. It's an absolute ridiculous statement to just say an entire group of people can't do something like, how disgusting. So the only question I have, like, about. So Scott's lesson on this is when I do see these. I don't know why I can never remember what they call these things. These. Take teen takeovers. That is a group of people. So it's a group of, you know, 99. It's black culture for some reason that this is happening with. So how do I, Owen. Reconcile that? Yes. There's, like, this group of people doing this consistently over and over and over and over and over again and ruining businesses and this and that.

[Marcella]

It seems to be because they're given that label. That's the same thing with the high school students that I was teaching.

[Erica]

Is that why they're doing it?

[Marcella]

They. Well, at least the high school students, at least when I was in high school and I had these, like, teen takeovers, and lots of them were my friends. They were just like, this is what we're supposed to do. We're no good. We're just like, this is what we do, and we don't question it. And a lot of them were part of gangs and things like that. So that's just my perspective from knowing some of them.

[Erica]

Go ahead, Alan.

[Owen]

Yeah, I mean, I. The way I would respond to that is that, again, if you treat people like individuals, that means you apply the rules the same way to them you would to anyone else. And so if they're committing crimes, if they're causing disruption, if they're violating the law in some way, then they should have the consequences for that. And it shouldn't be any different because they're black. Right. Or Hispanic or any other group that would do that. Like.

[Erica]

Well, didn't Scott Say also that there are just differences between us and cultures. I mean, there just are. I mean, look, look, I don't see. I don't see them. I. Well, I just. It's because I don't see, you know, groups of black people. Like, I always see people like, where's the white person? I'm like, where's the white person in your group? Like, you're different. Like, you know, like, it's different things. So, like, stop calling us racist when I don't see white people, like, in your big flock of people either. That's not to say that, you know, we don't have black and white friends, but don't, like, point a finger when three more are pointing back at you.

[Owen]

So, yeah, I just. What I. What I'm getting at is that, you know, most of what Scott was focusing on was how to be. How to be successful. And I think that's the right frame, frankly, because even. Even in that situation, if you worked with some of those individuals and tried to help them be more successful, they would be less likely to be out in the street doing a teen takeover. But I think, to me, you can turn that same thing around and say we should also treat people as individuals if they're committing crimes or if they're doing anything that is violating the law. And I think that also is part of a solution or part of a system that works, because unfortunately, right now we do have people giving different sentences to people based on their race or based on their gender or based on whatever. And that really shouldn't happen. It should be, we're all equal under the law, and you don't get any special dispensation because you just, you know, have a different skin color or you have a different culture or whatever. It's like, no, you still need to follow the law.

[Erica]

And if under the law, 100%. But what I. I get concerned about is the suicidal empathy of not calling out that there's a problem. You know, so, like, I feel like, you know, if we just focus on. Well, individually, yes, under the law, like,

[Marcella]

if people get arrested, they have no fathers. Some of them don't have a father or their mothers. Like, a lot of the kids I taught had guardians. They did. Their grandparents were the ones raising them because their parents had gotten into drugs.

[Erica]

And this is.

[Marcella]

This is white kids, black kids, Hispanic. It didn't matter the color. It's just the. The area where I worked at was, you know, the inner city. So a lot of the grandparents had to take care of these kids. And you Know, when you're a grandparent, you're older, you're not as able to move around and tell, you know, your grandkid not to go into a street takeover. But a lot of them are just. To me, the issue would be parents not being there for these kids, you know, possibly.

[Erica]

And it could also just be kids doing what the rest of the group is doing so they feel like they can fit in. But it's a. That's a. I feel like somewhat of a collective problem within black culture. And I'm allowed to say that even though I'm not black, I'm observing things. So, you know, whatever. But I. I just wish that there was a way to call things out, to just tamp it down and literally try to find a resolution for people. Like Marcella said, you can be anything you want to be if you apply yourself. You know, they need people separating them from, like, this crazy culture and be like, is this what you want for your life? You know, but I don't know how you do it. Like, do we need to get more like, Big Brother, Big Sister, YMCA programs, you know, mentors? So, I don't know. I would love to think that there's a way through this, because I've seen, you know, we've all seen lots of, like, you know, the home life for a lot of these people can be tragic. I don't know. I just. I just think that I don't want to stay quiet about very obvious things at the detriment of our country. And, you know, there's people that can't just go live freely right now because these types of things will happen. And then if you call it out, you're going to be called names. Like, I don't know.

[Marcella]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Owen]

I just. I would just say within what Scott was talking about, I would say that's maybe more of a symptom of that first frame. You know, black versus white, or, you know, different groups kind of pitted against each other. And I think if you can move more to that individual frame, that kind of falls apart, because then people aren't going to say, oh, I want to go do a teen takeover.

[Erica]

Why?

[Owen]

Why? Why would I do that? Like, you know, and it. I think if you get to the point where you think of everyone as uniquely, you know, everyone has their own problems, everyone has their own strengths, everyone has their own abilities, and you just need to try and optimize the outcome for each one of those people, and then that leads you towards the solution as opposed to just saying, oh, it's A problem in black culture, and, you know, black people go fix it, because that's not how it's going to get solved, I don't think. I mean, I think it's more giving people a path that they can succeed. So maybe there are some other solutions, like better school choice and other things to allow people to get on a better path. And certainly I would say it would

[Erica]

be country, what's up? What's better than this country? It's like the kids can't do it on their own if they don't have the parents leading the way. I don't know. It just frustrates so much.

[Marcella]

And it's one of the reasons why I stopped being a teacher is that you're taught not to be strict in class. So we would have teenage takeovers in the classroom. Like, they would just go crazy and do whatever to these teachers. And I was like, nope, nope. You hear me speak Spanish? That means you're not. You're all going to be staying for lunch and you're going to be here forever. I'm going to have you do a test. So the. The issue is that no adult puts a limit to them. Like, when was talking about the law applying to them and all that, it seems to me that they just, you know, they just want to have fun and do whatever they want to do, and there's no adult supervision at all. And that's what really a teen takeover is. They don't have parents, their grandparents. Whoever's watching them doesn't have the power to tell them what to do. They've never heard somebody say no to them. And yeah, just.

[Erica]

I mean, a lot more mentors get beat up by their kids, too. It's insane. It's insane.

[Marcella]

Yes. Everybody lost grandparents, too. King Randall is being mentioned. That's one person that's making a difference. There's other people making a difference. But it really.

[Erica]

Why don't we all try to do that? If you're somewhere where you can mentor people, do it, you know, find. Find a way to. To help. I mean, we can watch and complain, but can we step in? I have lots of friends that really mentor people go everywhere. Oh, my God. But, you know, if you can, that's a really great way of being useful. I mean, I. I have one friend I'm thinking of in particular, and he mentors his nieces and nephews. They're great kids. But he's there as like an extra mentor to just be like, listen, you know, you see what happened there? You know, they talk it through you know, you don't want to do that. You want to respect this. You. You know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I don't think there's enough of that. I mean, he. He's, like, really teaching, like, maybe like, what our parents would have taught, and I think that's missing. But I could go on about this forever, I think.

[Owen]

I think parenting. I think parenting has gone downhill.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Owen]

Across the board. And I'm not talking about any particular group. I mean, I know there are problems in particular groups that might be more prevalent than others, but I'm saying, like, you know, the. I think parents used to be a lot more involved with their kids in that sort of mentoring thing, teaching him lessons, teaching him how to do things. I felt like I was a lot more on my own, you know, because my dad was really busy. He would travel for work and things, and I did a lot of that, too. So maybe my kids feel the same way. But, you know, I did make an effort to, like, counsel and coach my kids and talk them off the ledge if it sounded like they were about to do something bad and, you know, correct them when it was necessary, certainly, too. And I do think that both mothers and fathers are important in that, and they both have a role to play, no matter whether it's a girl or a boy. And I think it's just a really important role that I think people have kind of forgotten about. And, you know, there's the opposite part where people say, oh, now we have these helicopter parents and, like, structured activities. And some of that might be true, too. And maybe that's a problem in itself, too, that people don't have enough time to do free play and some of the other things that I did when I was a kid. But I still think, to me, a lot of it is that when a kid is in trouble like that, in my experience, it means their parent probably isn't involved. And it may not be, you know, an intentional thing. It may just be that they are, you know, a single parent and they're working all the time and they can't. But if there was some system we could put in place to. To fix that or to help with that, I think it would potentially make a big difference. And if more mothers and fathers stayed together to raise their kids, I think it would make a big difference.

[Erica]

Take the phones away from your kids. Take the iPads away from your kids. Let them get creative. Let them read a book. Talk to them. How about talk to them. How about no phones at the dinner table? If I go to A restaurant. I mean, I saw a father who. It was clear that he had. It was like his time with the son. Like, you could just tell he was like a single dad type of thing. They sat at the table right near me, each one of them on their phone. They did not say a word to each other. The kid was probably nine. And then there's the dad, and I'm like, what do you. Like, this is such a wasted opportunity. So parents do need to step up and. And grandparents and aunts and uncles and friends and cousins. Everybody should just really do their best to be useful, because this. This generation, like, the under 30 generation, is running amok. So if you can help mentor when you can do. It doesn't have to be an official capacity either. It could just be like a situational moment where you could just be like, hey, like, pull the person aside and be like, I just want to talk to you about what just happened here. Something like that. I don'. It just. It could just be one little thing. All right, so we're out of time, you guys. This day flew by. It was so good seeing all your faces this Monday morning. I'm going back to bed. I'm kidding. No, I'm not. But we will be back tomorrow. And why do I keep forgetting the date it is? Oh, we have a special guest on Wednesday. Dr. Drew will be here with us for the hour, so it's official. Dr. Drew, right?

[Marcella]

Since Loveline.

[Erica]

Oh, heck, yeah. Loveline with Adam Carolla. Yep.

[Marcella]

I wasn't supposed to listen to it, but I did.

[Erica]

I was. I'm old enough for Dr. Ruth. Remember Dr. Ruth? Dr. Ruth Versteimer?

[Owen]

She was adorable.

[Erica]

Adorable and kinky. So weird. She was, like, four feet. All right, so we will be back tomorrow. You guys enjoy the rest of your day. Let's be useful. And you know what? I am going to do better in taking the time to maybe, you know, gently pull somebody aside and maybe, like, give them a. Hey, unsolicited advice. So maybe we can all just kind of be like, mentors for. For anyone that, you know, is younger that might need a little push in the right direction. What do you think, Owen and Marcel? A good idea?

[Owen]

Yeah, I mean, I think it's. It's better if someone wants the help, because that's. I think one of the reasons why Scott said he never gives advice is that giving someone unsolicited advice doesn't work very well, because then if they don't want it, they're not going to be listening, and they're not going to do anything. But I think if you can find a place where someone's receptive and they're looking for help, and maybe you ask them, hey, do you want help with this? And they say, yes, that's a great opening. And then if you can develop that mentoring relationship, I think a lot of kids would appreciate it.

[Erica]

I think I'm gonna go with the. Hey, come here. One second. I just want to let you know a little observation I made and just kind of. Because no kid really wants it.

[Marcella]

Maybe they never heard of it. So I'd be like, oh, yeah, but it's good to. To give them your information that they would never have heard it otherwise, you know?

[Erica]

I agree. Let's do it. You guys, do it at your leisure and your. Yeah, do it at your leisure. Do it at whatever level you're comfortable, but I think we should do it. All right, so we'll be back tomorrow. We'll be working on the show for tomorrow. And we'd like to thank Scott and Shelly. We miss you so much for allowing us to keep the show going. And Marcella, Owen, and I will be back tomorrow morning. And you guys, I closing sip to our beloved Scott. I loved having a whiteboard lesson today. And tomorrow we will be useful once again. Okay, guys, a closing sip to Scott.

[Owen]

Be useful.

[Erica]

Don't forget your. Your Memorial Day thanking people. Okay, Love you. Bye. Bye, Mindy. Happy birthday, Mindy. Oh, my God, I almost forgot. It's Mindy's birthday. Mindy. She's coming home from a cruise. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Love you. Okay,