Why The Biden Health Claims Don’t Make Sense W/ Jillian Michaels

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary Title: Why The Biden Health Claims Don’t Make Sense W/ Jillian Michaels
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook
Guest: Jillian Michaels
Release Date: May 22, 2025

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Introduction and Guest Welcome (00:00 - 02:08)

The episode begins with the hosts welcoming Jillian Michaels, a renowned fitness expert and television personality, to the "Ruthless Variety Program." Josh Holmes expresses enthusiasm about having Jillian on the show, mentioning her widespread presence across various media platforms.

Josh Holmes (02:08):
"We thought we would greatly improve the intellect and the aesthetic of the Ruthless Friday Show by introducing Jillian Michaels."

Jillian Michaels’ Background and Transition to Public Speaking (02:08 - 09:03)

Jillian shares insights into her journey from being an overweight child in California to becoming a fitness icon. She discusses the psychological aspects of weight loss, emphasizing that sympathy can be disempowering for individuals struggling with obesity.

Jillian Michaels (06:39):
"You can’t apply sympathy. That’s a false message of lethargy. Literally, that’s the synonym for it."

She reflects on her time on "The Biggest Loser," recounting a poignant story about motivating a contestant named Shay through a tough but necessary intervention, utilizing fear as a motivational tool to build self-esteem and encourage lasting change.

Jillian Michaels (11:14):
"I was trying to get this woman to climb on this thing called Jacob's ladder...I was like, so help me God, if you don’t get on this ladder, I’m gonna break every bone in your body."

Health as a Political Football (09:03 - 18:28)

The conversation shifts to the politicization of health issues. Jillian laments how health, particularly the Maharishi movement (Maha), has become intertwined with politics, leading to absurd scenarios where individuals believe political figures are influencing health practices in extreme ways, such as injecting fluoride into their eyeballs.

Jillian Michaels (03:33):
"I find it strange when did health become political? It should be utterly nonpartisan."

She criticizes the use of petroleum-based food dyes and the broader issue of chemical additives in everyday products, highlighting the societal obsession with political narratives over scientific reasoning.

Impact of Media and Government on Health Information (18:28 - 36:30)

Jillian critiques the media's handling of health information, particularly focusing on alleged cover-ups regarding President Biden’s health. She argues that the Biden administration manipulated information about the President's prostate cancer diagnosis, suggesting that it was known internally for years and was being concealed from the public.

Jillian Michaels (33:00):
"There’s no universe where they did not know this man had prostate cancer."

The hosts discuss the broader implications of media manipulation and governmental control over health narratives, questioning the integrity of information disseminated to the public.

School Choice and Educational Reform in Texas (75:00 - 90:31)

Transitioning from health politics, the podcast features Genevieve Collins from Americans for Prosperity (AFP) discussing the significant strides made in Texas regarding school choice. She highlights the passage of the largest school choice program in American history and the shift in political attitudes, especially among rural Republicans, towards supporting educational reforms.

Genevieve Collins (80:27):
"Our whole campaign in Texas is to make freedom bigger in Texas. Be the shining example."

Josh Holmes and Genevieve elaborate on the challenges of overcoming urban versus rural divides and the importance of empowering communities to have choices in their children’s education, ultimately aiming to address workforce shortages in various trades through better educational opportunities.

Listener Engagement and Discussions (36:30 - 78:21)

The episode includes listener comments and a playful segment called "King of the Hill," where hosts engage in humorous debates comparing political figures to historical or controversial personalities. This segment underscores the show's blend of serious political discourse with light-hearted banter.

A notable moment involves debating President Biden's health claims and his prostate cancer diagnosis, with Jillian Michaels asserting the administration's awareness and concealment of his condition.

Jillian Michaels (33:34):
"They have known about this for years."

Conclusion and Final Thoughts (78:21 - End)

In the final segments, the hosts and Jillian Michaels reflect on the importance of community-driven initiatives like those led by AFP in Texas. They emphasize the need for continuous dialogue and grassroots movements to effect lasting change in policy areas such as education and healthcare.

Josh Holmes (90:31):
"Healthy upbringing and making sure that our children are educated... it's a conversation about how these policies can improve people's lives."

The episode wraps up with final thoughts from the hosts, encouraging listeners to engage in discussions about making America healthier and more prosperous through informed policy choices and community involvement.

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Notable Quotes

• Jillian Michaels (06:39):
  "You can’t apply sympathy. That’s a false message of lethargy."

• Jillian Michaels (11:14):
  "If you don’t get on this ladder, I’m gonna break every bone in your body."

• Jillian Michaels (03:33):
  "I find it strange when did health become political? It should be utterly nonpartisan."

• Jillian Michaels (33:00):
  "There’s no universe where they did not know this man had prostate cancer."

• Genevieve Collins (80:27):
  "Our whole campaign in Texas is to make freedom bigger in Texas. Be the shining example."

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Key Topics Covered

1. Jillian Michaels’ Personal Journey and Approach to Fitness Coaching

   • Overcoming personal struggles with weight
   • Utilization of fear as a motivational tool
   • Psychological aspects of weight loss and self-esteem

2. Politicization of Health Issues

   • Health as a nonpartisan issue
   • Critique of political influence on health practices
   • Discussion on President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis

3. Media Manipulation and Information Control

   • Alleged cover-ups by the Biden administration
   • Role of media in shaping public perception of health issues
   • Skepticism towards official health narratives

4. Educational Reform and School Choice in Texas

   • Success of Americans for Prosperity in passing school choice legislation
   • Shifts in political support for educational reforms
   • Importance of community-driven initiatives in policy-making

5. Listener Engagement and Political Humor

   • Interactive segments like "King of the Hill"
   • Balancing serious political discourse with humor

6. Grassroots Movements and Community Involvement

   • Role of organizations like AFP in shaping policy
   • Empowering communities through education and health reforms
   • Continuous dialogue for sustained policy impact

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Insights and Conclusions

The episode delves deep into the intersection of health, politics, and media, illustrating how personal experiences and grassroots movements can influence broader societal issues. Jillian Michaels provides a unique perspective on how health should remain a nonpartisan issue, free from political manipulation. The discussion with Genevieve Collins underscores the effectiveness of community-driven initiatives in achieving significant policy changes, such as the successful implementation of school choice in Texas.

Final Takeaway:
The podcast emphasizes the importance of maintaining integrity in health information, the power of grassroots movements in shaping education policy, and the need for continuous, informed dialogue to address and resolve complex societal issues.

Transcript

[Jillian Michaels]

I think what you saw with Biden was obviously a lot of propaganda and a lot of manipulation for whoever was really in power. I mean, and I'm certainly no expert in the auto pen, but it's alarming. And you've seen Trump say, like, we got to get to the bottom of this.

[Josh Holmes]

Which one would hope put that graphic.

[Jillian Michaels]

Up while she's talking, you know, but the bigger thing is there's no universe where they did not know this man had prostate cancer. Again, you know who's wonderful in explaining this is Dr. Drew Pinsky. Yeah, he's had prostate cancer. He breaks this down in detail, but. But I've interviewed so many different doctors over the course of my career, and there's just no universe.

[Josh Holmes]

But also everything.

[Jillian Michaels]

It does not happen. Oh, we felt a nodule. What are you. There's a PSA score. It's a Gleason 9. It's metastasized. They have known about this for years.

[Michael Duncan]

Standard panel.

[Josh Holmes]

Years.

[Dick Durbin]

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[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please.

[Comfortably Smug]

Keep the fate, hold the line and own the lids.

[Michael Duncan]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Welcome back good Thursday to you to the Ruthless Variety Program. My name is Josh Holmes, along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. What we thought we would do for you here is greatly improve the intellect and the aesthetic of the Ruthless Friday Show.

[Jillian Michaels]

It's a high bar.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And introduce to you Jillian Michaels. How are you?

[John Ashbrook]

Hi.

[Jillian Michaels]

I'm good. Thank you for having me.

[Josh Holmes]

Guys, you're just a breath of fresh air. We've known you for all of about 10 minutes. I can't get enough laughs out of you. I mean, this is. This is fun.

[Jillian Michaels]

Cause tragedy plus time equals comedy. That is the story of my life. Seriously.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, you all probably recognize that, first of all, you've been making your rounds. You seem to be omnipresent in the universe of podcasts and everything else. I know you're working on a couple projects. We can talk about that. A lot of people know you from the Biggest Loser.

[Jillian Michaels]

I know it's good and bad. Maybe possible.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I mean, look, I loved it. But, you know, athleticism, aerobic activity, healthy lifestyles, things that, you know, sort of have become in vogue now in this day and age for the first time, like, were forced upon everybody in terms of a conversation for years before, but now seem to have a foothold with the Maha movement.

[Jillian Michaels]

You know, it has been said that maha is one of the most powerful political movements in the country right now. But what I find so strange is when did health become political? I want to be funny for you, but I just don't. I don't, unfortunately see the humor in it. It's quite sad. And people have asked me in the Venn diagram of politics and health and my life, how did you end up being political? It's that intersection of Maha, which. This should be utterly nonpartisan.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Jillian Michaels]

But now, like, I mean, I have friends in California that would inject fluoride into their eyeballs right now. Because Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

Because Trump.

[Jillian Michaels]

It's crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

It is crazy.

[Jillian Michaels]

I was arguing with an MIT engineer the other day over petroleum based food dyes, and she's like, well, you know, I did some research and you would have to ingest a truckload of red number whatever, like, to end up with a third nipple. And I'm thinking, like, first of all, there's beetroot as an alternative, which, I mean, surely you can concede is a better option. But second of all, you know, it's the other 9,999 chemicals that are in your food, water, beauty products, home products. Like, it's the, you know, the aggregate of all of this garbage. But why are you making a case for petroleum based food dyes? Yeah, because Trump, it's always the same conversation. It's crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

Can we talk a little bit about just sort of your life before we get started into all the various issues and what's brought you here and everything else. Like, where'd you grow up?

[Jillian Michaels]

I grew up in California.

[Josh Holmes]

So you did, like, just born and raised. So you've watched the full.

[Jillian Michaels]

The complete transformation at the hands of. It's so sad, actually, again, like, also not funny. I want it to be funny. Not enough time has gone by. It's just the tragedy piece at the moment. So unfortunately, I have seen, under the leadership of people like Gavin Newsom, the state's complete decline. And it's. It's very sad and unfortunate because it is an exceptionally beautiful state and the people really, I mean, with the exclusion of Hollywood that everybody loves to excoriate, and for good reason. Most of the people are lovely. They're just Normal human beings trying to do their thing, live their life, but the politics are a tragedy, and you give the most and you get the least across the board.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, totally. So look, somewhere in your grown. Imagine you were always athletic.

[Jillian Michaels]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

What?

[Jillian Michaels]

No, I was a fat kid, which I was. Yeah, I was the fat kid. And I think that's why the approach that people have seen me take historically in the role of personal trainer, and unfortunately, I haven't donned the tights in that capacity for a little while. But, you know, when I was in that role very actively, it gives you a different perspective on it. So surely you have an empathy because you understand why people utilize food when they're overweight or obese. But you can't apply sympathy. That's a false message of lethargy. That's virtue signaling. Literally, that's the synonym for it. And you're fundamentally disempowering somebody when you're sympathetic. It's like, oh, you sad, sorry, pathetic, weak little thing. Don't Worry, if you're 300 pounds and you have chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes, this is, you know, this is the best you can do.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

And it's beautiful.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

So it.

[John Ashbrook]

Low expectations in politics. Yeah. We called that the soft bigotry of low expectations.

[Jillian Michaels]

Nice.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what it is, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And that applies to health.

[Jillian Michaels]

100%.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like just a pat on the head. And this is the best you can do?

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah, 100%. That's exactly it. No, and I'm living proof. Hence the, you know, to bring it back to being the overweight kid.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. But at some point, I mean, listen, in addition to everything you're doing in a personal training capacity and athletically and everything else, you have personality. You have an ability to sort of get on screen and magnetize an audience. And this just becomes a thing for you. I imagine that, like, that's a. It's an interesting transition because it's not like there is a road that one travels to become sort of a celebrity in this area.

[Jillian Michaels]

I definitely had a learning curve, for sure. You learn to become more familiar with these things. So you guys, I'm sure, can all understand this. You become a better public speaker, you become better on camera.

[Josh Holmes]

Takes doing it.

[Jillian Michaels]

You have media training, people teach you. And then you watch yourself and you're appalled.

[Josh Holmes]

Always. Oh, my gosh. Right?

[Jillian Michaels]

Like, did I say, like, 57 times in that interview? It's like, you know, like. Like, oh, my God. Like, it's, you know, you go flog yourself. Get back into an interview and you say it 52 times and then hopefully you improve in your interviews and you improve in your communication skills and. And then at the end of the day, there are people that are just gonna hate you regardless, which is irrelevant.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's just being public.

[Jillian Michaels]

Exactly right. That is absolutely part of being forward facing. People are gonna project whatever they want onto you, for better or for worse. There are people that thought I was like fat Jesus and then there are people that thought I was like the ultimate fat shamer. Neither of which happened to be true. So, you know, the truth is somewhere in the middle. But you know, when you're thrust into that position, it is an opportunity you don't want to throw away. You've got this huge megaphone and the show had aired in like 80 something countries and I was able to publish books in all those countries and put out DVDs in those countries at the time, and apps and so on and so forth. So you gotta kinda rise to the occasion over time. And luckily it's been a long time, so people forget how bad I was at that job.

[Michael Duncan]

But you're selling yourself short. I mean, you became such a great motivator for so many people who felt like there was no way out. And I wonder if you have one specific story that sticks in your mind from those days that you could share with the audience.

[Jillian Michaels]

I do. I have to concede that probably 66% of the people I worked with did not keep it off. But 34, I don't know why I came up with these numbers for you, but it's right. It's like a third kept it off. And that's actually hugely successful because when you look at the numbers, 95, honestly, 95% of the people that lose it put it back on. And it has to do with why they're eating. At the end of the day. As much as people don't like to hear calories in, calories out, that's the simple science. But it doesn't solve the problem as to why they're consuming too many calories.

[Josh Holmes]

Psychological.

[Jillian Michaels]

Exactly. So this is a bit dark, but there was a contestant that was £500. She was the biggest woman we'd ever had on the show and had a tragic background. Her mother was a drug addict and a prostitute and she was into foster care. And the stories were horrific. And on day one, you know, in a, in an environment like Biggest Loser, it's a life or death intervention on a ticking clock because they get, they get voted off, which is extremely unfortunate. You Know, the gamification of weight loss made great tv, but was arguably not the best way to help people over time. I wasn't a producer on the show. It had its good points, it had its bad points. Obviously the fact that they would go home for me as a trainer was not awesome, but it made compelling television. So it's like day one and I'm trying to get this woman, her name is Shay, to climb on this thing called Jacob's ladder, where you're on your hands and your feet and you're climbing for 15 seconds. And she's like, won't do it. And she's crying and this and that. And I just remember grabbing this woman and throwing her practically through the wall with like all my might. And I was like, so help me God, if you don't get on this ladder, I'm gonna break every bone in your body. I swear to God, I will kill you myself.

[Comfortably Smug]

I.

[Jillian Michaels]

And what people do, it's like a football coach, is that I was trying to circumvent this story of like, I'm worthless, I'm fat, I'm weak, I'm lazy, I can't. By just scaring the shit out of her. So utilizing fear to kind of motivate her to do it. She gets through 15 seconds and I was like, great, go do 10 more. And I showed up the next day and she's like, I did 10 more last night. And the point is. And she ended up losing hundreds of pounds.

[Josh Holmes]

You broke the fear.

[Jillian Michaels]

So you utilize fear to give them. You don't always need to use that tool, by the way. It's like using a sledgehammer on everything. You use it for very specific instances, but this one was necessary because she was gonna go home the first week given the percentages. So what you're doing is you're utilizing it so that they have this accomplishment. And this accomplishment builds esteem. Bingo. It redefines your self worth and your belief and capabilities. So it opens this door of, if I thought I wasn't able to do this and I am, what else is possible? So you have to give people in that situation a moment like that. They need a rock bottom moment too. And the reason is because it's gotta be harder to continue doing what they're doing than the work and the fear associated with the change. And it's also hard to understand. But people don't engage in self destructive behaviors because they're weak, lazy or stupid. That's. That's simply not true. It's providing them with something very psychologically. Significant. So, for example, with this woman, she'd been abused in ways, you know, that we don't need to get into, but I'm sure you can imagine. And she put on the weight to desexualize. So it's providing her with what, in her mind, unconsciously, she sees as a defense structure. So taking that away from her is going to be terrifying. And that's, by the way, why people have such a hard time getting it off and such a hard time keeping it off. And you've got other factors. You know, the food's addictive, blah, blah, blah. But there's a bigger picture.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. It's just fascinating because you blend a whole bunch of things. It's not just like running and jumping.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's. That's amazing because, like, typically, you think of the job of the trainers, like, okay, get me to do the regimen, design the regimen. But some of it. So much of it seems. It's also like a psychiatrist job of, like, you have to find the reason why they're telling themselves they can't.

[Jillian Michaels]

You would love it if a psychiatrist would do it, or psychoanalyst, which would be another problem with the show. But my mother was a psychoanalyst, so I've also been in therapy, and I was the overweight kid, and I had this very draconian martial arts.

[Josh Holmes]

Wait, so you had a background in that side?

[Jillian Michaels]

100%. And my martial arts instructor was a savage and would do the same things to me. But it worked. Yeah, it was.

[Josh Holmes]

But you recognized it.

[Jillian Michaels]

Bingo.

[Josh Holmes]

Because your mom.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You knew what was happening.

[Jillian Michaels]

The combo deal, the combination of tough love and expectation, but also understanding what's going on for them psychologically. So you can try to help, but it's complex. Ideally, you'd have a professional do the.

[Josh Holmes]

Work, and Everybody works differently.

[Jillian Michaels]

100%.

[Josh Holmes]

What motivates them definitely is different. So, listen, this is probably a tough transition, but one of the things that we love is you're like the surgeon general in the war on fats for the last 15 years. We want to play a clip for you. Just get the reaction. Can we do clip one, please?

[Jillian Michaels]

That's her story.

[Josh Holmes]

Come on. That's the girl.

[Jillian Michaels]

Sorry, I'm screaming. That's her.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you ready to work?

[Comfortably Smug]

Amazing.

[Jillian Michaels]

That was the moment. That's her. You go home and no one's gonna chase you. No one.

[Josh Holmes]

Look at that.

[Genevieve Collins]

All right, this is different.

[Jillian Michaels]

But that was her. That was the moment.

[Comfortably Smug]

That is so cool.

[Jillian Michaels]

Isn't that weird that you picked.

[John Ashbrook]

I love it.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. I just love it for so many reasons.

[Michael Duncan]

Everything.

[Josh Holmes]

We all watch this, this show for a lot of different reasons, but you just kicking somebody's ass was like half.

[Michael Duncan]

Of it for me.

[Josh Holmes]

It's like watching. She seems like dismantled.

[Michael Duncan]

I love when you could see in their eyes the turn, like when they finally believed that they could do it. And I think a lot of that credit goes to you.

[Jillian Michaels]

I would say it's a teamwork. You have to be unafraid of what people think of you because nobody listen. In a normal universe where she wouldn't go home in a week, that's unnecessary behavior. You can get her there over time, but when she will go home in seven days and arguably end up dead in the next decade, you have to be willing to push them that hard. And of course, nobody has the understanding of why I'm doing what I'm doing. So they're like, I should just mean to fat people.

[Josh Holmes]

Which I don't know.

[Comfortably Smug]

Imagine there's an audience who's like, I just want to watch someone. Shot of fat people.

[Josh Holmes]

Sure.

[Comfortably Smug]

Never watch another show.

[Josh Holmes]

You guys, you saw the name on the show right there. Listen, I can't tell you that it was all altruistic from my viewing perspective, but just an incredible thing. But look, you're now part of this larger. I want to talk a little bit about Maha, all of those things. I want to get your reaction to the whole Biden, the media, a cover up. I want to get to all of that right after this.

[Comfortably Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

All right, so listen, we're back with Jillian Michaels, first of all, you are an absolute delight. Thank you. I love having you here just sort of light up and have a different perspective on a whole bunch of things. I mean, you're grizzled political types. You've come at this thing not from a political perspective. I don't imagine your family was particularly political.

[Jillian Michaels]

No, not at all.

[Josh Holmes]

And you probably didn't engage at any point in your life in politics. And yet you find yourself after a successful career in everything that you've done, you're now sort of driven into it probably by no sense of your own interest in doing it so much as it is just kind of like, important at this stage.

[Jillian Michaels]

Well, you definitely get dragged into it because health has become a political football.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

And the issues are, they're broad. So it's everything from ending chronic disease, but it's also gender affirming, care for minors.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[Jillian Michaels]

You know, when you. When you really have a modicum of understanding with regard to what happens when you interrupt puberty for children.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

You come at this from a completely different perspective. You're giving children off label cancer drugs during puberty, and we know for a fact how it's going to impact their brain development, let alone their bones. And it's.

[Josh Holmes]

And you're a mom. I mean, you look at it through the eyes of your own children.

[Jillian Michaels]

It is absolutely barbarous and disgusting. And it is something that I think we will look back on, like lobotomies. That's what Rogan said. Actually, you're exactly correct. And it has nothing to do with being trans. That's a separate conversation. If an adult grows up and they understand, like, okay, I'll lose sexual function, I'll become infertile. Their brain is already developed, their bones are already developed, and they have the ability to comprehend the choices they're making. Like, listen, I'm a libertarian, to be dead honest with you. Like, I don't care what you do as an adult.

[Josh Holmes]

If it's consenting, what you will.

[Jillian Michaels]

Bingo. But children and their parents don't fully understand what this means. And so.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's terrifying just being a parent. Right. I mean, just day in and day.

[Jillian Michaels]

Out, and they tell you your kid will kill themselves if you don't allow this transition.

[John Ashbrook]

And you want to do everything for your kids, your kid, and they exploit that. I think, I think there's a medical industrial complex around all this stuff with.

[Jillian Michaels]

This transgender billion dollar business.

[John Ashbrook]

It's insane.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's the thing. There was a study which was conducted. The government actually had this done during the Biden administration. And they saw that the myth that it's been pushed that these children will commit suicide if they're not allowed to transition. And then they found that opposite groups that were allowed to transition actually had increased.

[John Ashbrook]

And they tried to suppress that.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing is they didn't allow that out because they're like, well, this could allow, you know, the public to come to the wrong conclusion, which is.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, what a scandal. Unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And that was the largest peer reviewed study on the subject of mental health outcomes of people who transitioned. And they suppressed it. And that is the insidious part of our health care system.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes. Yeah, yep.

[Jillian Michaels]

It has to do with the fact that the health care system is. Is captured, as we know. I mean, the American Academy, or the aap, the American Academy of Pediatrics is essentially a subsidiary for Big Pharma. And then when you look, you know who's brilliant at discussing this is a gentleman named Chris Moritz. And he understands the details of this inside and out at the industry piece of it. But for example, the Human Rights Campaign started something called an HEI score. I think it's called like the Health Equity Index score.

[Josh Holmes]

Jesus. I mean, it sounds horrible.

[Jillian Michaels]

And they apply it to every major medical institution like Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic and so on and so forth. With regard to how well they provide this gender affirming.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, this is the shakedown racket that we've talked about.

[Michael Duncan]

All of a sudden it's more important than blood pressure.

[Jillian Michaels]

You get a bad score and it's going to affect grants and all kinds of money that would come into the medical facility. And when you go to the page, like their HEI page on the Human Rights Campaign's website, and it's like proudly sponsored by Pfizer. Come on.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, what's so interesting about it? I mean, look, we followed this, the whole DEI thing as it relates to healthcare and everything else, but ultimately what it becomes is a shakedown racket where you get a bad score. Right. Regardless of the patients that you're treating or what they. But it's a bad score. And there are kind of only two ways to get out of it. You up your score by doing more things, or for a couple hundred thousand dollars, we can go away for the next year.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

And then we'll come back to you next year.

[John Ashbrook]

It's like the mafia with another.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a nice house of shame if something happened to it.

[Jillian Michaels]

It's exactly right.

[Josh Holmes]

And that has been happening at an increased level in the Healthcare space, which you think would be like the one sacrosanct area.

[Jillian Michaels]

Unfortunately, not at all. I mean, and you're seeing it with Kennedy and everything he's going through with Maha. I truly just sit there bewildered at the people that push back on things that you would imagine we could all easily get behind.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I want to ask specifically for you, because for me, if I were in your position, it seems incredibly terrifying because one thing that the media and the left writ large has gotten extremely good at is maligning character and making people, without even knowing any specifics or having any reason why of being like, that's a bad person. That's a kook. That's a dangerous person.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because for so long in my mind, up until I'd say maybe like two years ago, people would say rfk. And I'd be like, oh, okay. Well, I'm told this guy's a kook. He's crazy. He's got a bunch of Looney Tunes ideas. I saw this YouTube video he made where you're talking about petroleum based food diets. He was like, these aren't allowed in Europe.

[Jillian Michaels]

Nope.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, these are being used to, like, pave roads.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also they're being put in children's candy to make it red.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Doesn't seem like a good idea. And I was like, this is why they've gone after. Because there's so much interest whether it's corporations that make the candy or to malign people. But the thing is, it's so like generalized, nonspecific that they can, like, affect just a person's label. Like, he's just crazy when you push people.

[Jillian Michaels]

And I have like, I just had this conversation with Bill Maher and he's like, I like him. He's got some crazy ideas. And I was like, like what?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

And Bill's like, was it crazy ideas?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

Like what? Well, he's against all vaccines. I'm like, well, hasn't said that. And he hasn't taken your vaccines. So, like, what? And the reality is that when you hear him talk about vaccine safety, improved safety, testing, transparency with adverse events related to vaccines, because vaccine injuries do happen, there's a reason that the drug companies wanted blanket immunity for vaccines in 1986. What doesn't check out for you there? And when you really start to look at things like measles and you listen to him talk. First of all, back in, I think, the 70s, if you look like everybody.

[Michael Duncan]

Got measles, there's a great Brady Bunch.

[Jillian Michaels]

Episode where they all got it everybody gets. And the percentage of people that had fatalities is like, next to the level of the flu. I'm not suggesting you don't get your measles vaccine. I'm simply saying we've painted this out like it's the bubonic plague and it's not. And arguably there are therapeutics for it now. But listen, I would get my measles vaccine, however, and they're like, it's robustly tested. What he goes on to explain is that they've taken three different vaccines because it's measles, mumps, rubella, that haven't been tested when put together for safety. And he argues that the evidence shows some interaction with these three vaccines together that increases the incident of vaccine injury. He's not saying, take the vaccine away. He's simply saying, let's study this combo deal, because maybe this is a problem.

[Josh Holmes]

And I think one of the things that I find Most fascinating about RFK Jr is that he represents, at least to me, this sort of human nature of a compendium of life experience, of getting to the point that he's at, right? You can look at the last 15 years and as he said, stuff has he said shits that, like, I find horrifyingly out of touch. Of course, but who amongst us has not? But you look at the genuine approach that he takes now and his genuine view that we just have to become healthier and why don't we ask questions that we're not asking? And I find that just refreshing, that component, like, I don't need to agree with him on anything. Look, I'm not a scientist. I don't know shit about measles, mumps, rubella.

[John Ashbrook]

But to your point, Holmes, is what we're doing working?

[Jillian Michaels]

That's exactly it.

[John Ashbrook]

It's not working.

[Jillian Michaels]

Not at all. We're sicker than ever. And I would say that he takes the approach of unsafe until proven safe, whereas current the precedent was safe until proven unsafe. But we're not gonna let you do the testing. So I'll give you another example that you might think is crazy. There's a chemical in the water called atrazine, and I believe it has to do with farmland runoff. Could be wrong about that. So fact check. We nevertheless, this chemical is in the water and it's literally causing frogs to. To have sex changes. So he said, like, I wonder if this is why so many kids are trans now. Everyone's like, what a loon, what a kook, what a crazy person. But what. What you should be asking is, wait, what the fuck is in the water?

[Michael Duncan]

Hold on.

[Josh Holmes]

The larger question remains.

[Comfortably Smug]

I want to say it was Harvard who put out the study last year confirming this. Like, I was stunned because for so long people were being made fun of.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, this is the Alex Jones thing. They're turning the fricking frogs g.

[Comfortably Smug]

The water thing. So I'm extremely fortunate. My wife is 100% on board with this movement, like the change that's happened in our fridge. And my personal health, like, I've lost like a hundred pounds over the past 18 months.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I did it without you screaming at him. Can you believe that?

[Comfortably Smug]

It would have helped.

[Genevieve Collins]

Can you scream at him, though?

[Josh Holmes]

Because I think that would be helpful.

[Jillian Michaels]

I can't though. He already lost it. Does he have more to lose?

[Josh Holmes]

I don't. Let's just keep. Let's scream at him regardless.

[Jillian Michaels]

You piece of shit.

[Josh Holmes]

If you don't lose those love handles.

[Jillian Michaels]

That remain, I swear to God I'll cut them off with a puzzle.

[Josh Holmes]

He's sicken me.

[Comfortably Smug]

But that's the thing is, like, for so long we have been told just go along and get along.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, oh, no, it's actually normal that the microplastics in the water supply, in the food supply, in containers are going up that like you now have kids with more microplastics than have been detected in adults 30 years ago. So, yeah, it's just normal. Go along with all of this stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

But again, even if there's reasonable explanations for these things, which, you know, I think that remains to be true. Like, these are not questions that are irresponsible to ask.

[Jillian Michaels]

Not at all.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Jillian Michaels]

And I think that's mitigated. Why wouldn't you?

[Josh Holmes]

Why wouldn't you?

[Jillian Michaels]

Like, that's. I mean, they're finding plastic in our brain and men's testicles. A thing. 30 year old man today has the testosterone level that a 50 year old man had 30 years ago. Like, it's not just an obesity epidemic. It's everything. It's. Infertility is on the.

[Josh Holmes]

I want to assure you there is no problem there.

[Jillian Michaels]

All right, good, thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

There is no problem.

[Jillian Michaels]

I'm glad that you have narrowly escaped this, but I'm just. Everyone's in good hands. I don't need to do some screaming, but just to make you aware that for the rest of the. Of the male population it's a concern, so. But no, I'm glad we're good here.

[Josh Holmes]

Look, these are important stories, but I think it intersects with this larger political conversation that we're having. Over the last week about Joe Biden, his health. And where it intersects is sort of a state control of a media function in this country. And the information that's disseminated to people and we've seen so much of the. Which we just talked about on the health side. This is safe. This is not safe. According to who. We don't ask those questions. Whatever. And then all of a sudden, you put it in a political context, and you're dealing with a president of the United States who, like, honestly, their base case here was that every single American should suspend what they know about aging, about cognitive decline, about. They don't have parents and grandparents. They don't have aunts and uncles. They haven't seen this before. We're going to tell them exactly what it is that they're viewing on screen.

[Jillian Michaels]

Good job.

[Josh Holmes]

Like the height of just arrogance. And yet they got away with that. And then you see the cancer diagnosis and all of that. That's how I just want to. What's your reaction to this?

[Jillian Michaels]

Well, I was outraged for quite some time about his cognitive decline, because it was obvious. And I had again to bring up Bill. Bill and I had this conversation in January of 2024. He's like, no, no, he. I think he can make these decisions. And I was like, are you kidding? And then we. You don't have to be an expert. And we've now rewatched this clip of Jake Tapper having the nerve to attack Lar Trump. Oh, okay. Are you a doctor now? What a prick. How in the name of God.

[Josh Holmes]

Literally.

[Jillian Michaels]

I cannot wrap my head around the fact. If I could just sidebar for a moment.

[Josh Holmes]

This guy is the one.

[Jillian Michaels]

All of the credibility that we afforded this guy. Is it now not wiped completely away is the problem. You are propaganda. This is what you are. Why no one trusts the legacy.

[Josh Holmes]

But, Jillian, there's a book to sell.

[Jillian Michaels]

And now you're gonna profiteer off of it, which is like, piece of crap squared. You lied to everybody.

[Josh Holmes]

And now see, by the way, what Megan did.

[Jillian Michaels]

Oh, I love her so much.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Jillian Michaels]

I love her.

[John Ashbrook]

She's the best.

[Jillian Michaels]

I've said quite publicly that I fear ever getting on her bad side.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

But I just think she's fantastic.

[Comfortably Smug]

When I was watching it, I was like, I will never fuck up and go on her show to talk about it, because she doesn't let you get away with it.

[Jillian Michaels]

No way. No, she's magnificent. But she is. I think they just. They forged her in fire. She's exceptional. She's a constitutional attorney. Yeah, like, forget it. You get in a fight with her, you will lose. I have watched her dismantle everyone from Bill Maher, who, again, I love, to Dan Abrams, just. And now Jake Tapper. And it's like, you just want popcorn. Just watch her. You're like, oh, my God, here she goes. Oh, my God, Buckle up.

[John Ashbrook]

Her thing on Bill Maher, when she. She was talking about transgendered issues, was fantastic. Fantastic.

[Jillian Michaels]

She's wonderful.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, if you put Jillian and Megan shoulder to shoulder, I think you could.

[Comfortably Smug]

That'd be an awesome show.

[Josh Holmes]

We're an army.

[Jillian Michaels]

I mean, I would love to be put in her category. I don't quite measure up there, but.

[Josh Holmes]

You can do the yelling.

[Jillian Michaels]

I'll yell.

[Josh Holmes]

You can do the yelling.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah. I'll just let her do the legal work, and I'll just scream to get him to sign the contract. But she did. I mean, so I went off piece there. But I think what you saw with Biden was obviously a lot of propaganda and a lot of manipulation for whoever was really in power. I mean, and I'm certainly no expert in the auto pen, but it's alarming. And you've seen Trump say, like, we gotta get to the bottom of this.

[Josh Holmes]

Which one would hope put that graphic.

[Jillian Michaels]

Up while she's talking about, you know? But the bigger thing is there's no universe where they did not know this man had prostate cancer. Again, you know who's wonderful in explaining this is Dr. Drew Pinsky.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Jillian Michaels]

Had prostate cancer. He breaks this down in detail. But I've interviewed so many different doctors over the course of my career, and there's just no universe.

[Genevieve Collins]

But also everything.

[Jillian Michaels]

This does not happen. Oh, we felt a nodule. What are you talking. There's a PSA score. It's a Gleason 9. It's metastasized. They have known about this for years.

[Michael Duncan]

Standard panel years.

[Josh Holmes]

But this comes back to what I was just talking about. It requires you to suspend everything, you know, completely. Like your human experience. I mean, any man who's ever turned 40. You know what the process is you get. The PSA test is just as common as putting the. The thing around your arm and getting your blood pressure. I was.

[John Ashbrook]

I was sweating getting the finger up my bum. But apparently that's not. You know, we don't.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not necessary. It's unnecessary.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah, that's unnecessary. Which. More to the point, what do you mean? You felt a nodule? Yeah, right, like that. What. What is this, like, 1989? Or is it just a good time for everybody. Like, it's not like what?

[Josh Holmes]

That wasn't the doctor's appointment.

[Jillian Michaels]

No. Who felt the agile because.

[Josh Holmes]

He stumbled into Hunter's room. Yeah. I'm sorry.

[Jillian Michaels]

Oh, dear.

[Josh Holmes]

Was that over the line? Oh, my.

[Michael Duncan]

It might have been over the line.

[Jillian Michaels]

He said it. I did not laugh.

[Josh Holmes]

Tmz, if you're listening, that was not Chilean. She did not say that. But, I mean, look, I think that the larger point remains in terms of where the media is on all of this stuff. And it requires a skeptical eye. Does everyone have all the answers? Like, that's not what RFK is talking about. It's not what Trump's talking. Not what you're talking about. It's about, here's the things that we do know. This is the healthy peace that we know prolongs life, makes you stronger, makes you smarter, makes you better. Let's focus on that piece of it and not, you know, disconnect our questions and answers about all the treatments for the things that go wrong.

[Jillian Michaels]

It's not profitable if you do it that way.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, that's what's sad. That's so sad.

[Jillian Michaels]

That's the bottom line is that it's a gazillion. I mean, gender affirming care is a microcosm of the financial windfall that sick people beget, not that gender affirming care as a sick person. But the point is that there's. There is, as put so eloquently by calli means, there's nothing more profitable than a sick child.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, a certain general nominee.

[Jillian Michaels]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Well, I want to play one clip and get your reaction to it. Can we play Clip 2? This is the New York Times. They have a podcast called the Daily.

[Jillian Michaels]

Ah, yes, I know of this.

[Josh Holmes]

Which does a whole bunch of things. But I just want to hear how they talk about this whole thing as it pertains to Biden. Can we play that, please? Which is the word cover up? What do we make of that word? Does it feel like the right word? If it's not the right word, then.

[John Ashbrook]

What is the right word for what.

[Josh Holmes]

Essentially was going on here?

[H]

I mean, look, if this was a cover up, it was an extremely bad one because a majority of voters in America were saying in poll after poll, this guy is unfit to leave the country for another term. So it was not a very successful cover up. If it was a cover up, I do think what was successful is an ability to sort of bully their way through the party and convince the entire Democratic Party that they were better off with a sitting President and basically dissuading any other powerful Democrat from jumping in to challenge Biden by saying, look, you won't be able to raise the money. You're not gonna be able to mount a campaign. It's just gonna make everyone in the party dislike you on that front. They were very, very successful. Was that a cover up? I'm really not that sure. Because voters certain us that they knew what was going on here and they were not comfortable with it.

[Michael Duncan]

We may never know.

[Josh Holmes]

Let me frame this in terms of a question for you, which is it's not a cover up because the bullshit that we were telling people, they didn't buy, Right.

[Jillian Michaels]

Essentially. Right. But this is the same New York Times that just informed us Covid came from a lab, right? Yeah, same place.

[Josh Holmes]

But that's racist, Jillian. It's very racist to say that.

[Jillian Michaels]

The part that kills me, though, is when they come out as though they've had this massive revelation that they're going to impart to the public.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. It's like they've only talked to themselves for the last four years. It's like Tom Cotton told us that, like a month In March of 2020.

[Jillian Michaels]

Like, Rogan was already covering it. Like, really? I mean, it's the same with Jake Tabber, our original Sam.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you feel like they pulled people like you out into politics?

[Josh Holmes]

That's a great question.

[Jillian Michaels]

Without question.

[John Ashbrook]

Here's the thing is, we've all worked in politics for 20 years, and at no point in our politics do people like you get involved to this level.

[Jillian Michaels]

I know.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, and I feel like in the Trump era, especially, you know, in these last few years, people like you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Nothing we could have done would have ever gotten you.

[John Ashbrook]

People being pulled into politics because they felt like it was a calling now because of everything that they saw. Do you feel that way?

[Jillian Michaels]

They definitely force you into it. So I'll give you an example. I was asked in 2019 in an interview whether or not I celebrated if Lizzo was obese. And I was like, well, I celebrate Lizzo. I think she's a brilliant artist, incredibly talented. It's none of my business if she's overweight or not overweight.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[Jillian Michaels]

But do you celebrate? You know, it's like back against the wall. And I was like, I'm not shying away from this. Screw you. No, I don't celebrate it because it would suck if she got diabetes.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

If you truly think she's a national treasure, wouldn't that be bad? Wouldn't you want her around for years and Years. And congrats to Lizzo, by the way, who seems significantly healthier than in 2019. But the point is, then it was like, okay, you know, put her on the stockade. Let's have our public flogging. She's a fat shamer. Let's cancel her now. And I was forced to have these conversations, and then it just begot itself. It was one after another after another of anything from gender affirming care to food dye to fluoride in the water to Covid. Again, when you make health a political football and you refuse to say that the emperor is well dressed, you're now having political conversations.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the most fascinating thing. And to me, that's the best way to understand what has happened to the left. When they think maybe we need to start more podcasts or whatever they created, their system of power that they've had over the past 10 years is to shame people into saying, look how handsome the emperor's clothes are. Don't they look good? Don't they look good? And their entire party has to be like, yes, yes, I agree, this looks good. On the craziest things of gender affirming care, allowing illegal immigration. Like every issue you could not disagree with to now they're just in a silo of 10 of them left having to convince each other. So we all still believe this, right? And the rest of the public isn't buying it anymore. And they're like, maybe we need podcasts.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's. We need to reach out.

[Jillian Michaels]

You had podcasts, so it's been famously said you had Joe Rogan. I mean, he was for Bernie. Like, I don't think you get more liberal than Bernie. So, like, wow, that's a big shift, isn't it? They walked away from it. You had all of these people, they were all on your team. Tulsi was a DNC chair, a rising star. You have no one to look at but yourselves for this mess that you've created. And the right has been very intelligent. They've embraced the middle, they've embraced the. The disenfranchised lefties. Very much so. And I've had numerous conversations with very conservative Christian people on the right, and they've gotten themselves, the majority, not all, to a place of a bit live and let live, like with gay marriage or adopting kids when you're gay. The majority, again, I say not all. You know, we all know where Matt Walsh stands, but at least he'll have a conversation with you about it. But Sage Steele, Russell Brand, Benny Johnson.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, well, because so many of us are generational, right? Where it's like we just lived in a world where we just thought, I don't know, everybody should be sort of equal, everybody should have a shot at things. And that's what I say. It's so generational in terms of what today's Republican Party is like the DI and everything else. Like it taught us that like, oh, there's institutional racism that we like grew up trying to just get rid of. Extinguish.

[Jillian Michaels]

Exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

I grew up with like Kirby Puckett and Bill Cosby, you know what I mean? And then all of a sudden I'm told that there is this institutional racism where I can't respect black people. It is a wild timeline.

[Jillian Michaels]

You know, Carolla said this, he's like, I'll tell you this much, if you keep this up. And I'm gonna butcher the way he said it, which is unfortunate. But he's like, if you keep this up, you're gonna create a problem with a group of young white boys that now are.

[Josh Holmes]

They have.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah, because when you tell them they're the problem and you're constantly singling them out, they will develop this kind of inherent, I don't want to say racism because it's not quite how he put it, but he's like, you're going to beget this problem by treating these boys. You're right 100%. And so, you know, my hope is.

[Josh Holmes]

That, I mean, imagine having a conversation in the middle of like the MeToo movement with a 16 year old boy that you're like going to college visits with and you're trying to have the conversation of like, look, you don't have any options here. Like, you got to keep it straight and narrow. I mean, there is nothing that you can do. All of the natural tendencies of a 16 year old men or women, you can't do because you're not afforded the benefit of the doubt on any of this. And like, I think there's a generation, I mean, you saw a lot of that come to fruition in this last generation election with the first time you saw a younger generation of men essentially be like, no, I'm going to be politically active this time around.

[Jillian Michaels]

My 13 year old watches Benny Johnson, Shawn Ryan, Joe Rogan.

[Josh Holmes]

You gotta give me the Ridley's variety.

[Jillian Michaels]

We have a lot of fun, it's wild, it's crazy. And he. And he'll send me clips all the time. The one that really infuriated him is when Kamala said that we didn't have troops Deployed. And then Sean Ryan, I think, aired the clip of the troops going, who the fuck are we at? He sent me, you know, he's like, can you believe this asshole? And I was like, honey, it was like a.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, you're the opposition researcher.

[Jillian Michaels]

My mom's like, you should not let him call the female nominee for President of the United States an asshole. She's kind of an asshole, though. It was an asshole thing to do, you know, Was sort of an asshole thing to do. I'm like, don't call her an, you know, in front of grandma. But she's an for that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

It's like, you know, they. They're. They're paying attention.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

I'm hoping for the better because he's. And he asks me, my daughter does too, of course. And she isn't actually leaning more left, she's leaning more right.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

Which is bizarre.

[Josh Holmes]

Crazy thing.

[Jillian Michaels]

You know, it. It's like, california, got a black kid with four moms who's leaning right. But I'm glad that they ask me questions constantly. Okay, is ICE gonna be going into kindergartens? I'm like, no, hold on. You know, like, we.

[Josh Holmes]

That's where you want the next generation.

[Jillian Michaels]

They ask me all the time, and half the time I'm like, google that shit for you. You know? But at least they're asking. They're not just forming opinions based on tribalism and, you know, cnn. Yeah, thank you.

[Josh Holmes]

Healthy upbringing. Listen, I didn't plan to do this, but I need to do. I need to know. Okay, we got three quick questions that we do for the first time somebody comes on the. On the show, they sort of arrange the first one. I'd be fascinated, given your. Your background, if you could plan your last meal on Earth.

[Jillian Michaels]

Oh, Taco Bell. So much.

[Michael Duncan]

There's a follow up on this.

[Jillian Michaels]

Oh, oh, oh, okay.

[Michael Duncan]

There is a follow up on. If you say Taco Bell, there is a follow up, follow up. And it's something that Josh came up with, but something we all agree with. That the order that you made to Taco bell in the 90s, probably the same order.

[Jillian Michaels]

Cheese burritos with no onions and extra cheese, A Taco supreme and a Diet Coke.

[Josh Holmes]

But it's like, it's your 1995 order.

[Jillian Michaels]

It was like, burned into my cerebellum. Exactly. Yeah, I know.

[Josh Holmes]

I was like, double decker nacho cheese. They're like, we haven't made that in 15 years. I'm like, can you do it? Yeah, we can do it. Yes.

[Jillian Michaels]

Oh, my God. I mean, there are apocalypse Sometimes just.

[Comfortably Smug]

Because of that, we've had the same 10 ingredients for 50 years. Everything's a combination of it, right? Anything we've ever had, I love it.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, second question. With the benefit of hindsight, now that you've had this incredibly successful public career, you're. Now you find yourself not only motivating people from all political stripes to be healthier, but also entering the political frame a little bit. If you could just take yourself back in time, like 20, 25 years, and you could do it all over again and pick a path, and it doesn't have to be realistic. But what would you just tell that person you should do?

[Jillian Michaels]

You know, I think about this often and I think, oh, gosh, you know, I wish I'd gone to medical school. I literally could never have done the science stuff. I can't get through it.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the blood, right?

[Comfortably Smug]

Ted Cruz told us he'd be a basketball player. So, like, anything is.

[Jillian Michaels]

I mean, if he told himself that, it does not, in fact mean it would come true. I just think the power to truly save someone's life. I personally am fortunate enough to work with a lot of amazing doctors. I've had amazing doctors treat me and help me out immensely. And I recently have talked about this a few times. I caught whooping cough, which is like, straight out of love in the time. The cholera and all.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[Jillian Michaels]

It was crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

Where were you hanging out with that?

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah, on the Oregon Trail, Jackson Hole, Oregon. Trailing, like, blue wearing billionaires. Almost killed me, like. And this is a vaccine, by the way, that I would simply say explore. Holy mother of God. You know, look over it a little bit, you know, give it some consideration. It's like 100 days of death's door. And it took literally, like three doctors to put me back together. And I called my one doctor Sunday morning and I was like, okay, I need to go to the hospital. Forget it. It's like six in the morning. I called Dr. Susan Baker, gave her a little shout out here, and I was like, doc, I need to go to the hospital. And she flew into action. And I swear to you, like, she had me at least propped up by the end of the night. And it hit me with the horns. All the conventional medicine stuff that I've avoided. I haven't taken antibiotics in like, a decade. I had them injected into, like, every vein in my entire body. But I thought like, God, that's like, what a crazy feeling. You potentially. If we didn't have modern medicine and you didn't know how to do this job, I would for sure have died, I mean, if this was 50 years ago.

[Josh Holmes]

But that's a balance of your views too, right?

[Jillian Michaels]

For sure. But everything is a cost benefit analysis with drugs without question. So I just thought, like, that must feel so amazing to save people's lives.

[Josh Holmes]

That's a great answer. It's a great answer. It's a really good answer. All right, so the last one's a little esoteric.

[Jillian Michaels]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

But I'm fascinated to hear how you come down. We have found that most successful people find themselves into one of two categories. The thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. And let me just tell you that it is a 50, 50 split. The way to look at the. It's not that anybody enjoys losing or doesn't enjoy winning. It's what motivates you to take the next step in your life. The ultimate agony of defeat person is Michael Jordan, the alt. Like he used to invent slights against him just to try to reach that next level and provide the fire that it took internally to perform. If you're gonna stay with the sports thing, like my thing is always Phil Mickelson, who I don't know if you're a golf fan or not, but like he would look at a shot and be like, I mean it's the dumbest shot in the world. But he's like, I don't know, I hit it too. Iron too, whatever yards into a green that's five feet wide before, why don't I do it again? Like I think I can do it. Crazy, right? And like everybody's like, that's the dumbest thing ever. But he's like, no, I think I can. That's the thrill of victory side, right? So like, if you're balancing out that in your own life, what are you? Where do you think you are in that compendium?

[Jillian Michaels]

I have spent far too much time in the agony of defeat. So I wouldn't mind the thrill of victory. That sounds nice. That sounds lovely. I don't feel that I need more self inflicted punishment. I had this conversation once with Maria Shriver, actually.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow.

[Jillian Michaels]

And I remember thinking like, and who happens was to me at the time happens to be lovely and brilliant. And this is a woman that I could see was so exceptionally hard on herself. And there was like a five minute window where she allowed me to get involved in some of her like manipulating her food or her fitness. And I was like, Maria, why do you say these things are like, ah. You know the kind of stuff you're talking about, like The Michael Jordan stuff, she said, same. Like, it motivates me. And I thought, okay, but you're kind of like you're running this car off of crude oil. What if we could run it off of solar energy? Which would just be a pure love of the game. I would argue that's probably cleaner based.

[John Ashbrook]

Fuel rather than being negative on yourself all the time.

[Jillian Michaels]

I would make that case. Okay, but everybody works differently.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but what do you do?

[Jillian Michaels]

I would prefer. I would love to say the thrill of victory, but it's just so fleeting.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not. I know. I knew before you walked in here. I knew before you walked in here. And by the way, you're sitting here with three agony guys. It's not that we're, like, proud of it. It just is what it is.

[Jillian Michaels]

Interesting. It does make you who you are, without question. But I've often, like, I look at Megyn Kelly and I think, this is a woman with a $60 million parachute.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Jillian Michaels]

A need to do this. But she does and she takes it head on, and she's excellent at it. Like, if I had the $60 million parachute, would I still be sitting here?

[Josh Holmes]

Thrill of victory.

[Jillian Michaels]

I mean, for you guys. Yes, But I. And then after that, I'd probably be on a beach somewhere.

[Josh Holmes]

She's an agony gal, though.

[Jillian Michaels]

She must be.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, she's like, God damn it, nobody's gonna do this better than I am.

[Jillian Michaels]

Yeah, she's. And she's not wrong.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Listen, this has been so fun.

[Jillian Michaels]

Thanks for having me.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank you for stopping by. I appreciate it. I know you got big events, you go to the White House, you're doing all kinds of different stuff. I'm sure everybody will hear about it. But I can't thank you enough for stopping by and sharing a little bit about yourself.

[Jillian Michaels]

I appreciate it. It was an absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me.

[Josh Holmes]

Thanks, Shelley.

[Comfortably Smug]

Thank you.

[Dick Durbin]

Qualcomm is designing and developing the next generation of AI connectivity and low power, high performance computing right here in the US we support President Trump's call for America's industrial revival, an agenda focused on restoring strength, scaling innovation, and securing our competitive edge. Our partnerships with Aramco Digital and Humane reflect that mission, putting US Technology to work, transforming global industries, and proving that American leadership still sets the standard. Qualcomm Engineering human progress.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, folks, time to sound the alarm. Trump's big, beautiful tax cut is coming down to the wire in Congress. And my friends at Americans for Prosperity want your help to get it across the finish line. If the bill doesn't Pass. The average American family is looking at a $1,500 tax hike. Americans for Prosperity says not gonna happen right now. Some members of Congress are getting very shaky with every special interest in D.C. pounding on their doors. But AFP thinks it's time for hardworking Americans to do some pounding of their own. So AFP and its grassroots army is already out there pushing back on crazy ideas like raising tax rates. Rates and supporting the congressmen who want to cut taxes. AFP is the only organization I know that can bring this kind of grassroots pressure to bear. If you want to join the fight to Protect Prosperity, visit ProtectProsperity.com to help Trump get his big, beautiful bill. That's ProtectProsperity.com.

[Josh Holmes]

What a terrific interview from Jillian Michaels. I mean, just love her absolute blast kind of person. You could spend the entire afternoon just talking about all kinds of stuff.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, it's one of the favorite interviews I have instantly one of my favorite interviews we've ever done here on the ruthless variety program.

[Josh Holmes]

It's really, really, it's great. But it begs the question for our question of the day. Listen, like and subscribe on the YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, put in the comments. The question your answer to how do you think we can make America healthy again? That's why she's here. That's what she was talking about. The basis of most of our conversation. Imagine all of you have thoughts on this and it's like around the globe, but particularly a new conversation in the United States about questioning all the things we've been told about. Various things. The food pyramid, for example. Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, and need 90 servings of carbs. We've been told that for 20 years. Turns out, not a great idea.

[Josh Holmes]

Not a great idea. But like, you know, you take a look at all of that. You take a look at your current life and the debate that's happening. How do you think we can make it?

[Comfortably Smug]

Great question.

[Josh Holmes]

So. So, you know, throw it in there and listen, we gotta get to your answers from last week, which, by the way, was a bang of a program. Great episode last Thursday. But our question was, do you think that Congress should investigate the Biden cover up? I kind of have a strong opinion about this and it's not necessarily a part of what we were talking about with press and media and everything else so much as it is the question that President Trump.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep, great point.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is who is running this choice?

[Comfortably Smug]

Who controls the auto pen when the president's brain's not there?

[Jillian Michaels]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Honestly, Good question.

[Josh Holmes]

And mean they raised it in several different occasions. Whether this guy had any knowledge at all isn't that worthy of, you know.

[Michael Duncan]

In the auto pen question, I think is relevant here because you wonder whether he was capable of signing his own name or if they asked him to sign something, he would have just simply marked it with an X.

[Josh Holmes]

Shoeless Joe style. Yeah, well, listen, we've got your comments, and to do that, we always start with a voice.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. First one comes from Greekarella. 00. Greekarella writes insiders were swearing he's a sprightly yoga guru while he wobbles like a weeble on a whiskey bender.

[Josh Holmes]

Man.

[Michael Duncan]

Congress will probably uncover staff for staging spontaneous walks to prove he's not one fall away from a life alert ad. Our audience is the best.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're ready to go.

[Michael Duncan]

They really are.

[Josh Holmes]

I've fallen and I can't get up. Isn't that the life?

[John Ashbrook]

That's it.

[Michael Duncan]

It is. Greekarella continues. Congress. Congress diving in. Just another clown core pile up with zero stakes. They'll unearth some gems, maybe an email chain titled Operation Keep Joe Upright. But consequences. Congressional investigators hold wrongdoers accountable about as often as a broken clock tells time. It'll be all noise and no bite. Congress has a lower approval rating than a Porta Potipotty at a chili cook off.

[John Ashbrook]

Geez.

[Michael Duncan]

Yet they'll grandstand like they're saving democracy a cold dose of reality from Greekerella.

[Josh Holmes]

And I actually don't disagree with. With any of that. But I will say, look, Democrats put Bannon in jail.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's. That's a thing to me. That's.

[Josh Holmes]

You know what I mean? Like, from a consequence standpoint, there could be. If people want to do it, the question is whether they want to investigate or not. And I understand why there's some skepticism. Comment 2 Dunks.

[John Ashbrook]

This is from Charlotte McEl. Charlotte writes, I say yes to an investigation. However, can Congress do it in a timely manner? I doubt it, but I think the lack of trust Americans have in the government and press is so high, we wouldn't believe any outcome. I want to tell you guys how much I love this show. You keep me educated and entertained.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it's very kind, Charlotte.

[Michael Duncan]

We love you, Charlotte McKel.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, we absolutely do. And that is our. Our aim here on the ruthless variety program. Smug.

[Jillian Michaels]

What do we have?

[Comfortably Smug]

3 Comment 3 comes from Cheryl. Question of the day. Absolutely, yes. Congress should investigate who was making executive decisions during the Biden administration. Whoever it was should be held accountable. Only the POTUS has executive privilege for decisions and actions while in office. So the unelected bureaucrats who made such a mess and perhaps broke laws should be investigated and brought to justice. Funny how Democrats are so obsessed about, quote, saving our democracy, but they're okay with the elected government being overthrown by handlers and grifter's daddies dead on.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the point, Cheryl. You've got it. The whole reason why we wanted an investigation, that is exactly right. When we come back, fellas, we're going to play a game. It's our signature program game. King of the Hills. We always do on Thursdays. We got a lot of excitement. Ready for this. Hard working Americans know when it's time to roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Now is the time to unleash our nation's energy, to create jobs, secure our future and make life better, more affordable and full of opportunity for all Americans, Americans. That's the power of America's oil and natural gas. Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Institute.

[John Ashbrook]

You did all the right things. You worked hard, you worked your way up and you invested your money in a 401k or other retirement plan. Your future is all set, right? Wrong. The retirement system as we know it is currently under attack from misguided policymakers in D.C. the Trump tax cuts are set to expire this year. Renewing them will be a big fight in Congress. Right now. The tax code protects 401ks, IRAs and other plans that help you save. Some people want to change that. Your representatives in Congress must protect the tax advantages that more than 100 million Americans rely on to save for retirement. You deserve policies that build on the current retirement system to secure your financial future, not jeopardize it. If Americans know one thing, it's resilience. To stay resilient, we need immediate action from our leaders. Head to helpusretire.org to take action and reach out to your representatives in Congress. Today Help us Retire is sponsored by the Investment Company Institute, representing asset managers, serving individual investors.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. As we always do, on Thursday we play King of the Hill. Our signature game here on the program. Who are our challengers and who are is our champion?

[John Ashbrook]

I'm the challenger.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

And I'm bringing in George Conway.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, interesting.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah. New flavor. I. I think that game demands new blood.

[Josh Holmes]

It does.

[John Ashbrook]

And so I'm bringing it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I like to hear. I mean, that is a exceptional choice. And our champion, of course is Shera Macheri.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right. I'm representing the Champion Sherry Jacobus. For our new listeners, king of the hill. We use basically never trumpers whose brains are broken typically goes three rounds. Best of three wins whoever has the wildest take. Our judge decides who wins each round.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, and I'm judging jure. You are the bailiff. I would instruct the bailiff to try to. To put together what I would call a tight court.

[Michael Duncan]

Absolutely, your honor.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I believe in this court. I believe in this court. And I think we should go ringside.

[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. It's time for king of the hill. In the red corner, fighting now to a democrat's dream, overwing of council, George Conway. And now in the blue corner, fighting from her own Twitter account and current, the champion of the world, commie Jerry J.

[Josh Holmes]

It's going to take me a second.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's incredible. We're all witnesses to greatness.

[Josh Holmes]

Is this the first time we've ever played Conway on this show?

[Comfortably Smug]

Might be.

[John Ashbrook]

No, I don't think it is. But he gave it so much extra.

[Josh Holmes]

Effort over game and of counsel.

[John Ashbrook]

That was like the Jordan. That was like the Jordan flu game. Holy, dude.

[Comfortably Smug]

Outstanding.

[Michael Duncan]

Not easy to hold it together. I knew you'd like it. Oh, my goodness.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my God. It's so good.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, well, only for my friend struck.

[Josh Holmes]

The champion to proceed.

[Comfortably Smug]

Could I get Exhibit 2, please? Exhibit 2 from Sherry Jacobus. This is just incredible. Jake Tapper is doubling down on the smear campaign. Biden was not tested for prostate cancer since 2014. Last Monday, they found a nodule. This is sickening. Jake launched his career by selling a magazine apiece on his one date with Monica Lewinsky. He is tabloid trash. So this is amazing because first off, yes, she's trying to run cover for Joe Biden being like, oh, you know, surprise. Prostate cancer. There's no way the president of the United States with the greatest health care available on earth could ever know that he has prostate cancer. But then she dredges up Jake Tapper's history. Folks may not know this story. He did come to prominence off of writing an article about here's how my date with Monica Lewinsky went, which was wild.

[Josh Holmes]

Right before she was apparently engaged. It was right before, right?

[Comfortably Smug]

Or Clinton during.

[Josh Holmes]

It could have been during. Which, you know, Clinton can drop the whole how's my Dee taste?

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, like, my God. See, that's what I'm talking about. Sherry brings this up.

[Josh Holmes]

Your honor, I'm sorry, but I kind of had to do it. I mean, that's what. Listen. You're listening to this that's what you're thinking? That's what you're thinking.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, let me provide.

[Josh Holmes]

Is it not. You act like I'm the bad guy. That's what everybody.

[Comfortably Smug]

You're not the bad guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

Spaghetti.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, come on. That is what you're thinking. Like if it was after.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Comfortably Smug]

Who knows?

[Josh Holmes]

I don't.

[John Ashbrook]

As smug would say, what more can be said? Okay, spaghetti. Can I get exhibit number 11, please? This is a side by side of a picture of Adolf Hitler.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[John Ashbrook]

And then a picture of Donald Trump at the USGA.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[John Ashbrook]

Or USDA. Excuse me. And George Conway says, deeply creepy. Indeed. 1932. Say hello to 2020.

[Josh Holmes]

See, I don't. In my view, anytime you do the Hitler Trump comparison, what needs to happen in order to compete with that is so deranged and so insane that like.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, it's kind of warmed overtake though. Like, everyone's like Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

No, no.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean they've been doing like Mitt Romney, Hitler.

[Josh Holmes]

I understand your point, counsel. I understand what you're talking about. And I know that there are comparisons that have deeply been explored on that front. But he's using new photographic evidence to say basically that this is the equivalent. And for that reason, it's no question for me, it's round one. Let's go, Duncan.

[John Ashbrook]

Let's go.

[Michael Duncan]

Sound decision making, your honor.

[John Ashbrook]

Fantastic. Okay, so what do I play here now? Okay, Spaghetti. Can I get exhibit number 14? So this is a quote tweet of Donald Trump. And I can't exactly describe exactly what Donald Trump is saying in this tweet, but he's talking about basically Kamala Harris's terrible performance and Joe Biden and how he couldn't do the job. And the quote tweet is in everything that we've seen right, in these last few weeks about how Joe Biden had dementia and. And couldn't possibly do the job, George Conway is out there saying, a loyal fighter here, here.

[Comfortably Smug]

The.

[John Ashbrook]

The last Japanese soldier on the last island. It's still hard for me to believe that after so many years of deranged posts like this, we've still never had a serious national conversation about this man's mental health. In the backdrop of this whole thing, where the backdrop's amazing, where Joe Biden, you know, this is the end of it.

[Josh Holmes]

The backdrop is what makes it.

[John Ashbrook]

And he's just like a loyal soldier is being like, no, it's Trump. You know what? I think the national conversation we have to have isn't original sin. This book that's coming out and how Joe Biden couldn't do the job. The national conversation we have.

[Josh Holmes]

We may have had a trumpet president for four years who had terminal cancer, but what about Trump?

[Comfortably Smug]

Here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna fight fire with fire. Okay, if you want to take. Like that. Can I get exhibit one, please?

[Josh Holmes]

Sure.

[Comfortably Smug]

He won't beat around the bush with this one. Maybe one from Sherry. Notice the complete lack of interest in what Melania knows about her husband's dementia, drug use, and crimes.

[Josh Holmes]

All right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Cena has jumped the show.

[Josh Holmes]

I've seen enough. I've seen enough.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't even need to explore it. That round two goes to Spot.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow. So we're going to round three.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Round three.

[Comfortably Smug]

Round three. I. I really need to win it with this, so I'm gonna just fire off a nuke. Exhibit 8. Sherry Not Caring about the Secret Service. A tweet posting stage 8647.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, so somebody tweeted out what was Jim Comey's tweet that he has since disavowed?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Of 8647 threatening the President.

[Comfortably Smug]

She's like.

[Josh Holmes]

Which everyone knew was a reference to trying to get rid of. It's restaurant nomenclature. It's also military nomenclature. 86. Get rid of.

[John Ashbrook]

It's.

[Josh Holmes]

It's kill in military. It's get off the bill in terms of restaurant culture. 47. Somebody who suffered not one, but two assassination attempts. You can understand why people are outraged by that.

[Comfortably Smug]

And Comey and everyone are trying to backpedal. She's like, don't backpedal.

[Josh Holmes]

She's like, do it. It's eight plus A plus.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I'm gonna go ahead and play that on theme. Oh, for an additional point from the judge in Jerry.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, I. I like to be thoughtful about these things.

[John Ashbrook]

And I would say spaghetti. Let's play Exhibit number 15, please. There are two ways to interpret how Trump and his vile ilk have reacted to Comey's 8647 post. Is it just an example of how they ceaselessly lied to stoke controversy?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my God.

[John Ashbrook]

Or does it also. This is fucking crazy, dude. Or does it also reflect their vociferous penchant for psychological projection? How they believe or want to make everyone believe everyone thinks and acts as they do.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[John Ashbrook]

Unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

No, no, no, no. Unbelievable. No, no, no. Look, here's where the judge and jury is on this. Her tweet is certifiably insane. Insane in that the person who actually gave rise to the 86, 47 thing was like, no, didn't mean that. I abhor violence. I'm sorry. I walk away and she's like, no. A plus. Which, I mean, that holds a lot, a lot of weight with this particular judge. But what he's saying, he's doing like.

[John Ashbrook]

Critical race theory for why it's okay to assassinate the President.

[Josh Holmes]

It provides an additional context, which is it's not their fault for the 8647, it's the Maga supporters. Because what they are extrapolating upon, what we've all now, including Jim Comey, the purveyor of the original tweet, has indicated was offensive, is that they're only doing it because you've made us do it.

[John Ashbrook]

You made us do it, right?

[Josh Holmes]

And it's like they're saying that because that's the way that they view the world, that they are the ones, the MAGA people are the ones who see political retribution in terms of assassination. I don't know. You need about six months of history to figure out how that's all worked out for that reason. Michael Duncan, let's go.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good match. Good tweet. Good match.

[Michael Duncan]

Overweight of council and now champion.

[Josh Holmes]

Weight of council and now champion. Maybe his first.

[John Ashbrook]

Maybe it's been a while since he's been played.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, we're gonna do some variety. Okay, this one's pretty good, fellas. I. I think we got some hot takes on this. So there's a couple, this is according to the Daily Mail. And there's a couple that were forced.

[Comfortably Smug]

My God.

[Josh Holmes]

They're forced to tear down their house after failing to produce horse semen. Now let me give you the backstory.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

A couple who've been ordered to demolish. Again, this is according to Daily Mail. A couple have been ordered to demolish a million pound property. So this is not a small currency, not weight.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I don't know what a pound is. I live in America.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a UK story, so.

[Josh Holmes]

But it's close to.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's the Harry Potter money.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Harry Potter. It's like Monopoly, only different. They secretly built and moved into. Have complained they have nowhere else to go. Jeremy Zelinsky and his wife Elaine were given permission for a two story commercial building for a stallion semen collection center and laboratory.

[Michael Duncan]

Gives new meaning to the British pound.

[Josh Holmes]

My God. With a small first floor flat for staff. But while the outside of the property and 17 acres of land they bought in Great Abington, Cambridgeshire. Come on, it's always a shire, Harry.

[John Ashbrook]

Potter theme park. Sounds like the Lord of the Rings.

[Josh Holmes]

Adhered to their planning application. They turned the interior into a well appointed three bedroom home with a stunning feature windows overlooking the countryside. Something I think that most people would be like, wow, what a nice little touch to our community. Not these folks. What they have come to find is the council. Council that is governing the zoning and these things got wind of the subterfuge and issued an enforcement notice in 2023 to tear down the structure on an account of they weren't actually producing horse semen. It raises a bit of a Hobson's Choice.

[John Ashbrook]

Just imagine you're in trouble with the government because you're not producing enough horse semen.

[Michael Duncan]

I will tell you, when Elizabeth died and turned the whole country over to her idiot son, it went to shit. Okay? I think that's as clear as day in this story. It's like these people are simply trying to hold onto their home. And King Charles is like, no, you have to masturbate that horse.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, let me provide additional texture to this, which is a visit from King Charles.

[Comfortably Smug]

What's your demand, my king? One thing and 1. See the horse in the barn.

[John Ashbrook]

Prima nocta on that horse.

[Josh Holmes]

You do, sir. Must masturbate that horse. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

We haven't seen this since the Braveheart era.

[Josh Holmes]

So the couple believes that it was a jealous neighbor that informed the council saying that they weren't jacking off enough horses. And so this couple is now in a real tumultuous situation where they actually have to bulldoze this thing. They noted there's very little evidence of stallion semen collection and analysis of the business permit that they asked for. Additionally to build the structure.

[Michael Duncan]

I would argue if they're collecting stallion semen in the house, that's when you bulldoze it. It's not because you're not doing enough of that in the home.

[Josh Holmes]

Can I ask you a question? Where you live, you got your family there, all your stuff. If the government said they came to you and they were like, here's the deal. Unless we get horse semen, we bulldoze your house. Would you jack off a horse?

[John Ashbrook]

My God, I could produce the volume necessary.

[Michael Duncan]

King of the castle.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what? So this to me raises questions. When you bring this up. When you bring this up, Ashbrooke, of like, what's King Charles's problem with this? Like, his whole, like, issue with, like, the horse breeding or what? The. The line of the horse or whatever.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, he's a big horse guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Doesn't count unless you film It.

[Comfortably Smug]

How good is this guy worrying about, like, you know, what. What breeding is happening? Where. When I think. And a lot of people are asking questions, why is his son a redhead? You know what I mean? Like, this guy's probably got some complex with that shit because now you see how crazy the redhead has gotten. He's got that girl telling him what to do. He's ruined the whole thing. Now this guy's got sausage fingers worried about some horse farm.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you saying that maybe he's a product of, like, Barbaro? Is that what you're suggesting? Probably a big Red.

[Comfortably Smug]

Where'd the redhead come from?

[Michael Duncan]

Or maybe Secretariat? As every single horse in the Kentucky Derby field this cycle was.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

This is why we sailed on the Mayflower. This is why America was created, because these degenerates over there in Britain with their jacking off horses and everything, we had to leave that behind.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also, is this the first time a government gave a bunch of money to Zelensky and ended up, well. Well, maybe he's just spent it on the luxury stuff and not what we asked him for.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

We should jack off a horse. None of you answered the question, if you had a home.

[Michael Duncan]

I think you do everything you can to protect your home. Yeah, I think you do.

[Josh Holmes]

You're gonna jack.

[Michael Duncan]

I think you're just being honest. If the king comes to you and says, look, these are my terms. You're like, sire, I'm gonna. What am I gonna do?

[John Ashbrook]

I'm gonna produce a commensurate sample.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, that's what I find so fascinating about this, is they're actually planning. They're, like, getting to the final stages of actually bulldozing this person's home. And he's like, let me get this straight. This is all over a matter of horse semen done. Get the horse. Let's take care of this this afternoon.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And enjoy your breakfast the next morning.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's your house.

[Michael Duncan]

It is your house.

[Josh Holmes]

That's your house.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you'd like to hope it's your house.

[John Ashbrook]

What a terrible country built on horrible.

[Josh Holmes]

The home that horse building or horse seamen built. Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Ridiculous. The fucking British pound.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, while you're commenting on the question of the day, you might as well throw in your thoughts on that, because I have a feeling we'll have diverse set of opinions on the horse semen component to it. I'm sorry that Genevieve Collins has to follow. And again, you know, this is not once, but now twice this week we've had to follow somebody you know, like a segment that's just not worthy of who they are, who's a very sophisticated woman.

[Michael Duncan]

I will tell you, she can be very proud because Texas is a free state and their economy is magnitudes bigger than England's.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody would ever have to jerk, jerk off a horse in order to keep their home in Texas. I have no question about that. Genevieve collins, well, for those of you who have listened to the Variety program for a while, you know, one of our sort of deepest held convictions is the issue of school choice. And one of our good friends here, afp, has been extremely helpful all around the country working on all of that and to talk a little bit about some of the things that have been happening lately. Genevieve Collins, the Texas state director for afp. How are you?

[Genevieve Collins]

I'm well. How are you? Happy Wednesday.

[Josh Holmes]

Happy, happy, happy. Listen, you've got a lot going on, as it turns out. And I, and I realize that this is sort of an all encompassing thing, but it feels like you're getting pretty close to getting to where you need to be on a whole range of issues down in the great state of Texas.

[Genevieve Collins]

That's exactly right. Our session is every two years and lasts for five months. And we are in the throes of the final countdown, getting ready to. Well, we are sprinting to the finish line, but we already have our first massive win under our belt, which was passing the largest school choice program in American history as of May 3rd. So now we're just putting all sorts of cherries on top of our cake.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's such a big deal. And for those of you who haven't followed the Texas debate, you know, typically, look nationally, it's sort of a partisan discussion. And then you've got Republicans largely in favor of, of school choice and Democrats largely opposed to it because of teachers unions and all those things. But when you get into red states and you get into rural areas, it doesn't cleanly break down on partisan lines and it becomes more difficult to get over the finish line. We've seen countless examples that you guys have worked on and ultimately won the argument in states across this country, but probably no bigger state, both both physically, maybe population wise and in terms of its import than Texas.

[Genevieve Collins]

You're exactly right. I mean, the fight, I would say it feels like a 40 year crusade at this point to pass school choice. And I would say the last two and a half years have really felt like World War I style level of trench fighting, like trench warfare.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Genevieve Collins]

But the reality is in Texas, it's not R versus D. It's urban versus rural. And what we've seen over the past two years is a massive shift in the Overton window of how many rural Republicans are now open and willing to vote for school choice. Just to frame this in perspective, four years ago, when I started at Americans for Prosperity here in Texas, we had 29 Texas House of Representative members. Out of 150, 29 voted for school choice policy in 2021. Then in 2023, we had 65 Republicans vote for school choice policy. And now, as of this year, we had 86. So this has been not just a policy issue, but also a political issue, which I'm sure we'll unpack and really moving more of rural Texas into the fold with suburban and urban education outcomes and how we want to see kids be able to thrive.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, because there's a couple of ways of looking at this. And look, I think Covid did, for the minds of most people around the country, reopen a debate about school choice and what schools were doing as they handled the pandemic and everything else where families should have a choice one way or another. But on top of that, when you're talking about the. This rural versus urban divide, a whole piece of economy comes into this. And you're talking about rural areas where schools are big employers, big drivers of community, where you have, you know, something less than a partisan look at this so much as it is a representation of communities. And so the arguments that you've been making here for the last several years that have now looked like they really taken hold have given somebody sort of a sense of community on why this is. Is a good thing for the next generation, for younger people, let alone their families, and trying to make sure that our children are educated.

[Genevieve Collins]

That's exactly right. You know, the, the fight here was always, well, this will kill Friday Night Lights. I don't know if anyone knows anything about Texas, but we like football Friday, Saturday and Sunday, now, Thursdays, apparently, and Monday, but anyways, that's a different topic for another day. But, you know, it's going to kill her high school football programs. It's going to defund public schools, and nothing. These arguments are such false choices and such poor arguments that we're able to actually talk about when we're focused on the student and doing what's best in the best interest of a child, making sure that your child is prepared for the career or military readiness that needs to happen. You know, we're going to have 10,000 short. We're going to have 10,000 plumbers. A shortage of 10,000 plumbers. Excuse me, in the next 10 years we're going to have H vac and electrician shortages. We have high quality jobs that in rural America or in urban America, people need to fill. And these are really well paying jobs that we can set these kids up now for, for a very bright future. But it has to be about the child and not about the four walls with which a child.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, like there's nothing sadder than children are basically just left out of a growing economy, don't have the skill set, all because they didn't have a choice of where it was that they would go to school. And too many school systems ultimately aren't providing that platform that gives any sort of hope of success. And I think, correct me if you're, if I'm wrong about this, but if you look at Texas and you look at the arguments that were levied against something like school choice, it sort of skips past that. Right. And the left and teachers unions and everything else have done a really good job of trying to cleave off conservative support by basically making arguments about, like you said, Friday Night Lights, right? Well, there's nothing to preclude Friday Night Lights ensuring that children have, have a choice of the best education they can achieve.

[Genevieve Collins]

I always made the case. Now I went to the University of Tennessee and so it pains me to say this, but I always made the case. If Tim Tebow can have a law as a homeschooler and be a five star recruit for the University of Florida and then go win national championships, this argument is so moot that it's not going to kill Friday Night Lights.

[Josh Holmes]

Right? He had to play football somewhere, right?

[Genevieve Collins]

Exactly. I'm like, this is crazy. But what we really ended up doing was not just change the policy argument, but we had to shift the political conversation in order to have a better policy conversation. And I think that that's really where AFP really the rubber met the road for us because we were having real conversations with people at their own doorsteps in communities across the the state from all demographics and making sure that they were heard, but also giving these folks a chance to really talk about what they want for their child. Let them dream about the art of the possible. And then, oh, by the way, these new candidates that do support school choice, we're going to help get them elected so that this dream you just conveyed to us is now going to become a reality for your child and anyone that's going to get in the way we will help forcibly early retirement.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, listen, that, I mean, that's the secret to what you all do, which is the power of AFP has always been rooted in the communities that you and your people live in around the country. These aren't strangers that are going to talk to a bunch of Texans. These are your friends and neighbors and harnessing their voices and ensuring that they have the arguments that they all believe in, being able to take that to people. It opens up a conversation. Right. It's not like the one that you have every two or four years where somebody shows up at your doorstep and says vote for X. It's a rolling conversation that at some point may become political in the context of an election, as you suggested. But really is a conversation about how to, how these policies can improve people's lives.

[Genevieve Collins]

Absolutely. I think what our teams do incredibly well, both in Tech Texas and around the country, is that we talk to normal people about and we in normal language. We're not using, you know, highbrow political jargon. We actually just talk to people the way that we would normally talk to our own friends and families. And we're really consistent. And I think that that's the other component about AFP is that it's not just a massive door and phone program. We're in our communities, we're doing event, we're showing up and we support other groups. We constantly are networking and lifting up the voices of our community. If we fundamentally believe as an organization that it's our job to connect people with policy, then it's so much easier to just open up a conversation and have it be a normal, easy conversation and let someone steer their own beliefs into what they think is best for the future while we can articulate our own.

[Josh Holmes]

That's an excellent point. Give us a little flavor, Genevieve. I know because of that rolling conversation, you're just constantly adding to your community. How many people do you have like affiliated with AFP across the state of Texas at this point?

[Genevieve Collins]

So I have one of the largest offices here in the, in the organization. We have four, excuse me, 25 full time staff, 42 part time staff. Last year we had 175,000 unique activists.

[Josh Holmes]

Wow.

[Genevieve Collins]

Join us. Yeah. And we have 14 offices across the state now. I manage two brands, Americans for Prosperity and the Libre initiative. And our whole point in Texas, let me rephrase, our whole campaign in Texas is to make freedom bigger in Texas.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Genevieve Collins]

Texas be the shining example. I know there's 49 other states, but as a Texan, we don't really care as much as we should. We like Texas the most.

[Josh Holmes]

You've made that abundantly clear.

[Genevieve Collins]

Yeah, I know. Well, at least we're consistent.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, thanks.

[Genevieve Collins]

But, you know, we have a huge office, and our job is to make sure we talk to people. Last year, we talked to all, almost a million people, both either at their doors, at events, or on the phone, and we just had conversation. Not everything has to be political. Even in a political year, Sometimes people just want a chance to vent or breathe and say what's on their mind. And we're a great facilitator for that, while also empowering people's voices.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it sounds like a recipe for success. And the proof is in the pudding on this big win on the education front for you all. And I know you've got an agenda that continues. So thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for giving us a little insight into what's happening in Texas. And come back anytime.

[Genevieve Collins]

Thank you. Great being with you.

[Michael Duncan]

She is so smart. And, and this school choice issue is such an important thing for people, not just in Texas, but across our country.

[Josh Holmes]

No question about it. I mean, look, I don't think everybody understands how important the school choice thing is. I mean, we've, we've now gotten a few years removed from COVID when this anxiety sort of enraptured the center of the electorate. And everybody was like, dude, we need, we need actual school choice. And now you, like, settle back into your lives as it looked before, and people just sort of like, cast this off. Meanwhile, the teachers unions are spending millions upon millions and they're trying to convince rural conservatives basically that this is through your way of life, that the. You'll never have football again. You'll never have Friday Night Lights in Texas if we do school choice nonsense. But they were able to battle through that because of the coalitions that AFP builds and they, and they stay there. Like it's not. They don't show up every two years and like, hey, give me your back.

[John Ashbrook]

You have to stay vigilant on this stuff. You absolutely do. And, and, and how perverse it is it that teachers unions try to exploit stuff like that to try to be like, actually, this is a bad idea.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, they give a shit about Friday night.

[John Ashbrook]

They don't give a fucking shit right about Friday night.

[Michael Duncan]

They don't even care about teachers.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, he's being right. He's not wrong.

[Josh Holmes]

It's fair. It's a fair point. Anyway, Genevieve Collins, thank you for joining us. And listen, Jillian Michaels, thank you for coming in. That was a hell of a fun discussion, wasn't it, fellas?

[Michael Duncan]

Outstanding. I mean, she was so good.

[Josh Holmes]

Just terrific. A banger of an episode. Remember to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Check out some merch while you're there. You're gonna love it with that Smok. I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much. Genevieve Collins. Thank you so much, Jillian Michaels, and thank you to our listeners. Remember, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube, hit that, subscribe. And if you're already here, hit that, like, button, too, too. So thank you so much, minions. We will see you next week. Until next time, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the lips. We'll see you next week. Stay ruthless.