Get Astrid A New Mumu!

Summary

The Commercial Break – Episode Summary

Episode: Get Astrid A New Mumu!

Date: January 23, 2025
Hosts: Bryan Green & Astrid (Bryan's wife, standing in for Krissy)

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Overview

In this characteristically irreverent and freewheeling episode of The Commercial Break, Bryan Green is joined by his wife Astrid, filling in for Krissy due to inclement Georgia weather. The duo riff on everything from Venezuelan sports culture and the American response to cold weather, to the grifting world of meme coins, the fragility of social media fame, and the realities behind influencer perfection. Chock-full of improvised banter, inside jokes, and affectionate digs, the episode is a window into Bryan and Astrid’s offbeat chemistry and the podcast’s “proudly unpolished” spirit.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Venezuelan Soccer, Baseball, and National Identity

• Venezuelan Content: [03:00–10:05]
  Bryan jokes about the recent influx of Venezuelan topics – a nod to Astrid and their Venezuelan listeners.
  • They discuss the USA vs. Venezuela soccer game (USA won 3–1) and why soccer lags behind baseball in Venezuela, despite misconceptions about soccer’s popularity in South America.
  • Astrid explains:

    “Our national sport is baseball. Soccer, it’s almost like a newer sport.” [06:04–06:29]

  • They riff on baseball’s status in the Caribbean and Venezuela’s contributions to American baseball.

2. Cold Weather in the South & Stone Mountain Anxiety

• Southern Winter Chaos: [12:24–13:13]
  Jokes about Atlanta shutting down over “farted cold wind," compared to Midwest resilience.
  • Kids are home from school for what would be a typical winter day up north.
  • Bryan’s cold intolerance (“I dislike the cold with a passion” [14:47]) and his Everest YouTube rabbit hole trigger a detour about why people pursue extreme adventures, like climbing Everest or free-diving.
  • Astrid deadpans:

    “I don’t even want to hike up Stone Mountain.” [15:59]

3. Dangers & Motivations of Extreme Sports

• [18:06–22:45]
  Dialogue unpacks the “why” behind climbing Everest, spearfishing, and other perilous pursuits, noting the commercialization of previously sacred or niche accomplishments.
  • Bryan points out the trend of unqualified people attempting Everest for social media status:

    “If you are ill equipped, if you have never done something like this before, you can still get to the top of Everest. But do you make it down is the question.” [19:26]

  • Comedic undercurrent: even Stone Mountain induces anxiety for Bryan.

4. The TikTok Ban, Creator Vulnerability & Platform Dependence

• [26:55–35:24]
  The recent 24-hour TikTok ban in the US serves as a jumping-off point for a discussion about creator dependence on social media platforms:
  • The scare showed how many creators were left financially exposed by platform volatility.
  • Bryan:

    “Being a content creator is really tough. And a lot of these TikTokers rightfully had the holy shit scared out of them because their only source of revenue was turned off for a day.” [28:47]

  • They discuss the importance of “owning your world”—collecting first-party data (email, etc.), cross-platform presence, and actively engaging audiences.

5. Social Media “Authenticity” & The Illusion of Perfection

• [38:29–47:13]
  The hosts revel in the wave of TikTok confessions during the ban: creators revealing made-up billionaire boyfriends, fake wellness hacks, etc.
  • Bryan mocks the performative side of influencer culture:

    “No one, and I mean no one, Mormon moms cooks fucking chocolate cake in a goddamn $3,000 dress. Fuck you trad wives.” [46:38]

  • Astrid highlights the darker side:

    “Social media has actually increased, you know, mental illnesses, insecurities in people. Because you go there and it's like, you know, oh, everyone's house is perfect…” [45:38]

  • Both agree the presentation is often curated and partly (or wholly) inauthentic, despite the appearance of “realness.”

6. Meme Coins, Grifting, and the Trump Coin Farce

• [49:55–54:09]
  In the wake of Trump’s return to the presidency, both Donald and Melania Trump launch meme coins, part of a broader online trend exploiting FOMO and gullibility.
  • Bryan:

    “A meme coin...has no value whatsoever. They just make it based on a meme...the Donald Trump meme coin had a valuation of $85 billion hours after the inauguration.” [50:39]

  • The conversation highlights the absurdity and danger of these “pump-and-dump” schemes, with mock seriousness about launching their own “possum coin.”

    “Everything is for sale. Everyone is for sale. Everyone's a sucker.” [53:56]

7. Spanish Period Dramas & Domestic TV Habits

• [54:13–57:43]
  A sudden turn to Astrid’s current binge-watch—a Spanish period drama on the VIX platform—and Bryan’s nostalgic telenovela era.
  • Good-humored spousal teasing ensues; Bryan marvels at Astrid’s TV stamina.

8. Final Thoughts, Podcast Meta, and “Getting Astrid a New Mumu”

• [61:38–end]
  The last segment doubles as a meta-discussion: begging listeners to engage, follow, and share the show, couched in humble, tongue-in-cheek groveling.
  • Bryan jokes about getting Astrid a new moo moo from Target so she can “cook chocolate cake in it.” [47:30]
  • They remind listeners where to find the show and how to support them (YouTube, Instagram, etc.)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Real Life vs. Social Media:
  “No one's life is that perfect. No scene is always that pretty. No relationship is that perfect. No. Even when you have an airplane, private airplane, your life still sucks in some way, shape or form.” —Bryan [46:18]

• On Influencer Fakery:
  “There is a famous girl on TikTok...her billionaire boyfriend was fake. He never existed.” —Bryan [38:30]

• On Trad Wife Culture:
  “No one, and I mean no one, Mormon moms cooks fucking chocolate cake in a goddamn $3,000 dress. Fuck you trad wives.” —Bryan [46:38]

• On Meme Coins:
  “Everything is for sale. Everyone is for sale. Everyone's a sucker.” —Bryan [53:56]

• On Outgrowing Comparison:
  “I personally, actually last year I unfollowed a couple accounts...if this is really their life...that's not how my life is...so I just decided, you know what? I'm not.” —Astrid [45:59]

• Best To You!
  A recurring segment and running joke about the show’s signature greeting, “best to you!”

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Key Timestamps

• Venezuelan Soccer/Baseball vs. US Sports: 03:00–10:05
• Georgia Cold/Stone Mountain/Everest Banter: 12:24–22:45
• TikTok Ban/Creator Panic: 26:55–35:24
• Influencer Confessions/Authenticity: 38:29–47:13
• Meme Coins & Grifting: 49:55–54:09
• Astrid's TV Habits: 54:13–57:43
• Closing Meta-Comments and Groveling: 61:38–end

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Tone & Style

The episode is a cocktail of sarcastic observation, comedic exaggeration, and affectionate spousal banter. Both hosts wield self-deprecation (“I’m a little embarrassed to create it” [36:09]), pop culture irreverence, and meta commentary on their own schtick (“I think that’s the groveling that...I’m gonna do for this week” [37:45]).

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For New Listeners

• Expect improvisational chemistry, insider jokes, and scattered but sincere cultural commentary.
• No sacred cows: influencers, platforms, and even the show itself are all fair game for roasting.
• The episode meanders but always circles back to the relatable chaos of everyday life, filtered through Bryan and Astrid’s uniquely oddball lens.

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Listen If You Enjoy...

• Honest, chaotic banter peppered with real-life stories
• Skewering of pop and internet culture
• Absurdist takes on current events, trends, and modern “grifting”
• The feeling of overhearing very funny friends who can’t stop interrupting one another

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TL;DR

No lives are as perfect as they look online, no meme coin is as valuable as it seems, and the best way to support The Commercial Break—if you like chaos, honesty, and moo moos—is to subscribe, share, and say “best to you!”

Transcript

[Astrid]

Maybe I like to take the edge.

[Brian Green]

Off at the end of the day.

[Astrid]

With a couple of bottles of wine, a few shots of tequila and a.

[Brian Green]

Fistful of muscle relaxers. But so what?

[Astrid]

Every morning at 6am I pick myself up off that floor, steal some of my kids riddling, and start the day anew.

[Brian Green]

On this episode of the Commercial Break, no one's life is that perfect. No scene is always that pretty. No relationship is that perfect. No. Even when you have an airplane, private airplane, your life still sucks in some way, shape or form. Money doesn't solve all problems. Vacations don't solve all problem problems. And no one, and I mean no one, Mormon moms cooks fucking chocolate cake in a goddamn $3,000 dress. Fuck you. The next episode of the Commercial Break starts now. Oh, yeah. Cats and kittens. Welcome back to another episode of the Commercial Break. I'm Brian Green. This is the CEO of tcb, my wife, Astrid. Best you, Astrid.

[Astrid]

Hello.

[Brian Green]

Hello. Best to you, Astrid.

[Astrid]

Best to you, Brian.

[Brian Green]

Best to you. Out there in the podcast universe, 800 episodes of this show and you still don't know to say best to you. You're fired.

[Astrid]

I do notice, but. And not actually, I was thinking about, oh, this is kind of like Chris's signature. Well, yours and Chris's signature. You know, welcome to the show.

[Brian Green]

True.

[Astrid]

So as I was getting ready, I was like, well, no, I. I don't think I should. You know, I don't want to, like.

[Brian Green]

You don't want to say best to you?

[Astrid]

I mean, I do. Yes or no?

[Brian Green]

Yes and no. No. There's no yes and no about it. Our fans say best to you and.

[Astrid]

They text in everyone I talk to.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Astrid]

On email and on text messages or Instagram. But what I. Since Chrissy's not here today, like, I don't want it to sound like you're.

[Brian Green]

Trying to take her place.

[Astrid]

What Chrissy says.

[Brian Green]

Fair enough. Fair enough. But as my wife and as the ogtcb, I mean, honestly, you were kind of the reason we're all here. So true. Fuck you. Thank you. And best to you. Best to you. There you go. I don't even know where did best you start? I think I was talking to Chrissy about something or somebody.

[Astrid]

Yeah, I don't know. I don't remember.

[Brian Green]

I think someone wrote it in an email one time, best to you. And I thought that was a very strange way to end an email, so I started saying it every episode of the commercial break. Anyway, Chrissy is not here today. Inclement weather in Georgia, which means it's farted. Cold wind for two seconds has closed down the entire city. And for the sake of safety, we'll keep Christina and Chrissy out of the studio today. So my fine wife Astrid has shown up. Lot of Venezuelan related content flowing through the commercial break lately.

[Astrid]

Yes. Well, just like in your life, a lot of Venezuelan content.

[Brian Green]

I mean, it's only fair that Venezuela. It's only fair that Venezuela is represented in some fair way here on the commercial break. It is a big part of my life. It is a big part of my life. And it is probably 5,000 of the 6,000 Instagram followers we have are from Venezuela.

[Astrid]

That's about true.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, we gotta feed them some Venezuelan content on occasion. Gustavo was here on a special episode on Saturday. Who won the game, by the way? I totally didn't. I watched the beginning and then.

[Astrid]

I don't know.

[Brian Green]

We should Google that. We should see who won the Venezuelan USA game.

[Astrid]

You're the worst.

[Brian Green]

I know. I am the worst.

[Astrid]

Put out a special episode for the.

[Brian Green]

Venezuela USA game and I don't even know. Yeah, Venezuela USA. Let's see here. Venezuela USA.

[Astrid]

We didn't even.

[Brian Green]

USA three. Venezuela won on January 18, 2025. So there you go. USA did by three, by two. That's three to one. I found that to be a weird game in the sense that it was in a very small stadium. It wasn't at Hard Rock. Like, I assumed that it was going to be Very small stadium.

[Astrid]

Yeah. Because it's not part of any like, big league.

[Brian Green]

But it's the first international. You would think that down in Florida.

[Astrid]

No, but those games are. You clearly don't know much about.

[Brian Green]

Okay, Ms. Soccer BBC. Tell me all about it.

[Astrid]

Well, those games are to classify for the world, right?

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Astrid]

Yeah. So even though. Yeah, of course, you know soccer fans and watch them, but they don't. They're not a spot. Like, people don't feel so inclined, I guess, to like pay for a ticket to go see the. They're meaning, like they're not that big of a deal.

[Brian Green]

I know it's a classification game. There are many of them.

[Astrid]

If it was like last year, Copa America, well, that would be your. Your.

[Brian Green]

I also understand as the stakes get higher than the. Then the. I guess the interest gets larger. But being down in Fort Lauderdale, so many Venezuelans living down there, you know, it's kind of like a mini Venezuela down there in between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. You would think that they could fill a relatively small stadium. I mean, I would assume there was no more than 5,000 seats in that little stadium, whatever it was called.

[Astrid]

Sure, they can fill it up, but again, I don't think now, I mean. And I talk for the Venezuelans every time La vinotinto, which is how we call our team plays.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Astrid]

Especially in the last. Yeah, I would say decade, you know, the whole country turns and support and you know, we have a, like a slogan that it's basically we have faith and, and it's because we've never actually made it to the World Cup.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Astrid]

But it's been a big dream of the whole country. Of course, the day we make it to the World cup because our. I was explaining this to you last week is our national sport is baseball. So that's what the country has always been. Been big on. Baseball players and well, baseball. Baseball in general. But so soccer, it's been. It's almost like a newer sport sport.

[Brian Green]

Right.

[Astrid]

But the younger generations, like my brother, they're soccer fans in my house, even though we did watch baseball and I also grew up. We also have our teams and our local teams and just like here, I would say my house was more of a soccer house than a baseball house.

[Brian Green]

Let me, but let me, let me ask this because this is counterintuitive to me. You're down in la. You're down in South America where soccer is huge. I mean, obviously it's.

[Astrid]

But that, that's a misconception though. It is huge.

[Brian Green]

But is it.

[Astrid]

But it is not huge. Like it's huge in Brazil, of course Colombia, in Argentina. Yeah, but Colombia also like Venezuela, if you look at. Historically, it's not like they've been into their. Colombia has grown as a team in, has made like some bigger accomplishments in the last decade.

[Brian Green]

Okay, but follow me just for a second here. I don't, I don't. Okay, maybe it's a misconception. I don't live down there and I don't want to claim to speak for the people that live.

[Astrid]

I would say the big.

[Brian Green]

But hold on then Venezuela is mainly or largely Spaniards from Spanish descent.

[Astrid]

Well, first of all, if you want to have Venezuelan content, you got to let me speak on top of you.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I don't want. That's the one thing that drives me crazy about Venezuelans. This is a good topic to talk about. Cuz it's the one thing that drives me up a fucking wall about being in a room full of Venezuelans is that no one finishes a sentence ever finishes a sentence because someone's talking on top of them. How do you. How do you Manage to accomplish. To get anything through to anybody.

[Astrid]

I don't know. Our brains work that way. Your brains work and we can multitask.

[Brian Green]

Okay. All right. So you gotta talk over me.

[Astrid]

Listen, I'm no soccer expert. And if any Hispanic soccer expert listens, I'm. I'm probably saying half of what I'm saying. It's not true.

[Brian Green]

Which goes along. That goes along with the theme of the commercial break. Don't worry about it. We got you covered.

[Astrid]

But what I believe is there. There's. Soccer is not like a big thing in all of the Latin countries. It is for sure a thing in Europe. Yes. Which includes a Hispanic country like Spain.

[Brian Green]

Right.

[Astrid]

Where it's very big. Yes, but. And yes, Venezuela was built mainly by Spaniards, Italians, the natives.

[Brian Green]

Right. Okay. Right.

[Astrid]

And all those countries are big in soccer. However, like, I mean, I don't really know the historic facts, but our sports, like the low. The. The native. I guess the native sport or something. Somehow it was. It's baseball. And actually. And that comes also because we're a country that it's. Even though it's inland in the continent, it's part of the Caribbean. And baseball. It's a Caribbean sport.

[Brian Green]

I got it. Like, I totally understand, like, what I. I'm following your fl. And I also do know that Venezuela has contributed a lot to American professional baseball.

[Astrid]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Like, if you look at Dominican Republic.

[Astrid]

Caribbean, big on baseball.

[Brian Green]

I think the Atlanta Braves were Venezuelan at one point. I really do.

[Astrid]

Yeah. Like, we have exported. That is true. We have exported a lot of baseball players to the major leagues here.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Astrid]

Which the country has always been very proud about. But soccer is not one of those. I would say the big countries that have, in my opinion, humble opinion, have led the soccer culture in the continent have been Brazil, like I said, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico. Mexico is big in soccer too.

[Brian Green]

Sure.

[Astrid]

But other than that, I think the other countries we've kind of like follow. Chile has a good team.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Astrid]

Too. But I'm not sure if that show.

[Brian Green]

Now we've named most of the countries down. It's.

[Astrid]

Then if you think I named all the countries, you don't know geography.

[Brian Green]

I do know geography. Okay.

[Astrid]

I name four.

[Brian Green]

So I guess the point is, is that USA beat Venezuela. I don't think that's any big surprise there. I also understand.

[Astrid]

How dare.

[Brian Green]

I really don't think it's a big surprise. And even. And I think.

[Astrid]

Right.

[Brian Green]

Well, I think it's not that leading.

[Astrid]

Up to the same in the world.

[Brian Green]

No, no, no, no, no. The America has Even though, I mean, America is relatively new to the sport of soccer. Also, we had, like, when I was a kid, everybody played soccer. Everybody. I was part of the first wave of children playing soccer. And now the chickens have come home to roost. Even though I've kind of. I'm not of the age where I would be playing professional soccer. I'm a little too old for that. But now we've had a couple of generations of children that have played soccer, and now it's an incredibly popular sport here in the United States. It is dwarfed by basketball, football, and other sports. But people get excited now about the sport of soccer. It took us a long time to catch on, but now here we are. And I would say that, you know, the reason why it's so popular is because parents don't mind their children playing soccer. Soccer is not a sport.

[Astrid]

I personally, and don't take offense with this, but I'd rather have my kid play soccer all day long than football based on, like, the injury. The potential injury, yes. And then, of course, we can go down the rabbit hole about the things, you know. I personally actually don't even understand football, so there's nothing for me to say.

[Brian Green]

Well, speaking of football, last night, as we're recording this, last night, Ohio State beat Notre Dame in the first college football bracketed playoff system. And they played here in Atlanta. Yeah, they played in the Mercedes Benz Stadium. Man, I feel for those people who had to walk from just from their car here in Atlanta. I was just emailing with somebody at our, at our network Odyssey, and they are up north. I think they're in Pennsylvania. And I was saying that it's very cold down here, but then I looked, it's 20 degrees here, feels like zero in Atlanta. But up north, like in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, it's like, it feels like minus 45 degrees. Feels like minus 45 degrees.

[Astrid]

And our city shut down.

[Brian Green]

I know our city's completely shut down. No one's going to school over there.

[Astrid]

Kids are in school.

[Brian Green]

Five feet of snow, they just do it. But I mean, the old adage is they're better prepared for winter weather than we are. Fair enough. But I mean, I, you know, the kids are home from school today, and it really makes me a little bit upset because there is no real threat of snow, like any kind of winter weather.

[Astrid]

That's what I was going to say. I mean, again, I know nothing about cold weather or snow, but there's. It's not snowing. Like, okay, no. What I thought was, like, well, I guess I'll rub this. They don't want the kids with a.

[Brian Green]

Bunch of layers, but they don't want the kids out in the cold. I think this is because some kids have to wait for transportation to school. And standing out for a bus in feels like zero degree weather, that's serious. Like you can get frostbite doing that. But then since we don't typically experience this kind of cold weather, the thought is those children are less prepared than if you live in Detroit or the, you know, Chicago, wherever. If you're a parent, it's. You just have gloves and ski masks. I don't know, you have a bunch of shit ready for those kids to go. Ski mask, to rob a bank or, you know, stand outside for the bus.

[Astrid]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

You have snow boots and crampons to get to school. Yes. Skis, those little walking shoes, the snow, walking shoes, sleds, all that shit. So here. So here we are.

[Astrid]

The only thing we have. It's like sand buckets for when we go to the beach.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. I'm just not interested in cold weather.

[Astrid]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

I mean, thank God you and I are on this same page.

[Astrid]

Well, and you were born in Chicago. To me, it's instantly cured.

[Brian Green]

No, it's torture for me too. I was instantly cured of my cold weather, my thick blood. The second that I moved down here, I took to it really well. I dislike the cold with a passion. I went to go take the trash out last night and I don't know what it is at 19 degrees, 18 degrees outside, babe, it's like a different kind of cold. It doesn't feel good to me at all whatsoever. And now I'm going down.

[Astrid]

Also, you don't put jackets on.

[Brian Green]

Well, I mean, I'm just going to take out the trash. What am I right?

[Astrid]

Well, if you're going to starve, it doesn't matter where you're.

[Brian Green]

What am I, some Frou Frou man? I'm a guy, I'm a dude. I can go out there without it.

[Astrid]

Clearly.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I had no. I'm wearing sandals and a short sleeve T shirt, complaining about the fact that it's cold. And now I'm like, at night I'm going down this rabbit hole of watching people climb Everest. I'm in this Everest rabbit hole, they call it.

[Astrid]

I have no idea why people wanted.

[Brian Green]

I mean, have no idea.

[Astrid]

To each their own. Granted. I'm like. But from, from the outside, to me, that looks like. Why would you.

[Brian Green]

I think this is why I'm down the rabbit hole. Why would you Ever want to go? Almost.

[Astrid]

I don't even want to hike to Stone Mountain.

[Brian Green]

I know.

[Astrid]

I don't even want to hike up Stone Mountain here.

[Brian Green]

We've done it a couple of times and I mean, we've been to the top of Stone Mountain a couple of times. I don't even like being that high.

[Astrid]

Like, why would I really put my life in risk, like, consciously from the moment I said, yes, I'm doing it. There is. And I don't even know the statistic.

[Brian Green]

One out of seven.

[Astrid]

Okay, well, then first. And then to make my life miserable, that's it. To what? Because when I was a kid, I remember there was. And I forgot there's like a Venezuelan guy that when I was a child made it to the top of the Everest. And then he, of course.

[Brian Green]

The Everest. That's the funniest thing I've heard. You go to the top of the Everest. Like, it's got a name. The Everest. Bow to the Everest. Climb the Everest. Do it on the Everest. Okay, go ahead. That's very royal English of you.

[Astrid]

Thank you. Well, that's what I get from watching Bridgerton.

[Brian Green]

That's right, Bridgerton. But okay, Venezuelan became like, you know, locally famous.

[Astrid]

Yeah. And then he went on to be like some type of like coach that would go to businesses, give like speech and blah, blah. Yeah, of course that's what they do, but. And back then, I remember he went to like my mom at the time, the company where my mom was working at, and he gave, you know, us conference. And my mom came back like a motivational speech. And then my mom came back like, oh my gosh, we saw this guy, blah, blah, blah. You know, like he's one. At the time, apparently he was like one of very few people that had made it to the top. Right. But I, I believe by now, like after Internet and social media and all of that, like, we realized there's actually a lot of people have made it now. I'm not taking, I don't want to like.

[Brian Green]

No, no, no.

[Astrid]

Take away the what the challenge.

[Brian Green]

It is hard.

[Astrid]

Right.

[Brian Green]

No matter how you do it. But the.

[Astrid]

But like, I don't want to be one in already a thousands.

[Brian Green]

Listen, listen, here's the rap on, on Everest is having watched now hundreds of hours of content. And I don't know why I'm watching it. I think because it's so antithetical to anything I would ever think about doing. I understand it. So you now have at base camp down at the bottom of the mountain. You have five different camps. And at base Camp, it's basically a five star hotel. They bring a bunch, they bring chefs, they bring TVs, they bring satellite radios. You have Internet. Everybody's going up there for the clicks. Everybody wants to get to the top because they want to do like some dude. Was the first dude this last year, the first guy to do a backflip on the top of the mountain. The backflip on the top of Everest. Hundreds of people, if not thousands of people have died in pursuit of getting up to the top. No matter how you do Everest, it's hard. And no matter why you do Everest, it's hard. You are putting your life in your own hands and you are very likely putting other people's lives in your hands, like the porters and sherpas that have to go with you and do all this stuff. And if you are ill equipped, if you have never done something like this before, you can still get to the top of Everest. But do you make it down is the question. And I just am baffled by people who have no experience doing mountaineering whatsoever deciding that Everest is all of a sudden something they want to do. Because you can pay a company to basically float you up to the top of it. But people die and they die because inexperienced people try and go up there.

[Astrid]

But it's similar to. And yes, exactly. I agree. Like random people who have never.

[Brian Green]

Never.

[Astrid]

Because if you, if that has been a goal of you for years, you have like worked and trained to get to that point. I mean, sure, right. Same thing happens with like divers and fisher. Fisherman or whatever. You know, all kinds of different high risk activity. Fishing, Right, fishing.

[Brian Green]

Do you know how many people die fishing every year?

[Astrid]

No.

[Brian Green]

Tens of people when you dive. Oh, diving, no, but people who fish. Spearfishing.

[Astrid]

Yes. My grandpa seated that.

[Brian Green]

Oh, okay. I didn't know spearfishing. No, Spearfishing was such a dangerous sport.

[Astrid]

Right. When you don't have any equipment.

[Brian Green]

Well, no, I wouldn't try and do that either. I am equally as afraid of the top of Everest as I am of the bottom of the ocean. I don't want to do either of those two things.

[Astrid]

No, I don't. I forgot the name in English. But when you like the ones who dive with no equipment.

[Brian Green]

Oh, free diving.

[Astrid]

Free diving.

[Brian Green]

They call it free diving. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that. I've watched a lot of movies on that too. That's corre.

[Podcast Announcer]

Crazy.

[Astrid]

So. But it's just like people, you know, there you have it. The people who died and you know, oh, I want to see the Titanic. Yeah, like, what for?

[Brian Green]

Listen, those people that, that's. We talked a lot about that. I still have a hard time believing that people went down in a tin can developed by some dude that was just grifting off people, by the way. And listen, I under. I, I, like, explorers are important people. People who want to push boundaries, go places other people don't want to in test endurance, human endurance. But I can appreciate that, like, there's a difference between doing that blindly because you think there's some recognition or some hoopla for it, and then having some, like, internal drive to do it and also having a brain to go along with it. Let me. I would just ask. A person who has no mountaineering experience decides they want to go on an Everest adventure, which, by the way, can be two to three months. You might get one or two days that, that the window is good. And when there's thousands of people on the mountain, it's. There's a traffic jam, and that's why people are dying. I would ask somebody, if you have no experience mountaineering and you want to go to the top of Everest and you think paying somebody $50,000 to shepherd you up there is a good idea so you can take a picture at the top of the mountain, would you also go 500 to 600ft underwater, hold your breath for 15 minutes? No. Without any training? Of course you wouldn't, because that's a dumb fucking idea.

[Astrid]

It's.

[Brian Green]

The same principle applies when you go to the top of Everest. And listen, I'm not the guy who would ever climb Everest. I don't know what it's like. And I will say that anybody who even tries it, attempts it, has bigger cojones than I do. So I'm not trying to, like, shit on people who just decide they want to up and decide they want to go to Everest. But I'm. I watch all these videos, and I understand that people who really do love Everest and love mountaineering and love climbing and do it for a living, they're very concerned about how many people are now just showing up at Everest, trying to get up to the top for no reason.

[Astrid]

Commercial thing.

[Brian Green]

It's very commercialized, like, everything.

[Astrid]

Right. And we should really try to maybe pay more attention to, yeah, let the.

[Brian Green]

Professionals go up Everest. Let National Geographic do that. They're good, you know, they're good at finding people who are professional for that. We all have Stone Mountain to climb stone Mountain over 200ft or 200ft tall, you could take a tram up to the top.

[Astrid]

Last week, there Was a bad news.

[Brian Green]

There was bad news last week.

[Astrid]

Yeah. About something happened.

[Brian Green]

Dun, dun, dun, dun. Bad news. Don't tell me. I can't take it.

[Astrid]

No, somebody.

[Brian Green]

Somebody fell off the mountain on.

[Astrid]

Alive. Himself.

[Brian Green]

He fell off the mountain or something. Oh, he unalived himself or he accidentally unalived himself.

[Astrid]

I read it was, like, with that.

[Brian Green]

Purpose, he, like, ran and jumped off the mountain.

[Astrid]

I have no idea of the details. I didn't.

[Brian Green]

When you go to the top of that stone mountain, it's very flat at the top and there's like a huge area where you can stand, but it's clear that there's a line. And if you go past that line, it's just a sheer drop off. And they have gates there. They have, like, fences and gates. They do on some parts of it. They have fences and gates. But still, it always makes me very nervous, you know, the couple times you've taken the kids up there.

[Astrid]

Well, especially if they start running around.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just don't like heights in general. I don't like heights in general. And that's why I even surprised myself climbing up that rock wall at Great Wolf Lodge. It's very proud of myself. I don't know why I did it. I did it because you said that I couldn't do it. That's why I did it. I did it just to spite you. How do you feel about that?

[Astrid]

My fourth child.

[Brian Green]

I am. I'm like a child. And you're. And you're my fourth child. There you go. I just have to take care of you a lot less.

[Astrid]

I'm a very mature child if that's the case.

[Brian Green]

Okay, well, we'll hear Astrid toot more of her own horn when we get back. I want to talk. I want to talk about the TikTok ban that lasted 24 hours. Talk about Trump meme coin and the Melania Meme coin and tell you why I think we should all get in on this action. Grifting ourselves to death right after these words. We'll be back.

[Podcast Announcer]

Have you got a hankering down deep in your soul to tell us what's up? Well, I am encouraging you to do just that. Text us at 212-4333, TCB and tell us what's going on. Give us the haps. Tell us the dirty secrets of your life. That's all we've ever wanted to hear. You can also leave us a voicemail at the same number.

[Astrid]

That.

[Podcast Announcer]

That's 212-433-3822. And also follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and on TikTok at TCB podcast. And if you want to see any video episodes, you can go to YouTube.com the commercial break and they are all right there. And if your hankering is not to tell us what's up, but it's for a new sticker, I'm sure there's probably one on the website. Go to tcbpodcast.com click contact us and find I want my free sticker. I know you can do it and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on anything and everything. Love you.

[Astrid]

Bye.

[Brian Green]

Okay, back here with Astrid as Chrissy and Christina take a inclement weather day, whatever the fuck that means. Inclement weather day.

[Astrid]

It's cold outside. I can't be outside.

[Brian Green]

Actually, I don't want to go outside either, so I can't blame her. Yeah. And if there is, on the off chance that there is snow, I wouldn't want Chrissy and Christina stuck here. Yeah. Because they would be miserable in this household if they had. Let's listen to our children run around for 5, 6 days. However long it's going to be. It's going to be cold for the next week, too. Geez.

[Astrid]

Well, there's like a winter storm.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, there's. Yeah.

[Astrid]

Through like the whole country.

[Brian Green]

I know. You know, the crazy thing is, is like, even in Amelia island, they're expecting snow down there. That's kind of insane.

[Astrid]

That's what I. Listen, I don't know how the things go, but yesterday, last night I was looking at the weather Channel and it show like parts of south of here. Yes, we're getting snow.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Astrid]

And we're not. And I was like, well, I don't know how the math works, but in my head I would have thought, well.

[Brian Green]

It just has to do with the way the jet stream is passing over us and the jet stream pushes the moisture down south instead of up here. So don't ask me. I'm not a weatherman, but I think I can predict the weather better than some of the weatherman, if I'm being honest, week ago is we were going to have 8 to 10 inches of snow today. Now we're not even going to get any snow. But the kids are still home and Chrissy and Christine aren't here. So Astrid and I doing an episode here in the studio. It's convenient for us to just walk down the hallway and do an episode. So there you go. All right. So TikTok ban. TikTok ban went into effect on Sunday On Monday afternoon, Donald Trump signed an executive order giving. Basically giving TikTok more time. I think he gave them 90 days to figure out whatever it is they need to figure out. I don't know if they need to be sold or change the way they're doing things.

[Astrid]

Apparently the deal was that they needed.

[Brian Green]

To sell it to an American owner. Yeah. To a US Based corporation. And there are many.

[Astrid]

Wait, now they'll sell it to Elon Musk?

[Brian Green]

Yeah, they're going to sell it to. Well, I don't think that should happen. I mean, I don't think it. I don't think you. I don't want to go down a big political rabbit hole, but it's clear to me that Elon has lost his marbles. And I don't know if any of these funds that could afford to fund Elon to buy it would actually take the risk on Elon buying it. Because if Elon did to TikTok what he did to Twitter, he will devalue it overnight and it will just be another shit show. Lots of other platforms like Blue sky and Threads, they're really getting. They're. They're getting a ton more traffic because people have realized that when you build your world on someone else's platform, the rug can get pulled any day. Now Threads and Blue sky are somebody else's platform too. But being a content creator is really tough. And a lot of these TikTokers rightfully had the holy shit scared out of them because their only source of revenue was turned off for a day. And what was scary was the thought that that could happen forever. So I really feel for a lot.

[Astrid]

Of these creators, apparently TikTok tick tock paid like, good money.

[Brian Green]

TikTok pays, I think the best of it. I mean, Instagram just started paying, what, about a year ago, they just started paying. YouTube is.

[Astrid]

I don't know, because we don't have enough followers.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, we don't have enough followers. This is. And this is gonna. I'm gonna go there in a second and I know, I know where your head is at, but, you know, YouTube is a joke. You have to get millions and millions of views and you have to be on the safe side of the content. You can't like the content that we produce. It's just not favored by the algorithm, and I don't know that it ever will be. And, you know, we'd have to have millions and millions of viewers just to make any kind of living. So the RSS feed for us, where you're listening to us on whatever player is really an opportunity for a creator to kind of own their world. It doesn't matter if one of these platforms goes away because you can listen to us on 150 other platforms. And I like that about the RSS feed. It's decentralized, I own it. And in partnership with my network, I get this produced and out to you whenever I want to, however I want to. And if I want to turn Spotify off, I can turn Spotify off. I don't like what they're doing, I just turn it off. Right. If I don't like what Apple's doing, I just turn it off. Now I wouldn't do that because those are the places where y' all are listening to us. But these content creators, they're really putting their lives in the owners of TikTok's hands. And if it goes away, what do they do? Well, they, I mean it's like being a one legged table. If the leg gets kicked out from under you, the table's gonna fall and everything on it's gonna go with it.

[Astrid]

That's why like in the last years I've been, I've seen more and more of peop. I remember when Instagram started and these.

[Brian Green]

Back in the day, back in my.

[Astrid]

Day when Instagram started. Nope. And, and you know, like the people who were kind of already famous gain like a lot of follow followers quickly and, and then of course, like the whole platform started growing more and more with celebrities and, and content creators and whatnot. But then people, I remember, at least in Venezuela, it started happening to, happening to famous, you know, radio artists, actresses and actors that they would get hacked. And all of the sudden they had a platform with, you know, 200,000 people, half a million people. And it went away because somebody hacked it.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Astrid]

And they couldn't figure a way to get those accounts back so they had to start like all over again again with an account from zero. And then eventually I started seeing all these, you know, like social media experts, marketing, you know, accounts that you follow to kind of like grow your, you know, your Instagram account. And the one thing they would say it's like you need to convert those Instagram followers in whatever it is that actually that's why people, you know, are always like, sign up to my newsletter.

[Brian Green]

Well, yeah, the word is, is that get the, get what's called first person data. Get an email address, get a physical address, get a phone number, get them over to your website where they can get involved in the club. You remember we had the break room for 35 seconds.

[Astrid]

Or if you, like sell something, like get. Just like convert.

[Brian Green]

Convert them into your own ecosystem.

[Astrid]

Because the second that platform goes away for whatever reason, then it's like, what's happening with TikTok? All this content creators just basically build, quote, unquote, you know, like a career on there in the last couple of years or since the pandemic. And one day it was off and they were all, yeah, they're all scared shitless.

[Brian Green]

And it's. It's really understandable. And I think there's a valuable lesson here, and that's that the tech billionaires, the tech oligarchs, they can at any time fuck around with whatever they want to fuck around with. And things change. There's a big to do right now about whether or not a podcast should have video. That's the huge conversation going on in podcasting right now. Spotify putting videos. And there's a lot of. There's a lot of people in our industry in the audio podcasting landscape that don't want to play nice with Spotify in this push to get video on their platform because they don't believe that Spotify is going to treat those creators correctly and that Spotify is just making a play to get Mr. Beast over, to get all of those big video content creators over to Spotify so that they can eat YouTube's lunch. Okay, you know, the commercial break is not going to make a difference either way, one way or the other, whether or not we put videos on Spotify or not. It doesn't. It's not going to materially affect us or the traffic on Spotify, whether or not we do. But these content creators on TikTok, I mean, I hope, are learning a valuable lesson about diversifying where you're at. And here's the thing. When you're a content creator, like we are, and you're listening to our show, and so many of you write in and you're very faithful to the show and you're loyal to the show and you love us and we love you, and it's a great relationship that we have. The one. So. And a lot of you ask, like, what's the one way that we can help? Like, how can we help? What can we do for the show? There's one thing that you can do for the show that's super important, and that is there's, I mean, under one umbrella, and that is engage with the show. Follow us on Instagram, Follow us on YouTube Comments, subscribe. Watch the shows when we put them on Social media or on YouTube. Because by engaging, you then allow us to go out and to play sponsorships into the show. We have made the decision not to do memberships and stuff like that. First of all, I'm not sure anybody would pay for this shitty show. But second of all, it's just. I'd rather do it for free and have a few sponsors in the show and make our living that way. But we do need your help with that. Like, this whole thing with TikTok, I think, underlines the importance that if you like our show, if you like what we're doing, if you're engaging in the commercial break, engage with us in multiple ways. Subscribe, like, comment on the show. Because that way we're diversified. We're not just on.

[Astrid]

Well, it help us grow.

[Brian Green]

It helps us grow. Yeah.

[Astrid]

Which means that it also helps us stay, you know, produce. Like, continue to produce a show.

[Brian Green]

We can't produce the show. Yeah. We can't produce a show unless we have sponsors. We can't have sponsors unless people are engaged in our show. Here's the other thing that Astrid pointed out that I think is really smart.

[Astrid]

Yeah.

[Brian Green]

Is that if you really like our show, if you're like, all of you who are texting me, like, you know, on a daily basis, some of you, if you really like the show, the biggest compliment, the biggest favor, the biggest financial and spiritual and emotional favor you could do the commercial break, share it with people, share it with your friends, share it with your family. Word of mouth. I know you're a little embarrassed that you listen to the commercial break. I'm a little embarrassed to create it. But, hey, we can all take our lumps and just share an episode with them. Share an episode with them.

[Astrid]

You know, it really. It's something that I understand. You don't think about, like, on your daily basis, but just one minute of your time to click the share. Share an episode with somebody that maybe you heard something that reminded you of a friend or that you. You saw a family member that you think you know, can relate to.

[Brian Green]

If you saw a family member you don't, like, share the commercial break with them. Right. If you're dating some hot chick and you want her to break up with you, you want to ghost her, don't ghost her.

[Astrid]

Send her an episode of the commercial break. That random action.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Astrid]

That may not really mean anything to you, for us, means a lot.

[Brian Green]

Yeah. And like I tell you guys, like, two years ago, three years ago, you can ask Astrid. I would refuse to come on air and say Something like this. Because I don't want to, like, grovel at anybody's feet. If you like the show, you like the show. That's it. That's kind of. That was my. That was in my head for a long time, but now I'm of the opinion that there's a community of us that are. Are talking to each other and you're listening to the episodes and commenting on Spotify. Sorry it took me a year to get back to you, but there's a. There's a bunch of people out there who really do like the commercial break and we like producing it. So if you want us to continue to produce it, you can do us a huge favor. Share the show, engage in the content and communicate with us too. We'd love to hear from you. And I think that's the groveling that. That's all the groveling I'm gonna do for this week.

[Astrid]

Blue needs to eat.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, Blue needs to eat. Blue needs a new home. So if you like Blue, if you like the idea of a dog constantly barking and shitting all over your house, please text us. I'll be happy to ship her to you. DHL. None of that fancy FedEx shit. All right? Okay. Speaking of TikTok creators, one of the things that was interesting that came out of this whole TikTok ban was TikTok creators who are extraordinarily popular on the platform, believing that TikTok would go away forever and really not wanting to, like, you know, I guess they figured the game was up, the gig was out, we aren't going to do this anymore. They would reveal their secrets. Did you hear about this? So many TikTokers revealing that in fact, they are full of fucking shit.

[Astrid]

What do you mean?

[Brian Green]

So I'll give you an example. There is a. And I have a couple of examples here, but I. There's one that I. There's a famous girl on TikTok sat.

[Astrid]

Down and did videos saying like, they did videos. I was teaching you how to clean your house.

[Brian Green]

I was teaching you how to do makeup. I never liked the makeup. I taught you to do the 10 pump foundation. 10 pumps is way too much. I made all of these beautiful fruit based ice cubes that you could put in your water. I've never used ice cubes. I don't like them. One girl who was famous for having a billionaire boyfriend, she would create content about her and her billionaire boyfriend, but the boyfriend was never in the videos. The boyfriend was fake. He never existed. I mean, just like Charli D' Amelio What's. Is that? Like that famous girl Charlie. Whatever. Anyway, she was caught one time with what people said was a vape because her fan base is so young. She said, it's not a vape, it's an anxiety pen. A pen that you fiddle with for anxiety. She admitted it was, in fact, a vape. Like, so many people went on TikTok and just, like, admitted that they were full of fucking shit.

[Astrid]

Yeah, but I mean, I. I guess that's good that they did that just so that people realize that what you see in social media. But honestly, also at this point, don't we all agree that most of the.

[Brian Green]

Things that I just said this the.

[Astrid]

Other day, even influencers that I personally follow and somehow, you know, like, respect in a way. Like, I feel like their content is genuine and, you know, and I like them or I like what they share right now, I don't know them personally, so it could very well be just. Just, you know, a show that they're just putting on for the camera. But I understand also, because how do they make a living, like, with all the. Because Instagram makes you this close when it's a partnership, like, you're getting paid and they have to put, like a hashtag on.

[Brian Green]

Of course, this is a big deal that's happening right now in our industry.

[Astrid]

Yeah, it's like, I get it. Like, I believe that, you know, I'm sure they like the product, or especially if. If the. They're talking about products that I've seen they have been, you know, promoting for, like, years. It kind of makes sense, right? Like, if you don't really like a product, I guess you're not gonna promote it for five years. But at the same time, I'm also not oblivious to the fact that I'm sure, like, it's not like that product is, you know, the God of the. Whatever it is that you're promoting. It's like, okay, you know, you.

[Brian Green]

Well, listen, there's. Yeah. So if someone is. I mean, I think everybody understands that if someone is promoting something they're getting paid to do, so they're not going to say negative things about it. Right. Period. End of sentence. I see a lot of content creators out there that will literally promote whatever the. Is thrown their way, regardless of. I think regardless of whether they feel it's a good product or not. We kind of take the stance here that, you know, we are likely to use it if we promote it. It's something that we would use. It's something that we do use. It's something that we like. That's just because I don't want to fuck over the, the listeners. There's so many things that we get like requests for. Will you do this? Will you do that? And we say no because I wouldn't use it in the first place. So I'm not going to do it. I'm not even talking about the promoting. These people are not talking about promotions. They're talking about their content in general was full of fucking shit. I just said this about that girl, Bobby Altoff. I said her name was Atlaff. It's Altoff. I'm sorry, whatever. However you say her last name, she, you know, so many people are like, oh, Bobby's fake, she's fake, she's fake. It's all a, it's all a thing that she's doing for the camera. This kind of disinterested, you know, flat tone that she has with these interviews she's doing. What did you, what did you expect? Did you expect that everybody who turns on a camera is going to be 100% organic? There's like something a little bit showmany about wanting to be on camera. There's going to be a little twist in your personality or voice when the cameras go on. That's just the way that it is.

[Astrid]

Yeah, but like I'm, for example, talking specifically about this girl. You say that she used to share, you know, content about her billionaire boyfriend. And you know, I'm sure the, all the private plane trips and all that. Okay, it's like, it's just like people who, all that they share is the pretty, you know, the, the pretty way they decorated their living room or how they redid their bedroom. Wonderful. And I'm sure that's how it looks when after you clean up and organize. Right. I'm sure, I'm sure you also, you know, clean the scene and all of that to take the picture and post it on Instagram. But that's what people forget. It's like, like you think everything in their lives looks like that.

[Brian Green]

No, I think there's a lesson here. Even when you like the listener or we go to take a picture of our kids, of ourselves or we're taking a video or whatever, we clean up behind us, we look for the best spot, we look for the best view behind us.

[Astrid]

And you pose the picture, you feel like you look the best.

[Brian Green]

Of course there is always a bit of in, I, I guess like appearance, like, yeah, it's non organic, it's non authentic because you are making sure that it's the best angle because that's how you want to present yourself to the world. It's just like most people don't go out of the house in, you know, wearing just underwear with holes in it or shit stains. They don't do that because they want to present themselves to the world in the best possible light. Now, that doesn't always happen. That doesn't include everybody in the world. But there's a certain amount of showmanship that goes into just being a human being. Now making up a billionaire out of whole cloth and trying to convince everybody and their mother that you have a billionaire boyfriend. That's a little Andy Kaufman esque. And what I mean by that is it's like, now you're just putting on a whole show forever. Now you're creating a character out of whole cloth. There's nothing organic about it. I don't know if I agree or disagree. I don't really give a shit if I'm following somebody and they're creating content that's entertaining to me. Well, maybe it really doesn't matter at the end of the day because I'm not paying them to do that.

[Astrid]

I do. I, I agree with what you just said. And also those people. The problem is, again, yes, if you have followers and they enjoy your content, go ahead, you know, to each of their own, whatever. But I like that also then becomes part of the problem of the problem that social media has actually increased, you know, mental illnesses, insecurities in people. Because you go there and it's like, you know, oh, everyone's house is perfect. Everyone. Like, for some people, that has become a true.

[Brian Green]

Absolutely.

[Astrid]

I personally, actually last year I unfollowed a couple accounts that I used to love because I came to the conclusion that it's like, well, if this is really their life, the wonderful. That's not how my life is. And just because I. It was kind of like bothering me that it was so perfect.

[Brian Green]

You were jealousy watching and not jealous.

[Astrid]

But also like comparing like, wow, my life is not.

[Brian Green]

Yes.

[Astrid]

You know that put together all the time. And one day I realized I was like, no, I mean, I'm sure theirs is not either. They're just showing the pretty picture. So I just decided, you know what? I'm not.

[Brian Green]

But I think we've gotten to the point, I would like to think at least a lot of us in the collective consciousness that we inherently understand that no one's life is that perfect. No scene is always that pretty. No relationship is that perfect. No. Even when you have an Airplane. Private airplane. Your life still sucks in some way, shape or form. Money doesn't solve all problems. Vacations don't solve all problems. And no one, and I mean no one, Mormon moms cooks fucking chocolate cake in a goddamn $3,000 dress. Fuck you trad wives. That's all I gotta say. Fuck you and your weird sense of feminism. Fuck that. Fuck that trad wife bullshit. Do you see that? You see those ladies? That they're cooking like chocolate cakes and like $3,000. Well, listen, Belonziangzio dresses or whatever, if.

[Astrid]

All the dresses and the outfits in my closet were $3,000, then I guess.

[Brian Green]

You would make chocolate cake and $3,000 dresses. No?

[Astrid]

But since they're not even the $50 dress, I go change.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, babe.

[Astrid]

To my pajamas.

[Brian Green]

I love you and your $50 moomoo from Walmart. It's my favorite. I love you regardless of what you wear. And that is why you need to share an episode of the commercial break. Get Astrid a new moo moo from Target that she can cook chocolate cake in. All right, we'll take a break. We'll be back.

[Podcast Announcer]

One of my New Year's resolutions is to hear more of other people's drama. So help a girl out and tell us your drama at 212-433-3822. You can text it or, or if it's extra juicy, leave us a voicemail with the full story. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram hecommercial break and on TikTok CBpodcast and watch our video [e-mail] TheCommercialBreak but also you can find everything I just mentioned and more on our website tcbpodcast.com okay, let's listen to our sponsors and send us your drama.

[Brian Green]

You know, the TikTok reveal that killed me was JoJo Siwa. You know JoJo Siwa.

[Astrid]

What is the obsession you have with JoJo Siwa?

[Brian Green]

I don't know. There's something like. There's something weirdly interesting about JoJo Siwa and all of her machinations. I don't know. I got fascinated by that dance she did in the video. You know, she's like a child star that's now like every other child star.

[Astrid]

No, I know who she is, okay?

[Brian Green]

No, I'm explaining to the audience like she's breaking away from this child star Persona that she has. And now she's like hyper sexualized, you know, like all the female child stars have to do according to the Hollywood rules of sexualization, I guess. I'm not sure, but think about it. But hold on. But one of the things that she was doing was running around doing all of these performances and, like, drinking out of a Tito's or a fireball bottle, like drinking straight alcohol, and people were like, holy shit. Like, she would take six, seven slugs out of it. Well, she admitted, at least on one occasion, that. That Tito's was not, in fact, Tito's vodka. It was just water. And so that's good for her health. But I was really disappointed by that because I thought, well, she's breaking away from her youthful appearance and also then getting highly intoxicated on stage. But it's just fake. So fuck JoJo Siwa and her fake Tito's. So. So let's talk about Donald Trump for a minute. So here we are, day three of the Donald Trump presidency. Not gonna get into all the politics because that's for a different. That's for a different time, for a.

[Astrid]

Different show, for a different podcast.

[Brian Green]

Different podcast. But I will say this is that the grand grift is on. Donald Trump and Melania Trump have both. Within hours. Actually, Donald did it beforehand, Melanie did it afterwards. Within hours of the inauguration, put out these meme coins, these alt. Alternate altcoins, you know, bitcoin, like electronic currency. A meme coin is basically this. It has a cryptocurrency that has no value whatsoever. They just make it based on a meme, like a personality or something out there on the Internet. And there are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of meme coins, and they are well known.

[Astrid]

Are they based on the Donald Trump memes?

[Brian Green]

They are based on the Donald Trump.

[Astrid]

Memes because those I personally love.

[Brian Green]

Well, this one is just based on his. On him. Donald Trump, he created his own. And at one point, the Donald Trump meme coin had a valuation of $85 billion hours after the inauguration. Do you know how much target the corporation is worth? $62 billion. The Donald Trump meme coin was worth more momentarily than the target corporation was. Target being an S&P 500 company. Melania then announced her coin hours after the inauguration, and guess what happened? The Donald Trump coin lost half of its value. And then the Melania Trump coin shot up in value. In other words, everybody's trying to rug pull everybody else. Everybody's trying to be the last sucker in the pot, essentially, the last frog in the pot, so to speak.

[Astrid]

Everyone, should we launch a TCB coin?

[Brian Green]

I have thought about this. So this. This is exactly what we were talking about with the hawk To a girl, remember the Hawk coin that is now probably going to get her landed in jail. What in the fuck is going on? Why are we all just grifting each other at this point? Why is everybody allowing people at the top to just absorb massive amounts of wealth while everybody else gets stuck with the Trump coin or the Melania coin or the Hoc To a coin or whatever coin, the Pepe coin, It doesn't matter. You name it. These, they have no intrinsic value whatsoever except to make other people rich. And those other people will not be me. It will not be you, because we are the suckers who are giving the money. It's fucking insane to me. We need a TCB coin immediately, if not sooner. Why don't we have a TCB coin?

[Astrid]

Well, we can call it the possum coin.

[Brian Green]

Well, yep, Possum coin. That's it. I like that possum coin. It's just crazy to me. And then, so, like, there was this guy who was doing the. You know, when Donald was getting sworn in, he was doing the. He was the preacher. The preacher giving some kind of speech. That preacher got off the dais of giving that speech, walked into the back of wherever the fuck they were, the rotunda or whatever, walked into the back and immediately started recording himself. He put out his own meme coin. Minutes after he gave, like, some, you know, I don't know, eulogy or whatever the fuck he was talking about. Some, you know, passionate. The Lord loves us. The Lord loves Donald Trump. The Lord will save us all this shit. He walks right into the back, he starts filming himself, and now he's got a meme coin also. He's also grifting everybody. I'm sure he did, because what happens?

[Astrid]

Why should we jump in the train?

[Brian Green]

I think we don't. We have to at this point. Isn't this the only thing that's going to save the commercial break is a meme coin that can get grifted. How many people listen to the commercial break? I don't know. A couple hundred thousand people. Couple hundred thousand people bought a meme coin?

[Astrid]

I thought it was 10 people.

[Brian Green]

Well, in my mind, it's a couple hundred thousand people. I like to pretend that we're bigger than we are. I like to pretend, just like meme coin, people like to pretend that they're actually making money. It's fucking insane to me, babe. It's insane. Everything is for sale. Everyone is for sale. Everyone's a sucker.

[Astrid]

It's insane to me that you were reading about all of this. That's what's insane?

[Brian Green]

Why is it insane that I was reading about this?

[Astrid]

I personally find it so boring.

[Brian Green]

I didn't. I actually watched a video on it by this guy named Coffeezilla.

[Astrid]

Because also, you know, I am hooked with that show that I'm watching.

[Brian Green]

How do we go from Trump to your show? How did we go from Trump mean coin to your show? I knew you're gonna try and fit this in somewhere. What is this show? Okay, tell us about the show now. Tell us about the show now. We're gonna talk about the show.

[Astrid]

Well, it's a Spanish show, like, from Spain.

[Brian Green]

Okay.

[Astrid]

And from.

[Brian Green]

And it's in Spanish.

[Astrid]

Yeah, of course.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah.

[Astrid]

It's just.

[Brian Green]

It's Bridgerton.

[Astrid]

Yeah, it's Bridgerton.

[Brian Green]

Yeah.

[Astrid]

Well, yeah, it's like a Bridgerton.

[Brian Green]

What is it about? Did Gustavo recommend this to you?

[Astrid]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

Is Gustavo recommending. Recommending romantic period pieces to you?

[Astrid]

Even though it has romance? Yeah, it's mainly, like, suspense. Like, there's a mystery in the family. So it's big. Like it. Romance is actually not, like, the main part of it.

[Brian Green]

Romance is not the main part of it. No, it's a drama. Yeah, it's suspense. What? It's a thriller. What? What are we suspended about? What is the drama, babe?

[Astrid]

Three seasons. Each season has 28 episodes.

[Brian Green]

Jesus Christ. This is on Netflix?

[Astrid]

No.

[Brian Green]

What is it on Bix? Bix?

[Astrid]

On Amazon prime.

[Brian Green]

Vix. B I X, V, V I X.

[Astrid]

Yes.

[Brian Green]

Vixx, like the Vapor Rub.

[Astrid]

That's a. That's like the platform for all, like, the Hispanic shows.

[Brian Green]

Okay. All right. 28 episodes. Hour long episodes.

[Astrid]

Yeah. By the way, this also is a show from, like, 2011.

[Brian Green]

Oh, okay.

[Astrid]

Cuts in, Sid. Since it is a period.

[Brian Green]

You know, a period piece.

[Astrid]

You actually don't notice.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, I guess that's the good news, is you can watch it anytime. I just don't get it. I can't get into those period pieces.

[Astrid]

I really can, I have to say.

[Brian Green]

All right, fair enough. I'll let you watch it.

[Astrid]

I think you would like it. I think you would get hooked into the story. But you would have to watch it with subtitles. It's not translated.

[Brian Green]

Well, I will tell you something. Here's a little knowledge about Brian and Astrid. Back right when we had our first child. Or maybe you were pregnant with our first child. There was a show on. What was that show on? What's that? Univision. Yeah, on Univision.

[Astrid]

Your first telenovela.

[Brian Green]

And what was the name of it? Something de Muerte.

[Astrid]

Yeah, I forgot.

[Brian Green]

I forgot. What it was called too, but it was on every night. I was totally hooked. It was on every night, four nights a week.

[Astrid]

Five nights a week.

[Brian Green]

I thought it was four nights a week. Monday through Thursday. It was on Monday through Thursday at 8 o'. Clock. And I was absolutely hooked. And the show was about a father of a rich. Like, he owned a company and he died and he came back as another person. He like inhibited somebody else's body and came back as another person. And this show made no sense whatsoever. It was like loose ends everywhere. And I was absolutely hooked on this show. It was only in Spanish, only Spanish subtitles. And so we had to watch it very painstakingly slow so that Brian could pause and read what was in Spanish and try and understand it. I loved that telenovela. I really did. And I just. We haven't found one since. That's all that good. We tried to watch a couple of others.

[Astrid]

I've really given it a try.

[Brian Green]

No. It took up a lot of my time and now we have so many children. I don't know why. How I would ever.

[Astrid]

Right.

[Brian Green]

How am I supposed to read that much?

[Astrid]

You like to watch videos about people claiming that the Everest likes to go to the Everest.

[Brian Green]

That's true. Is going to go to the Everest and climate. Or about the meme coin, the Donald Trump coin.

[Astrid]

Donald Trump coin.

[Brian Green]

I'm sorry, it just got me hot under my collar. I just couldn't believe that so many people are jumping in on this when they know they're going to get fucked. How you know what's coming down the track. I mean, listen, it's a Ponzi scheme and the people who get in early and the people who sell quickly, they will probably make some money. There are suckers that always come in behind you. Right. But at the end of the day when it has no value and it can't be used anywhere and there's nothing to be done except to try and make a little bit of cash in the transaction. You're giving all the fees to someone who's already incredibly wealthy with all of the power in the world. And then you're also giving money to his cronies who essentially hold a lot of this Meme coin, by the way. This is not just Donald Trump. There are so many people out there that are doing this. There was a guy who started the official Cuba Meme coin the day. Like the day of the. On Monday, the day of the inauguration, he started the official Cuba Meme coin and people thought it was actually Cuba putting out a meme Coin. And that guy got filthy fucking rich while the rest of the people are left holding the bag.

[Astrid]

It's.

[Brian Green]

There's no value in it. You can't make money unless you're so fucking quick. And it just drives me crazy. I feel bad for people who don't know any better and they're like, you know, dump $50,000 of their hard earned money in this shit and they lose 49,000 of it because they don't inherently understand how dumb this really is. It's just a grift. It's just a way to suck up a bunch of other people's cash. And it makes me sad, Astrid. It makes me sad. Maduro would be proud. That's all I gotta say. All right, all right. Well, thank you for coming in with me today. I certainly appreciate it. My beautiful wife Astrid here in the studio. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be back with Chrissy and Christina, but if not, this one will show back up because she's contractually obligated to do so. You are the official sub because you're close and you can walk down the hallway and come in the studio. It's either you or some of the kids, and I don't think we want the kids on the other side. Yes, she's wonderful. All right, you heard us. We're groveling today on the episode. Please do us a favor. Don't let us fall at the hands of the fate of the Tick Tock or the Everest or the Instagram or whatever it is. Do us a favor, subscribe to the show, engage with the content, share it with a friend, and that way we can keep doing these episodes for another 700 episodes, which is like only a year's worth of it. I think we're doing like 280 of these episodes a year. So when we get to a thousand, we get to a thousand. I'm gonna feel pretty accomplished, actually. There's not a lot of podcasts out there that have a thousand episodes. I think there's only like 600. And people who get to 3,000 episodes, I think there's only a few. Joe Rogan, this Joe Rogan, I think he's on 3000. Anyway, go to the website tcbpodcast.com where you get more information about the show, about Chrissy and I. All the audio, all the video, video right there from one location, tcbpodcast.com plus this one. We'll be happy to send you some TCB. Schwack. Go to the contact us button. Drop down menu says, I want my free sticker send us your physical address and we'll send it off to you. I promise we will also, if you would do us that favor, YouTube.com the commercial break. Go ahead and subscribe. Like comment on your favorite video. All the episodes are there on that YouTube channel. Usually the same day that they air here, right? Usually the same day. Usually the same day that they follow.

[Astrid]

If it's not available.

[Brian Green]

Yeah, yeah, it depends. Sometimes it's a day off, but it's close enough. Listen to it here and then go watch it there. You know how to do it. We'll certainly appreciate it. Also add the commercial break on Instagram TCB podcast on the newly renewed Tick Tock it's back state and we still only have 100 followers. So please do go ahead and follow us on Tik Tok. That's such a.

[Astrid]

If you are going to choose, follow us on Instagram, follow us on subscribe to our YouTube channel.

[Brian Green]

Absolutely. Instagram@the commercial break YouTube.com the commercial break. Those are the two places we would love to see you. Also, Please do text us. 212-433-3822 212-4333 TCB Questions, comments, concerns, content, ideas? You have something you think would be interesting on the show? We'd love to hear from you. You want to be on the show? You want to call in on the show? Yeah, that's something we're gonna do also. So all of those things. I would really appreciate it. We love you. We love you. We love you. And I love you.

[Astrid]

I love you.

[Brian Green]

Best to you. Best to you out there in the podcast universe. Until next time, at least Esther and I will say we do say and we must say goodbye. Y' all are being legitimate.