Spencer Talks Community Safety, Longevity & Fitness with @Kneesovertoesguy Ben Patrick

Summary

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The Fame Game with Heidi & Spencer

Episode: Spencer Talks Community Safety, Longevity & Fitness with @Kneesovertoesguy Ben Patrick
Air Date: April 23, 2026
Hosts: Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag
Guest: Ben Patrick (@Kneesovertoesguy)

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Episode Overview

This episode blends deep dives into fitness and recovery with a candid, impassioned discussion of community safety, family priorities, and the realities facing Los Angeles. Spencer Pratt hosts Ben Patrick, known online as @kneesovertoesguy, whose unconventional fitness wisdom inspired thousands (including Spencer himself) to recover from injury without surgery. The two discuss Ben’s mission to empower people to regain physical health and examine the toll L.A.'s public policy and safety issues are taking on families, businesses, and their own hopes for the city’s future. Throughout, Spencer weaves in his campaign for mayor, advocating a radically transparent, common-sense approach to leadership.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ben Patrick’s Backstory & Fitness Philosophy

[02:36 – 12:30]

• Early Struggles and Breakthroughs: Ben recounts his journey from "rock bottom" after multiple knee surgeries to discovering methods (inspired by Olympic trainer Charles Poliquin) that allowed him to regain athleticism and avoid further surgery.

  • “So dragging sleds backward, things like this. That started working better for me than the painkillers I was taking. I started thinking...maybe I could play basketball again.” — Ben Patrick [06:33]

• Social Media, Virality & Mission:

  • Ben credits social media, and particularly a viral boost from Joe Rogan, with scaling his reach and letting him share science-backed progressions for knee and overall health.
  • He highlights the sense of purpose: “I was never Mr. Viral. He [Rogan] really blew it up...But focused on helping people. I spent the last year volunteering at a school.” [08:43]

• Manufacturing in L.A.:

  • Ben insists on U.S.-made footwear, facing industry resistance to domestic manufacturing:
  • “All the barefoot shoe companies offered me like make my own signature shoe...but everyone's like, no, that's not realistic. ... There's one old European dude in Los Angeles...I’m like the first guy to come in like ‘I want to go for this.’” — Ben [10:38]

2. The Challenge of Raising Families & Doing Business in L.A.

[04:41 – 11:44 | 16:02 – 19:54]

• Ben, now based in Tennessee, expresses his hesitance to raise kids in L.A. due to safety concerns and declining quality of life.
  • “It's tough for me to justify paying more to be somewhere that's less safe for my kids...I would feel if something happened, I'd be slapping myself that I could have lived somewhere else.” — Ben [04:41]
  • Spencer and Ben both reflect on how L.A. once had a “magic” that is now overshadowed by disorder and insecurity.

3. Spencer’s Mayoral Bid: Why and How He Wants to “Save LA”

[16:02 – 31:20]

• Enforcement & Accountability:

  • Spencer asserts that improving L.A. is about simply enforcing existing laws, not creating new ones.
    • “We have laws that we've just stopped enforcing. And if we enforce these laws, the streets will be safer, they'll be cleaner, businesses will be able to survive.” — Spencer [16:09]
    • Ben affirms the nonpartisan nature of these issues: “That's not mafia, that's not political. If something's not working and not working and not working, we can't keep trying the same thing.” [23:02]

• Impact on Businesses & Families:

  • Spencer details how lack of enforcement directly harms businesses and devastates daily life:
    • "If the front of your business has humans going number two in front of them, peeing in front of them...you can't have a business. And if the...city does not stop that, these people's businesses all fold." [16:09]

• Personal Stakes & Media Scrutiny:

  • Shares his own family's hardships after losing their home to fire, struggles to afford living in L.A., and ongoing harassment from the LA Times regarding his residency.
    • “The city is so unsafe that the people's houses they let burn down can't even feel safe to have their mail delivered.” — Spencer [19:06]
  • Expresses frustration at those who question his urgency to rebuild:
    • “I'm waiting to settle the lawsuit...I can't because unlike you, Miriam Zar, who you're obviously a multi-millionaire, I'm not. ...My wife wouldn't even...live in LA because before our house burned down...was a woman cleaning her private parts in front of the kids...My wife already was saying LA was too insane to live at before they let our house burn down.” — Spencer [20:00]

• Transparency & Change:

  • Critiques the city’s wasteful spending and promises a new team and radical accountability.
    • "We need to know where all the money is and when it's not working. ...You don't just keep throwing the money at these NGOs...they all pay each other off." [22:33]
    • “Of course, when I’m mayor, I will get the best people that want to fix LA, that currently are not in play.” [23:09]

• Campaign Energy & “Common Sense” Approach:

  • Spencer positions himself as an everyman, motivated by common sense, hope, and the anger of a taxpaying citizen.
    • “The most reoccurring thing [people said] was thank you for your common sense. And if that's what it takes to change, we just need to go back to the most obvious things. I'm going to do it.” [25:06]
    • "I'm an angry, taxpaying citizen. So if that's my box..." [17:41]

• Fuel from Supporters:

  • Both hosts and guest talk about being fueled by daily interactions with grateful Angelenos.
    • “I literally, everybody that comes up to me, I thank them because it does pump me up so much.” — Spencer [27:14]
    • Ben: “You have never ending fuel.” [27:14]

4. The Homelessness & Drug Crisis: Hard Truths & Solutions

[36:46 – 41:43]

• Advocates urgent, mandatory intervention for addiction — not simply allowing open-air drug use under the banner of rights.
  • “We have a homeless problem and we have a drug addiction problem and they have to be treated separately and with different tools. But you will never get people off meth and fentanyl without mandatory treatment and real medical teams.” — Spencer [36:46]
  • “You cannot just give people pipes and needles and say...they're going to be clean, they're going to, they're going to OD before they get hepatitis...No, you can't do drugs on the street, period.” [36:46]
• Reinforces the environmental impacts ("all these needles...going into the ocean") and public safety crisis affecting families and children.

5. Compassion vs. Virtue-Signaling

[40:21 – 44:51]

• Spencer and Ben draw sharp contrast between rhetoric and action among politicians.
  • “They speak in these, these lingos that sound like they care when clearly they don't. They will let people die and say they have the right to die.” — Spencer [40:21]
• They argue real compassion requires “tough love”—meaningful help and accountability, not enabling.
• Ben reassures Spencer to ignore negativity and remain driven by compassion for genuine change.
  • “Keep letting that compassion fuel you...these are, to me, nonpartisan issues that we all want. But I'm not a political expert...it gives me hope that there will be positive change in la. That's all I can ask for.” — Ben [41:43]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Systemic Failure:
  • “When you spend $25 billion and you increase a problem, whatever experience these politicians have, I don't want. It's pure failure.” — Spencer [22:33]
• On Enforcing the Law:
  • “If you're abusing dogs, you're going to jail. These laws exist.” — Spencer [29:28]
• On Leadership and Team-Building:
  • “I will get the best people that want to fix LA...because right now the same people have had these same jobs for so long, they're failing.” — Spencer [23:09]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:36 | Spencer introduces Ben & shares personal fitness recovery story | | 06:33 | Ben’s injury story, discovery of “knees over toes” method | | 10:38 | Ben’s insistence on U.S. manufacturing and LA's unique magic | | 16:02 | Spencer’s campaign: safe streets via law enforcement, not politics | | 19:06 | Details on family hardship, L.A. Times scrutiny, and safety | | 23:02 | NGO waste & need for accountability in leadership | | 25:06 | Public gratitude for common sense | | 27:14 | How community support drives the campaign | | 29:28 | Committing to animal welfare as a policy item | | 36:46 | Homelessness, addiction, environmental impact, and the imperative for reform | | 40:21 | True compassion versus political rhetoric | | 41:43 | Ben’s encouragement: let compassion trump hate—“you have endless fuel” |

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Tone & Style

• The episode is marked by Spencer’s energetic, unfiltered—sometimes raw—delivery, balancing common-sense frustration with flashes of humor and gratitude.
• Ben Patrick is earnest, supportive, and practical; he validates Spencer's approach as being about basics, not politics.
• The conversation is frank, emotional, and authentically grounded in lived experience—the hosts are deeply invested in both personal well-being and their community.

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Summary

This episode isn’t just about knees, fitness, or business—it’s a real-time case study of resilience, hope, and the fight for a better city. By linking a viral fitness journey to hard truths about public life in Los Angeles, Spencer and Ben craft an episode for anyone who cares about taking their community (or their recovery) back into their own hands, with transparency, accountability, and no shortage of passion.

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Transcript

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[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

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[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

the most exciting episodes of the Fame game. There's few people I've ever watched more in my life than this human right here. And we're going to rewind to now. Looking back at some of the best memories of my life was having my knee injury because this man's wisdom changed my life. And now I didn't need surgery. I got to go back to Jiu jitsu. It made it so I thought I'd never do martial arts again because of I was like, I'm not getting knee surgery. I don't forget Jiu Jitsu. And then he popped up on my algorithm and here I am back to training Jiu jitsu as often as I can. More intelligently, though, everything. You know, I have bulletproof knees, but so thank you, Ben, for our audience. He's knees over toes guy to me. He's been. Because when somebody's so part of your life and help you so much, you become. This is our first time meeting, but I feel like I've known him for years and he's a true friend because he. I always felt like he cared so much about helping people. And that's why he started getting his message out, because he knew from his experience, an injury that they said he'll never play basketball again. And now he can dunk and do all these. And so he found these solutions and he shared them with people. Not to do anything, but to help people. His mom. His own mom's now pulling sleds. And so I could go on forever. But rewind. Ben was a basketball player. He then became an elite trainer for some of the top athletes in the world. And then you realize that nobody was talking about these. These solutions to, you know, first it was knees, but then you helped, you know, backs. You have a formula for everything. I've now had your app since the beta version.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Appreciate that.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Haven't been able to use it for about 14 months, but, you know, even when I can now, I always walk backwards.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Nice.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Which I feel like got trendy.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I think so I feel like I said. But first off, let me say, I mean, I appreciate that. Epic Intro the Pod. This podcast is not about me and not about niece. I think as someone who's been in and out of la, I have certain relatable issues. I have a lot of followers in la. I'm here to support you. I want to hear about what you're doing. I hope that some of my followers will listen into this. So I think there's some interesting stuff you can dive into on that you've got. Social media allowed me to. Basically, I was a trainer for many years helping people. Social media allowed me to try to get that information across to people. You're now using it to try to help save la. So some of the stuff I thought was relatable is like, I got two small kids, a third on the way. I've lived in and out of la. It's tough for me to justify paying more to be somewhere that's less safe for my kids. You can relate to. Like, I would feel if something happened, I'd be slapping myself that I could have lived somewhere else. So. So we've been home based in Tennessee, but I'm sure a lot of my followers are in a similar situation. Maybe would like to live in la. Hard to justify it. What do you think?

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Yeah. No. Even though that's why you're here, we're still. Cause this is the Fame game.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Okay.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Before my house burned down, the goal was to have very incredible people like yourself. So we should pass a little of just your story and then we can get into saving la. But I, as a fan, we have to talk. You know, your journey, how you just took your phone and decided that I'm gonna help people and how many people. Like, I feel like you have stats. How many people have you actually I

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

used to keep track and then I lost track after. It was.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

It was at like 30,000.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

It was getting up there okay. But yeah, I had a lot of people can relate if you've grown up playing basketball way too hard or. Or some sport. I wound up having knee surgery on one knee, three different changes. Then my other knee was hurting even worse than the original stuff that I needed surgery. Told I needed more knee surgeries. So I was pretty much at rock bottom. And there's this Olympic trainer, Charles Poliquin, who comes from a day and age where there is no social media. He has to charge super elite prices, but he wrote a lot of stuff. So I'm like, I'm 18ish, reading everything I can trying to figure out what he's talking about. And yeah, you got this concept of walking backward and getting stronger. Walking backward. So dragging sleds backward, things like this. That started working better for me than the painkillers I was taking. I started thinking and I was already a point. I'm like, I don't care how bad it hurts, I'm not having surgery again. I didn't want to go through that again with my other knee. That started working well enough, kept progressing. It was kind of like maybe I could play basketball again. Got myself good enough to actually get a scholarship to a junior college. Started two years. Was using the knee stuffs like, I'm feeling better after two years of college basketball. Got a full, full ride Division 1 scholarship back then. It wasn't like now where you can just play infinite years. So I was 23 by the time I was getting a D1 offer and the NCA was like, you're out of eligibility. I was already training kids with knee pain, high school kids with knee pain. In the off season, I just kept on open to gym Training people. And then, yeah, with this social media. And then Charles Poliquin passed away. And it's kind of like you have a lot of false information of don't let your knees over your toes. But that was not based on evidence. That was like a conclusion in the 1970s. Your knee goes over your toe, there's more pressure on your knee, therefore avoid it. But the research didn't show avoid it, just that there was more pressure. And what Charles Pogman did, you gradually build up tolerance to pressure. You get stronger at that. You get where you can handle that position. And so I'm like, man, no one's put like, this is the information I needed. Back when I was 12, my knees were starting to kill me and stuff. And I was avoiding knees over toes, avoiding these. And so then I started just teaching these progressions on social media. It helped Joe Rogan's knees. That dude is larger than life. And that. That really, my views were never. I was never Mr. Viral. He really blew it up. And I've continued to not be Mr. Viral, just like chugging along, but. But focused on helping people. I spent the last year volunteering at a school, so I wasn't even posting much. I was volunteer coaching high school kids and not posting them. I didn't want to be filming people's kids. So that kind of brings us to now. Raising my own kids, wanting to be like a PE coach. Stuff like this la, not the place where I want to think about building up like a homeschool co op in a school. So I've been doing that now from Tennessee. But there's some epic stuff about la. When I got to la, within, I had barely been here. Mookie Betts reaches out, says, my stuff is helping his knee. Can I come see him? I look on the GPS, I'm 14 minutes. The next morning, I'm at Mookie Betts house helping him. Like, that's crazy. Tomorrow I'll be Laird Hamilton's knee hair's hurting. I'll be with Laird Hamilton tomorrow. That's like one of my heroes growing up.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Is he going to get you in the pool?

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I'm bringing my kids. Don't my kids love to swim? So we're just all showing up at Laird Hamilton's house. I'll be doing They're a family.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

I'm like going underwater.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'll get in there. So there's stuff about LA that's magical, you know, so it's. My story is kind of woven in with this, with la.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And what you're doing, I'm wearing this. The only. There's. You have.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

You and me, this is.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And I have them prototype made in la. So again, you chose to. Out of all the places in the US and the whole world, you wanted your shoe manufactured, designed and made in Los Angeles.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

No one else was willing to try with me. So when I blew up on Rogan, all the barefoot shoe companies offered me like make my own signature shoe. I turned down a lot of money because I was like, can we make it in America together? And they're really cool people, all of them, all great people, but everyone's like, no, that's not realistic. We're not going to be able. Like that'd be nice. Not realistic. So I just kept networking, networking, networking. One guy then connected me to another guy. There's one old European dude in Los Angeles who had. Has like a machine sitting there because no one will even work with. I mean he does other stuff by hand, high end stuff. But in terms of making sneakers, I'm like, the first guy to come in is like, I want to go for this. He's got this Japanese right hand man who's incredible. And so yeah, you and I have the first pairs like we're trying to bring back. Making sneakers in America, they're not made in America. And the only guy who's like stubborn like you, fighting to keep it going happens to be right here in la. Like there's some magic in la. That is pretty cool.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

When do you think these will be ready for other people?

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I think this summer because. Because as we get them ready, we don't have to ship from overseas. Normally you have like the months of shipping, so once they're ready, you just pop out a batch in a day.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And what are you calling them?

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I mean, my business is called atg, so I'm calling it ATG usa and just I'll try to keep working on the product. These guys are obsessive on the product. We'll just keep obsessing. We don't have a fancy name. Just rock with the name. I already have great name. I could come up with a better name.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

It's the brand, right?

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I'm not trying to not be a coach. It's like I wear this kind of minimalistic footwear for the training and so. And I would, if someone would have made it in America for me, I would have just done that. But here we are.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And so you were in Florida for a minute?

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Lived there most of my life.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Okay.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I was born in Northern California. Okay, so I always wanted to come back to California so when my wife and I could afford to do that, we did. So we've been so my wife and I have spent a lot of time in California now. Both my kids born in high DraftKings

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[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

When we were first starting Praddy Crystals, Shopify was suggested to me by a social media direct message. Somebody said, spencer, you really want to have success, you should use Shopify. I didn't know what it was, but I really wanted success for our small business. So I went and got Shopify. I even got my domain name through Shopify. And with Shopify they had easy to use templates that even I, who was not the best at websites, was able to put together with the photos, upload the products and then start selling with Shopify and waiting for the the best sound you will ever hear. As a small business owner, I could not recommend Shopify more. Shopify helped us go from selling a couple hundred dollars in Crystals to millions of dollars all on Shopify. Get started with your own design studio. With hundreds of ready to use templates, Shopify helps you build a beautiful online store that matches your brand style. Accelerate your efficiency Whether you're uploading new products or trying to improve existing ones, Shopify is packed with helpful AI tools that write product descriptions, page headlines, and even enhance your product photography. Get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. It's time to turn those what ifs into Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com fame. Go to shopify.com fame. That's shopify.com fame.

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[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

So for me, what I keep saying, why I will become mayor, is everyone sees what's happened to the streets of la.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yep.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And all we need to do is enforce the laws that we're already here. I'm not talking about making any new laws. We have laws that we've just stopped enforcing. And if we enforce these laws, the streets will be safer, they'll be cleaner, businesses will be able to survive. I have. If people knew the amount of messages I get from small businesses, from all types of. Of whether you're a restaurant or no matter what type of business you are, if the front of your business has humans going number two in front of them, peeing in front of them, just living in front, you can't have a business. And if the government, the city does not stop that, these people's businesses all fold. And so it's this entire piece. Oh, how are you going to get out of it? You make the streets safe again and clean and you enforce the laws. And it's not a political thing. All these laws for the people who put these laws in power, they already voted for not. We just need to.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Actually, it's not a partisan exact thing.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

That's why I keep trying to.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I'm a trainer. So when people ask me, what's your politics, Dude, I've trained thousands of group classes. I've never discriminated on someone based on their religion or who they voted for. I'm. I by nature, even if I wanted to, to pick a side, I can't. My job is to help whoever is hiring me to coach them. So. And that's why I resonate like, that's why I'm here to support you. And I've never supported anything political ever. Because you're. To me, you're nonpartisan.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Well, when I keep. When I keep trying to say, oh, Spencer's this or that, the reason the mayor's race is a nonpartisan race, there's no letter next to your name is clearly whoever designed this system was wanted the mayor to represent all political parties. Everybody. You're not supposed to represent a party as mayor. You're supposed to represent Angelenos across the board. All of my decisions should be for everyone who's living in Los Angeles, especially the people that are paying the taxes. Because right now, people that are being paid taxes have more consequences than the people who are adding nothing to society except for just doing drugs and stealing they actually get treated better than the people who are getting taxed. Which again, as mayor, you enforce the law. It won't be that way. Everyone should have the same law. We're all. The system isn't. So. Oh no, laws don't apply to you, but they apply to the people that pay for everything. So I keep saying I'm going to win because they think I am. They can put me in a political box. No, no, no. I'm an angry, taxpaying citizen. So if that's my box, I have

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

a you and I exchanged a lot of messages over the years. I never saw that you wanted to go into politics. Like, to me, what I got is like, you basically want to be left alone to raise your family. And then now you couldn't even do like you can't even do that.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

No.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

So.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And now I'm getting harassed by the LA Times. As we're sitting here. The LA Times just ran a story saying that my residency is suspicious to run for mayor because my mail is going to our temporary housing in Santa Barbara because my mailbox on my dirt lot is not very secure. If it was actually like right now the palace is not safe and secure. People are getting robbed. The amount of like crime that's happening in the fire burn zone area. So if even if it was safe enough, I probably would have my mail go to the dirt lot just as a, just to do it. But no, the city is so unsafe that the people's houses they let burn down can't even feel safe to have their mail delivered.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

No, you have kids, you can't. How do you raise kids in a burn down lot? No, it doesn't.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Forget like also we don't have the money to live in LA right now. All of our money went to the house we burn down. So this idea that we could just. Oh, like they, they quote some rich lunatic, Miriam lunatic czar in this piece and she's like, if he's not trying to rebuild with urgency, lady, I'm waiting to settle the lawsuit against the city of la, LA DWP and Newsom State Parks. And then second, that money comes over, I'll build faster than anybody in the history of building. But I can't because unlike you, Miriam Zar, who you're obviously a multi millionaire, I'm not. So I can't just rebuild. And als also, my wife wouldn't even right now if we had the money. She wouldn't even live in la because before our house burned down in front of our kids elementary school every morning was a woman cleaning her private parts in front of the kids. They would call lapd. They would, they come and they go like this, ma', am, can you please stop doing that? And that's. And then they would drive away. She'd go around the corner and she'd go number two in front of Joe's Barbershop. This is at 7:45 in the morning. My wife already was saying LA was too insane to live at before they let our house burn down. So for the LA Times to question why my wife wants to live and have our kids now in a new school. It, it's, that's why I'm running for mayor, so that she'll want to come back and rebuild, God willing, when we settle with Newsom and get our money. But it's, that's how demonic I keep on going. You know, I. The good thing about, if you believe in religion, no matter what, there's always evil and good. So it doesn't. You don't have to be like, unfortunately, you know, whatever it is, I'm dealing with evil and good and these people are evil. So it's past. Like you just look at, they let six people die in the street every day and say, that's compassion.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

That's. What I see is you're not pointing fingers at the people struggling. You're saying, I need to protect my kids and the kids going to that school, I need to protect my family. And you're also trying to address how to actually help the people that are struggling. So it seems like common sense to me. It doesn't mean everything's going to go perfectly, but you're going to try to help everyone rather than just letting these kids go to school getting traumatized and then not helping the person who actually needs help out there.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

When you spend 25/billion dollars and you increase a problem, whatever experience these politicians have, I don't want. It's pure failure. Somebody needs to come in and it's about accountability and transparency. We need to know where all the money is and when it's not working. We say, oh, that's a good try. Done. You know, you don't just keep throwing the money at these NGOs because they all pay each other off. They all. It's.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

That's not Mafia, that's not political. If something's not working and not working and not working, we can't keep trying the same thing. That's just a basic law of life.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Yeah. And the biggest thing, like yesterday we're at a lunch and this guy Came up to me and he was like, I'm full voting for you, all my friends. He's like, whatever you can do to like tell people you know, you know, because they're one thing they have at you is like, you don't have experience, like tell everybody you're going to surround yourself with the people. To me, I can't believe I have to keep telling people this. But of course, when I'm mayor of Los Angeles, I will get the best people that want to fix LA that currently are not in play. Because right now the same people have had these same jobs for so long, they, they're failing at these jobs. It's. If this was a private company, they'd come in with a new board of directors, everyone would be gone and they'd make these changes. The names that I have, that I can't say yet because there's a real fear of retaliation in this city with how the game is structured that I already have the hitters ready to come in that are just waiting to bring LA back to what it was. La. I grew up in la. That was incredible.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah, I, I grew up in like San Jose area and it was awesome. It was, my parents had, were in commercial real estate and Florida was really good opportunities, had a great life there. Learned a lot of real world skills with my parents. But my goal was always to come back to California. But yeah, coming back as an adult was like, whoa. Because I had at least visited around California. It wasn't, it didn't get better. Now if I was, if you said, hey Ben, we've got some child obesity problems, I need you to be the head of the exercise in the schools, right? If I then don't get you a result, fire me, like, try something else. So I don't want to be paid and continue to be rewarded for not getting production for you. I mean, I. So yeah, I, I feel like these are common sense things, not political ideologies, common sense laws.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

So I was at the airport, we went to go visit Heidi's family. Every single person that came up to me, all types of every type of human being you could think of. The most reoccurring thing was thank you for your common sense. And if that's what it takes to change, we just need to go back to the most obvious things. I'm going to do it. And the amount of anger and rage that I have that I now can channel into positivity and helping y. There's a 72 year old lady with respect to senior citizens, Mayor Bass does Not have my frequency right now. Yeah, like the energy I can put into this job. She maybe had this energy when she was learning to be a terrorist with, with Fidel Castro when she was 19, but that was a long time ago. I have that energy now because she let my house burn down and my parents house burned down and put me on a whole nother life trajectory that is mind boggling. And so when they're like, oh, what's your experience? My experience is I'm pumped up to

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

save a city and no matter what they throw at you, like, here's another one. My wife is genuinely happier because you're giving her hope because she loves L. A. I told you we're here now because she's like giving birth to our baby this month. Our third kid. They were both born here, same doctor. I mean, as a woman I feel comfortable. Third kid, same doctor. This guy's 82, he's been going 50 plus years. He doesn't take a vacation farther than what he can drive back. Unbelievable guy. So for my wife this is a big deal, being able to. And she wants her kids to be able to visit back here. What if the kid wanted to live here when they're older? So for her, just the fact of what you're doing so far has raised her happiness a ton. It's given her hope. It was so depressing to not have hope. So I don't think you're ever going to run out of feel because people like that are going to keep coming up to you and telling you that. Thank you. You have never ending fuel.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

I literally everybody that comes up to me, I thank them because it, it does pump me up so much because you know, when you're in tunnel vision, I'm on my, I'm doing everything pretty solo and then it, you know, feels like you're in this like my own matrix. And then when the outside of that comes in and like thank you. I'm like, oh, don't you worry, I'm gonna, it's coming even more tomorrow now. So I mean my hardest thing now is sleeping because my adrenaline is so bumped up. Like I, it's fight or flight frequency and I'm trying to just balance, you know, breathing, but I've been like this since the day my house burned out. It's not like, oh, I'm gonna. Yeah, I. If anything I'm now getting more esteem because that was such a negative frequency. You know, there was no hope in the, in the beginning of that. Thank God for Heidi's music. It kept Me that was like, oh, like there's. I had humanity. I. I had no hopes in this, the city and the system. But it brought me back to like, humans are still good. Like, look what they've done for my family and Heidi's music. And they came together. So that got me to. Then once I got to where figuring out the conspiracy and being able to break that down. Now I'm in this new frequency of like, ooh, I'm going to expose. And then once I exposed everyone and they're like, oh, no, it's business as usual. Then it had to shift to, oh, no, I have to go take your jobs then and get you out of the whole system.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And that's the journey.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah. And if. If no matter what they come at you with the negativity, go take a walk around LA and you'll. But go take a walk and you'll. You'll meet people who are grateful for what you're doing because it takes a lot of confront to do what you're doing. It's like that. That's. It's tough what you're doing. So there's people like me who are like, thank God for you.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Right. When I walked in before we got here, the server stopped me. I was like, I'm voting for you. Thank you so much.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I'm like, you got endless feel.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Right, let's go. I was like thinking I needed a coffee and then that I was like, oh, no coffee needed right now.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

So when in doubt, double the coffee and take the walk and meet people and it's just chill.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Just the idea. Now that I know from the amount of people I talk to, I know I'll be able to get because. Right. People, like, I had this famous dog person, you know, make this video and everyone's sending it to me like a dog rescue lady. And she's like, all these people have lied. You're going to have to come and explain to me. And I tried to have her come today, but I guess she doesn't live here. And what I would say, and I'm going to say this to her, is all the people you talk to and the candidates and everyone in the seat council, they will not enforce the laws. I'm going to enforce the law. If you're abusing dogs, you're going to jail. These laws exist. I'm not going to allow any dog, like, if I have the power to save dogs on the street. I don't know who these demons are that are currently in power, but I love dogs. I've had dogs my whole life. I didn't know dogs were being. Because you'd say a hater. Will say, oh, now you only care. I was in my own bubble doing my worrying about my knees, feeding hummingbirds and selling crystals. Okay. That's why I didn't know dogs were being tortured on the street. That's. That's period.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Now it's on my.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I didn't know. So once you see it, then it's like, oh, oh, I.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

You know, also with the negativity factor. Like in the New York Times, they quoted somebody about me and they're like, yeah, he tries to get too much. He won't get anything done with anger to. No, actually they've made. The anger has turned into passion. So it comes in. Oh, negativity, anger. It comes out with passion to make change.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah. So I'd be more concerned if you didn't have initial anger at things that justifiably make you angry. Now you're able to channel that. You're able to understand what's going on.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

How would. I would be more concerned all also. Yeah, no, that's. That's the problem.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I mean, I see the love, dude. I see the love. I would. Most of us are out here, like, we'd be more angry.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

So that's what people that don't get. There's people way angrier than me because I'm blessed because of Heidi's music blew up. I can eat good tacos. I can. I have a beautiful family. Everyone's healthy. I am super blessed. And I'm so angry. Can you imagine people who are struggling to meet ends meet and having to deal with like. For instance, I keep. There's this journalist, I should know his name. But he keeps filming this one underpass in east la. It's all in Spanish, but anyone with eyeballs can know what's happening. These families have to go through encampments under a freeway overpass to get to their kids school. And they've been trying for years to get this where it's safe for these kids. So when I watch that video, I would be more angry than I am right now at what's happened to Los Angeles. So the idea that, you know, the anger isn't something that's connecting with a whole entire population of Los Angeles and then to get gaslit by the mayor who will be on video. The cities or streets are pristine. Like, no, we need authenticity. That's our last guest we had last week, Nima. And he talked about authenticity when. Because he knows music He's a big music manager, and he was saying the population now wants authenticity. That's the problem with so many politicians across the board. The old system where we could be lied to doesn't work. Yeah.

[DraftKings Casino Announcer]

Oh, no. That's all God's time.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Hey, everybody. My name is Bob the Drag Queen. And I'm Monet X Change. And we are the host of Sibling Rivalry. This is the podcast where two best friends gab, talk smack, and have a lot of fun with our black queer selves. Yeah, for sure. You know, we are family, so we talk about everything, honey, from why we don't like hugs to black Lives Matter, to interracial dating, to other things. Right, Bon? Yes. And it gets messy. And we are not afraid to be real wrong. So please join us over here at Silver Bribery. Available anywhere you get your podcast. You can listen and subscribe for free. For free, honey. Hey, I'm Ike Barinholtz. On my new show, Funny You Ask, trivia starts the conversation, and then things immediately go off the rails. I ask a question, my guests think they know the answer. Some. Sometimes they do, more often they do not. And then the conversation takes a turn. One trivia question turns into stories about career highs, painful bombs, and behind the scenes moments that probably should have remained private. You'll hear confidence, misplaced confidence, bold guesses, wrong answers, quick laughs, and the slow realization that maybe this was a bad idea to say out loud. If you like smart comedy, sharp conversations, and trivia that exists purely to melt people's brains, this is Funny youy Ask With Me, Ike Barinholtolz. Follow Funny youy Ask with Ike Barinholtz on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hi, we are Dan and Phil, and Hard Launch is our male podcast. We call it Male Podcast about the

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

power of living your truth.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

We're better than that, Honestly. Well, it's mostly us accidentally spilling scandalous info about our past dating lives.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

True.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

And getting into inappropriately domestic arguments about it. After 16 years on YouTube, we decided to Hard launch our relationship, and now we are emboldened to overshare with you. So you might have seen us on Grindr this week. My ex texted me what he did. I have a confession. I completely thought you catfished me when we first met. What? Join us every Monday on Hard Launch with Dan and Phil. Hard Mondays. Start your week hard. Sorry. When in doubt, just be honest. Even if it doesn't look as good now, it's again. It's one of those natural laws that the honesty long term is going to work out like that. If I was going into politics, I would say no matter what is thrown at me, no matter how bad I look, my number one policy is I'll just be honest about whatever's throwing at me. Just be honest. And then like you're doing, figuring out what problems are people having. Are there, you know, basic laws that can help solve these? I. It seems pretty simple to me.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And the idea there's others, I don't have to name them, but I know because I've been in there's other cities that don't have what's happening in la. So it's clear if you follow basic structures of the laws that other people put in place, I'm not adding any. Then you can have a more functioning society.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah. And the people struggling long term, by having accountability that's going to open the door to even helping. Even people causing problems long term are going to be happier if they get honest and get accountable and stop being criminals. You got to start somewhere. But that's why you have a tough job on your hands. But you see these things that gives a chance of doing something about it. It's. It's for their own good. Like the people most struggling in la, whether homeless or whatever. There's been all these years and it hasn't handled it long term. It's going to be for their best interest. It's actually going to help them, to help them get honest, to help them get off the drugs, even if it's tough short term.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Yeah. Again, we have a homeless problem and we have a drug addiction problem and they have to be treated separately and with different tools. But you will never get people off of meth and fentanyl without mandatory treatment and real medical teams. You cannot just give people pipes and needles and say, well, they're going to be clean, they're going to, they're going to OD before they get hepatitis or whatever. We're stopping from the needle. No, you can't do drugs on the street, period. There it's illegal. Kids cannot be breathing fentanyl smoke. And at the parks, everybody from every different area in LA messaging me moms about parks, that people are just smoking fentanyl. Kids on swing dogs are dying from like licking fentanyl stuff on at parks and oding from just like a neat. You know, it's in the parks, it's in the sands at the beach. Also, all these needles that go into the storm drains, they're all going into the ocean. There's. We don't. Even know the science to what we're doing to just the entire ecosystem. So we just clean the streets. And people say, oh, how are you going to do it? By enforcing the law. So people keep asking me in my comments, well, how are you going to do it? They're choosing not to enforce the law because they say, oh, these people have rights. Yes, they have rights to follow the law. Exactly. Because if anybody around here that's paying taxes goes and does those some things, they're going to be arrested and they're going to go jail. And you're, oh, you're going to put all these people in jail. Not the same jail that maybe a murderer and a rapist goes, but there's going to be a jail that is for mandatory detox. And when I say jail, a place that you can't leave till we get you sober, get you on track to actually get back into society. It's not like, oh, he's going to just put everyone in jail. People that torture dogs. You're going to jail. You're going to real jail. Jail. You attack people, you're going to jail. Jail. If you're just an addict, we're gonna have somewhere mandatory where we help you get sober. We're not gonna let you die in the street, period.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

One step at a time has to start somewhere.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Yeah.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

It's not all gonna be fixed in a day, but instead of it getting worse and worse decade after decade, help that one person get off drugstore. It's not gonna be perfect for them, but you can start incrementally building it back better. It's. It's tough. The worst things have got. The longer it's going to take to fully correct it. It's not going to be a quick fix, but it. You can make step by step progress. Inch it better.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Yeah. And the people I'm running against, they want to keep exactly their system. They don't think these people need to come off the streets.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I see them and it's sad. Like for their sake. I care about everyone. For their sake. Something has to be tried different. I see what it's like raising little toddlers and stuff and like there's a freedom to two humans, but they actually do better if you don't let them go out of bounds on the laws and the morals that make people get along. It's actually for their own good to not let them stay up till midnight eating candy. And these are just toddlers, but to me these are. That's why the stuff I see you tackling, it's not partisan. It's just like basic human laws of how things work. It is for their own good to give them a chance to get honest and to follow the laws. That gives them more of a chance to be happy long term.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

And that's being compassionate. That's what I keep. That's the problem with these other politicians. They speak in these, these lingos that sound like they care when clearly they don't. They will let people die and say they have the right to die. Within the last couple weeks, this city council person that's running for mayor, the Ramen lady, she was asked by Matt Seedorfit Fox about these homeless encampments at next to the Griffith Park River. I don't know exact location. I watched the clip and they, she responded, they're in hard to reach areas. We can't do any, you know, whatever, blah, blah, blah, hard to reach area. Three days later in that hard to reach area, which ends up people DM me said it was right at the grass field. It wasn't even in the hard reach area. One of those people from that encampment, dead. So within three days of making an excuse saying, oh, this is a dead person, just the other day, everyone's tagging me, this old man who's on this bus stop. And then by the end of the day, that guy's dead. So in one week, I saw two people die in videos that I was tagged in. This is a red alert. These people should not be running for politics. They should resign. You're done. Like, you're done. Get out of here.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah, like your failures keep, keep letting the compassion fuel you. As crazy as it sounds, I think you can even, I think you could, at this point, I think you could even ignore anything negative whatsoever and just go show people with compassion what you're gonna do. You're obviously, you're doing a great job. You've got integrity, you're raising a family. There's so much negativity out there that as a friend I'm just like, I'm not an expert on politics. I'm not an expert on helping you navigate this. But as a friend, like, keep that in mind. Don't let it get you down. Keep letting that compassion feel you. I know for my followers listening to this, you've covered more than enough. These are, to me, these are non partisan issues that we all want. But I'm not a political expert, but you've covered more than enough that it gives me hope that there will be positive change in la. That's all I can ask for.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

If Ben Patrick says it, you know it's true. No, I'm just saying there's a chance. Yeah, we got a chance in real life though. Thank you so much for like my wife, you've helped her knees. You helped my sifu Sifu Michael Casey helped his everybody that I've ever connected you to. It's must feel good to be somebody that can help people by just sharing your knowledge.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Let that keep fueling you. I'm a chipper guy and I've received a tiny dose of hate compared to you but you do well at anything and people anyone smart can figure out how to be a critic. I could write critic against myself by using my wits to that but I've never made anything responding back. I'm not saying you can do that and win in politics. I don't know but I'm just pointing out that I've never once mentioned any hater or attack back at anything and I think there's definitely something to that in terms of staying happy and staying who you are.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

I'll do a test run of that.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

I'm not saying you know more about politics at this point than I do.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

No. A lot of people message me with that and saying just keep telling what you're gonna do. But the problem was when the people you're running against are so bad and they gaslight people so hard with fake facts. It's this balance of like this is a liar.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Yeah.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

So it's.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

That's why I'm not even saying you can. I'm just like, I care about you. I want to see you.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Oh, I'm, you know, I'm so. I'm doing really good. Like that LA Times article, it took me to the moon how excited I am that the machine is trying to question me running for mayor because I'm not living in my dirt lot. And then they interview a millionaire who was going to run for mayor who obviously is very connected to a certain political entity and they interview her for this piece and she says oh I don't care because I'm not rebuilding fast enough.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Look, no, I know like this, you're my mayor. You got more than enough fuel. I'm done here. You get out there.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Keep going. We're in. I'm gonna do some stretches.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

Get, get out there and keep going. 100 and you know we'll keep supporting you.

[Spencer (Mayoral Candidate)]

Appreciate you. Thanks to the D's over toes guy. So make sure you like subscribe, follow, share, comment, whatever platform you're on. It makes a huge difference so that I can keep doing it.

[Ben Patrick (Knees Over Toes Guy)]

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