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This episode is brought to you by. Prime Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice off campus. Elle every year. After the Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point and more slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime
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Girl.
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Winter is so last season and now spring's got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders that perfect hang on the patio. Sundress those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done. Hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope. It's time for a little in person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic.
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Nick Shirley is going viral all over again this weekend. Not for the reason that you think. Turns out he took a trip recently to Cuba, where I also had a chance to take a trip in the spring of 2017 as part of a cultural exchange through my university. And in his attempt to expose the reality of what it's like living under communism, which anyone who grew up in Cuba or has ever traveled to Cuba can honestly tell you is terrible, the Cuban government threatened to detain him, seized all of his camera equipment and almost didn't let him leave the country because they are so terrified of the world understanding the horrors of totalitarianism. In an incredibly gripping video that he posted from inside of his hotel in Havana, where he says, if this video sees the light of day, no, I made it back to the United States of America so we know that Nick is safe. He said this all right.
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Depending when this comes out or if it does, we are currently being told by Cuban intelligence here in Havana, Cuba. I came here, I've been wanting to make a video for so long about life in communism and showing people what communism is like in a place like Cuba, for instance. Came here to make this video and when people think about communism, they typically just think about how communism isn't supposed to make everything equal, whether it be the amount of money someone makes or how food's distributed and how the markets are then controlled by the government. However, something that people do not think about, including myself, is how in communism they do not have freedom of speech, they don't have freedom of press, and therefore they want to make sure everything that is posted or out in the world about their country is filtered or censored. So here in Cuba, as soon as I arrive into Cuba, did everything that you need to do to come into Cuba, as far as the documentation that it takes to come into Cuba. Right now, there's a big problem taking place here in Cuba. The largest humanitarian crisis they've had in maybe 50 years. And there's no oil or gas due to blockade after Trump and the United States took over and captured Maduro. So Venezuela is no longer supporting Cuba with any oil or gas. And that also affects everything that they. They have, essentially between whether it be the food or from it being the light and the power shortages here or just the gas alone here in Cuba, you hardly see any cars driving around because nobody can afford gas. For 1 liter of gas, it's $10. Okay, so where am I getting. Where am I getting from here? So I go out at the airport, they seize all of my cameras. They sees both my GoPros, my Meta Glasses. These are not my metal glasses. All my microphones, however, the only thing they don't take is my iPhone camera. That's what I'm filming this on right now. They don't take my iPhone camera. And somehow they didn't get this microphone that was in the very, very bottom of my backpack. So we get out and we go start to make the video asking Cubans about life and communism, showing what's going on with the blockade, showing kind of the downfall of. Of. Of Cuba. One sec. We're working. I'm working on getting this out right now. We're currently planning our escape route out of Cuba right now. So had to respond to take a message to get out of here somehow. So we go out into the streets and we start filming this video. We're showing people what life is like in Cuba right now, how there's hardly any cars on the streets. The buildings are like crumbling. Essentially all the university is destroyed. The University of Cuba. There's hardly any food out for the people and just the mass poverty that's taking place and asking people about things such as communism, what life is like in Cuba.
- [05:19]
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This video goes on for another 10 minutes or so, and it is worth the watch because he walks through everything that happened from the moment he showed up at the airport to their attempt to leave. And he has promised that there will be a full documentary exposing what these people he was interviewing, the streets of Havana, Cuba, had to say about living under communism and what it was like to have to flee the country after Cuban intelligence services started clocking the fact that he was interviewing people with man on the street style conversations. And they were terrified of what their own citizens had to say to the point that they started tailing Nick through the streets of Cuba and camped out in the lobby of his hotel. He claims that there were three Cuban spies in the lobby of his hotel who were ready to seize him if he came downstairs and tried to leave. And in particular try to seek refuge at the US Embassy that was about a mile and a half away from the hotel that he was staying in. But you heard just a little bit of the experience that he had in about a day and a half inside of Havana, Cuba, talking to real Cubans living through the horrors of communism. No one can drive cars because there is no oil and gas supplied to the people and certainly is price gouged anyway because of the communist government for ordinary people. But there already is a shortage. On top of that, grocery stores are completely run out of food because of the transportation crisis. And I certainly remember that from when my university took me to Cuba in 20, 2017. There's actually kind of like two types of stores in Cuba. One that's available for tourists and for members of the government or people in positions of elite status in society, and one where normal people go to shop, where you are literally told in a ration card how much food you are allowed to buy for your family. This is communism 101, and people are living through this in Cuba as we speak. He says that there are massive power shortages impacting the country right now with rolling blackouts for hours at a time that are impacting people's homes, hospitals, hospitality services like hotels. And later on in the video, he says that this was the only hotel operational in Cuba today that had 24. 7 electricity available to people, which is how he was able to record the video with the lights on to begin with. And the crazy part about all of this, beyond, you know, Nick Shirley almost being kidnapped and detained by the Cuban government for trying to expose to the world the reality of communism is that the response from the socialists who live in America today is just about as disgusting as you'd expect expect. Hassan Piker ended up, quote, tweeting Nick's video saying, I obviously don't believe this even a little bit, even though it's on video. Like, I don't know how you disagree with that, but it's ominous that this medically stupid, I'm not going to say that word about Nick is going to Cuba to manufacture propaganda for what I assume will be additional U.S. intervention. Nick Manufacturing propaganda by just going and asking normal Cubans what it's like to live under socialistic regimes. Okay, Hasan. Nick had a great response by the way. Tell that to the two star general who waited all night for me to come out of my hotel room to interrogate me. You wouldn't believe the truth if it was right in front of you. Anyway, you went to Cuba and still think communism is a good idea? Are you medically stupid? Which I had totally forgotten about by the way. That Hasan Piker, apparent new face of the Democrat party for young leftists today. Also the guy who said we should let the streets of America run red with effing red capitalist blood. Nice. Classy. Has gone to Cuba to make content to make communism look good to the world. And that's not manufacturing propaganda. Back to it in a second. But first, did you know prayer is scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve mental health, and even lower your cortisol? And honestly, with everything that's going on in the world right now, we could all really use that. That's exactly why I love Hallow. It is the easiest way to stay consistent with prayer, even when life feels incredibly busy. I listen to it for a few minutes every single morning and it just sets the tone of the right. And if you didn't know already, Hallow just launched a new detachment challenge. And it couldn't come at a better time because it allows us to detach from things in the world that are weighing us down. If you've been feeling really overwhelmed or pulled in a million directions or constantly busy, this is for you. It's about learning to let go of what you can't control and place it in God's hands so that you can actually feel more present, more grounded, and more at peace. You don't need to have everything figured out. Just show up and let God meet you there. Head to hello.comisabelle to download the Hallow app and join us for three months free. Back to the Nick Shirley Cuba saga in just a second. But first, you guys are trying to survive your first job, the entire woke circus. And I'm sure, like me, you're all doing it on like 4 hours of bad sleep and a mystery mattress that you probably got off the Internet in 2017. Shout out to the Amazon mattresses. That was me for so long. Constant travel, crazy schedule. And then I would crawl into bed at the end of the night and it was not helping whatsoever. I would wake up groggy and stiff and somehow way more tired than when I went to sleep in the first place. So my husband and I finally Upgraded our mattress to a Helix mattress after we took their quick sleep quiz super easy and they matched me with the model that actually fits how I sleep and how firm I like mattress. I noticed the difference right away. I'm falling asleep a lot faster, staying asleep a lot longer, and waking up actually ready to fight the cultural madness instead of needing three coffees to just form a sentence. My husband and I love our Helix mattress so much that we got one for my daughter as well when we transitioned her to a floor bed and she sleeps through the night for the first time. Hallelujah. Helix makes it so easy. They ship right to your front door in a box. It is ridiculously simple to set up and you get a 120 night sleep trial plus a limited lifetime warranty so that you can make sure it really works for for you. It is even the most awarded mattress brand out there, tested and reviewed by real experts, not TikTok influencers. You guys can head to helix sleep.com Isabel for 27% off site wide. Again, that's helix sleep.com Isabelle for 27% off. And make sure you enter our show name after checkout so that they know we sent you. This video is from March of this year in which Hasan Piker, sitting in the same hotel that Nick Shirley is recording in, is doing a livestream. Nice that you have enough wi fi service to do a livestream when ordinary Cubans have to go to specific locations to access the Internet for their allotted time every day. But okay to say that the Cuban people liked not having electricity, that they're just partying through it anyway. Listen to this.
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It's incredible. It's. It's truly one of my favorite places officially. I totally understand why Will was saying that about Cuba. It's remarkable. The people's resilience is remarkable. There's. I mean, there's like rolling blackouts that take place throughout the day, every day, all around the country, right? 11 million people. But today is a beautiful day out here. It's like 75 degrees, sunny. People are partying. People are partying. The streets there, I don't know if it's like an island mindset. I don't know if it's like. I don't know if that has something to do with it. I'm sure that has something to do with it, but like, they're just chilling.
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Like, they're just chilling. They're just chilling. They're just partying in the streets of Havana Bija when hospitals don't have electricity, when schools don't have electricity, when people's homes to refrigerate their food don't have electricity, when the grocery stores for said food don't have electricity, when they are facing the largest humanitarian crisis in decades causing people to potentially starve to death or die from treatable illness. The Cuban people are just partying because communism is so, so great. It's my favorite place, place in the world. From the lips of Hasan Piker. Not shocking, but how is that not manufacturing propaganda, but Nick Shirley going to ask real Cubans, not the government, what life is actually like living there is. I don't get it. The math ain't math. And this took me back immediately to this trip that I took when I was a sophomore in college for my Spanish program. And this totally blew my mind and 100% impacted my worldview when it came to systems of socialism in action. In the spring of 2017, I went to Cuba with a class that I was taking at Colorado State University. And at that time, you couldn't just go to Cuba as any American citizen. The embargo was still in place. This was under. Wait, it couldn't have been 2017. Wait, it could not have been 2017. I think it was 2016. I was a freshman, guys. I have mom brain. Please bear with me. I was 100 a freshman because President Obama was still the president. And I'll tell you why I know that. Thank you for bearing with me. I showed up to Cuba after lengthy approval processes from our university to apply for a special educational visa. That was the only way American citizens could go to Cuba at the time as a school group for educational purposes. And we had been given an assigned government tour guide to come with us through the entire trip, to be at our hotel with us, to eat every single meal with us, to be in every single vehicle ride with us. They were the funnel in which we experienced anything related to Cuban culture. You were not allowed to do anything without your approved government sanctioned tour guide. And it was an interesting experience because I showed up. We landed in Havana the exact same day that President Obama in 2016 was leaving on Air Force One for his historic trip to the country in which he was trying to normalize relations with the Cuban regime so that they could end the embargo. And since then, it's become a lot easier for American citizens to. To go visit Cuba. The only other major Westerners that were there at the time of our trip in the spring of 2016, thank you for my mom brain. Were Canadians, because I guess that's a really popular place for Canadians to visit. Not to get too much into the conspiracy of Justin Castro, AKA Justin Trudeau, but you know what I'm saying? And everywhere we went, our government sanctioned tour Guide presented the PowerPoint presentation for all of the reasons that Cuba is the greatest country on the planet. We have universal rights. We have universal rights for people to income. We have income equity, meaning our doctors make the same amount as our trash workers. And I remember thinking, that doesn't add up, that doesn't make any sense. But it was presented as this beautiful progressive thing. We have universal rights to education. We have universal rights to health care. Although the health care facilities themselves were either closed pretty much everywhere that we went, they were non operational, or they were so short staffed and so poorly mismanaged that the line to see a doctor was three blocks down the street. At the very least, I've been told by most of my friends whose families have escaped Cuba after living in Miami for several years, that you basically, if you felt fell ill or had some major injury, could count on the fact that you would never see a doctor ever. Like, good luck, you were probably going to die from something very, very treatable. We were told that Cuba even has universal rights to being LGBTQ. And this was 2016. This was like the beginning of the whole trans craze in America. They were bragging about the fact that they offered government provided gender transition surgeries, but I remember think touring this like LGBTQ government run nonprofit situation advocacy group in Havana. How is it possible that your government offers people government funded transition surgeries, but you do not have a right to freedom of speech in and of itself? I wrote about Cuba at length in my first book that I published in 2021. And that experience totally shaping my worldview about socialism and why I think it's hugely important young people have an opportunity to see this video Nick Shirley is about to put out now that we know that he's safe at home. But honestly, I am so sick of privileged. You know what's like Hasan Piker, attacking actual journalistic integrity, actual investigation, actual desire to uncover the truth from someone like Nick Shirley as propaganda when those are the same people getting paid off by the Cuban government to do their bidding and just repeat the same approved talking points from their corrupt, sick, twisted dictatorship that is destroying the lives of millions upon millions of people. A society cannot remotely be considered progressive if at the very foundation it does not have a right to freedom of speech. I am so blown away by the courage of people like Nick Shirley willing to risk everything to bring that hope of freedom of speech to the world and expose what happens when it goes away. I am sat for this documentary that he is about to drop. But the question is, do you think this could impact US Cuban relationships, this video in the future? Do we have another Maduro situation on our hands? How do you guys feel about that? Let me know in the comments.