Trump’s 150K Tax Break Plan: Genius or Financial Diaster? | The Tom Bilyeu Show

Summary

Podcast Summary: Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu

Episode: Trump’s 150K Tax Break Plan: Genius or Financial Disaster?
Date: March 14, 2025
Host: Tom Bilyeu (“Host Drew”), Co-host Chat
Featured Voices: Howard Lutnick, J.D. Vance, Alec Puente, Maxine Waters, Senator Kennedy

Main Theme

This episode dives deep into Donald Trump’s proposal for a $150,000 income tax exemption, exploring both the economic rationale and political implications. The hosts also analyze recent developments in U.S.-Russia-Ukraine relations, debate food regulations and public health, reflect on the role of AI in modern life, and discuss the challenges of meaning and fulfillment in work and relationships.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s $150K Tax Break Plan

• Howard Lutnick’s Summary [02:25]

  • Trump aims for “no taxes for people under $150,000,” cutting funding waste, leveraging tariffs, and ending taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security:

    “We are going to take a trillion dollars out of the waste, fraud, and abuse and then we are going to raise a trillion dollars. That’s the trump card… Tariffs are going to be a huge revenue producer… On the way, we’re going to cut no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on Social Security.” (Howard Lutnick, 02:25)

• Political and Economic Strategy [03:00–04:15]

  • Drew praises the clarity and political shrewdness of the promise, though he is skeptical about its feasibility:

    “Even though I think overall it would probably be a better play for him to just focus on simplicity of the tax code, focus on getting everybody’s tax lower, I think that this is going to give him a strong political win… Even if it’s not my vision of perfect.” (Host Drew, 03:08)

  • Discussion on the choice of $150K as a threshold:

    “I have to imagine the number of people that would qualify for that is absolutely massive.” (Host Drew, 04:05)

2. Tariffs, Economic Uncertainty, and U.S.-China Relations

• J.D. Vance on Tariffs [05:26]

  • Emphasizes tariffs as a way to “bring jobs back” and boost American investment and wages:

    “He wants to bring investment and jobs back to the United States of America… By reshoring some of those critical supply chains, we are going to make this economy stronger over the long haul.” (J.D. Vance, 05:26)

• Host Analysis: Risks and Realpolitik [06:19–12:25]

  • Drew coins “hokey pokey tariffs”—warns Trump is “playing chicken with the economy,” causing market instability and friction with allies.
  • Highlights the risk: if mid-term results show no payoff, all chaos will be for nothing.

    “If you don’t see it through now, things get even worse… But because there are no guarantees, I get it. This is the way the system is meant to work. It’s just tough, man. It is tough.” (Host Drew, 11:36)

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3. Political Division & Rhetoric

• Rep. Maxine Waters’ Civil War Claim [13:29–16:29]

  • Maxine Waters accuses Trump of “working toward a civil war.”

    “If Maxine Waters really believes that Trump… is trying to agitate and lead us into civil war, then she should absolutely say it. But I take this as a mile marker for the level of division that continues to grow.” (Host Drew, 13:59)

  • Drew laments the lack of leadership focused on unification, referencing Ray Dalio’s warnings about conflict and debt:

    “I long for a figure that understands… neither side is going to get everything that they want. And I just don’t see any evidence that anybody anywhere wants that.” (Host Drew, 15:44)

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4. Food Policy, SNAP, & Health Regulation

• Surprise Opposition from the American Heart Association [16:54–20:13]

  • Alec Puente of the AHA opposes a bill to ban SNAP recipients from buying candy and soda, citing potential health participation issues.
  • Drew critiques the AHA’s position as perversely motivated:

    “It is absolutely crazy to me that the American Heart association would come out and say, I want to make sure that people still have access to sugary beverages and candy and cookies.” (Host Drew, 18:19)

• Nudging and Public Health [22:26]

  • The hosts argue for “nudging” poor populations toward healthier options, drawing on research from the book Nudge.

• Kennedy on ‘GRAS’ Food Additive Status [23:57–27:34]

  • Senator Kennedy explains U.S. “Generally Recognized As Safe” (GRAS) loopholes allow thousands of chemicals in American food, far more than in Europe:

    “This mass experiment on the American population with grass has, in short, been a catastrophe. We now have around 10,000 chemicals in our food. Europe has only 400.” (Senator Kennedy, 25:24)

  • Drew advocates a balanced, evidence-based approach:

    “I want us to lead, to innovate… but we have not earned that right, that is for sure.” (Host Drew, 30:17)

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5. Russia-Ukraine Peace Process & U.S. Involvement

• Putin, Ceasefire, and Zelensky [30:45–37:27]

  • Putin and other BRICS leaders gesture toward a ceasefire contingent on “removing the initial reasons for the crisis” (notably, Ukraine/NATO).

  • Zelensky is skeptical, suggests Putin’s overture is insincere; Trump’s role as broker under scrutiny, and suspicions about his ties to Russia linger:

    “If Trump continues to feel like he seems more on Putin’s side than Zelensky’s, that will certainly be a signal.” (Host Drew, 35:33)

  • Drew posits the likely U.S. position: indirect economic/security guarantees for Ukraine without formal NATO membership.

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6. Tech: AI in Everyday Life and Gaming

• Xbox AI Gaming Coach [39:11–42:30]

  • Feature allows real-time, in-game AI guidance; “borderless entertainment” is the future:

    “I love the idea of all the different things in my life being excited to see me… this is a step on that path… it’s thrilling.” (Host Drew, 39:43)

  • Chat predicts enhanced accessibility and engagement for both casual and serious players.

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7. Philosophy of Work, Fulfillment, and Anti-‘Rat Race’ Memes

• Work and the ‘Meaning of Life’ [42:37–52:53]

  • Reaction to a viral anti-9-to-5 video: Drew pushes back against nihilistic anti-work narratives, emphasizing the importance of finding meaning and contributing to others:

    “Fulfillment requires that you work hard… to gain a set of skills that allow you to make progress toward a goal that uplifts you and other people. If you do that… you can still feel fulfilled.” (Host Drew, 47:31)

  • AI’s role: Hosts foresee a future with less grind, more opportunity for purpose-driven work—but warn fulfillment must be actively sought.

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8. Relationships, Boundaries, and Red Pill Memes

• Discussion of Meme About Male-Female Dynamics [53:06–62:41]

  • A red pill meme suggesting men are disempowered in modern relationships sparks reflection; both hosts call for boundaries, self-respect, and mutual empowerment:

    “If a man allows himself to be treated like that, he is weak. Weak. And everybody needs to take responsibility for themselves.” (Host Drew, 58:29)

  • Drew credits his successful marriage to clear boundaries, mutual support, and purposeful growth as individuals and as partners:

    “My thing was, listen, I want you to work here because you know that I care more about your future than your own mother… to teach you everything that I know about entrepreneurship, because I don't want you to work here because you feel trapped.” (Host Drew, 45:30)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Political Strategy:

  “Promises made, promises kept… this has a lot of political juice behind it in terms of middle income to lower income.”
  (Host Drew on Trump’s tax plan, 03:00)

• On Tariffs and U.S.-China:

  “It is a game of chicken… You cannot have an adversarial nation controlling anything critical.”
  (Host Drew, 08:00)

• On SNAP and Health:

  “If you’re asking me to pay for it… Is this a good idea or a bad idea?… The end state that I want is healthy people that are able to live a life unburdened by disease…”
  (Host Drew, 20:30)

• On Work & Fulfillment:

  “The rat race becomes a rat race because it’s the way that you gamify something, it’s the way that you make progress.”
  (Host Drew, 49:57)

• On Relationships:

  “Anyone, male or female, will treat you exactly the way you let them treat you… If you let them treat you like that, then they're going to—including kids.”
  (Host Drew, 61:38)

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Key Timestamps

• [02:25] – Howard Lutnick explains Trump’s tax plan
• [05:26] – J.D. Vance defends Trump’s tariff strategy
• [13:29] – Maxine Waters accuses Trump of stoking conflict
• [16:54] – American Heart Association opposes SNAP sugar ban
• [23:57] – Senator Kennedy critiques “GRAS” food safety loophole
• [30:45] – Putin acknowledges ceasefire potential
• [39:11] – Xbox launches AI gaming assistant
• [42:37] – Anti-work meme leads to fulfillment philosophy discussion
• [53:06] – Red pill meme on male relationship woes

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Takeaway Insights

• Trump’s tax and tariff plans have strong populist appeal but face complex economic and geopolitical realities.
• There’s growing public skepticism of institutional health groups and the U.S. food safety regime.
• Ongoing U.S.-China and Russia-Ukraine dynamics drive serious policy recalculations.
• The future of work and AI will demand a new focus on meaning, skill-acquisition, and purpose.
• Healthy relationships—both in work and life—require clear boundaries and deliberate self-respect.

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Closing Thought

Tom Bilyeu and his team, with characteristic candor and critical thinking, separate signal from noise in today’s disruption-filled world—challenging both popular narratives and their own audience to seek truth, health, and meaning.

For deeper dives into related stories and the hosts’ live discussions, join their Monday, Wednesday, Friday live streams!

Transcript

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[Host Drew]

Trump's goal is no taxes on anyone making less than 150k. Putin conditionally agrees to a ceasefire. Zelensky says it's all bs. The heart association fights for more heart disease, consumer sentiment hits a 29 month low. The stock market rebounds a little. Maxine Waters thinks Trump wants a civil war. HHS pumps the brakes on grass and Xbox introduces an AI gaming coach. We've got some ill advised propaganda on how jobs are evil and a meme about how men are getting abused by women stopped me in my tracks. Drew, today was a big day in the community. We had all kinds of crazy stuff, including issues around Trump and some potentially pretty egregious corruption. We're at the headline level today. So Chat, you're definitely going to want to join us on Monday for that. Not to start with a tease about the future, but it's so on my mind.

[Co-host Chat]

We literally cut the live. It blew our minds. We were like, this is going to blow up the episode. Okay, let's get this episode out. We'll hit in on Monday. So we're coming for you. Chat. We heard you. Thank you for dropping it. And that's a reminder. Everybody, please join our lives. They happen right before these episodes release. 8:00am Most of the time.

[Host Drew]

Yep. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Pacific. Pacific.

[Co-host Chat]

Pacific. So Howard Lutnick jumped off and he said that Trump would like to see no taxes for people who make less than 150k.

[Host Drew]

Let's go.

[Howard Lutnick]

When the President balances the budget, his first move is going to be he has suggested that he would like to waive taxes for people under $150,000. Right. We are going to take a trillion dollars out of the waste, fraud and abuse and then we are going to raise a trillion dollars. That's the trump card. The trump gold card. Tariffs are going to be a huge revenue producer and then getting of all the tax scams. But on the way we're going to cut no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security.

[Host Drew]

Man, I really hope that they can balance the budget and pull that off. I think that this would be a big win for the average American. Is it the ideal way to run the tax code? Probably not. In terms of it would be better to just simplify the tax code, give a tax break to everybody. But the Trump camp I think is being very smart with the idea of promises made, promises kept, and getting something that is so easy to encapsulate. If we balance the budget, then we're going to be able to give you. This has a lot of political juice behind it in terms of middle income to lower income. People are going to be like, yes, exactly. I see myself in this. This is somebody who's fighting for me. And so even though I think overall it would probably be a better play for him to just focus on simplicity of tax code, focus on getting everybody's tax slower, I think that this is going to give him a strong political win behind him of people who feel like this is what he campaigned on and now he's actually making good on that promise. The contingency of making sure that we balance the budget first means that this is probably something way off in the future. But nonetheless it is very shrewd politically and if they can pull it off is certainly a step in the right direction. Even if it's not my vision of perfect.

[Co-host Chat]

There were some skeptics that called it arbitrary, that 150 was the line. Do you think there's a better way to kind of calculate it? Why do you think he approached it at 150 as that?

[Host Drew]

I think 150 is the number that people recognize as that sort of a middle of the road income. And hey, I don't know if they actually ran the math and said this many tens of millions or 100 plus million people or I mean it could be north of 200, 250 million people that fall into that camp. Hopefully they were that smart. And it's like that line just makes for a massive amount of the voting public. Like if I were advising them, I would say, hey, make sure that whatever number you pick not only is easy to Remember, but psychologically is going to trigger them in a positive way and actually gets you a huge voter base. Now, whether they were actually that shrewd or not, that I don't know. But I have to imagine that the number of people that would qualify for that is absolutely massive.

[Alec Puente]

Yeah.

[Co-host Chat]

In other Trump news, there's been mixed reaction to the markets. They're 2% up today. So it a little bit of a bounce back. This is the angle that which Trump is approaching the tariffs after we see a lot of the market blowback. Let's hear from J.D. vance what his perspective of Trump's strategy is.

[J.D. Vance]

First of all, I think the President's been very clear. He wants to impose tariffs on foreign importers because he wants to bring investment and jobs back to the United States of America. So what I'd say to those business leaders is I think the President has actually been quite clear about what he wants to accomplish. Build more in the United States of America, invest more in the United States of America, raise wages for workers in the United States of America, and you don't have to pay these tariffs at all. Has Reagan faced in his first term in office coming off a terrible economic calamity for the country? Can you rule out a recession, even a temporary one? Well, look, I think you never can predict the future, but I think the economy, the fundamentals of the economy are actually quite strong right now. And we'll see how this unfolds, Laura. But I think that by inducing more businesses to invest in American workers, by reshoring some of those critical supply chains, we are going to make this economy stronger over the long haul. And that is the President's ultimate goal.

[Host Drew]

So I am very glad she asked that follow up question because I was thinking the same thing when we were watching the Howard Lutnick clip is these guys talk like it's an inevitability, like this is all going to happen, it's going to be easy. And the reality is that it's not. And the reality is that Trump is playing chicken with the economy right now. He's doing what I'm now calling the hokey pokey tariffs. You put your right tariff in, you take your right tariff out, you put your right tariff in and you shake it all about and that's causing chaos in the markets for sure. And the question will be, is he going to be able to show some of the gains from the strategy that they're running by the midterms and if they don't, this is all going to be for not he's going to lose his ability to get things passed in the house. And, you know, all of the ideas will just end up dying on the vine. You're going to have a lame duck president and that will be that. So it, it really is a game of. I think that he has the right impulse in terms of wanting to separate ourselves from China, understanding that we're in a cold war with China already, that it is not inconceivable that this becomes a kinetic war over Taiwan if we're not able to bring things back onshore. And I think it's good that J.D. vance mentioned you're only going to onshore certain things. So I've certainly had people criticize me for thinking that I'm pro, like, oh, tariffs, no, what if Trump does it? Then I'm here for it, which is just absolutely not true. The way that I parse through this stuff is when you have the base assumption that we're already in a cold war with China, we may find ourselves in a kinetic war, or at a minimum, we absolutely have to be prepared for a kinetic war. You cannot have an adversarial nation controlling anything critical. And right now, between what they could do in terms of Taiwan and shut us off, shutting us off from Taiwan is akin to shutting us off from our modern way of life. And because of all the chips that are coming out of there also right now, I don't know what the percentage of our rare earth minerals that we get from China, but there's certainly a big cache of that. And so they would be strong in a way that we would not currently be strong, certainly with what's going on. We don't have anything settled between the Ukraine or Russia in terms of access to rare earth minerals. And so things that we require for a modern way of life right now are just, they're not friend shored or onshored. And so there are going to be critical things that I think it is absolutely necessary for national interest to bring back onshore. Now, when you spread that out even wider to deaths of despair and the fact that globalism really did gut the sort of manufacturing that sort of gutted the manufacturing base that we had in America, which also provides jobs that historically have allowed people to make a decent living for their family without having to pursue a white collar education or get into a white collar job. So that one two punch, I think, has to be taken very seriously. Now, I understand that that will come with not only short term disruption in terms of what just doesn't exist here. And so it's going to take time to bring that in. And you're creating instability certainly with China, who's getting pissed off. You're creating instability with Canada for sure seems to have lessened a little bit in Mexico, but there could be something looming there in order to incentivize people to bring it home. All the tariff talk is definitely creating a strain in relationships with allies. But if you think of this in terms of a relationship, if you've never put boundaries in the past and you start putting boundaries now, people are going to feel some kind of way about it because you're changing the rules. So. But I don't want to blind ourselves to that is creating disruption, that is creating friction with our allies. And I don't know if he can bring things, bring jobs in fast enough to overcome the sting that we will feel in the stock market and rising costs due to tariffs if they end up sticking and not just being a negotiating tactic. So I think to be clear eyed about this, you have to look at it as a game of chicken. It is not guaranteed that this is going to work.

[Co-host Chat]

Yeah, is this like a medicine situation where it's going to suck now but long term it will be better for us ultimately and we should just push through the roughness and try to get together.

[Host Drew]

True. This is like taking antibiotics and if you take antibiotics you are disrupting, you're driving down the population of that microbe. But if you stop too early, the microbe grows back even stronger. And so the thing that I worry about is that either it just won't work and the way that he views tariffs just isn't going to play out the way that I think it's going to. And instead of onshoring people either, the costs just stay high and people are like no, it's not worth moving my facility there. Now from all the people that are making investments now in the US it seems like we're getting early signal that that's going to work. But if it doesn't work fast enough, he loses the midterms. Now we created all this chaos in the economy. Now we've raised prices in the short term and the way that we solve the problem is by retrograding, going back to a globalist stance, re empowering China. And now you're just like you created all this chaos for no reason. You don't see it through and now you're like in the worst of all worlds. So yes, it's like medicine in that sense that it's not fun at first. But the more troubling Part would be if we're going to run this experiment, we obviously are. If you don't see it through now, things get even worse. But because there are no guarantees, I get it. This is the way the system is meant to work. It's just tough, man. It is tough. We have to find a way to onshore. We have to find a way to not be reliant on China. We have to find a way to give blue collar workers dignity, a job, a way to have meaning and purpose. And between globalism and the blow that that dealt and the coming AI revolution, it's like, yo, that is not going to be an easy problem to solve. Quick break. But don't go anywhere. There's more to come after this short break from our sponsors.

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[Host Drew]

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[Co-host Chat]

Leslie.

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[Alec Puente]

Sorry.

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[Host Drew]

All right, we're back. Let's get into it.

[Co-host Chat]

Yeah. And some people on the other side of the aisle think that Trump is doing more than just making economic division. Rep. Maxine Waters had some spicy words for Trump at the House of Black Caucus leaders.

[Host Drew]

What does Trump expect? Oh, I believe he expects violence. I believe he expects confrontation. I believe he's working toward a civil war. I never want people to hesitate to say what they believe is true. If Maxine Waters really believes that Trump is he is trying to agitate and lead us into civil war, then she should absolutely say it. But I take this as a mile marker for the level of division that continues to grow. Now, Trump has always been a divisive character. He was divisive in 2016. I can feel that energy has just accelerated. Biden didn't do anything to calm it down. Trump certainly isn't doing anything to calm it down now. And when I look at Ray Dalio's talk about how debt jubilees happen, they have a great name, but it's actually a terrible thing. They happen by civil war, rebellions or external war. And it is exceedingly rare that they happen through. Oh, we grow our way out of it and all ends up being well because we're just able to pay down the debt because there's so much growth in capital flying around that everybody's winning and loving life. It just doesn't usually happen like that. And when I hear the economist looking at it and going, oh God, this stuff normally leads to civil war or external war. And I've got China being like, hey, we'll happily meet you at war. Literally sending a text. Supposedly they've walked it back, but I didn't see anything. And then you've got our own congressman saying, no, no, I think the President wants civil war now, since oftentimes when people talk like that, they are projecting. Then it's like, ok, either she's right and Trump wants civil war, or I'm right, this is projection and she wants civil war. It's like, either one of those is bad and I hate them equally. So this is where, and I'll beat a dead horse here. I long for a figure that understands. Just like we can be so clear eyed or some people can be so clear eyed that, listen, Russia, you're gonna have to accept you don't get everything you want. Ukraine, you're gonna have to accept that you don't get all of your land back and it's horrible and everybody hates it. But like, we've got to find peace. I same way internally, neither side is going to get everything that they want. And I want somebody who's like, cool, I get it, I'm not going to get everything that I want. Let's find a way to come together. And I just don't see any evidence that anybody anywhere wants that. Now there, I mean, Federman is starting to say some more common sense things. Even Newsom is starting to talk a little less crazy. So maybe like people want to avoid it badly enough, but history tells me that they won't.

[Co-host Chat]

Well, there was one issue that united all of us in the chat, so hopefully it could do the same for America and that is sugary snacks on Snap. So RFK is pushing an agenda. So that way, certain sugary products, soda, candy, won't be able to be purchased with food stamps. There was a hearing yesterday for a Texas bill that specifically is adding it to their legislation, and an interesting opposition popped up. Let's look at the video.

[Senate Bill Narrator]

SB379 is a necessary step to align SNAP with its mission, which aims to eliminate cookies, soda and candy from purchasing items under the food stamp program. You will not believe who actually showed up in opposition to this bill.

[Alec Puente]

I'm Alec Puente and I'm the Director of Government Relations for the American Heart Association. I'm here to testify today in opposition

[Senate Bill Narrator]

to Senate Bill 379, the American Heart Association. And I was not the only one who was surprised by this. That might be the surprise of the session so far. Here's what the American Heart association representative had to say.

[Alec Puente]

The heart association is concerned about potential impacts of this bill on participation and population health. And, you know, we get, we get

[Host Drew]

into the other issues of how exactly

[Alec Puente]

we define a lot of these things.

[Senate Bill Narrator]

Here's what I was arguing for in my testimony for the bill. America has an obesity crisis and products like soda and candy funded by SNAP are making it worse. In 2014, we stood up against addictive products and SNAP by removing tobacco and alcohol. Now, a decade later, it is time we do the same for candy and soda. Although this shouldn't come as a huge surprise when we look at who the American Heart association has except accepted donations from in the past, which is largely big pharmaceutical companies and even big food companies like Kellogg's and Pepsi. Thank you to Senator Kolkhorst for actually calling him out. I would encourage you to look at what

[Host Drew]

restricted.

[Senate Bill Narrator]

This is why we need the Make America Healthy Again movement now more than ever.

[Host Drew]

It is absolutely crazy to me that the American Heart association would come out and say, I want to make sure that people still have access sugary beverages and candy and cookies. Like that is crazy. That is literally like, if I put my most cynical hat on, not only is it, do we want to take money from these companies that are funding us, but we want to just continue to exist, that we recognize that disease, like people are calling even diabetes, Alzheimer's, diabetes type 3, that what the studies are showing is, dude, when you are intaking a lot of things that turn to sugar in the bloodstream, basically any carbohydrate is going to turn to sugar in the bloodstream. That that's what causes the problems of the circulatory system from the heart to the veins. And what's going on in the brain is almost certainly related to that. That this is them just trying to stay in business having a reason to exist. Like that is so freaky to me. Humans really do be like that. Like, it's crazy. People do not want disruption. They want same as it ever was. But like we were talking about this during the live. It's like, is this guy like one of the thank you for smoking guys where he is just perfectly happy to argue whatever. Like he is so contrarian that even though he works for the American Heart association that he just says what. What is the argument that I have to defeat? And I'm going to go in and even though this is like literal mission impossible, I'm going to find a way to explain why people should get their ill health subsidized. Like the thing that is racing them towards ill health, I want to make sure that they can get that for free instead of like, how do we make healthy things for them free? Like that. That is just bananas. Like that. That is one. I do not understand how a homeboy sleeps at night. Like, that's crazy town.

[Co-host Chat]

Now I want to steal me. And kind of the other side of the argument that says this is an attack on poor people. If just because we have food stamps doesn't mean we're not allowed to get soda and cookies. You know, just because I'm poor doesn't mean I shouldn't have the things that I'm accustomed to consuming. What do you kind of have to the people on the other side that

[Host Drew]

are against precisely that? So because follow it out. So if I don't believe these foods should be illegal, people should be able to eat whatever they want. I do. However, if you're asking me to pay for it, then it's like, okay, cool, I'm gonna look at the. Just objectively, is this a good idea or a bad idea? Okay, how do I define good ideas and bad ideas? Very simply, what is end state that we want? The end state that I want is healthy people that are able to live a life unburdened by disease. As much as possible, we all get unlucky, but as much as possible, they can live a life unburdened by disease. That also in an increasingly taxpayer subsidized healthcare system. I don't want people to be a burden on that. So I am certainly not going to subsidize the foods that are going to cause you to not only have a horrible life, shorter life expectancy, be more in pain, et cetera, et cetera, and become a burden on the other system that we're funding with taxpayer dollars. So this is exactly what I would say to somebody living under my roof is, yeah, by all means, if you're not asking me to pay for it, you can go do and eat whatever you want, but as long as you're living in my house, these are going to be the rules. Now, the great news is that I'm literally with every bit of conviction based on the way I live my own life. I'm telling you, removing those foods from your diet is going to make your life better on a host of dimensions that is hard to quantify because everything in your life is downstream of sleep and diet. And if you are messing up those two things, first of all, diet will mess up your sleep. But if you're messing up those two things, the quality of your life is going to plummet dramatically. And also you're going to bankrupt the United States because of the healthcare burden. So this is absolutely bananas to me. Even if I just wanted to make their life better, I was driven by nothing else. I didn't care if you bankrupted the country. I just want your life to be better. I'd be like, yeah, I'm not going to pay for those foods. It's crazy.

[Co-host Chat]

Enough said.

[Host Drew]

Yeah, this was like the first thing. And look, we are well aware that our live chat viewers are not the same as our YouTube viewers who will for sure there are going to be people that come out of the woodwork and absolutely hate everything that I just said. But this has been the first thing where our chat is like uniformly. Yeah, word, exactly. So anyway, I hope that more people get on board with this because it is an absolute tragedy that the poorest people are in the worst shape from a health perspective. So there's a book called Nudge which I encourage people to read. When you do things in policy that nudge people in a better direction, the outcomes are often dramatic. So when you make food that is hyper palatable and addictive, the thing that's free, then people are going to go to the hyper palatable addictive food and we see the outcomes of that, which is why poor people are in worse health than as you go up the economic ladder. Another one from the book was that if you have a society and they paralleled America with another country, I don't remember which one, but in America you have to select to be an organ donor. And so like 1% of people are organ organ donors in the country that they paralleled it to. You have to unselect being an organ donor, and it's 99% are. So that little nudge has this huge ramification. Now, do I expect there to be that kind of dramatic outcome by taking this kind of stuff out of snap? No. But is it going to push people in a better direction? Yes.

[Co-host Chat]

And then in other health news, Senator Kennedy, the head of HHS is. Secretary Kennedy, head of hhs, is now directing the FDA Commission to remove GRAS status from a list of chemical ingredients. He had a video and talked about it.

[Senator Kennedy]

In the final months of the election, President Trump repeatedly called for removing toxins from our food supply. He added his voice to the millions of Maha moms who were touting the Make America Healthy Again agenda. The first step is radical transparency, because right now, not even the US government knows what's in our food. In 1958, the government created a designation called generally recognized essentially, or grass, so that we can make common ingredients like salt and baking soda exempt from testing. Today, it isn't just salt and baking soda. Food companies and cooperative regulators have enlarged the grass exemption so that these companies can decide for themselves whether a substance is generally recognized as safe. No FDA approval is needed. European nations, on the other hand, require that a chemical be proven safe before it becomes a food ingredient. In our country, the grass standard means that every chemical is presumed safe until proven dangerous. And that proof might not happen until millions of Americans are sick with chronic disease. This mass experiment on the American population with grass has, in short, been a catastrophe. We now have around 10,000 chemicals in our food. Europe has only 400.

[Host Drew]

That is crazy.

[Senator Kennedy]

For example, titanium dioxide, potentially linked to DNA damage and cancer, is banned in the eu, but it's in our children's food. Potassium bromate, a suspected carcinogen banned in Europe and Japan. And you guessed it, it's in our children's bread. Food Dyes such as red dye 40 and yellow 5 and 6 come with the warning labels. In Europe, they're linked to behavioral issues in children, but in the US they're generally recognized as safe.

[Co-host Chat]

I agree. It's time to change the system.

[Host Drew]

There's no two ways about it. Look, every you judge a tree by the fruit that it bears. So we have a system that is yielding absolutely catastrophic outcomes, and something has to change. So I am very encouraged to see that we are starting down a path that I hope will yield a much healthier fruit. So we'll see. There's a long way to go. There's probably an effective way to do this and an absolutely horrible way to do this. I hope that we do it in the most effective way possible. Given what he was saying, I think what he's going to do is basically put a freeze, not allow people to just automatically add new things to it and then start working our way through what are the most common ones. If they already have literature, then you can make an argument for removing them. They typically give people time to remove things. If I remember right, when we were request, we were constantly staying on top of ingredients that were getting either moved off. I can't remember what the exact thing was, but it was like you have until this date to no longer have this thing or you have until this date to start labeling your product in this way. So it will be something like that. And if they do this, well then we can fairly rapidly begin to alter the food system. And I think, I don't know that we have to be as restrictive as Europe. There were certain things that they were doing that I thought really were over the top, but, but nonetheless, like we've gotta be, we've gotta be making a change. 10,000 versus 400 is a pretty big difference.

[Co-host Chat]

And that's the thing that jumps out to me. If it's banned in another country, we shouldn't be eating it and our kids shouldn't be eating it.

[Host Drew]

I don't think you can go that far because listen, there was a moment in the not too distant past where they were really trying to restrict people's intake of fat because they had become erroneously convinced that fat was bad for you. You still see a lot of people believing that. And so you do, you really, really do have to be careful. You don't want just. I, I live in fear of top down control for that reason. People can abuse it. People can just be flat wrong. So I want to see them be sensible. I want us to lead, to innovate. I don't want new and novel products. Especially as AI comes on board and they can start testing new and novel. I mean AI can make, AI can tell you how to make novel proteins, for instance. So it's like, like you don't want to move too fast. There's no doubt about that. But I also don't want to regulate innovation out of existence. But again, judge the tree. Bright fruits. We have gone very, very awry and we've got to start recorrecting. I want them to be thoughtful. I want man, I want to see our best and brightest people that really understand this stuff not from an ideological standpoint, not from a who are my donor standpoint, but like actually the human biology of it all. Where does this fit? Start using AI so that we can approve some of this stuff faster, so that we can figure out what the actual knock on effects are in such a complicated thing as human biology, not just relying on traditional testing which can take years and years and years. So, yeah, I'd like to see a system that is efficient, that is not political and that is certainly not captured by a heart association that thinks that you got to fight for candy. That's crazy.

[Co-host Chat]

This is nuts. But I think that's where the shortcut is. Because if you go to Europe, there's still McDonald's, there's still Doritos, there's still all these things. They just have them without the toxic chemicals that are available in the US version. So I think they're already doing it in one sense. So just if your product is already compatible in other countries that doesn't have these chemicals, don't add the chemicals and then give it to us. Like there should be. At least that could be a flatline regulation, in my opinion.

[Host Drew]

What country do you follow?

[Co-host Chat]

I was in London specifically.

[Host Drew]

And so uk, If UK approves it, it's approved here. If UK denies it, it's denied here.

[Co-host Chat]

Yes, But I would at least have one other country. The example that he used that, the potassium one that's banned in both the. In Europe and in Japan, it's like, okay, those are two different countries that have two different government structures and they both came to the same conclusion. I feel like US could say, yeah, they're probably right.

[Host Drew]

That feels better to me. Like if you do some sort of. All right, here are the three or four countries that if they ban, then

[Co-host Chat]

if it's been in Europe, Japan, in Australia, it should be an absolute no.

[Host Drew]

I wouldn't say absolute. No, but that now you're going to go through the process. Now you were going to start at the very beginning. We're going to be running the test. We're going to be seeing. There's some logic to that. It's. I'd still like to see us play a leadership role, but we have not earned that right, that is for sure.

[Co-host Chat]

At least not in health. Yeah, we can take our way to

[Host Drew]

it, but yeah, no doubt. Quick break, but don't go anywhere. There's more to come after this short break from our sponsors. All right, we're back. Let's get into it.

[Co-host Chat]

All right. In Russia, Ukraine, news. So we talked on our last episode that on paper, Putin accepted to the ceasefire deals. He said he still wants to talk to Trump. There's some certain terms that he feels like he wants to get done.

[Alec Puente]

But first of all, I would like to thank the President of United States for Ukraine for paying so much attention to regulating the conflict in Ukraine. Of course, we all have lots of current issues to deal with

[Host Drew]

and the

[Alec Puente]

Chairman of China and the Prime Minister of India and heads of states of Brazil and South Africa, they are dealing with this issue and they're paying a lot of attention to this and we're grateful for this and we're hoping that their activity, we understand that their activity is aimed at reducing loss of human life in the conflict. Second is we agree with the proposals for the ceasefire, but our position is based on the assumption that the ceasefire would lead to a long term peace, something that would remove the initial reasons for the crisis. As for the readiness of Ukraine to cease fire, There's a meeting between Americans and Ukrainians in Saudi Arabia and it looks like decision that is taken by Ukrainian side under American pressure. In reality, I am completely convinced that Ukraine had to

[Co-host Chat]

ask,

[Alec Puente]

had to ask, Ukrainians ask, Americans insist on this based on the situation on the ground.

[Host Drew]

Yeah. So this, we're also going to want to show what Zelinsky said to that. So it's like hedgehedge. Yes, we want to broker peace. However, there's an underlying issue that led us into this situation and that's got to be dealt with. To drag it out into the daylight, it's Ukraine cannot be a part of NATO. Like that is the long standing position. Whether you think that Putin is territorial, an imperialist who's trying to gain more territory or not. He said plain and simple, that's a hard line. Red line, won't let it be crossed. Trump alluded to, there's an answer that Zelensky knows something that he's known for 40 years that he's not going to get. Seems very obvious to me that he's talking about entry into NATO. So I'll be very interested to see if Trump laid that out plainly and Zelensky knows that that's not on the table. Then what did he agree to exactly? Because he's been so hardcore about I've got to have security guarantees, which I certainly understand from his perspective. So anyway, here is Zelensky. It's a lot of words. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna paraphrase what his tweet said. So Zielinski is basically saying, listen, Putin is not going to accept this. He is. He just doesn't want to say directly to Trump that he's going to reject it. But Zelensky fully expects that Putin is about to reject this. Now, as of the time of recording, Putin has not rejected it yet. But I have to admit that given the way that Putin is talking, he's leaving that caveat. And so I don't know that Zielinsky would have agreed to something that doesn't include some security guarantees of some kind for Ukraine. So we'll see. We'll see. I'll be very eager to hear the details of the peace agreement. I'll be very eager to see what Trump ends up saying to Russia because another illusion. I hope you guys all join us for the Monday live, where we're going to be talking more. So one of the members of our community put something forward from what. What is the guy's name?

[Co-host Chat]

Chris Murphy.

[Host Drew]

Chris Murphy. So Chris Murphy did a breakdown on X, talking about just blatant corruption from Trump, and I need to follow the threads. I don't know yet whether to believe it or not, but they are really, if they are accurate, they are very damning. So it'll be very interesting to see that if Trump continues to feel like he seems more on Putin's side than Zelensky's, that will certainly be a signal. So I'm very, very. I was really encouraged to see that Trump got the agreement from Zelensky first. And I was like, o, okay, this is exactly what we need to see, to see that Trump really gives a shit about peace and that this isn't Because, I mean, at one point, Grok was saying that 85% chance that Trump is in cahoots with Russia, and it's like, yikes. Like, if your boy's AI is like, nah, nah, for real, he's in bed. Like, guaranteed. Not guaranteed, but 85% chance, that's not good. So seeing him come through first with Zelensky, I was definitely encouraged by that. But. But we'll see how this plays if Putin backs off and then Trump just doubles down on Zelensky. And it was like, yeah, he was obviously never going to agree to that anyway. You were being greedy, which would be super weird given the things that he said, but would be such a clear signal about whose team he's batting for. I want to be careful with my language. I haven't gone deep enough on any of this yet. So this is all speculation at this stage. But anyway, join us on Monday, if you will, where we're going to be looking more closely at Chris Murphy. Chris Murphy. So, yeah, it's, it's interesting to say the Least well worth looking into. We shall see.

[Co-host Chat]

Yeah, it seems like we're at a stalemate because Russia, specifically Russia.

[Host Drew]

Ukraine.

[Co-host Chat]

Yeah, with Russia. Ukraine, because Russia doesn't want them to join NATO. I think that's their line. Ukraine is like, okay, we won't join NATO, but we need security guarantees. Nobody wants to give them security guarantees. The last couple years they've done that. Russia slowly. David. Kiev, like, they, they have tested the waters already and they have accumulated some Ukrainian lane. It's not, at this point, I'm not even sure if it's significant or not, but they've like, there was already this. They did this song and dance before. So I think Zelensky's at a point now where he can't just say, I'll take a ceasefire in a handshake deal, because I did that already. So I think that's.

[Host Drew]

Let me see if. So I'm going to place a guess as to what I think happened as a way to find out how accurate my mental map is. Inevitably, it's not going to be 100% accurate. I just don't know if it's 80% accurate or 4%. But here's what I'm going to guess. It's going to look something like Trump has made it very clear that while there is an active war going on, there's no world in which I'm going to give you a security guarantee. However, if we can get a ceasefire, then I want to intertwine our economies in the way of the things that he's talked about. There could be more, but the ones that I've heard him talk about are the rare earth minerals. So it's like, let's get a ceasefire. Let's get Putin to agree. As long as XYZ thing remains true, then we're good. Broker Trump to broker a deal then with Zelensky for effectively compensation, a way to care enough about what's happening there that we would still back them. And then if Russia is the aggressor again, while it's not a full blown security guarantee, it's like, hey, we're going to guarantee this level of funding because we want to make sure that we are still able to get our assets out. Or he might even. No, I can't imagine you go farther than that. My gut is it's going to be something like that. They're not going to let him into NATO. It's going to be this thing about we will protect our interests. It will be a promise of sanctions, economic warfare against Russia if they were to invade. It's going to be something like that. If I had to guess now, if that plays out, then I'm mapping Trump, Zelensky and Putin reasonably well. If it doesn't play out like that, then I'm going to have to update my thinking because that's what I expect.

[Co-host Chat]

Switching gears to tech news, Xbox debuted a new AI powered gaming companion for mobile users. So it's pretty much like Siri for gaming. The example over here for Age of Empire would be like, what's the best way to take out the beast? Least want me to pull up a quick strategy guide. So it's kind of having somebody in your back pocket that you can use to talk to. Fatima Kadar, corporate vice president of gaming AI, said it can even trash talk if that's what you need. So I guess they're going to add some personality things like that to it. What's your thoughts on AI getting more incorporated into gaming?

[Host Drew]

I couldn't be more excited about that, but I'm also the guy that wants it incorporated into my chair, my lamp, my bed. I want AI everywhere that I turn. I whether I want it or not, that is the inevitable future. It is just easier to say, hey lamp, would you turn on real fast? It's a little too bright, dim, like you just want to live in that world. Now, whether everybody shares my desire for an emotive lamp, that may be a different story. But I love the idea of all the different things in my life being excited to see me. My fridge is happy when I open it and interact with it and it's just, you know, flashes lights and, and reminds me when I'm about to run out of something like that, to me is a world that I want to live in. And so on the gaming side, because we're developing a video game, obviously I'm we're already deploying AI inside of our game and I know how cool and thrilling that is. To have a character that you can give verbal commands to and it will follow your verbal commands is awesome and makes having a character in the game really feel real in a way that like is hard to express. It's very different than when you have to do the controller and you click and like tell it, go do that command, which is already interesting. But when you can just talk to it and it does it, it's amazing. And then a part of what we're trying to build, though there may still be technological hurdles that delays this idea, it will become possible. Whether it's possible now, I don't yet know. But we're going down the path of exploring the feasibility of having a in real life. Think of it as like a toy representation of the character inside the game and the toy and the character in game sync up. So whether you have the communication with the toy because you're not in the game or you have the communication with the character in the game, it doesn't matter. Like those lines are blurred. It's a whole concept I call Borderless Entertainment, which I think is the future of all this. So this is a step on that path. I think it is absolutely inevitable. I think it's thrilling. I think it's going to make gaming more fun. So, yeah, I'm super excited and not in the least bit surprised.

[Co-host Chat]

Yeah, I grew up in the strategy guide era too, so I used to Google stuff when I got stuck. So it'll be nice just to have okay, hey, I'm stuck at this board. How can I get this boss? Or what should I do? So I think it'll make. It'll make certain things easier and make it more engaging so that way I don't have to minimize this window. Go over here, pull it up. Pull my phone out. Now I'm trying to double screen. It could just happen all in one place. So I'm more.

[Host Drew]

And if you can imbue it with a personality that you find engaging. Yeah, like it's fun. When I'm interacting with ChatGPT, which is typically the one that I use because I've given instructions on how to talk to me. I love it, man. I love it. I'm like, I want you to act like my best friend who's really good at whatever thing and I want you to be critical of my ideas. Push back, tell me when something could be better. All that stuff. It's awesome. It really does feel like you're engaging with a person.

[Co-host Chat]

Nice, Nice. All right. And then you sent this one to me. The video that will change your life. This is a way to look at work.

[Host Drew]

Oh, this? Yeah. I take this in the exact opposite direction that they mean it. But yeah. So it says how to. How the comfort of a nine to five can cost you your whole life. You see these four lines? Yeah.

[Co-host Chat]

I just needed to stand there until 5:30 today.

[Host Drew]

I'll give you 50 bucks. Yeah, I'll do it.

[Senator Kennedy]

Very good.

[Host Drew]

So the guy takes his place standing, stands in the square and literally just standing there, just standing in the square, watching time go by. Thank you. Not doing anything meaningful with his life. Yes, absolutely. I'd love to, but he's stoked, right? He's getting paid. He's also a skater. It's important to know that if you

[J.D. Vance]

want to escape in town with us.

[Host Drew]

That seems sick.

[Alec Puente]

I gotta stay here.

[Host Drew]

Me, Me.

[Senator Kennedy]

I'm working.

[VRBO Announcer]

Can you see?

[Host Drew]

Is anyone even watching you? I'm making a living. Have fun. Checking his clock. Time has passed. Work's over. Head home next day. He's moving up in life.

[Senator Kennedy]

You're an asset to me.

[Alec Puente]

Come with me.

[Host Drew]

I'm raising your salary by 30%. And now walks into a new square. Really?

[Co-host Chat]

Go ahead. Check it out.

[Host Drew]

This thing is massive. It's bigger. You can see the bridge from here. You earned it. This is incredible. Obviously making fun of having an office. All right, now, way time has gone by. 2,000 bucks, gray hair.

[Howard Lutnick]

But I'd like to retire now if I could.

[Host Drew]

It's been a pleasure working with you. And now that he's free and doesn't have to work anymore, he's like, I'm finally going to skateboard. And then it falls down and it says, wake up before it's too late. Drew. This one makes me sad.

[Co-host Chat]

Talk to me.

[Host Drew]

Okay, so this is obviously a thing that people can get sucked into where you're doing a job you don't care about. You're just trying to collect a paycheck. You're living for the weekend. I get the moral of the story. Obviously, for anybody that doesn't know my story, I spent many years as an employee, so I know what it's like to be an employee. But even when I was an employee, my thing was I want to work at something that matters to me. And that's one of the things that I think a lot about with impact theory is people are coming here and they're. They're giving you years of their life. And my job is to hand them back meaning and purpose, or at least because I can't give it to you. But. But at least make it possible for people to express their talent and intelligence through their career. When people believe that that's a fundamental impossibility and that they're caught up in some sort of modern day slavery, it's like now you just have the wrong frame of reference. You are taking the frame of reference of I am trapped instead of. And this is what I used to do back at Quest was, okay, I'm here in the inner cities. I'm working with people that really, their whole lives have been trapped by an ideology. Many of them had never gone more than a couple of miles away from their house. Which is crazy, but tr. Like, you guys can almost see Beverly Hills from here, but you've never been there. No, man. Never been What? So I used to drive them, take them to a fancy restaurant near Beverly Hills and then drive them up into, like, Bel Air and just try to get them to dream. And my thing was, listen, I want you to work here because you know that I care more about your future than your own mother. So I'm going to try to teach you everything that I know about entrepreneurship, because I don't want you to work here because you feel trapped. I don't want you to be here because you're like, well, I can't get this good of a job anywhere else. I want you to understand that you can get so good at something that you could go work anywhere. And that propaganda. Because it's also propaganda. That propaganda is empowering. This. It really was, like, Quest really was the place where I realized, oh, I don't just want to tell stories. I want to tell stories that empower people. Because I saw people that were disempowered by a set of ideas.

[Co-host Chat]

Ideas.

[Host Drew]

This is one of those ideas. This. This is not a hopeful, optimistic thing. Like, what do they want that person to wake up to. To go skateboard. I guarantee that person's gonna get to their 30s and be like, I've wasted my life skateboarding. Like, insert anything. And the person is gonna be like, why did I just waste my life doing that? At some point, like, the thing that people have to embrace is that there is an evolutionarily placed algorithm in your brain that is compelling you to pursue fulfillment. Fulfillment has a knowable recipe, and it goes like this. And I welcome anybody who thinks that they have a deeper insight, because Lord knows, if somebody sees this even more clearly than I, I will take it. Fulfillment requires that you work hard.

[Alec Puente]

Okay?

[Host Drew]

Requires that you work hard. So if it comes easily, it won't work. Work hard to gain a set of skills that allow you to make progress towards a goal that uplifts you and other people. If you do that, even in a moment of despair, you lose your significant other. Even in that moment, you can still feel fulfilled. You can be proud of the person that you are or the person that you're becoming. If you don't do that formula, you will feel ill at ease your whole life. And this is why billionaires will commit suicide. This is why rich kids end up imploding, because they may not even know what they're trying to achieve. So they don't have a goal or Maybe that goal only uplifts them but doesn't uplift those around them. We are a tribal creature. If we're not serving the group, we're going to feel a profound sense of disease. Things that come too easily, we don't feel like we earned something feels off. People that think that by attaining they're going to be happy, it's not. You have to make progress towards a thing when you're making progress. I always thought this was a brilliant insight of Tony Robbins that happiness is progress, that progress itself is a foundational pillar to being happy. And once you understand that, that it's like, oh, I need to be working hard at something I care about for whatever reason I care about it, I love it, I want to do it. But I'm making progress towards something that uplifts me and others. So if you want to be a skateboarder and you can turn it into a career, whether you own a skate shop, you're an accountant for a skateboard company, you run a skateboard company, you're a professional skater, you make skateboard, video games, whatever, but you're doing a thing that you can look at and say this helps other people. And the number of people that have applied to work for us or have come to work for us, that was like I was working on a YouTube channel but I didn't really add up to anything and really care about it. And so I wanted to come here because the whole idea of having impact, like I really want to matter, failing to understand that is failing to understand the whole game. So the idea of like oh, you just need to escape the rat ratio race, it's like the rat race becomes a rat race because it's the way that you gamify something, it's the way that you make progress. So even more and I don't, hey, if people have a path out of ejecting out of the nine to five, I love it. I did. But the reason that I didn't retire when I sold Quest was because I knew I would have to answer the question of fulfillment.

[Co-host Chat]

No, no, sounds good. I think the takeaway I'm a TLDR that takes that the rat race becomes a rat race because people are chasing something they don't care about, they're on a hamster wheel. Whereas if they're working in their passion, they're working something that they care about, they're working at something that has a purpose, that can also help other people, it will be better. So for that example, instead of working standing in a box wishing he could skate. He should have been a manager at a skate company or a skate shirt. Like just incorporate those two things. The things that you're wildly passionate about, the things that you can do, the skills that you can acquire, and try to align those in some type of meaningful way.

[Host Drew]

Yep. You've got to make progress towards something that matters to you and other people.

[Co-host Chat]

Okay, I'm gonna put my sci fi rat hat on, please. Now, with AI that's fundamentally disrupting a lot of these things. Do you think now is a good time to have that shuffle? Because now if I am stuck in a dead end job with something I don't like, I now have a tool that can at least help me acquire skills at a rapid pace to get, get closer to what I actually want.

[Host Drew]

Yeah, I think that AI is going to create massive opportunity for people. And that's why rather than people going, I need to eject out of this whole system. It's a question of, okay, how do I make this system work for me? How do I get good at building something that I'm excited about, that other people want? Because in a world of AI, there aren't going to be as many, this is my thesis, there aren't going to be as many big companies. It's going to be a gazillion little companies, whether it's a solopreneur building a one off thing that they want to bring to the world, or they're a part of a small company. But it's getting people to understand the game of AI is going to be a question of how do you deliver meaning and purpose? Because meaning and purpose is still going to matter. You're still going to have that evolutionarily placed algorithm running in your brain, screaming at you to do things that matter to you and to the group, Period, End of story. And they are going to have to answer that question. And so I don't think the right answer is checking out and going and chilling on a beach. It won't work. You will feel that profound sense of disease. This is why I come back to one of the easiest ways. Not easy, that's, that's the wrong word. One of the, the most likely to work ways to become fulfilled in a world where an artificial superintelligence can do everything better than you is to find love and raise children. If you do that, evolution has ensured that it's going to make you feel good about that. So that is my shorthand for even if you live in a world of abundance and you don't need to do Any to take care of your physical needs. Food's there. It's all free. Housing is free. Everything. Just abundance. Abundance. You will feel absolutely fucking horrible if you don't do something that allows you to gain a set, work hard to gain a set of skills that allows you to make progress towards a goal that matters to you. Raising this child well. Loving my spouse well, if you don't find a path to that, you're in trouble, no matter how much abundance there is.

[Co-host Chat]

Man, that was good. That was good. I feel like I learned something. A little bit of mindset time coming back. I see.

[Host Drew]

Hey, hey. It's always here. Everything I do, I do through the lens of mindset.

[Co-host Chat]

There's no doubt about that. All right, and then now, is this truly the typical male journey?

[Host Drew]

Oh, God, this scared me. You're gonna have to answer this. I am horrified that this is what people think life is. This is a meme video. It is done in, like, just little, simple, like, figures that you would see on, like, a bathroom door. So it's a man and a woman and. All right, so it's. I'll let me set you up so I don't have to explain this with every frame. Okay, so this is very much a red pill and, like, the negative red pilly kind of way where it's a woman pushing a man to do certain things, and the man keeps acquiescing. And so the frame number one is, I want marriage. Man says, okay. And then woman says, I want kids. Man says, okay, they have kids. Yay. Then the man is working, and the woman is. It just shows her, like, making sounds of him. So I'm going to say the woman barks at him the following thing. So the woman barks at him, he's working too much. She wants him to do chores. He goes out and does all the chores. And he's now at work. He's punching in, he's punching out, goes back home. Wife is mad, wants him to play with the kids. So now he's just worked his ass off, comes home, plays with the kids. Then she says, the romance is gone, and he doesn't give me enough attention. And her friend says, yeah, girl, you deserve better. So. But so far, the implication being, well, you're the one that's, like, wearing this guy down to a nub.

[Senator Kennedy]

And.

[Host Drew]

But the woman can't see it at all. And her friends simply reinforce this negative thing. All right? Then on Facebook, a guy slides into her DMs and is like, you're so beautiful, I can't stop thinking about you. And she says, stop. You know I'm married.

[Co-host Chat]

I like the voice.

[Host Drew]

And then we're back with the husband. We're barking at him because he's going golfing. And then slide back into the dm. Come on, let me come over for coffee while he's at work. She says, okay, but it's just for coffee and chat.

[J.D. Vance]

Wow.

[Host Drew]

And then they're having sex. Is this the first time you're seeing it?

[Alec Puente]

It. Yep.

[Host Drew]

And then back with the husband. How could you do this to me? And she says, he made me feel special. And then divorce, and the woman gets all the money. Oh, God, this is so sad. And then cut to, man is now lonely, and woman is still banging same guy. And she has the dog.

[Co-host Chat]

You can't forget the dog.

[Host Drew]

Then the kids are going to hate me. As they say, we miss Daddy. This is mom thinking, your daddy is living a new life now. He doesn't have time for you. Says the evil woman. And ex husband is now very sad. Can't find joy anywhere. He's drinking. And the woman says, it's your father's fault, as the kids are waiting because he mistreated me and ignored me for years. And then back on Facebook, the woman. Thank you, everyone, for your support. Guys are chiming in. What an asshole. It sucks you had to go through that. I'll always be there for you. These are all men. And then back to the kids. Your dad is probably out there with a new girlfriend while I take care of your kids.

[Co-host Chat]

Okay.

[Host Drew]

Anyway, there's going to be a whole bunch of this, like, back and forth. Mom is saying, bad choice to the kids. Dad is left. You should try online dating. And it just derails from there. And I was like, holy Jesus is Drew. How does this land for yourself? You're laughing quite hard because it just

[Co-host Chat]

keeps getting better with every slide.

[Host Drew]

It's, like, better or more terrifying.

[Co-host Chat]

It's dramatic, so I appreciate it. Man who. This is hitting a little bit close to home because me and my ex split. It wasn't that situation. At least I hope there wasn't anybody in Facebook entertainment. Hmm. I think there's something fundamentally missing with this, and this is something that I think you articulate very well with Lisa. That at the very top of the relationship, I think boundaries need to be placed, and there needs to be that initial discussion. I think the age of. Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay. That type of man, he either stays with the woman and becomes a shell of himself, or he's depressed and we end up with this kind of slideshow. And in my personal life, I have people in my family who I could see the spark in their eyes are fundamentally gone. Which is why I made the decision I made early. Because I was like, okay, I know that this is going to a place that's not gonna work. I can be 50% of me and just be the guy that is coming home sad and drinking and trying to get away from my wife. Or I could just say, hey, I'm gonna call it now while we're still young and still be able to bounce back and kind of build a new life that we both respect and love ourselves individually. Which, it was a risky bet. But 10 years later, like, it worked out. Like, she's cool, I'm cool, I'm happy for her. She just had a baby. Congrats. Beautiful baby girl. So it's one of those things that, like, you have to establish it at day one, though. And I think that a lot of people are just like, oh, I like you, you like me. Let's bump private parts. Okay, now we're bumping private parts. Okay, now we're moving in together. Okay, let's get married. Okay. And you just kind of keep going with it because it feels good. It feels good.

[Host Drew]

Good.

[Co-host Chat]

And then when life becomes hard and things hit you on the other side, they're not prepared for that change.

[Host Drew]

Yeah. I look at this and I say, okay, if the, If a woman acts like that, she is a. Because you are going to get the worst out of a man. If a man allows himself to be treated like that, he is weak. Weak. And everybody needs to take responsibility for themselves. This woman needs to understand, huh, I'm not getting out of life what I want. I have a husband that isn't giving me the attention that I want. What am I doing wrong? The husband needs to be like, man. I'm constantly getting barked at, being told what to do. I feel terrible. I hate my job. I hate coming home. Like, this is misery. What do I need to do differently to change this to your point? Yes. Setting boundaries. Also, just like, I don't understand why people don't have. As a North Star, like, I'm going to be in a relationship that is worth the compromise. So for me, coming into a relationship, it seems so self evident to me that relationships are compromised. I'm doing things oftentimes that I don't want to do because I want to be with this person. And so I was just constantly saying, it has to be worth it. This, to be together has to be worth it. And if you're doing things that are not worth it, hard pass. So it would be. Obviously, you'd have to take all of this stuff one person at a time. But I think the reality is, is I love being with my wife. I don't need to be with my wife. My wife, I hope, loves being with me, but doesn't need to be with me. Meaning I'm okay by myself. I can be alone. And because I can be alone, as I say, all problems stem from man's inability to sit alone in a room by himself. I don't have that problem. I can sit in a room by myself. Now, I understand as a human, you can isolate me forever, but that helps a lot. And to get laid, I had to learn the lesson that you cannot have fear of loss. You have to be willing to walk away. And so both Fleece and I established boundaries, literally, at the very beginning of our relationship and said, like, here are the rules. This is not. Once we were saying, I love you. This is not unconditional love. These are the things that have to be true. And then just understanding that as a value system to me, it is very important that I feel better about myself when I'm with my wife than when I'm without. And it's very important to me that she feel better about herself when she's with me than when she's not. And then the final to really befuddle people. I really think that there's a dynamic between men and women where you should be making each other better. Like, Lisa was at times not barking at me, but she was, this isn't who you promised me you wanted to become. Like, you're not living up to the person you said you wanted to become. You laid out who you wanted to become. I invested in trying to help you become that person. And when you are not living up to the person you said you wanted to become, I'm going to say something, something, and vice versa. And that's how we've, like, played off of each other forever. It's like, tell me who you want to become. And then in the moment where you're knocked to your knees, I'm not going to get down on my knees with you. Like, we. We literally had this conversation. I've said to her a thousand times, when I'm on my knees, I do not want you to get on your knees with me, put your arm around me and tell me everything is going to be fine. I want you to extend a hand, pick me back up, brush my shoulders off, give me The Jerry Maguire speech and help me get back in the game. That's what I want. And if people navigate that way, I mean, I'm speaking now. We've been married for 22 years. If you live your life that way, it is the most rewarding thing by far that you can do for sure, outside of having children. That one I won't speak to. But, man, people just do not make enough demands of themselves, in my opinion. Like, when I look at that, I'm like, yo, this is on him. Like, what the fuck? Why would you let somebody treat you like that? That's crazy. And it is not a default in the female brain to treat you like that. Anyone, anyone, male or female, will treat you exactly the way you let them treat you. And so if you let them treat you like that, then they're going to including kids. So, yeah, hard pass for me.

[Co-host Chat]

Crazy shout out to the stick figure. I hope he figures it out, man. Man, I'm rooting for you. Sick figure.

[Host Drew]

We're pulling for you.

[Co-host Chat]

That's all I got.

[Host Drew]

All right, everybody, you definitely want to join us for the lives we cover. A lot more than we can cover here in just this episode. We are going to be talking about

[Co-host Chat]

the Chris Murphy of six weeks of corruption on Trump.

[Host Drew]

Going to be going deep on that to see what we think. Please join what will inevitably be fact finding, debating, all that good stuff, but it's huge. Please join us for that. It's an amazing community. I think you guys will love, love it. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. And by the way, it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 8:00am Pacific Time most times. Keep your eyes peeled every now and then.

[Co-host Chat]

Community tab in the discord will have all the links for the schedule of the week.

[Host Drew]

There it is. All right. If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. Until next time, my friends. Be legendary. Peace.