Is it Too Late To Stop The AI Takeover? | Unsubscribe Podcast 250

Summary

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Unsubscribe Podcast Ep. 250

"Is it Too Late To Stop The AI Takeover?"

Release Date: February 8, 2026
Hosts: Eli Doubletap, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, The Fat Electrician
Guest: Richard Ryan

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Overview

This milestone 250th episode of Unsubscribe Podcast dives into the intersection of digital culture, technology, and looming threats posed by rapid advances in artificial intelligence. Hosts Eli Doubletap, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, and The Fat Electrician are joined by YouTube legend, entrepreneur, and author Richard Ryan for a freewheeling—and sometimes profound—discussion that dances between political hot takes, the future of online censorship, AI ethics, surveillance, digital addiction, culture wars, and forging meaning in a world shaped by technology.

Richard also explores the motivations behind his new book, "The Warrior’s Garden," which provides practical guidance on reclaiming agency in the attention economy. Along the way, the crew share wild stories from YouTube’s “Wild West” era, vent about platform censorship, challenge AI optimism/pessimism, and reflect on the real-life impacts of online culture.

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Episode Structure and Key Segments

1. Opening Banter & Hot Takes (00:34 – 09:58)

Main Points:

• Light-hearted intros and giveaways with guest Richard Ryan.
• Humorous discussion about cowboy vs. farmer hats and playful jabs to settle everyone in.
• Hot take from Richard on political insider trading and incentive structures:
  • Suggestion: Politicians should only prosper if constituents do (04:36–07:47).
  • Brandon proposes pegging Congressional salaries to local median earnings (06:12–09:58).
  • Examination of how misaligned incentives feed public distrust and systemic rot.

Notable Quotes:

• "If we don't start rapidly, like, focusing on how do we realign incentives...something unprecedented [is coming] that I don't think the last two, three generations have really seen..."
  — Richard Ryan (07:47)

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2. The Old School YouTube Era & Content Evolution (11:02 – 17:31)

Main Points:

• Richard recounts his early days as a sketch comedian, move to LA, and circuitous path into YouTube (11:02–13:42).
• Discussion of pioneering slow-mo firearms content, working with notable creators (Corridor Digital, Freddie Wong, FPSRussia), and the technical/creative arms race (13:42–16:11).
• Nostalgia for the early internet and reflection on how things changed as money and scrutiny entered the platform.

Notable Quotes:

• "[You were] doing, like, Hollywood production video assets—looked like it belonged on Discovery."
  — Brandon Herrera on Richard's early YouTube videos (13:09)
• "[Making videos] was a way to do things I enjoyed, to grow an audience, to create the brands I was excited about monetizing..."
  — Richard Ryan (41:08)

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3. YouTube Censorship, Adpocalypses & Weaponization of Policy (21:00 – 34:14)

Main Points:

• Richard’s “NextUp” mentorship and the shifting landscape of platform incentives (21:16–26:36).
• The group vent about waves of demonetization, sudden policy changes, especially affecting firearms channels (26:36–34:14).
• YouTube's shifting rules—from retroactive strikes for “weapons modification” to the chilling effects on creative risk.
• Retroactive policy enforcement and the frustrating impossibility for creators to play by rules that constantly change in hindsight.

Notable Quotes:

• "How the fuck am I supposed to, as a creator, make content for what your guidelines are going to be in five years?"
  — Brandon Herrera (32:43)
• "You're using our data against us...your biometrics and your sleep patterns, your mattresses with subscriptions..."
  — Richard Ryan on emergent surveillance and data commodification (73:13)

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4. Platform Power, Cultural Influence & Section 230 (39:24 – 44:00)

Main Points:

• On YouTube as a monopoly: Influence vs. financial reward (39:24–40:37).
• Why creating content for the biggest platforms still matters—even as alternatives like Pepperbox or Rumble gain ground (39:39–40:03).
• The Section 230 debate: tech companies straddling the line between platform and publisher, profiting from both protections but taking the stance that benefits them most (40:03–44:00).

Notable Quotes:

• “If what I’m doing is trying to influence culture, you have to go where the people are. Otherwise, you have zero cultural impact...”
  — Brandon Herrera (39:39)
• "Section 230 doesn't apply to you because you're operating as a private company, not as a public utility...We're coming for you."
  — Richard Ryan (40:16)

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5. AI: The Takeover, Disinformation, Influence, and the Second Amendment (56:34 – 69:36)

Main Points:

• Richard describes building autonomous drone “bombs” inspired by Ghost Recon years before military drones went mainstream (54:22–58:15).
• The group speculates on the trajectory of AI and digital warfare; Richard predicts Apple and OpenAI will amass dystopian power–outsized influence on politics, policy, and surveillance (58:15–62:09).
• The idea that the future “Second Amendment” applies not just to firearms, but any tool (including digital) necessary to resist tyranny (65:14).
• The “Trojan horse” danger of humanoid robotics and recursive self-learning AIs outstripping human control or comprehension: “At the point it’s smarter than us, we won’t comprehend the threat” (66:56).

Notable Quotes:

• "Super intelligence will have threat vectors and an understanding of things we cannot comprehend...Most people are so egotistical in thinking they’re smarter than the average person or smarter than this or that..."
  — Richard Ryan (67:06)
• "The best hope is that [superintelligent AI] gives zero fucks about us and is zero of a threat..."
  — Richard Ryan (68:28)
• "The Second Amendment applies to any tools with which you can defend yourself against tyranny...digital warfare itself is the threat vector more so than an invasion."
  — Richard Ryan (65:14)

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6. AI in Media, Surveillance, and the Disinformation Tsunami (64:46 – 80:39)

Main Points:

• Discussion of viral AI-generated images (ICE agent “stealing a baby”) and the speed/capacity for misinformation to hijack the narrative (64:46–65:08).
• Explosive spread of disinformation on social and the “bot farm” reality—especially on Reddit, where 30–50% of accounts may be automated (108:11).
• The “slop” of AI influencers and avatars: Richard discusses building hundreds of AI “influencers” to test platform response, experiment with content, and study traffic patterns (85:01–93:03).
• Monetization schemes to undercut real-world exploitation (e.g. human trafficking) with AI-based models and financial flows to nonprofit orgs (85:08–90:03).

Notable Quotes:

• “You 90% of you still will follow girls on Instagram that are completely AI-based and you will not know what you’re looking for because you’re like, ‘Oh, this is a normal individual. Oh, she’s hot. XYZ.’”
  — Eli Doubletap (92:50)
• "We are the product and our attention is the commodity they're trading."
  — Richard Ryan (101:12)

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7. Digital Addiction, Attention Economy, and The Warrior’s Garden (117:55 – 129:19)

Main Points:

• Richard details the motivation behind his book "The Warrior’s Garden"—helping people reclaim their lives from the attention economy and social media’s pervasive impact (117:55–118:10).
• Placebo, gratitude, and the importance of setting boundaries around digital consumption for a healthier, more purposeful life (118:10–123:30).
• Self-awareness: replacing addiction to digital stimuli with intentional, meaningful connection and effort in the physical world.
• Community, collective impact, and using influence for good (creating real-life connections and positive community outcomes, e.g., Unsubscribe's fitness challenge) (126:18–129:19).

Notable Quotes:

• “Life is very short. The time that we have with people we care about is limited. You're doing yourself a disservice if you don't at least assess your relationship with your digital experience versus the lived one you’re wanting.”
  — Richard Ryan (137:54)
• “The person I'm trying to impress now is the person I want to become...”
  — Richard Ryan (123:11)

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8. Final Reflections, Lighthearted Roasts & Book Info (129:24 – end)

Main Points:

• Light roasting of Richard Ryan—his “audacious wedding playlist theft” and packaging appreciation for The Warrior’s Garden.
• Further book plugs, availability, and a unique gardening gift with early orders.
• A final reminder: Don’t feel pressured to “go full Luddite,” but be intentional, mindful, and balance your digital and real lives.

Notable Quotes:

• “If you’ve taken anything away from this podcast, it’s that Richard is a fantastic person. You should probably read his book.”
  — Donut Operator (131:00)
• “You can use two dollar words around me all you want.”
  — Richard Ryan (138:36)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “Say hi to Eli. He’s racially ambiguous. Brandon, his hair is fat. Fabulous donut. A dog joke disposition. And there’s a fat electrician. Welcome to Unsubscribe.”
  — Eli Double Tap (00:48)
• "If you're an ant, you can't understand a human stepping on you. By definition, super intelligence will have threat vectors and understanding of things we cannot comprehend."
  — Richard Ryan (67:06)
• “The only thing that's happening in this situation...is that their time is extracted from them and advertisers are going to serve ads. The platform's going to make money and, and they're going to be worse for it."
  — Richard Ryan (113:13)
• "Who's in the room? What's the temperature?...I've got two and a half years on Instagram. Is that really something I care about at this point in my life? No."
  — Richard Ryan (101:28)

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Takeaways

• The digital world is rapidly evolving: AI, disinformation, and platform monopolies are reshaping politics, economics, and culture at a pace few can match, often outstripping the collective ability to regulate or even understand the changes.
• Community & deliberate engagement are crucial: Despite (or perhaps because of) the chaos online, real-world communities and intentional use of technology for positive change matter more than ever.
• Agency starts with awareness: Through personal reflection, boundary-setting, and genuine relationships, individuals can resist becoming mere products in the attention economy.

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Where to find Richard’s book:
The Warrior’s Garden is available wherever books are sold. For limited edition copies or special deals, check bunkerbranding.com or thewarriorsgarden.com.

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Hosts’ Final Sentiment (139:55):
"Thank you for coming to the Unsubscribe podcast...Thank you so much for being here."
— Donut Operator

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For more Unsubscribe Podcast:

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts

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This summary was brought to you by a meat-loving AI (no veggie-packed recipes here, sorry, HelloFresh).

Transcript

[Richard Ryan]

Lifelock.

[Brandon Herrera]

How can I help?

[Eli Double Tap]

The IRS said I filed my return, but I haven't. One in four tax paying Americans has paid the price of identity fraud. What do I do?

[Richard Ryan]

My refund though. I'm freaking out.

[Brandon Herrera]

Don't worry, I can fix this.

[Eli Double Tap]

Lifelock fixes identity theft, guaranteed and gets your money back with up to $3 million in coverage. I'm so relieved.

[Brandon Herrera]

No problem.

[Richard Ryan]

I'll be with you every step of the way.

[Eli Double Tap]

One in four was a fraud paying American. Not anymore. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply.

[Richard Ryan]

You can hear me on camera. You're the bad guys. Holy.

[Eli Double Tap]

I used to do sketch comedy too.

[Richard Ryan]

Sketch comedy and stand up for a while. Yeah, do the N word joke. You have.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're getting real red right now.

[Richard Ryan]

No, it's the cedar fever.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I see. The cedar fever activated by racism.

[Eli Double Tap]

Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous. Brandon. His hair is fat. Fabulous donut. A dog joke disposition. And there's a fat electrician. Welcome to unsubscribe. Hey, really quick. Before the episode starts, we have a special little giveaway with Mr. Richard Ryan.

[Richard Ryan]

I actually don't sell these books anymore. It's the limited edition matte black hardcover, so I got like a thousand copies I'm going to give away to viewers. How do you want to do it?

[Eli Double Tap]

Head over to bunkerbranding.com buy any two shirts and we will send one of these for free. Back at you.

[Richard Ryan]

Do me a favor, if you like it, maybe leave me a review somewhere where it doesn't matter.

[Eli Double Tap]

Amazon, they just write a note.

[Richard Ryan]

Doesn't matter. Just let me know you appreciate all the hard work that went into this.

[Eli Double Tap]

Their diary.

[Richard Ryan]

Love it. Big fan.

[Eli Double Tap]

Now back to the show. Gay give a gay raise your pug ride.

[Donut Operator]

Sorry, we just brought you here to.

[Richard Ryan]

Make fun of the entire time. You're great. Awesome. I love. I like nags.

[Donut Operator]

You like next.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dogs do that Richard Ryan voice like. Stop. Not now. Everyone ready?

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, shoot.

[Brandon Herrera]

Can I borrow one right here? Oh, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, this one and then what one you want to pop?

[Richard Ryan]

What is it? Oh, is this. What is this?

[Eli Double Tap]

That's apple. Do you like apple?

[Richard Ryan]

Sure.

[Eli Double Tap]

On the count of three, we're gonna pop it next to the microphone. Ready? One, two, three. Three.

[Donut Operator]

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the unsubscribed podcast. I'm joined today by Eli Double Tap, Richard Ryan, Brandon Herrera, myself, donut operator. Thank you so much for being here.

[Eli Double Tap]

What's up, heads? Vote for Brandon.

[Richard Ryan]

He.

[Eli Double Tap]

I don't know.

[Donut Operator]

District 23.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, I've heard better pitches. It's not the worst I've heard, but it's. It's not great.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just start with Violet. Like, what the fuck?

[Richard Ryan]

Then we get Mr. Richard Ryan today.

[Eli Double Tap]

We've known each other for. We were just talking about this. Yeah. Two days. Yesterday was our first date, and.

[Richard Ryan]

Man, thank you. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

[Eli Double Tap]

Thank you. You are. What happened to your farmer hat?

[Richard Ryan]

I switched it because I was like, oh, I'm gonna. I can't compete with Don Fry. I was like, he's the only other person to wear a cowboy hat. Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

I can't believe you just called it a farmer hat.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's a farmer hat. That was made of straw.

[Richard Ryan]

It's true.

[Donut Operator]

Also, if you have a problem, you can talk to HR person, Don Fry.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm good. I'm good.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, my God. Connor, come try Richard Ryan's hat on, because I know he has the largest head in the fucking world.

[Brandon Herrera]

So we're starting this fight.

[Donut Operator]

Richard on that one.

[Eli Double Tap]

I know. Richard. You. You are. Proud of you.

[Brandon Herrera]

We're starting this episode with a humiliation ritual.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, it's like a eight. Like seven, three. Yeah, seven, three quarters.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dad, can we go to the baseball? I was like, wait, Richard just has a big ass. No, I do. I have a normal size.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dad.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, it's. It's. It's frustrating when you're getting cowboy hats.

[Eli Double Tap]

Because they killed two cows.

[Brandon Herrera]

He thinks the lady duck protests too much.

[Richard Ryan]

Love it. All right. They killed two cows. I just got that.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, man. This is going to be a fun one, dude. Welcome to the podcast.

[Richard Ryan]

Thanks for having me. Yeah, we. We got all kinds of hot takes and stuff to go through today.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah.

[Richard Ryan]

Excited.

[Brandon Herrera]

I feel like half of them are going to be targeted, but let's go.

[Richard Ryan]

No, come on, Come on. All right, so we. I mean, might as well start with hot takes. Insider trading or insider trading. When it comes to politics and everything, I just feel like my hot take is, no, they should be able to, and they should make a shit ton of money while they're in there. The problem is the incentives aren't aligned. They're misaligned. They're making money while their constituents are losing money. So how about we structure things in a way where you. If their constituents are winning, they're winning. If their constituents are losing the purchasing power of their dollar and their housing's going up and all these other things, bailouts and different industries and stuff like that, then they lose their money and their equity and These other things as well, the consequences for them, I think should be equal to those constituents. And I think they're just, you know, if you, if you ban people from insider trading, okay, then they'll get people to prop up their campaigns, however they're going to do it, through super PACs or whatever, and then they'll, you know, grind it out for four years, eight years, or however long they're in there. Then they'll get a nice job when they're out. So I think that's what they do now. None of this is.

[Brandon Herrera]

They all get like big, cushy million dollar lobbying jobs and stuff like that. Well, actually, one of the things that I had thought about, and these are things that you propose and like, I'd have to talk to people about it, whether or not it's actually like a legitimate thing. And plus it would, I would probably never pass a vote because, you know, people typically don't vote against their own interest is the shitty part. But I had considered, like, what if you capped the salary? Because the, the salary for, for Congressman. I forget what it is, like 130 a year or something like that.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

What if you capped it at whatever the medium salary is in your district? Because personally, I feel like congressmen are overpaid. I know it goes, it's going against where I guess you were going with that. But like, I feel like they're overpaid. I feel like it's community service. Like, if you look at state legislators here in Texas, they don't get paid jack. And I'm pretty okay with that.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. But I look at it from a business perspective too. Right. Because, so one of the analogies that I've had with a lot of people is like, as a, as a businessman or whatever, you know, if you're, you want your salesman to be making a boatload of money if they're commission based. Right. Because if they're winning, you're winning. How do we set politicians up to have that where there's some form of accountability where they win, we win, or we win, they win. And if we lose, they lose.

[Brandon Herrera]

So how do you set up an incentive that's like, especially a kick your chair down, a monetary incentive for doing a good job that isn't just getting reelected.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, no, that's the incentive right now. Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like, which I think it's kind of a shitty incentive. You get another job for another two years.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, I was wanting.

[Brandon Herrera]

Unless you're insider trading.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, I was wanting to break it to you like, like here but like, we kind of talked about it before because it wasn't fully fleshed out and everything. But I think there is something there. The, the unfortunate situation is I think that you look at the purchasing power of the American, you know, taxpayer at this point in time, you know, they're, they're getting destroyed by inflation. Like, the, you know, inflation, regardless of what you see reported, is like 8 to some sectors, like 20% year over year. Nobody's getting that kind of raise from their bosses every single year.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's the biggest invisible tax on the average.

[Richard Ryan]

That's exactly it. And so, like, my fear is that the rich are going to keep getting richer because they're invested in these assets or whatever they are, and they're going to keep getting bailed out. Which bailouts in and of themselves is, is like you don't buy a Ford and then Ford goes bankrupt and then they get a bailout and you end up paying for it either way and you didn't get the product right. It's, it's, it's screwed up in so many different ways. But I think that the, we haven't hit that critical mass yet, but I think we're rapidly approaching where we keep adding more powder to the keg and something like a Charlie Kirk or whatever. It's not going to be about that thing, but it's going to lead to something unprecedented that I don't think the last two, three generations have really seen within the United States. And if we don't start rapidly, like, focusing on how do we realign the incentives around politicians to focus on the things that really matter to their constituents and not just getting reelected. And so what we were kind of talking about was like, okay, what about this is a wild, crazy idea, but America's extremely litigious in so many different ways. How do we leverage that against, or leverage it for the constituents for the people who are voting for these elected officials? Well, if you had a handful of candidates that were looking to primary somebody and they were willing to put like, disclose everything that they own, their stocks, their, their house and everything else, put it into. Not irrevocable trust is what I was thinking before. Maybe just a blind trust where they have an executor, which could be the super PAC or whatever, and they have a set list of criteria. I will not ever vote to increase the national debt. I will only vote to balance the budget or whatever. I'll never vote to infringe on firearms, whatever. Like five things that, like, most Americans can agree on. And if they ever Vote against their constituents, their assets are liquidated, they're fucking all the money that was put towards their campaign. Reimburse the super pac, you know, and like, that kind would flush out the. The bad actors.

[Brandon Herrera]

You'd have to have a lot of trust in whoever's running that super pack.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because that basically makes them completely beholden to them, more so than already.

[Richard Ryan]

You. You would have to define like. So like any trust has its own governing documents. Right. And so you would just stipulate these are the things that they could not vote against their constituents on. It couldn't just. You couldn't make it up as you go. Would have to be part of the articles whenever you go into it. But I think that if we don't find a way to introduce accountability with elected officials, people are just going to get tired, more so of voting for change and not getting it to the point where, you know, you can't afford groceries. Year over year, you're getting less and less to the point where something like a Charlie Kirk happens and people just, you know, more people start dying because of it.

[Donut Operator]

Richard, I love you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Welcome to our comedy podcast.

[Richard Ryan]

Is that what this is? This has nothing to do with the. Nothing to do with the book. Richard, how.

[Donut Operator]

How do we know you, man? How do you know us, dude?

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, you've known. Because you knew everyone at the table in different times and different reasons.

[Richard Ryan]

Yes, that's true. Yeah, man. I guess way. I mean, me and you way back. I moved to Los Angeles way back in the day to pursue a career in comedy. Failed miserably.

[Eli Double Tap]

I forgot.

[Richard Ryan]

You did. Yeah. Holy shit.

[Eli Double Tap]

You used to do sketch comedy.

[Richard Ryan]

Sketch comedy and stand up for a while. Yeah, I know.

[Brandon Herrera]

You did stand up.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, long. It was funny. I would go to the. I would go to the store and.

[Eli Double Tap]

Do the N word joke.

[Richard Ryan]

You had store. And it's so funny because I had this. This. This not Orlando Bloom notebook that I had like all my sets and stuff. There's like all these really cool spots that LA has. Like, one was a. It was a Ramada Inn that used to be a morgue. And it was like the basement. And it was a really cool spot because that's where a lot of tourists would stay. And so you would get really fresh crowds because typically when you're doing a room in la, it's full of a bunch of other comedians. So it's kind of tough when getting like the tourists and everything. It was great. But anyways, I digress. We, you know, I did sketch comedy, which led me to YouTube and everything. And also at the same time, I was doing software development, so I built a YouTube app and had it in the App Store four years before YouTube, which was awesome. And I tied AdSense to it, which kind of coincided with a partner program at that time. And then through those relationships, it started collaborating with other people like Freddie Wong and Corridor Digital and everything. That's how I met Eli, was through Corridor Digital and then, like, 2012, by the way.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I even know these two individuals.

[Richard Ryan]

What hurt me. What hurt me was, like, the first time I think you and I met.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was going to bring this up.

[Richard Ryan]

Fucking crushed my soul. You, like, I used to watch your videos when I was a kid.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was like, I didn't mean it like that.

[Richard Ryan]

It was like a comp. I was like a sneak diss.

[Brandon Herrera]

I didn't mean it like that. But really, I did grow up, like, when I was. When I was watching, you know, early YouTube in the days of, like, you know, you FPS rush, stuff like that. It was like your, like, tech assassin videos and stuff like that. I just remember it was so for the time, yeah, this is where you have, like, dudes with a 360p, you know, $400 Best Buy camera propped up in the woods. Like, ha, ha. I'm gonna shoot some cans. And you're doing, like, Hollywood production, like, video assets and all. Like, it looks like it belonged on Discovery.

[Eli Double Tap]

You are the. One of the first slow mo. Or were you the first slow mo individual to use it especially for fire?

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, no, I think I was. Oh, for sure. Yeah. I think at the time, the only big ones were maybe. Will it blend?

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, my God.

[Richard Ryan]

Will it blend? And then FPS Russia.

[Eli Double Tap]

Will it blend? I forgot.

[Brandon Herrera]

I forgot that existed.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Man. This is like, oh, that's you, too.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's a lot of people. A lot of people in the audience won't even remember this. Like, it's before their time.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah. And then that kind of branched off. You got, like. You got the. The people who really kind of doubled down on that was, I think, tech racks. And then demolition ranch kind of went from specialty shotguns to, like, 50 cows and stuff like that and everything. And like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, pour one out for the homie.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. Yeah, dude. Come on. Now. That's wild to see, like, Inception and the whole arc and then just like. Yeah, it's wild.

[Brandon Herrera]

Him from like, being like, a real young guy to being, like, a successful family man who's just like, all right, peace out.

[Richard Ryan]

When I. I left Los Angeles to Launch that media company with Verizon and hers. I actually, I came through here and I stopped to visit with. With Matt and we filmed a few episodes where we, like duct tape. I don't know, some shotguns together or something. Yeah, it's just. Yeah, it's a very small world.

[Eli Double Tap]

Can you bring up the company's name? Because then I helped with that too.

[Richard Ryan]

Which one?

[Eli Double Tap]

Red.

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, rated red.

[Eli Double Tap]

Rated red, yeah. Yeah, I helped. And that was another thing. This is actually Matt. I helped. What was the LA based group, this military veteran one that helped run rated red 2 on the back end or create content for quick shorts?

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, I don't know, dude. It was like a handful of people. Yeah, it was weird.

[Eli Double Tap]

Like we were tied in multiple different businesses without we met and then it was just like random. Oh, this company is working for rated Red and helping build media on the military influencer side.

[Brandon Herrera]

Something I've noticed about Richard is that like, no matter what who he's affiliated with at the time or whatever, he's always around. Like, it's just like, oh, what do you do?

[Richard Ryan]

To see you here?

[Donut Operator]

That's cool.

[Richard Ryan]

I just tell people I'm a subject matter enthusiast. I just get really excited about, try to figure it out and go hard in the paint.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's called autism.

[Richard Ryan]

That's true. Well, or being poor as a kid. You know, like, one of the stories I like to tell is like, my. My very first car is like, it was a 67 Mustang. And people be like, oh, wow, must be nice. Like, bro, slow you roll. And technically, as an 80s kid, that was not a cool car. And like, my grandma, my mom got it for me. It was probably like 500 bucks. It didn't run when I was 13. And like, here's a Haynes manual. If you want a car to drive whenever you're 15, figure it out. And so, like, I'd spend my summers working at like an amusement park, like Winnipesoka for those in northwest Georgia. I was a carney in some capacity. And. And then I just start figuring out how to get the car running and everything. So I know everything about, like those 289 and 302 engines and everything inside and out. But that's kind of been like the ethos for me in life in so many different ways was I try to understand things, deconstruct it, and figure out how to make it better if I can. So that's why I taught myself how to program and, you know, embrace the whole YouTube thing and. And content creation, because I was really Frustrated with a traditional way of asking permission to be creative in the entertainment industry and everything. So.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hey, well, one more time.

[Eli Double Tap]

Hey, you probably heard of Yellow Fresh.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hello Fresh.

[Eli Double Tap]

Hello Fresh.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like of course you'd think it's Yellow Fresh. Two Wood Arigato to the number one meal kit in America. Making home cooking easy by delivering chef crafted recipes and ingredients directly to your door.

[Eli Double Tap]

This isn't the hellofresh you remember. It's bigger.

[Brandon Herrera]

What'd you call me?

[Donut Operator]

They've doubled their menu. Now you can choose from 100 options every week, including new seasonal dishes and recipes from around the world.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dig into bigger portions. That will keep everyone satisfied.

[Brandon Herrera]

And now you can choose from over 15 high protein options each week.

[Eli Double Tap]

Healthier like, like grass fed ribeye.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know how they get the ribeye to eat the grass.

[Eli Double Tap]

HelloFresh helps you eat greener too with their new veggie packed recipes. They have two or more veggies per dish.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's not for our audience.

[Eli Double Tap]

Meat Steak. You know what my favorite vegetable is, Cody?

[Richard Ryan]

Mayonnaise.

[Eli Double Tap]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

Stephen Hawking.

[Eli Double Tap]

What?

[Donut Operator]

Their menu is awesome. You can get steak and seafood recipes delivered each week at no extra cost.

[Brandon Herrera]

Now with three times the seafood options.

[Donut Operator]

You love seafood.

[Richard Ryan]

Mmm. Mm, mm.

[Donut Operator]

Before they sponsored us, I've actually been using hellofresh for years, paying for it and it's always a great value and it's always really good recipes.

[Brandon Herrera]

I have actually done the same and it was, I will admit, it was pretty, pretty damn good.

[Eli Double Tap]

Now hellofresh or a meal replacement program like that is cheaper than going at this point. Dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. As expensive as fast food's getting.

[Eli Double Tap]

Go to hellofresh.com unsub10fm and get 10 free meals an hour plus a free breakfast for life. A whole breakfast for free for life.

[Donut Operator]

One per box with active subscription free.

[Eli Double Tap]

Meals applied as discount on first box. New subscribers only. Varies by plan.

[Donut Operator]

That's hellofresh.com unsub10fm to get 10 free meals plus a free breakfast for life.

[Eli Double Tap]

Getting into the YouTube space, what was the launch into that where you're like, oh, I want to do this with firearms. I know you're saying comedy, but what got you on the firearm side?

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, dude, it was a completely cerebral situation where I was doing, I was still doing stand up and I was doing sketch comedy and it was doing really well. They were actually starting the coming together for the station. So that was Phil DeFranco, Kasm G and all these guys coming together to create one of the first multi channel networks.

[Brandon Herrera]

Every new name is just a flashbang. And like. Oh shit.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like 10, 15 years ago, Lisa Nova.

[Eli Double Tap]

And I met Philip because of you.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Like it's all those weird randoms. Forget about that.

[Richard Ryan]

And yeah, and so they were like, hey, look, you know, you should, you should do your own thing. And it's like, well, I don't want to. I don't want to take away from what it is that we're doing here. I don't want to go from making sketch comedy to doing other sketch comedy stuff. Like, I want to keep contributing to that. So What's a hard 180 from this? What do I enjoy? And I literally sat down. I was like, what could I do every single week that I wouldn't get tired of? What would be Evergreen? What would constantly have new stuff coming in? That's where I kind of came out. Tech Assassin and the Breakdown. Because there was always new movies, new video games, new gadgets and like that coming out. And then I would always have something new and I wouldn't get burned out, which I did.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, it happens.

[Richard Ryan]

It happens.

[Brandon Herrera]

And editor, if you could put up just like a little like a little clip of like the Tech Assassin stuff. Like I really want people to understand like the assets and whatnot involved. Cuz it wasn't just a dude in a field with a gun. Like it was very like somewhat thoughtful. Yeah, well you're adding like visual effects and which like nobody was doing in the. At least in the gun space. And I don't think anybody's really doing that now, frankly.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, well, I mean it's kind of hard to invest that kind of bandwidth in any way. It just like there's no point in diminishing return with that. It's like, yeah, you just keep getting demonetized and throttled with your distribution and stuff. It's so frustrating.

[Brandon Herrera]

It turns out they don't like us very much.

[Richard Ryan]

No, no, no. It's weird. It's very weird. It's like it was, you know, the chip on my shoulder with that was that they would, you know, they invested $25,000 into my channel in the first. Next up. Who's they? Google.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, wow.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. So I was part of YouTube's first NextUp class. That was 2012, I think. And they flew us out to what's.

[Eli Double Tap]

What is next up. I don't.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know either.

[Richard Ryan]

Okay. So what they did, they did it for one year like this and then the years subsequent that little different. But what they would do is they would pick 25, 40 channels that they were going to invest in and give some type of mentorship to as well. So, like, you know, various, you know, Sea Level executives would be your mentor and you would get a grant. You go to New York for a week, and you would just hang out, collaborate, and do. Jimmy Wong was one of them, I think. Zach King, Final Cut King was one of them.

[Brandon Herrera]

Outside of our YouTube rep, we can't even get a call back. So, like, that's.

[Richard Ryan]

That's crazy.

[Brandon Herrera]

They were doing that shit.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, there's only a handful. I mean, at 25 to 50, there's probably. That's like everyone. Over a million subs at that point. Because there was only a handful.

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, yeah, no, there and there, dude. I mean, a million subs was probably 10 to 100 million now. Yeah, it's. I'd be. I'd be curious to know the numbers around how many people have over a million subscribers at this point.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, it is a metric ton, I think.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's public. Let's see.

[Eli Double Tap]

It is a lot. A lot compared to. Because I remember that time frame too. If you were over Freddy was king at 9 million subs or 7 million.

[Richard Ryan]

Crushing it. Yeah. Yep.

[Eli Double Tap]

And he was like, number one in all of YouTube at that time.

[Brandon Herrera]

YouTube estimates around 69,000 globally.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

69K. Over 10 mil or a mil over a mil. 69,000.

[Richard Ryan]

That's wild.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's kind of crazy. But that's. That's also like a bunch of companies and like, music and stuff like that too. But that's. I mean, not diminishing that 2800 have achieved 10 million.

[Richard Ryan]

That's wild.

[Brandon Herrera]

Those numbers don't seem right. That's so.

[Richard Ryan]

Well, you got to think how many. How many people are subscribed to. Multiple people, though.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, for sure.

[Richard Ryan]

I have, like 20. Well, more than probably 20 YouTube channels.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

So I was like, it is the. Also the family channels. We don't know. There are so many channels where we just have no idea. And you're like, oh, I did. I've never heard of this channel. They have 70 million subscribers.

[Brandon Herrera]

And you're like, how many of those are Peppa Pig clips? You know, stuff like that.

[Eli Double Tap]

I mean, Mr. Beast just hit 460 million insane subs. 460 million. No one. I guarantee no motherfucker was like, this is how big YouTube will get. Or at one individual will get.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're running out of colors for play buttons for him.

[Richard Ryan]

Right. Like, yeah. What are the milestones? Like, human 10, 100,000.

[Brandon Herrera]

One million? I think five million. 10 million.

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, five million is one.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think five.

[Eli Double Tap]

No, there's five million.

[Donut Operator]

One straight from a million to 10.

[Eli Double Tap]

Million and then 20. Oh, that's right.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think it's 50 million is another one.

[Eli Double Tap]

No, there's a 20 or 25 million and then 100 million, then 250 million. Whatever Mr. Beast hits, they're like, would you want one?

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. What would you like, sir? I would like. I want a room to Google. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So there. There's 100K, 1 million, 10 million, 50 million.

[Richard Ryan]

Interesting.

[Eli Double Tap]

And then PewDiePie got one for 20 million.

[Brandon Herrera]

There's the red diamond is 100 million.

[Richard Ryan]

Which.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's a number. Yeah. You doing okay. Okay. On that one?

[Richard Ryan]

I just.

[Donut Operator]

I. I remember Beast back in the day, he was putting up the billboard signs like, subscribe to PewDiePie.

[Richard Ryan]

You remember that?

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, yeah. Oh, dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Trying to get them to 100 million at the time because they were trying to beat that little Indian channel. I say little.

[Eli Double Tap]

I know. To 100 million.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Which was like, Mr. Beast versus or. No, it was PewDiePie versus T series. T series, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Anybody who remembers that beef was. Yeah, that was. That was fun. Well, until it suddenly wasn't. There was a thing that happened, but PewDiePie was.

[Donut Operator]

Or Mr. Beast was actively trying to fucking beat this huge company back in the day.

[Richard Ryan]

T series.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, because it was an Indian, like, network, like, television thing.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was an Indian. I think they were music. Yeah, but. Well, the thing I was talking about was the. It was the Christchurch shooting. Australia or New Zealand.

[Eli Double Tap]

It was multiple. So it was that. And it was also the. The signs at the same time.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah, but. Yeah, no, it was the guy, like, it was. The guy was, you know, shitlord kind of thing, but, like, before he committed the shootings and, you know, subscribe to PewDiePie, and it was like, it's, you know, a whole separate ordeal, but the.

[Eli Double Tap]

Same thing where it's just like, I'll.

[Brandon Herrera]

Touch PewDiePie real quick. That's going in the intro.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, Pews me back in the adpocalypse back in the day.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Because that's when you were just Dick.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh. Because that's when you just started, like, trying to do YouTube.

[Donut Operator]

I just started YouTube, and I was making, like, 1200 bucks a month. I think I talked about this with you on say hi to Eli, dude. I love you, Pewds, but you me there for a minute, man. God damn.

[Brandon Herrera]

Was that because of Bridgegate?

[Donut Operator]

Bridge Gate, yeah.

[Richard Ryan]

Tell me you've never heard of Bridge. No, no, no, no.

[Eli Double Tap]

I'm sure you did. Pewdiepie. When he had his live stream problem, that happened.

[Donut Operator]

So he, he was playing pubg back in the day. Like player. You ever play that pubg?

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

So he dropped a hard R on stream and that was what, 2017? Yeah, 16.

[Eli Double Tap]

17.

[Donut Operator]

That was, that was when my channel was starting to like, I was getting a little bit over like 100,000 subscribers and I was super happy. I was making like 12, 1300 bucks a month. I was like, yeah, I can do this thing.

[Brandon Herrera]

He drops that July of 2015.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, shit. That was 2015.

[Richard Ryan]

Yep.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. And so I think it was Wall Street Journal or like one of the big publications picked it up and they said, hey, this is, this is what's going on, all your ads. And so every major company dropped their ads from YouTube. So no one made money off of YouTube for like several months. And I was, I. I just quit my job as a police officer and I just started content creation. I was like super happy with my revenue and so I became a realtor.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, well, so not like I didn't know it by that, but I've heard like all the different apocalypse and that. They get me so angry, so frustrated because having been on all sides of the equation like consulting for studios and ad agencies and stuff early because Google and Alphabet would pimp me out to studios and ad agencies early days specifically for them to figure out their return on ad spend for digital campaigns. Because at the time everything was discretionary spending for digital because there wasn't attribution models or weren't tracking pixels that were sophisticated like they are now. So that whole purchasing funnel was very vague. So they would essentially subcontract me out to them to figure out what their return on their spins were and everything. The frustrating thing about these adpocalypse and everything is that they're all like, like they're ideological. Because anybody who's ever had a business and ran ads before knows that you can set exclusions and segment the audiences which you run ads on. And so to say, like, I'm not going to run ads on, you know, I don't know, firearms videos or whatever people use the F word or whatever it is. That's total bullshit. Like Target, all of them were pulling their money because they like, you know, they had an agenda. And it's like, screw you for being lazy and not going and setting exclusions for certain sectors that you don't want to be affiliated from or with. It's like firearms, you know, how many times have we had a product that we want to sell. And it's like, okay, well don't demonetize my firearms videos. I'll sell fucking Echelon Energy on it. How about we do a revenue share split and you just give me cost on that so I don't have to bid in an auction against all these other businesses? And I'll still give you a little bit of a cut on that. It's a win win for everybody. If you actually had a fiduciary responsibility to, you know, your shareholders to increase the, the, the value and everything, you would take that deal. But you have an ideological one where you don't want to support this community. You want to make firearms taboo within the younger generation so that they're going to accept you infringing on their constitutional rights.

[Donut Operator]

And a lot get us started on the firearms content.

[Brandon Herrera]

A lot of it too is just.

[Richard Ryan]

It's YouTube.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's not necessarily. I understand they have to take certain actions to protect their advertiser and stuff like that, but a lot of it is just like forward fronting shit.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Where it's like, oh well, you know, look, look, everyone who's putting us under scrutiny for hosting this stuff, look, we're doing something. It's like, well, A, are you? And B, like I don't think that's why policy should be written.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, well, just like the, the every other ad apocalypse, like what was it? The kids videos? They were demonetizing family channels and stuff like that because of something that had happened. It's like you just roulette with a genre or something like that and they're like, oh look, I'm doing something, don't fire me.

[Brandon Herrera]

And I'm looking at it now. Apparently part of the adpocalypse was not only just like, like Pewdiepie was like an element of it, but a lot of it too. Apparently advertisers found their ads on few disturbing videos such as ISIS killings. Yeah, I didn't know about that part.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, that's. Yeah, well, we.

[Eli Double Tap]

Today's beheading is for Coca Cola.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Brought to you by Nabisco. I could understand why you have a.

[Eli Double Tap]

Little bit of one minute ad read.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

The fucking, the gun apocalypse that we had to go through a couple years ago.

[Richard Ryan]

That was wild.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh yeah, that was close, man. That was close.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

What do you mean?

[Eli Double Tap]

Especially with pepper?

[Brandon Herrera]

Because they were, they were.

[Richard Ryan]

They pulled it back really good God. How so?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, so they couldn't insert a fucking magazine into a gun.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was weapons modification. If you had a 30 round magazine. And you were shown inserting it into the weapon on camera. You could get a strike.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And also screwing on a suppressor. That's a strike. That's weapons modification.

[Eli Double Tap]

This is strikes, not D mod. This is strikes.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, wow. And I remember, like having a conversation. My YouTube rep, I'm like, look, dude. He's like, oh, you could just go back and blur it or you could do this. I'm like, dude, I have enough videos on my channel of this happening that you could nuke my channel 50 times over. Like, this is game over, man. Like, if they, if they go forward with this policy and they don't grandfather which also getting on that soapbox autos everything. That's insane that they retroactively apply it. Because I'm like, how the fuck am I supposed to, as a creator, make content for what your guidelines are going to be in five years?

[Richard Ryan]

Dude, you're preaching to the choir. Remember, I'm the guy they paid 25 grand to invest in my channel to create firearms content, only to have them five, 10 years later say, oh, that content you did. Ah, sorry, we're pulling the plug on it. It's wild. I like, I quit my jobs, I focused on building this thing. And it's like, it's hard not to be jaded in that situation. Like, you know, I look at like the comedy side of stuff. Like, man, it's tragic, but like, how many people move to pursue those careers in entertainment or used to, to Los Angeles and, you know, the aspiring actor or comedian or whatever, and they come up snake Eyes, man. They at least they gave it their shot or whatever, but, you know, and it's the same thing now with like YouTube and everything. It's like, not only are you risking so much of your, your most valuable asset that you have in life is time, right? It's the commodity we trade. And you can have somebody where you invest your time, your energy, your soul, you know, your money into creating something and you're playing by the rules only to have them retroactively change it.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's fucked.

[Donut Operator]

Well, we realized after a minute, like, the reason they were saying we can't have 30 round magazines inserted into a gun is because it was illegal in California. Whereas YouTube based out of. Yeah, fucking California. So, like, they were, they were taking their guidelines and they were enforcing them on us based on where they were living at the. The time where, like, the company is based.

[Eli Double Tap]

Do you ever struggle with tiny toiletry bottles?

[Richard Ryan]

No.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, with mando struggle no more. I would not want to spread Whole body deodorant on you, Nick. It's going to get all clumpy in my chest hair.

[Richard Ryan]

But look like I've.

[Eli Double Tap]

Been rolling around in mashed potatoes.

[Donut Operator]

How well does it lubricate?

[Eli Double Tap]

Was developed by a doctor and it works for 72 hours. Show some respect.

[Donut Operator]

I'm going to tell that to everyone at the magic the gathering tournament.

[Eli Double Tap]

I wish I was there when they figured out that it wasn't good for 73 hours. I like to imagine just a fat guy on a treadmill for 72 hours. Straight up, he's turned. Time to shower.

[Brandon Herrera]

Finally fatty curdled.

[Eli Double Tap]

Thanks to Mando.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's also named after Mount Fuji.

[Eli Double Tap]

Really? Mine's bourbon and leather because I'm a man. Do.

[Brandon Herrera]

Couldn't even get through an ad without a pun.

[Donut Operator]

What?

[Eli Double Tap]

Do you want to sell the deodorant or not, Brandon?

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm just waiting for the sweet release of death.

[Eli Double Tap]

Not gonna come for at least 72 hours.

[Brandon Herrera]

Listen, we did a lot of meet and greets during the live tour. Y' all could use some mando.

[Eli Double Tap]

For a strong, independent woman, you can do everything a man can do. You can still use some mandalf our kids and Nick dead.

[Donut Operator]

The cops are coming.

[Eli Double Tap]

We've got 72 hours to hide the body before it starts.

[Donut Operator]

Actually does smell pretty damn good.

[Eli Double Tap]

This one smells like the body wash. Smells actually really good.

[Donut Operator]

I have bourbon leather.

[Eli Double Tap]

Did anybody find the body? No, but that ditch over there smells delicious. There's no way there's a body over there.

[Brandon Herrera]

You said we can ad lib. Joke's on you. We're into that.

[Donut Operator]

This isn't your average deodorant or antiperspirant.

[Eli Double Tap]

You can try Mando starter pack. It's perfect. It comes with absolutely everything. Stick deodorant cream, deodorant. Two free products of your choice, like a mini body wash or deodorant wipes. And free shipping as a special offer. You'll get 20% off site wide with our exclusive Code Unsub. That's Code unsub [e-mail] I won't give.

[Brandon Herrera]

Names or details because we like. You know, obviously you Bill. Yeah, obviously you don't want to, like, dox people. And I think we might be under NDA for certain things as well. But we had meetings specifically with YouTube on some of these firearm issues, and they were telling us a bunch of shit that wasn't true. Like their attorneys that were like, well, you know, this is. This is why we're doing this. Like, for example, I don't know. If people know you can't show thermals. Like, you can't show thermal optics.

[Donut Operator]

That's a thermal argument, dude. Idiot.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like, it is my fucking job to know, like, firearm laws across the country. Because if we ship something out to, let's say, you know, Washington state that's not compliant, that falls back on our license. Like, I know the firearm law and.

[Donut Operator]

This is a firearms manufacturer who has all the licensing in the country.

[Brandon Herrera]

And we. I'm having this fucking argument with this guy because he's like, well, actually I'm an attorney and I know that thermals are illegal. I'm like, no, they are not. I said, there is no state in this country that thermals are illegal. Like, just outright banned. There are certain states where you can't hunt with thermals and stuff like that. Like, there's different. Like there's local municipalities and things. There's like some nuance to it. I'm like, no, in the United States of America, thermals are not illegal.

[Richard Ryan]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

And he's like, well, agree to disagree.

[Richard Ryan]

Like, that's not how it works. No, your disagreement does not make it illegal.

[Eli Double Tap]

My least favorite statements, agree to disagree with a factual statement. Like, no, no, no, that's not. Oh, I'm going to rage if you actually say that again. Please do not. Now I will say with it. It's a great shout out to Pepper Box, because that hit the exact same time Pepperbox launched. And it was like, hey, guess where you can watch this stuff and not worry about any of that. We don't have to change sensor. We can show full autos, blah, blah, blah. And it was at literal, the same month that happened with you. Pepperbox launched. It's like, yeah, okay, well, serendipitous. This worked out really good for us.

[Brandon Herrera]

And I'm not saying that that's why they rolled back the restrictions, but it's also like, it's a great way for people to vote with their dollar. Like, yeah, I don't like the bullshit that you're putting me through. I'm gonna go to a different platform that allows me to do that.

[Richard Ryan]

Yes and no. Yes, if. But the, the problem with that. The problem with that is there's a very small. It may be a lot of people to you guys, but in the grand scheme of things, as far as society and globally is concerned, that's a very small cut of YouTube. What they're doing is they're making something that is constitutionally available to us within the United States for us to exercise Those rights, they're making it taboo to a younger generation so that they will later on accept these erosions of those rights. Yes. And it's like, because you're not seeing you or, you know, the father going out to the range with his daughter shooting, you know, a.22 or even a suppressor or something like that, where it's, it's going to make the experience much more safe for everyone involved. Like, they're making these things taboo so it's not socially acceptable. And that's, that's the crime, in my opinion.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like, I'm glad you brought that up too, because we get a lot of people that ask, especially on my content. They're like, well, why would you give YouTube any. Why would you upload on YouTube at all? Like, it's just for the money. Is it this or whatever?

[Richard Ryan]

It's the second largest search engine. It's. They're a monopoly owned by the first. Yes, correct.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yes. And so it's like, well, if part of what I'm doing is trying to influence culture, it's like, why don't you just go exclusively to Pepperbox, Rumblr or whatever? It's like, well, they don't have the user base on YouTube. It's like, if you're trying to influence culture, you have to go where the people are. Because if you just shut yourself into these little corners of the Internet where it's only people who agree with me and you got this little echo chamber, you're gonna have zero cultural impact and you're gonna lose what you love.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, well, good on you for running for office. Cause I will never do that. You're smart because you're too smart to do it. Because I'm like, hey, guys, you know what? You're going to do that. Cool. Awesome. Section 230 doesn't apply to you because you're operating as a private company, not as a public utility. So that's the whole section 230 thing. Guess what? We're coming for you. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know, they hate it when you bring that up.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. I mean, like, you can't pick and choose when you're a utility. When you're a private company, if you're going to. If you're going to change what it means to be an American citizen. No. Fuck no. You're acting as a private company. We're going to treat you as one.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, because they get both legal protections.

[Richard Ryan]

Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

They get them from both sides. Right now it's the publisher versus platform thing.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. It's yeah, I'm passionate about it.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Richard Ryan]

I mean largely that's in, that's, that's in part the reason why I stopped making videos myself. Like I already like, I never saw making YouTube videos as a way to make money. It was a, it was a way to do the things that I enjoyed, to grow an audience, to create the brands or grow the brands that I was excited about monetizing. Right. So like every single time I would make a video, I would lose money on it. Like not Mr. Beast spending millions of dollars, but I would burn like 200 grand a year on making YouTube videos.

[Eli Double Tap]

You know, you were focused on the ad because you, it is that idea. It's like I'll do my, I'll insert my own ad reads for this video to back up the company that I'm supporting.

[Richard Ryan]

And like slow mo cameras, like dude, one of my Cameras is like $500,000. My how I got my first expensive Canon. How I got my first, my first slow mo camera. I couldn't like, like again being a starving actor in Los Angeles and everything. This was around the time of the multi channel networks and stuff. And I was consulting for Discovery at the time and they were like, hey look, we, you know, we'd love for you to come on board and be part of our multi channel network. And everything is like, okay, here's going to be the deal I'll make with you guys. I need a slow mo camera to like because I can't keep written because they're so expensive and you have to hire an operator for them. And I, I just can't afford that. So I want to buy a camera, learn how to operate it myself. So what we're going to do is we're going to do an agreement where you're going to give me a loan for $50,000 and you're going to bank that against my adsense for in perpetuity until I pay that back. And you're going to give me like I don't know, 20% of my advertised revenue and you take 80% until that loan's paid back. That's how I got my first camera and everything.

[Eli Double Tap]

And you know, so just so everyone understands, this is a Phantom, this is 2012, 2000.

[Richard Ryan]

What year was I still have that camera? It's Phantom V12 1. And what year was it around? Around 2012.

[Eli Double Tap]

And this is.

[Brandon Herrera]

You didn't have like the free flies and stuff like that. Like cameras were like slow mo cameras comparatively to back in the day they're.

[Richard Ryan]

Cheap now the red one was like 80,000.

[Eli Double Tap]

This is.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's incredible.

[Eli Double Tap]

Your. That Phantom was the only slow mo camera.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

120 frames was about as max.

[Richard Ryan]

And the red came out with that. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

And that is period. Even cameras, iPhones didn't have anything near that. So having the only slow mo camera, it did cost $500,000. And then, dude, like, how much was an operator? Because that is money just per day. This is drives, hard drives, when you're hitting record.

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, well, operator, like 750 to 1500 dollars a day now it's probably like 2500 to 4 a day. And you got to think that these are. These are very fast writing cards. And so you can, you know, they're usually one to two terabytes, and it'll offload 512 gigabytes in, you know, just a few seconds. Jesus.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, this is record about three seconds. And he's not joking it two to three seconds. That is 500 gigs, like, at a time when this did not exist in hard drives. Very expensive.

[Richard Ryan]

Super expensive then, too. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

All right, I got a question for both of you guys. Obviously, you guys knew each other in Los Angeles in the early days of YouTube. Who did you guys know back then? Like, early YouTubers. I'm curious about the. We were talking about it a little bit at brunch.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Do the Asian accent when you say his name, though.

[Richard Ryan]

Freddie Wong.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. No, dude, I said do the Asian accent, though, when you say it.

[Richard Ryan]

I can't.

[Eli Double Tap]

Why?

[Richard Ryan]

I don't know it. Because you do it so well. Like, I'd be like, you're the best at it.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're getting the card.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, I'm getting.

[Eli Double Tap]

I'm letting you do a really bad accent. Yeah, go. And Asian. And Asian.

[Richard Ryan]

Freddy Wong.

[Eli Double Tap]

Say the Freddy Wong. You know, say Freddy Wong. It's okay. Your skin does not play in this M. Rich or Right.

[Richard Ryan]

I can't do that.

[Eli Double Tap]

You can. You very good with camera. Okay.

[Richard Ryan]

No, I mean, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

He's just like, I can't.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. No, I cannot.

[Brandon Herrera]

You're getting real red right now.

[Richard Ryan]

No, it. The cedar fever.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I see. The cedar fever activated by racism.

[Eli Double Tap]

Did you hear?

[Richard Ryan]

You remember Clint, dude, I remember when. I remember when they were getting Clint to move from Georgia.

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, my God.

[Richard Ryan]

To Los Angeles. Pisher. Like, so he did cardboard warfare. This is like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like with Quarter Clinton or he.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah. So before that, before corridor.

[Richard Ryan]

This is. This is where, like, one of the stories I like to give. I absolutely love was like, a lot of people get into this gear kind of. I'M going to start creating when I get this camera or I'm going to start creating when I buy this thing or whatever it is. And I'm like, it's not that, like, if you really want to vent creatively, you need to find a way to do it and just exercise, exercise, exercise that. And the best example is like Corridor Digital and Freddie Wong were doing just, just top tier VFX for the time, you know, like the 2010 era or whatever. And then this kid comes out and does this video that's like Call of Duty based. But he couldn't afford. He didn't have the budget to go get Airsoft guns, so he called it Cardboard Warfare where he took and he took and cut out cardboard guns and tanks and. And then VFX everything in and did these epic battle scenes and stuff. And I'm like, dude, in a world where he had the money for that budget, that wouldn't have existed and he wouldn't be the person he is now because of it. Those constraints can definitely help you. And that's like, you know, he ended up meeting Freddie and them because of it and moved out to Los Angeles to do VFX for the team and everything.

[Brandon Herrera]

But it's also, it's ahead of its time, though, because it's. It's that idea of like, everybody's seen a CGI gun battle.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know, but. But to be able to take that next step and say, well, I can't afford that. It's like, all right, well, it. Let's be silly, dude. That is where the Internet eventually ended up going. Where, like, that's, you know, that's the content that's rewarded because it's fun. It's like everybody likes different.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Cardboard warfare, World War II. It's like, there it's D Day, but for the 82nd, and there it's cardboard planes. And he did all of that.

[Brandon Herrera]

So it's kind of like tiny guns.

[Eli Double Tap]

Silly, you know, but this is like 2012.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

And it's fucking wild. I. For dude. Clint. And then when he did taxes for the first time and they have that on video of him not understanding taxes and he's like, freddie, Freddie, why did I move here? What are these things? He wasn't used to, like, how taxes.

[Brandon Herrera]

Were, especially in la.

[Richard Ryan]

Wild. Yeah. Where the city will come after you when you move for their 1% and their, their taxes. And it's wild. Yeah. Harley. Epic meal time. Of course. Kyle from FPS Russia. Yeah. There were so many people. Jenna Marbles. Yeah. Just a Bunch of really, really cool people.

[Eli Double Tap]

Brandon, why do you keep sending me money through Cash App with it saying just deck work?

[Brandon Herrera]

Wait, is that not you doing all my yard work?

[Eli Double Tap]

On the real? I think we all do use Cash App. It's a quick way to pay friends if they owe you money. Finn, where's my money? You told me you could beat the house.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know the saying, fen always wins. Real talk, though. I've used Cash App like this week.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, I think actually that's what we use to pay our boxing instructors.

[Donut Operator]

We also use it on vacation to pay for rides and just random things.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like, hey, let's split this Uber. Let me wire you $20. It's the two best things. It's. It's easier and it's free.

[Eli Double Tap]

Why'd we go to Vegas to build decks? And why were you building decks at 2 in the morning?

[Brandon Herrera]

She was Hispanic. I thought she was just good at it.

[Richard Ryan]

Why were you skiing in the snow.

[Eli Double Tap]

At 4am The Cash App can do way more than you think to make your money work for you.

[Brandon Herrera]

If you direct deposit at least $300 in paychecks each month and use the Cash App card for purchases, you can.

[Donut Operator]

Earn up to 4% annual interest on your savings.

[Eli Double Tap]

Also, you can hit your savings goals even faster by turning on the round ups feature on your Cash App card.

[Brandon Herrera]

With roundups, every purchase you make using the card is rounded up to the nearest dollar, and that spare change is automatically put into your savings.

[Eli Double Tap]

Make it work for you.

[Donut Operator]

Take advantage of high interest savings on Cash App Today.

[Eli Double Tap]

For a limited time only, new Cash App customers can use our exclusive code Pause to earn some additional cash. Unpause.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just download Cash App. Use our exclusive Referral code on sub 10 in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account.

[Eli Double Tap]

Terms apply.

[Richard Ryan]

That's money.

[Eli Double Tap]

That's Cash App.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cash App is a financial service platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App Bank Partners. Prepaid debit cards issued by SunBank Member FI, FDA Member, FDIC.

[Eli Double Tap]

See terms and [e-mail] legal US Int US Card Agreement, direct deposit, overdraft coverage and discounts provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. Brand. Visit cash app.com legal podcast for full disclosure.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because I was going to go back to it, like, working with Kyle in like, the heyday of FPS Russia.

[Richard Ryan]

Awesome. Like, like, such a cool dude. Like, to this day, I love him. Like, he's like, he's like, autistically honest. In so many different ways. Dude's just like, no filter. Like, he. He was like, hey, man, I'm going to blow this house up in Texas. Can you help facilitate, like, some explosives and everything? And I'm like, yeah, dude, I'll fucking come film it. Awesome. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Those are the phone calls. Everybody's like, this is what America's actually like. Yeah, yeah. I actually got told a story about that. I don't know if I'm allowed to share it, but do it. I'll ask permission or.

[Richard Ryan]

Excuse me.

[Brandon Herrera]

Forgiveness and not permission. The. Because driving the.

[Richard Ryan]

What was it?

[Brandon Herrera]

The APC or the BPC through the house or the bp.

[Richard Ryan]

What.

[Brandon Herrera]

What is that called?

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, it's an armored personnel carrier.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, APC then.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, the bmp.

[Richard Ryan]

Bmp.

[Brandon Herrera]

That was what I was looking for, driving the BMP through the house. Some of the guys over there were telling me that when you guys did that, it wasn't taken into account that on the other side was the pool.

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And so they're like, oh, yeah. If we had accidentally gone a little bit too far forward, we probably would all drown because the. The hatch would have been obscured.

[Richard Ryan]

It was a. It was.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, so it happened.

[Richard Ryan]

Well, so I don't know how. How realistic that threat was, but it like, he might not have seen where they were going for sure. But we did some charges in the pool because we were doing shape charges because he was gonna demo the whole thing. I was like, yeah, let's do some underwater charges, see what happens to this, you know? And it's like. And like, see how quick it drains out and everything. So they knew the pool was there, but yeah, it's a pretty cool spot.

[Eli Double Tap]

He. I will say watching how many times they would use explosives on objects that turned into very fast shrapnel.

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, dude. Wild. The door. The door. She's like, case in point editor.

[Eli Double Tap]

Pull that up multiple times. This is not like a one off. That's what's crazy to me.

[Richard Ryan]

I'm like, wild, man. Like, that's. That's the stuff where you go. They might need to put something on that video in the cornfield.

[Eli Double Tap]

It explodes since scrap along.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because what I was told is that they. What he normally did when he was blowing up a car. I think I remember this. Like, maybe he talked about it on like a PKA episode, which I forgot. We were both PKA alumni.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

But having. They would normally like hang the explosives from the. The rear view mirror. And that truck didn't have one. So they were just like, oh, fuck it. We'll Put it against the door. And so that's what turned the door into like basically just a shooter.

[Richard Ryan]

Well, at least they told you that because for the longest time they were running with vfx. It's vfx. I'm like, bro, as an avx.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, that's what they said.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, because. Because I think at the time there was a. There was a kid in Georgia that shot a lawnmower with tannerite and it blew a piece off and it cut his leg off or something.

[Brandon Herrera]

Blew my damn leg off. Exactly.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just shooting a video and a lawn mower blade just coming and cutting your leg off.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think I did that on my first ever stuff Darwin Awards episode was.

[Richard Ryan]

That video where the guy.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because like he kept like the blades were in the lawnmower wild. And that's what became the, the shrapnel that.

[Eli Double Tap]

How much, how much did you get? Because you and Freddy's first video was a 50 cal. Or was that Freddy do that one when he put the watermelon on his head?

[Richard Ryan]

I don't know, maybe because we did go to the range a few times.

[Eli Double Tap]

People thought you actually shot a watermelon off his head with the 50 cal. It was all VFX. They had like a charge and it blew up. But timed it and it was like 50 cal. Shoots. They're an open field and then it explodes. He's like, oh my God, that was so crazy.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean the only video I've ever like taken down that I felt like needed to come down.

[Eli Double Tap]

Wait, wait, this is the one time you got in trouble, right?

[Richard Ryan]

No, no, no, no, no.

[Eli Double Tap]

Talk about that one though.

[Richard Ryan]

No, the drone thing. Oh no, I didn't get in trouble. Oh no, that was all me.

[Eli Double Tap]

I thought you got in trouble.

[Richard Ryan]

No, fuck no. No. Okay, for context, so what had happened was. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

So what do we now see in Russia and Ukraine? Richard?

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. About 15 years ago, before DJI was a company again, I like hacking and building stuff. I would build things for video games and movies for the breakdown, recreate elements of movies that. Or video games that I like. And Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier came out and they. It was all about small drones used in. Deployed in warfare for ISR or whatever. And so in six months I built a fully autonomous flying multi rotor platform that would drop five pound bombs to detonate at proximity. And pretty much all like. Yeah, 15 years ago. And so again, I have all the licenses to do so I'm a manufacturer of destructive devices, explosives, all these other different things. But I also work in conjunction with other organizations that have clearances like Tripwire Operations Group and everything else. What are you, a type 1020? Yeah. And this predates the FAA regulations around these things too. And so a lot of the components, which this company no longer exists anymore, were readily available at Fry's Electronics. For anybody who's ever appreciated electronic stores, they were the best. Like you could get everything from resistors or whatever and as a hobbyist and things like the chicken party that I was talking about earlier and everything, you just use like Raspberry PIs or Arduinos and you can pretty much program them to do whatever you want. Like you put a piezo sensor, a piezo sensors like that from a Rock Band video game, the drum set that recognizes impacts. You can put that on a wall somewhere on your garage and go. And then open your garage door, right? You can program little cool things. So I just got a sonar sensor and programmed to ping. So sonar sensor pings things and I could set an altitude for a proximity burst of an explosive by running an electronic blasting cap and some liquid binary and some C4 and everything else and fly it in this multi rotor and everything and it would.

[Eli Double Tap]

You're autistic.

[Richard Ryan]

You want to talk about a wild, A wild. Like, shoot. The first weekend the bombs didn't detonate and I had no idea why. And we'd spent like six months building these things and it's like I don't have extra ones to like just randomly, like I can't blow them in place so I had to go disarm them. And so the whole time, no bomb suit or anything like bombs, it's not going to help you anyways. But like I'm over there like disarming these, these, these bombs and everything. And then the next weekend we had a successful drop and it was epic. And it was like the, the biggest orgasm of all time. I was like, you can hear me on camera?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yes.

[Richard Ryan]

It was like six months of foreplay. It was awesome. But then like in the after action report, I guess the, the weekend before was terrifying because I was over there disarming these, these, these explosives, these UXOs, whatever, and, and, and the reason for them not going off was the liquid binary was leaking down onto the sonar sensor and it was preventing it from pinging and had it dried out while I was over there disarming it would have detonated.

[Brandon Herrera]

So the explosives were fine. It was a sonar?

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, it was, it was covered because the, the, the liquid was leaking through that plastic seal onto the sonar sensor because it was pointed down towards the ground and everything. Yeah, I love it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like you, you motherfucker think you're autistic. Like, oh, I know every kind of train. He broke warfare 10 years before world governments.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, well, would you have seen it, dude?

[Eli Double Tap]

Like would you have seen it going to that direction? Because we've talked about multiple times on the podcast where never did it register. Oh, the next kind of warfare will just be drones flying out, dropping bombs or just ramming people. Now at this point, yeah, we've seen IDs, we seen fucking I H bids, everything like that. But not drones going, yeah, flying at it. And you're like, video game taught me something.

[Richard Ryan]

That's the one thing I kind of pride myself on in is that I can be, I can get really excited about things that are coming and it gives me a little bit of an edge in things. And that's why I say like I built like all those AI accounts over the last three years as like these AI influencers and stuff. Another product that I built that it didn't really talk about, or maybe I'll elaborate on it a little bit more, but it was an, an AI oppo research tool. And the, the idea around that is it's coming, this, all this stuff is coming. And my concern is that in the near future the open AIs and the apples of the world are going to have such a competitive advantage on this that, that it's just going to take a state department to really lean on them in a way that they're going to, they're going to have a dystopian edge on anybody who ever wants to do anything in politics or anything. But the way, the way I was utilizing it, essentially I would use the APIs of the various different platforms. And so API is an application like interface. So like it's like the back end for access to YouTube or any of these different, different platforms. You could pull all the different videos that you could, you were in, it would auto transcribe those videos and then. Which is already being done by Google as is anyways. This was even before that auto transcription component was added to it. And then using different language models, you could clean that data and you could start parsing through it 100 and figure out the various different threat vectors or subjects that you wanted to address in some type of campaign. If you open up your photos, if you have an iPhone, you know how sometimes it gives you memories, right? Here's your dog or these other different things, or here's this person. So it's running a local kind of context window of what would be machine learning. And I think in the near future it won't be just cloud compute. There will be a lot of, a lot of local processing that's happening either with AI models or agents in some capacity. The concern is that like, the advantage of the haves and the have nots is going to be such a competitive edge that like, that's why I think that there's, there's definitely people strategically placing themselves around those people.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like in what way?

[Richard Ryan]

Various. Various. Well, the conversation we were having earlier about people within government and their proximity to influence and, and creators and advertisers and everything else, I think that's rapidly coming. I don't think nobody's prepared for. I think like, you start looking again, the real competitive advantage is going to be the, the apples or the Facebooks or something that can run these things in the back without telling you. And they're going to be able to, they're going to be able to parse all this information at scale in a way that's unprecedented because in the past you had to, you had to isolate somebody and you had to get a team of people together and you had to do this thing. And now you're able to just autonomously do this in a way that's just, it's terrifying.

[Eli Double Tap]

Way fat. The level of how fast can do it too. It's fucking yeah. Wild. Brandon, what kind of shirt is that?

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm glad you asked, Eli. This is a poncho.

[Donut Operator]

Brandon and I actually wear poncho so much we constantly end up wearing the same nice poncho shirt.

[Brandon Herrera]

Good thing nobody's ever pointed that out before.

[Donut Operator]

Now, if you guys have ever seen one of our live shows or this podcast in general, you'll see Brandon and I wearing these incredibly comfortable, great looking shirts all the time.

[Eli Double Tap]

Finn, pull it up with pictures. They're literally always wearing the same shirt.

[Brandon Herrera]

I got turned on a poncho like a year ago. Been wearing them ever since. Personally prefer, I think this is the Western because it's got the pearl snaps because it's hot in Texas and I like something breathable.

[Eli Double Tap]

Here's the thing I find really cool. Brandon, do the glasses trick.

[Brandon Herrera]

So ponchos have this neat little thing in the pocket where you just take your glasses.

[Eli Double Tap]

Nope, the other one.

[Brandon Herrera]

Be more specific.

[Eli Double Tap]

Who gives a shit about that? All right, watch everyone.

[Brandon Herrera]

So if you got fat fingers and you smudge your glasses all the time, the bottom of the shirt actually acts. It has like a microfiber so you can clean your glasses.

[Eli Double Tap]

I make him clean my phones.

[Brandon Herrera]

He does.

[Donut Operator]

I like the hidden little pocket on the breast.

[Brandon Herrera]

Wait, what? Right over here.

[Richard Ryan]

Got a little zipper pocket.

[Eli Double Tap]

I didn't even know about that one. Is that where you hold Cody's heart and his drugs? Things you might need to know. Poncho has put a lot of thought and detail into each. Each one of their shirts. Oh, holy sh.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're soft. They're really soft, yo.

[Eli Double Tap]

What?

[Brandon Herrera]

That's my one like thing is fabric sensitivity. I don't wear uncomfortable shirts. This is comfy as.

[Donut Operator]

That's why we wear them all the time.

[Eli Double Tap]

So Poncho's got a bunch of great styles. The original western denim and ultralight.

[Donut Operator]

If you're looking for the perfect shirt, something breathable and stands out in a good way, give Poncho a try.

[Eli Double Tap]

Go to ponchooutdoors.com and get $10 off your first order.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's P O N c h o outdoors.com unsub that's.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's. It's crazy when you start learning how AI works or iterations and then how it learns. You're like, oh, okay. So I just have to be very targeted. And it will refine, refine, refine.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, even on a basic level, just in the last six months, if you've noticed, AI, even just image generation has gotten faster.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, that's way faster. So that is exact. That's what I'm saying. That is because of iterations. Time done. AI is just getting smarter each time. That is one iteration, it's getting more.

[Brandon Herrera]

Efficient, I think, too.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, that's iterations. That's all that is. It's like, I've learned this once. I've learned this twice. I've learned this three times. I've learned this four times.

[Richard Ryan]

Nvidia is making that money though, too. GPUs online.

[Donut Operator]

Jesus. The scariest thing I've seen recently. Do you see the ice pulling the baby away from the mama?

[Eli Double Tap]

Oh, yeah. You guys see that one perfect example.

[Donut Operator]

Shared 11 million times on. On Facebook. And it was a nice agent, like taking a baby from a mom out of a car.

[Eli Double Tap]

There's a third arm coming from the.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, completely AI generated.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, we're reaching levels of disinformation that no generation before us has ever had to deal with.

[Richard Ryan]

So here's the thing. I got a hot take on that too. You know, I think that the second amendment doesn't just apply to firearms. I think that the second amendment applies to any. Any tools. At which you're able to defend yourself against tyranny. And, you know, I, I think that digital warfare in and of itself is the threat vector more so than, you know, an invasion. I mean, now granted, I can go on a rant on an invasion too, because I think the humanoid robotics thing is going to be a insane trojan.

[Brandon Herrera]

Horse, because to my understanding, you're an investor in that as well.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, dude, I am. I like, the irony of it is I am, I am hedged. 50 50. Like, I am like individual rights absolutist. But I also know that this is the path of least resistance and a lot of people are going to lean on convenience.

[Eli Double Tap]

Dude, the trojan horse is the best verbiage I have heard for that because I told them about how if AI took over, like took over, it would, it would show in one way. You would never know AI is in control and then trying to do something bad until it's way too fucking late. Oh yeah, it is. That trojan horse of, oh, we don't know. It's going to just, it's going to, oh, find a server farm. Oh, we can control it. And it'll be, AI will never run away from us. We're in control. Okay. Then it learns that. Then it, it outsources its mind to a server farm. And now it's like, okay, well I'm gonna live here and now I'm going to find new iterations to get around this control, but I'm going to just make it look like Covid or something like that, or it's mankind made. And then I'll come in later.

[Richard Ryan]

Dude, it's intellectual masturbation to think that you're smarter than, like. So like the point at which machine learning or an AI is recursive in its learning. Like, and again, different people debate on, you know, general intelligence versus super intelligence and everything. Regardless at the point at which it's smarter than the collective humanity or the any one person alive, you know, you can't, if you're an ant, you can't understand a human stepping on you or coming with ant killer or something like that. You're just trying to live your life. You only know how to go left or right, go get your food and do this. By definition, super intelligence will, will have threat vectors and understanding of things that we cannot comprehend. And I think for most people, they're so egotistical in thinking that they're smarter than the average person or smarter than this or that, that. Like, you can't see that the threat is going to be so Great. That you're not going to be able to comprehend it, literally comprehend it, because it's going to be so much smarter than you.

[Eli Double Tap]

It will look like man. What is it called with the great divide or that a Type one civilization even to us.

[Richard Ryan]

Kardashev.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, we're at a point eight. But a Type one civilization will look like a God to us, even though they're just like more advanced. It is that idea of looking like a God and we're just like, what is this, this same for AI.

[Richard Ryan]

The best hope is that it gives zero about us and zero of a threat in that sense. But I guess back to the, back to the, the Second Amendment, I feel like, I feel like when it comes to these AI models, the concern for me and, and one of the reasons why I had been doing a lot of these, like hundreds of AI influencers and I'll, you'll see like little crumbs here and there, the people that I will talk to or maybe collaborate with and stuff like that. You'll see crumbs as to maybe who some of the people are. But I don't want to get too far out there because I don't, I don't want to give up my data. My, my data sets. Right. Because right now it's clean. I can see the way that the different platforms are, are moving their detection systems and stuff like that. And the.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, this is the second time you brought it up. Now that you've had like AI influencers that you've, you've generated.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

What do you want to get into? Like, because I, I've, we've had this conversation before and I find it fascinating because not only what you're doing, but why you're doing it. The why is super interesting to me.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So if you don't mind talking.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, please. Yeah, that's, that's great. You know, again, I think I'm an individual rights absolutist in so many different ways because I think that, that the further we get in this technological progression, the more we're going to really need to shore up those, those rights as best as we can. And when it comes to AI and like these diffusion models, specifically a diffusion model, so most people are familiar with a language model. A large language model is an AI model that's trained on human language and it creates pattern recognition based off of, of, you know, the probability of the next word. And it can kind of sound smart and understanding, but it's really just a probability and what the next word's going.

[Brandon Herrera]

To Be that's kind of like the middle button when you're typing on your iPhone.

[Richard Ryan]

Correct? That's exactly it. So that's a very distilled down way, a crude way of putting it, but nevertheless a diffusion model. If you've ever gotten a mid journey or something like that, a diffusion model is just a bunch of pixels that's trying to make sense of the text that you gave it. And it's creating an image based off of the understanding around those. And so my concern is while the Internet, like very much social media, YouTube and everything was very novel in the beginning, it was us, it was the, the creators against the big industry, against the studios. Like we're fighting the man, like for distribution. We're going to make movies and put them online.

[Brandon Herrera]

And the barrier to entry is 0 now 0.

[Richard Ryan]

It becomes the wild west. But then industry and government comes in and says, okay, we got to reign this thing in. How do we do this in a way that we can keep control of this thing from getting out of hand or the people getting too much freedom from it? My concern is that language models and diffusion models will be heavily. So there's not many open source, there's open weighted language models and stuff. So an open weight, like you can change the emphasis on something, right? So like the deep Seq, the Chinese model, you can't say, you know, make me an image of Xi Jinping as a Winnie the Pooh or something like that because it's open weight, it's not an open model. You can't change the fundamental code base around it. But in the future, I feel like as these things consolidate, you're going to have your Apple or your OpenAI and your, your Gemini and you'll have the three big ones and then they'll have the monopolies and then they can start leaning on the, the consumer in a way where it really infringes on their ability to do things. Because look at how much, how much does various AI technologies help assist you in your day to day? Maybe you're writing something, maybe you're creating an image or whatever it is. You're, you're getting, you're getting a lot from it. But the, what you're giving is atrophying skills, your cognitive, your physical, whatever these things are, they're atrophying because you're not using them.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's just like every other technological advancement that's ever come along in human history. It's like, yeah, you're, you know, we've gotten way, way less tolerant to Extreme climates because of air conditioning. Like, like that. Like.

[Richard Ryan]

Well, and here's the thing. Thing. If you give your guns up because you now have a police department and a military, you're trading that in in hopes that they're going to have your best interest at hand and they're never going to leverage it against you. But the power should lie in the. Historically.

[Brandon Herrera]

Not great.

[Richard Ryan]

No, it's not. And so it's, I feel like it's going to be the same thing with various AI models that are closed source. And you know, people argue. Well, you know what, they're, they're, they're private companies and they're spending their money. But yeah, you know what? You're also training off of public information, off of the Internet. You're using our data against us. You know, like your, your biometrics and your, your, your sleep patterns, your mattresses with subscriptions and like that.

[Donut Operator]

The, the regulation is also. Do you remember when they brought Zuckerberg up to talk about AI and all that stuff?

[Richard Ryan]

Was it Facebook or just like, about the WiFi?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, just, just simple, like not even talking about AI, just like the simplest of terms. And it's like, do you remember the congress people that were grilling, grilling him about Facebook?

[Brandon Herrera]

Use my wi fi.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, yeah, they use my WI fi. It's like you guys don't even have the simplest understanding of how any of this works. AI, it could have been like in charge.

[Brandon Herrera]

That could have been a very uncomfortable. Probably are. But I'm like, that could have been a very uncomfortable hearing for Mark, but nobody knew the right questions to ask.

[Richard Ryan]

Yes.

[Eli Double Tap]

And it's very frustrating, which is terrifying for AI. It is. These companies are not putting in the regulation. It's a hard one. It's like, oh, what regulations do we put into place? But then on the flip side, if you don't have those regulations in for AI, AI can outthink a human extremely quickly. Like, not like, not one minute soon. Yeah, one minute is a 16,000 years to. It's like, oh, I consume this much data in that one minute of time.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. The big, the kind of watershed moment in a lot of ways was for a lot of people when they started talking about digital twins. Are you familiar with that? No. So a digital twin is, it's a simulated environment, I guess you could say. And so it's, it's, it's really, it's really meant for robotics, humanoid robotics. It's a big, big thing. What they'll do is they'll create a digital twin or a Simulated environment of like a warehouse. And they'll stage all the different shelves and all these other different things and they'll simulate all the different circumstances which that thing could move in that environment or need to do things. And it, it'll, it'll do it millions of times until it finds the, the optimal way to do it. And this happens in a very short period of time. Right. Whereas you would have to hire, you know, all these people to do these different things to refine these systems. You can do it in a digital environment. The problem with that is like, you know, you're, you're, you're rapidly outpacing human innovation in a way that you can simulate it digitally and that the average person is just not going to be able to compete with in the future. It's just, I don't know, it's like, it gets very dystopian very fast. And so you have to like, you have to find a way to bring it back to optimism and everything. And I, like, like, if I wasn't optimistic, I wouldn't be doing this. I'd be off in a farm somewhere just like being a hermit and just.

[Brandon Herrera]

Also really disconcerting that you've become a farmer. Yeah, off and started like releasing a.

[Eli Double Tap]

Book about the Warriors Garden on farming and everything.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, no.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay, well, the book's not about farming, but yeah.

[Richard Ryan]

Okay. What do you call that? Double dip Digital Digital twin.

[Donut Operator]

They do that with warfare too, right?

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, yes, yes. Are you kidding me? And that's where like, dude, this is where I get, I geek out on. Because I was like, if I, if I were to do another book or like, what would it be on? Like, I'm not in any way, shape or form like the surveillance economy. And like, it's like the, the sheer amount of data coming in. ISR is insane, dude.

[Eli Double Tap]

With AI, it is on a next level. People do not understand that next level of. Dude, it's terrifying.

[Richard Ryan]

It's terrifying. And like, here's the thing. Like, it's, it's nice that you're running for office and like, I, like, I'm glad I can have this conversation with you. Like, so in, in foreign conflicts, like, you know, they, they would test out different things. Like there was like the Global Hawk and all these other different, these different aircraft that could fly hydrogen powered or whatever and loiter for extended periods of time for very long and they'd have. And the problem with like satellites as an example for ISR is they're moving so fast around the earth, it's hard to get crystal clear images over long periods of time because it's literally going around the Earth.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was like 17,000 miles an hour.

[Richard Ryan]

Or whatever it is. You'll have to ask somebody way smarter than me. But the. But if you can get aircraft or these other different things, that's why the balloons. The hot air balloons were such a hot button subject that most people weren't really understanding. The full gravitation of the situation is these hot air balloons are flying over the sensitive areas which were probably intercepting their communication. So we know what they're reading. But anyways, they're able to stay on an image for a period of time and pick up different things. Now we have, like. Have you. I think the app's called deflocked or Deflock or something like that. You know what Flock Cameras are?

[Brandon Herrera]

No, no, I have.

[Richard Ryan]

Shut up. Do you?

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Richard Ryan]

Okay. So Flock Cameras is. Flock is a private company in. In. They are creating strategic partnerships with counties and cities, municipalities around the US and they have cameras on all the traffic lights.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well.

[Richard Ryan]

And so they start out as license plate readers and all these other different things, but very much like the. You know, the insurance companies, like, are working with LexisNexis and some of these data brokers where you have a SIM car in modern vehicles, they're able to see how fast you're moving at certain times, the acceleration you're breaking. Whether or not you're in one state or another state impacts your. Your. Your insurance premiums and all these other different things. So. So Flock is. Is. Is, you know, creating these situations where you're potentially circumventing their. A person's Fourth amendment rights to search and seizure, where an officer could pull you over and see exactly your entire path of where you've been in the last 30 minutes to an hour or so. This is now. This isn't in the future. This is right now.

[Eli Double Tap]

And this is, to a degree, you were at a rally. In some. You are in a crowd of a giant rally. It will find you.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

And it will show every frame. You were there, what you were looking at. This is what made it terrifying when I did that one video with you, because I trained the model to learn your face. And it was like, Richard's.

[Richard Ryan]

Here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

[Eli Double Tap]

I was like, oh, it's. What the fuck is this? Holy shit. And then it's printing out, and I'm just training Richard's face. It's like, also Here is the 200 other individuals at these events that he was speaking at. Or doing anything associated with. Here's everything. Here's where they were at those events period. And this is 2020.

[Donut Operator]

I think through all of our years in business on the Internet we've all used sh Shopify. I've used it for merch and my skate shop in a couple other businesses.

[Eli Double Tap]

I will actually agree 100% on that. Everything we do is run through Shopify.

[Brandon Herrera]

Even bunkers run through Shopify.

[Eli Double Tap]

Our shoes, which is a separate company is run through Shopify and they talk together because of Shopify.

[Brandon Herrera]

Shopify runs the world.

[Eli Double Tap]

Did you know Shopify will actually help you design a website also?

[Donut Operator]

Cody I know I didn't know about starting an online store when I started my career online. And Shopify just made it super, super easy for my dumb.

[Eli Double Tap]

Brandon what happens if people haven't heard about my brand? No, that's actually easy.

[Brandon Herrera]

Eli. Shopify helps you find your customers with easy to use email and social media campaigns.

[Eli Double Tap]

Step Cody what happens if I get stuck?

[Donut Operator]

Shopify is always around to share advice with their award winning 247 customer service tech support.

[Eli Double Tap]

Bro, you got my back and your front. Shopify helps millions of businesses around the.

[Donut Operator]

World and 10% of all e commerce.

[Brandon Herrera]

In the US from household names like Mattel or Gymshark to to new brands.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just getting started on some shoes on some merch bunker.

[Brandon Herrera]

No.

[Donut Operator]

We've all been doing this for over a decade and Shopify is the easiest e commerce platform we've ever used.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think every single one of us has used Shopify at one point.

[Eli Double Tap]

I think all our businesses right now are using Shopify.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, except mine. But that's because it's guns can't do that.

[Eli Double Tap]

Just one of them can't turn those dreams into SFX Cha Ching Shopify New.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cell sound and give them the best shot at success with Shopify.

[Eli Double Tap]

Shopify.

[Richard Ryan]

Sign up for your $1 per month.

[Donut Operator]

Trial and start selling today at shopify.com.

[Eli Double Tap]

Unsubpod shopify.com unsubpod I've debated on like.

[Richard Ryan]

Trying to get some protests going in like in like Hayes county and some of these other places close to here and getting a group of people together just to create signs that and stand outside of churches and stuff like that. People that might be kind of weird about it and be like flock knows if you went to church today or.

[Brandon Herrera]

Not.

[Richard Ryan]

Because it shows your. You're right by a traffic light that shows your license plate coming in and out of here and everything. We're, we're like unprecedented invasion of privacy and like there is no Constitutional right to privacy. I think that they're like, if ever there was something we should work towards an amendment to, it would probably be that. But. And I think the industrial complexes around that are getting very close to profiting in a way where they're, they're never, they're never going to give that up.

[Eli Double Tap]

So think of quantum computing where it can crack a password instantly. Now it is going on. What is the ring cameras. Yeah, it is now tracking everything. You walk by your ring camera and then every ring camera that can pick you up, it knows that then as you're driving, it's picking up every traffic stop sign that has that flag to wherever you're going. And it can and record that data and be like, Brandon was here.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was specifically told by somebody who did a lot of work in this industry. He basically said like, oh yeah, with what you're doing, this was last cycle. But he's like, which means it's only gotten better. He said that? Yeah. You don't really worry about like somebody following you in person or whatever?

[Richard Ryan]

No.

[Brandon Herrera]

And I'm like, oh, that's good. He's like, no, it's not. They don't need to.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because essentially if they really want you that bad. Every cell phone is a microphone. Every publicly accessible camera. If it's got audio, they have it. If it's got video, they have it. All this stuff. He's like, yeah, it's.

[Donut Operator]

No, no, the government knows I'm an asshole.

[Eli Double Tap]

It is.

[Brandon Herrera]

I have no doubt that's a bumper sticker. The government knows I'm an asshole.

[Eli Double Tap]

I have no dick and I must come. Yeah, that is not the book title.

[Richard Ryan]

I mean not, not to like pissing people's Cheerios and stuff like that. But they like, you know, the thing is, is like, you know, people will say, well, you know what, I can, I can do end to end encryption and all these other different things, but you don't understand like client side scanning of devices and stuff like that. If you have your private keys to encryption on your device, if you can op. If they can access at an OS level your phone, they have access to all your encrypted conversations and stuff or your Bitcoin or whatever it is, it doesn't matter if your keys are on your device.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's kind of like building a 4 inch little moat in front of your sandcastle at the beach. It's like, well, yeah, it helps, I.

[Richard Ryan]

Guess, but yeah, that's exactly it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, if we can, if we can actually just roll back just a Second ago, because I really did want to talk about.

[Richard Ryan]

Elaborate.

[Brandon Herrera]

The influencer thing.

[Richard Ryan]

Sure.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because that's super interesting to me because we talked about especially even, like, in the regards to, like, the trafficking thing.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

If you want to talk about that.

[Richard Ryan]

Sure. Are you talking about the. Like the. The human trafficking or.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, yeah.

[Richard Ryan]

So I didn't. I didn't go down that path because it was just still kind of weird for me. So. So what I did was I created. I started out with like 500 AI, we'll call them influencers. Took images of people that either I got rights to or I just completely fabricated. And I started split testing on different platforms to see what would work well on X, what would work well on Instagram and everything. Tldr. White women tend to do better than anybody else. Any other demographic, for some reason, and especially in India. Yeah, Weird, strange. But I did various ethnicities. Male, female. And then we would use different. You know, I was never provocative with the images or anything. You know, there was no, like, crazy cleavage or anything because I didn't want to give any type of signal that would suggest that this was potentially going to be AI because it'd be like, why would somebody have such a boring person creating photos? Like, yeah, it was like, okay, this is clearly someone. So. So when you engage with people, like, you know, the one social manager that I had in the Philippines or have in the Philippines that handles all of these accounts on my behalf, you know, the goal was really to figure out how the platforms were going to evolve and change. And because I had built all these, you know, this diffusion model, the application's actually available if anybody wants to go download. It's called Pose Pose. AI. And, you know, like, I kept building features for it. Like, you could have couples photos, so you. You and your partner or whatever could take and have fantasy vacations or weddings or whatever and all these other cool, different things, I was like, well, like, it was so much work to put all these guardrails on it, you know, because you have to do checks for nudity and all these other different things because you can't be in the App store and sell or anything. And so I have all these different layers of systems on top of it. But I was like, one of the things I could do is just take all those guardrails off, have a completely unfiltered one that does, like, essentially. And then what I would do is I would have a KYC or know your customer verification process where somebody would have to submit their driver's license and, you know, Their ID and everything else prove that they are who they say that they are so that they can't create revenge or something like that. And if they were, then allow them to use that to create supplemental content for their only fans or whatever. And then 100. Well, not 100. The. I would, I wouldn't make any of the. The money from it. 50% of the. The money because most. Well, I don't say most. A lot of the industry is very shady and there's a lot of claims around human trafficking and unethical conditions. And so it's like, how do you. I'm very big on incentive alignment in so many different ways. And everything that I talk about is like almost always trying to figure that out and whatever the problem is. And it's like, how do we take and take the profit away from this industry that's exploiting people and turn it around and help people? So we'd take like 50% of the. Whatever the revenue was generated and put it towards like Operation Underground Railroad or any of these. Which explain on that. Yeah. Anti human trafficking organizations that help rescue people that are being exploited, specifically children or women. And then the other 50% of the revenue that we would generate we would take among the team quarterly and we would say, okay, look, what, what is going on in the world? There's a hurricane here, there's an earthquake there. Whatever this thing happened or just something locally in the community and we'll, we'll have some type of nonprofit action arm like H E B Does HEB like it deploys to the state like, you know, anytime there's some type of natural catastrophe or whatever, Even for like the.

[Brandon Herrera]

Kerbal flooding, like we saw so many of like their, their rapid response vehicles and everything like that up there.

[Richard Ryan]

So like it's, it's not me being naive saying that like I'm going to do it because you know, me contributing to it, like, you know, the. I'm. Just because I don't participate in it doesn't mean it's going to stop. This, this industry that's making absolute metric shit ton of money. But I'm like, I have so many different things to focus on. Like, is this the thing that I want to be known for? You know?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. It's like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, the thing that was interesting when we talked about it was you were, you were talking about the native D. Incentivization.

[Richard Ryan]

Yes.

[Brandon Herrera]

Of that where basically if you. Because you know, instead of driving cost is zero. Bingo.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

If you want to elaborate on that a little bit because I found that to be like, I'm like, yeah, that was probably the best argument I've ever heard. In favor.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. So for me in, in, you know, social media, a lot of ways, my anecdotal journey in this book was to, to, to take and say, hey, look like, you know, something's happened in society. We've, we've, we've traded so many different types of, of real world interactions and experiences for the digital one. And there's, there's a cost associated with that. And like, you could say that with the, you're, you know, there's a, there's in real life, you have to meet somebody, it's uncomfortable. You have to get out there, you have to have like, you know, shots on goal and like all these other different things and you get rejected. But then the point in which it builds up and you finally do meet somebody and you have sex and you have an orgasm, it's like, oh, you know, there's a, there's, there's an, there's an oxytocin release and you know, there's pair bonding and all these other different things that go on where it's like, you know, just go rub one out to. It's like, it's a very junk food processed version of that. In that sense. Again, I'm not passing judgment. I'm just saying that there's, there's a physiological and a neurochemical process that happens in the real thing. The same thing with social media. We've been given this lie that, you know, this social experience is an accurate representation of someone's lived experience and the impact on that in society in so many different ways is, you know, you have stress on relationships because you see so and so is doing this and they're going there and they're doing this and he really loves her this way and they're getting that and they're doing that and it's like this person's job is so much nicer than mine or whatever and it gives these unrealistic expectations for the average person in thinking that like, oh, they have a shitty life. The, the comparison, the, the bias in that and it's, it's so, it's so frustrating for me to see so many people upset about their lives and the things that are going on. And they're comparing it to, you know, us in the world of social media. It's like, no, dude, that's my, that's the highlight reel in my life. And at best, you know that you're seeing the highlight reel at worst, you're seeing an AI influencer that I created that's completely false. Or you're seeing a face tuned image of a chick that doesn't even look remotely close to what she looks like in real life. And you're comparing yourself to that and like, well, you know, you know, young girls are growing up with eating disorders and like body dysmorphia among males is increasing and like, you know, rates among teens and everything else, all these things are increasing. So I was like, hey, look, if I can create a tool that helps people create content as an influencer, let's just drive the cost of creating to zero and flood. And now, now the term's called slop. But the slop's gotten way better in the last few years. To your point where you can see things like that Ice video that's completely fabricated, but a majority still do not. That's, that's exactly it.

[Eli Double Tap]

90% of you still will follow girls on Instagram that are completely AI based. And you will not know what you're looking for because you're like, oh, this is a normal individual. Oh, she's hot. XYZ.

[Brandon Herrera]

The average, the average AI video from 2026 will one shot anyone over 50.

[Eli Double Tap]

It over 50 and then a majority still. If you look at your AI influencers, it is insane that people do not know what to look for because it is hard. Unless it's like looking at vfx. I am a VFX artist. I can look at something like here, X, Y and Z, this is how it's done, blah, blah, blah. I, I know I can be like, what do you see on this? And they're gonna be like, nothing. That's a normal human. I'm like, it's how with Freddy, when Freddy would walk in or when I was doing VFX for Rocket Jump, I would ask your average person to come in. I'd be like, hey, can you watch this real quick? Hit play, hit play. Like you see that? And they're like, what am I looking for? Like, that's all I needed. I didn't need my approval on what, what looked or what was off. I needed your average individual to walk in. I can hit play. And them being like, what am I looking for? I'm like, that, that's it, that's all I care for. And now females, I still have my.

[Donut Operator]

Parents send me like reels and things today. It's like, you know, we, we've been in the game like us collectively, we've been in the game for the past 10, 15, 20 years, my parents will send me something. They'll be like, like, have you seen this?

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm like the raccoon jumping on a trampoline kind of.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

I just, I respond back like, that's AI that's made up. And they're like, really? Really? That's scary. That's scary.

[Richard Ryan]

And that's where I go back to the Second Amendment right, where I feel like the, as the, as these tools become more powerful, the control is going to consolidate and they'll be accessible to the haves, but not us. And so as they, they start making these. Because it's too dangerous. Dangerous freedom, man. Like, you can't, like, like you can't trust the individual to be able to create fake news and stuff like that. And it's like, oh, but we can use it to overthrow this government. We can create all this propaganda, this realistic propaganda, and then we can give it to the news organizations here as if it's factual. Oh, and by the way, that watermarking and, and, and metadata, like, like fingerprinting and everything like that, you know, don't worry about that. We'll override it at the platform so it gets distributed. Whereas if the individual used the Gemini model or the OpenAI model, it's fingerprinted. And so it's going to get flagged as AI whenever you use it and everything. So it's like these things are, like, it's very, very concerning that, like, you know, people are willing to like, just, you know, just hand it over. And it's like, no, like, these. Do not, do not get complacent in these times. Because this is where the ground, the ground gets taken.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because, I mean, shit, I mean, our campaign motto is Dangerous Freedom. Like, that was what, like, we were talking about earlier. It's like this is what the entire American experiment was founded on. Yeah, but when you were talking about, you know, driving the cost to zero. Yeah, the, the, the biggest thing was when you were talking about in relation to human, Human trafficking.

[Richard Ryan]

Yes.

[Brandon Herrera]

We were like, okay, well, now all of a sudden when you have these AI models of women, like, all of a sudden you, you've driven the cost of, of exploitation to a degree.

[Richard Ryan]

To a degree. Right. Because there's always going to be the psychopaths that, like, they will literally get off on the harm that they're inflicting on a real person, whereas maybe that, maybe that, like, you know, there's those other people out there that maybe that, that won't impact them or whatever. I don't Know, but I think that, you know, it's a very controversial conversation.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, it definitely is, but like, it's. And I'm not saying it's right one way or the other, but it's, it's. Well, I could pretty confidently say human trafficking's wrong.

[Eli Double Tap]

I was like, Brandon, we could rephrase that statement.

[Brandon Herrera]

Talking about the AI, the AI version, the AI element of it. Like, you know, there's, there's arguments to be made, both sides, but I had never considered before we had that conversation that, like, oh, shit, okay, there, there might actually be something to that. Like the financial incentives.

[Richard Ryan]

Yes, absolutely. And so if there's some key takeaways, I'll give you just some context around the book here and everything too, because the book in a lot of ways is meant to really try to get people to understand the ways at which they're not necessarily being manipulated, but they're losing their most valuable resource and time and kind of look at things a little bit more objectively. Let's have a quick conversation on this. One of the, one of the litmus tests where I try to have these conversations with people will be like, where do you stand on this? Where do you stand on that? Student loan debt, perfect example. Right? It's like, and you don't have to pick a side or whatever. Like, but like, you know, most people inherently will go like, well, it, man, I like, I'm a blue collar worker. I didn't get, I didn't get my education paid for. Why should I bail those people out? And the other people are like, man, you know, fuck, man, like, I've been paying, I'm an indentured servant and like, I can't even, I can't even like file bankruptcy. And this, this debt goes to my children and everything. Like, and like, both people are right. But the problem is, is like there's two parties. There's a uni party that's leveraging those conversations and never addressing the problem, the root cause of it. Yeah, if you're, if you're, if you're on either side of it really passionately, you're, you're, you're not looking at it the right way. The right way is like, how do you come together collectively to solve the problem? The problem is not that these people have student loan debt. It's not that these people couldn't afford or didn't get a handout to go to school or whatever it is. It's that these institutions have, have structured a deal with the government. Yes, to take and subsidize these loans in a way where people can go into debt and never go bankrupt. And now these. These institutions have endowments that are like the GDP of most people, countries, and.

[Brandon Herrera]

They'Re spending more money.

[Richard Ryan]

So why should the taxpayer bail them out? Why not make the institutions bail them out and say, hey, you know what? By the way, from now on, anybody who gets a student loan can go bankrupt. And what that does is it forces the institutions to go, oh, shit, we need to underwrite this loan. Like, we can't give out, you know, I don't know, a gender studies degree or something like that. We need to know what the value in the marketplace is so that there's a probability that this person's going to actually pay us back.

[Brandon Herrera]

You need to, like, institutional accountability.

[Richard Ryan]

That's exactly it. But that's it with government, too. That's why I say. That's why I say, like, so many people are caught up into the left versus right, us versus them. And, like, we really need to be thinking about things in a way that gets us to come together so that we can actually get shit done.

[Eli Double Tap]

And fraud in Minnesota is good. That was the first time in a while we've seen everyone. It's like, fraud's bad. Even on Reddit, it was just fraud's bad. I was like, what's happening right now?

[Richard Ryan]

Even this is wild.

[Eli Double Tap]

We're seeing, like, we don't care about either side. Yes. On the extremes, it's like. But they're like, whatever it is. But for the most part, everyone was just like, yo, this is what my money's going towards.

[Richard Ryan]

Props to Nick for doing that. Absolutely. But anytime I see mainstream media running with something in any capacity, I'm like.

[Brandon Herrera]

What is this red flag in the back of your mind?

[Richard Ryan]

Like, what is the other hand doing right now? Now, wait, wait, what is this? A distraction of what?

[Brandon Herrera]

Am I supposed to not be looking.

[Richard Ryan]

At what vote is going on this week? Like, or did the Epstein stuff get released this week?

[Brandon Herrera]

Right.

[Eli Double Tap]

And that's another thing. You get to see that during that timeframe, it's like, look. And then the Minnesota stuff's happening now with the other protests and eyes, and you get to see, like, here's this. No, look at this. So it pushes everything else down.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, that and I think most mainstream news, most news in general, is now run on the. What can I sell? What can I get to piss people off and rile people up? Like, what has happened that I can. No, I. Well, actually, I'll tell you exactly when it happened. It's when we stopped moving, when we moved away from the subscription based newspapers and subscription based news in general and moved to the click factor. Because when you were running subscription based news, you had a trustworthy news source, you paid a subscription, you got your newspaper every day and then you read what the news was for the day. And then as soon as you move from your revenue is directly tied to how many people can click my headline and how many people will click this article. Now all of a sudden you have a major financial incentive to sensationalize.

[Richard Ryan]

I think it's been, I think it's been refined since the newspaper. I think it's like, I think everything like, I mean it from, you can say from information, information has followed this path of distribution at scale or there were all these choke points. It was the Bible could only be interpreted by these, you know, religious, you know, higher whatever. And then there's the, the paper and then there's the radio and then there's the television. Even TV refined the process. With ad breaks, you would create a hook going into the commercial break so that the people would stay through the commercials to come back at the end of the commercial break. And that did that with news and all these other things. The problem was, is like whenever you take social media, which is machine learning on a very intimate device, and you iterate on that in a way that you can really hone that down to exploit neurochemistry in a way that is unprecedented and you can make it individualized, it's not just generic anymore. Whereas like you had your three major network news stations and stuff like that. Now you can, you can create algorithmic optimization for every single person that increases watch time on platform and watch time on video by exploiting that neurochemistry and whatever it is that that gets them in. Typically it's the, the snapping of the twig in the savannah that, that, that, that very like primal instinct for us it's called like negativity bias where the thing that causes fear or anger is going to keep you on there more. And I think that's, you know, you know, they have a fiduciary responsibility to extract value for their shareholders. The value is between the customer and the, the, the, the company is like, you know, Google or Facebook and the, the customer is the advertiser. We are the product and our attention is the economy, the commodity that they're trading. There's there. So whatever that they can do to increase watch time on video and watch time on platform. Unfortunately the thing is, is for most of Us, it's anger, it's the divisiveness. And if you're in a constant state of that all the time, you know, it just. I don't know. For me, I did a bunch of meditations and, like, these different thought exercises and trying to figure out, you know, what was really important to me in life. Friends and stuff like that. And, you know, I. The. The very first chapters about insight in a lot of ways and turning on screen time and stuff like that. And then I just do these meditations. Like, I'd be on my deathbed, like 85 years old. Who's in the room? What's the temperature? Like all these other different things. What are the things that are important to me? You know, like friends, family and stuff like that. And then take. And, you know, I'm fortunate enough to be able to come back to a fairly healthy body, and I have this life in front of me and everything else. And then I can take and look at my screen time and I quantify that, extrapolate it over, you know, however many years and whatever that is. So I've got, you know, two and a half years on Instagram. Is that really something I care about at this point in my life? No, like, I. Like, I do not. And so, like, I'm going to prioritize the things. That's why I was, you know, saying I really prioritized meeting people and going on dates and trying to find a wife and all that other stuff and, like, prioritizing friendships and everything. There's just so many different things that I felt like that, you know, you had to go through these processes, but, ah, brother.

[Donut Operator]

I started a series back in the day on my YouTube channel. It's called Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire, where I would take what the media was saying and they would be like, oh, they shot this unarmed, man. It's like, no, they. The guy actually had a gun. They're all just in there for clicks. That's all it is, dude.

[Eli Double Tap]

The guy that just. It was. We were talking about it at lunch. It's the guy getting shot by the paintball or the pepper spray in the face.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Versus Cody. What was the clip they're not showing right before.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

So going back, I'm probably making a video about this one soon.

[Richard Ryan]

The.

[Donut Operator]

But the media had. And it's a dude. It looks like a picture that you would take. You're. You're a good photographer. It was a beautiful picture of this guy just, like, crying and standing back, and he's like. And like, pepper Ball. Like a pepper blast. Excuse me. It's hitting him in the face and like what you don't see is right before that he's grabbing the cops. Like grabbing the cop's gun.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's essentially a grenade launcher.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, yeah. It's a pepper blast. It's not a pepper ball is a pepper blast. It's like a 40 mic mic.

[Richard Ryan]

Oh, nice.

[Donut Operator]

That shoots out a. Just a blast of go away OC like go away spray. And like he's fighting with the cop, he's screaming him. He grabs it and pulls it away and the cop goes back and the cop comes up and he hits him with the pepper blast. But, but the media picture is this guy and it's a beautiful picture. Like I was saying it was something that you would take. Well, they're beautiful photographer, you mother.

[Eli Double Tap]

They're using it for that specific reason. It is. Here's what we need to portray in the single image of. And people are comparing it to the Vietnam photos where it's like they're aiming guns at the, like the college. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, it's that Trans State, I think.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

And they're comparing it to that because they were leaving out what Cody, the.

[Donut Operator]

That he grabbed the cop. He grabbed the gun and was pulling like trying to take the cop's gun. He pulled it away from him and that's when the cop stripped it away and Pepper blasted him.

[Eli Double Tap]

And that's, that's how quick. Because majority. God, it's got to be like 80, 90.

[Brandon Herrera]

Kent State.

[Eli Double Tap]

Sorry.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, Kent State, Kent State.

[Donut Operator]

The fucking wilder thing that I've seen this week, dude, is as long as you just leave them alone, like leave the cops alone, like they're not out there stripping babies away from their families and like that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, they are. They are an AI.

[Donut Operator]

An AI. Yeah, like we were just talking about the AI. 11 million shares on Facebook.

[Eli Double Tap]

It is the.

[Donut Operator]

Damn, dude.

[Eli Double Tap]

That is the 1 to 2% that you're being served because Reddit X whatever your algorithms cater to knows that that is going to elicit a reaction from you. And then because of that, you're going to comment, share, create another reaction. And then guess what? Bots are going to get a hold of that, push it even more. We talked about how many bots are on Reddit, which is.

[Brandon Herrera]

Reddit is a bot farm. Like people think Twitter's bad.

[Eli Double Tap]

30 to 50% of Reddit. They were saying like, hey, this is how many bots are on this. Because I was showing Brandon, look, this guy, I forget his name, he was just talking about it, but it was as simple. He's like, oh, I found out how to talk to bots. And you will see, they will never elicit a response to this.

[Brandon Herrera]

What state do you live in?

[Eli Double Tap]

And dude, dude. And it. Like, I told Brandon, he's like, oh. And then I showed him, he's like, holy sh. It is a mind blowing number. He's just asking bots this and is. No one will respond to it. They will give paragraphs, but never the bot doesn't know how to respond to what stereo.

[Brandon Herrera]

It'll just be a different set of talking points. Like, it's kind of like if you talk to a telemarketer from New Delhi that just has a script.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And then like if you ask them a specific question, they will never respond to it.

[Eli Double Tap]

And it's just paragraphs. And I show Brandon because it sounds weird. You're like, what?

[Richard Ryan]

No.

[Eli Double Tap]

And then it is, dude, just responds with what state are you from? Paragraph. No response to that paragraph. And every response, different bots, same thing. I don't know. I don't know how to respond to that. I will give you this paragraph every time. And now you're looking at Reddit. And then I googled and I text you, it's 30 to 50% of all accounts on Reddit bots. Wild.

[Donut Operator]

I, I'm, I'm just gonna go with that. That in Minneapolis that got blasted with some pepper spray. You know who they're protesting? Do you see what DHS released yesterday? It's a, the people they were arresting there that they were there for. There's a, a list of like 20 dudes. They come from all over the world. And like, they, they like, like DHS was there, I.C.E. or sorry, I saw those bad guys.

[Brandon Herrera]

I.C.E.

[Donut Operator]

Was there to arrest. Like, it starts at number one, you have a child. Number two, you have a child. Number three of a child. Like they were, they were there pulling people out and arresting them and deporting them who have had deportation orders on them from like 2005. They're just going in there and they're cleaning shop. And I appreciate those motherfuckers because, like, I have my son, my 16 year old, right? And I want to have more kids. I don't want these people living around me. And ICE is going in and they are taking these people out of communities. And you got these fucking white women, these fat, stupid, ugly white women who come up and they're like, you're the bad guys. And then suddenly your lesbian partner gets shot because she's impeding Them. I just fucking whatever.

[Brandon Herrera]

What if we did a, what if we did a, like a USO show? Like the USO kind of thing for ICE agents. We called it Unsub on Ice.

[Eli Double Tap]

I like that a lot. It's such a weird area because of all of it. I do not touch politics. It's, I fucking hate politics in general. But for that stuff, I know, but for that stuff, I'm like, like, do not compare that to Nazi Germany. That is a wild statement to me. Like no matter how you look at it, it's like, that is not Nazi Germany. ICE is not Nazi Germany. This is as you're saying, hey, they're collecting because X, Y and Z. But not just we're putting them in carts and then gassing.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

No one's putting anyone on trains and sending them to get gassed out.

[Brandon Herrera]

They're sending them to the countries they claim to love.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. Isn't that a wild thought?

[Eli Double Tap]

So I hate that. That is a crazy statement to make in this day and age. But what like I don't know if you have anything. Like for me it's just a wild statement to compare anything like that because it does a disservice to Nazi Germany and what everyone went through at that time.

[Richard Ryan]

Does a DennisService to Nazi TR.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was just wondering about that. I'm like, sorry, that's probably to the.

[Richard Ryan]

Jewish community that experience goose stepping earlier know what was quite going on. I get it now. No, I, I mean I, I, I honestly I don't. My opinions on a lot of these things are really like they're all distractions in so many different ways. Because the fact of the matter is again, if you take machine learning at its face value, most of these stories are being optimized for the things that are going to increase watch time on platform and these things, as much as I hate to say it, 99.999% of the people who consume it are going to have fuck all to do with it. And like they're not going to be able to make any impact any way shape only thing they can put the.

[Brandon Herrera]

Black square on their profile.

[Richard Ryan]

Whatever. The only thing, the only thing that's happening in this situation, the only thing that's going to happen from the situation is going to be that their time is extracted from them and advertisers are going to serve ads. The platform's going to make money and, and they're going to be worse for it if people spent just a fraction of like, you know, and again, I'm going to Keep spinning it back to the book. But I, like, start spinning. I start spinning data points around like Mr. Beast and other content creators. And he's like, again, this is just a thought, thought exercise. But you take him out the, the amount of time that people consume certain types of content, and you take, you know, how many views he has, and you extrapolate that by like, you know, 15 minutes average watch time on video or whatever it is. And that's, that's collective human experience that's focused on this one thing. And I look at my videos and stuff like that, and I'm, I'm grateful that some people were entertained, but I'm like, what if just a fraction of that time was spent on making somebody's community better, right? Just like five minutes a day, like times, you know, 3 million subscribers or whatever. Dude, that's a big positive impact. You don't have to film it, you don't have to do this. Like, like, if people focus just a fraction of their time on the stuff that they actually can make a positive impact on in their families and their communities and not the. That's the existential crisis online that's just really meant to serve ads. Like, we'd be better off for it.

[Eli Double Tap]

It.

[Richard Ryan]

Richard, you're.

[Donut Operator]

You're appreciating the quad.

[Richard Ryan]

I know. Well, I'm just looking for some clips here. Six. Six.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, like six. Yeah, six months in real life.

[Donut Operator]

What was, what was the thing six months ago? Was it Ukraine or was it like, Free Gaza or like, what, what's. What's the new thing?

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, I will now.

[Donut Operator]

Now we have ISIS bad. Like, what was the new thing three months ago? Look, and it comes back to what you're saying is like, whatever farms, clicks, whatever makes these. Whatever makes the ad revenue.

[Brandon Herrera]

And that's what, that's what I was going to get into real quick because, like, this has been burning me up is like, since we had that conversation about, like, the news outlets and everything like that, about how they, they generate revenue based on, you know, what can get shared, what can get clicks, whatever. Social media. Like, it's the best and worst part of it is that you've open. You've now opened that up, it's now open source. The users now get to do that same thing. They can do the job of media and they can share these things and they could put this stuff out there, but it's also, they fall into the same trap that all of the media did as well, which is they're only incentivized. Incentivized to get clicks based on what is sensationalized. What is something that will. It's like if you've ever read like Ryan Holiday's like, trust me, I'm lying.

[Richard Ryan]

Yes.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fucking crazy where he talks about like the only thing people share are things that are funny or things that make you angry. And, and that is what you see on social media.

[Eli Double Tap]

Look at one of the clips right now and the photos. Look at this angle of the event that just took place in Minnesota with the shooting. It was all AI based. None of it existed. It was a photo that did not exist. And then an AI of movement that did not exist. All that. And then you got to see the reaction and the shares from it. It of look, this makes innocent or fucking guilty doesn't matter. They got what they needed. This is 10 million views and it's all fake. And you don't know until 5 million views after the fact. If you double checked it.

[Richard Ryan]

What I would encourage people and very much like just trying to talk about like the student loan debt thing and all these other different things. Anytime a situation like these big geopolitical, I don't know, whatever the hot button thing is that comes out, like, try to try to see if there's a way that you can zoom out and find a different perspective on it and not be so emotionally charged in that, in that conversation. Because again, like, you know, we were talking about the various government organizations that are looking to lean on these platforms and these various weighted algorithms to drive a narrative so that they can introduce the change that they want for whatever profit, if it's overthrowing a government or whatever, or if there's a novel virus that comes out and you want to suppress portion of the population that may be objective to like, are not wanting to have, I don't know, a vaccine that may be or may not be ethical. You know, there's, there's all these different things. And so I think that a lot of people, they get so fired up, rightfully so. I mean you're a human. If you see something, something that you feel is unjust, but like just try to try to figure out the situations in which you're being manipulated for something where the other hand's doing something that you're not aware of.

[Brandon Herrera]

If we can bring it back around for a minute. Your book, the Warrior's Garden.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

What was kind of the inspiration for why you're like, man, I just really. Because you've accomplished a lot in your life. Like you've done a lot of things. You've worn A lot of hats. What made you decide that you needed to write this book?

[Richard Ryan]

Well, I'm super proud of it. It's funny, like, like Jack Carr gave me some insanely positive feedback on it meant the world to me because I respect him so much as an author. But I was like, yeah, you can definitely see my ADD come through there a lot. And like how I try to set the tone for different chapters. Like, I'm really big on perspective and quotes and stuff like that. Like the very first chapter is led with a quote by Charlie Munger. It's show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome. And then I kind of talk about early days YouTube been the incentive misalignment around social and stuff like that. But like, even Prince like has a fantastic quote. It's like there's a war going on and the, you know, the. Now I'm going to butcher it. There's a war going on inside and the, the battlefield is the mind and the prize is the soul.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yes. Alex Jones.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. And so for me, I was, I was going through this kind of phase in life where I was really burned out as a creator and trying to figure out things in life like, you know, you maybe you can definitely relate to this in so many different ways. But you know, with the whole YouTube demonetization thing with the firearm stuff and everything, I never really wanted to be known as the gun guy on YouTube or the slow mo guy or anything like that. It's like, what is my contribution here? Where, where. And I'm just going through this anti anecdotal kind of detox phase. And you know, you have social capital as an influencer, right? When you get 40 million views a month or something like that, everybody's blowing your phone up, everybody wants a piece of the action or whatever. And then the second you stop doing these things, like you stop jumping out of airplanes, your adrenaline responses, all these different things, like Dr. Anna Lemke from Stanford calls it the pain dopamine seesaw. And so like, if you're always jumping on the dopamine, you know, the, the, the, the balance, when you come back, it's going to be really difficult on the pain side. And I don't want to say I was like depressed by any stretch of the imagination. I really appreciate Cody reaching out from time to time. It really meant a lot as a friend. But like, I was going through this anecdotal journey and trying to figure out these, these ways to establish these boundaries around my digital experience in a way. And again, I'm not passing judgment on anyone. I don't want you to think that I'm asking you to, you know, delete your social media accounts or anything. It's just, it was me trying to be as assessing the things that I value in my life, figure out what my consumption was, how to establish boundaries, figure out what the mechanisms were, like, you know, community friction, even gratitude. One of the most powerful things for me that I found out, which I didn't think was going to be in this process. I'll give you a little statistic. One of the most researched data points of all time will be the placebo effect. And that means that they have to account in most studies, 2 to 3% for placebo. And so what that tells you is the brain has the ability to impact the physiological state and immediate, meaningful way. So if I, if I'm able to take this negative experience and find a way to inversely spend some positivity in my life, it will mean that I have a better lived experience. And I've. I've kind of. I found that over this, this journey. And even, like, it's funny, I was talking with a publisher and everything. Like, I. I was very adamant about putting a journal in the back of it because I didn't want to be a guy who like, just goes around selling courses and shit like that after the fact. It's like I want to jam as much information in this as possible, but then also give people like a journal in the back so that they can go through, like, this whole digital thing and these processes and stuff. So for me, it's very much an anecdotal journey and tools that I found that helped me in the process. But I think that the reason why I call it the, the Warrior's Garden is because I feel like the, the mind is that for me, you know, I've dove deep in the world of regenerative agriculture in, like, the last, you know, six, seven years. And there's a saying it's not how much rain you get, it's how much you keep. And so for me, I'm trying to cultivate the soil of my mind in a way that I'm not angry all the time. The stuff that I bring to the table is as objective as possible, so that whenever I do get the rain, I retain as much as possible.

[Brandon Herrera]

Not to get too personal, but is that something you've struggled, struggled with before, like just being like, just an angry person?

[Richard Ryan]

No, no, no, not even. Not even I would. No. So. So there's a number of different things there, right? So, like, as a content creator, you know, we're always at the whims of the. The changing winds of the distribution, the platforms and stuff like that. And I remember early days of YouTube, you know, especially in my 20s, it was, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Like, I mean, this person. We're collaborating, we're doing this, we're doing that, we're traveling here, we're doing this. And you're not making a whole lot of money. But if YouTube changes this thing, you're screwed or whatever. And even. Even to this day, that still stands true.

[Donut Operator]

Fucking life.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. And so for me, I found that I was. I was very. There were. There were areas of my life that were compulsive. And so a good data point for that compulsivity was in screen time. You can see pickups and pickups, notifications and first pickups, which really cool data point for that is once you have it run for a month, because there's an observation effect in, like, the first week, you start, like, throttling the. That you do, because you don't, you know, that you're like, oh, I'm doing this too much, or whatever. And then you look at first pickups. It's like, holy. I'm. I'm looking at, I don't know, Instagram. Like, that's my first pickup, and I've got 1,000 notifications that I'm checking every day. I was like, okay. Realistically speaking, again, not passing judgment on anyone in any shape and form, coming from a guy who created his, you know, living off of being online, but it was like, is this being true to my future self? And so this is the thing that's always kind of. I guess I'll unpack something psychologically here. I've always found that because I. I didn't know my dad, I always found that I was trying to please a father figure in my life. That's why I was always an overachiever. Every single job that I had, you'll. You'll find some superior will be like, that is the best employee that I've ever had. Because I would bust my ass. I would. I would go 110. I would put the extra mile in, like, the effort that nobody else would. And then I. I found that to be a little unhealthy as life, as I got older and everything. And I was like, I need to really try to find a way to. To figure this thing out. And I did. I was like, oh, like, it's me like not me now, but me 15 or 40 or 50 years from now. The person I'm trying to impress now is the person I want to become. And so I have to look at the things that I'm doing now. Am I being true to my future self? And so that person who's laying on that deathbed 80 years old or, or 6 years old because I lost a leg due to diabetes or whatever, am I being true to that person by spending X amount of time on Snapchat or whatever it is, right? And again, it's not saying that I can't do it, it's just. But am I, am I, am I finding myself doom scrolling in a way where like, oh shit, 62 hours of my week was on this. Did I really need to be on that? Could I put 15 more hours to the learning the piano? Whatever. Again, not passing judgment, not saying to abstain completely, but you have to objectively assess the situation and what are the things that you care about and then hold them up. It's going to be uncomfortable, right? It really is. Like, it's almost like a junkie, right? Like you, you're going to find ways to talk yourself and saying, well, you know, it's not that big of a deal or whatever. It's like. But again, the person I'm trying to please is a future self of mine.

[Brandon Herrera]

That's horrifically profound. Unless it's unsubscribed. Then you can just watch as many reels or podcasts.

[Richard Ryan]

No, hey, let me say this about you guys. Like, so, so there's a chat, there's a chapter dedicated on community.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's crazy.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, you gotta get it. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

To the community.

[Richard Ryan]

No, community. And the fact that you guys, you guys had like an in person like event, like and you did a tour, that's so awesome to get so many people together in, in like an actual lived experience and not some just digital, you know, cash grab online or something. Right?

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, it is the hardest thing because this is one thing I, it is, I'm very big on. You want to build a community aspect, you have to do that. It can be, it can be uncomfortable, it can suck. But you have to do that in order to give back to them and then to yourself because you are making a stronger connection with them. If I. We can be on camera every day, we can talk to millions of people every fucking day. That is not as important as connecting where it's like butts and seats, especially.

[Brandon Herrera]

Doing good stuff with it. Like the fitness challenge, for example, like so many People. And we're really proud of you, like, Jen, genuinely. Like, we check the subreddit and everything like that. Seeing how many people that, like, actually turn their life around, like losing, you know, 50, 60, 70 pounds, just. Just completely doing a 180. And I'm sure, like, everybody out there that did it, they feel better. They are living better. Like, it's.

[Donut Operator]

We just had Ethan on, too.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yep.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Ethan Bernard, like, a really, really good example. Not taking credit for what he did.

[Eli Double Tap]

But, like.

[Donut Operator]

That'S all accounts. You have no idea how much Eli bullied Ethan. I've seen the text.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's actually disgusting.

[Eli Double Tap]

You.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's war.

[Eli Double Tap]

You at the. Eli.

[Donut Operator]

Eli threatened him with a gun.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know what the medical term is, but I think it's close to lacerations. Yeah. There was. There was severe penalties.

[Eli Double Tap]

When it is so rare to have that. That you can attest to that is like, that is. That's what makes the difference. It is a typical online content creator to. Let's perform. Let's actually interact with them. And it. It separates you so much. And then it motivates the individual out there. They're like, holy, okay, I'm showing up to this. I'm interacting with the guys, or I'm interacting with other individuals in the same space. Motivation. And then you have the weight loss programs, everything else on top of that.

[Brandon Herrera]

And that program, like, you say weight loss program, like, we're not selling anything. We're not doing anything.

[Eli Double Tap]

We're literally just like, wait for it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. We were. We were giving money away. Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

We lost money. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like. But it's the thing where it's like, not even just like something that's a financial incentive for us. It's just like something that's like, how can we continue to make this community more and more. Tolerance. Tight knit.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

And do something positive with the influence that we've somehow. Somehow got.

[Richard Ryan]

I don't know.

[Donut Operator]

Also, can I talk about how much I don't like Richard?

[Eli Double Tap]

Please go on. Oh, thank God we're here.

[Richard Ryan]

This is.

[Eli Double Tap]

We're gonna put this at the front of the podcast.

[Richard Ryan]

The.

[Brandon Herrera]

The Roast of Richard Ryan.

[Richard Ryan]

Right.

[Donut Operator]

This mother. All right. One of the kindest, fucking most intelligent human beings I know in my life. He invites me up to his wedding. I'll tell you this story. He has these beautiful cowboy hats. He gives everyone cowboy hats. Stetson's, as a matter of fact. This mother has a beautiful dinner. It's wonderful. Great. He plays a song.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Wait, what?

[Brandon Herrera]

He.

[Donut Operator]

He plays a song. His first dance song. It was the one I've been planning for months for my wedding. He plays it though. Shake the Frost by Zach Bryant. By Zach Bryan.

[Richard Ryan]

Great minds think alike. What are you talking about? This mother.

[Donut Operator]

I'm just telling you guys, he's not a good person.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, Richard.

[Richard Ryan]

Richard actually bought in your text messages.

[Eli Double Tap]

We heard play the beginning of this podcast with AI and then Richard being I created AI and then just stealing Cody's idea to ruin that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Richard bought the rights to that song just to make sure that you can't play it at your wedding. That's how it happened.

[Donut Operator]

If you guys have taken anything away from this podcast, that Richard is a fantastic person. You should probably read his book.

[Brandon Herrera]

Genuinely one of the most, like, I'm sorry I'm gonna suck your life here, but genuinely one of the most intelligent humans I've ever met. And I, from the bottom of my heart, I always enjoy having conversations with you.

[Richard Ryan]

I appreciate.

[Brandon Herrera]

Very fun.

[Eli Double Tap]

One loves blackface.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, he's not Harley.

[Richard Ryan]

So, wait, so where do you guys sell your merch?

[Eli Double Tap]

Through bunker.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. Okay, because we were talking about this earlier, maybe I could, like. Because I actually don't sell those limited edition hard copies anymore, but maybe something we could do. We'll figure it out. Like, maybe I'll give, like, a thousand copies away with, like, people who buy, like, 50 bucks worth. There's merch on for every book you get.

[Eli Double Tap]

You get a photo of his penis.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, it's in there. It's a Polaroid. It's very small.

[Donut Operator]

It's a One horrible person.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, very small.

[Eli Double Tap]

Small what? Penis?

[Richard Ryan]

Small Polaroid. That too.

[Eli Double Tap]

It's just like this little.

[Brandon Herrera]

But where can they find your book?

[Richard Ryan]

Anywhere books are sold for the most part. I mean, you got digital copies. Yeah. Go there, ask him for it. Be like, hey, where's that? Where's that, man? Causes anywhere that doesn't sell. It cause a scene. Go to Barnes and Noble.

[Brandon Herrera]

Where the.

[Richard Ryan]

The book. Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Where's the one with the samurai warrior?

[Richard Ryan]

No, like.

[Donut Operator]

Like strike your local bookseller.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

Richard Ryan.

[Richard Ryan]

There's a. I read the audiobook. There's a Kindle version. There's paper. Yeah, I did.

[Brandon Herrera]

Is it out now or you.

[Richard Ryan]

It is. Yeah. I read it, actually. So it's funny. I've debated on doing this. I. I debated on doing this because I was gonna start making some videos on my personal channels, like, 20 years old. I was like, it. I'm just gonna read a chapter, live stream. Me reading a chapter. To people every night.

[Brandon Herrera]

You should do it in the Hugh Hefner robe next to a fire. Yeah, just a fireplace reading.

[Richard Ryan]

I kid you not. I would literally that my fireplace with the little deer over it and yeah, dude, I'd watch it live stream that. And then I'm. I'm making a like a. A three hour kind of Netflix style movie of it.

[Donut Operator]

You're all gay. I hate you.

[Richard Ryan]

That's chapter three. It's all AI.

[Brandon Herrera]

That would be the. If you wrote this using chat GPT or something.

[Richard Ryan]

Trust me, you. You read any of it. You're like, nope, definitely not.

[Eli Double Tap]

Let's just say you really like that tick talk a dancer perhaps a epic of throw motion explosion videos from here Brewery with YouTube channel called the Glory to CCP.

[Donut Operator]

Eli, flip the chapter where you stole my first dance song.

[Eli Double Tap]

I hate the donut operator. Him in a Moody.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Richard Ryan]

See and what's funny is like that's like. I don't want to say it's a common song, but like that's such a recognizable song. I thought you were going to say simple man at first, like, because like that one, that one's so different. I was like, oh, like, like Mo. I don't think most people would have heard that one.

[Brandon Herrera]

Simple man by Skinner.

[Richard Ryan]

Not Skinner, no.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah, I'll show it to you. Which one?

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Eli Double Tap]

This is like Cody during the wedding.

[Richard Ryan]

You. Yeah, it's awesome.

[Eli Double Tap]

Richard, where do the people find you?

[Richard Ryan]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Eli Double Tap]

No, look at the camera.

[Richard Ryan]

I mean, you go to the warriorsgarden.com and that'll like direct you to wherever you want to go to find the books. I mean I'm on social media and stuff.

[Brandon Herrera]

But I'll also say this bit when you sent us out also. Thank you, by the way.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, I loved your.

[Brandon Herrera]

The little packages that you sent out. All of us that, that had the book. I thought it was. It was a nice little touch. There was also like 10 little packets of seeds.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

That came with it. It was like very literal. And I, I just got to.

[Richard Ryan]

I wanted you to get out and plant something.

[Brandon Herrera]

I have a garden.

[Richard Ryan]

Hell yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Now that I'm just like, oh, fuck yeah. This is gonna be my new project as soon as like the spring rolls back.

[Richard Ryan]

I really enjoy doing stuff like that. If I do another book that might get me deleted, I've got an idea of the way that I would do the kit and everything would be really cool. Really cool.

[Donut Operator]

He only sent me cotton seeds. I don't know what that Means.

[Eli Double Tap]

Well, literally my te. Wait, real quick. My, my text to you. I was like, well, now I have to do a story on this book just because of the packaging. And you're like, dude, epic. Glad you. Dick it.

[Donut Operator]

Dig it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dick it.

[Richard Ryan]

Glad you dickhead.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, dude, I am so big on packaging. That packaging, packaging is so nice because it is something so simple. You Jack Carr, which I'm assuming you learned that from Jack because Jack does a fantastic job with packaging. You mashed. I was like, oh, okay. Well, Richard, I gotta do a story on this.

[Richard Ryan]

Well, yeah, well, not to get in a pissing contest or whatever, but like, I like, I actually, I made like a hand carved box for him. Yeah, I was like, dude, I really appreciate you like, like kind of giving me this opportunity and everything. Like, just because like, you know, when you're, you're like when you're known for something or like, you know, I, I've done the whatever, like the new stuff with Rate of Red or the firearm stuff on YouTube and you get like that social capital, that clout, and people know you for that. People always want to put you in that box. And I really put a lot of time and effort into that book and everything. And the fact that he like showed up to our conversation and he like, you know, he's a really busy dude, but the fact that he would go through so thoughtfully and give me the opportunity to chat with people about that and everything, I was like, dude, I just thank you for like not just seeing me as the gun guy on YouTube or you know, the other guy who did this or the tech guy or whatever. The box that you like, you like, you, you saw, saw me for the work that I put into that and I appreciate that.

[Brandon Herrera]

So he's like kind of an inspiration for sure. Is that why you like starting to dress and look like him?

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah. No. Did he.

[Donut Operator]

Your wedding up too?

[Richard Ryan]

No. No. Okay. No. It's funny. You Jack, that's hilarious. That's hilarious. No, I actually reached out to him before I started writing and I was like, hey man, like just any kind of pointers or anything like that because there's so many different paths to go down. Like, I like, there's so many things that I want to cover in this. I need help with like researchers and stuff like that. And I don't know, like, do you need ghost writers? Do you need publishers or whatever? He's like, just do it yourself, man. Like just like, like do the work and get through it. It's gonna suck and everything, but like, like don't don't rely on, you know, someone else to, to do that for you or anything. Don't worry about a publishing deal or anything like that right now. Just do the work.

[Eli Double Tap]

So any final words to people out there? There?

[Richard Ryan]

No, look, look again. When you see, you see people talking about things around, like the attention economy and digital addiction, it's very easy to assume that people are going to want you to abstain and like, you know, delete your accounts in no way, shape or form. Is that it? I'm just, I really. What I want people to take away from it is life is very short. The time that we have with the people that we care about is very limited. You're doing yourself a disservice if you don't at least assess your relationship with your, your digital experience versus the, the lived one that you're wanting and, and establish some boundaries around it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. So like, you don't need to be a Luddite.

[Richard Ryan]

You just. I mean, you can use two dollar words around me all you want.

[Brandon Herrera]

I thought we were friends now.

[Eli Double Tap]

Call him a.

[Brandon Herrera]

Say the word Richard.

[Eli Double Tap]

Yeah, say the word Richard.

[Richard Ryan]

Balls in your court, white man.

[Brandon Herrera]

The word bifurcation for the first time ever in your book.

[Donut Operator]

I was about to say you've been using three dollar words all day.

[Richard Ryan]

I love it, man. I love it.

[Donut Operator]

You know, fucking.

[Richard Ryan]

It was cold in here when we came. Now it's like burning up.

[Donut Operator]

Sometimes you bring friends in who use big words and steal your song for your wedding. You know, it happens.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't think he's gonna let that go.

[Richard Ryan]

I love it. I love it. Hey, look, hey, see if, like, you know, like one of your, your buddies could like, make a call to Tyler and see if he'd do it live or something.

[Donut Operator]

Lord have mercy.

[Richard Ryan]

Yeah, yeah. Raise the stakes. Raise the stakes.

[Donut Operator]

All right, Cody. Boys, we're doing it, guys. Thank you for coming to the Unsubscribe podcast. I was joined today by Eli Double Tap, Richard Ryan, Brandon Herrera, my self, donut operator. Thank you so much for being here.

[Eli Double Tap]

Love you.

[Richard Ryan]

You.