The Crazy History of Sprite and Government Fraud | Unsubscribe Podcast 246

Summary

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Unsubscribe Podcast #246 – The Crazy History of Sprite and Government Fraud

Hosts: Eli Doubletap, Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator, The Fat Electrician (King Trout)
Guest: Ronnie Adkins
Date: January 11, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode is a classic Unsubscribe Podcast blend of irreverent banter, personal stories, and deep dives into military, government, and gun culture, brought together with special guest Ronnie Adkins. The crew covers everything from Sprite's unusual marketing history and accidental government fraud, to Tommy Boy stories of shitting yourself, government cybersecurity, covert war footage, and the quagmire of gun rights lobbying. There are also some legendary detours: embarrassing meet-and-greet mishaps, bidet confusion, and the anatomy of American masculinity (plus, oblique rants about nicotine, caffeine, and fruit boots).

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Key Discussion Points & Timestamps

1. Meet-and-Greets & Awkward Encounters

[00:37–06:40]

• The crew reminisce about fan mix-ups and awkward live events.
• Navigating exhaustion from constant social interaction:
  "Being on camera is my opportunity to be social. It's like being the wallflower at the high school dance. Except in this scenario, it feels much better." – Ronnie Adkins [06:27]

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2. Travel & Live Show Mishaps

[10:10–12:28]

• Delays and dysfunction at live shows, especially in New Jersey.
• Backstage chaos and the team's relief when the tour ends.
• "The venue. Learned a very valuable lesson. Don't be dicks." – King Trout [11:12]

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3. What is Funker530? War Footage & Media Ethics

[12:35–27:00]

• Ronnie gives a thorough history of Funker530: started by a Canadian infantryman, grew into a war archive, then a platform for veteran storytelling.
• Funker’s mission: showing raw realities, going past mainstream media agendas.
• Iconic war images and detailed writing by veteran staff.
• "What it kind of drew attention to is just how much people wanted to better understand things in their raw format rather than be reliant upon the media." – Ronnie Adkins [14:35]
• Staff war stories:
  "He said it turns them into spaghetti. And I can't get that out of my head. Now that's in my head. Movies to see spaghetti." – Ronnie Adkins [23:28]

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4. Weapons Talk: New Army Gear & Military Anecdotes

[27:00–33:11]

• Weight and practicality of military arms: XM7/M7 rifle, Sig Sauer, Barrett, and the classic “hump the .50 cal” woes.
• "First thing you start doing overseas: stripping everything you can of weight." – King Trout [28:58]
• Amusing AT4 misfires and basic training stories.

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5. About That Viral 'Performative Masculinity' Video

[34:24–41:35]

• Ronnie recounts blowback from a viral video of him dry-firing on his porch.
• The absurdity of online critiques on masculinity.
• "All you had to do was respond to one of them ... just like, 'Well, I am gay.' And then they would all have been like, oh shit, we're queer bashing our team." – Brandon Herrera [41:35]
• "If you think that that was performative masculinity, tell me that when I'm wearing fruit boots." – Ronnie Adkins [38:56]

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6. Canadian Nicotine & Caffeine Laws – The Trials of Vice

[42:12–46:16]

• Tales of buying 'illegal' nicotine pouches in Canada and the nanny state’s caffeine restriction antics.
• “Imagine being babied by your nanny state to where they will tell you you can't have nicotine or caffeine.” – Brandon Herrera [44:42]

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7. From Cybersecurity to Government Hypocrisy

[50:00–61:18]

• Ronnie’s career in Army Reserve and cybersecurity, his migration to cyber counter-intelligence.
• Major theme: government employees aren’t always the “best of us."
• “The hypocrisy that I ran into of holding government office, they are most certainly not by and writ large the best of us, in my opinion.” – Ronnie Adkins [61:13]

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8. Investigating Government & Corporate Malfeasance

[63:11–68:22]

• Ronnie reveals the friction between contractors and GS employees (feds) on major security violations.
• FEMA drama and why he quit public service.

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9. Ronnie Adkins' Weight Loss & Poop Stories

[80:03–84:41]

• Ronnie’s significant weight loss: from nearly 270 lbs to his current fitness.
  "If my stupid ass can figure it out, you..." – Ronnie [80:46]
• "If you can't admit to shitting yourself... you need to." – Ronnie [83:40]
• Everyone shares their own poop mishaps.

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10. Deep Dive: Why Sprite Is Marketed to Black Audiences

[95:21–103:07]

• King Trout explains his viral research on why Sprite became a “black soda.”
• 1970s–90s: Coke co-opts hip hop and black youth culture to “astroturf” Sprite as urban cool.
• "They saw this untouched market of just, like, African American youth culture … and they were like, oh, we're going to exploit them to make money off of this soda. And here we are 20 years later and ... it worked." – Donut Operator [102:12]
• Historical sidetracks (the Nazi roots of Fanta, Volkswagen, Bayer).

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11. Pop Culture & Corporate Catastrophes (Jaguar/Bud Light)

[102:22–108:59]

• Jaguar's disastrous brand shift toward hyper-progressive marketing: sales plummet from 1900 to just 49 cars/month.
• "They neutered the brand, dude." – King Trout [104:27]
• Discussion on Bud Light's failed Dylan Mulvaney campaign and marketing whiplash.

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12. Gun Rights, Lobbying, and Organizational Turf Wars

[113:44–124:01]

• Inside look at how gun rights orgs (and the NRA) operate, emphasizing the schmoozing and the competitive nature of legal action.
• Frustration that court cases become donation-driven “races to file” rather than focusing on winning precedent.
• The NFA (National Firearms Act) and how its tax registry basis is now more vulnerable than ever for legal challenge.

Notable quote:
"If by definition the purpose was solely for that to be able to say hey, yes, this person has paid the necessary tax for this and then you remove that tax, suddenly you have no other reason to have the registration associated with it whatsoever... There’s an opportunity now that is probably first of its kind at least in my generation to enact permanent change." – Ronnie Adkins [124:01]

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13. Guns, Content Creation, and Honest Humility

[125:04–129:55]

• Ronnie’s “dream rifle” (Barrett MRAD), the beauty of honest, learning-focused gun content, and why genuine humility trumps arrogance.
• "There's a way to be confident in the things that you're good at and also knowing the limitations of what you aren't..." – Ronnie Adkins [128:18]
• Brandon on the weirdness of comments: "I am very bad at taking compliments ... but if somebody's like, this guy doesn't have the qualifications to talk about X, suddenly I remember every accomplishment and everything I know about that topic." [129:21]

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14. Final Thoughts & Gun Rights Activism

[131:40–132:19]

• Ronnie’s take: All gun laws are fundamentally infringements. He now works directly in gun rights orgs to see how the sausage gets made.
• Collaboration between orgs could be stronger, but real shooters are finally stepping up.
• “Most of them that aren't the NRA, are working towards the same end state. They just have a different design with exactly how they want to achieve that.” – Ronnie Adkins [120:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "If you think that that was performative masculinity, tell me that when I'm wearing fruit boots." – Ronnie Adkins [08:08, 38:56]
• "Imagine being babied by your nanny state to where they will tell you you can't have nicotine or caffeine." – Brandon Herrera [44:42]
• "What it kind of drew attention to is just how much people wanted to better understand things in their raw format rather than be reliant upon the media." – Ronnie Adkins [14:35]
• "If by definition the purpose was solely for that to be able to say hey, yes, this person has paid the necessary tax for this and then you remove that tax, suddenly you have no other reason to have the registration associated with it whatsoever." – Ronnie Adkins [124:01]
• "They saw this untouched market... and they were like, 'Oh, we're going to exploit them to make money off this soda.' And here we are 20 years later and it worked." – Donut Operator [102:12]
• "There's a way to be confident in the things that you're good at and also knowing the limitations of what you aren't..." – Ronnie Adkins [128:18]

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Episode Flow & Overall Tone

The episode is classic Unsubscribe: part insightful, part absurd, always fast-paced, and loaded with sharp jokes, nerdy detours, and surprisingly honest moments about military life, personal failures, and America’s love-hate relationship with government and corporations. Ronnie Adkins, both self-deprecating and deeply knowledgeable, fits in perfectly—offering real talk on everything from cyber intelligence and war footage to weight loss and viral internet blowback. The episode balances meaningful discussion (military technology, war media, gun rights lobbying) with expletive-laced bromance and scatterbrained humor—doggedly refusing to take itself too seriously, even as it drops some seriously inside-baseball knowledge.

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Where to Find the Cast & Guest

• Ronnie Adkins: American Marksman, Pepperbox, Instagram, etc.
• Brandon Herrera: @TheAKGuy on YouTube and socials
• Donut Operator: @DonutOperator on YouTube and socials
• King Trout / The Fat Electrician: YouTube, Pepperbox

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If you missed the episode, this summary covers all the weird, wild, and worthwhile bits—minus the ads, but with all the swearing, shit stories, and hard-earned wisdom you expect from Unsubscribe.

Transcript

[Ronnie Adkins]

Two in the top, two in the bottom, one in the. Let's go.

[Brandon Herrera]

My day is ruined.

[King Trout]

Crucify him.

[Brandon Herrera]

This white man's having a good time. Get him.

[Ronnie Adkins]

If you think that that was performative masculinity, tell me that when I'm wearing fruit boots.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, God.

[Ronnie Adkins]

What did I get myself into?

[King Trout]

Say hi to Eli. He's racially ambiguous. Brandon, his hair is fucking fabulous.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Don. A dark joke disposition. And there's a fat electrician. Welcome to Unsubscribe.

[Brandon Herrera]

I can't. I. Now this is where I have a gap in my knowledge. What did you do with Rudy? So what showed you do with Rudy?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, so Rudy.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah. Well, before we do that. Yeah, let's. Let's go ahead.

[King Trout]

Ready? There we go.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, am I supposed to crack something? Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Grab again, quick. 3, 2, 1.

[Donut Operator]

Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Unsubscribe podcast. I'm joined today by eli double tap, Mr. Ronnie Adkins, future congressman Brandon Herrera, and myself, donut operator.

[King Trout]

Hi, Donut. I missed you. You look fantastic.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did you get a new haircut?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Shaved beard, Shave.

[Brandon Herrera]

Got a new haircut.

[Ronnie Adkins]

What'd you do?

[Brandon Herrera]

Your hair.

[Donut Operator]

Pounds of muscle. You don't want to know. It's too early in the episode on YouTube for me to say what I put in my hair. If you've seen what's that movie? Harry Met Sally.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, no.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Something about Mary.

[Donut Operator]

Something about Mary. Yeah, that was that. The secret ingredient. It takes me about four minutes to get my hair product ready.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Wow, way to brag.

[Donut Operator]

It depends what video I'm watching.

[King Trout]

I have infinite hair product.

[Brandon Herrera]

Infinite money glitch.

[Donut Operator]

I know. It's like, oh, after the fourth application, it starts running a little low.

[King Trout]

But real quick, what's up, you bitches? This is after Christmas, right before New Year's, I believe. Probably.

[Donut Operator]

I don't know.

[King Trout]

So, hi. Did you make any New Year's resolutions? Stick to them. I'll go to the gym, like, two weeks and then give up. Love you, love you, love you.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I'm still pretty sure you can go to jail for what that.

[King Trout]

What is up? Welcome to the podcast, buddy.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Thanks for having me, man.

[King Trout]

And we got King Trout, too.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, dude.

[King Trout]

Well, Donut.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I was actually surprised when I walked in here. You weren't, like, passed out on the couch over there or something?

[Donut Operator]

Well, to be honest, we all have our proclivities.

[King Trout]

I just know the audience right there was like, oh, my God, that is King Trout, not Donut. We should have swapped Brandon and see how long it took. You just Be.

[Brandon Herrera]

Brandon's not here for this episode.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Hi, everyone.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hi, everyone. The amount of times. Dude, it happens several times in the live show meet and greets.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, there was one of the guy. I'm not gonna shout him out. Cause I don't know if he wants his name attached to this, but.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Came.

[Brandon Herrera]

Up and started talking. He's like, you really helped out a buddy of mine. You covered his case in a video, whatnot. I'm visibly confused. And I realized, like, do you think I'm Cody? And he just goes.

[Donut Operator]

Fuck, dude.

[King Trout]

The embarrassment on his face, dude. He's like, I'm so. Oh, my God, I am so sorry. His buddy's laughing at him. And then another guy came up and introduced himself wrong. All right?

[Donut Operator]

Introduced himself wrong.

[King Trout]

He was nervous. Like, God bless his soul, he was very nervous. But he was like, hi, Donut. And we're like, what's your name? He's like. He's like, oh, you're having a great time. Like, he just like, forced reset.

[Ronnie Adkins]

He's like, my name is Jeff.

[Brandon Herrera]

My name is Jeff. The funny part is we. We're all just around, we're hanging out, we're having a good time and, like, just making jokes. So, like, we'll just barrel into that and make them feel more nervous. Like, not in a mean way, but just like, you're really fucking this up, buddy. Let's keep moving. Chance.

[Donut Operator]

You're gonna remember this for the rest of your life, and I'm gonna forget.

[Ronnie Adkins]

About it in 30 seconds. You know that thing you think about when you're trying to fall asleep and you can't wake up? This is gonna be it worth thinking about.

[Donut Operator]

It just reminded me of that time. It was a range day, like two years ago, and I was staying at your house because I still lived in Indiana at the time. And we were just so peopled out because you guys know how it is. It's like constantly talking to people all day long or whatever. And we stopped at a gas station and you were like, I'm just so fucking tired. I just want to go to bed.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[Donut Operator]

And I'm like, well, you know, when we stop at this gas station, we're going to get out of the car and somebody's going to be like, brandon Herrera. And he's like, please don't. Don't put that on me. Gets out. That exact same thing happened. And then I was standing by the gas pump. I went in and got a pack of cigarettes and came back out. And a guy comes up and he goes, bass. And I'm like, what? And he goes, bass, Bass guy. And I'm like, what the fuck? Like, I literally did not put two and two together. And he was so kind. Do you remember what I'm talking about?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, no, I have a vague recollection.

[Donut Operator]

He's like, bass guy. You're bass guy on Facebook? And I'm like, I don't have a Facebook account. Like, what? And I was like, oh, no. Like, yeah, I do have a fish themed name and I'm on the Internet.

[Ronnie Adkins]

But I'm like, blooper.

[Donut Operator]

He just pointed at me and he's like, bass. What the are you talking about, dude?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Fish man. Fish man.

[King Trout]

I love it. At least he tried.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, he's in the neighborhood.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It's like, oh. Oh, there I.

[Brandon Herrera]

The amount of times that that's happened, there was one. I feel kind of bad about it, but I was in kind of like a shitty mood. I don't remember what was going on, but I was at a bar somewhere, like, like a restaurant bar kind of thing. And somebody is shouting from across the bar, donut. And I'm like, I know what he's mean, what he means. I'm not responding to that.

[King Trout]

It's draining people. Doubt is a good word. I think it happens really quickly and unless you've experienced it, you will have no idea how draining it is. At times you're like, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because nobody in our audience is introverted.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[King Trout]

Now times that by like a hundred, five hundred thousand.

[Donut Operator]

I consider myself like a pretty, like, outgoing, like, sociable person. But like, when. When you're doing that non stop for days at a time, it's like you reach a point where you're like, okay, I think I just want to lay down on the couch and look at my phone for an hour.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, no.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I tell people that all the time. If we're in. If there are, you know, hundreds of people in a room with me, I'm in the back corner with a beer in my hand or something.

[King Trout]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Being on camera is my opportunity to be social.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's like being the wallflower at the high school dance. Except in this scenario, it feels much better.

[King Trout]

So awesome.

[Donut Operator]

I just want to pet the dog at the party. Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Can I pet that dog?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[King Trout]

So we just wrapped up, what, the last of the live shows. Thank God. We got two.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Two.

[King Trout]

We got. Both of you have stories now. You started your YouTube and, like crushing it, and now you're on pepper box. And then you have TV show, YouTube and then.

[Ronnie Adkins]

And then a pepper box. Channel that we launched this year as well. Yeah. Oh yeah. It's been a lot of fun, you guys. You guys have been awesome. You know, I've known, I've known the crew here for quite a few years at this point through the work at funker530. And most people that have been on YouTube for a while know what funker530 is. But I joined the team a little bit late, but having the chance to come down here, you guys threw a wrench at me right out of the gate. I'm a big self improvement kind of guy. So you know, you know little battles every day. This morning I had the battle of you assholes running your toilet paper in mullet mode versus beard mode. Holy. What kind of, what kind of heresy has their toilet paper in mullet mode?

[Donut Operator]

I literally just turned around the one roll upstairs. I took a shit like 20 minutes ago.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I said, I tweeted it. I was like, what is that?

[Donut Operator]

Oh my God. Had to turn it around.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I left it. Because I left it. I'm not fixing that problem. That's not what I'm here to do. But I appreciate, appreciate the daily battle. Right? Something that I can overcome. And I made it through this morning's post coffee event.

[Brandon Herrera]

I just think of all the problems our ancestors battled 500 years ago. It's like my day is ruined. The toilet paper was facing the wrong direction in an air conditioned home.

[Donut Operator]

I don't know. I am the offspring of those men and I know they would have complained. We're very bitter, bitter, petty people.

[King Trout]

Give me my poop rope. Why is the poop rope.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I did spend an inordinate amount of time staring at it. Like, why the would you do that? Why? Because then it rolls underneath and you can't quite.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, it like bunches up and then it flips over and you gotta like, you gotta finger it to try and grab the next piece.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm just, I'm thinking of you just staring at it with the slow pan of the camera getting closer, the tinnitus noise getting louder.

[King Trout]

I like that he's just holding like having a poop rope like old 1600s and just confusing the out of people. Like, whoa, do I. I was reading.

[Ronnie Adkins]

About the poop rope not too long ago.

[Brandon Herrera]

He doesn't even know how to use the three seashells.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Somebody did a diagram of like instructions for the three seashells and I still don't think I understand it entirely. Unless you just use one as a scoop.

[King Trout]

I think that's what it is.

[Ronnie Adkins]

But what about the other two seashells, what do you do with the other splash?

[Donut Operator]

I'll be honest. I don't know how bidets work.

[King Trout]

Spray it. Clean the bow. It's like a power washer.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. Are you going, like, hands in with soap and shit?

[King Trout]

No, you just do the.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It sprays your asshole.

[Donut Operator]

How do you know it's clean?

[King Trout]

You wipe afterwards.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, okay.

[King Trout]

Yeah, you just. Dude, it just makes the wiping easier because you just. It's like if you go out and clean your truck or your vehicle right now and there's dirt on it. If you go like that, just moving dirt around, you spray it first, and then.

[Donut Operator]

I don't know. I get it conceptually, but not smearing. Well, I just take a shower immediately afterwards. Every immediate hop in the shower.

[King Trout]

I would be taking eight showers a day.

[Brandon Herrera]

Really awkward. We're on road trips, and you just, like, take a shit. Walk outside with the hose next to the gas station.

[Donut Operator]

You ever take a shit so hard you feel it splash on your balls?

[Ronnie Adkins]

We started off weird.

[King Trout]

I love it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Welcome back, gentlemen.

[King Trout]

I know we're all exhausted. It's like, oh, we have had great travel experiences. But, yeah, now we're here.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, it wasn't. It really wasn't too bad this time.

[Donut Operator]

I heard New Jersey was great. Y' all had fun.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I heard that got interesting.

[King Trout]

Delayed, and then an hour. And how long was the delay on.

[Brandon Herrera]

The way home from Jersey?

[King Trout]

That one.

[Brandon Herrera]

I didn't think that one was too bad. It was a direct flight.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I think we broke up.

[King Trout]

All of us did. I had a coma.

[Brandon Herrera]

Was that the one to Boston?

[King Trout]

No, that was the one from Jersey to San Antonio. We got delayed, and then when we sat on the tarmac for about an.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hour and a half, that's been happening a lot lately. It's like these northern states are not prepared for the idea that it snows the same time it snows every year.

[King Trout]

People are going to be like, this is the same story they told last time. It's like, no, this is a brand new. This is a brand new story. It just sucks every time. We're like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Everybody's like, oh, Texas doesn't. South Texas doesn't know how to handle snow. It's like, yeah, we never get it. You guys get it like, half the year.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

How is this a surprise?

[King Trout]

And, yeah, we had a great time in New Jersey. Well, we're going to hold that one so then we can all talk about it together. Cause we all had completely different experiences for, well, the venue. Learned a very valuable lesson. Don't be dicks.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It was wild.

[Brandon Herrera]

The entire time as the things that were occurring, were occurring. Me and you were just reading our texts on stage. Like still like doing the show and everything, but just like seeing the notifications pop up or it's like, what's going on backstage?

[King Trout]

Yeah. And then, hey, we're having to watch this person. It's like, what the fuck is going on? This is not one I want to be focused on while doing the live show.

[Brandon Herrera]

Having. Yeah. And having show. Basically say or show and sav. Say like. Yeah. You know how we normally like hang out in the green room and chill afterward and like everybody has a good time. Not here. Let's go to the hotel immediately. All of our shit's already packed up. We're leaving.

[King Trout]

We're just out instantly. It's just. It sucks. That's how we ended it. But the audience was amazing. They were loud.

[Donut Operator]

Loud.

[King Trout]

Yes, the audience was loud loud.

[Brandon Herrera]

So thank you to the audience in New Jersey. You, Wellmont.

[King Trout]

I mean, as simple as that.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I only have sparing details, but was a little bit infuriating. I have a couple of the behind the scenes details. I can't wait for you guys to talk about that as a crew.

[Brandon Herrera]

But instead we would love to talk about you as our guest.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, that's gonna be a super boring show.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, otherwise, starting out, I mean, what's. What's funker530?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, funker530 is actually something that I'm very excited to talk about and finally get a chance to really help explain what its original design was versus what its perception was over time. And then what it is that we're hoping that it turns into in the future. Right. That's what I mean by it being boring. Me personally, dude, I. I don't do anything. I sit in my basement and I research ballistics. That's long range shooting is. Is what I've always wanted to do. I've been competing in marksmanship since I was in high school. But funker 5:30. So that's where we start getting into my career path and what its intent was. So not a lot of people know this, but Scott, the founder of funker530, first of all Canadian infantryman, he was a machine gunner, spent time in Afghanistan. He wanted to share footage of his deployment with his family. So he put up. He created this YouTube channel and was like, hey family, here's what a patrol looks like in Afghanistan. This is what it looks like for us to have to return fire. This is what it looks like. And it's one of the things. One of the most viewed videos we have. This is what it looks like for me to play Dirt Bikes in the sand because we're bored. In the early days of YouTube, clickbait was a big deal. So that the title for that, if I recall correctly, was like Afghan Taliban Ambushes Canadian Infantry. But it's just Scott playing with his fucking dirt bikes in the sand. That's what. That's what it began with. And that was like 2007, 2008. That's like the. That's the early days.

[Donut Operator]

YouTube.

[Ronnie Adkins]

YouTube, one of the first channels to achieve a million followers. Right. So there were really. Yeah, one of the first. I don't. I don't know where exactly that falls, but it. It just blew up. And that's when. That's when conceptually funker 5:30 became a thing. Right.

[Brandon Herrera]

That was like, late enough. Well, I guess it was just early enough that there was like, no money involved.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, well, it was not a thing. It was established prior to the YouTube Partner Program. Yeah. So the YouTube Partner Program came after Funker 530 was deployed. Right. But what. What it kind of drew attention to is just how much people wanted to better understand things in their raw format rather than be reliant upon the media. Right. I don't think I need to beat that dead, dead horse too many times, you know, media and its agendas that come along with it. So over the course of time, the YouTube channel grew to include submissions from the community. So there's a lot of footage that is. That was exclusively provided by people that were actively engaged an adversary, saying, I want people to see what it's like. And we have people ripping that stuff all the time. But it was exclusively provided, you know, to us to try and be a little bit of a loudspeaker for that story. And then we ended up starting another channel. So this is all actually before I got there. The team that still exists all the same, team ownership has never changed. Same group of dudes, they started another channel on the Syrian Civil War. Right. And all of that. That is a. That is mud to try and wade through the amount of different factions and organizations and how they change allegiances, like day to day dependent upon. I don't know whose goat has. Who is owned by who. It's.

[Donut Operator]

Wasn't there a point in time when the US Was supporting, like two opposing factions?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, all the time.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Which.

[Brandon Herrera]

Which time in history, one of our.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Programs was supporting one group of factions, Another one of our programs was supporting another. So that meme where it's like my tax dollars somehow also my tax dollars.

[Brandon Herrera]

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[King Trout]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Donut Operator]

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[Ronnie Adkins]

Why?

[King Trout]

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[Donut Operator]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[King Trout]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Donut Operator]

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[King Trout]

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[Donut Operator]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[King Trout]

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[Donut Operator]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Donut Operator]

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[King Trout]

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[Donut Operator]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Donut Operator]

Thank you so much, Bluechew.

[King Trout]

Thank you. I gotta run.

[Brandon Herrera]

Connor is rigging that mortise.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Toyota Thon looks sick in the middle East. Let me just put it that way. Mike just bought my wife a Toyota Sienna and that's the coolest fucking van I've ever seen in my life. That it's. It's low bar. It's sick. I. I don't care. I. I grew up with one of those like silhouette looking rocket ship vans.

[Donut Operator]

You know, Chrysler Town and country.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, no, no, it was. I don't even know if the brand is around anymore, but it looked a lot like a rocket ship and it broke down like in the middle of the highway trying to cross the highway. And one of my earliest memories is my dad trying to get it back into gear and my mom like screaming at the. Because there's cars coming. That's the piece of.

[Donut Operator]

I know exactly what you're talking about.

[Brandon Herrera]

You know which one Right.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, it. Was it a Mercury? I don't know. This is.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So it was white, but. So it looked exactly like a rocket. We called it the rocket ship. I was getting. My mom had to take me to the police station one time. Not to derail from funker530, but I.

[Donut Operator]

Was gonna say I derailed.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, well, so I'll never forget that van because I played. So I played lacrosse in high school, and a buddy of mine lived close to the local dump. I am not proud of this story. Let me just be clear. Like, there's a. There is a progression of trying to be better every day. And we're still working on it. He lived close to the local dump. And one day my mom had dropped me off over there, and he said, do you want to go drive bulldozers? I was like, yeah, dude. Absolutely. I was like, 14.

[Brandon Herrera]

So anyway, there I was at Mr. Heemeyer's house.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So we go over there anyway, we end up finding a big. What's the one with the big arm? An excavator. It was a Komatsu. And I'll never forget that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Mr. Heemeyer's house.

[Ronnie Adkins]

And it had the key in it. So we drove that son of a bitch all around the dump, and we. We crashed it. Let me put it that way. Well, my mom drove up in the rocket ship to lacrosse practice. I was a freshman in high school, might have been a sophomore. And she was like, did you drive a bulldozer? And I'll never forget. I was like, yep. And I sat all the way back because she couldn't reach me back there. Well, eventually that other guy was getting hemmed up for stealing a cop car.

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[Ronnie Adkins]

A laptop out of it and a gun, and then using the gun to shoot the laptop. So somehow they were trying. They were actually trying to connect me to that. And I got there and I was like, let me be clear. I drove the big piece of machinery.

[Donut Operator]

I only stole the big.

[Brandon Herrera]

Which is objectively the most expensive thing in that story, but I'm just saying.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Anyway, so, yes, I bought my wife this Toyota Sienna. And where did we end up, end up on the Toyota Sienna?

[Brandon Herrera]

Syrian civil war.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So we stood up 530 had stood up this channel for the Syrian Civil War, and we were starting to archive footage there. Archive is an important word. We were archiving it there, trying to help people understand just the absolute goat rope, as much of that pun is intended as you want to take it, that is these factions in the Middle east that are fighting against each other, sometimes alongside each other. We actually just had a pretty big incident with two soldiers killed in Syria. Right. Because of these weird factional loyalties where.

[Brandon Herrera]

It'S all like really like localized tribal ships.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Culturally speaking. It's. It's. It's difficult to wrap your mind around. But, you know, something I talk about a lot is, you know, you stand. Is subject to where you sit. Right. So anyway, we had stood this channel up and then YouTube just deleted it one day, like three strikes, boop, boop, boop, gone. And we were like, oh, we need to have a way to archive this war footage off of social media and at. At From a perception perspective with that being reality. From the outside looking in, it's like, oh, you're just putting up, like, war footage. Well, we sent Hemingway and Hollywood directors to World War II, right. So we sent them in there to try and bring back some semblance of understanding. Primarily only because we needed to sell war bonds, though.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So the stuff that they brought back was like, rah, rah, go get them, boys. But what happened to all of this stuff in between that? Right. So that reality, that is war. And I'm not necessarily an anti war guy. Sometimes it is necessary to shoot somebody in the face. You know, organizationally that sometimes you have to do that. But if we can better understand it and make decisions around it from an informed position, that is the design of funker530. So everybody that is a member of our writing staff is a veteran. Right. Two of them are Purple Heart recipients. So you got Will and you got Josh. Josh Brooks is a published author. Hell of a dude, Absolute giant of a human being. And I hate taking photos next to him because I am not a short man. I am 5 10. Josh is a giant. So if we can stop using that as a comparative, you know, kind of thing, I'd appreciate it.

[Brandon Herrera]

5 tens above average height. Just throwing that out there.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So you got Josh, machine gunner 0331. You got Will. He goes by Will Kilmore, which is Sick. Sick name to go by. But he was. He was a mortarman, an 11 Charlie, saw some of the worst areas of Afghanistan and described to me what it looks like when a human being is shot with a.50 cal. And he said it turns them into spaghetti. And I can't get that out of my head. Now that's in my head. Movies to see spaghetti. Anyway, then we've got a space cop. So he's an Air Force guy, but he's also a federal law enforcement officer for an agency that deals with space. I don't know whether I was even supposed to say that or not, but that's what he does. He covers a lot of our law enforcement footage.

[Donut Operator]

Some force that deals with space.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Thankfully, there's actual police too. There's at least two. So we got the space force.

[Brandon Herrera]

So the other one. Man, I would hate to be the person responsible for making sure you say nothing in an interrogation.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Not gonna go well. I'm an intel guy. I am not some CRC graduate. Let me put it that way. And then we've got.

[Brandon Herrera]

We just need to give you a coffee, you guys.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, this guy, six ounces of Elijah Craig, he starts spilling the fucking beans.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Have you guys ever seen the photo of the Marine with a PPSH clearing the stairwell?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yes, actually.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It's one of the most. One of the most iconic photos from, like, early gwa. What about the Marine dropping.

[Donut Operator]

Dropping the grenade.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Grenade vibe, check.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yep.

[Ronnie Adkins]

One of our writers. Both of those Marines are his Marines.

[Brandon Herrera]

No shit. No. Yeah. Were these, like, photo op kind of things where they were around legit?

[Donut Operator]

So.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So there was a reporter that was embedded with them. And the fun story I'll tell on the PPSH thing is they had just been instructed, or. Excuse me, within 24 hours of the PPSH photo being taken, there was an embedded reporter. He was taking photos of him. They were instructed not to use the enemy's guns to clear houses. Well, the reporters had taken that photo prior, but then that got put out to.

[King Trout]

Oh.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So anyway, so Cam. Cam Fallujah, 2004, veteran. When it comes to, like, mechanized warfare, and you know what it is you're actually looking at when you see what we're dealing with right now in, like, Ukraine, for ex even a lot of this stuff coming out of Israel with Israel driving through Gaza and how exactly mechanized warfare works. Dude, it's some of the best writing you've ever seen, Josh, walking you through what nearsight ambush looks like. Linear ambush, L. L shaped ambush. You know, beaten zones with machine guns. The intent and structure behind Funker530 is. Is designed to archive this from a. From a position of knowledge rather than for the purposes of it being just war.

[Brandon Herrera]

We were going through a lot of really cool shit really quick. The PPSh 41 picture, like, going back to that, because I don't know if you're like me, you've seen that a hundred times. So that was completely unironic. They were just. The dude was using.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The dude was quite literally clearing that stairwell with that ppsh.

[Brandon Herrera]

So when I first thought about it, I'm like, this has to be a meme because, like, in the modern age of, you know, modern military equipment, you know, M4s, acogs, whatever. I'm like, there's no way I would use a PPSA. 72 rounds of 762 by 25 right Mach. Actually, come to think of it, how much does it weigh?

[Ronnie Adkins]

It's not heavy. I don't think it's that heavy.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, for modern standards. For a sub gun, it's modern.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Fair enough. Yeah.

[King Trout]

It's always the hard part.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It's awkward to hold.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, I'll give you that.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So especially with the drum. So if you have the drum on it. I've only ever shot, I think, 9 mil versions of it, but that's the one one. That's the one. Yeah. No.

[King Trout]

Does he have any other guns on his back?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So with a. Oh, yeah. With a loaded drum, it is £12.

[Ronnie Adkins]

That's heavy. Yeah, I guess it is heavy.

[King Trout]

That's. I don't. Still lighter than the new sig. Was it the last episode when we were just talking about the sig? We just talked about that. I don't know when.

[Brandon Herrera]

I don't know if it's one of my favorite topics, so if you want to dive into it.

[King Trout]

Dude, that. I was reading the stats, we were talking about it, and then the biggest thing that stood out to me, I was like, man, that sounds heavy as. And then you read all the soldiers complaints. This is heavy as fuck. I don't want to. It's four pounds heavier than your standard AR or M4. Which. Kidding.

[Brandon Herrera]

It beats you up to the XM7 or the M7 now, right?

[King Trout]

Six eight.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The six spear.

[Brandon Herrera]

Six eight by seven. 277 fury.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah. Six eight by five one is like that NATO designation for. But it's the 277 fury.

[Brandon Herrera]

I've been told that the. And I don't want to misquote this, but the new. It's the M7A1. The new model of it the 13.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Or the chop down version?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah, they're like, oh, it's far too heavy. So they're like, let's shorten the barrel and do a bunch of like. They took the weight off in the weirdest places.

[Ronnie Adkins]

That's.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, I think they.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh.

[Brandon Herrera]

And when they reweighed it, I was.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Told.

[Brandon Herrera]

Pretty sure I could say this. When they reweight it, they weighed it without the optic and without magazine and everything else, they're like, look at how.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, my God.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's actually technically lighter than the M4 because they had the M4 with the optics and everything on it. And. Yeah. So they pushed it to high brass saying that like, oh, look, it's actually really light. And we fixed all the problems, which they.

[King Trout]

They tricked the system. I will tell you the first thing you start doing overseas, stripping everything you can of weight.

[Donut Operator]

You're like, I'm gonna lug this around all day.

[King Trout]

50 cal. We brought on one mission. You know why? Because heavy.

[Ronnie Adkins]

You guys humped a 50 cal one.

[King Trout]

Time and we're like, dude, these M14s.

[Donut Operator]

The AT4.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, you're talking about like a Barrett.

[Donut Operator]

Immediately fire it so you don't have to carry around the rocket anymore.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I imagine you guys humping like a. Like a ma deuce or something.

[Brandon Herrera]

M82.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Okay.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Wow. You guys are gangsters carrying that around.

[Brandon Herrera]

But the AT four story is funny because that's like the opposite of military doctrine. Like, never, never initiate an ambush with either a rocket or an open bolt machine gun.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Correct.

[King Trout]

Because Chunk. And now everywhere, like, if you're. If you engage ambush with one of those, you start it with a. You kick it off. Open bolt can just fall forward. And then you just made the loudest, like, clonk. And it's like. Because a lot of times people won't rack it enough. So nothing's racked. So it's just a fucking huge metal click now. Enemies turn, start shooting wherever the they heard that. Or AT four is just. I mean, we missed like, flow fucking. And then it went up, then hit the house behind it.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

Uh.

[King Trout]

Oh, shoot.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is.

[Donut Operator]

This is if anyone at the Hague is watching. It did not hit the house behind.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, this has been very revealing for me. I had the chance to shoot a Live at 4 once, and it was all the way back in basic. I was like that one kid that they let fire the live rocket. Because I mentioned this earlier. I was a part of my high school's marksmanship team, so I shot expert. I actually wasn't the first choice, because none of them liked me. Some chick shot expert, and she was supposed to be the first choice, and she didn't want to do it. So it. It had to defer to me by the rules. So the drill sergeant was like, don't fuck this up, dude. Like, you had better. We have one live round. I was like, bro, I'm gonna nail this. This is fine. There's a difference between confidence and hubris, okay? So I had been nailing the thin line. I had been nailing the little 9 millimeter, like, testers, just stroking them every time. And I look at the guy with the live round, and I'm like, bro, if I aim center mass with this, is it gonna hit? And he was like, yep, not a problem. So I said, okay. Backblast area clear. And everybody screams, all clear. And I push the button, and for a split second, nothing happens. And it's not even a split second. It's a fraction of a second because there's a delay.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

And I didn't know that, so I'll never forget this. So as I'm sitting there and that delays happen, and I go to look at him like this. Like, just that little bit.

[Donut Operator]

Oh.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh. And that thing just comes out. Pings off the top of that thing. Just. And you can see it the whole way in. It pings off the top of the tank. And I don't know. It probably went into some grandma's backyard or something. I don't know where it went, but that. I need a. I need a redemption. So if somebody out there can give me a redemption on my one live at four round.

[Brandon Herrera]

And if you got a second, I'd also like to shoot. But no. I was at an undisclosed training ground at one point, and they had just fired 84s there. I don't know how long ago, but they had done it at one point, and they had to shut off an entire area of forest because they had dudes shooting at 4s at targets all day, blowing shit up. And one dude just sailed.

[Donut Operator]

One.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just. They went. And everybody waited to hear the explosion.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Nothing. Send another zip code at that point.

[Brandon Herrera]

Nothing. Not a damn thing.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It's gone.

[King Trout]

I'd be like, fuck. Those are, as you said it was. Sontrain was big on. Hey, it weighs less when you just have the tube. Ah, yes. Let's always just shed weight. When we walk out to missions and we have to go back, this makes a lot of sense. We cut water. Like, everything we'd bring out on those ops is like, get rid of. Make it as light as possible. Hope for an engagement. So you're like kicking rounds off, shooting, getting rid of everything and then walking right back.

[Brandon Herrera]

Also Chase or Fenn, make sure that my hand gesture was off camera for that. Because I can't wait to see that screenshot all over this one. Yeah, that one. That's make sure that was off too. Cuz I'm in frame for that.

[King Trout]

Do you ever struggle with tiny toiletry bottles?

[Donut Operator]

No.

[King Trout]

Well, with mando struggle no more. I would not want to spread whole body deodorant on you, Nick.

[Mando Sponsor]

It's going to get all clumpy in my chest hair, but look like I've been rolling around in mashed potatoes.

[Brandon Herrera]

How well does it lubricate?

[Mando Sponsor]

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

[Ronnie Adkins]

I'm gonna tell that to everyone at.

[Brandon Herrera]

The Magic the Gathering tournament.

[Mando Sponsor]

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.

[King Trout]

Is up.

[Mando Sponsor]

He's turned. Time to shower.

[Brandon Herrera]

Finally fatty curdled.

[Mando Sponsor]

Thanks to Mando.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's also named after Mount Fuji.

[Mando Sponsor]

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

[Brandon Herrera]

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

[Ronnie Adkins]

What?

[Mando Sponsor]

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

[Brandon Herrera]

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

[Mando Sponsor]

Not going to come for at least 72 hours.

[Brandon Herrera]

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

[Mando Sponsor]

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[King Trout]

Our kids are Nick. Dead.

[Brandon Herrera]

The cops are coming.

[Mando Sponsor]

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

[Brandon Herrera]

Actually does smell pretty damn good.

[King Trout]

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

[Brandon Herrera]

I have bourbon leather.

[Mando Sponsor]

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 jokes on you. We're into that. This isn't your average deodorant or antiperspirant.

[Mando Sponsor]

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[King Trout]

It's perfect.

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[King Trout]

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[Ronnie Adkins]

It would not be the first time I've been called a Nazi in the last, like three weeks. And the last time was because I dry fired on my back porch.

[Brandon Herrera]

I actually wanted to talk about, I wanted to talk about that because, man, that was the most innocent, innocuous video ever. You're just like, man, I'm loving life. I'm drinking bourbon, I'm grilling steaks.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So happy. People that understand what I would. There are people that understand what I was posting on that. That's what.

[Donut Operator]

Just before we started recording, I was, I brought that up and I was like, no, we gotta, we gotta wait till cameras are pointed at us. Because the story I was gonna tell you was I. I woke up, it's like 7:30 in the morning, and I open my phone and I just go through like, each app, I read the news or whatever, and then I open up X. And you know how it has the, like, trending or whatever. It says Ronnie Atkins receiving. I can't remember.

[King Trout]

Backlash.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, receiving backlash over dry firing pistol. And I was like, oh, God, what do you do? And I watched the video. It's so fucking innocuous.

[Brandon Herrera]

I, I remember watching or looking at it because I only saw it through through, quote, tweets.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, nice.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, I didn't even see the original video. I just saw the, quote, tweets and people screenshotting or whatever and I just look at it. I'm like, wait, hold on. Why are the septum piercings mad at Ronnie?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, dude, you're what? You're eating steak, smoking cigars, and doing dry fire drills.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The amount of insults I had to Google, like, I know I'm, I'm. I'm stupid. Like, nobody, nobody knows how stupid I am more than I do. I had to Google so many insults.

[Brandon Herrera]

What are your favorites?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Camp. Camp.

[Donut Operator]

How do you spell it?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Camp. Like C A, M, E. Somebody said, this is so camp and something, something. And actually that's the one. That's the one that Cody retweeted. And I commented to Cody, I was like, cody, I. I don't know what that means, bud.

[Brandon Herrera]

Cody retweeted it to spite you.

[Ronnie Adkins]

No, no, he was, he was like, why are people mad at this? So the original intent, and there's actually an int. It's not.

[Brandon Herrera]

Are you gonna tell us what camp means?

[Ronnie Adkins]

I still don't know what it means.

[Donut Operator]

I think it means gay.

[Ronnie Adkins]

No, it's. It means something else. Hold On I got this.

[Brandon Herrera]

What is great content Urban Dictionary Camp.

[Donut Operator]

So bad.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's good, except it's gay. That is the.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, I was saying, I thought I've heard, like, I've heard gay guys call things camp.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The irony. The irony behind that is very, very interesting to me. Me, I'll just put it that way.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. Nobody tell his wife he's gay.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Or my three kids or. Yeah, well, everybody measures their man out on like, weird shit. Now. They're like, if you don't do this, you're not being a real man. I'm like, well, I got three kids. I'll do whatever the I want. All right?

[Brandon Herrera]

So I just love that. They're like, my man's on his own property drinking bourbon, grilling steaks and dry firing a handgun. And they're like, clearly a homosexual.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, that. That was kind of inadvertently. Their point is, like, that I was performing this to show how much of a man I am. Well, first of all, I almost brought my roller skates down here to dry fire and. Roller skates. I don't give a What you think. I used to jive skate for competition. I don't give a. Oh, yeah, like this was a thing.

[Donut Operator]

We both had the same. What does that mean?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Like, you know, like the roller skating rinks, big afro dancing on four wheeled skates.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was horrified. That's what you thought?

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, that's. That's what I thought it meant rollerblades.

[King Trout]

And then the N word.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It's crazy.

[Brandon Herrera]

Excuse me, stewardess.

[Ronnie Adkins]

If you think that that was performative masculinity, tell me that when I'm wearing fruit boots. Okay, so the story behind that is actually a really interesting one because I was at a gun show, like the. So the Dulles Expo, they actually stopped doing the biggest gun show in Virginia. My family's been in virginia since like 1624. I'm very proud to be a Virginian and I will fight tooth and nail to stay in Virginia. First of all, I thought you said.

[Donut Operator]

He had three kids.

[Ronnie Adkins]

What.

[Donut Operator]

City have three kids? But you're Virginian.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, I hate that. I know the joke.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, my God. I just told you I was stupid. All right, so I was at. I was at this show and Arizona, small company that was like, hey, will you try our holster? And I was like, yeah, dude. You know, and they only wanted 60 bucks.

[Donut Operator]

What was under this thunder?

[King Trout]

Okay.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was very unhappy with what just happened.

[Donut Operator]

Apparently, God hated that Virginian joke. It was that bad.

[King Trout]

That's the line.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It was that bad. So I Got this brand new holster for this new Glock 45 I had just bought and used, first of all. So I bought a Glock 45. I. I didn't even have a holster for it yet. And I was talking to this local company. They gave me this holster. So I got home, and I was home alone. And for. I'm carnivore, so of course I'm going to be cooking a steak. That's all I eat is meat, right? Well, at least 90% of my diet.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm understanding the campy part now.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So I was like, oh, I'm gonna throw a steak on the grill. And then I'm sitting there, I'm like, okay, well, I got this new holster. I'll put this holster in, and I'll give this thing a shot. You know, I suck, but I'm gonna try it. And then I realized, oh, I'm still home alone. You know, I'm out here in the back deck. It's a beautiful night. I'm gonna have a glass of bourbon. So I have a glass of bourbon, and then I'm like, bro, this is a awesome night. I am having a great time, and I hope the boys will appreciate this kind of night that I'm having. So I literally propped my phone up on the bourbon glass, and I was like, this is my night, guys. And then I made it into some discord somewhere, and it turned into this absolute chaos of, quote, performative masculinity. I didn't know what the fuck that was.

[Brandon Herrera]

This white man's having a good time.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Get him that guy.

[King Trout]

It would have been hilarious ending that video. It's like whiskey, that dry fire, sucking a. It just said that. Then I was like, oh, oh, wait.

[Brandon Herrera]

All you had to do. All you had to do was respond to one of them, like, one of the bigger ones, just like, well, I am gay. And then they would have all been like, oh, shit, we're accident. We're queer bashing our team.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah. Yeah. It just. What made it distressing for me is I actually.

[Brandon Herrera]

That one got Eli.

[King Trout]

Well, I just. The flashbang of you.

[Ronnie Adkins]

After just.

[King Trout]

And just normal dry fire technique.

[Donut Operator]

Well, that's why I pretend to be.

[King Trout]

Gay on the Internet. Everyone be like, oh, what the Fuck was that?

[Donut Operator]

Mr. Atkins, can I have one of your space zins?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Thank you, sir.

[Brandon Herrera]

These are.

[Ronnie Adkins]

They're nine. They're nines.

[King Trout]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I'm about to go. Fun story about these. So these are actually my favorite. Not sponsored by Zone, but I could be just saying. Well, it's technically Canadian what's fun about these, though, is these are illegal in Canada. So they export these only zone made in Canada. They're made in Canada, but they are illegal in Canada. So I was under the new American Marksman brand. We were up there spectating King of two mile, and I was talking with some of the competitors. I was interviewing one of them, and I was like, hey, you want one of mine? And he was like, I can't have that. Those are illegal. And I was like, first of all.

[Donut Operator]

I can't have that.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I was like, first of all, Maybe like, you can have it. Trust me, I'm not gonna tell on you. But what do you mean they're illegal? Yeah, these are made in Canada. Yeah, it says right there, made in Canada, but illegal in Canada. And I didn't. It. It clicked my first time to Canada. I went up there and I took a rifle and I. I forgot to bring zins or any nicotine really, at all. I had like one pouch or one. One of these, and I ran out. So I went and I stopped at the. The gas station. The highest that they'll go is 4 milligrams. You cannot find other than 4. I. I stopped at like 5 different gas stations before I realized that that was the legal limit of what you could get.

[Brandon Herrera]

And realistically, everybody only makes them in threes. Below, like, there's not like a.

[King Trout]

There's sixes, three, three.

[Brandon Herrera]

But I mean, like below four, it's like, really? What? Like with Zins, they only make.

[King Trout]

You would add a threes. Yeah, correct. You want to have fours, you would have had threes.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So what the. So I was hunting around for them, and at like the, I don't know, fifth or sixth gas. Like it. I'll just. I'll just like quad. Quad rip these things. Two in the top, two in the bottom, one in the ass. And let's go.

[Brandon Herrera]

All right, Tucker, calm down.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So come to find out later. Yeah, they have a legal cap on that. And so another problem. I take in like 13. This is. These. This is not okay. All right, I'm pouring it out for you. I take in like 1300 milligrams a day of caffeine.

[Donut Operator]

I'll say. I know.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It is a ridiculous amount of caffeine, and it's not okay. Well, it's okay because that's what I want to do. And I do whatever the. I want.

[Brandon Herrera]

America.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, as it turns out, all of their energy drinks are half caffeinated as well.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, Echelon is illegal in Canada. If I'm not mistaken. Yeah.

[King Trout]

Spicy one is.

[Brandon Herrera]

I didn't know the 300. 300.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I didn't know that. I I that was like the place we were staying. Didn't have coffee or anything. So that was like our energy in the morning. We were getting up early because we were flying to the top of the Rockies, doing all kinds of crazy coffee.

[Brandon Herrera]

Imagine being babied by your nanny state to where they will tell you you can't have nicotine or caffeine. Get that MX gold cart ready. I'm way too tired to cook tonight.

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[Donut Operator]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[Ronnie Adkins]

The entire time I'm under caffeinated. I am under nicotinated. I have just not enough of my.

[King Trout]

About to say the same thing.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Not enough of my substance abuse am I able to achieve in Canada. The second time I went to Canada, I drove a tank, though. So at this point.

[Donut Operator]

Oh, yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I feel like if, I feel like if I go back too many times, I'm just going to end up prime minister. Right. First time, I took a gun.

[Brandon Herrera]

Second time, and then afterward you can pork down Katy Perry.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah.

[King Trout]

A lot of money.

[Donut Operator]

I don't even know who that nine's hitting. My palms are sweaty.

[King Trout]

Dude, a six. When I first got into sixes, I was like, oh. And then I just stopped forever.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Sometimes I fall asleep with nines in my. In my face.

[Donut Operator]

You're an insane person.

[Brandon Herrera]

Are you serious?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, dear Lord.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, it's bad, dude. Like, it's not okay. Nobody knows how bad of bad I am other than me.

[Brandon Herrera]

I think that's just called passing out. You didn't go to sleep.

[Donut Operator]

You just fucking.

[Brandon Herrera]

Nicotine's a stimulant.

[Mando Sponsor]

I fell asleep.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I thought nicotine was kind of an upper.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, it's a stimulant.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah. Oh, my God.

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[King Trout]

Right?

[Brandon Herrera]

I can leave.

[Donut Operator]

Brandon.

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[Brandon Herrera]

Up here, big boy.

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[King Trout]

Brandon, how perfect are they?

[Brandon Herrera]

Feels like the perfect jeans.

[King Trout]

They're so flexible.

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I'm fat. I can actually do squats on them.

[King Trout]

Usually that's an issue.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm picturing you do doing squats. In the gym with these jeans, I could.

[King Trout]

Dude, they are like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Eli's just mogging on the audience right now.

[King Trout]

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[Brandon Herrera]

It's August in Texas. We're all wearing jeans.

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[King Trout]

That's right. Today we're talking about the perfect jean. Brandon, how'd my jeans feel on your neck?

[Brandon Herrera]

Feels like I need to talk to hr.

[King Trout]

But they were comfortable, right?

[Brandon Herrera]

Absolutely.

[King Trout]

This brand, the Perfect Gene, it's actually perfect. It's real denim, but not the heavy stuff.

[Mando Sponsor]

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[Brandon Herrera]

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[King Trout]

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[King Trout]

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[Brandon Herrera]

Not with that attitude.

[King Trout]

Use that one.

[Brandon Herrera]

And again, that's free returns, free exchanges. When you use code unsub15 at checkout.

[Mando Sponsor]

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[King Trout]

He does. They fit him really nice.

[Mando Sponsor]

Oh, pants.

[Donut Operator]

Completely off the rails here. We started a conversation just before cameras started rolling. You're on a television show?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, well, sort of. Well, I mean, it's not sort of like.

[Brandon Herrera]

I feel like that's like a half pregnant thing. You either are or you're not.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah. So I did. I did get a chance to do a show and it was. It was because it's. It's because of the work with funker530. Because what we were. What we started doing. I host a live show for funker530 every Friday. Right. I'll give you. I'll work backwards from there. So every Friday, what I do, rather than just show you, here's a video of some poor bastard running from a drone while he looks back at it. But what I try to do is a. Not cover too much of that shit. It's been documented. We understand the capability that drones bring. The real conversation.

[Brandon Herrera]

It's not just war porn.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The real conversation. Correct. That's the intent, at least. The conversation to have about drones is that they really transcend all of our war fighting functions. When you look at logistics, intelligence fires themselves. So actually kinetic strikes drones are what are being used. Kazakh. Right. They're putting casualties on unmanned ground vehicles and taking them out of the battle space. So when, when we have one of those transcendent things with drones, that's when I cover that stuff.

[Brandon Herrera]

I mean, just speaking of which, just a couple of days ago, Ukraine took out that, that Russian submarine. It's like a half billion dollar sub they took out with an underwater drone.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, yeah. So an underwater. They actually just released. I was looking at it right before we started some satellite photos. And Russia currently, this is a like classic Russia is saying, nuh, but they took satellite photos before and after. And all the other subs have been moved except for that one. They were like, no, oh, see, it's still there.

[Brandon Herrera]

And so there just happens to be a floating dead submarine right where it.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Because it's a beached whale, you idiots. That's so there. I mean, drones themselves, they transcend everything. All war fighting functions.

[Brandon Herrera]

The entire crew just got sleepy.

[Ronnie Adkins]

They're just, they're fine.

[Donut Operator]

The subs on its side because it's taking a nap.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So the live show every Friday, it's meant. I actually give you like a geolocation of where this video takes place relative to the flot, the forward line of troops. And I say, look man, this is where this video takes place. This is the general operation that's taking place around it. This is, you know, at least my assessment. As an intel dweeb, I'm the most pogue dude to ever peruse the Internet, trust me.

[Brandon Herrera]

Meanwhile, Russians are watching your live stream like, like it's where now?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, dude, I got, I got dosed by Russia.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, my.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, my whole home network got taken down multiple times when I first started the live show. No, yeah, it was my own fault, but.

[Donut Operator]

What'd you do?

[Ronnie Adkins]

It's kind of hard to. To say because it was a distributed denial of service. This gets into my civilian background. So I was a cyber security guy for like 14 years in the intelligence community. But I, I was live streaming one of our first live live shows. Is that hail? No, that's just rain. And we were doing so much website traffic that our website crashed and a Cloudflare, which is one of our at the time hosting services, I guess sort of popped up. A Cloudflare message popped up with my ip, so my external interface IP in the middle of the live show. I've got like 20, 000 concurrent viewers. My whole home network just dropped. Right. So I, I mean being a former cyber security guy, like I used to conduct digital forensics investigations into like, you know, child stuff like that. Like, I, I used to really be active in cyber security. I, I took a look through my logs and it's difficult when it's a distributed denial of service because that means it comes from many, many, many different places. And overwhelming majority of the IPs that were hitting my forward interface were all Russian, so. But you could be in California and hire a DDOS service. There used to be what the nerds out there will know, the high or the low orbit ion cannon. High orbit ion cannon that, that Anonymous used to use or that became popular with like the 4chan, the script kiddies and stuff. Anyway, I still believe that it was either somebody that was just fucking around, which is a high likelihood, or it was quite literally, you know, just a state sponsored actor, which is something I dealt with for I did cyber counterintelligence. I dealt with foreign intelligence entities getting placement and access into that monitor and that computer down there in a supply chain level. That was my focus.

[Donut Operator]

What would you have done that would have pissed off the Russkies?

[Ronnie Adkins]

I don't know really, because it's really about just conveying what's happening.

[Brandon Herrera]

So you weren't even like delving down into like the partisan nature of it?

[Ronnie Adkins]

I actually don't care much about that, to be honest.

[King Trout]

As Russia looking at how they, they present themselves or even North Korea is a good example. They try to present, we are winning, we are strong. If you have, oh, we can access a vpn, watch American news and then you have an individual breaking down their, their failures at a military level. Now it's causing discourse in their own home country. It's like, oh, we're not as good as we think we are. Fuck, we've been presented. We're unstoppable.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, in those early days, Russia was just what? Russia was just taking ground like within the first couple days, dude, they had made it all the way to Kiev, right? And there are one of the most watched videos on funker 530 right now is a video of a Russian saboteur team making its way in with a, in an armored personnel carrier and they just start taking fire from all over the place. In Kiev, right? Those early days, Russia in that very kind of like, I wouldn't say blitzkrieg esque, but more or less just barreling in. They made a lot of ground and.

[Brandon Herrera]

Eventually they were pushing, pushing in Taking airports like they were, they, they were.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So the siege of. When they took Hostamel is, is what that is. Right. So they, their intent was to have a launch pad from Hostomel to be able to funnel more combat power into and eventually force a capitulation early. That's.

[Donut Operator]

That's the airport where the Spetsnaz took.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yes, yeah. Some of the wildest footage. Right. Having you know, really about a decade worth of footage, combat footage review. Because even before I was with 530, I was doing like initial analysis on ISIS releases when I was supporting, I was supporting the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency at one point. And when ISIS would release their footage, one of the things that you try to do is geolocate stuff and you say okay, what's the skyline look like? Is. Can I triangulate this like geogueser type? Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

He will not divide US level. Like what are you the flag story?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Not to derail, but it was like the, the Shia LaBeouf.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So you had 4chan that was looking at like the.

[Ronnie Adkins]

And they found it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Patterns in the sky. They would find it within rural Tennessee. 12 hours.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Autism, weaponized autism. So. So I was doing that for a few years and then, you know, now at 5:30, it's something I just kind of continue. And, and going back, the intent was to take Azumel, right. We're able to, to then funnel more combat power in. But that position became untenable because they had like five different fronts they were advancing on. They came from Chernobyl in Bernou, not Bernou, excuse me, Belarus. They pushed to try and establish the land bridge between the Dombas and Crimea, which they were successful in doing. That land bridge is now established. So that was a sub function or a sub go goal of theirs. But they had all of these different fronts and it just functionally was not a tenable position for them. So early on I was helping people kind of understand some of those, some of those nuances to what a. At a strategic level an operation like this looks like that's the, that's all source intelligence is really supposed to be able to describe things at a, at a 30,000 foot level and distill them in a way that makes sense. Right, You're. It's only as good as the analysts though. So I've met half of my platoon way back in 2007 that went through AIT got thrown out for coke abuse. So all intelligence is less about the. What's the term that they use where it's, it's the job title, not the description. Right. So, but that's the, the, the funker 530 live shows. I try, I try and place it in time and space for you as best as I can from a, if you, if you take things up to a larger perspective, I think there is some level of value in debasing our adversaries. There has to be an end state behind that to a certain perspective. Like there has to there. We have to know when that's gonna, when we're not. That's, that's no longer tenable for us. And I don't claim to know enough to know when that is my goal. And my job as at 5:30 with the live show is this is, this video. This is the technique that you're seeing. This is how it fits into an overall strategy. This is where it takes place in time and space. Let's move on to the next video.

[Donut Operator]

When you say adversaries, do you mean adversaries of the United States?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Absolutely. Yeah. So we do have adversaries. A lot of people that don't believe that we do. Thirteen years in the intelligence community and everything from counterintelligence to threat intelligence. I could tell you that there are big four that are out there that are actively in 100% at all times positioning themselves against China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, North Korea.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yay.

[Ronnie Adkins]

North Korea actually has a really capable cyber program.

[Donut Operator]

Good job.

[King Trout]

Their cyber program is. That's where they spent a lot of their resources. It's like, hey, we have to develop these individuals and this is how we're going to make money. Since we're restricted on everything. So which is learn to hack, learn to crush. No, they, they like, no, no.

[Brandon Herrera]

Why? Well, I'm just saying. I was going to say this is, that's very entertaining to me considering we were wiping them off the board with that early on because they were attempting it and we were just like, oh, dude, they're running like 30 year old windows.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So if you think back, North Korea actually crossed a boundary that nobody had before. Right. So back in my day when I was still doing this, I can't believe I'm old enough to say, which is when I left full time cybersecurity work in 2022 when I did the TV show. No, no, no. So, so that's actually where it gets interesting. I, I dropped into us to the organization that would eventually become US Cyber Command when I was 20 years old. My entire career in the army is. That's why I say I'm the most pogged ever, ever be. I am King Pogue and you will not unseat me. We can even fight about that if you'd like. But my entire military career has been Army Reserve. So in parallel, and I've got a whole diatribe that I go into about like using your solely your military service as a measurement of your value on, you know, back to the world. But in parallel, my civilian career was progressing much faster by the time I was 20. In 2009, 2010ish, I joined an organization that would eventually turn into United States Cyber Command. Co located with the nsa. I was also Army Reserve, so I had yet to deploy. I didn't deploy until 2013 with the Army Reserve. So by that time I had moved into cyber counterintelligence. We were investigating foreign intelligence entity entities that were actively compromising like critical networks and stuff that we use. I even did some liaison work for the agency. Starts with a C, ends with agency. I spent a little, I moved under the DHS umbrella eventually. Then I started moving into management. A little bit out of the technical, but that's where I started to get into a little bit of digital forensics.

[Brandon Herrera]

So long story short, he knows exactly what you watch during those four minutes that you're getting your hair gel.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Dude, dude.

[King Trout]

Concerts hair gel sponsor starts now.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So that.

[King Trout]

Hey, what's up?

[Ronnie Adkins]

That's, that's actually what pushed so moving that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Running low on our pre order inventory. So I'm going to need some Gatorade.

[Donut Operator]

This guy likes blondes.

[King Trout]

Just with one scoop.

[Ronnie Adkins]

That, that last, that last move pushed me out of the government. I'm going to be honest. So once I, once I got into kind of insider threat type stuff like misuse versus insider threat, that's when it became like, holy. Growing up, I thought that the government and their employees were supposed to be the best of us. So being exposed, being exposed to the actual investigations that are being done behind the scenes. We investigated everything from child to drug use with government laptops to drug sales with government laptops. Now that's not me saying there are absolutely good people that are working in government. I mean people that wake up every day and their sole job and function is to serve the people of the United States by fulfilling a role within government that they want to. But the hypocrisy that I ran into of holding government office, they are most certainly not by and writ large the best of us, in my opinion.

[Brandon Herrera]

Now I'm going to ask you a question that may have to be cut.

[Donut Operator]

My brake lines are currently being cut as we speak.

[King Trout]

Cody, Cody, Cody, Cody. You remember the big wallet I had that was leather and crusty?

[Ronnie Adkins]

The one that hurt your back?

[King Trout]

It was so big, that one. Guess what I got now?

[Brandon Herrera]

A little wallet.

[Donut Operator]

Yes.

[King Trout]

By Ridge.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was one of many things that hurt your back because it was so big.

[King Trout]

Brandon's wallet blew his back out.

[Ronnie Adkins]

You've been cheating.

[Brandon Herrera]

But now we have Ridge wallet.

[King Trout]

Tyler, how do you like your American Ridge wallet? Now say hello to Ridge 2.0. What's that mean, Tyler?

[Ronnie Adkins]

There was 1.0 and this is 2.0.

[Brandon Herrera]

Nailed it.

[King Trout]

Over 50 colors and styles to choose from, like America.

[Brandon Herrera]

And now with the Ridge 2.0, it's even 10% lighter.

[Ronnie Adkins]

10% feels lighter. It has RFID blocking tech. It's an absolute blast over 100,000. Five star reviews. Dear Lord.

[Brandon Herrera]

The RFID blocking keeps you safe from digital pickpocketers, just like my gun keeps me safe from physical pickpocketers.

[King Trout]

Did you know Ridge has a lifetime warranty?

[Brandon Herrera]

I do now.

[King Trout]

I actually really like this design.

[Brandon Herrera]

For a limited time, Ridge is having their huge Black Friday sale.

[King Trout]

Head over to r I-e.com. get up to 47 off your order.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Almost 50 off your order@ridge wallet.com.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is by far the biggest discount.

[Ronnie Adkins]

They'Ve given all year.

[King Trout]

That's ridge.com to get 4:47 off.

[Brandon Herrera]

After your purchase, they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support the show and let them know we sent you. I'm going to ask you a question that may have to be cut from this, but did you ever run into a scenario where you're investigating one of these things and somebody came from higher up and told you, yeah, you're going to drop that?

[Ronnie Adkins]

No. Yes and no. So we ran into a couple of investigations where. So a lot of what we worked. I'll use an example outside of like child or anything like that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Right.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I'll use an example of like classified information spillage. We worked a lot of those. That happens a lot where you've got.

[Brandon Herrera]

So you've got these especially on War Thunder servers.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, my God, dude, don't let me go.

[King Trout]

That discord.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So it sucks being on the outside looking into a lot of these things because there's. There are. There are layers to things that I can be involved in from a conversational perspective. But this is actually really interesting. Well, I shouldn't say interesting. It's interesting to me. We ran into a couple instances where egos got in the way of holding people accountable for potential loss of actual national security information. What I mean by that is you have this. There are absolutely still organizations out there that have this factional understanding of like the contractors. Because I was a contractor for all of my time, right? So I was considered a cybersecurity subject matter expert. They would hire us to come in to do the real technical nuance. And I did that for many different companies for again almost 15 years. Well, we were the dirty contractors and we weren't allowed to be the ones to say, hey, government, you know, SES, whatever position that you hold, GS15, you fucked up because you printed on an unclassified printer that has access to an unclassified system using your classifier system, which means that that is technically now stored on a classified system. You, you up and we have to write that up. So there, there are, there were situations that we ran into where somebody was like, I don't work for you and I'm going to make sure that you guys have problems with your contract in the future. And it's like, what do you, are you threatening like our business because you had a security violation right now?

[Donut Operator]

And now it's.

[Ronnie Adkins]

But that's not how this works at all. There's actually one of the organizations I supported and I'm not going to go too far into this, but it just hit the news not too long ago. It starts with an F and it ends. It ends with Emergency Management Agency. I'd recommend you go and Google some of their cybersecurity organization that was recently fired. I ended my career with that organization. That was the one that I stepped away from to step into the team TV show actually.

[Donut Operator]

Just because they were bleeding out.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, it wasn't, it wasn't necessarily just that. After about 10, 11, 12 years worth of doing this, I started to realize I am an inside dog or I'm an outside dog stuck inside. I am not meant for corporate life. That's not my. This is not my game. I need to find an exit strategy. And that exit strategy came primarily a funker 5:30. But when I got brought onto the TV show it was like, this is it, I'm done.

[Brandon Herrera]

So feel free to tell me to off. But was that about the, the same time as like the Appalachian hurricane relief stuff or.

[Ronnie Adkins]

No, no. So this is actually more recent than that. It's fun. It's, it's interesting because I got a call from actually the lady I hired to be. Well, I didn't. I, I brought her back. So I, I deployed. There's a Whole story that goes along with, you know, user rights. So Uniform Services Employment and Re. Employment Rights Act. If you deploy for the military, they have to hold your job for you and you have what's called the escalator clause. The escalator clause means that if you left for a deployment or even if you voluntarily chose to sign up for the military, say you were supposed to automatically receive a promotion in two years and for some reason you got back at two and a half, you get that promotion and you get your job back. That's called the escalator clause. When I left for my first deployment, second deployment, excuse me, I was in the task order lead position at the time. There was not a program manager position. Task order lead. Like 15 or so employees ran a security operations center. One of the guys that I hired as like one of my employees was who they chose to backfill me as the task order lead and then they hired him as the program manager while I was gone. And when I came back, I, I had to work for him, right? So eventually that work, that problem worked itself out. That is not how Usera writes works. Or if you're watching this and you're dealing with a user, a problem, make sure to reach out to ESGR employer support to the Garden Reserve. They will, they will hook you up and help you out. Amazing organization. So the, the lady that I put, that I ended up really handing the reins off to, I had brought back because she was just so, so good. She called me like two months ago and was like, hey, I want you to Google FEMA and click on news right now. And basically a good old boy system got torn down. And it was, it was, it was that last straw for me that was kind of like, dude, I, I can't do this anymore. Like, I need to work for myself. I need to have nine jobs or something to pay the bills. Which is exactly how it worked out. I work, work more now than I ever have for way less money. But that's why I drink Elijah Craig.

[King Trout]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

But I, you know, I'm getting long winded about it. But you, you, you get these, you fall into what is considered like a dream career and you're like, wow, this is going to be amazing. And then through exposure to just absolute and politics in corporate life, you just realize that if you have a dream, and my dream was always to, to do what I do. Now give it a go. Dude, seriously.

[Brandon Herrera]

Now get that AMEX gold card ready. I'm way too tired to cook tonight.

[AMEX Gold Card Sponsor]

You read my mind. With the gold Card, we can get up to $120 a year in statement credits. Are you feeling the Cheesecake Factory? Five guys. Either of those sound good?

[Donut Operator]

Yes.

[AMEX Gold Card Sponsor]

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[Ronnie Adkins]

We're afloat. You know, my kids are fed. My. My oldest daughter is playing Olympic. Playing for our state's Olympic selection team. So the Olympic development pool just got that message, like, while we were live, that she made the, like, most recent cut.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

What's more, soccer. And I know. I don't know know all about soccer, dude. I don't know nothing about soccer.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know Americans typically aren't good at.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It, but somebody's gonna yell at me for calling it soccer football anyway. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So you live in the dream and still drinking Elijah Craig.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, so there, man. I've just got nothing but stories tonight. Holy.

[Brandon Herrera]

Because you had mentioned. You said that there was a reason why you'd brought Elijah Craig.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I did. I actually brought this for you guys. And then now I'm the only one that's drank any of it. And I. What's funny is I drank some of it before you guys even got here. Know if that's so Elijah Craig? I'm more of a bourbon enjoyer than a knower. But there are some people that consider Elijah Craig to be the father of all bourbon. So he was born in Virginia. I mentioned being a Virginian earlier.

[Donut Operator]

I don't know if you remember.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, so he was a Baptist.

[Brandon Herrera]

We hear thunder.

[Donut Operator]

God hates that joke.

[Ronnie Adkins]

He was a Baptist preacher, but he wasn't, like. It wasn't, like, certified or whatever the right word is for that or. Yeah, but it was. This is like, 1760s, something like that.

[Donut Operator]

1789, it looks like on the bottle.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, that might be when he started it down in Kentucky, but he was born in, like, the 1730s in Virginia. And in my hometown, I live in a town near. A town called Culpepper, Virginia. Virginia.

[Donut Operator]

What's your address?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, it's.

[Brandon Herrera]

It looks at his watch to determine his address.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, I don't know. How much more time do we have before I get asked what my Social Security number is? Anyway, he was actually jailed in Culpepper, Virginia. And the. Every year they do this, like, awesome little, like, celebration in Culpepper. About that and the Propaganda 100 sold me. It's also cheap, and I'm poor, so that's why I drink it.

[Brandon Herrera]

What do you go to jail for?

[Ronnie Adkins]

For preaching without having the, the appropriate certification to do that as a Baptist. So that's why he was put in jail. It was a big like religious liberty kind of thing for him, you know. I should be able to preach free.

[Donut Operator]

First Amendment then.

[Brandon Herrera]

No, well, actually would have been.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Certainly would have been.

[Brandon Herrera]

Actually, I keep looking at 1789, I'm.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Like, well, no, no, so. So. Because that was when he would move to Kentucky and established, you know, his distillery, right? 1789. Anyway, yeah, that's why I drink it. It's pretty good. You know, I enjoy it.

[King Trout]

It's always wild. Back in the day, I'm like, how did people know? It's at home. It's a two week ride. Okay, I'll trust him. Just like off. I'm not gonna check records for that shit back in the day.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm just, I'm blown away by that. That's just like such a British. Oh, you got a license to preach?

[King Trout]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I'm just spreading the gospel. You got a license for that?

[King Trout]

License, like also, Trout, what you've done in the last few months, what has been your favorite video? You have covered for your conspiracies and then. That's amazing, man.

[Brandon Herrera]

What an interesting video idea.

[King Trout]

Dude. Really?

[Ronnie Adkins]

That's amazing.

[King Trout]

Dude, you lost track.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Where does he get his inspiration from? That's what. That's the thing.

[Brandon Herrera]

Most riveting section of the podcast.

[King Trout]

He lost weight, right? Chase is just gonna cut to one and then back to when it's like, oh, hey, I'm here.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh.

[King Trout]

So North Korea's their GDP. 13 of it comes from cybercrime.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Dude, it's so bad.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like cyber crime.

[King Trout]

That's what I was saying.

[Donut Operator]

Like, I never even finished.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I got, I got on the back in my day thing. I don't know why I. I like a squirrel. Squirrel. You know, squirrel.

[Brandon Herrera]

Could it be the 9mg zins and the 1300mg of caffeine?

[Ronnie Adkins]

My wife is a wonderful, patient woman, I'll put it that way. So they actually crossed the first boundary, right? So back in my day, they called it computer network exploitation versus computer network attack. Right? So exploitation being. Imagine the online version of the Cold War, where you're doing it solely for the purposes of espionage and intelligence gain, right? Attack being something that's so much more harmful. You're destroying information, you're taking information down.

[Brandon Herrera]

Actively going on the offensive instead of just trying to penetrate networks. So, like that.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Sony, when they released the interview, which prominently showcases an actor acting to be be their dear leader.

[Brandon Herrera]

Great movie, by the way.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, it's a fantastic movie. I love that movie.

[Brandon Herrera]

So much as I may not like stuff broken.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Their servers were hacked into and things were deleted. Right. So that. That crossed the boundary from, like, exploitation or espionage online into attack because they were destroying information. And that was, I wouldn't say, like, you know, an epiphany or a revelation of any kind. Because the difference between, I mean, espionage or gathering something for intelligence value and for the destructive intent is solely intent. Right. So it's the same level of placement and access. If somebody wants to take your router down, if they just want to collect on you, they're going to gain the same level of access to do that. So all the difference is between espionage or exploitation and attack is intent.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. Do you think we should airstrike them? Because McDonald's made billions of dollars last year.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Sure, I don't care.

[Brandon Herrera]

I know somebody who agrees. There we go.

[King Trout]

He's gone.

[Donut Operator]

I know. Oh, my God.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Now I've got a Pete.

[King Trout]

All my pee pees gone. The best.

[Donut Operator]

Thousand pounds lighter.

[King Trout]

Dude, this on stage, when you have to hold it is the worst. I've only left stage once during a live show. And I was like, dude, this is this morning.

[Donut Operator]

I just told Brandon I had a dream this morning. It was like fucking 7am, 6am I had a dream where I pissed in my dream and I did not piss in real life. Oh, that's gotta be the first time that's ever happened.

[King Trout]

Dude, that happened a lot when I was a kid. And it's always that. It's like, you wake up. I would always have to pee really bad. Did you wake up and you're like, oh, yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I patted myself down and I went.

[Donut Operator]

And then sprinted to the bathroom.

[King Trout]

Dude, I used to do that as a child.

[Donut Operator]

It was the dumbest shit in the world.

[Ronnie Adkins]

But it.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, I had a dream where I was pissing at a urinal.

[King Trout]

One of my favorite Charlie Classic skits is the. Are you, like, falling asleep and you have to poop and then you wake up and you don't. You're like, where'd the poop go?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Your body reabsorbs it.

[King Trout]

Yeah, why don't I have to poop now? You have to take a so bad.

[Donut Operator]

That you, like, you have to hold it in whatever situation you're in, and then it just goes away and you're like, where did it go?

[King Trout]

Many times. But, dude, one of the last live shows that was I was actively watching the timer as it's getting close. It's too close to run to the pisser. And I'm like. And I look at Nick, and he's like, I have to piss up. And I was like, okay, cool. I love everyone. Let's give a nice round of applause. And I'm like, okay. And it's like, oh, you have to give away the flag.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, the. Yeah, we forgot. We whole ass. Forgot to do that in Jersey.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I didn't know how to.

[King Trout]

Knows why throw it.

[Donut Operator]

Y' all gotta put a tablecloth in front and then just have empty milk jugs.

[Brandon Herrera]

Real awkward for the people taking photos backstage.

[King Trout]

Dude, I was like. And thank you. Put it down. Me and Nick are sprinting to the.

[Brandon Herrera]

First restaurant in Boston. I played it fast and loose on the flight there with that airplane food. And I am dead serious. I was about to shit myself eating airplane chili. It was. It was a terrible. Like, I was in the restaurant.

[King Trout]

This sushi sounds amazing.

[Brandon Herrera]

Have you ever shit, like, legit, like, in public? Like. Like, full on yourself?

[Ronnie Adkins]

No. Just like.

[Donut Operator]

No.

[Ronnie Adkins]

No.

[Donut Operator]

Knock on wood.

[Ronnie Adkins]

What about your head again?

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, yeah.

[King Trout]

I've had. I've told my poop story at the. When I got super, I was home, so I was good, which is still embarrassing.

[Donut Operator]

I was a fucking. I was a contractor, and I was working on somebody's house who's actually a fan of the show. I worked on your house. I can't remember your name. I love you and your wife. And I was in this small town, and there's one gas station, and I'm just, like, working on their house. It was like. I'm like, oh, no. And I get in my truck, and I just left my tools all over the front yard. And I gun it to this gas station. I get there, and it's middle of winter. It's like January. And I got my bibs, and so I'm, like, literally taking them off as I'm, like, running into the gas station.

[King Trout]

But it's hard.

[Donut Operator]

They get.

[King Trout]

It's way harder than normal. Take them bibs off at that time, and they got.

[Donut Operator]

They got a one. So it's like, you go in.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Motor skills are all, oh, God, there's.

[Donut Operator]

A urinal and there's a stall. I kick in the fucking door. I unhook my bibs as I'm running in. I'm like, unzipping them. And I was probably wearing this sweater because this is my cold winter wear. And I unbuckle my pants, and it's one of those Ones where like, you're squatting down and, oh, it's just moving along.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah.

[Donut Operator]

Two seconds later, guy pounding on the stall. And I was like, sorry, buddy. And I just hear through the stall door, he goes, oh, God.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh.

[King Trout]

So when you hear noises and it's like, there's only a urinal.

[Donut Operator]

Today was my day, not your day. We bet it all on.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like a full on yourself.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It was enough for me to realize that's not a fart. And so my wife watches a lot of what I do.

[Donut Operator]

And she's gonna say my wife watched it.

[Ronnie Adkins]

So she's involved, she just doesn't know it. So before.

[Brandon Herrera]

Oh, is she about to discover this?

[King Trout]

Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah. This is the first time I've ever.

[Donut Operator]

She doesn't know.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Know this at all. So.

[Brandon Herrera]

So sorry, Mrs. Atkins.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Well, so my wife is actually my high school best friend's younger sister. First of all, I've known her since I was a teenager and she was 8.

[King Trout]

I changed your dad Always inappropriate.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I mean, she was 13 when I met her, so it's not that far up. I just wasn't, you know, I was. I was also a young teenager.

[Brandon Herrera]

This is last week.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'm like, I don't know, eight years older than you are, actually. Oh, probably. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, I mean, how old are you?

[Ronnie Adkins]

I'm 36. Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So six years.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah. Fair enough. So I was on my way to take her on one of our first dates, and I'm driving down the road and let's just put it this way, at one point in time, I was obese and did not have the best, like, diet, which shocked the shit out.

[Brandon Herrera]

Of me when we were talking about this off camera.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

I had no clue.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I have more stretch marks than my wife. And she's had. She's. She has given our family three beautiful children.

[Brandon Herrera]

So you said you weighed at your peak. You were what, 270?

[Ronnie Adkins]

I was close to 270, yeah. Shit.

[Donut Operator]

No.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah.

[Brandon Herrera]

So I know we haven't talked about the fitness challenge shit in a long time. You too could look like Ronnie.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, I mean, that's like an entire thing that I talk about all the time, is if my stupid ass can figure it out. You.

[Donut Operator]

You lost a human being's worth of weight.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Over 120 pounds at my. @ my lightest. So I got all the way down to like 1158 1. Something like that. So I was fat when I went into basic training. And then I blew up when we had our first baby. Like, we Both just really enjoy cake. I still enjoy cake so much, dude. Like, I get way into. I have a. I have a sugar.

[King Trout]

Problem.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Them. I'll just put it that way. But I blew up, dude. I got all the way up again, close to 270. And I have a couple pictures. There's really only two or three pictures that I have of, of that time. And it's really about, like, little lifestyle changes, you know, like small changes that you can make that don't. That don't send you down a path of something that's going to contend every day with you, right? So the simplest change that you can make, and I know people are going to laugh at this because they're going to say, well, that's just as bad, is stop. Stop drinking sugary sodas and switch to like zero calorie sodas. Yes, it is bad for you. I understand that. What's your goal? Is your goal to be holistically healthy? Then don't drink either of them. But if your goal is to lose weight, cut that part of the sugar out, right? So make that small change and then you can make the small changes, like moving from simple carbs to complex carbs. But I, you know, losing that, that amount of weight just teaches you so much over time. And I don't. But how did we end up getting on my weight loss? Oh, my. I myself, that's how I ended up here anyway, that this was a time in my life that I was fat and I was eating really dog foods. I was on my way to. To take my wife out for one of our first dates and I got the bubble guts and I was like, yeah, it's fine. It was not fine. I mean, things. Things were not okay. And I realized right away. And you know how you kind of like, sit up a little bit? You're like, oh, that came close. Well, it wasn't close. So I had to pull off on the side of the road. And for some reason that day, I was wearing whitey tighties. I'll never forget that. And that's. That is nine. No. I don't know why that's what I was.

[Brandon Herrera]

Wearing. What were you.

[Donut Operator]

Wearing?

[King Trout]

White. Did you have the intention of exactly? I'm like, were you.

[Donut Operator]

Nine? I'm having sex with your wife at this point. I know.

[Ronnie Adkins]

She. You were just going on, actually, but no, no, we.

[Donut Operator]

Were. That was not the probability. You're just going in completely unshaven. Whitey.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Tighties. Yeah, yeah, I was wearing whitey tighties. But I no longer. Let me put it this way I no longer have those whitey T tighties. They ended up in some, some random person's driveway trash can. Listen, if you can't admit to shitting yourself, if you want yourself, there's you. You need.

[Donut Operator]

To. Fair enough. I will say, yeah, if you've shit yourself, own up to.

[Brandon Herrera]

It. Yeah, I mean everybody's, everybody's had that moment where you, you, you trusted for it a little too.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Much. But you know, you know, you kind of do the swipe to just feel if it's a.

[Donut Operator]

Little. Y' all are fucking disgusting. I've not myself since I was.

[Brandon Herrera]

A child, but I, I thought you were talking about like actually like, like yourself.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yourself. Well, there's, there was definitely.

[Brandon Herrera]

Poo. Well that's not great.

[Mando Sponsor]

Downhill.

[Ronnie Adkins]

No. And what you missed it was on the. The way to take my wife on one of our first dates. So I had to pull off into somebody's driveway and figure. Figure that.

[Donut Operator]

Out.

[Brandon Herrera]

No. So you just.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Free. Because there was nothing between. We live in the stick. We lived in the sticks. By then, you know, there was nothing between. There was no bathroom anywhere between my location and.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hers. That farmer went out to take the trash out and got the weirdest surprise ever.

[King Trout]

Huh? Honey? Or the, the wife found.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It. I don't care.

[Brandon Herrera]

I. Why does the. Why does it say R.

[Donut Operator]

Adkins? He's got his, his name written.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Probably. It actually probably did because this is like post basic. Well, no, this wouldn't have been. It might have been post basic training thinking about the vehicle that I was in. Yeah, it probably was actually. So that means I would have had my last four written on there like you know, Napster, absolute dork. Because for some reason. So they make you write like your. The last four of your. @ the time it was social. But now you have your DoD ID number that you can use in your underwear. Yeah, you have to write that on everything, bro. So like out of just habit, like all of my used to be labeled with my last initial first. The last four of my social. So it probably did have like some identifying mark on it. Now if you could list.

[Donut Operator]

Those four numbers, what would.

[Ronnie Adkins]

They.

[Donut Operator]

Be? 9,988. Yeah. Mother's.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Maiden.

[Donut Operator]

Name. Adkins. Your parents.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Are related? They weren't married. I'm actually a weaver, to be honest with you. So my. So our.

[King Trout]

Maiden Aiden. That first joke.

[Donut Operator]

Is like. Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Wait, what? Yeah, there's a. There's a. That's. That, that's it. That's a lot. Let me put it that way. Like we were we were adopted into the Atkins name. Like, I've not got. No relation to it. You know, I'm technically a.

[Donut Operator]

Weaver. It's.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh, okay. So.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like.

[Donut Operator]

My. Yeah. No matrilineal name, but you adopted.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Your.

[Donut Operator]

Mother'S.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah.

[King Trout]

Okay.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yes. Yes. I love how you immediately.

[Brandon Herrera]

Just saw. You knew what he meant, but you saw the kill shot for.

[Ronnie Adkins]

An joke. Nope. No.

[Brandon Herrera]

Thanks, man. You know, what part of.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Virginia exactly is there a west in that? How far a west? Actually, a lot of my family is from West Virginia, you know, so the Atkins part, specifically. No.

[Donut Operator]

I actually. My father and.

[Ronnie Adkins]

My mother. I have no relation to the ad.

[King Trout]

The Atkins. Call.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Me surprised. My sperm donors carry the name Weaver. Just very little interaction with that side of the family at all. But that's actually the name that we traced all the way back. The Atkins. We actually have no idea where that. Where that comes from because we were adopted into it. My grandfather was adopted into the Adkins.

[Brandon Herrera]

Name and.

[Ronnie Adkins]

No shit. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, the closest thing that I've got is we are either Ellis's or Weavers. I got really into, like, the ancestry thing at one point. I paid for, like, the top tier, you know, not the one that's like, you. We'll give you a couple hints. I mean, like, the. The spendy one where it's like, we will tell you everything about your, like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude, yeah. They exhume your great, great grandfather and mail him.

[Ronnie Adkins]

To you. It. It's actually amazing, you know, it's super expensive and only worth it if it really matters to you. And it's not necessarily that it does, but I did try college at one point. One point in time, and it was like, you know, they wanted you to write an article about your history. I was like, I don't know about my family's history. I'm adopted into this name. But we. I ended up being able to trace my family back to Martin's Hundred and being an indentured servant at.

[Brandon Herrera]

Martin's Hundred. Where from originally?

[Ronnie Adkins]

Before that. So it's like English and Scottish, I guess, and then the other side.

[King Trout]

Of.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The. Of. So the Weavers married the. The Beau Myers, which are French. So we trace them back to a small town in France to like a. I don't know, like a priest or something like that. But it's. It's so interesting being able to trace that. And then we. We also did the same thing for my wife. Like, she's, like, Scandinavian. She's a Viking, dude. I'm punching, like, nine weight classes above my. Above my weight at the moment. Let me put it.

[Donut Operator]

That.

[Brandon Herrera]

Way. Way. And still yourself on.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The way. Still myself on the way. Figuring that out it's dayto.

[Donut Operator]

Day getting revenge for 100.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Years ago. It's all seat of the pants. But it's got to be different pants every day because I keep myself a.

[Donut Operator]

History joke. Say I paid for the same thing with the. Yeah. Where you get, like, news articles. Yeah, dude, I don't want to discuss it because I don't want people to be able to figure out who I am. But, yeah, you.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Can find.

[Donut Operator]

I'm doc. Like news articles about your great, great grandpa. And. And I traced all my shit all the way back to.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, 1602. Can I. Can you at least tell a story with your.

[Donut Operator]

Your sister? Oh, yeah, my little sister did. She did 23andMe or one of those or whatever. And she gets her results back, which I was like, me and all my siblings kind of agreed, like, we don't want to do that. We don't want our, like, DNA out there because they outsource it and they sell it to different people. Different. Different groups. Anyway, my little sister did it, and she gets the results back. And so, like, genetically, we're, you know, 85% British, and then what's the difference? 15% Scandinavian. And she's like, I didn't know we had Viking blood in us. And I was like, I don't know if you've cracked open a.

[Brandon Herrera]

History book, but she's like, oh, that's.

[Donut Operator]

So cool. And you're like, oh, no.

[King Trout]

That ancestor didn't think.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It was.

[Donut Operator]

So. Yeah. The joke that I've made since then is I come from a long line of very strong men and very.

[King Trout]

Slow women. It's a good shirt. You should.

[Brandon Herrera]

Do that. I think that's called probable cause. But I think there was that one, because I've talked about this with my dad and stuff like that. Is that there was that one crime that got solved, which, like, objectively good that the crime got solved, I think was a homicide.

[King Trout]

Or something. No, you were talking about the California police officer that was.

[Brandon Herrera]

A serial. I don't.

[Donut Operator]

Know.

[King Trout]

The. Nothing. No, this is. He like a.

[Brandon Herrera]

Shit ton. But it got solved by 23andMe because they. They used that for. They had their database and the government cracked it.

[King Trout]

Open to. Not cracked it open like they had something.

[Brandon Herrera]

Itin killer. I.

[Donut Operator]

Don'T know. Oh, I just heard about.

[Brandon Herrera]

This recently. Yeah, I know enough to know what happened. I don't know enough to know any.

[Donut Operator]

Relevant details. Like a serial killer who.

[King Trout]

Got caught. Original Night Stalker, the East area and the Golden State Killer. He was the exact same individual. But was that truck driver? No, he's a.

[Donut Operator]

Police.

[King Trout]

Officer. Fuck. That's why he never got caught because he was like, oh, I just gotta do this. And then I can never get hide everything that the police are going to look for. And I'm good, so. And it's crazy because it was 51R words. I hate it. I can't say that. Fucking.

[Brandon Herrera]

So stupid. What.

[Donut Operator]

Is it? R words?

[King Trout]

Forced encounters. Raped 13 murders. 51. Isn't it wild to be like, hey, there's 13 murders. That's so.

[Donut Operator]

51R words. That's so fucking retarded that you can't talk about. You.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Cannot not. And you can say.

[King Trout]

That one. You can say, I could have.

[Donut Operator]

Said 61. You can't say Hitler. You can't say Nazis. It's so you. Actually, those last two, you can.

[Brandon Herrera]

Say.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Really? Yeah. Are we talking about like on you.

[King Trout]

For.

[Brandon Herrera]

YouTube?

[Ronnie Adkins]

YouTube?

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. Okay. Where it's like, get that MX gold card ready. I'm way too tired to.

[AMEX Gold Card Sponsor]

Cook tonight. You read my mind. With the gold card, we can get up to 120 a year in statement credits. Are you feeling the Cheesecake Factory? Five guys. Either of those.

[Donut Operator]

Sound.

[AMEX Gold Card Sponsor]

Good? Yes. Which one? Both pay with the gold card to receive up to $10 a month in statement credits at participating Partners. Uncover more ways to reward [e-mail] explored enrollment required.

[Brandon Herrera]

Terms apply. There's no rule against it, but they.

[Donut Operator]

Hate it. Yeah, History's being fucking abridged. Oh, and like, I made that video where I was talking about this, like, horrific, horrific story where there was this fucking guy who is just like the. One of the most egregious of all time. And that shit got age restricted because you. You cannot.

[King Trout]

Talk.

[Donut Operator]

About. Nope. Not once did I say, oh, you know, kids is great by no stretch of the imagination. It's like, no, this is a horrific thing that people should be aware of. This guy was. He was a politician. He walked away from everything. He was a egregious. Sorry, whoever's editing this, you're gonna have to.

[King Trout]

Bleep Chase.

[Donut Operator]

Have fun. A lot of this. Sorry, Chase. Orphan. Whichever.

[King Trout]

Of you. He just clips the one part. It's like, your kids.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Is great. I went to say that out loud. I was like, let me shut the up before I get myself in trouble.

[Brandon Herrera]

Somebody's gonna. That video.

[Donut Operator]

Was like. It was.

[King Trout]

The.

[Donut Operator]

Pre. Epstein. Like, it was like Epstein case before the fucking Epstein case. It was exactly the same shit. We've seen it before. It was. That was like the quote unquote joke I made in.

[King Trout]

The intro. And it was so that killer, the Golden State Killer, because of forensic.

[Brandon Herrera]

Genetic genealogy.

[Donut Operator]

Lawrence family. Lawrence King Jr. Was.

[King Trout]

His name. But one of the family members did a genealogy test. And then it was like. FBI was like, yo, hold.

[Donut Operator]

Up. Who? Wait.

[King Trout]

A minute. This DNA is very close. And then it's like, oh, that's our grandpa. And it was the. The individual that was doing it. And then everyone was surprised because it was a police officer. And they're like, what.

[Donut Operator]

The fuck? Cops can be bad.

[Ronnie Adkins]

People too.

[Donut Operator]

Weird.

[King Trout]

Weird. Yeah. So you did. So with. How was the. The. The new information? I know you had a PP and then I had a pp. Everyone pee peed. But what was your favorite story in the last couple of months? Like with the deep diving.

[Donut Operator]

You'Re doing? Favorite one was. This is obscure. I know everybody has that, like, this expectation that I'm like. Like the conspiracy theory guy or whatever, but I love. I love just having a random ass question in my mind. We're going about.

[Brandon Herrera]

Daily life. And you're like, no, I know where this is going.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah. Yeah. Like, why? Why this?

[King Trout]

Why that? Like.

[Donut Operator]

Good questions. Why? Why?

[King Trout]

How come? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I did that today. How does fiber.

[Donut Operator]

Optic work? Oh, that's something.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like that. Still convinced that was brought to us.

[Ronnie Adkins]

By aliens.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fiber optics. I know how it works. And it's still. The glass destroys.

[Donut Operator]

My mind.

[Brandon Herrera]

Glass.

[King Trout]

Too. Blinky. Like, I know, like, but.

[Ronnie Adkins]

How? Dada. I'm.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, huh? Why.

[King Trout]

Get here? That's what.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I know. Why can I.

[King Trout]

Watch Interstellar? I will never be able to.

[Donut Operator]

Rebuild humanity.

[King Trout]

Blinky.

[Donut Operator]

Blasty. What? It's the meme of traveling back in time trying to explain electricity to medieval peasants. And you're like, yeah, no, but like.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Fucking look. I looked at this little.

[Brandon Herrera]

Brick and it had light on it, and I.

[Donut Operator]

Got depressed. Oh, it.

[King Trout]

Works, man. Hard cut to a kite in this guy in a key. I think this is what.

[Donut Operator]

He did. This is.

[King Trout]

What he. I don't know how he.

[Donut Operator]

Tracks, but. So this, like, recurring theme that would always come up with, like, my boys back home that I've been friends with since we were in fucking seventh grade is I love Sprite. I love Sprite soda. And every time I would see an advertisement for Sprite, it was always targeted towards African Americans. It's all basketball themed. It was like LeBron James is their spokesperson for Forever. Every time a commercial comes on, it's. It's Just always black people in Sprite commercials. And I'm like, that's weird. Like, you see a Coke commercial and they do the, you know, the same thing like Netflix does, where it's like, oh, here's, you know, a person of every race and, you know, a transgender.

[Brandon Herrera]

They. Them. It's.

[Donut Operator]

For everybody. Yeah. But then every time I saw a Sprite commercial, it was like, exclusively black people. And I'm like, why is Sprite, like, marketed exclusively to black people? And so I dove into that, and that was like a shockingly popular video. Apparently a lot of people were interested in the answer to.

[King Trout]

That question. Bro, I'm asking that question. I'm like, man, because everybody knows I.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Need you. I need you to continue.

[King Trout]

Because I'm. And then.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I get. This matters to me at.

[King Trout]

This point.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Yeah, because. Because you're not wrong. He's. He's not wrong. If you think back to just about any.

[Donut Operator]

Advertisement for. For Sprite, well, it started out, like, back in the 1960s. Well, well, before then, like 1950s. I'm trying to. This was like two months ago I made this video. So if the details are foggy.

[Brandon Herrera]

I apologize. You can watch the actual video over at The King Trout YouTube.

[Donut Operator]

Or Pepperbox Channel or.

[King Trout]

Pepperbox box.

[Donut Operator]

Crucify him. He's wrong. But back in the, like 1950s, there was this guy down here in Texas and he made this or he made a. A group of sodas that he called Sprite. And it was just fruit flavored sodas kind of similar to Fanta, but he brand.

[Brandon Herrera]

Named Sprite. The origin story behind Fanta. We'll get to.

[Donut Operator]

Another day. Yeah, which I made a joke about that Everybody's heard. Heard the fucking origin story. It was the Nazis and blah, blah, blah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Blah, blah. Wait till you hear.

[Donut Operator]

About Volkswagen. Yeah, similar story.

[Brandon Herrera]

Dude made. I was just gonna invent a random company to throw under the bus. Like, oh, yeah, same with, you know, Dasani or whatever.

[Donut Operator]

The fuck. You're gonna hate to hear the story.

[Brandon Herrera]

About Bayer as you get killed by big pharma just for the.

[King Trout]

Implication here. Now Cyclone A.

[Donut Operator]

Didn'T work. Let's try something else out. So this guy made this brand of. Yeah, God doesn't like.

[Brandon Herrera]

That joke. I was just about to make that joke and then.

[Donut Operator]

It happened. Multiple, like, fruit flavored sodas didn't really pan out. Coke wanted the brand name Sprite. For what reason? I don't know. They bought it and then they had this lemon lime soda to compete with 7Up because 7Up is independent. It same with Dr. Pepper. So there's Pepsi, there's Coke, and then there's also Dr. Pepper and 7up. A lot of people think Dr. Pepper and 7up are owned by either Pepsi or Coke, but they're.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Their own. I thought Dr. Pepper was.

[Donut Operator]

Pepsi.

[King Trout]

Yeah. Nope. No, Dr. Pepper's the one. I.

[Donut Operator]

Do know. It's just like it's.

[Ronnie Adkins]

His own. I didn't know that.

[King Trout]

About seven. It's doing his.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Texas thing. I played a lot of their game growing up. The Heads Up.

[Donut Operator]

7Up game. Yes, I remember as well. You put your.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Head down.

[Donut Operator]

Looks really. Yeah, that we're not gonna explain. Heads up 7 up. You can watch that in my next video where I explain heads up.

[Brandon Herrera]

7 up. Anyway, that's related to.

[Donut Operator]

The company. No, I'm. It's a.

[Brandon Herrera]

Children'S game. I figured I was.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Just like. Wait a minute.

[Brandon Herrera]

Hold on. Am I drawing you dropping.

[Donut Operator]

Lore here? No, it's like hide and seek, but when you're sitting at.

[King Trout]

A desk. Oh, yeah. Brandon was home school.

[Brandon Herrera]

Never mind.

[Ronnie Adkins]

We're getting. Oh.

[Donut Operator]

Fuck off. I was the same. People are gonna shit on me because they're like, you never finish a story. I get interrupted all.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The time. How high was that.

[King Trout]

Stone wall? Yeah, do that.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Again.

[Donut Operator]

Mr. Congressman. I could end.

[Brandon Herrera]

That career. It's like Nacho Libre trying to keep the.

[Donut Operator]

Mask on. So Coke wanted 7 up was coming up in the rankings, and Coke wanted competition. So they bought the name Sprite. And then they're selling essentially a 7Up clone. It did okay. It was just. It's a very neutral soda. Whatever. Long story short, it gets to this point where they own this brand. Seven Ups doing all right. Sprite is also doing all right. But they realize there's this untapped market of the urban youth hip hop. So nobody. None of the big soda manufacturers are, like, targeting this market. And they're like, oh, well, we have this soda that's, like, underperforming. What if we made that? Like, the.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Black soda?

[Donut Operator]

Like the. This is the soda of the. Of hip hop culture.

[King Trout]

Basketball, etc. But so it's clear. Yeah, I guarantee that was one of the first marketing problems. I consider that fucking. You know, that was the first thing.

[Donut Operator]

Somebody says. Well, it's the most, like, I recuse myself. It's the most AstroTurf shit. And I genuinely, like. I feel bad because of, like, how astroturfed it was, where there were just, like. They saw this untouched market of just, like, African American youth culture in the country. Cause this was the early 90s. Like, rap is just Becoming a thing. You got Biggie, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, the Diddler. Snoop Dogg, yeah. Basketball is becoming more popular. This is like peak Jordan era. And they were like, oh.

[Ronnie Adkins]

How can we sell soda to.

[King Trout]

The coloreds?

[Brandon Herrera]

And they. Yeah, probably gotta.

[Donut Operator]

Blur.

[King Trout]

That. Why? That's what I, I think that's fine. Literally, that message. This is a whole bunch of white people, which is blood. Be like the, the Mexicans. But what do we do.

[Donut Operator]

For them? They were co opting, they were co opting like an ethnic culture. Yeah, I don't take that back. I don't take back what I said because it was like genuinely, they were just co opting this culture that was, you know, it was just African American urban culture at the time. Especially in like New York City, Chicago, Louisiana. And they were like, oh, we're going to exploit them to make money off of this fucking soda. And here we are 20 years later and.

[Brandon Herrera]

It worked. Well, it just goes to show that if you have enough money behind something, you can pretty much astroturf any sort of cultural message into any people group. Unless you're.

[Donut Operator]

Kamala Harris. Eli is his hand.

[King Trout]

Yes, sir. Jaguar. Oh, I gotta watch. Dude, that is one of my favorite stories now is just watching how that one commercial just fucking. Because Jaguar was like, you, you know what, we're going to throw money at this. We're going to hire a media team. They're going to produce this.

[Brandon Herrera]

Amazing commercial. Well, I think there's a difference between targeting a specific demographic and just having a.

[King Trout]

Bad idea. But they target a specific.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Demographic might be a little.

[Donut Operator]

Too specific. Well, we all know the transgenders do have a few hundred thousand dollars of loose cash floating around to buy a luxury British vehicle. Famously, the they thems are in the market.

[King Trout]

For Jaguars.

[Brandon Herrera]

What's crazy? Why are you slowly murphing into.

[Donut Operator]

Sam Elliot? Sam El. I watch the sunset.

[King Trout]

Every day. What's crazy is that individual that did come up with that, he handed it off to a marketing team and then. But that is the dude that created the Land Rover. The Range Rover. Like he had home runs under his belt after that commercial. Fast forward.

[Brandon Herrera]

Five months. Did they just like pull him into a back room and hand him.

[King Trout]

A sword? Oh, dude, they fired. So he was fired, the CEO was fired. And the best thing is you had. Is it June of 2024. They were averaging 1900 vehicles sold a month. June 2025. Guess.

[Donut Operator]

The number. What was the.

[King Trout]

First number?

[Donut Operator]

Sorry, 1950.

[Brandon Herrera]

A month.

[King Trout]

Per month? Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Per month. I actually thought I'd be more.

[Donut Operator]

Than that. I'm gonna.

[Brandon Herrera]

Go 825. I'm gonna.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Go 500. $1.

[Brandon Herrera]

Bob 49. Oh.

[Donut Operator]

My.

[King Trout]

God. Yeah. Closest without going over 49 is what they started averaging per month starting April, May. And they're.

[Donut Operator]

Like, huh? Well, they neutered the.

[King Trout]

Brand, dude. And they thought it was. They literally thought this was going to take off for them. They're like, oh, we got it. This is what we need to do. We'll do this. And then it is Elon's tweet. Don't y' all just sell cars? Yeah, like, that was.

[Donut Operator]

The worst. There was no car in that ever to advertisement either. My. My dream car is a JAG E type 1964. The car literally looks like a penis.

[Ronnie Adkins]

But gorgeous. That's why I.

[Donut Operator]

Love it. Yeah, that's why I.

[Mando Sponsor]

Love.

[Donut Operator]

It. Gorgeous. Why I want to suck that.

[King Trout]

Car off. Yeah. Same if I find you wrapped around the tailpipe of a Jaguar.

[Donut Operator]

E Type. Put that grill in.

[Ronnie Adkins]

My mouth. What did I get.

[King Trout]

Myself into? Oh.

[Donut Operator]

My God. Welcome.

[King Trout]

To Unsubscribe. They, like, they gotta kill that brand. And they're still alive because of. Of Land Rover is the only reason Land Rover's doing great. And they're like, what did.

[Ronnie Adkins]

You do? It's fucking.

[Brandon Herrera]

Brand homies. It's just like Bud Light. They're like.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Oh.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yeah. No. Our target demographic and the people who buy our beverage is frat boys and rednecks. Dylan Mulvaney's who.

[Donut Operator]

We need. Pivoting to Shane Gillis was the smartest marketing.

[Brandon Herrera]

Move to. That's the only way Shane Gillis and Post.

[Donut Operator]

Malone Post. The only way they could have bounced. Bounced back from.

[King Trout]

That dude. And it's wild that you get to see this. The hundreds of billions of dollars that are spent on it, on, like, a marketing campaign or a new identity. And you're like, but why it was. This is not. I don't think this, boss. Because there's going to be a few. It's like, I told you that was a shit.

[Donut Operator]

Idea, bro. Well, I'll counter, Eli. 2% of the population does identify as.

[King Trout]

Transgender, so. Well, like, 49 cars.

[Ronnie Adkins]

You say? I don't think.

[Donut Operator]

2%. 2%. Oh, no. Yeah. It's like.

[Brandon Herrera]

2%'S gay. Yeah. Yeah. Because, like, yeah. Way, way.

[King Trout]

Lower point.

[Brandon Herrera]

Probably 0.2. It's impossible.

[Donut Operator]

To.

[Brandon Herrera]

Calculate. Yeah. However. No, I just. I. I don't understand. I don't understand that. That methodology. But now they're. They're. They're trying so hard to go the other direction. You've got Post Malone.

[Ronnie Adkins]

You'Ve.

[Brandon Herrera]

Got. Got. Shane Gillis, you've got. They're sponsoring ufc. Like, they're going overly masculine now. They're like, cc, we're.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Not gay. Would you say it's.

[Brandon Herrera]

Performatively masculine? I don't know. They're not dry firing on.

[King Trout]

Their porch. I mean, look at Hollywood as an example. You can see how that's working out. But Jaguar, watching that today and then reading about it, I was like, bro, if my billion dollar company, it went down to 49 cars a month, I'd.

[Donut Operator]

Be terrified. You're saying internationally. They sold.

[King Trout]

49 cars. The entire Europe theater. All of Europe.

[Ronnie Adkins]

49 cars. That's so.

[King Trout]

Few cars. This is Europe. This is where Jaguar's.

[Donut Operator]

Home is. I sold more T shirts than that.

[King Trout]

Last January. And that it was. The biggest thing was like the advertising. We're doing this new brand shift then. I did not know this. They had nothing in between. They're like, we're going through this new change and we're not going to sell you any old cars. And you have to trust us for the new car. By the way, it's electric. It's going to be about a year and a half gap. And then here's the.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Advertisement that. Oh, so then they had ride.

[King Trout]

It, too. Dear Lord, Am I lying? Brandon, am.

[Brandon Herrera]

I lying? Their stock price high of this year was just shy of $34. Do you know what it.

[King Trout]

Is now? What was it.

[Brandon Herrera]

Last year? Oh, I'm looking at the. The high of this year was go.

[King Trout]

Five years. Watch. Five years.

[Brandon Herrera]

Five years.

[King Trout]

Five year. Eli knows where dad is going.

[Donut Operator]

To show. I don't know if you.

[Brandon Herrera]

All know, it's like seven.

[Ronnie Adkins]

100 grand. If you've ever heard of the Dragster 700.

[Brandon Herrera]

Grand.

[King Trout]

Coaster.

[Brandon Herrera]

Yes. Holy.

[King Trout]

700 grand. Doesn't it sound like I'm making.

[Brandon Herrera]

This.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Up?

[King Trout]

Yes. No. Yeah, that grand ins like, no one's going to.

[Brandon Herrera]

Sell 49. And you're like, oh, my goodness, 700 grand. The current stock price.

[King Trout]

Is $1.22. We call.

[Brandon Herrera]

That BRCC.

[King Trout]

Cut that. I can.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Keep it. Oh.

[Donut Operator]

That is.

[King Trout]

Keep that. Is it.

[Donut Operator]

That wild? They went like all electric, did.

[Ronnie Adkins]

They not? So.

[Brandon Herrera]

They. They. The 52 week high was $33.25. So like just that little.

[Donut Operator]

Metric.

[Brandon Herrera]

There. Yeah. 33.25. It is now trading at about a.

[Donut Operator]

Buck 30. They're also a wholly British company. So they're getting cooked by.

[King Trout]

Their government. No. So Range Rovers, like Land Rover, is now the main brand that's carrying everything and they're they're doing fine. Like Land Rovers, they're breaking records, but that is their.

[Donut Operator]

Secondary company. And they're like, where are Land Rovers.

[King Trout]

Manufactured, though? Yeah, they're in Europe.

[Donut Operator]

But Britain.

[King Trout]

Oh, really? I believe so. They're an English country, so one of the uk. Uk, English. Let's find where it is. Where is.

[Brandon Herrera]

A Jaguar? Yeah, they're British.

[Donut Operator]

Like, reasonable. No, I know, but I think Land Rovers are manufactured elsewhere and I think Jaguars are.

[King Trout]

Manufactured same. It's a parent company. Land Rovering company.

[Donut Operator]

For Jaguar. Oh, I thought they were manufactured, like, in. Yeah, no, they're British Land Rovers.

[Brandon Herrera]

United elsewhere. UK Manufacturing occurs globally, including the uk, but also Slovakia, Brazil, India and China, depending on.

[King Trout]

The model. And, dude, what sucks is that the marketing campaign they ran with was change or don't be. What was it? Do not be original or be original. I think don't be original. Be everything blended. I think.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was. Well, they originally lost 97 of their.

[King Trout]

Stock value. Well, they got. They sourced that from the original owner and the creator of Jaguar. It was like, oh, this is one of his quotes. It said, be original. And like, we got.

[Donut Operator]

This, bro. I'm sure that British World War I veteran wanted a bunch of fucking transgender they thems to march and not show a fucking car. In.

[Brandon Herrera]

The advertisement. I'm just imagining the bony, skeletal fist breaking out of.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The fucking. Just like a trench knife in its hand, like.

[King Trout]

Smashing through. Dude. 1922 is when it was created. Dude, reading that because it sounds unbelievable for a company that big to be like, nah, we're down to.

[Brandon Herrera]

49 now. Poor guy survived Flanders Fields just to have this happen to.

[King Trout]

His company. Oh, man.

[Donut Operator]

That sucks. You know an E type, right? Yeah, yeah, it's just a hot.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fucking car. Also, I. I am. I permanently have a mental association now between those older model Jaguars and.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Mad Men. Like the show. Yeah, yeah.

[King Trout]

Yeah, sure. Even the newer ones, I with them, the E type. Like, those.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Are gorgeous. The F pace. The F pace. I sat in one of those. I was getting schmoozed for a defense contractor gig. And they. They absolutely did like the. If, you know, if you join our team, you'll get to ride in this. So I wrote in one of those, and I've always wanted an F pace.

[Brandon Herrera]

After that. But I was talking to.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Somebody the other day that, oh, if.

[King Trout]

You wonder why this one fell, that was the 2026 model that they were trying to sell.

[Donut Operator]

To people. I can't see.

[Ronnie Adkins]

That far. And he's shaking his.

[Donut Operator]

Phone too. Oh.

[Brandon Herrera]

Fuck off. The Chrysler 300, that looks like a cyberpunk mod. Just like a vehicle you'd see on.

[King Trout]

The road. It looks like my.

[Brandon Herrera]

PlayStation rendered. Well, when you talk about.

[Donut Operator]

PlayStation render of the Chrysler 300, it smells like PS2 rendered.

[King Trout]

Weed smoke. Like, it. Dude, it. Oh, my. Connor. Like, next to a human. It.

[Donut Operator]

Looks fake. Oh, my God. Yeah, it looks like a.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Fake car. Yeah, somebody. Somebody made that on PlayStation and now they're suffering like, Crash.

[Brandon Herrera]

Bandicoot PlayStation. But when you were talking about, like, the schmoozing of government contracts and shit like that, there was somebody that I was talking about or talking to about that exact thing earlier where they're like, you'd be surprised when it comes to, like, working with Congress how much like, Air Force and people like that will just be like, but I'll take you on a ride on.

[Ronnie Adkins]

An.

[Brandon Herrera]

F16. Yeah. And then suddenly they get more funding. It's like, you really hope these people aren't that dumb.

[Ronnie Adkins]

And gullible. But sure enough, what's been super revealing on that for me has been the last couple years. So, I mean, like I mentioned earlier, I wear a lot of different hats. I have. Have quite literally five different jobs. Like, I have to. Taxes are. Please don't get me started.

[King Trout]

On taxes. But we.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Have time. I. I don't even want to imagine if I know how frustrating my life is. I don't even want to imagine what your life is like when it comes.

[Brandon Herrera]

To taxes. But, yeah, all the money that we have to change. Oh, my steak too juicy. My lobster too buttery. I know, but what.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Was the. What's been. The most revealing has been the. The last year and a half or so, working in, like, the gun rights.

[Brandon Herrera]

Space.

[Ronnie Adkins]

On. Just. Thank.

[Brandon Herrera]

You for. For everything you've done.

[Ronnie Adkins]

In that. Dude, bro, I. You know, I'm. I solely work in the gun rights space for very selfish reasons. And I want to. It's because I want to better understand what the landscape is like. So. You know, I mentioned growing up shooting, being a part of my high school's marksmanship team. I mentioned that to who was here earlier. What was the guy's name that was here earlier? I mentioned that to Finn. I was like, hey, dude, you know, we were just chatting, and I was like, yeah, I was part of my high school's marksmanship team. That's why I am trying to stand up American marksman now. He was like, what is that? And I was like, what you just said is exactly what I'm trying to do. So about a year before.

[Brandon Herrera]

We go too far off the Rails, we were talking about the.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Government contract. Yeah, no, I'm getting there. So the problem that I've, that I've run into over the years is just not truly understanding how our political structure works. And I still cannot, I cannot say that I truly understand it, but when it comes to like, gun rights and what those mean to us is a core foundational right that we have that regardless of what the, the Constitution says, which is ultimately just there to affirm that right, it's a limiter more than it is.

[Brandon Herrera]

A grantor. It guarantees you your rights. It does not grant you.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Your rights. Right. So I have come to find out just how much of that bullshit happens. Right. I already had some level of understanding. I mean, I've had to brief Congress and staffers on like, national security topics before, and things like your contract have come up before. I'm like, why does that matter to me? I am, I am a cybersecurity expert here to tell you what's happening. And you're telling me about my contract like, that's not my scope. Like, my left and right limits on my fire lane right now do not include the contract or agreement that you might have with my CEO of my company. But the amount of schmoozing that does, generally speaking, take place is fascinating to me. I will say that there's a lot that I didn't understand in the gun rights space before I started working in it that I didn't truly understand what lobbying meant. I thought it was like paying people off, you know what I mean? But that's, that's not it. Especially not with, like, it's not always it. Not always it. For sure. I, I, I, I can understand that. I'm the industry guy first and foremost at national association for Gun Rights. So my job is like, kind of connecting the industry with the gun rights space. So we've got a bunch of industry, you know, gun gun manufacturers that are supporting us in cases. So I help coordinate their data that helps us try improve common use, things like that. So there are actually some gun rights organization that people think they have an understanding of where they stand that might not necessarily, I don't want to speak too far into that, but.

[Brandon Herrera]

I will actually say on that note, there's a lot of gun companies that are very gay when it comes to stuff like that that have really worked against gun rights on a lot.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Of that. They really should a.

[Brandon Herrera]

Street man. But there are a lot that have stepped up. Yeah, I will give, I.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Will a lot that have a history of not stepping up that are like, like, yeah, you're right. It's time for us to step up and understand what our real.

[Brandon Herrera]

Market is. And with those being active cases, I'm not sure if that's something I'm allowed to.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Talk about. Well, so the one that I'm referencing right now is an active case that we have, like, that we are actively work. You.

[Brandon Herrera]

Know, it's. I want to give. I want to give kudos where it's due, but I don't know if.

[Ronnie Adkins]

We can.

[Brandon Herrera]

Right. Yeah. Is that.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Public information? It's. It's. It's.

[Brandon Herrera]

Tough, dude. Okay, then.

[Ronnie Adkins]

I won't. I. I will. I will say that information will make. Make. It Will. Will.

[King Trout]

Come out. This is. We were talking about this before the podcast, but the individual that was pulled over. No, yeah, it was a representative, so it was a congressperson, 25th district. So that was the one. I was having a discussion. We were always. Discussion. It's like, a lot of people don't realize we had like, two A is extremely important to all of us. And if something bad happens to. To anyone, it is like, yo, what the fuck.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Happened.

[King Trout]

Dude? It's. Isn't that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Wild, Brent? I'm looking it up to see if that's. Well, I mean, if he's state.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Or federal. Well, while he's doing that, just to close the thought, you know, there's. There are so.

[Brandon Herrera]

Many cases.

[Ronnie Adkins]

That's why. I don't know, there are so many cases across the United States that are. That are actively being pursued by a lot of. Of gun rights organizations that aren't the NRA right now. Just. I'll leave it at that. But there are an innumerable amount of them. And ultimately what I chose to do is kind of. It's literally work for one. So I could better understand what that looks like because I. I became a member of the NRA back when I was, like, I don't know, 19, 20, something like that. Like, it's always mattered very much to me. You know, we ran around in the woods with a.22 when I was 12. You know, I'm not saying that's the best thing that you can do, but I've just been. Firearms have been aligned with my life since I can remember. So seeing the general erosion of that over time, I was like, well, I need to better understand what the landscape is, because I don't.

[Brandon Herrera]

Understand it. So, I mean, some of my fondest memories growing up is like being a teenager running around in the woods with my buddies with, you know, a 12 gauge shotgun or like a little like 22 AR or something. Something like that. And like, that's. That's something that. There are a shocking percentage of people in this country that want to do away with that. And not to be too juvenile about it, but it hurts.

[Ronnie Adkins]

My feelings. The first living thing I ever shot was a squirrel. And I.

[Brandon Herrera]

Ate.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It. Yeah. And I didn't like it. Just, first of all, my mom didn't know how to cook it. She just. She just pan seared its.

[King Trout]

Hind.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Legs. Oh. And I, like, took a bite out of. I was like, can I have chicken nuggets like this? But no, I just. I chose to. I. I need to better understand that landscape. Right. This is, like, what is it? What does it mean to fight for gun rights? And there were so many misconceptions that I had about the gun rights space. You know, like, there. There is a. There are a lot of differences and similarities, kind of both ends of the sword between the different gun rights organizations that are out there. There are employees that are shared between them, but they do have different means that. That they choose to go about doing things. Generally speaking, most of them that aren't the nra, to a certain perspective at least, are working towards this. The same end state. They just have a different design with exactly how they want to.

[Brandon Herrera]

Achieve that. And I understand the differences between them, and I feel like we're talking around a lot of things right now for. For the general audience, but I understand how they want to go about things. I just wish that there would be more collaboration for sure between them, because there's certain times where. And correct me if I'm wrong, it seems like everything's a quest for donations, which I understand donations are what makes these very perpetual fundraising very expensive. Legal.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Battles happen. Oh.

[Brandon Herrera]

My God. But my biggest issue is that they're all pushing for the same thing, the same court battles, the same things to happen, but they're all rushing to be the first to file. They're rushing to be the first person to file a lawsuit, whether that's the best lawsuit we could have had for this case or not. They're trying to be first, because if they get the one that's first to file, then they get to use that in all their fundraising emails because. Well, and I understand the incentive behind it, but.

[Ronnie Adkins]

It'S not. I get it. This is. That's quite literally one of the. One of the reasons that I chose to just work for one, at least for, you know, five, six, seven years, however long it is that I'm here. And I picked up one specifically and purposefully. And that is, like I mentioned nagr. And that's largely because they were just my friends for they, they took me out on my first long range expedition. You know, I learned how to run a kestrel with them. I learned how to hit it a mile.

[Brandon Herrera]

With them. I've worked with those guys.

[Ronnie Adkins]

For years. So, I mean, they're, they're shooters. Right. So that mattered very much to me. It didn't feel like they were sitting in their high tower in a leather chair saying, we're doing right for gun rights. It was like they, they shoot Wayne lapierre. Excuse me. He said it out loud and I just inferred it. That's exactly what I was inferring is Wayne lapierre. That's the vision in my head until I chose to work for one that I had when it came to, you know, gun.

[Brandon Herrera]

Rights organizations. He means when, you mean that when I, when I try to donate to a gun rights organization or when I try to do good work for them, I don't want it to all immediately go in the pockets of a guy who's using fundraiser money to pay for $10,000 suits and his mistress.

[King Trout]

In New York City, who, sorry, I just know some of the companies and then different orgs and how they've done good stuff, but also bad stuff like nra. You can have both sides of the coin on that one where they've fucked up royally. So.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like how. Yeah. And there's a lot of good stuff that the NRA has done over the year. I'm still a life member of the nra, but I'm disappointed because of people like Wayne lapierre who thankfully is gone from.

[Ronnie Adkins]

The.

[Brandon Herrera]

Organization. Yeah. And I really hope they can turn over this new leaf that they're trying to do. But man, I'm, there's a lot to.

[King Trout]

Overcome there. I think that's the biggest thing is addressing it. A lot of companies like, oh, sweep it out like, he's gone, look, we're going to do new. But it is, hey, here.

[Ronnie Adkins]

We, I mean there are, there are misses that end up happening. So even, even in the pursuit of doing the best thing possible, it turns out that it, the foresight just wasn't there and it turned, it turns out to be just something that, that didn't work out in the best possible favor. Right. So you look back at like the, the NFA changes that we've got that are, that are about to take place on January 1, the best ideal outcome is that things were just removed entirely. But now, now what we have is, yeah, we no longer have to pay a 200$200 fee, but I'm still registering something on a basis that doesn't make any sense because the entire basis around it in the first place was.

[Brandon Herrera]

The tax. And specifically because the Supreme Court in 1937 deemed it constitutional. Only the NFA would like the registration, $200 registration, tax stamp and everything behind suppressors, short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns and machine guns. The only reason they allowed that to be constitutional was because it wasn't a registration of the weapons, it was the registration that you paid the tax for. Because has the constitutional authority to levy tax, not register weapons, register the tax. And now that you've removed the tax it should be unconstitutional presumably.

[Ronnie Adkins]

If by definition the purpose was solely for that to be able to say hey, yes, this person has paid the necessary tax for this and then you remove that tax, suddenly you have no other reason to have the registration associated with it whatsoever. So it's in the most vulnerable position that it's ever been and there aren't many, there aren't many years left between now and the next, the next cycle where we really have to pay, where there's an opportunity now that is probably first of its kind at least in my generation to enact permanent change. Permanent change is one of those things that is a once in a lifetime opportunity in my opinion and I won't claim to be the most astute when it comes to legalities politics. Again, I'm the industry guy and I know firearms, I know ballistics, I know like yes, this is a good gun. Yes, this is one that we should probably give away because people are going to enjoy this firearm. We're giving away a scar. The scar is either beloved.

[King Trout]

Or hated. I.

[Brandon Herrera]

Love it. I'm a.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Scar apologist. I think it's a piece of junk. I'm just being honest with.

[Brandon Herrera]

You, you're probably correct, but I just, it's a soft spot in.

[Ronnie Adkins]

My heart. That's only because it's too expensive for me to own. Let me just put it.

[Brandon Herrera]

That way. Oh, so you're.

[Donut Operator]

Just.

[Brandon Herrera]

Coping? Yeah. Okay, well in that case.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Opinion disregarded. But I, I, I did spend, I did get myself like the, my a dream gun recently, which is.

[Brandon Herrera]

A Barrett EMRAD though, which we were talking about.

[Ronnie Adkins]

That earlier. The mrad is it was an investment because that allows me to like just change barrels and calibers whenever I need to. So if I'm going out on some long range thing and I want to shoot six. Five Creedmoor. Throw in the Creedmoor barrel if I want 300 Norma. Throwing in 300 Norma barrel. 338 Lapua. I mean seven PRC. Just anything I want and I don't have to have a new gun every time. A lot of people associate that with like the Mark 22 which is the new ASR advanced sniper rifle or PSR system precision sniper rifle for the military. But the Mark 22 is actually a different production line and has differences from the civilian MRAD. The.

[Brandon Herrera]

Civilian MRAD. It's like a, a military Humvee versus.

[Ronnie Adkins]

An H1. Yes, certainly with way, way fewer differences. You know it's, it's obviously still.

[King Trout]

Barrel swap. I have the Brandon, what's.

[Brandon Herrera]

The bolt? The.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Desertac mdr. The barrel swap actually is on Pepper bridge box. You can go and watch that. I did a vlog of my first day out with the, with the emrad. It takes no more than a minute. To be honest.

[Brandon Herrera]

With you. That's.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Pretty fast. What's. Well, what's funny is, is like I was still learning the system. The entire premise around American Marksman isn't that I'm the best shooter in the world. It's that I'm trying to figure out how good I can be. So.

[Brandon Herrera]

I was. Which I love that approach to, to content where it's. Everybody feels like they have to be a expert in something to make content. Like dude, all you have to do is be somewhat either charismatic or entertaining or whatever and just learn along with.

[King Trout]

The audience. I don't know, just do literally learn it. That's all you have to do. And you.

[Brandon Herrera]

Can show. Oh, because that's most of what your audience wants to.

[King Trout]

Do too. Yeah. Because then it shows. Oh, I can do this too. As long as it takes this much time. Or this dude.

[Brandon Herrera]

Did this. Well, dude, I can.

[Donut Operator]

Do this. Everybody wants to be hot with the biggest dick and oh, I can change this barrel out in.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Two seconds. Well, where that gets really interesting is there's, there's, it's, it's actually I use this term a lot but I think it applies here. There's a, it's a double edged sword and that's that humility around your content. Right. So there's a difference between confidence and hubris. But we have this. Or confidence and arrogance. We have this habit of forced humility as well. Right. You'll see it online all the time. Like, wow, I'm a retard. You know, it's like you're self deprecating so very but, but what the path that, that leads that down, down is, you know, as an eventuality, you know, self hate, you know, like I, maybe I actually am an idiot. Maybe that's just me. I'm just being transparent here. I. There. There's a way to be confident in the things that you're good at and also knowing the limitations of what you, what you aren't or knowing what you can do versus what you can. I am confident in what I can do. Which, anything inside of a mile, I'm on it. In, in two rounds of or less. If we are inside of a mile, two rounds or less, I'm putting rounds.

[Donut Operator]

On.

[Ronnie Adkins]

That. Right. That's, that's my confidence level. When it starts, when we start to get outside of that is the differences between like extreme long range and long range. And extreme long range is when it goes past the math and into the art where you start to talk about transonic and the changes that are necessary to use like Doppler radar measured curves on things. That's, that's a, a discipline that only time is something that I can sure.

[Brandon Herrera]

Truly understand. There's also the difference between knowing your particular proficiencies and understanding that you're still God's silliest warrior. I love that you can.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Just be. Well, for sure you can. Like, it took me a second to process that.

[Brandon Herrera]

But yeah. You cannot take things so seriously. You know, I'm not saying that you do. I'm just saying in general.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Like get that, get that entirely. So again, earlier, I mean mentioned nobody knows that I'm an idiot more than me. Right? Yeah, but I, but I do, I do also know that nobody will be their, my biggest advocate more than me. Right. And if, if I am not ready to advocate for myself, then who should I expect to.

[Brandon Herrera]

Do that? That I experience that in the, in the comment section all the time. And it just, it's funny how like your mindset shifts because I can't. I am very bad. And my friends know this. I'm very bad at taking compliments. Yeah. Or if anybody tries to advocate for me like, oh, he's this, he's that. I immediately I'm like, I'm like, I'm so uncomfy. Like you guys don't understand. I'm a retard. And then all of a sudden if somebody's like, this guy doesn't have the qualifications to talk about X, suddenly I remember every accomplishment and everything I know about that topic. I'm like, well, hold on, Pause, motherfucker. It completely depends on how it's approached.

[Ronnie Adkins]

You know. No, I mean, shifting all the way back. Gun rights is complex because you've got legislative changes, so you've got political lobbying that does need to take place. It is a large part of it, political change. But then you've also got courts being in the courts. And what I liked is, was this was an organization that did both. Right. So they've got the national foundation for Gun Rights, the National association for Gun Rights, two different organizations still generally under the.

[King Trout]

Same.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Structure. Not. Not unlike goa, right? Very, very similar. They've got their foundation, two great groups, for the record. So we. Interesting enough, interestingly enough, one of the guys on the team that I work at, that I work with, is a former GOA employee, the guy that used to hold the job that I fill there. It's a little bit different in its duties. We've reshaped that to, you know, for my skill set. He now works for another organization. So I mentioned earlier that it's, you know, they have their different approaches when it comes to achieving an end state, but they are all, at least the ones that I frequent with most of the time. They all have the same desired end state. And. And that is that gun. Gun laws themselves are fundamentally infringements. That is by definition what they are. An infringement, as in its definition is a barrier and. Or an impediment. And that's not how it's supposed to work. Right. So it's just the approach that they take. They choose to be a little bit different on the way there and just needed to better understand what that looked like, because it's mattered my entire life. And seeing the conversation with Finn, like I mentioned, what is a marksmanship team in high school, it's like.

[Brandon Herrera]

Well, the fact that you don't know.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Is why I, you know, so. So when we stood up American Marksman, it was okay. So how can we, after having the experience on the television show. There's. There's a whole nother story about that, that in about six more months, once a contract runs out and I can. I'm allowed to speak about it, maybe.

[Brandon Herrera]

I will. So what you're saying is.

[Ronnie Adkins]

We booked you six months too early.

[King Trout]

Told you the TV stuff.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Was fun. I don't. You were extremely helpful. And the amount of foresight that you had into what I ran.

[Brandon Herrera]

Into is we know a thing or two because we've seen a thing.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Or two. It blew my mind because if you recall, one of the first conversations we had was. Was three, four years ago. I was like, dude, I got this TV Show. It's going to be amazing. This is going to be it. I grew up watching Mail Call. It's going to be on the same channel, gonna be awesome. And you were like, just give me, just give me a second, dog. Let me help you understand my experience. Yours might be different, but my. Here was my experience and here's, here's dumb Ronnie with it, with the not truly understanding the difference between confidence and arrogance. And I was like, I, I got this. I'm good. And I'll tell you what.

[King Trout]

Buddy, everywhere. Why would they ever fuck me over? Humans don't.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Do that. And you're like, not saying.

[Donut Operator]

That. Not. Why would this multi million dollar corporation hurt.

[Brandon Herrera]

My feelies? It's almost like there's a certain clause that prevents you from doing any sort.

[King Trout]

Of disparagement. I always warn people for anything.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Like that. I hope that there's like a, like a, like a nice, nice zoom.

[King Trout]

In slow. Because you always, you're expecting the best. You're. You're putting your best foot forward and you're expecting them to do the same thing and all the promises and everything that was gonna happen and you're.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Like, dope. That was such a sick experience though, right? Like, like you, you, you, you grow up. I, I grew up in like a trailer. And, and that was one of the few channels that we got. And I watched that, I watched that in Dragon Ball Z. That was it. That's what I watched Coming Home. It was, was, was, was the History Channel and Dragon Ball Z. So getting that phone call saying, hey, we, we found one of your videos on the history of pirate cannons because the Free Syrian army was using a pirate cannon. So I did a video which.

[Brandon Herrera]

Was rad. I know exactly what video you're.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Talking about. It's cool as. So that's one of the, one of the, the best videos I've ever done. And I was actually arguing with Josh Brooks. I mentioned his name joke. He was like, ronnie, not all cannonballs. Well, he said all cannonballs didn't explode. And I was like, well, I'm gonna make a video now. Because there was. You had all different kinds of shot. You had round shot, you had canister can, spherical shot. Then you started to get into shrapnel, which was a dude, right? He was a British officer, if I remember correctly. So shrapnel was a guy. People think that like, like fragmentation is. It's colloquially, colloquially called shrapnel, but it's actually frag and you have primary frag versus secondary frag. So primary Frag is like, you have a hand grenade and all of its perforations on it. That's primary frag. It's designed to come off of the hand grenade and just do bad things. Then you have secondary frag.

[Brandon Herrera]

Secondary frag. The famer of the dude in front.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Of you. Exactly. Bone, Rock, Wood. Just. Just that gets. That gets thrown by that secondary frag. So. Lost my train of thought, but the History Channel show was an experience in and of its own. Growing up and. And watching that and watching Ermie on mail call, he. He fell into that role just like he fell into Full Metal Jacket and he killed both.

[Brandon Herrera]

Of them. I remember playing hooky from school, watching Arlee earn Army. Dude, dude, like, just rip it. Hitler's.

[Mando Sponsor]

Buzz saw.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Like that. I still do. I still do. Like my live. My. So I host a live gaming stream Tuesdays and Fridays, and it's solely for the purposes of raising money to buy custom gaming PCs and send those out to veterans. We've done about 70 grand worth of those since I started. And the ending of every night is. It says, good night, ladies. Good night, sir. And it's from Full Metal Jacket. Ermey is like a hero of mine, dude. Seriously. So getting that phone call for this video I did on pirate cannons, that's. They basically said, hey, will you come and do that for us? That video that you made, will you come and help us do that? And it was originally supposed to be called Battle Vision, and it was. It was. That is a fantastic name. Give me a second. Trust me me. The. The design around it was. Let's use actual historical footage so you can see the. Connect with funker. 530 already. Let's use historical footage. Let's use historical images and tie these things to time and space history for people to understand battle for people to. To help contextualize war. It was take. It was bringing history back to.

[Brandon Herrera]

History. And. And brother, like the. The old school 3D graphics.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Where you're like, battle from the top. Yes. I was on board with it so fast. Initially, I was supposed to be an expert wit or not expert witness. Excuse me. Thinking about a different career path ahead. I was. I was supposed to be an expert. So Cappy was involved as an expert. Preston Stewart. So Nick Irving was an expert on the show. We had a ton of expertise. Well, I got a call one day and they said, hey, will you be a Will. Will you actually host it? And I was like, what do you mean host it? And they're like, yeah, well, our other hosts kind of Fell through. I was at the bottom of this list, bro. Like, I mean, I mean, I was in the nosebleeds of the list of the hosts, but I was like, yeah, dude, let's do it. And they're like, we need you to do a, A what was real. What's the term? I'm sorry. No, it wasn't a.

[Brandon Herrera]

Sizzle reel. It.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Was audition. It was an audition, but with Rudy. Right. So the co host with me, Rudy Reyes, Generation Kill, the finest looking human being that I've ever seen in my life, and the one man that under most circumstances, men would absolutely list as their one time.

[Brandon Herrera]

They would. I love how you say, like, yeah, Rudy, you know, from Generation Kill, like, also the thing Generation Kill was.

[King Trout]

Based.

[Brandon Herrera]

On. On. There was.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Also that. Well, he, that's so that's such a huge part of it too. So you have like, Ermie, then you have Rudy. They, they played themselves, basically. Right. So Rudy played himself in Generation Kill.

[Brandon Herrera]

And that's. Which is.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Super cool. Fascinating. Ermie was there, as, if I recall correctly, on like, Full Metal Jacket was there as just like, like.

[Brandon Herrera]

A.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Consultant. Yep. And he just lit. I, I, if I recall the story correctly, just like lit into somebody one day and they were like, hey, will you do that on camera for.

[Brandon Herrera]

A second? It was all Oliver Stone.

[Donut Operator]

Yeah, yeah. No, no.

[Brandon Herrera]

It was. Who's the one.

[Donut Operator]

Who did?

[Brandon Herrera]

Stanley Kubrick.

[Donut Operator]

Thank you. Yeah. So, yeah, he was, he was hired as like a technical advisor and then he, he was like, lighting up the. The guy who was supposed to play the role of the.

[King Trout]

Chung.

[Donut Operator]

House. Done. Yeah, he was drill sergeant. Drill sergeant. Thank you. He's explaining to the drill sergeant like, no, here's how you do it. You. But he came with the intention of taking.

[Brandon Herrera]

That role. A lot of you, you millennials will remember him from the.

[King Trout]

GEICO commercials. He literally went in to take the role, which is hilarious. He's like, yeah, I'll just show this dude up. And then Stanley watched him yell at that dude. And then he's like, no, you have to do it like this. And went down and started yelling at people. And being a drill instructor, which he was done. And he was like, it's.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like, Rich, five, ten years.

[King Trout]

From now. That guy is. We need.

[Donut Operator]

That one. Take.

[King Trout]

The.

[Donut Operator]

Job. Yeah. And then after that, a movie I've definitely seen. Have you not seen that.

[Brandon Herrera]

Chemistry test? Watch the first half of.

[King Trout]

The movie. I mean, how old is that? Now that I think.

[Ronnie Adkins]

About it? You've never seen Full Metal.

[Donut Operator]

Jacket. No. Now.

[Ronnie Adkins]

About it. Fair enough. You Care what you care.

[King Trout]

About 80s because you look at like. I didn't realize we. I think we were talking about 2001 Space Odyssey came out before we landed on the moon, which is wild. And I was like, yeah, that's why a majority have never seen.

[Ronnie Adkins]

That movie. That's why they. That. That's what fueled a lot.

[Donut Operator]

Of theories. I'm not having that conversation. No, I'm just. I. I don't. Just venting to Brandon about this when I drove him to the airport earlier. But no, I'm not having that.

[King Trout]

Conversation about. Can we.

[Donut Operator]

Do it?

[King Trout]

Stanley Kubrick. Can we do it.

[Brandon Herrera]

After show. Should probably transition.

[King Trout]

There anyway. I.

[Donut Operator]

Like it.

[Brandon Herrera]

How long. Not like Jaguar, but, you.

[Donut Operator]

Know, how long have we been.

[King Trout]

Going cooking? Yeah.

[Ronnie Adkins]

We'Re good. Oh, my goodness. Is that what that says? Is that.

[King Trout]

A long.

[Donut Operator]

14 minutes? Yeah, it's been 14 whole minutes. We've.

[Brandon Herrera]

Been talking. You ready for another two.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Hours, buddy? Yeah, I could do this all day. I can't, I can't. I gotta.

[Donut Operator]

Pee again. All right. Well, how does he. What does.

[Brandon Herrera]

He say? Thank you for watching the Unsubscribe podcast. Yeah, you go.

[Donut Operator]

For it. Thank you for watching the Unsubscribe podcast. As always, I've been joined by eli double tap, Mr. Ronnie Adkins, future Congressman Brandon Herrera, and myself, Donut operator Ronnie, where can we.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Find you? Well, that's a loaded question. There's a lot of places. But right now the best place to find us is going to be American Marksman. Just about any social. You'll find us on that. And as well as Pepperbox, primarily Pepperbox. All of our exclusive content.

[King Trout]

Most specifically. And then Donut. Where do we.

[Donut Operator]

Find you? As donut operator, you can find me on. On YouTube if you search.

[Brandon Herrera]

King Trout, that's where you can find me. And on pep and on.

[Donut Operator]

And on Pepperbox, where I swear I say words such.

[Ronnie Adkins]

As piss. I hope it.

[King Trout]

Cuts right. Make it Cody the Canadian as you can.

[Ronnie Adkins]

Find me.

[King Trout]

South Park. Yeah, exactly. It's.

[Brandon Herrera]

Like perfect. Thank.

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