In this episode, I chat with my good friend and fellow podcaster, about her experiences in the current events of the past year and what she plans to do in the future. We talk about how she managed her stress and anxiety in the wake of the recent events in the Middle East, how she dealt with it, and what her plans are for the near and long term.
00:00:24.060Yeah, so March was really hard because when the war started February 28th, I couldn't sleep for two weeks because I was so anxious and afraid.
00:00:36.040You know, I have three kids, and I'm just worried about the world that they will inherit.
00:00:41.760And I was just following the news for two weeks straight, and my mind was like a beehive.
00:00:48.960And there were also some attacks against me.
00:00:52.340there was clearly a smear campaign that was coordinated because
00:00:55.120certain influencers were using the same talking points and using the same
00:00:58.780um um it seemed as though they got the same memo basically but i really didn't mind that i was
00:01:05.160more concerned about like where this war might go and where this might might lead it was making me
00:01:10.340very anxious and um and then you know a lot of people reached out um and i was overwhelmed with
00:01:18.420media requests and i had to turn a lot down just because because i had just so many commitments i
00:01:24.980wanted to like maintain teaching my class and i reached a point where i actually don't want to do
00:01:32.260this i don't want to be the center of a storm i don't want to be the center of attention like what
00:01:36.020i specialize in is doing deep analysis um and trying to tie current events to historical um
00:01:45.620patterns and try to um offer some insight and clarity as to how the future might reveal itself
00:01:53.060and that's something i've been doing for the past two years and something i really enjoyed doing
00:01:56.740and in the beginning you know when i was when i was when i only had like you know 20 000 fans
00:02:02.340um it was really rewarding was very edifying um everyone was really happy to have found me
00:02:07.860it seemed that as though it was a really small club and everyone enjoyed being in it but then
00:02:12.740as you know this past year i became more and more prominent and then in march i sort of blew up um
00:02:19.060everywhere and that um put me in the eye of the storm and i asked myself the question i asked
00:02:27.860myself is am i capable of still doing insightful analysis while being a celebrity of some sorts
00:02:38.020and if the answer is no then i should stop being a celebrity and continue doing uh research and
00:02:44.500teaching because that's my value to the world that's what i should focus on um and so i was
00:02:50.100seriously considering just not doing youtube and taking some time off and just trying to clear my
00:02:57.380head and trying to get some perspective on what's going on because i don't want to be influenced by
00:03:04.980this attention I don't want to be a player in this game right but you know
00:03:12.380as things moved on I recognized that the internet it has no attention span you
00:03:18.060know it you know you and eventually people just shift focus and so and I was
00:03:26.820able to manage my schedule more properly so I so my plan now is I want to
00:03:33.880continue teaching until the end of the semester when my contract runs out. And then I want to
00:03:42.040do more traveling to see more of the world and hopefully do some lectures. Because I talk a lot
00:03:49.360about geopolitics, but I think it's very important to experience the world. So I've been invited to
00:03:56.360a conference in Moscow in late June. And I'm really excited about that because I've never
00:04:01.340been to russia even though i talk a lot about russia i would love to visit japan at some point
00:04:05.900because i've never actually visited um japan um i i would like to go to europe um and i would like
00:04:13.440i would like to go back to the united states visit south america so um i really think it's important
00:04:19.580for me to um do more deep dive research and um i want to continue to do my youtube because i built
00:04:29.800very strong following and they really enjoy learning from me i want to continue doing my
00:04:34.440sub stack um at some point i want to switch gears and write a book uh to really systemize game theory
00:04:43.320um in a way that allows people to start um um thinking in terms of game theory themselves
00:04:51.320and yeah so right now um i i was in i was in mid-march pretty um anxious pretty depressed
00:05:02.860with the state of affairs and i i felt that for my mental health and for the sake of my family i
00:05:08.760should take some time off um but fortunately i've been able to manage a lot of stress uh more
00:05:16.340effectively and so i like to continue doing what i'm doing but at a much more manageable schedule
00:05:22.820so basically cut back on media requests podcast interviews and maybe move like scale down the
00:05:31.380teaching uh before i was uploading like three lectures a week and that uh was pretty unsustainable
00:05:37.520um so maybe in the future i'll move towards one or two lectures a week so can so continue to
00:05:44.000update my community continue to educate my community but making sure that it's long-term
00:05:49.140sustainable i'm happy to hear that i was worried i was and i think i didn't reach out because i'm
00:05:54.520like okay you haven't figured out there's but it uh i'm sure you saw the attacks and you knew
00:05:59.480but yeah we still want the lectures three a week that's a lot you know since the war ramped up
00:06:05.580even uploading a lot and i was really surprised at how much you were able to do because
00:06:09.640it's recorded it's an you know the average about an hour long an hour lecture so it must be a lot
00:06:15.760of preparation a lot of notes and you do it in one take no cuts and when i saw that your mic cut
00:06:23.120off because you know you probably all over the place it was i was worried you were gonna you
00:06:27.520were gonna quit but that that's good to hear does it feel like you've been at the start of this war
00:06:32.360in an ideological war or a spiritual war um yeah i mean i i feel as though um there's so much
00:06:43.640temptation to take advantage of my celebrity right so a lot of people have reached out
00:06:50.280and said you know they want me to invite me to a lecture um people have invited me to do a podcast
00:06:56.140and they'll pay for my immediate appearance um there are a lot of people in china who've reached
00:07:01.800out and they want to um make me famous in china basically i'm not famous in china i'm actually
00:07:08.160more famous it's really strange but i'm actually more from the united states and i i'm in china i
00:07:12.400purposely keep a low profile so i think my priority is um i can't get distracted by any of this like
00:07:20.440i'm very i've been very clear uh for the longest time these past few years what my mission is my
00:07:25.840My mission is to raise my children and to be good people, and to be a good role model
00:13:35.220No, I think Joe Kennedy is absolutely right.1.00
00:13:37.460If the United States were to just stop this war and retreat, Iran would be perfectly happy
00:13:46.220to go to the negotiating table because what people forget is that there are different factions
00:13:52.560within Iran as well. There are many factions who don't want this war to continue because obviously
00:13:59.040this will be devastating for the civilians and it's going to take years and years to build back
00:14:06.340a lot of infrastructure. So if the United States were to retreat today and close their Middle East
00:14:12.200basis iran would be pretty happy to negotiate a deal with the united states where both would
00:14:19.160be responsible for the general who moves and they would share tolls and tariffs i guarantee you
00:14:24.760in the united states were to say to iran we're leaving let's make a deal that benefits both of
00:14:29.400us iran would be like absolutely and you know what iran would be like you know what if you want to
00:14:34.600come and invest in our country and if um um you want us to join the usd system uh if you want us0.67
00:14:41.880buy us treasuries we'd be happy to do so you know just strike a deal like like china did with uh
00:14:47.560china in the 90s right where china was given most favorite nation uh trading status you had tons
00:14:54.920of american investment and expertise flowing into the country and in return china started to buy a
00:15:00.200lot of us treasuries you're going to be more than happy to make this deal to be ecstatic about making
00:15:05.320this deal so the big question is why not make this deal it's mutually beneficial it's win-win
00:15:14.520it would bring peace to the world the art of the deal but the heart of the deal yes we know
00:15:20.600i mean look if you if you watch uh predictive history you you could see that that's not going
00:15:25.560going to happen. This is the effect of hubris. I mean, just look what Trump's saying. I mean,
00:15:30.660this morning, that's what he should do. That's obviously the only outcome. It's going to be a
00:15:35.440disaster. He is completely losing his mind. I don't know if you think that he has some cognitive
00:15:42.460issues going on. It seems like a senile old person. It's a straight up disaster. And since
00:15:49.240the last time I spoke to you, Pam Bondi has now been fired. They're saying that she's going to0.78
00:15:55.440be repositioned in the private sector. She's no longer attorney general. Hegseth was questioned0.86
00:15:59.680and pressed for firing eight top generals within the military. It seems like, although, I mean,
00:16:06.140they've been declaring victory for four weeks. I don't know what type of victorious war this is.
00:16:11.460If nothing was accomplished besides killing civilians, the Strait of Hormuzes closed,
00:16:16.420our economy is up, oil's up. Everything that you have laid out in your lectures has come true.1.00
00:16:22.760And this is probably going to keep being the disaster that it is.0.73
00:16:27.780In your last, in the Pax Judaica Rising lecture, you were talking about how this is probably going to be the decline of the American empire.
00:16:40.500I think this is the end of the American empire.
00:16:42.640The thing about war that people don't appreciate, because it's been a long time since we fought a real war, is that war makes people crazy, right?
00:16:51.000It's like if you're in a fight, and maybe you didn't mean to get in a fight, and maybe in the beginning, the fight was over the pittiest things.
00:17:03.980And the observers think, oh, well, let's argue and push each other and then punch each other, but then this thing will stop.
00:17:11.120But once you get in a fight, the adrenaline takes over, right?
00:17:14.360And you just want to win no matter what.
00:17:21.000So what's happening is that they make the military.
00:17:26.520Maybe they were not in for this war, but now that they're in this war, they want to win this war at all costs.0.70
00:17:35.180And you look at a guy like Peter Hexap, whenever he does a press conference, I swear to God, it's almost like he talks war as though he's having an orgasm.0.65
00:17:47.680orgasm i mean do you get that impression where like he just loves this right yeah and he says0.77
00:17:53.200like negotiating with bombs it's like he's climaxing yeah like like it's it's these people are
00:17:59.060it's these people are insane and i think that's what war does to people you know you go to world
00:18:03.720one where you know for years they were throwing millions of people to the devs in the trenches0.61
00:18:09.000they were ordering millions of men um to go run into machine gun fire and you and then you're