This week on Stay Free with Russell Brand, we're talking about Trump's claim that he could end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, AI and whether there's a leadership crisis at the top of the Trump administration. Plus, we'll be talking about the morality that undergirds behavior reporting and systemic governance with Jack Kornfield, a world teacher and author of The Governator. And, of course, we've got some caffeine too! Stay Free, Waffling Wafflers! - Russell Brand. This episode is brought to you by BBC Radio 4 and BBC Worldwide. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/OurAdvertisers. We'll be looking out for your ad-free versions of our most popular shows, and we'll make them available on all major podcast directories, too. If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE and tell a friend about this podcast by using the promo code: "ELISSA" at the linktr.ee/StayFree. To find out more about our sponsorships and support the show, click here. And if you're feeling generous, please consider pledging a small monthly donation of $1 or more than $5, or you can support by clicking here: bit.ly/support-with-australiambrand and leaving us a five-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you for listening to Stay Free! - we really appreciate it. - your support is greatly appreciated. xoxo, your support really helps us make a bigger and better listening experience and we can improve the quality of our podcast. Thank you, you'll be helping us to keep us all listening to the show and spreading the word out there. Love you're listening to us bigger and bigger and more reach out to more people everywhere. XOXO, - Your support really does mean a lot more than just one of us can help us spread the word about our work, more of you, more and more of us reaching out to the world, more people will be heard across the world and more people getting a chance to reach more people in the world... - thank you, and they'll get a bigger of your support, more like that, more helpful than just a little bit more of your voice out there, and a better place in the next episode.
00:00:01.000Thank you so much for joining me for Stay Free with Russell Brand.
00:00:05.000We've got so many fantastic subjects to discuss with you and a glorious guest.
00:00:10.000We're going to talk about Trump, how he says he would end the war in 24 hours.
00:00:14.000Off YouTube, because you might be watching us on YouTube now, you might be one of our 6.52 million Awakening Wonders that are tired of the mainstream news, that are tired of establishment power, that are tired of being lied to, And believe we can create something new and wonderful and for the first 15 minutes we will be with you.
00:00:31.000But then we're going to migrate like a glorious miasma, like a sweet phantom, over to the home of free speech that I dare not mention.
00:00:40.000Not because it's like Voldemort or Wicked and stuff, but case the algorithms against it.
00:01:09.000That's my little, that stops me getting in any trouble that does.
00:01:14.000If the WHO didn't interfere with us communicating openly on YouTube, this is meant to be a public platform, but we'll get to the bottom of all that along with so many subjects.
00:01:25.000And we'll be talking about the morality that undergirds behavior reporting and systemic governance with Jack Kornfield, a world teacher.
00:01:34.000We'll be talking about moral perspectives on AI, on Tucker's revelation?
00:01:40.000Does he have the bodily autonomy to make such a claim?
00:01:42.000Does he have a responsibility as a role model and as a public figure?
00:04:28.000I just like the idea that Zelensky, after talking to Trump, you know, when the Russian invasion was mooted and all these things, that there would have been a call between them.
00:04:38.000But Zelensky got off the phone and he went, you know what?
00:04:55.000What I'm saying is that I know Zelensky very well and I know Putin very well.
00:04:59.000So like the idea that knowing people well is the way to solve these problems because actually what Trump suggests strategically and tactically is saying to Putin we would give Ukraine so many weapons that they would win this war.
00:05:12.000So in a sense he's just saying he would amplify what's happening.
00:05:16.000Particularly those of you that love Trump.
00:05:18.000Because it's interesting isn't it because we're now living in a time where there are emergent independent voices and in a sense you can say Trump was the harbinger of that.
00:05:26.000Whether you like Trump or not there's no doubt that he was a berserker in the system, a bull in the china shop.
00:05:32.000He is not the preferred candidate of the establishment.
00:05:34.000I think it's safe to say that now and perhaps in his wake we have the emergence of figures like RFK Friend of the show, if you've not donated to the fund for me to do pull-ups against RFK, for God's sake donate now.
00:05:47.000Let's post the link to that in the description because, not in the description, in the chat on locals, because baby, I am gonna pull him up so hard.
00:06:51.000We're becoming weary of the rhetoric of systemic power.
00:06:56.000The US are pressuring the Ukraine to push harder in the counter-offensive.
00:07:00.000Gareth, you had a point to make on this story.
00:07:01.000No, I just think it's amazing that this is going on, that the US government and the military are getting frustrated with Ukraine for how the counter-offensive is going, despite Mark Milley saying that the counter-offensive is not a failure, which is already going quite far, isn't it?
00:07:16.000It's not a failure in my view, I think it's way too early to say that kind of thing.
00:07:19.000I think there's a lot of fighting left to do, and I'll stay with what we've said before, this is going to be a long and hard bloody battle.
00:07:53.000So you should have no skin in the game.
00:07:55.000It should be like, we've given you you the aid. What's the problem?
00:07:57.000Look how that's happened, hasn't it? It's crept in, week by week by week, this is how
00:08:01.000it gets to it. The start is, this is not our war, it's not American troops, we're just
00:08:06.000providing aid exactly as you say. And then the creep comes to the point where you've
00:08:09.000got the government saying, we're angry about how slow this is and how badly that you're
00:08:14.000doing and that this is going to be a long hard battle.
00:08:17.000Starting to look like a proxy war now.
00:08:18.000No wonder they require absolute control over media institutions, and in particular social media.
00:08:25.000You know that federal judge passed a law saying that your free speech had been impeached by Biden administration actions, that true information had been censored, in particular during the pandemic period.
00:08:37.000And the federal judge said it had to stop, that the Biden administration could only interact with social media platforms if it were matters of criminality, Well, that has been overturned.
00:08:52.000The Biden administration will be allowed to continue to collude with social media, continue to demand they censor, even as new legislation is being passed to permit it in your country, the United States, in Canada, in Australia, in New Zealand, in our country, the UK and across the EU.
00:09:08.000Of course, they have to amplify their message.
00:09:12.000But there is a requirement for censorship because without censorship we will openly communicate, and of course there are bigoted people in the world, there are people saying hateful things, I wish there weren't, but there are.
00:09:22.000But the biggest threat is our open communication.
00:09:26.000Not our bigotry, not our potential hatred towards one another, but the fact that we can collude, cooperate, present new alternatives.
00:09:35.000Let me know in the chat right now, press the red button, join us on Locals, and let me know what you think about this.
00:09:41.000The Biden administration overturned a rule.
00:09:43.000What's the point in having a ruling if they can instantly overturn it?
00:10:00.000So, once again, there's a legislative quagmire that can be fired up that's anti-democratic, anti-judicial, which reveals precisely what we continually tell us and what we continually tell you and what you continually tell us.
00:10:13.000These institutions are failing, that they're not fit for purpose.
00:10:17.000Remember, we're going to leave you in a second, we'll be exclusively on Rumble to talk about Tucker's admission.
00:10:22.000Acknowledgement that he has taken no shots.
00:11:00.000Shall we have a look at Donald Trump's reaction to the January 6th there?
00:11:05.000The number one thing that bothers Trump about potentially being arrested over the events related to January the 6th is that he received the letter on a Sunday.
00:13:40.000Never been done like this in the history of our country and it's a disgrace.
00:13:44.000What's happening to our country, whether it's the borders or the elections or kinds of things like this where the DOJ has become a weapon for the Democrats.
00:13:53.000The DOJ is a weapon for the Democrats.
00:13:57.000Difficult to query that analysis when there is the temporary suspension of verdicts that had been reached by legitimate judicial figures, allowing the Biden administration to continue to censor.
00:14:24.000And if you're watching us on Rumble, click the red button right now and join us in the chat.
00:14:29.000What I like about this is in his chat with who I can only assume is a delightful old gentleman, in the chat he sort of says, how many jabs did you have?
00:14:37.000And that fellow went, "Well, how many jabs did you have?"
00:14:39.000Which shows, like, that's real playground negotiation tactics.
00:14:43.000Let's have a little look at this clip.
00:14:45.000And once more, it's another example of how it's independent, now independent,
00:14:49.000media figures like Tucker Carlson, who are able to handle the national
00:14:52.000and, indeed, international conversation a lot more deftly than supposed political figures.
00:14:58.000Remember when we showed you yesterday Mike Pence talking about how he would double down on the militarisation of Ukraine, continue to perpetuate this war mentality.
00:15:09.000It was Tucker that points out, well hang on a minute,
00:15:11.000have you not looked around American cities at the moment?
00:15:13.000Yeah, a lot of people are saying, Tucker for president, or Davros 200 actually.
00:15:17.000But I get a general impression that what your appetite is for now
00:15:20.000is anti-establishment political figures because the establishment itself is the problem,
00:15:25.000not the minor differences between establishment entities.
00:15:29.000Would you agree with that analysis generally?
00:15:30.000Let's have a look at Tucker Carlson's stance on the jabs there.
00:15:34.000One of the powers that government did usurp over the past several years
00:15:38.000is the right to decide what medicine you take in the form of COVID mandates.
00:15:45.000How did you feel about that and how many COVID shots did you take and how do you feel about it now in retrospect?
00:15:57.000Oh, Tucker, going in hard with a zero.
00:16:00.000Now, what I know from when Tucker Carlson joined us on this show is he is able to align his easy, convivial manner, his fluidity and eloquence as a communicator with authenticity.
00:16:16.000He feels like when you're speaking with him, whether it's on camera or off, you feel like you're dealing with a connected person who you may not agree with on everything, but you can speak with in good faith.
00:16:27.000That's why I'm sort of astonished by people that say that Tucker's a white supremacist and that kind of thing, because it just doesn't hold up in person.
00:16:38.000And particularly something like this now.
00:16:39.000Is this the first public figure you've seen say zero shots?
00:16:44.000I also think he's in that amazing position at the moment.
00:16:46.000Obviously he's a highly skilled broadcaster, but now that he's left Fox and has no ties to the mainstream at all, or getting kind of told what he can and can't say, he's able to point out, he's in this incredible position of basically just pointing out hypocrisy.
00:17:02.000And so when he's asked by Asa Hutchinson, Like, how many did you take?
00:17:06.000He can say, I didn't take any shots because he knows from the Republican position and all these Republican candidates that he's interviewed is that they live in hypocrisy, whether that's the war or COVID.
00:17:17.000Again, coming back to Trump, you know, again, I don't think there's another figure in politics who could weather the storm of the lockdowns that Trump imposed, the way in which he took great pride in those In the vaccines you know I don't think anyone else could kind of still come through that with the fan base that he's got when there's so many things that you could say his party did at that time and their position on war that just feels very hypocritical.
00:17:43.000Certainly he's granted incredible grace by the surrounding environment of ongoing hypocrisy a lot of people in the chat asking did that politician ever answer the question do you feel increasingly now But we're approaching a point where you don't want to be governed people that even look like that.
00:18:02.000A kind of sort of drabness, the hollowed-out, pallid complexion of these cookie-cutter, off-the-conveyor-belt, political figures who, from either side of the aisle, parrot the same talking points, support the same ideas, went to the same schools, are funded in the same way.
00:18:22.000Isn't there a kind of appetite now for raw rhetoric?
00:18:27.000Let's have a look as well, just based on that issue.
00:18:29.000Tucker's vaccine revelation, we asked you.
00:18:31.000Does it make you like him more, less, or just the same?
00:18:35.00065% liked him more, 33% of you already liked him, less 2%, 98% of you found this made you warm to Tucker a little more.
00:18:45.000Let's have a look at the rest of that clip.
00:18:48.000But I think it's fair and I can see that you look at the zero.
00:18:52.000Is it like they're still applauding him saying zero?
00:19:00.000Take that to mean like this is everybody supporting let's not get vaccines.
00:19:03.000That's everyone supporting authenticity, open discourse, clear communication, because we live in a time of obfuscation and deception.
00:19:13.000Have you seen all these stories about Joe Biden?
00:19:16.000People saying, oh, Joe Biden, he's foul mouthed and filthy tempered in public.
00:19:21.000He's being abusive to his staff while making declarations in public that anyone that's rude in his team will be out on their ear immediately.
00:19:30.000You don't even know for sure whether or not this is a tactic to make Joe Biden seem more dynamic.
00:19:36.000We live almost entirely in a spectacle.
00:19:39.000Integrity and authenticity are becoming the currency of our time.
00:19:44.000I'd say I'd rather deal with people that I disagree with but trust that they're telling the truth than people that parrot the points of the contemporary ideology and will parrot other points when they come into fashion.
00:19:58.000And I don't think, honestly, you should be asking people about their medical care, but that became a matter of public policy.
00:20:05.000And I do think that the whole country ought to pause and assess, like, what did we just go through?
00:21:09.000I wanted to start by talking about some of the subjects we've already discussed in this episode.
00:21:14.000Donald Trump is almost the very definition of a divisive figure.
00:21:18.000In some areas this man is regarded as the embodiment of anti-establishment force.
00:21:25.000He's for many of our viewers their The only opportunity we're going to have to stand up against hypocrisy and corruption within the establishment.
00:21:35.000Notable that he is one of the few voices within the mainstream that is advocating for peace at this time.
00:21:42.000How do you, from the perspective of a spiritualist, a man who is devout and dedicated to spirituality, Ethically deal with the subject of Donald Trump and what he represents.
00:21:54.000How do you deal with the subject of militarism and forever wars?
00:21:59.000What do you feel it tells us when you have figures like Donald Trump and Noam Chomsky saying the same things about war, Cornel West and RFK saying the same thing about war and yet the establishment still advocating for ongoing wars if it's a duty, a responsibility and the only moral thing to do?
00:22:16.000Well, Russell, you've got the establishment on one side, and you've got the anti-establishment on the other side.
00:22:25.000First, no amount of technology, of nanotechnology, AI, biotechnology, war technology, is going to stop continuing warfare, nor business as usual, because the source of warfare is the human heart.
00:22:47.000But if people are still divisive in their heart and not connected in any way, don't have a society that represents and fosters care, then we get what you talked about.
00:22:58.000You talked about it on the playground.
00:23:00.000When kids are, you know, hitting each other with blocks, you say, use your words.
00:23:05.000You actually teach people that there's another way to be.
00:23:10.000And we have a society that's tremendously divisive, and it's not going to be changed unless also people change inside, which is what I've learned as a Buddhist monk, that in fact, if you want the world to be more peaceful, you also have to step out of the... stop the war inside yourself.
00:23:31.000Otherwise, you could have establishment and anti-establishment, and it just carries on.
00:23:37.000Yes, it seems increasingly plain to me that the prima materia of our reality is consciousness itself and the external world, an expression of some ulterior force that is privately accessible to all of us through the subjective experience.
00:23:52.000And perhaps in this spectacular age, and I use that word most literally, Jack, this thirst and hunger for integrity and authenticity comes from Our shared realisation that what we're being presented, whether it's from a Republican perspective, or a Democrat perspective, or from within the mainstream media, or by our judiciary, or from within the corporatist, globalist world and its evident influence within media spaces, is a lack of integrity and authenticity.
00:24:23.000That's why a figure like Tucker Carlson, I believe, who came on our show and was absolutely fantastic, He and I had sort of a real connection, and have a real connection.
00:24:33.000I would say that whilst there are areas of, you know, policy and social matters where he and I would disagree, what I'd accept is that he's a person who comes from a place of integrity and authenticity.
00:24:46.000What do you think of this modern currency of integrity and authenticity?
00:24:50.000And do you feel that it's something that's lacking in public discourse, and in particular in political discourse?
00:24:57.000Of course there's something lacking, partly because we live in an addictive society in which the best contribution you can make, you know, is to continue to consume.
00:25:08.000The best person in the society is neither dead nor alive, but more like a zombie and doesn't want to stand up and say, this is what matters to me, whether it's eating carcinogenic food or polluting the environment and so forth.
00:25:22.000So we're missing that because we're being trained In some way, almost as if the society itself is an addict.
00:25:32.000And then secondly, when I was living in the monastery during the time, one of the times of war in Southeast Asia, and there was a firefight near the monastery, and the monastery was a zone of peace.
00:25:45.000In the morning, I went out with an old monk, and there were some helicopters dropping canister bombs where the so-called terrorists were living.
00:25:55.000And, you know, the firefight was close enough you could see the flashes at night.
00:25:59.000And I said, oh, the military is bombing those terrorists, you know, that we saw fighting last night.
00:26:07.000And the monk said, oh, they don't live there.
00:26:08.000They're in caves down that way, further down the ridge.
00:26:10.000I said, well, why are they bombing there?
00:26:12.000And he said, well, If they killed them all, then no one would continue to give them all these nice helicopters and weapons.
00:26:20.000And you could feel that underneath the war was also this huge economic engine.
00:28:09.000But what is deeply empowering is the fact that all of us, through the private alter within us, do have access to a deep force, can cultivate a different mentality, do have access to a power that actually is the only thing that can meaningfully alter reality.
00:28:27.000Nevertheless, Jack, there are, I would say, accumulating forces of opposition, not least through technology.
00:28:37.000And I understand that you've been communicating a lot with Sam Altman about the potential destructive power of AI, which of course could be utilized like any tool for good.
00:28:48.000But I suppose the fear at the moment is that AI could wreak economic havoc could annihilate a lot of jobs, could be used to impose
00:28:55.000further control, could be used to divide people further. What are some of the topics
00:29:00.000and subjects you're discussing with Sam Altman and what is coming out of those
00:29:07.000I'll answer that briefly and then I would throw a question your way.
00:29:10.000The question, and the leaders of AI don't know how to do it, is how do you build in honesty, integrity, and ethical values within a computer?
00:29:23.000All systems and with artificial intelligence.
00:29:27.000And I think it all needs to be slowed down, which is what Sam also agreed to in some way until that can be established.
00:29:35.000I had a conversation with Charlie Oppenheimer, who's the grandson of Robert J. Oppenheimer.
00:29:42.000There's a film that's just coming out.
00:29:44.000And in 1945, Oppenheimer suggested that there be an international group that hold the Nuclear explosive power of the bomb rather than any particular country And there was a two-year period when the US was the only holder of nuclear power And then we said no we're gonna we're gonna run the world with our nuclear power and the nuclear arms race started The same thing is happening with AI right now And it's possible to pause and say let's collaborate and do this together rather than make a AI
00:30:20.000Artificial intelligence, global war of whose AI is more powerful than whose.
00:30:28.000The question for us is, do we continue down the path of conflict with one another?
00:30:49.000I mean, we need So how do you how do you create a wise society that's not just individualistic and where people are responsible and ethical caring for the community as a whole?
00:31:02.000I feel that individualism has perhaps reached its apex and perhaps in the reification of identity that is enshrined in identity politics which for me holds many truths We ought be free to become who we truly are and nobody should impede the self-expression of individuals.
00:31:26.000Our freedom is perhaps one of the greatest principles around which we can organise our lives.
00:31:32.000But there is more to my personal reality than what I want and what I don't want.
00:31:37.000And as an addict, I've fallen into the trap of treating my own preferences and aversions
00:31:43.000like a kind of inner dogma imposed by instinct, impulse, and cultural conditioning.
00:31:50.000What I suggest is that our systems and institutions need a radical re-evaluation of their ethics,
00:31:58.000that it seems to be, to me, that our media and our systems of governance promote the ugliest aspects of our nature.
00:34:21.000I believe that there will be a tipping point and I think that we can approach it through spiritual practice and a kind of unity against central corruption.
00:34:31.000That's what we're trying to convey on this show, Jack.
00:34:34.000And that's what I want to talk to you about.
00:34:37.000If you have questions for Jack in the chat, join us, press the red button, join us over on Locals and speak at That team stay free so that I find your questions in there and guys out there bring the questions for Jack in, proper questions.
00:34:50.000Jack, what do you think about my little diatribe there?
00:34:53.000I loved your diatribe, and I want to say to people that we can always start again, that we can always begin again.
00:35:02.000It's one of the great spiritual truths.
00:35:04.000If you listen to Lehmann Gbowee and those who won the Nobel Peace Prize in Liberia, where she said, Liberia used to be known for its child soldiers, And now it's known for its women leaders.
00:35:20.000That revolution is that combination of inner revolution to realize that you can step out of your own fears, you can step out of your own addiction.
00:35:31.000James Baldwin put it this way, he said, I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hate and ignorance so stubbornly is because they sense that once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with their own pain and fear.
00:35:45.000And if we can honor that we're human and we can actually stand up to that, we can look in our own hearts and say, yes, we have our measure of pain.
00:35:56.000And there's something bigger that we can be a part of, which includes then not only the inner freedom, but the sense of connection with others, not based on fear, but based on That's beautiful, that James Baldwin quote.
00:36:12.000Let's find that and let's post that when we are sharing this conversation with Jack.
00:36:17.000We've got some lovely questions for you.
00:36:54.000And how do we reduce dependence on the state and the system?
00:36:58.000Well, I look like somebody's dad anyway.
00:37:01.000You know, that's partly the question of empowerment and trust, that if we actually start to build within our communities, that there's something about both the global system that we have to pay attention to and step out of in some way.
00:37:15.000But we also need to rebuild at the very simplest level.
00:37:21.000In the environment I'm in, with the neighbors that I care about, one of the best things of what happened in the pandemic is that people at the beginning started to care about each other for a time.
00:37:33.000And there was a kind of cheering for that.
00:37:35.000People, you know, on the balconies in Italy singing to one another in the evening.
00:37:40.000And you realize part of what's missing is that deep sense of community.
00:37:44.000And we've been swayed by the media, We've been swayed by the consumerism of the society to say, this is going to make you happy and it doesn't.
00:38:21.000You can reach out and mend and connect and start to build a web of connection from goodwill in your community with others.
00:38:29.000And that's partly the real revolution of changing how we live with each other.
00:38:34.000Very beautiful answer and it's reassuring for me because I have a lot of conversations, I know you do Jack, I know that you communicate openly, that you have an ongoing communication and you're continually teaching and involved in discourse with other great thinkers and like very recently on here we had the survivalist and leader of the global scout movement and former SAS soldier Bear Grylls on here and he's Saying almost the same things as you.
00:39:01.000He's not quoting James Baldwin, but he's saying get out in nature, experience nature, find connections in community.
00:39:07.000We have a saying in the 12 Step community, look for the similarities, not for the differences.
00:39:13.000I think that what our culture continually invites us to do is to focus on the differences and not the similarities.
00:39:19.000Question now from our community here in Locals, and if you want to join us on Locals, press the red button at the bottom of your screen now.
00:39:26.000No Dugganoku asks, Jack, how do you keep in touch with our beloved Ram Dass after his passing and what in Ram Dass' teaching could help us now?
00:41:35.000And you could feel when they saw that circle of stones that they actually cared about each other.
00:41:42.000And it began an entirely different conversation.
00:41:45.000But it means a kind of courage that's not just the outer courage, Russell.
00:41:50.000But it's really the courage of heart to be able to see the suffering that you talk about and to say, I will not contribute to that divisiveness.
00:42:00.000I'm going to listen in a different way and stand up for what really matters and connect not only inner freedom, but that community around me in a different way, a heartful way.
00:42:11.000So maybe Ram Dass is speaking through me in that regard.
00:42:15.000It is an astonishing paradox that the seemingly insignificant gesture of personal awakening can have such a profound effect.
00:42:24.000But under investigation, if we acknowledge that individual change collectively undertaken means that reality is entirely altered, that's a very beautiful anecdote.
00:42:36.000And I'd like to add to it this question from Judy Denmark, how Our individual awakening will not affect Biden and Putin or those who hold the nuclear codes.
00:42:52.000In a sense, I think we trap ourselves in a sort of cycle of impotence by refusing to acknowledge and embrace our personal power.
00:42:59.000How useful it is for us to say, oh well, there's nothing we can do.
00:43:04.000What if Malcolm X or Gandhi had taken such a position?
00:43:07.000And as Jack has already said in one of his previous answers, it would be hubristic to think that any individual can make a difference.
00:43:13.000And even some of the most great leaders, Martin Luther King, have always acknowledged that it is as one of many.
00:43:20.000that we are powerful. Of course this is the perpetual dynamic that needs to be retained.
00:43:26.000How can a small establishment elite dominate an entire planet? Only by creating fracture,
00:43:33.000impotence and despair among that population. Jack, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:43:40.000And the belief that you can't make a difference.
00:43:44.000And actually, each person who's listening, and this is what you're trying to say right now, Russell, that each person who listens actually has the power to act from a kind of inner freedom and well-being and to contribute.
00:43:57.000And that's what will, in the end, it's going to be us together that will make the change.