Russell Brand is joined by his good friend and business partner, Gareth Barker, to discuss what it means to be a hero in a post-apocalypse world, and how to deal with the impending threat of nuclear Armageddon. Plus, we discuss the new Pfizer/Avengers partnership, and why it's a good name for a baddie. And, of course, there's a new segment called the Stay Free with Russell Brand Community, where members of the community get a chance to ask us anything they want to know about global affairs, and we try to answer them in the chat below. Stay Free! - Russell Brand This episode is sponsored by Pfizer. To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/OurAdvertisers and use the promo code: STAYFREE at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase when you enter the invite code: "STAYFREE" at checkout. To support Stay Free With Russell Brand, please go to bit.ly/support-remind-us and help spread the word about our podcast. To find out more about our sponsorships and our upcoming events, go here. To get 10% discount code: stayfree at stayfree.org/strive and save 10% on your first month only when you book your first stayfree membership, use the discount code stayfree at checkout! Stay free! to receive 20% off the entire stayfree offer when you sign up to stay free in the StayFree with us, and get 20% of $50 or more, and receive a discount of up to $99 or more when you buy a copy of the stayfreebieccare membership? and we'll give you a complimentary copy of Stay Freebie and get 5% off a VIP membership when you shop with Paypal Connected by Paypal or use this offer starts next week, they'll get 5 stars and get an ad-only version of the deal, and a discount on the ad discount starts starting at $99, and they'll receive 5 VIP access to the deal starts in the next time they receive your first place they review the ad goes to $5 or they get your first promo code, and you get 5 star review starts on the second place, they get $5, and 5 VIP discount starts $10, and also get 5, and there's an ad discount gets you 5,000MB and 5, VIP access gets 5, MBPROMO!
00:11:48.000In this video, you're going to see the future.
00:12:04.000I'm so happy that you've joined us today for Stay Free with Russell Brand, where we give you a unique approach to global affairs, where we give you, is it, would you call it a sideways look at global affairs?
00:12:19.000We're looking at it from another perspective and I suppose mostly a perspective of absolute love and devotion.
00:12:26.000A deep belief in a unitary force that underwrites all reality that within you there is grace and beauty.
00:12:34.000Why don't you in the chat below ask us anything you want to know as we embark on a voyage discussing today Pfizer and Avengers, what is a hero?
00:12:45.000The reason we're asking this question is that now that vaccines are no longer publicly funded, Pfizer have entered into a commercial partnership with Marvel and in particular the Avengers, I think just in their comic book branch, not the movies.
00:13:01.000Not in the films yet, it's not the latest edition, Pfizer.
00:13:04.000Because it would be harder to phase four, phase Pfizer, Marvel heroes.
00:13:09.000It'd be harder to sort of push that agenda on a big screen.
00:13:41.000I just want to be involved in an honest and open conversation with you so that all of us as individuals and collective communities are well informed so that we can make decisions for ourselves and for our families and those that we love that are not so biased by commercial interests And governmental ineptitude, that we live in a kind of delirium.
00:14:00.000And I think it's a worthwhile question because, I don't know if you've noticed, but we appear to be teetering on the brink of Armageddon.
00:14:06.000Like literally, people are rehearsing for Armageddon.
00:14:10.000I don't want to worry you, I don't want to worry you, because deep down, and actually on the surface, I believe things are going to be okay.
00:15:45.000We don't know where you are and Ibzbzbz says what up.
00:15:48.000We've got new members to our Stay Free AF community just to let you know.
00:15:52.000That if you are a member of our Stay Free AF community, you get to join me when I do incredible live interviews with people like Jordan Peterson coming up, Elon Musk coming up, date to be confirmed, uh Cartol, date actually confirmed, and you can join me in in Stay Free AF and like chat along and ask me questions.
00:16:10.000Yesterday I spoke to Navy SEAL Jocko Willink and actually asked him, like I said, regular viewers of the show will know that I've told you that I'm going to ask like, you know, you want to talk to, if you're going to talk to a Navy SEAL, When there's been a mysterious explosion down in the old Nord Stream 2 pipeline that could have been done by Russia, but could have been done by America, why not ask a Navy SEAL?
00:16:31.000Later on in the show, I'll show you what Jocko Willink said when I asked him that question.
00:16:36.000I didn't ask him some of the questions I said I was going to ask him, like in previous shows I joked about that I'd maybe say to Jocko, Jocko, do you love me?
00:17:14.000Yeah, there was a bit where I did think I did get under Jocko Willink's skin, because I was a bit late, and like, I feel like if you've been in the Navy SEALs, one of the things you'll be pretty on top of is punctuality.
00:17:25.000And if someone just sort of rocks up five minutes late, Oh Jocko, sorry I'm late mate, I was having a kombucha, I'm playing with my crystals.
00:17:54.000Look, I'm trying to welcome our Stay Free AF members, including Cava Girl, Wheel of Time, The Alien Morbo, Autumn Rose, and Devastation Dan.
00:18:33.000Because they're like, alright, I'll put this into normal.
00:18:36.000It looks like NATO and Russia are rehearsing for Armageddon because tensions over Ukraine remain high.
00:18:43.000Should we have a look at them practicing for when the old planet, the planet that Jesus lived on, Mohammed peace be upon him, all the fluffy bunny rabbits and stuff.
00:21:28.000I once went on holiday, by mistake, with Nell Style, to a place where lots of Russian folk were, doing their Christmas that's near our Christmas, but somehow a bit different, and a couple of days later, you know riffs on Christmas?
00:22:40.000The Russian, even their language, and when I went on this holiday by mistake with Russian folk, well look, I'm not being racist against Russians because I believe that we're, as I keep telling you, that we are all one and that separation is an illusion and that we must overcome the inner institutions of the ego and self-centeredness, Russell.
00:23:11.000And I saw this woman, she was getting out of the swimming pool, and I did, it wasn't like, you know, I did a, your telly's, your telly's broke mate, your telly's broke.
00:23:18.000And like I done a, like I done a, like a look to this person, like sort of like, just a kind of, hey!
00:24:41.000Like, they just will not... You can't beat Russia!
00:24:45.000I'm intrigued to know what you did, because when you're in that situation, do you either go, like, again, lean in to trying to be more hard, or move further away so that you're really not hard?
00:24:55.000Look, I considered both options, because, like, I do sometimes... Like, even yesterday with Jocko Willink, I thought, I'm not going to try to mimsy my way through this, like little Nancy Ninkum poop.
00:26:59.000What I'm glad about is that I'm married and I'm not in the market for a Navy SEAL or a tech billionaire richest man in the world because otherwise I'd just live in constant heartbreak because all I get is rejection.
00:27:36.000Don't need to know about my personal business.
00:27:38.000No, there should be a part of the show where it's Russell checks his texts.
00:27:42.000Russell anxiously checks his texts for approval while claiming that everything is already resolved in the great oneness within which we all participate.
00:27:51.000Why are you so worried about your emails for then?
00:27:53.000Putin, meanwhile, declares martial law in annexed areas as Ukraine pushes offensive.
00:28:38.000Apparently his approval ratings are stuck at 40% and he's done one of those things again where he's on a stage and he's acted unusually.
00:28:44.000This time, for those of you listening to this as a podcast, which you can do on Spotify, iTunes, anywhere you get your podcasts from, He is doing what looks like some sort of an announcement with another guy and it goes a bit wrong, doesn't it?
00:32:08.000I think real Kamala Harris looks better than that.
00:32:11.000But Joe Biden's one, that's actually all you need from him.
00:32:13.000Because if you're going to have a stooge president whose power is only nominal and symbolic, who can't be making the decisions that are being attributed to him because of his observable senility, just have A wax one, and then you could, like, make it dance.
00:32:29.000You could use, like, uh... You'd better have the robot dogs that are making those deliveries for Amazon as president.
00:32:35.000We'll be talking to... about them in a couple of seconds now.
00:32:38.000Meanwhile, in our country, it's called the UK, Liz Truss, which is a type of prime minister, that's our prime minister, our president figure, she's apologized for going too far and too fast with economic charges.
00:32:49.000That, again, sounds like sort of erotic.
00:33:50.000We're going to take you to another realm of consciousness with Beate Simpkin doing breath exercises, so if you are listening to this as a podcast, pull over and watch it only here on this site, Rumble.
00:34:01.000Also though, she's doing too much blinking.
00:34:06.000I have two daughters, as you know, Gareth.
00:34:08.000You're the godfather of my oldest child.
00:34:11.000And what I'll say is, like, sometimes now, when I'm in my better states, when I feel connected to love and to God, when I don't see the world as a playground of things, of opportunities to consume or seek pleasure, I look at people, even people in positions of power, and I think, this is a child.
00:35:37.000Like, it's just a calamity after calamity.
00:35:40.000When I was a boy, that was, you know, when I was a boy, I had this, it wasn't a fish tank, it was a bowl that was meant to be making a cake in.
00:35:55.000You can get these little shrimps down at a pet shop and they're meant to be fed to, I think, to other fish.
00:35:59.000But I saw them as creatures in their own... Your new family!
00:36:03.000So I brought my new family home with me and I put them in the brown bowl.
00:36:06.000It was a bit brown, so I did feel that it wasn't the right light conditions, but I didn't let that worry me.
00:36:11.000I put them in the brown bowl in the bedroom and I pledged to them that I, as their leader and primary lover and caregiver, would look after them.
00:36:56.000But you can't vac up water unless it's nowadays and it's a special vacuum cleaner by Dyson or one of those people that do vacuum cleaners like that.
00:37:04.000So it goes into that brown bag that's inside the vacuum cleaner and that turns into sog.
00:37:30.000I apologise to their god, to their shrimp god, to the platonic form of ultimate shrimp, from which all shrimps must surely have come at some point.
00:37:38.000And I do think that this is what's happened to Liz Truss.
00:37:41.000She's tried to... In her case though, it was the British economy is that cake bowl, and the shrimps is us, the people of Britain.
00:37:49.000We've tried our best to get the hell out of there, we didn't want to be in there, and Liz is now vacuum-cleanering us up.
00:37:56.000With a series of errors to reverse her initial undertaking, which was evidently ill-advised.
00:38:02.000One chancellor, another chancellor, all these people spend their whole lives trying to learn this stuff.
00:39:26.000Because who's she morse coding with those eyeballs of hers?
00:39:31.000I don't know man, but whoever that message is for.
00:39:33.000We've now put in place the energy price guarantee, we've reversed the national insurance increase, and that's what I'm thinking about as Prime Minister.
00:39:42.000That's what I'm thinking about as Prime Minister!
00:39:45.000There's so much deception and duplicity and abstraction from reality that a person finds themselves saying the sentence, that's what I'm thinking about as Prime Minister.
00:39:54.000You don't have to say that you are as Prime Minister.
00:44:10.000So when I was doing that show, Ballers, wish I was a little bit taller, there was a scene where I had to get my bum out, like walking down the beach.
00:44:20.000Now obviously when you get your bum out, typically what you do is you put your I was worried about it.
00:46:00.000Anyway, what I will tell you is if you are ever having to reveal your bottom, you may feel like the good thing to do, the right thing to do, is tense it.
00:46:08.000Don't tense it, that can lead to dimpling, unless you've got very low body fat.
00:48:21.000Right, it's good to know, it's good to know.
00:48:23.000But personally, if you're going to have You know, a person be a president, and it doesn't make any difference because the systems of power that underwrite the entire system won't shift.
00:49:10.000Look, we're going to talk about some serious stuff later.
00:49:12.000The Avenger Marvel thing and the obvious implications for the commodification of medicines and the propagandist implications of a move like that.
00:49:22.000And the history of using cartoon characters to convey social messages.
00:49:43.000Well because insulin now 1.3 million US adults with diabetes are having to ration their own insulin because it costs so much now and that is almost entirely due to the fact that Big pharma companies are inflating the prices.
00:49:56.000So just so you know, Eli Lilly has hiked the list price of the insulin product Humalog by an inflation adjusted 680% since it started selling it in 1996.
00:50:53.000A numb mouth because he was always, in my mind, coked up.
00:50:57.000Even though in the film it didn't mention that and they'd sort of moved away from this more sort of transgressive and decadent perspective.
00:51:04.000Because John Belushi, in the one that Dudley Moore done, original Alpha, it was going to be John Belushi playing Alpha.
00:51:26.000Those that I, uh, you know, felt like all coked up.
00:51:29.000Then I sort of obviously got addicted to it.
00:51:30.000They were just these numbing sticks for if you've got canker sores, as you call them in your country, America, or ulcers, as we call them in our country.
00:52:04.000We feel so distracted from reality, don't we?
00:52:07.000We feel that we live in a world of commodity.
00:52:09.000Everything lived through a screen, devoid of meaning, where there is this odd choreography between commodified commercial products like the Marvel Avengers and a Pfizer vaccine, now that it's no longer paid for by the state and is therefore a commercial and privately purchased product.
00:52:28.000They've got to make it appealing to you through advertisements, man.
00:52:33.000Anyway, a bit later when we do this breathwork with Biet, at least then you'll get in touch with a deeper reality.
00:52:38.000And if you do it properly, as I instruct and as Biet guides, you will see that, um, you know, you've got access to another dimension, which will cheer you up.
00:53:56.000And then, the thing is, is these dogs have been used in a military capacity before, because most of these things are, you know, it's the military-industrial complex that develops it.
00:59:52.000Pfizer have enlisted the help of the Avengers to ensure you get more booster shots.
00:59:57.000Less than 4% of eligible people have got updated COVID booster shots and only 2% of parents of children under 5 took the vaccine.
01:00:06.000But if you think that has any connection to Pfizer partnering with Marvel you're a conspiracy theorist and quite frankly worse than Thanos.
01:00:13.000So them teaming up with the Avengers and little cartoon people and getting Elmo off Sesame Street.
01:00:21.000Those Avengers were a treat for your birthday party.
01:00:24.000That would be a good treat for your birthday party, ironically.
01:00:27.000Okay, let's see if we can understand this thing.
01:00:29.000Just like how the Avengers have repeatedly kept the world safe from Ultron, people need to protect themselves by updating their Covid-19 vaccination with the latest booster.
01:00:38.000That's the message Pfizer and BioNTech are trying to get across in a new custom comic book partnered with Marvel.
01:01:39.000You'd get an Iron Man to protect and make sure Iron Man's heart's okay.
01:01:44.000The new comic titled Everyday Heroes represents Pfizer flexing its marketing muscle.
01:01:49.000Covid vaccines are slated to switch to the private commercial market after the US government failed to secure additional funding from Congress.
01:01:55.000Because I guess they didn't think it was worth paying any more money.
01:01:59.000As Pfizer CEO Albert Baller has said, Pfizer can be even more competitive and its commercial skills are even better suited in an open market than a government contracting model.
01:02:09.000Oh, well perhaps you'll give us the money back then.
01:02:11.000The project also comes amid a reportedly slow start to the Omicron booster rollout in both the US and Europe.
01:02:17.000Enter the comic book featuring some of Marvel's most popular and powerful superheroes.
01:02:21.000The story happens as Ultron, which is used to represent COVID, has come back again all evolved, just like how coronavirus has developed into new variants.
01:02:31.000As the superheroes fight Ultron a few blocks away, a grandpa and his family are waiting to get their COVID shots at a clinic.
01:04:11.000The story ends with what appears to be a ceremonial scene, featuring the Avengers on stage and the family off stage, all wearing bandages on their arms, indicating they've received the vaccine.
01:04:20.000What makes them everyday heroes, one page reads.
01:04:22.000They know what to do to help defend against COVID-19.
01:04:26.000Stay up to date with the latest recommended booster for you and be an everyday hero at Banner States, accompanied by a scannable QR code containing COVID vaccination information from Pfizer.
01:04:38.000I suppose in a way it's good to encourage... I don't know what to say!
01:04:44.000Let's see though how Pfizer's profit model is operating and let's cast the mind back to the beginning of the pandemic and the pledges made by big pharmaceutical companies about the unique challenges we face.
01:04:57.000Modern-day heroes are the values that used to be enshrined in gods in religions.
01:05:02.000In a secular culture, these gods, these energies, come back in different forms, but always they have to embody values that are important to our culture.
01:06:35.000We were discussing that back in March, what that means to human lives, to the economy of the world.
01:06:40.000So it was a must that we take those measures.
01:06:42.000Thus, Pfizer would not overcharge for the mRNA vaccine it was developing with the German company BioNTech, Baller said.
01:06:48.000We are going to charge governments a very, very nominal value, he said, because Pfizer would charge so little, it believed governments should give it shots free of charge to all citizens.
01:06:58.000Asked directly if Pfizer intended to profit.
01:07:01.000Bourla said, we will make a very, very marginal profit at this stage.
01:07:07.000Now, if you're like me and you love language, you would think the significant words in that statement would be, we will make a marginal profit.
01:07:33.000Outrageous at this stage because down the line they made 108 billion.
01:07:37.000Do you think Pfizer should be able to keep that money?
01:07:41.000Do you think that government should be reimbursed?
01:07:43.000Do you think that given that this much of this experimentation was funded by taxpayer money that the profit should be returned to the taxpayer also?
01:07:51.000These are just things for you to consider.
01:08:07.000Pfizer, totally not motivated by money, doing it for the good of humanity, looking for a marginal profit, somehow, against all odds, a bit like Iron Man or something, ended up having the best profits in their entire history.
01:08:22.000Makes me think of the values of, like, Spider-Man, and Iron Man, and Thor, and all those other great heroes that fight for justice and truth.
01:08:30.000Pfizer, Thor, Spider-Man, Johnson & Johnson.
01:08:35.000For me, it's all just one panoply of heroes, all just out to help humanity.
01:09:49.000Um, the thing was about that Pfizer-Avengers thing is that it's utilizing the idea of heroism.
01:09:57.000As we talked about on this show previously, heroism ultimately can only be determined by our willingness to sacrifice for others.
01:10:05.000As Bob McKee, the great screenwriter-instructor, told me, and everyone who does his class, Look, if you want to demonstrate heroism, you have to show it through sacrifice, because all else is just affection.
01:10:20.000If you want to demonstrate love, you have to show it through sacrifice.
01:10:23.000I was thinking about the idea of the hero.
01:10:24.000I was thinking about the mythic notion that the hero is the movement from the ego to the transcendent self.
01:10:31.000That's the energy that's required to get from the person that's only concerned about what they want and what they're going to get for themselves.
01:10:51.000That's why you get things like Albert Baller saying we certainly won't be making any profits from this Pfizer situation like we covered there.
01:11:18.000So among all the other more controversial shifts in narrative, some of which we're not able to talk about on other platforms, but we can here, for example, the general impression that it was going to stop transmission, even though vaccines aren't generally understood to stop transmission, all of that, stop the spread, all of that, if you don't get the vaccine, you're selfish, all of that stuff.
01:11:39.000And we have a variety of views on the vaccine here, just so you guys know, but You know, I don't have a strong view on whether or not other people should take tablets or pills or use a cream or one of those pens.
01:11:49.000Actually, I do have strong views on that.
01:11:58.000That shift from a project that was for humanity, that was about the sacredness of human life, about the necessity for us all to pull together, leading to this economic crash, leading to greater ability to spy and gather data, leading to huge profits for already powerful institutions.
01:12:15.000That's what troubles me most, and no one can provide a reasonable argument against that position.
01:12:24.000No, I mean, you know, when you're at the stage where they're teaming up with the Avengers at a time when, as you say, it's now on the open market, you know, that is clearly a marketing exercise.
01:12:35.000There's no other way of looking at it.
01:12:36.000Otherwise, you would say, well, we're only doing that to raise awareness.
01:12:39.000And as we said, we're taking a nominal profit.
01:12:42.000But once you know that those profits are not nominal, that they are record in their entire history, then you have to then view teaming up with the Avengers as being more than just raising awareness.
01:12:53.000Yeah, but it's a response to, oh no, we're no longer guaranteed government contracts.
01:13:05.000If you think it's something else, let me know in the chat.
01:13:07.000Or if you think it's that, let me know in the chat.
01:13:09.000And here are a whole bunch of other intellectual properties being exploited.
01:13:13.000You might not know in your country, America, but in this country, a sort of banking organization called Halifax use all of Hanna-Barbera's back catalogue, including beloved Fred Flintstone, Top Cat, called Boss Cat in America, I believe.
01:13:26.000That dinosaur, I don't care about him, actually, do what you want with him.
01:13:28.000And Scooby and Shaggy down the Alifax.
01:13:31.000I don't think Scooby and Shaggy would even have a bank account.
01:14:31.000We never understood why it was his nephew as well.
01:14:34.000The reason that he was his nephew, as pointed out by the great English comedian David Baddiel, is because no one wanted the image of Scooby-Doo with an erection ejaculating into a female dog.
01:14:45.000Because Scooby as well, Was a bit like that, wasn't he?
01:14:49.000He was like... He was thinking about sex and drugs the whole time.
01:15:01.000Anyway, we could go on, of course, but the fact is we are only contractually obligated to provide one hour of content a day before moving to stay free AF, our members community.
01:15:11.000We are gonna now, I wanna just let you know that this week we've got, God, so many fantastic stories.
01:15:17.000One about a new COVID strain, we're talking about the war.
01:15:20.000We're gonna be doing more wellness techniques to make sure that you are well looked after and loved.
01:15:25.000We're beginning that with our breath work with beer in a minute.
01:15:28.000And Nick Ortner, my friend from Tapping Solutions, is gonna be teaching us techniques to manage our anxiety and our emotions.
01:15:35.000That's available if you join the Stay Free AF community.
01:15:40.000Now though, I'm going to join Biette, who is my friend who participated in Community last year and will be joining us again at Community 2023.
01:15:49.000Now, I believe we're having a bit of trouble with your audio, Biette.
01:15:53.000Can we see Biette's face while you grapple with the audio challenges, guys?
01:15:58.000Hello, Biette, we can't hear you at all.
01:16:35.000Have a look at me explaining them to Jimmy Fallon when I was making a mainstream media appearance recently to promote... I can't remember what I was doing anymore.
01:19:10.000We've got fantastic shows every day where we're going to be exposing inequities and corruption in the systems, in or out, showing you techniques, methods and ways to bring out the limitless light that even now shines from within you.
01:19:22.000See you tomorrow, same time, stay free!
01:19:25.000Those of you that are watching us on Stay Free AF, wait for about a minute and then we'll be kicking in with B.F.