The Joe Rogan Experience - Joe Rogan Experience #2261 - Warren Smith

00:00:01.000 Joe Rogan Podcast.

00:00:03.000 Check it out.

00:00:03.000 The Joe Rogan Experience.

00:00:06.000 Train by day.

00:00:07.000 Joe Rogan Podcast by night.

00:00:08.000 All day.

00:00:12.000 How's it going?

00:00:13.000 How are you?

00:00:14.000 Pleasure to meet you.

00:00:15.000 Thank you for having me.

00:00:16.000 My pleasure.

00:00:17.000 I wound up seeing you, as many people did, on those videos that you were making where you were talking to students.

00:00:24.000 You know, just kind of like...

00:00:26.000 Exploring critical thinking and asking students questions and why they're upset about certain things and getting to the bottom.

00:00:33.000 And I'm like, wow, this guy is like – he's young.

00:00:36.000 He's obviously an academic but super reasonable and like really level-headed.

00:00:41.000 I'm like, we need more of this.

00:00:43.000 This is really interesting.

00:00:44.000 And then I found out you got fired for doing that.

00:00:48.000 And I was like, if this isn't an encapsulation of all that is wrong with our current – Higher education system, then I don't know what is.

00:00:59.000 Well, to be fair, I didn't get fired for that technically.

00:01:03.000 I think I got fired for posting another one similar to it, but I think they were looking kind of...

00:01:10.000 That whole thing was so bizarre for everyone.

00:01:14.000 It was so big.

00:01:15.000 I think there was...

00:01:16.000 At the school where I teach, there's kind of one...

00:01:20.000 Echo, sorry, I've got to get used to this.

00:01:21.000 One person in control of everything that makes these decisions.

00:01:24.000 And it was so nuts.

00:01:26.000 I think they genuinely, like, we don't know what to do because if we fire him, our name might get out there, which is their primary concern, I think.

00:01:37.000 Do you not want their name to get out there?

00:01:40.000 No, it doesn't feel right.

00:01:42.000 Okay.

00:01:44.000 It's not important.

00:01:46.000 Yeah, it's not.

00:01:46.000 No, what's important is...

00:01:48.000 That what it is, is that this is a resistance to thinking.

00:01:53.000 I mean, it's really what it is.

00:01:55.000 It's out there for sure.

00:01:56.000 It's a resistance to questioning why people have like certain like deeply ingrained thought processes that are a part of an ideology.

00:02:06.000 And I think what you were doing was really pretty brilliant.

00:02:09.000 It was awesome.

00:02:10.000 And I love the way you were handling it.

00:02:12.000 It was like, you know, very calm and rational.

00:02:16.000 Just having discussions with students, and you kind of see a lot of their flailing and trying to rationalize while they have these sort of incoherent beliefs.

00:02:26.000 Yeah, and I don't teach critical thinking.

00:02:29.000 When I was a teacher, I was teaching multimedia, like what we're doing now.

00:02:33.000 Working with cameras, did a lot of podcasting.

00:02:36.000 I had this lab that I developed over four years with a bunch of Mac computers, with Adobe Premiere Pro, Photoshop, a 3D printer.

00:02:43.000 So it was using...

00:02:45.000 Technology to make art at a special education school with kids that had behavioral challenges and a variety.

00:02:53.000 Anything you could come up with, we had it there.

00:02:55.000 It was like the last line of defense kind of for public schools that couldn't handle these kids.

00:02:59.000 They would send them there.

00:03:01.000 And so I would just use this tech to work with them in a therapeutic way.

00:03:04.000 That was my goal, the way that would most benefit them.

00:03:07.000 And so one day they asked me to do a, hey, can you do a newscast?

00:03:11.000 For the school, like this week at the school, you know, there was this field trip, the soccer team did this, blah, blah, blah.

00:03:16.000 Sure.

00:03:17.000 And we want this kid to be on camera and like to do, he's really good at that.

00:03:21.000 And he was getting really nervous on the day.

00:03:24.000 And so I was like, let's just sit down.

00:03:25.000 You've seen like Joe Rogan and stuff.

00:03:27.000 Let's do like, just treat it like a five minute warmup podcast here.

00:03:29.000 I'll sit down and be on camera.

00:03:31.000 You ask me whatever you want.

00:03:33.000 Well, you know, how have your thoughts on Harry Potter changed?

00:03:36.000 Giving J.K. Rowling's bigoted opinions.

00:03:38.000 So that's where the video came from.

00:03:40.000 So I just want to be clear.

00:03:41.000 I don't teach.

00:03:42.000 I wasn't like, we're going to sit down and learn in the moment.

00:03:47.000 We do have conversations like that because when you are doing something like this with students, well, what are you going to talk about?

00:03:52.000 Kill two birds with one stone.

00:03:53.000 Be as effective as you can.

00:03:56.000 A lot of students have questions.

00:03:57.000 I've had students ask me, what's the difference between fascism and socialism?

00:04:01.000 What's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican?

00:04:03.000 They don't know.

00:04:04.000 They're genuinely curious.

00:04:06.000 Sometimes you can get another.

00:04:07.000 I had one teacher, the music teacher I worked closely with.

00:04:11.000 He was my best friend there.

00:04:13.000 He would be in the room often and we would have little debates.

00:04:18.000 He was from Romania.

00:04:22.000 I think Romania.

00:04:23.000 I'm blanking.

00:04:25.000 And so he had a very different political perspective.

00:04:28.000 And when you're in those debates, the kids are like locked in and you can tell.

00:04:32.000 Normally they're just making noise and then they're just quiet and they turn around and they're like watching it.

00:04:39.000 There was an effect.

00:04:40.000 Well, I think most kids are aware that you're being forced to think a certain way or at least to talk about things a certain way.

00:04:51.000 And most people are...

00:04:54.000 They don't like being told what to do.

00:04:56.000 People don't enjoy that.

00:04:57.000 And when they feel like there's a lot of social pressure to adhere to a very specific ideology, I think people don't like it.

00:05:05.000 And so when you see debates where people have differing opinions and they have these sort of logical, objective ways of describing why they think about things a certain way, it gets people like, okay, is there another way to think?

00:05:19.000 How is this guy doing this?

00:05:22.000 What does this mean?

00:05:23.000 Like, why do we have to say, well, what is wrong with what J.K. Rowling said?

00:05:27.000 And it's exciting to people.

00:05:29.000 And the videos were exciting.

00:05:31.000 And there was a tremendous amount of response to them.

00:05:34.000 I know you're aware of that.

00:05:35.000 I mean, there's so many comments and so many people were interested in them.

00:05:39.000 They got very popular.

00:05:41.000 And then when I heard you were fired, I was like, of course.

00:05:45.000 It was too good.

00:05:46.000 Because it gave me hope.

00:05:49.000 I was like, more people should be doing this at schools.

00:05:51.000 And, you know, it would help a lot because a lot of this really sort of polarized positions that people are taking one side or the other, they just want to win and they dig their heels in and they don't exactly even know why they have this particular opinion that they're defending.

00:06:10.000 They just know that they're supposed to.

00:06:12.000 And so they just kind of bite down and dig in and, you know, I've been playing with the idea of how we see the world through stories.

00:06:27.000 I think that has a lot to do with it.

00:06:29.000 People kind of labeled me as the critical thinking guy all of a sudden, so I really started to think about it.

00:06:33.000 What is critical thinking?

00:06:35.000 And the best I can articulate, it's thinking for yourself to contend with the stories that make up the world.

00:06:43.000 Because a lot of stories are nonsense, some are true, and there's usually a middle ground.

00:06:47.000 And my background's in filmmaking.

00:06:50.000 I kind of fell into teaching.

00:06:52.000 And I spent time in L.A. and made some movies.

00:06:55.000 And I teach at Emerson a filmmaking course still where I went to grad school and got my master's.

00:07:01.000 And film is probably the wrong term now because it's all digital.

00:07:05.000 It's like visual media art.

00:07:07.000 But I think you can study movies today like scholars are now studying, you know, the great thinkers.

00:07:16.000 Movies will be the artifacts that people look back on for our time.

00:07:21.000 You know, be in museums and things like that.

00:07:23.000 Sure.

00:07:24.000 We've all been there.

00:07:26.000 You're hungover, thinking about all the dumb stuff you did last night and wondering if anybody remembers.

00:07:30.000 Unfortunately, someone does remember everything you do online and they've got receipts.

00:07:36.000 I'm talking about your internet provider and data brokers and every shady marketing company that gets their greedy hands on your private activity. 0.99

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00:08:49.000 And if you're watching on YouTube, you can get your four free months by scanning the QR code on screen or by clicking the link in the description.

00:08:59.000 Yeah.

00:09:00.000 No, we talk about it all the time that it's a great sort of postmark for culture.

00:09:08.000 Like, if you go back and watch movies from the 50s and then the 60s and the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 2000s, and then today, you can see how different the narratives are, how different the way the films are made, the way people communicate, the subjects that are covered, the quality of the acting and filmmaking, the quality of the cinematography, and it really just shows.

00:09:37.000 Human civilization and human history, like modern society, is so recent.

00:09:45.000 You know, the Industrial Revolution and giant cities and cars and transportation and all that.

00:09:53.000 It's so recent.

00:09:54.000 It's a couple hundred years maximum.

00:09:56.000 You know, you go from trains and horses to cars and cities and then you have Morse code to all of a sudden now you have...

00:10:05.000 Digital communication that's instantaneous worldwide.

00:10:08.000 I mean, it's a rapid change in humanity, and a lot of it is...

00:10:14.000 The artifact, as you said, is really our media.

00:10:19.000 Like, what have we created?

00:10:20.000 You know, we were talking the other day about the limitations of mainstream television and how mainstream television, you know, they're trying to kind of, like, adapt more towards what...

00:10:34.000 What is going on on the internet?

00:10:35.000 But they're so hampered by their format.

00:10:38.000 The censorship, the format, and the fact that they're sponsored by a bunch of different enormous corporations that they can't really critically talk about.

00:10:48.000 So there's a bunch of things they can never actually say.

00:10:51.000 So there's news that they can't cover.

00:10:53.000 There's like significant health.

00:10:56.000 Problems that have probably been a direct result of medication that they literally can't cover because they're being sponsored by these companies.

00:11:04.000 So they're so hampered.

00:11:06.000 And if you go back and watch the early broadcast from 1945, people had like this way of communicating.

00:11:14.000 Talking.

00:11:14.000 It's changed.

00:11:15.000 Right.

00:11:15.000 It's not the way, like if you were having dinner with someone and they were saying, tell me, Warren, where did you grow up?

00:11:20.000 You'd be like, oh, this is not a real person.

00:11:22.000 This is bizarre.

00:11:23.000 The transformation in acting is remarkable.

00:11:27.000 Remarkable, right?

00:11:29.000 Marlon Brando is probably the first example of someone who sounds like a real person.

00:11:37.000 This is what I really expect a person to be behaving like on the waterfront, under duress.

00:11:42.000 This is a real human being.

00:11:45.000 Yeah, it became internalized.

00:11:46.000 And now we're in this phase now where I think the best actors are doing both the external, like Heath Ledger is my favorite actor of all time and had a huge impact on me.

00:11:54.000 That's why I went into filmmaking.

00:11:56.000 And he, think about his externality in The Joker and all his roles.

00:12:00.000 He had this, I think the key to acting is about what is not said, what's unspoken.

00:12:07.000 And it ties into everything about critical thinking.

00:12:10.000 It's the best metaphor I ever got from a directing.

00:12:14.000 Professor, they drew on the board the ocean with a squiggly line.

00:12:20.000 And they drew little boats on the surface and said, these are words.

00:12:23.000 This is everything you need to know about directing actors.

00:12:26.000 Everything beneath the surface is subtext, what's really important.

00:12:30.000 So, if you're an actor and I hand you a screenplay, anybody given enough time can memorize those words.

00:12:37.000 What really sets an actor apart is everything else.

00:12:42.000 What's not said, what they do with the words, the intention behind the words.

00:12:45.000 The words are just floating on the surface.

00:12:47.000 They're just the tools that we're trying to use to communicate the elusive intangible, the subtext, everything that's...

00:12:54.000 And the best we can do are bumbling cells or formulate with these tools.

00:13:01.000 So to treat words as the end-all be-all is so silly.

00:13:05.000 You know, like people say the wrong thing now and you get...

00:13:09.000 It's politically incorrect.

00:13:11.000 Papa John's CEO. Right.

00:13:13.000 Right.

00:13:13.000 With no context.

00:13:15.000 It's a larger issue.

00:13:17.000 But it's just fascinating how that correlates beyond just film.

00:13:25.000 It's true that most communication is nonverbal.

00:13:29.000 So the more time you spend studying it, working with actors, studying movies, you start getting really tuned into body language.

00:13:36.000 It has great utility.

00:13:38.000 It's pretty interesting.

00:13:39.000 Yeah, no, it's very interesting.

00:13:41.000 So when you were doing these videos, when you initially did it, did you have any idea of the impact that it was going to have?

00:13:49.000 I mean, did you think, like, wow, this is actually, like, really unique and interesting, and I think people are going to really enjoy this?

00:13:56.000 Or were you, like, really shocked?

00:13:59.000 I was shocked.

00:14:00.000 Yeah.

00:14:01.000 Yeah.

00:14:02.000 I had been playing with YouTube as a medium since discovering Jordan Peterson in 2017. Because I remember, maybe it was even earlier than that, because I arrived at graduate school in 2016, Boston, Emerson, and all hell breaks loose, Trump gets elected, and there seemed to be a huge pushback.

00:14:22.000 And I had never thought about these things before.

00:14:26.000 And then being a grad student and seeing what I witnessed at school, like protests claiming Emerson was racist.

00:14:36.000 This is one of the most far left schools I've ever seen.

00:14:40.000 Super far left.

00:14:41.000 Can you provide any evidence of that?

00:14:44.000 It was just nuts.

00:14:46.000 Did it come out of nowhere?

00:14:47.000 Was it like right after the election?

00:14:50.000 What year did you first attend?

00:14:53.000 2016. 2016. So this is like September of 2016, August of 2016?

00:15:00.000 Yeah, the beginning of the academic year.

00:15:01.000 So this is like when the elections are kind of heating up and people didn't think that Trump was going to win yet.

00:15:06.000 I vividly remember the day of the election because I was renting a house with three roommates and I was watching the election and I remember just being like, guys.

00:15:17.000 I think Trump might win this.

00:15:19.000 It's not even worth watching.

00:15:20.000 And they were walking around.

00:15:23.000 Time goes by, I'm like, guys.

00:15:25.000 And then they started to, what?

00:15:27.000 No one saw that coming.

00:15:29.000 And my big takeaway was, how could so many experts get something so wrong?

00:15:32.000 And that caused me to question my presuppositions, basically my view of the world.

00:15:37.000 And then that opens your mind to someone like Jordan Peterson and all these other great thinkers, intellectual dark web, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:15:46.000 Suddenly it's so difficult to articulate what that does to someone like me, an average viewer, like a genuine lover of this space.

00:15:53.000 So it's surreal to be here because it suddenly causes you to, if you feel like everyone's moving in slow motion, all of a sudden you feel like you're waking up and it doesn't, I don't want to talk about the matrix because it's so, it's such a strange, it's gotten all this momentum in a different.

00:16:11.000 But it's what it felt like.

00:16:12.000 It felt like you were suddenly, like, how?

00:16:14.000 What?

00:16:14.000 This is so much more interesting and complicated than I thought.

00:16:17.000 And there's no going back.

00:16:18.000 Yeah, I think we like to adhere to certain narratives about the world.

00:16:25.000 And we want to think, the big thing is we want to think that there's a central, there's some sort of competent control, some sort of competent leadership.

00:16:39.000 That exists.

00:16:40.000 And that the structure of government and the structure of media is established, rock solid, and logical.

00:16:49.000 And that these are the smartest people in the world.

00:16:52.000 That's how they've risen to this position.

00:16:54.000 And now they're there to provide this, you know, like...

00:16:58.000 If you have a knee injury, you want to go to an orthopedic surgeon because he is an expert in knee injuries and he's going to tell you what's wrong with your knee and what can be done.

00:17:07.000 And, you know, that's a real expert.

00:17:09.000 And we think of politicians and we think of the media as being real experts.

00:17:15.000 Well, it turns out, no.

00:17:17.000 It turns out not even a little bit.

00:17:19.000 They're terrible at it.

00:17:21.000 They're not just not good at it.

00:17:23.000 They're really bad at it.

00:17:25.000 They're really bad at it and they lie a lot.

00:17:28.000 Yeah, they're not much smarter than you or I. No.

00:17:31.000 And then you realize that about your professors.

00:17:33.000 This guy really doesn't know much more than my dad.

00:17:38.000 What makes you a professor?

00:17:40.000 What qualifies you?

00:17:42.000 And often there's just this, and that's going back to that core thesis, if we see the world through stories.

00:17:49.000 Professor means something.

00:17:50.000 Yes.

00:17:51.000 Politician means something.

00:17:52.000 These are experts.

00:17:53.000 Yeah.

00:17:53.000 They're not much different than us.

00:17:55.000 When you were in school, so at the beginning, everybody's thinking, there's no way Trump can win.

00:18:02.000 I think on the day of the election, I think they had some crazy odds of Hillary winning. 0.86

00:18:09.000 It was like in the 90%.

00:18:11.000 And we watched it from the Comedy Store.

00:18:13.000 We did a podcast from the Comedy Store called the End of the World Podcast.

00:18:17.000 And we did this live stream while the election was going on and we just kept bringing in different comedians.

00:18:24.000 We had a whole like...

00:18:25.000 Like a conference table, and it was fun.

00:18:28.000 We did it in front of a live audience, and then we updated the crowd.

00:18:31.000 And then when marijuana became legal, Bert Kreischer takes his shirt off and runs around the stage.

00:18:35.000 It was really funny.

00:18:36.000 It was fun.

00:18:37.000 It was a fun time.

00:18:38.000 But what was most fascinating was the podcast was over, and then we all went to the bar.

00:18:43.000 The Comedy Store has this, like, private bar in the back.

00:18:46.000 And on the television, Jake Tapper was, like, just, like, seriously bummed out talking about Trump winning all these different states.

00:18:54.000 And then we watched a little bit of The Young Turks.

00:18:56.000 And Cenk Uygur was fucking screaming.

00:18:58.000 He was freaking out.

00:18:59.000 In the beginning, they were so cocky and so confident.

00:19:02.000 And by the end, they were just fucking freaking out.

00:19:05.000 They couldn't understand how everybody got it wrong.

00:19:08.000 And it...

00:19:09.000 I think for a lot of people, that was the end of trust in mainstream media.

00:19:13.000 That was the first nail in the coffin.

00:19:15.000 That was to be like, you guys didn't...

00:19:17.000 You were so wrong.

00:19:18.000 You were so wrong.

00:19:20.000 Yeah.

00:19:20.000 How could you get something so wrong?

00:19:22.000 Yeah.

00:19:23.000 And it was just fascinating to watch what's supposed to be the news, right?

00:19:28.000 So the news is supposed to be...

00:19:30.000 At its best, an objective analysis of what's going on, giving you the facts.

00:19:36.000 But they were so clearly upset.

00:19:38.000 And, you know, there's a lot of editorializing on how bad this is and what this means to the world and what does this say about us that this guy who said, grab him by the pussy, is now the commander-in-chief of the greatest army the world has ever known.

00:19:53.000 For us, as comedians, we're like, this is gonna be fun.

00:19:57.000 It was just like they opened up the door to the candy store and said, go crazy.

00:20:02.000 Have fun.

00:20:03.000 This is all free.

00:20:05.000 But it was a real wake-up call for a lot of people that this system is not really as well-managed as we'd like to believe it is.

00:20:16.000 Yeah.

00:20:17.000 Yeah.

00:20:19.000 I'm just trying to go back to those days and think about it, but...

00:20:23.000 It was at Emerson.

00:20:26.000 I remember I was taking a class with the dean of the student body.

00:20:33.000 And it was a pedagogy class, the philosophy of teaching.

00:20:37.000 And it was right in the midst of these protests.

00:20:39.000 It was the day of the protest.

00:20:41.000 And there was like 10 people in the class.

00:20:44.000 It's a four-hour class.

00:20:46.000 So they're like, we're going to devote the four hours to talk about the problematic racism occurring at Emerson.

00:20:52.000 We're all sitting around.

00:20:55.000 But the white students were not allowed to speak.

00:20:56.000 We had to concede our space for four hours.

00:20:59.000 And I was like, what the fuck is going on here?

00:21:01.000 Why was that?

00:21:02.000 What was the reason given for that?

00:21:04.000 Because it was the moral right thing to do.

00:21:06.000 Because they said to me, I remember he said, I said, what can I? I did say, I was like, what?

00:21:14.000 What can I do about this?

00:21:16.000 I genuinely believed everything.

00:21:19.000 I was just starting to question things.

00:21:22.000 I feel terrible speaking to the student who had just spoken.

00:21:26.000 You genuinely feel every day you wake up and come to class, you feel oppressed?

00:21:31.000 That sucks.

00:21:32.000 What can I do?

00:21:34.000 They didn't have a response.

00:21:36.000 They just said, you can just listen.

00:21:39.000 Just take your time to concede your space and listen.

00:21:41.000 So that was the reason given.

00:21:43.000 Concedure space.

00:21:44.000 And then why did they feel so threatened?

00:21:47.000 Did they articulate that?

00:21:49.000 There was a Facebook group that was designed to provide that evidence called Emerson, hashtag Emerson so racist or something.

00:21:57.000 And it was like a student, like a teacher said, no, you gotta turn in the work or you're gonna fail the class.

00:22:05.000 And my first teaching gig occurred shortly after that.

00:22:11.000 I remember this vividly, the teacher.

00:22:13.000 I was going to be teaching the screenwriting course with undergraduates for the first time.

00:22:18.000 And before the protest, she said, don't let them walk all over you.

00:22:23.000 They will try and take advantage.

00:22:25.000 If they don't do their work, just be fair, honest, give them the grade they deserve.

00:22:30.000 After the protest, yeah, Warren, you remember when I was saying that?

00:22:33.000 Because she got called out on the Facebook page for some stupid, I don't remember what it was.

00:22:36.000 Quote, yeah, Warren, you remember when I was saying about that?

00:22:40.000 I was wrong.

00:22:41.000 Don't forget to be compassionate.

00:22:43.000 Because that student is black, and she reminded me of how difficult it is to be black at Emerson, and so I couldn't fail her. 1.00

00:22:53.000 I couldn't give her the grade.

00:22:57.000 That objectively she deserved.

00:23:01.000 Why was it articulated that it was so difficult for her, uniquely difficult, as a black student?

00:23:12.000 Abracadabra.

00:23:13.000 Yeah, it's just like microaggressions.

00:23:15.000 That's the thing about these claims, though, is there is no concrete evidence.

00:23:19.000 It's things like microaggressions.

00:23:21.000 Someone made a reference about fried chicken that was...

00:23:24.000 I've heard that one.

00:23:27.000 That happened to my mom, who's a professor, runs a study abroad program. 1.00

00:23:30.000 She said, we're really excited.

00:23:32.000 This place is...

00:23:33.000 They were in Italy doing a study abroad program.

00:23:36.000 She's like, I know you guys have been missing American food, and this place has fried chicken, and it's really good here.

00:23:41.000 And two of the students she was talking to at that table were black and they claimed that that was racist.

00:23:46.000 She was like, what?

00:23:48.000 The fried chicken one is so crazy.

00:23:51.000 Fried chicken and watermelon.

00:23:52.000 Those are the two things that are associated with racism as far as foods, which are universally loved.

00:24:00.000 Like fried chicken is delicious.

00:24:02.000 Watermelon is delicious.

00:24:03.000 Like how could that possibly be a negative that certain people like delicious food?

00:24:11.000 To this day, it's one of those things.

00:24:13.000 It's so bizarre.

00:24:14.000 You could bring up all kinds of different delicious foods, but if you bring up fried chicken, which everybody eats.

00:24:20.000 Everybody who eats meat and loves delicious food loves a good fried chicken.

00:24:25.000 Have you tried Gus's in town?

00:24:26.000 Is that where you get the slabs of meat?

00:24:29.000 No, no, that's Terry Black's.

00:24:31.000 But Gus's fried chicken is in Austin.

00:24:34.000 Fantastic.

00:24:35.000 Some of the best fried chicken you're ever going to have in your life.

00:24:38.000 But if you brought that up to a black friend.

00:24:40.000 They might like, what the fuck are you trying to say?

00:24:44.000 Food's good.

00:24:45.000 Good food.

00:24:45.000 Let's go eat good food.

00:24:46.000 And keep that analogy in your mind about the boats floating on the surface.

00:24:50.000 And they're just the tool.

00:24:51.000 What's the intent?

00:24:52.000 Right.

00:24:53.000 If there's no intention there, you can't claim that's racist.

00:24:57.000 Right.

00:24:57.000 Unless you want it to be.

00:24:59.000 Right.

00:24:59.000 And this goes back to seeing the world through stories.

00:25:02.000 If you believe a story is true...

00:25:04.000 I'm oppressed.

00:25:05.000 The world is active.

00:25:06.000 There's systemic racism.

00:25:07.000 There's active racism at my college.

00:25:08.000 I'm a victim.

00:25:09.000 You're going to start seeing what you believe to be true.

00:25:12.000 You're going to start finding hints of it.

00:25:14.000 And it's true as well for why it's important to have a moral code.

00:25:19.000 I personally believe in a higher power, but if you believe in objective truth, you're going to see those lessons when they occur in life, and it's going to help be a guiding star for you.

00:25:29.000 But it can be wielded in both ways.

00:25:33.000 It's like the response that I got about J.K. Rowling.

00:25:36.000 It was the ContraPoints YouTuber.

00:25:38.000 Everyone was like, you've got to counter ContraPoints.

00:25:41.000 She's the one who's taken down J.K. Rowling.

00:25:43.000 The argument essentially is, I'm so done arguing.

00:25:47.000 I'm not even going to debate this.

00:25:48.000 If anyone who believes in transphobia can see that J.K. Rowling is obviously transphobic, that's it.

00:25:55.000 It's the same thing.

00:25:56.000 If you believe in that definition of transphobia, you can find it almost. 0.99

00:26:02.000 Well, the problem with that kind of arguing is that it's a total cop-out.

00:26:08.000 Like, if there is any sort of debate, and there clearly is when it comes to trans issues, if there's any sort of debate, you have to be able to discuss things.

00:26:17.000 And as soon as you say, if you want to debate, we're done.

00:26:22.000 If you want to have a discussion, we can't.

00:26:25.000 You don't see it?

00:26:25.000 Well, we're done with it.

00:26:26.000 Well, what you're essentially conceding is you don't have a logical ability to shut this Because if you did, you would just do it.

00:26:35.000 You would have a rational conversation with that person and you would say, clearly, look, this is why this is racist.

00:26:42.000 This is why this is transphobic.

00:26:43.000 This is why this is sexist.

00:26:45.000 Whatever the argument is.

00:26:47.000 And you would lay it out.

00:26:48.000 And as soon as you say, if you don't believe that, then we're done talking.

00:26:53.000 I can't even.

00:26:54.000 I can't even do this.

00:26:55.000 That's what I started.

00:26:56.000 My mom disagrees with me heavily on politics, which is okay.

00:27:01.000 In the wake of, we were talking about 2016, I found Jordan Peterson.

00:27:04.000 I was like, yeah, this guy, look at this.

00:27:06.000 This is really interesting.

00:27:07.000 And if I had any kind of conversation with her about it, even to this day, it's often, I think she's getting better now that I've been making content.

00:27:16.000 But it was often a formation of that pattern.

00:27:19.000 I just can't do this with you, Warren.

00:27:21.000 And it's just neutralizing the debate because they can't have the debate.

00:27:26.000 Well, they can't have the debate because they're not equipped for it.

00:27:28.000 That's all it is.

00:27:29.000 They don't have any weapons, right?

00:27:31.000 If you're going to go to battle, you have to have some sort of resources.

00:27:34.000 There's nothing there.

00:27:36.000 And when there's nothing there and you just say, I can't.

00:27:40.000 Instead of saying, like, is there a logical argument that there are men who are manipulating this in order to control women's paces?

00:27:49.000 And, like, it used to be that we protected women against men. 0.67

00:27:54.000 Particularly, we protected women against predatory men, right?

00:28:00.000 Like perverts or sex offenders, for example.

00:28:03.000 But somewhere along the line, with this woke ideology, we completely eliminated the even possibility that a man in a dress that wants to go into the woman's room could be a pervert.

00:28:18.000 Which, to me, was the most insane thing.

00:28:24.000 The grossest members of society that we've always feared.

00:28:29.000 We've always feared people that would try to take advantage of women and do so in a weird way where you claim to be one, but you have a penis.

00:28:40.000 You're walking around with an erection in a locker room and anybody who calls it out is transphobic.

00:28:47.000 Right.

00:28:48.000 It got real weird.

00:28:49.000 People would counter and say, Joe, but...

00:28:52.000 But, like, you're taking the extreme.

00:28:55.000 You're claiming that trans people are walking around with erections.

00:28:57.000 It allows for that capacity.

00:29:00.000 It allows for that to occur.

00:29:02.000 After all this craziness occurred with the video, viral video or whatever, I went back to North Carolina for the first time, and my best friends, you know, who I've grown up with, and we just, I guess, fine.

00:29:14.000 They were deeply concerned about what I was doing.

00:29:19.000 Right?

00:29:20.000 You're talking to too many people from the right.

00:29:24.000 I sat down with Destiny for six hours, but it's never enough.

00:29:29.000 But I laid out what you were saying, and I was amazed that they couldn't follow that logic.

00:29:37.000 What about the mother in the dressing room?

00:29:40.000 With a six-year-old, does she have a right to decide if that six-year-old is exposed to male genitalia? 1.00

00:29:45.000 Just keep it as simple as that.

00:29:47.000 Take out erections and all that.

00:29:49.000 It's like, is it fair to her?

00:29:51.000 And they just can't...

00:29:53.000 Right.

00:29:54.000 It seems so clear.

00:29:56.000 But they're just scared.

00:29:58.000 They're scared of thinking logically because if you do, you will be cast out of this group.

00:30:04.000 You'll be ostracized.

00:30:06.000 Like, there's very specific rules and they're very much like a cult.

00:30:11.000 Like, you have this very cult-like thinking.

00:30:13.000 And if you deviate...

00:30:16.000 You run into the possibility of social ostracization, and that's what happens to a lot of people, and they're scared of that.

00:30:23.000 So to defend against that possibly happening to them, they attack things.

00:30:28.000 Like, without any logic at all.

00:30:30.000 They just, like, say, you don't think, you don't know.

00:30:33.000 I'm done talking to you.

00:30:35.000 And it's like a get-out-of-jail-free pass, and you can just get away from the conversation, and you don't have to confront the logical fallacies.

00:30:42.000 You don't have to confront all the problems with what you're saying.

00:30:46.000 And the only solution I've been able to find is to just push through.

00:30:50.000 Yeah.

00:30:51.000 And I say to them, like, Chris, like, one day...

00:30:56.000 I genuinely believe you'll look back and understand.

00:30:59.000 One day.

00:31:00.000 And I believe that.

00:31:02.000 No, I believe that too.

00:31:03.000 If it's done logically and you can have reasonable discussions.

00:31:08.000 But even in the opposition to that, right?

00:31:11.000 You have people on the right who adhere to a right-wing cult-like thinking.

00:31:16.000 Right?

00:31:17.000 And, you know, they'll push back against it in a way that's also not logical.

00:31:22.000 And so they dig their heels in on their ideology.

00:31:25.000 The left digs their heels in.

00:31:26.000 And, you know, you have things like people say, people on the left don't get it.

00:31:31.000 People on the left this.

00:31:32.000 Like, no, there's a giant spectrum of people on the left and a giant spectrum of people on the right.

00:31:37.000 I don't like any of those labels.

00:31:39.000 Right.

00:31:39.000 Exactly.

00:31:41.000 And I really don't like it because of me.

00:31:43.000 I don't fit in there.

00:31:44.000 Exactly.

00:31:44.000 Yeah.

00:31:45.000 Exactly.

00:31:45.000 I've been...

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00:33:04.000 And people want to box you in on that, and this goes back to seeing stories.

00:33:08.000 Which story do you fit into?

00:33:10.000 Like, my mom has a story of what a Democrat is.

00:33:13.000 She can never think in a story of what a Republican is, and she'll never deviate from that.

00:33:18.000 My parents are the same.

00:33:19.000 Right.

00:33:19.000 Exactly the same.

00:33:20.000 I'd rather be homeless.

00:33:21.000 They're blue no matter who.

00:33:23.000 They're just locked in.

00:33:24.000 Yeah.

00:33:25.000 Yeah.

00:33:25.000 So, you know, it's...

00:33:27.000 I'm just...

00:33:28.000 I don't...

00:33:30.000 I don't dread the question of, are you a Republican or Democrat?

00:33:33.000 Who cares?

00:33:34.000 I'm not a part of any...

00:33:36.000 I'm just going to be...

00:33:37.000 I'm going to call it as I see it.

00:33:39.000 Follow the logic.

00:33:41.000 Yeah, it doesn't make sense to be on a team.

00:33:43.000 Right.

00:33:43.000 It doesn't make sense at all.

00:33:45.000 Even for someone like me.

00:33:47.000 Like, you know, who...

00:33:49.000 Yeah, I went to the inauguration.

00:33:53.000 How was that?

00:33:55.000 Bizarre.

00:33:55.000 But I don't consider myself a Republican.

00:33:58.000 I don't consider myself a Democrat either.

00:34:00.000 I consider myself an American.

00:34:02.000 I'm a human being.

00:34:04.000 And there's a lot of things that the Democrats believe that I believe too.

00:34:08.000 There's a lot of things they say that I say that makes a lot of sense to me.

00:34:12.000 And there's a lot of things that the Republicans say.

00:34:14.000 They're like, that makes a lot of sense to me too.

00:34:16.000 And the idea that I have to ignore things that make sense to me because it's coming from the wrong team is just stupid.

00:34:22.000 These are bad faith arguments where you have to have a conversation with someone and pretend that what they're saying is not logical because they're supposed to be your opponent.

00:34:30.000 That to me is just dumb.

00:34:32.000 That doesn't benefit me at all.

00:34:34.000 It doesn't benefit anybody listening at all.

00:34:36.000 It's just stupid.

00:34:37.000 It's a stupid way to think.

00:34:39.000 It's so limiting.

00:34:41.000 And it's so bad for you cognitively because I think when you put up those blinders...

00:34:47.000 Have you ever talked to a person that's a liar, especially when you're younger?

00:34:51.000 You meet people that are liars, and they lie all the time about all kinds of things.

00:34:55.000 One of the things about liars is they can't really recognize how other people see their lies because they're living a lie.

00:35:01.000 They're lying so often, they don't realize the language of truth and honesty.

00:35:07.000 And so when they're talking to people, they don't even realize that people know they're full of shit.

00:35:11.000 Because they've lost their ability to sort of discern what natural conversations are about.

00:35:19.000 It's not about you bullshitting me to try to get me to believe something that's not true.

00:35:25.000 It's about you just expressing yourself.

00:35:27.000 So they stop doing that.

00:35:29.000 They stop just genuinely expressing themselves.

00:35:31.000 And then they just live with these...

00:35:33.000 Blinders on.

00:35:34.000 And so everything exists.

00:35:37.000 And the only way they can find someone who will buy into their bullshit is if someone is like so bad at thinking and reasoning that they don't have the tools to discern when someone's full of shit.

00:35:50.000 And this happens with ideologies.

00:35:53.000 This happens with Yeah, I think there is a power in truth.

00:36:16.000 It can be felt, like you're saying, and that's beneath the boats, beneath the surface.

00:36:22.000 Which we can't articulate.

00:36:23.000 We can't explain how we know these, how we can sense that on someone when they're bullshitting.

00:36:28.000 You can feel it.

00:36:29.000 So as a teacher, you really learn that reality if you're going to be effective.

00:36:34.000 The first thing I would say on the first day to my students is by law, by ethical bounds, there are going to be some things I can't tell you.

00:36:44.000 Confidentiality, whatever.

00:36:45.000 But I will never, I promise you, I will never tell you something I know to be untrue.

00:36:49.000 Then you try and embody that.

00:36:51.000 Through all behavior.

00:36:53.000 I saw that resonate.

00:36:55.000 But there's a lot of teachers that, you know, it's a strange environment, that school.

00:37:01.000 A lot of weird stuff.

00:37:03.000 Of course.

00:37:03.000 Well, it's an art school.

00:37:05.000 That wasn't an art school.

00:37:06.000 No, I'm talking about the ones where the kids get kicked out of high school.

00:37:09.000 Oh, okay.

00:37:10.000 So there's like gangs, drugs, you know.

00:37:14.000 Yeah.

00:37:16.000 Yeah.

00:37:17.000 Just interesting.

00:37:18.000 Yeah, it's...

00:37:19.000 I think we're entering a unique moment in history where a lot of those narratives are just dissolving and a lot of that very tribal thinking is being critically analyzed and it's found to be lacking and people are abandoning it left and right and you're seeing it you're seeing sort of the consequences of A lot of this ideology affecting people's day-to-day lives,

00:37:49.000 and that's causing people to abandon it.

00:37:51.000 You know, I was watching this left-wing podcast where they were discussing being gaslit about the problems with violence and crime rising in New York City.

00:38:04.000 You know, you're being told that it's not.

00:38:06.000 But if you live day to day life, you're like, no, this is real.

00:38:09.000 Like you guys have led in a bunch of Venezuelan gang members and you have a sanctuary city. 0.84

00:38:13.000 And now it's kind of chaotic.

00:38:15.000 And you're seeing like the woman who got lit on fire on the subway and like that kind of shit.

00:38:19.000 You're seeing this with with ever increasing frequency.

00:38:22.000 You're also seeing the way they lie about crime statistics because they'll tell you that crime is down.

00:38:29.000 But what they don't tell you is crime is severely underreported and that people.

00:38:33.000 People are being released for even violent crimes very quickly, which has direct consequences because then there's no incentive whatsoever to not commit crime if you're going to be right back out on the street.

00:38:44.000 Are you familiar with Roland Fryer?

00:38:46.000 Yes.

00:38:47.000 Have you had him?

00:38:48.000 I have not, but I would.

00:38:49.000 It's really interesting.

00:38:51.000 He's changed the way I view statistics, but in like a three-minute synopsis of it that goes to crime statistics, I can't think mathematically.

00:39:05.000 And I think this applies to logic.

00:39:06.000 I think visually.

00:39:07.000 So if I have a metaphor, I can suddenly understand a mathematical concept.

00:39:12.000 I just don't have that mind.

00:39:13.000 So he broke it down.

00:39:15.000 After all that research that caused him to go into hiding, if you look at it through an economics perspective, let's say my job is to...

00:39:23.000 Explain why he went into hiding.

00:39:27.000 He conducted a study, a deep dive into police statistics to see racial bias in policing.

00:39:35.000 Right.

00:39:36.000 The findings did not match the story that people wanted to be true at Harvard, which caused him to literally go under police protection, like a one-year-old he had at the time, for days.

00:39:49.000 Now, I don't know the deep dive beyond that, but that's the...

00:39:53.000 Right.

00:39:55.000 And we should say he's a black gentleman.

00:39:57.000 Right.

00:39:58.000 Yes.

00:39:59.000 He says the colleagues told him, don't publish this, warning, you'll ruin your career.

00:40:04.000 Right.

00:40:04.000 For releasing findings that contradict popular left-wing narratives on policing.

00:40:09.000 And he said, I'm going to do it anyways.

00:40:11.000 Yeah.

00:40:12.000 And then he came to the University of Austin and taught a class.

00:40:16.000 It's on YouTube.

00:40:18.000 And watching that class, to summarize it in a minute, look at it through economics.

00:40:23.000 If my job is to approve or disprove loans...

00:40:29.000 I've been able to get that down the best I can.

00:40:31.000 I want to keep the default rate as low as possible and I've achieved like a 0.5 default rate.

00:40:36.000 Out of anyone who comes in my office, 0.5 after I've done my job defaults.

00:40:42.000 Alright, that's pretty good.

00:40:44.000 Someone could come along later and analyze all that and say, wait a minute, you're turning down 60% black people though.

00:40:54.000 His point is you can't look at it through that lens.

00:40:58.000 You have to look at it through what is the goal that's trying—what is the result we're trying to achieve?

00:41:03.000 So in policing, it's to—his study showed that 40 percent of stops approximately, I think, if we use that as an example, 40 percent of stops recover contraband, which is pretty crazy, pretty good, across demographics, which means it's being done correctly.

00:41:20.000 And people, this changes how you view so much.

00:41:23.000 It's kind of difficult to understand at first glance.

00:41:27.000 I'm trying to tell me if this makes sense.

00:41:29.000 Okay.

00:41:30.000 So it's 40% across whatever color the driver is.

00:41:35.000 That means we've done correct.

00:41:38.000 We've done it right.

00:41:39.000 If it was 60% white drivers were recovering, we should be pulling over his arguments.

00:41:47.000 We should be pulling over more white. 1.00

00:41:49.000 Drivers.

00:41:50.000 But that's assuming they're pulling people over upon race.

00:41:52.000 Let's go back to the default rate.

00:41:55.000 You're just coming in after the fact and analyzing the results and looking at it through a racial lens.

00:41:59.000 I'm going to judge each case based on a merit, regardless of...

00:42:04.000 Because are you going to default or not?

00:42:06.000 And whatever, I'm going to run my analysis, whatever that is.

00:42:10.000 So anyone can come in after the fact and say, but there's always going to be a discrepancy.

00:42:16.000 Okay, but you turn down more...

00:42:18.000 Black people than whites. 0.86

00:42:18.000 Okay, so according to your logic, for every black driver I pull over, every Latino, I have to pull over a white driver now, which affects policing itself. 0.86

00:42:30.000 As opposed to, what's our goal?

00:42:31.000 All the police are meeting that morning.

00:42:33.000 Our job is to go out and recover contraband in this neighborhood.

00:42:38.000 But for every black driver, you've got to pull over a white driver. 0.89

00:42:41.000 That's not how it works.

00:42:44.000 That kind of...

00:42:47.000 That boggled my mind when I first heard it.

00:42:49.000 I was looking at it through the lens of what are we trying to achieve and seeing if that achievement is even, then there's nothing off about it.

00:43:00.000 If the contraband being recovered is 40%, regardless of the rate of which you're pulling those cars over, the success rate is the same, which means you're doing it right.

00:43:14.000 I'm trying to boil that down as simple as I can.

00:43:17.000 And so that was problematic for a lot of people.

00:43:21.000 They didn't want to hear that.

00:43:23.000 Because they're pulling over, let's just say 60% of the drivers are black, which is bias.

00:43:29.000 The question is, is it unwarranted bias?

00:43:32.000 Because there's always going to be bias.

00:43:37.000 Right.

00:43:37.000 Is it unwarranted bias, meaning are more black people causing them to get pulled over?

00:43:44.000 Like, the default rate.

00:43:47.000 70% of the people I turned down, let's say, 70% of people that come in that office that were black got turned down.

00:43:57.000 My rebuttal to that is, that has nothing to do with it.

00:44:01.000 My job is for the bank to get a.5 default rate, and that's the end result.

00:44:05.000 Right.

00:44:06.000 Can you prove that I'm doing anything wrong?

00:44:08.000 What adjustment, logically, should I make?

00:44:11.000 Right.

00:44:12.000 Should you give loans to people that are more likely to default just because of their ethnicity?

00:44:17.000 That would be the only logical course of action in response to that.

00:44:21.000 Right.

00:44:22.000 Which is the argument for equity, right, over equality.

00:44:27.000 Yeah, essentially that would be the form of equity.

00:44:30.000 Equality of outcome versus equality of opportunity.

00:44:32.000 Right.

00:44:33.000 Yeah, I've seen that argument, that not everybody starts at the same spot, so you have to raise up people who've started at a different spot.

00:44:41.000 Which is, to me, a band-aid on the real problem.

00:44:44.000 The real problem is that we have crime-infested areas that we've done nothing to fix.

00:44:48.000 That's the real problem.

00:44:49.000 The real problem is we have parts of our society that have been, you know, because of Jim Crow laws and redline laws, there's a long history of them being riddled with crime and gangs, and it could be fixed.

00:45:06.000 There's been no effort.

00:45:07.000 There's been no real...

00:45:09.000 National effort to take impoverished, gang-ridden, crime-ridden neighborhoods and rehabilitate them.

00:45:18.000 The more you do that, if you did that, you would have less losers.

00:45:22.000 If you have less losers, you have a better country.

00:45:24.000 And that's including the Appalachias, areas of West Virginia that are filled with people that are addicted to pills and committing crime because they're drug addicts that are all poor white people, coal mining people, those folks. 0.99

00:45:36.000 It's everybody.

00:45:37.000 It's just...

00:45:38.000 Crime and poverty.

00:45:40.000 And crime and poverty causes people, you imitate your environment, you imitate your atmosphere.

00:45:46.000 If you grow up in a crime-ridden, gang-ridden neighborhood, the chances of you getting involved in gang activities and crime are much higher than if you don't grow up in an environment like that.

00:45:56.000 Yeah, I'm from North Carolina.

00:45:58.000 Like near Asheville.

00:45:59.000 Asheville.

00:46:00.000 It's rough out there.

00:46:01.000 Which people don't believe.

00:46:03.000 The Asheville Mountains, beautiful.

00:46:05.000 Right.

00:46:06.000 No, it's like very high per capita crime rate.

00:46:08.000 There's a meth capital right now where I live.

00:46:11.000 And so I agree with you.

00:46:13.000 The thing is, if we look at it, I agree if we look at it through a socioeconomic lens.

00:46:17.000 So I had one of my professors from Emerson, he's like, I solved racism.

00:46:21.000 This was in one of the videos.

00:46:22.000 Oh, boy.

00:46:23.000 I was like, sure, come over.

00:46:24.000 Let's record.

00:46:25.000 Hit me with it.

00:46:26.000 So the solution is we're going to have a tax.

00:46:30.000 So if you can trace your ancestry, then you don't have to pay taxes or some form of tax.

00:46:37.000 Okay, but what about the white person in Appalachia who is in an equally bad socioeconomic position, but they don't get the tax or whatnot, the award, your solution?

00:46:49.000 Well, their ancestors weren't oppressed.

00:46:52.000 So I would be all for it if it was looking through a consistent...

00:46:58.000 Applied across all demographics equally, socioeconomically.

00:47:02.000 You're never going to stop racism.

00:47:04.000 You're never going to stop ignorant thinking.

00:47:06.000 I mean, unless there's some sort of groundbreaking human neural interface that completely changes our cognitive function and dissolves all boundaries.

00:47:17.000 You're not going to stop people from...

00:47:21.000 There's people that don't like people from other cities because they play sports against them.

00:47:26.000 I hate people from Philly. 0.97

00:47:28.000 There's always going to be people that discriminate against other people.

00:47:34.000 Because there's always going to be ignorant people.

00:47:36.000 And it's easier to do that.

00:47:37.000 It's easier to decide this person is my enemy.

00:47:39.000 These people are on my side.

00:47:41.000 It's easy to be tribal.

00:47:42.000 It's much simpler.

00:47:44.000 You don't have to think as much.

00:47:47.000 Anna Kasparian got sexually assaulted by a homeless person.

00:47:50.000 So when she's walking down the street, she's probably going to be...

00:47:54.000 Recoil a bit maybe and if she sees someone home, you know, it's there's a human psychological element She's gonna try probably not to do the business human nature if you have a bad experience and it's gonna Goes back to how we see the world, but you're right.

00:48:06.000 Yeah, we'll never be able to solve racism Well, that's the type of bias that like is kind of logical like if you see a guy and he's covered his own shit and he's you know lighting Notebooks on fire.

00:48:16.000 That guy might be out of his fucking mind.

00:48:18.000 You should probably go around him.

00:48:19.000 And if you run into a bunch of them and they're camping out right in front of your house, you should act accordingly.

00:48:26.000 You shouldn't treat them the same the way you treat your neighbor who's just walking his dog waving to you.

00:48:31.000 It's a different kind of human being you're encountering.

00:48:34.000 There are certain people that you should be wary about.

00:48:37.000 And if you are severely mentally ill and addicted to drugs and you live in a tent in front of someone's house and you're cooking meth...

00:48:43.000 You know, like you're in the backyard barbecuing and you smell someone cooking meth in your front yard.

00:48:47.000 Like, that's a problem.

00:48:48.000 Yeah, that's a problem.

00:48:49.000 That's a problem.

00:48:49.000 And if you pretend it's not a problem because, you know, oh, you have to be sensitive to people's socioeconomic needs and it's a housing crisis and it's a this and it's a that.

00:48:58.000 No.

00:48:59.000 No, there's people that are really fucked up because being a person is hard.

00:49:03.000 It's difficult.

00:49:03.000 It's complicated.

00:49:04.000 And if you grow up with abusive parents who are drug addicts themselves and in and out of jail and you've been psychologically scarred since you were a baby because they beat you and you've encountered a lot of domestic violence, you're going to be more fucked up than the average person.

00:49:20.000 This is just the development cycle of you as an entity, as a human being that is...

00:49:26.000 A product of your accumulated experiences, your genetics, your biology, your environment.

00:49:32.000 There's just a lot of factors.

00:49:33.000 And to pretend that those factors don't exist, and that if you do recognize them, that somehow or another you're racist, or you're sexist, or you're ableist, or you're this or you're that.

00:49:45.000 You're the problem.

00:49:46.000 No, the problem is we've got a bunch of people that are really fucked up. 0.82

00:49:49.000 You know, and we have to figure out a way to have less people that are fucked up. 0.97

00:49:53.000 You're always going to have a certain percentage, but is there something that can be done that would mitigate the number of people that are growing up really fucked up and becoming problems?

00:50:02.000 Start at the root.

00:50:04.000 Get to the root.

00:50:04.000 What's the root?

00:50:05.000 Crime-infested, gang-infested neighborhoods, abusive family life, abusive neighborhoods.

00:50:11.000 Like, that's the root.

00:50:12.000 It's the root of all of our problems.

00:50:14.000 I think that's why Jordan Peterson tapped into so much, because it's the only solution is, you know.

00:50:19.000 Taking a personal responsibility.

00:50:21.000 But even personal responsibility for a person that has no...

00:50:25.000 There's no examples of someone taking personal responsibility.

00:50:29.000 Everyone around you is doing something fucked up or most people around you are doing something fucked up. 0.89

00:50:34.000 And there's nowhere you can turn or you can relate to someone who can give you tools and objective reasoning and an understanding of how you got to the situation and what are the steps you can take to get out of that.

00:50:47.000 I encountered that.

00:50:49.000 Every day at that school because those are the kids that I was working with.

00:50:53.000 The majority of them did not have a parent.

00:50:57.000 We would have an open house and no one would come.

00:51:01.000 They had no example, no money.

00:51:06.000 And it's heartbreaking.

00:51:08.000 So what do I do?

00:51:10.000 All I can do is try and lead by example and maybe communicate because that's their best hope.

00:51:15.000 Trying and taking responsibility because no one else is going to do it at the end of the day.

00:51:21.000 There is no alternative.

00:51:23.000 Right.

00:51:24.000 Except for having someone hopefully come along and provide that.

00:51:29.000 Right, or finding something that you can do that elevates you, finding something you can do that gives you a very clear example that hard work and dedication can lead to success and then you can kind of get addicted to this positive feeling that you're getting from seeing yourself progress and get locked into that and it can elevate you out of certain situations.

00:51:49.000 You see that happen with sports, you see that happen with art.

00:51:53.000 You know, sports and art are probably the two best ways that people can escape impoverished childhoods and bad neighborhoods.

00:52:00.000 The student who was, we're not supposed to have fairs, but was my favorite, he came from that kind of background, but he could draw like I've never seen.

00:52:10.000 There you go, art.

00:52:12.000 And so we got him a Krita drawing tablet, a digital drawing tablet.

00:52:16.000 And he would just sit and draw all day.

00:52:18.000 But here's the issue is, well, how do you...

00:52:20.000 But he wouldn't go to any other classes.

00:52:22.000 And we kind of...

00:52:22.000 For some reason, he liked being in my classroom.

00:52:25.000 So they would literally sit him in my room, and he would stay there all day.

00:52:29.000 And then he would try and bring work from his other classes and get him to do the work from the other classes.

00:52:37.000 So through that pattern, he and I... He got me into Elden Ring, telling me these video games.

00:52:42.000 He got me into the whole art style behind Elden Ring and Dark Souls.

00:52:48.000 But how do you foster...

00:52:50.000 Then the school kind of comes along and they're like, yeah, but he's not doing academic drawings that are not relevant to the school.

00:52:56.000 And I get that.

00:52:57.000 But how do you then take that talent for drawing and show him that this can be monitored?

00:53:01.000 monetized man like you could be up like yeah let's get you maybe freelancing i worked as a freelance videographer it's a it's a hustle but it's a way you're not gonna make but it's better than nothing like trying to think outside the box and he ended up getting kicked out for a stupid he didn't want to go on a field trip one day and he was like um he made an offhand passing comments He's like, I don't want to go on the field trip.

00:53:25.000 Don't make me go on the field trip.

00:53:27.000 I'll just bring a gun so I don't have to go to the field trip.

00:53:30.000 And he's like, oh my god.

00:53:34.000 And this goes back to the idea of telling the truth.

00:53:37.000 What got me is they lied to him and told him because the teacher that he said it to, you're compelled to report it and everything and we run it up the chain.

00:53:45.000 I don't think he should have been kicked out.

00:53:48.000 I know this kid though.

00:53:49.000 He's done.

00:53:50.000 That's why they're there.

00:53:51.000 Because they say stupid stuff.

00:53:54.000 And we're the last line of defense.

00:53:57.000 He was graduating in two months.

00:53:59.000 Oh, God.

00:54:01.000 I don't know where he is now.

00:54:05.000 Well, it brings you back to, like, what is school supposed to be for?

00:54:09.000 It's supposed to be preparing you for independence out in the world.

00:54:12.000 And it's supposed to be preparing you to...

00:54:15.000 Eventually have a career.

00:54:18.000 Well, there's real careers in art.

00:54:19.000 It's a viable pathway.

00:54:21.000 And the idea that this guy is extremely talented and that's not accentuated.

00:54:25.000 He would draw these Japanese samurais, sword fighting, just beautiful.

00:54:31.000 And then I had the photo printer.

00:54:35.000 But they were like, well, how's he going to make a living drawing Japanese photos?

00:54:38.000 No, it's like, get him to draw school projects, like, logos for multimedia projects for the culinary program.

00:54:44.000 I was like, this kid won't respond to that.

00:54:46.000 And he didn't.

00:54:47.000 And then he gets kicked out.

00:54:48.000 That was my problem as an artist.

00:54:50.000 When I was young, I wanted to be a comic book illustrator.

00:54:54.000 That's what I wanted to do.

00:54:55.000 That's the only art that I was interested in.

00:54:58.000 I read a lot of comic books and I was really into Frank Frazetta and I was really into Jack Kirby and all these different artists that would draw for comic books and fantasy novels and that kind of stuff.

00:55:12.000 That's what I was interested in.

00:55:13.000 That was the only thing I was interested in.

00:55:15.000 And my art teacher was an asshole.

00:55:18.000 He was such an asshole.

00:55:20.000 Shout out to my friend John DeVore because I communicate online with a buddy of mine in high school who was also in that art class who was the most talented guy in the class.

00:55:29.000 It was me, John, and our friend Kevin.

00:55:33.000 And we were like the three most talented people.

00:55:35.000 I was like third.

00:55:36.000 It's like John was number one, Kevin was number two, and then it was me.

00:55:39.000 But we were all like...

00:55:41.000 Much more talented than everyone else and all we wanted to do was like comic book art and John was so good and he told me that that teacher gave him an F in his final year.

00:55:54.000 Because he's just an asshole.

00:55:58.000 He would never look at your art and say it was good.

00:56:02.000 He would look at your art and say you're not going to be able to do that for a living.

00:56:05.000 You're going to have to draw diaper commercials.

00:56:07.000 You're going to have to do this.

00:56:08.000 You're going to have to do things you don't want to do.

00:56:12.000 He was a bitter guy with a pot belly who looked depressed.

00:56:16.000 A lot of teachers are.

00:56:18.000 He didn't want you to have hope because he didn't have any hope.

00:56:22.000 He didn't like teaching.

00:56:24.000 He wanted to be an artist.

00:56:26.000 When he would draw, he would draw in a class where we would do projects.

00:56:30.000 His stuff was unexceptional.

00:56:32.000 It just wasn't that good.

00:56:34.000 They wanted you to fail.

00:56:37.000 I had a student.

00:56:39.000 I've had multiple students.

00:56:40.000 The number one profession kids want to do now is be an influencer, YouTuber, blah, blah, blah.

00:56:46.000 So I get the apprehension when a kid's like, I really want to do YouTube, make a YouTube channel.

00:56:50.000 I want to deal with what Joe Rogan's doing, whatever.

00:56:53.000 But the school was kind of, you can't make money on YouTube.

00:57:00.000 That's so dumb.

00:57:02.000 That's like, you should be fired for being incompetent.

00:57:06.000 Not just incompetent, but you're counter to what's true.

00:57:10.000 Like, you're saying things that are objectively untrue.

00:57:13.000 You can't make money on YouTube.

00:57:14.000 That is...

00:57:15.000 You could pull up statistics instantaneously.

00:57:18.000 It's hard, but you're never gonna...

00:57:21.000 I got lucky, man, just because I was willing to put myself out there and make a fool of myself.

00:57:26.000 But that's not why you got lucky.

00:57:27.000 You got lucky because you put out good content.

00:57:29.000 It's a merit-based thing.

00:57:30.000 It really is.

00:57:32.000 And it doesn't necessarily have to be good, right?

00:57:34.000 There's content that's just...

00:57:35.000 It's, you know, inflammatory and that people...

00:57:40.000 People gravitate to that because they like controversy.

00:57:43.000 People like just people squabbling and yelling at each other, like shitty content.

00:57:47.000 Or someone who's saying like awful things.

00:57:50.000 So people, can you believe this person's saying these awful things?

00:57:52.000 And they get a lot of attention for saying awful things.

00:57:54.000 And so, you know.

00:57:56.000 And then YouTube has ways to sort of manage that, which are, you know, a little Orwellian, right?

00:58:02.000 Like, they demonetize people for talking about specific things.

00:58:05.000 That scares me.

00:58:06.000 It should scare you.

00:58:07.000 Because a lot of times they're demonetizing things that are absolutely accurate.

00:58:10.000 And that's where it gets really weird.

00:58:12.000 Like, this is what we faced during the COVID crisis.

00:58:14.000 Like, if you said that you think this disease came from a lab leak, you would get demonetized on YouTube.

00:58:22.000 Well, that's...

00:58:23.000 It's proven to be true now. 0.93

00:58:25.000 So, like, what happens?

00:58:26.000 Does YouTube owe you money from all those videos that you put out that they should have monetized?

00:58:32.000 I can't even think about it.

00:58:33.000 It's crazy.

00:58:34.000 You're saying accurate things, but these accurate things were being suppressed by our own federal government, which is really weird.

00:58:41.000 We're in cahoots with these corporations that were making these medications.

00:58:46.000 And so it got real fucking weird.

00:58:49.000 Like, real weird.

00:58:53.000 Unfortunately, a lot of those laws still stand.

00:58:56.000 We had an instance where there was a video that we put out during the pandemic when we were only on Spotify.

00:59:03.000 So when we were only on Spotify, all of our videos, all of our episodes got released only on Spotify.

00:59:09.000 We banked them all to eventually, you know, just like we'd have them if we ever wanted to put them up on YouTube.

00:59:16.000 Well, then 2024, I signed this new deal.

00:59:20.000 And in the new deal, what I want to do is put it everywhere.

00:59:23.000 I was like, we'll be Spotify, but let's put it on.

00:59:26.000 And Spotify wanted to do this as well.

00:59:28.000 It was actually, they were very supportive of this.

00:59:30.000 Put it everywhere.

00:59:32.000 Put it on YouTube, put it on Apple, but it's a Spotify exclusive and we work out this deal that way.

00:59:38.000 So when we take these videos that were available on Spotify, in order to put them on YouTube, even though they're factually correct, they have a strike against them because it's still adhering to their old laws that were applicable at the time that we made the video.

00:59:56.000 So did they make adjustments?

00:59:58.000 What did we wind up doing with that?

01:00:01.000 Jamie.

01:00:01.000 I don't know which case you're talking about.

01:00:04.000 You know, where you were saying that there was a video that we were going to put up, but it had a strike, and you were going to have to do training.

01:00:10.000 Remember that?

01:00:11.000 That was already up there.

01:00:13.000 Right.

01:00:14.000 That wasn't re-uploaded.

01:00:15.000 That was from the past.

01:00:16.000 Oh, it was?

01:00:17.000 Yeah.

01:00:18.000 We were still putting clips up on that channel.

01:00:19.000 Oh, it was a clip that was the problem?

01:00:21.000 Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

01:00:21.000 Right, but it was the full episode, wasn't it?

01:00:23.000 Right.

01:00:24.000 And then when we upload the full episode, then it applied to that, right?

01:00:28.000 It just still had...

01:00:29.000 There was no way around not doing the education fucking thing.

01:00:34.000 Right.

01:00:35.000 Here's the problem.

01:00:35.000 No way around it.

01:00:36.000 Did you have to do that?

01:00:37.000 No, I'm not doing shit.

01:00:41.000 Yeah, but here's the problem.

01:00:43.000 That clip was accurate.

01:00:45.000 The problem is the things that they were saying were accurate.

01:00:48.000 Yeah, something changed in the news and they were like, that's actually accurate now, but the system had already, there was no way to change it in the system.

01:00:54.000 Yeah, it was always accurate.

01:00:56.000 It's just the news started reporting it accurately.

01:00:59.000 And because initially the government narrative was that it was incorrect.

01:01:05.000 So we're in the situation where you're getting educated about something that's absolutely true and you have to sort of pretend that you did a bad thing.

01:01:13.000 It's scary for me because this is literally how I make a living.

01:01:16.000 Yeah.

01:01:17.000 I put food on the table.

01:01:18.000 Yeah.

01:01:18.000 Do you do other platforms as well as YouTube?

01:01:22.000 I'm on X, but I'm not monetized.

01:01:24.000 I've never made a dollar on X. I'm not sure how to go about doing that.

01:01:27.000 I could look it up.

01:01:28.000 I should probably.

01:01:29.000 Yeah, I don't know how that works either.

01:01:30.000 I hear rumors about don't post one-to-one to X because YouTube wants exclusivity.

01:01:36.000 And if you're posting on X, your videos will perform less.

01:01:38.000 I don't know how much truth there is, but I'm so kind of...

01:01:41.000 There's probably something to that.

01:01:42.000 And I'm so dependent on YouTube that I'm like, I'm not even going to do it.

01:01:45.000 Here's an interesting statistic about YouTube.

01:01:48.000 This shows you, like, this is probably one of the best examples of bias that you're ever going to see.

01:01:56.000 During the time where I released the podcast with Trump, it was getting, what was the most it was getting an hour?

01:02:04.000 Was it 1.2 million?

01:02:06.000 Sure, I think so.

01:02:07.000 Maybe 1.2, 1.3, something like that.

01:02:09.000 As much as 1.5 million, I think, at one point in time.

01:02:12.000 An hour.

01:02:14.000 Never trending.

01:02:15.000 I heard about that.

01:02:17.000 Never trending.

01:02:18.000 Never trending.

01:02:19.000 What's trending then?

01:02:20.000 Tell me what trending is.

01:02:21.000 If something gets 50 million views in a couple of days and that's not trending, what's trending?

01:02:26.000 What do you call trending?

01:02:28.000 What does that mean then?

01:02:30.000 Are you curating your trending thing?

01:02:33.000 Did Kamala Harris call her daddy trend? 1.00

01:02:35.000 I don't know.

01:02:36.000 That's a good question.

01:02:37.000 Well, it didn't get any views.

01:02:39.000 I mean, what did Kamala Harris on Call Her Daddy get? 1.00

01:02:42.000 Less than a million, I think.

01:02:44.000 That's crazy.

01:02:46.000 I get a million for some random...

01:02:48.000 Should have gotten a million.

01:02:49.000 That's crazy.

01:02:50.000 But that doesn't make any sense.

01:02:51.000 I might be wrong about that.

01:02:53.000 Well, it wasn't extraordinary.

01:02:55.000 It wasn't interesting enough.

01:02:57.000 It's merit-based, essentially.

01:02:59.000 I was curious what it would say.

01:03:01.000 How the trending page is controlled.

01:03:03.000 I looked up on the screen.

01:03:04.000 that says there's no humans that manually curate the page.

01:03:08.000 Right.

01:03:09.000 But obviously the algorithm.

01:03:11.000 I don't believe this is what I'm saying.

01:03:12.000 Yeah, I don't believe that.

01:03:13.000 I'm pretty cynical about this response.

01:03:15.000 Yeah.

01:03:15.000 Okay.

01:03:16.000 YouTube's trending page is controlled by an algorithm that's trained by human engineers.

01:03:20.000 There's no employees who manually curate the trending page.

01:03:22.000 How the algorithm works.

01:03:23.000 The algorithm considers many factors to determine which videos are trending, including view count, view velocity, and video age.

01:03:30.000 The algorithm considers where views are coming from and how the video performs compared to other recent uploads from the same channel.

01:03:37.000 The algorithm aims to create a list of trending content that's relevant and representative across the platform.

01:03:43.000 The algorithm refreshes every 15 minutes to stay current.

01:03:47.000 Filters. 1.00

01:03:48.000 The algorithm applies strict content filters to keep the trending list family-friendly.

01:03:54.000 These filters ensure that videos don't contain excessive profanity, mature content, violence, or disparaging others in the community.

01:04:05.000 Okay, so just that line alone.

01:04:07.000 Disparaging others in the community.

01:04:09.000 Yeah.

01:04:11.000 It would be in YouTube's best interest, though.

01:04:13.000 They need you.

01:04:16.000 Well, don't they like views?

01:04:17.000 Yeah, that's my point.

01:04:18.000 Don't you sell ads?

01:04:19.000 If I was YouTube, I'd be like, no, we want Joe Rogan's thing up here.

01:04:21.000 We need views.

01:04:22.000 Well, not only that.

01:04:23.000 If you put it in trending, you'll get more views, so you get more advertising revenue.

01:04:26.000 On that specific one, I think they were worried about something else.

01:04:30.000 Well, yeah, they were worried about it promoting Donald Trump and winding up being president because of that.

01:04:36.000 But then it got to a point where you couldn't find it.

01:04:39.000 So that was real weird.

01:04:41.000 Like, if you Googled Trump Rogan podcast, you would not find that podcast at all.

01:04:48.000 You would find clips of people discussing it.

01:04:51.000 You would not find the actual podcast.

01:04:53.000 When I first saw it, it was someone reacting to it.

01:04:56.000 Yeah.

01:04:56.000 Live.

01:04:58.000 Bizarre.

01:04:59.000 Tweet, like, we had to release it at the same time on multiple platforms.

01:05:03.000 Sorry for the glitch, wasn't there?

01:05:06.000 There was a glitch because the way we upload, generally, Jamie, you can speak to this, we upload with a timer, right?

01:05:16.000 Like, it's going to upload a certain time?

01:05:17.000 Yeah, it usually is, like, at noon, and this time we were doing it at night, and, you know.

01:05:22.000 For whatever reason, it didn't go live.

01:05:24.000 The platforms don't work the same.

01:05:26.000 We just released it.

01:05:27.000 We just said, let's just release it now.

01:05:28.000 But it took a while to get up.

01:05:33.000 That was just an issue with just how the upload system works.

01:05:39.000 It's more effective to upload on a timer, apparently.

01:05:42.000 But that had nothing to do with YouTube.

01:05:44.000 That was just a thing.

01:05:45.000 And then when it was being suppressed, and I knew it was being suppressed.

01:05:50.000 I talked to Spotify and talked to Elon and said let's just put it on X and so we put on X as well and then Elon put it on X and It wound up getting across all platforms somewhere in the neighborhood of like 250 million views Fucking insanity, but a lot of it was X Like a lot of people on independent pages, they just took it when it was a problem finding it and they just uploaded it to their own channel on X. A lot of people did that.

01:06:18.000 And then, you know, I uploaded it.

01:06:20.000 Elon's alone got like 65 million views and I got like 25 million views.

01:06:24.000 It was just nuts.

01:06:25.000 It was like people wanted it.

01:06:27.000 And it's the Streisand effect.

01:06:28.000 As soon as you try to suppress something.

01:06:31.000 I don't buy into the idea that there wasn't some sort of manipulation behind the scenes.

01:06:37.000 It just doesn't make any sense.

01:06:39.000 Whether it was rogue employees or whether it was someone who was gaming the reporting system, like reporting something.

01:06:48.000 Maybe that could be it.

01:06:49.000 If you get enough people that report that a video is a problem, maybe that could throw it off.

01:06:55.000 I don't know.

01:06:56.000 I don't even...

01:06:58.000 I don't want to ask because I don't think I'm going to get an honest answer.

01:07:01.000 You haven't asked?

01:07:02.000 I kind of have, but I don't talk to them.

01:07:04.000 I don't have a direct channel where I talk to them.

01:07:08.000 I don't want one.

01:07:10.000 I was just like, eh.

01:07:12.000 Let me just put it...

01:07:13.000 If there's a situation like that, I'll talk about that.

01:07:19.000 And that's my way of responding to that.

01:07:21.000 Make it make sense to me.

01:07:24.000 Like, why can't you find it?

01:07:26.000 Why can't you find a video that has 65 million views?

01:07:29.000 Why can't you find that?

01:07:30.000 That doesn't make any sense.

01:07:31.000 That is crazy.

01:07:32.000 That's nuts.

01:07:33.000 Like, what's wrong with your search system?

01:07:35.000 And then eventually, because of me talking about it, it went back.

01:07:38.000 And then you could find it.

01:07:41.000 It's one of the best things.

01:07:43.000 A lot of people are really grateful you did that.

01:07:45.000 Yeah, I you know, I wanted to just like we were clearly being manipulated We were clearly being gaslit and being told that this guy's Hitler.

01:07:58.000 Even though he was already the president for four years.

01:08:01.000 And he wasn't, he didn't act like a dictator.

01:08:04.000 Like, we know what it's like when he's running things.

01:08:08.000 We had experienced it for four years.

01:08:10.000 And they were telling us that this was the end of civilization, that trans people were going to be rounded up and fucking nets thrown on them.

01:08:19.000 It was really wild that people weren't going to be safe.

01:08:21.000 It was really wild.

01:08:23.000 It was really wild.

01:08:24.000 Yeah, they just demonized and they gaslit people to the point where when you actually do have the guy in and talk to him and say like, no, he's not mentally compromised.

01:08:35.000 He's not incoherent.

01:08:37.000 He's very coherent.

01:08:38.000 He's got an amazing amount of energy.

01:08:40.000 The guy sat here for three hours and we could have done another three hours easy.

01:08:43.000 He can go on and on and on and he's fine.

01:08:47.000 And he had some really good points.

01:08:49.000 First of all, the point about the California wildfires, where he's discussing their water issues, that it could all be fixed.

01:08:55.000 And then he gave them a plan to fix it, and then they rejected it.

01:08:58.000 And he's like, you could have all the fucking water you need.

01:09:01.000 And you should be doing things to make sure that these fires don't happen again.

01:09:05.000 There's ways to clean up the brush.

01:09:07.000 There's ways to do this.

01:09:08.000 There's ways to do that.

01:09:08.000 You stop the fuel.

01:09:10.000 You develop better systems for water distribution, sprinkler systems.

01:09:16.000 There are ways to do this, and he talked about those ways on the podcast, and it's like, you know, eerily accurate when you see what happened to the Pacific Palisades.

01:09:26.000 Yeah.

01:09:26.000 Well, that clip of you predicting the whole thing.

01:09:28.000 Yeah.

01:09:29.000 See, here's the thing.

01:09:31.000 Climate change narrative.

01:09:32.000 This is a really goofy thing that people on the left are talking about.

01:09:35.000 This is because of climate change.

01:09:37.000 This is climate change causes fire.

01:09:38.000 L.A. has had essentially the same weather pattern since the 1800s, since they started noticing them.

01:09:45.000 There's a great video.

01:09:47.000 Here, I'll send it to you, Jamie.

01:09:48.000 There's a great video of the Topanga fires.

01:09:51.000 You might be able to find it before I can pull it up.

01:09:53.000 The Topanga fires from 1961, I believe.

01:09:58.000 There was a huge fire that raged through.

01:10:00.000 The Hollywood Hills, pre-climate change, 1961. L.A. has always been dry as fuck.

01:10:05.000 It's a desert.

01:10:07.000 That's why the movie industry is there.

01:10:08.000 Because you could film outside and you don't ever have to worry about it raining on you.

01:10:12.000 That's literally why they came there.

01:10:14.000 Because it's the perfect climate.

01:10:15.000 It's amazing.

01:10:16.000 I was just there last weekend.

01:10:17.000 The weather's incredible.

01:10:18.000 But the city, because of their ridiculous policies, is just a fucking disaster.

01:10:23.000 A dangerous, creepy, weird disaster of a city.

01:10:27.000 It's the 1961 Bell Air fire.

01:10:29.000 It's probably the same time period.

01:10:31.000 Could be.

01:10:31.000 It sounds the same.

01:10:33.000 Brush fire, wind.

01:10:34.000 I mean, that's just what happens, man.

01:10:37.000 So the situation that I encountered was from 2000...

01:10:43.000 I was filming Fear Factor, so it had to be before 2007. So it was really before a lot of this...

01:10:50.000 I mean, you had the Inconvenient Truth documentary, but you didn't have...

01:10:55.000 The type of climate change discussions that you have today.

01:11:00.000 So you think it was more...

01:11:01.000 It's just L.A. Okay.

01:11:03.000 It's just L.A. It's not a climate change issue.

01:11:06.000 God, I've got to find this video.

01:11:07.000 15,000 acres burned.

01:11:08.000 450 homes burned.

01:11:10.000 Here's the aftermath.

01:11:11.000 Houses are digging through it.

01:11:12.000 Yeah, that is a black and white one.

01:11:14.000 The one that I had was color footage.

01:11:19.000 I know I have it.

01:11:21.000 Just give me a second.

01:11:22.000 I will find it.

01:11:23.000 The documentary is called...

01:11:24.000 Design for disaster that's popping up.

01:11:27.000 This also says Bel Air.

01:11:29.000 Here, I'm just going through my...

01:11:30.000 Whitney Cummings sent it to me.

01:11:32.000 So I'm going through my videos with her.

01:11:34.000 I'll find it in a second.

01:11:35.000 But the point is, it's like...

01:11:36.000 When I experienced that, this was not when everybody was chiming in about climate change being the...

01:11:45.000 Here it is.

01:11:46.000 I found it.

01:11:47.000 1960s, it was in the canyon.

01:11:49.000 Here it is.

01:11:49.000 I'll send it to you, Jamie.

01:11:55.000 And it's one of those guys talking like this, because that's how they talked in the news back then.

01:12:00.000 So it's a 1961 documentary about the fires.

01:12:03.000 And so when I was talking to this fireman, I think it was 2003, if I'm correct, I think it was 2003. And we were experiencing a fire, and he told me, because where I lived, I had been evacuated three times.

01:12:21.000 I've been evacuated in the early 2000s.

01:12:24.000 So give me some volume on this so you can hear the way this guy talks.

01:12:28.000 Ground cover in the Western Hemisphere.

01:12:33.000 The fire starting from its point of origin north of Mulholland on Stone Canyon.

01:12:38.000 Spreads out along canyon walls in three directions.

01:12:41.000 Clames begin spreading at the rate of 13 acres per minute.

01:12:45.000 We've got a report of four people trapped on foot between Shallon and Roskamera.

01:12:50.000 We need help from the police department.

01:12:52.000 How can a modern water system properly designed to meet emergency fire conditions fail to function?

01:13:02.000 484 times fire proved its deadly efficiency by incinerating in a few roaring minutes what families had taken years to acquire.

01:13:12.000 So that has always been a problem.

01:13:14.000 So they had the same issue back then?

01:13:16.000 The 100% same issue.

01:13:18.000 So this idea that these left-wing people, particularly media people, they want to use this binary thing.

01:13:25.000 This is what I saw.

01:13:27.000 Trump said, drill, baby, drill, right after we're dealing with this climate change-fueled emergency in the Pacific Palisades.

01:13:34.000 That is not climate change.

01:13:36.000 It is the climate of Los Angeles.

01:13:39.000 It's a fucking desert.

01:13:41.000 They put a city in the fucking desert because they wanted to film movies there.

01:13:45.000 It's also windy in the winter, because you get the Santa Ana winds, which is what just occurred, where you get these 100 mile, they're historic.

01:13:53.000 They've always happened.

01:13:55.000 Every year we get the Santa Ana.

01:13:56.000 There's fire season for a fucking reason.

01:13:59.000 Los Angeles has fire season.

01:14:02.000 Where I used to live, it was fire season.

01:14:05.000 And every time the winter would come, and everything was dry, and all the vegetation was brown, and the wind was whipping around, everybody would get nervous.

01:14:14.000 Because you get, you know, there's a bunch of different reasons.

01:14:18.000 The one big one from 2018, they found out that it was like some part that had failed that initially caused the fire that was a $1 part.

01:14:29.000 The part cost $1.

01:14:30.000 This $1 piece that they failed to replace.

01:14:36.000 Caused the sparks that led to the initial fire that was the 2018 fire where you saw, if you go down the 405 in Hollywood, like half of the side of the highway was completely engulfed in flames.

01:14:46.000 It looked apocalyptic.

01:14:47.000 It was bananas driving down the highway and the whole left side of the highway is completely on fire.

01:14:54.000 Giant hills of raging fires that they couldn't put out.

01:14:58.000 It's always been like this.

01:15:01.000 It's Los Angeles.

01:15:02.000 It's Los Angeles.

01:15:04.000 Why didn't they...

01:15:05.000 Adapt.

01:15:06.000 I lived in LA for two years.

01:15:08.000 I'm on the volunteer fire department in my town where I live now, Massachusetts, and we don't have fire hydrants.

01:15:15.000 That's so crazy!

01:15:16.000 We're out by Concord, like near there.

01:15:18.000 Yeah, I know where that is.

01:15:18.000 So there's no fire hydrants.

01:15:22.000 So we bring our own water.

01:15:23.000 That's so crazy.

01:15:24.000 But it's possible, is my point.

01:15:25.000 Yeah, it's possible.

01:15:26.000 And the problem with this past fire, and here's another thing that's a lot of weird pushback against, that it was arson caused.

01:15:34.000 Hey, some of it was arson caused.

01:15:37.000 Fact.

01:15:38.000 They've arrested people.

01:15:39.000 They arrested people for starting fires.

01:15:42.000 They've arrested multiple people for starting fires.

01:15:45.000 My friend Andrew Huberman filmed people starting fires.

01:15:50.000 They were starting fires in the middle of this fire disaster because it doesn't mean it's the cause of it.

01:15:57.000 It means along the way there was a lot of arson.

01:16:00.000 Like some people were saying that, you know, oh, there's this false narrative that it was the homeless people.

01:16:05.000 Like, okay, whether they had a house or whether they didn't have a house, some people started fucking fires.

01:16:11.000 There's video footage of the three fires that are started semi-simultaneously.

01:16:17.000 That are near the Palisades and on one of the video footage It's very clear that there's a human being is like from the sky where they're filming this There's a human being that's near the fire Most likely the cause of the fire was a person who either accidentally did this or did it on purpose lit a fire So the problem is not fucking climate change.

01:16:40.000 The problem is LA is extremely vulnerable When it comes to fires, and always has been, and they've done very little to mitigate this yearly disaster problem that they have.

01:16:55.000 That's the facts.

01:16:56.000 That's the reality of it.

01:16:58.000 That's indisputable.

01:16:59.000 Do you think Gavin Newsom's going to, is this going to be the end of him, or are people going to put up with it?

01:17:05.000 I would like to think that people would wise up.

01:17:07.000 I mean, there's been a trend in California to vote in the opposite direction.

01:17:11.000 If you look at the map of 2020 versus the map of 2024, the counties that went red, like a significant number.

01:17:17.000 But the high population centers are in the trance.

01:17:22.000 San Francisco, Los Angeles, very difficult to get those people to vote anything other than blue.

01:17:27.000 And so if the people that are Democrat are giving them the exact same...

01:17:32.000 The exact same gaslighting, and they keep buying it over and over again and they still win elections, then there's no incentive for them to correct course.

01:17:41.000 So this is why.

01:17:42.000 California has been essentially blue since, except for the time where Arnold won, which is weird, right?

01:17:49.000 Because he was kind of like a moderate Republican and also famous, and that probably led to him winning.

01:17:54.000 But other than that, since Reagan, he, what did he?

01:17:59.000 He did something where he allowed people that came here... 1.00

01:18:05.000 What was the issue that Reagan did?

01:18:08.000 There was some sort of a voting issue where he allowed people from...

01:18:14.000 I think it was people that emigrated here illegally from Mexico.

01:18:18.000 There's coffee and water, whatever you'd like.

01:18:21.000 There's water in that glass right there.

01:18:23.000 But California is basically locked blue.

01:18:26.000 And the only thing that's going to change it is things like these Pacific Palisades fires, where people realize we have an incompetent government.

01:18:33.000 And if we have competent government that is right-wing, and as long as they don't infringe on civil rights and human rights and all the things that we're terrified of from right-wing extremists, as long as they don't do that, you'll probably be better off leaning in that direction.

01:18:48.000 direction, if someone's going to take a pragmatic solution, a pragmatic view of what these problems are and make meaningful change.

01:18:57.000 Like you've got to figure out what is – first of all, with the fires, it's like this all could be prevented.

01:19:04.000 What's causing the fire?

01:19:05.000 Well, all this brush.

01:19:06.000 They had record rainfall.

01:19:08.000 Record rainfall means record growth.

01:19:10.000 So you have record growth of all these grasses and brush and all this stuff.

01:19:14.000 So it's all green and lush until LA runs out of water because it stops raining for a long time and then everything turns brown and then it's tender.

01:19:23.000 It's just fire tender.

01:19:24.000 It's just...

01:19:25.000 It's a tinderbox.

01:19:27.000 When the fire chief says, if we'd had a thousand more trucks, it wouldn't have, quote, tamped this down.

01:19:34.000 But then we see...

01:19:36.000 An old man with a garden hose able to save his house, it's like, well, an individual was able to make a difference.

01:19:43.000 Right.

01:19:43.000 So then, logically, a difference could be made.

01:19:45.000 There was one guy who put lawn sprinklers on his roof.

01:19:49.000 Milk, orange juice.

01:19:51.000 I saw one guy.

01:19:53.000 So it's difficult to have those two narratives.

01:19:55.000 They contradict each other.

01:19:56.000 They do.

01:19:57.000 But, I mean...

01:19:58.000 The firefighters are saying once the fire is raging, even if they had 100 trucks, you're dealing with 100-mile-an-hour winds, and you've got this enormous...

01:20:07.000 If someone did start these fires, if they were started by arson, the way they did it was very strategic because they essentially did it upwind.

01:20:17.000 They did it like right where the wind was going to blow the fire into the city.

01:20:21.000 Like if you started that fire at the outskirts of the city, it would just burn to an area that's not populated.

01:20:27.000 They started it right where all the brush was, right where all the woods were, where the wind was at its back.

01:20:33.000 And then they started it in multiple areas so that it would come and spread out in this way that was like impossible to stop.

01:20:42.000 So once it gets big, like to this day, like what is the fire?

01:20:46.000 Yesterday I read that it was 60, I think it was 65% contained.

01:20:50.000 This is like, we're in weeks, right?

01:20:53.000 Weeks into this.

01:20:54.000 At one point in time, it was 0% contained.

01:20:57.000 It was just burning through.

01:20:58.000 And if you haven't seen, there's a great video, I'll send you this, Jamie, of an overhead view of what it looks like now.

01:21:08.000 And it's...

01:21:10.000 68% contained today.

01:21:12.000 I'm going to send you this, Jamie, because it's a helicopter that is flying over the Palisades, and you get to see, like, the extent of the devastation.

01:21:22.000 And until you see it, like, with your own eyes from the air, it's hard to understand how big the destruction is, how enormous the amount of land that was destroyed, the amount of homes that were destroyed.

01:21:36.000 And not just destroyed.

01:21:38.000 Here is, like, you can see this here.

01:21:41.000 I mean, this is crazy.

01:21:45.000 This is absolutely crazy.

01:21:49.000 And the video is larger, Jamie, if you could, like, shrink it a little.

01:21:53.000 So that way you can see the top.

01:21:55.000 So there's words at the top that block off some of it, but it goes on, like, way above that.

01:22:01.000 See that?

01:22:01.000 Like, this is an enormous piece of land.

01:22:05.000 Covered with homes that's gone.

01:22:07.000 All that's gone?

01:22:08.000 Not just gone, but now poisoned.

01:22:11.000 So now, not only are these homes burnt, but everything that was in the homes, all the plastics, all the chemicals, all the batteries, Teslas, all these different electric cars, all the electronics, all the toxic chemicals that come from the building materials, all that has now seeped into the ground.

01:22:33.000 And will eventually seep into the water.

01:22:36.000 It's going to get into the water supply.

01:22:38.000 It's probably going to get into the ocean.

01:22:40.000 It's going to wash into the ocean.

01:22:42.000 Yeah, I don't think people realize how toxic that stuff is.

01:22:45.000 Not just that.

01:22:46.000 It's in the air.

01:22:47.000 So, you know, they can say the weather quality or the air quality is good in California based on how much smog there is.

01:22:54.000 But what's in the fucking smog now?

01:22:57.000 Because this is not just automobile smog.

01:22:59.000 This is not just dry dirt kicked up by the wind, which they've always had.

01:23:04.000 The smog in Los Angeles existed before there were cars, because there was always this problem with the way the valley is shaped.

01:23:15.000 The valley just contains all this air in there, and you would get dust.

01:23:22.000 Even back before there were fucking cars or if there was anybody that was burning coal or you had fireplaces or that kind of shit, you're getting all that smoke that was always contained in that area.

01:23:33.000 It's just a bad place for air.

01:23:37.000 And so then on top of that, you've got all these homes that were burnt and all this toxic waste, all this burning plastic and burning chemicals.

01:23:47.000 Now that's all in the air and no one's discussing that.

01:23:51.000 Like, it has to be bad for you if you live near that.

01:23:55.000 All those firemen that are breathing that shit in, that's gonna have long-term health consequences for those guys.

01:24:02.000 For all those people that are dealing with all that shit, all those people that are anywhere near it, your air is air of like...

01:24:10.000 Do you know the story of the toxic burn pits from Iraq in Afghanistan? 1.00

01:24:15.000 So, during the war, when troops were on a base...

01:24:20.000 Overseas, they would take all their garbage and burn it.

01:24:24.000 So they burned it in these waste pits.

01:24:27.000 And so the wind would shift and blow through the camp.

01:24:31.000 And all these people are breathing toxic air, extremely toxic.

01:24:37.000 In fact, Biden's son died from a brain cancer that they connect to his exposure in the military.

01:24:48.000 To the toxic burn pits.

01:24:49.000 There's a whole swarm of health consequences that veterans have faced because of these toxic burn pits.

01:24:57.000 It's the dumbest fucking way to deal with garbage of all time.

01:25:01.000 Make the troops breathe it in as you burn it.

01:25:05.000 It's the same kind of thing that's happening in LA. It's the same shit.

01:25:09.000 You're breathing burnt garbage, burnt refuge, burnt buildings, burnt cars, burnt tires.

01:25:15.000 All that stuff you're breathing in.

01:25:18.000 I didn't realize how often, you don't think about like firefighters, but they're exposed to that.

01:25:23.000 All the time.

01:25:24.000 The guys on the, it's all volunteer, but the guys that, you know, in their 50s, 60s, and you're just like hacking all the time.

01:25:32.000 Yeah.

01:25:32.000 And it's like a sacrifice they make knowingly.

01:25:35.000 Yeah.

01:25:35.000 It's crazy.

01:25:37.000 The gear is never, because you can't just wash fire gear.

01:25:41.000 Right.

01:25:41.000 You've got to have it specially washed, and so there's like the kitchen and the firehouse, right?

01:25:45.000 And you can't bring the...

01:25:46.000 No gear allowed in the kitchen because it's...

01:25:48.000 But, you know, you put it on, go home.

01:25:51.000 You're supposed to shower every time, but that doesn't happen.

01:25:54.000 So it's just crazy.

01:25:56.000 Also, they're fucking exhausted.

01:25:57.000 Like, you don't even want to shower.

01:25:59.000 You just want to close your fucking eyes.

01:26:01.000 I can't imagine.

01:26:01.000 You've been working 28 hours.

01:26:03.000 You've got a couple hours of sleep before you get back out there again.

01:26:05.000 It's fucking insane.

01:26:07.000 And still, 68% contained.

01:26:09.000 Today.

01:26:11.000 What's today's date?

01:26:11.000 The 23rd?

01:26:13.000 22nd?

01:26:13.000 I read some people talk about the big campfire from a few years ago.

01:26:17.000 That containment number starts getting used as a big political tool and it'll never end up being 100%.

01:26:22.000 It'll just keep pushing the number around to talk about stuff.

01:26:26.000 It just eventually goes away.

01:26:28.000 What do you mean?

01:26:30.000 The big number for the biggest fire?

01:26:31.000 They've contained 100% of a small fire.

01:26:34.000 The biggest fire, it'll always stay at a number that's below 100%.

01:26:38.000 Well, if it's still up.

01:26:40.000 No, it's like a political tool they're saying.

01:26:42.000 The residents there just got sick of it.

01:26:43.000 They're like, this is now a political thing going back and forth.

01:26:46.000 Tell us what it is.

01:26:47.000 Where is the fire if it's not contained kind of thing.

01:26:49.000 It just becomes a thing that no one has answers for.

01:26:52.000 Right, that is a weird thing, right?

01:26:53.000 We want to put numbers on stuff.

01:26:55.000 Like today, we're like, is it 65% or is it 68% contained?

01:26:59.000 Like, what?

01:27:00.000 It's a fire.

01:27:01.000 Fire's still up.

01:27:02.000 There's still a fire right now.

01:27:05.000 January 22nd, there's still fire in Los Angeles.

01:27:08.000 It's been going on for weeks.

01:27:10.000 When did it start?

01:27:11.000 What was the date the fire started?

01:27:12.000 I was reading through something on the New York Times.

01:27:14.000 One possible thing, which doesn't sound right, but they're just going, it's possible.

01:27:17.000 In that area, someone was lighting fireworks on the night of the 1st, and there was a small fire that started, and some firemen went up to put it out, and they stayed to see if it was going to catch back up.

01:27:27.000 And five days later, they're like, is that the same fire?

01:27:30.000 Because it was in really close to the same spot.

01:27:33.000 It would be real weird if it started back up five days later.

01:27:36.000 Yeah, that doesn't really make sense.

01:27:38.000 Also, it doesn't make sense if you think about how windy it was and the fact that everything's dry.

01:27:43.000 They're saying it can go into the roots, which is...

01:27:45.000 That's where I'm just starting to hear that.

01:27:47.000 Okay, maybe.

01:27:48.000 It can.

01:27:49.000 Maybe, but five days later it starts up again as a raging inferno?

01:27:53.000 Perhaps.

01:27:54.000 Perhaps, but there is also evidence that people lit fires.

01:27:57.000 There's also people who got arrested for lighting fires.

01:28:00.000 It wouldn't surprise me, man.

01:28:01.000 Have you heard of the book Monkey Ranch Gang?

01:28:03.000 No.

01:28:04.000 Eco-terrorism, these friends living out of a van, they go around and back, originally monkey wrenching was sabotaging for environmental reasons, big equipment to fight back against that kind of thing.

01:28:19.000 I had a friend back in high school, went to this boarding school and he was really into it and that's where I learned about this book but it wouldn't surprise me if that kind of thinking carried over in someone.

01:28:30.000 Because we saw a copycat, so there's definitely people out there that have a reason.

01:28:34.000 Yeah.

01:28:35.000 Well, there's disturbed individuals in our society.

01:28:38.000 That's why we have school shooters, right?

01:28:40.000 That's why we have a lot of things that people do that's horrible, that are horrible.

01:28:45.000 And one of the things that people do is they start fires.

01:28:47.000 You know, it's a known thing.

01:28:49.000 And to pretend that it's not possible, because it doesn't...

01:28:53.000 It doesn't appeal to your narrative.

01:28:55.000 It doesn't fit with your narrative of the homeless thing.

01:28:58.000 We just have to be compassionate because these are people and there's a housing shortage and it's just housing, housing, housing.

01:29:04.000 No, you have open-air drug markets and mentally ill people and fire.

01:29:09.000 And it's possible that that's what's caused it.

01:29:13.000 Yeah, that's the thing.

01:29:18.000 There were fake firefighters that were arrested and there was also fake cops.

01:29:22.000 But I think that was, if I had to guess, it was more about stealing than anything because there was organized looting where they were breaking into homes in areas where there were people going to be abandoned.

01:29:33.000 LA, man, it's not my cup of tea, but it's tragic.

01:29:37.000 One of those firefighters has a history of arson.

01:29:39.000 That's why they're talking about this.

01:29:40.000 Oh, great.

01:29:42.000 One of the firefighters?

01:29:43.000 One of the fake firefighters.

01:29:45.000 Oh, yeah.

01:29:45.000 There you go.

01:29:47.000 One of them who has a criminal history of arson.

01:29:49.000 Gee, what's the odds?

01:29:52.000 Well, he definitely didn't do it again.

01:29:53.000 He learned his lesson, Jamie.

01:29:54.000 A fake firetruck?

01:29:55.000 A pair of fake firefighters from Oregon.

01:29:58.000 Where'd he get a fake firetruck?

01:30:00.000 Yeah, he's, like, dedicated.

01:30:02.000 He's like the Michael Jordan of fake firefighters.

01:30:04.000 These are like a million bucks.

01:30:05.000 He got a used one.

01:30:07.000 Did you see the thing in L.A. where they had the lot where they showed all of the fire trucks that were out of service?

01:30:14.000 No.

01:30:14.000 Hundreds.

01:30:15.000 Oh, they're bringing them back in service?

01:30:17.000 No, no, no.

01:30:17.000 They were broken down.

01:30:19.000 They hadn't bothered fixing them.

01:30:20.000 So a journalist got to the lot and was filming from the outside.

01:30:24.000 I think Schellenberger had it on his Twitter page.

01:30:27.000 But a journalist got...

01:30:29.000 To this lot where these fire trucks were, where they were supposed to be repaired.

01:30:34.000 There was hundreds that weren't repaired.

01:30:36.000 Like, just a fucking huge parking lot.

01:30:39.000 Jeez.

01:30:41.000 75 Los Angeles fire trucks wait for repairs as wildfires rage while city spends $1.3 billion on the homeless.

01:30:49.000 This is New York Post.

01:30:50.000 I heard it was more than 75. This guy had a film of it and showed, and it looked like a shit ton of trucks.

01:30:59.000 That weren't fixed.

01:31:01.000 You should have fixed those.

01:31:02.000 You would have had more trucks.

01:31:04.000 The reason is going to be, well, we're backed up.

01:31:06.000 It takes so long.

01:31:06.000 To get a fire truck even ordered, it takes about a year.

01:31:11.000 God.

01:31:13.000 I mean, maybe that could work where there's very few fires and it's just essentially home fires.

01:31:18.000 We're fine where we are.

01:31:19.000 Yeah, but it rains where you are, too.

01:31:22.000 California, it does not fucking rain for long stretches of time.

01:31:26.000 I think...

01:31:27.000 California had gone eight months without rain when these fires started.

01:31:31.000 This is common.

01:31:32.000 This is why this climate change, it's climate change.

01:31:36.000 This is not a change in the climate.

01:31:38.000 This is the climate of California.

01:31:40.000 You see it from that 1961 video.

01:31:42.000 You see it from when I was evacuated.

01:31:44.000 Three times I was evacuated.

01:31:46.000 The houses in front of my old house burnt to the ground in 2018. Both of them.

01:31:52.000 When you were talking about it in that clip that goes around, it's like there's nothing.

01:31:57.000 Exactly.

01:31:57.000 If the right wind, it's going.

01:31:59.000 This firefighter told me that when we were filming Fear Factor.

01:32:02.000 He freaked me out.

01:32:03.000 He said, it's just going to take the right wind.

01:32:05.000 He goes, we just get lucky.

01:32:07.000 So is there any preparation that could have?

01:32:09.000 Yeah, you got to get rid of all the brush.

01:32:11.000 Okay.

01:32:12.000 Number one.

01:32:13.000 You got to get rid of all the stuff that starts fire.

01:32:15.000 That's possible to do.

01:32:17.000 That's not impossible.

01:32:18.000 That's not like putting a person on Venus.

01:32:21.000 This is like something that could be done.

01:32:23.000 Like, if you have enough money for all that, you've spent $24 billion on the homeless crisis, didn't put a dent in it, you could have fixed the brush.

01:32:31.000 You could have fixed that reservoir that was empty.

01:32:35.000 Giant 11 million gallon reservoir of water completely dry.

01:32:40.000 You could have fixed that.

01:32:42.000 You could have saved homes.

01:32:43.000 Maybe you wouldn't have saved all of them.

01:32:44.000 You could have saved a lot.

01:32:46.000 You could have saved people's lives.

01:32:48.000 And they didn't.

01:32:49.000 And it was incompetent.

01:32:50.000 And it was poor planning.

01:32:51.000 And it was, you know, they had a lot of ideas that weren't good.

01:32:57.000 They had a lot of...

01:32:59.000 Things that they paid attention to and things they focused on that weren't important.

01:33:03.000 What was really important is preventing these kind of reoccurring disasters, continuously reoccurring disasters.

01:33:12.000 I've seen a bunch of them.

01:33:14.000 Like I said, I was evacuated multiple times, but I've seen multiple other fires that I wasn't evacuated from that were huge in all sorts of areas around LA. It's dry as fuck.

01:33:27.000 One of the big ones that we experienced was, it was like we were out filming in, like, out in the Tachapi area.

01:33:36.000 Like, we're near Tohono Ranch.

01:33:38.000 We were filming this thing at this ranch.

01:33:40.000 And we had to cut filming short.

01:33:43.000 And when we were driving home, the entire right side of the highway for, like...

01:33:48.000 Almost an hour was on fire as I was driving home.

01:33:52.000 So you're driving.

01:33:53.000 Ash is falling from the sky like snow.

01:33:55.000 And the whole time you're driving, it's apocalyptic.

01:33:58.000 The whole right side of the highway is in flames.

01:34:01.000 I saw a clip of that.

01:34:01.000 It was surreal.

01:34:03.000 So this has always been a problem with L.A. So these climate change kooks, these left-wing kooks that want to put everything into these, like, very binary categories.

01:34:14.000 Like, this is because the Republicans refuse to agree to climate change and call climate change as a hoax.

01:34:21.000 This is a climate change...

01:34:22.000 No.

01:34:23.000 This is LA. This is the climate of LA. Is this the firetrucks?

01:34:30.000 Oh, he probably posted it too.

01:34:31.000 Quite a few people on Twitter posted it.

01:34:33.000 But there was all these fire trucks that were in this lot.

01:34:39.000 This isn't the video that I saw.

01:34:41.000 I think multiple people posted them.

01:34:43.000 But they're all out of commission.

01:34:44.000 They're all just sitting there.

01:34:46.000 And, you know, obviously they could have used them.

01:34:49.000 But that's only part of the problem.

01:34:50.000 Part of the problem is planning correctly.

01:34:52.000 Part of the problem is, you know, there wasn't enough water for the fire hydrants.

01:34:56.000 So the fire hydrants went dry.

01:34:59.000 The whole thing's nuts.

01:35:01.000 And when Trump talked about it on the podcast, he was eerily accurate.

01:35:05.000 He was eerily accurate as to, you know, what the problem was, and he offered a solution.

01:35:11.000 And to save the smelt, they didn't want to do the solution.

01:35:16.000 Well, this department with Elon, like, you can just imagine what Elon could do with, like, the firetruck problem.

01:35:21.000 Yeah.

01:35:21.000 But he can't do everything.

01:35:23.000 Well, you can't do everything with states, right?

01:35:24.000 Because states have states' rights.

01:35:27.000 One of the things, they arrest this one guy for arson, and they couldn't necessarily prove that he was an arsonist.

01:35:37.000 One guy they found with an actual blowtorch.

01:35:41.000 They couldn't prove that he lit the fires with the blowtorch.

01:35:44.000 But this guy had been arrested multiple times, including for vandalism and all sorts of other things.

01:35:50.000 And I believe assault.

01:35:54.000 And ICE wanted to deport him.

01:35:56.000 But the California Sanctuary State law, the way it's set up, they weren't allowed to deport this guy.

01:36:03.000 So they're just going to let him go.

01:36:04.000 He had been arrested eight times, this person, in like, you know, a short amount of time.

01:36:09.000 So it's like a real problem person.

01:36:11.000 And they were like, hey, maybe this guy shouldn't be in the fucking country lighting things on fire.

01:36:14.000 And they're like, no, we have sanctuary.

01:36:17.000 He's still here.

01:36:18.000 I don't know.

01:36:18.000 I don't know what the latest is.

01:36:20.000 I try not to pay too much attention.

01:36:21.000 I'll go crazy.

01:36:23.000 But California is deep in the trance.

01:36:26.000 Deep.

01:36:27.000 And I think the only thing that's going to snap people out of it is something like this, where they realize like, oh my god, these people are completely incompetent.

01:36:35.000 It used to be the homeless situation was a little bit of a wake-up call.

01:36:38.000 This is like next level.

01:36:40.000 This is like next level incompetence wake-up call.

01:36:43.000 And so I'm hoping that someone can come along that's a reasonable conservative person that can shift things in California, like appeal to people's concerns when it comes to social issues, you know, women's rights, gay rights, the things that people are terrified of when it comes to right wing.

01:37:02.000 You know, when you think about like far right fascist governments that are going to clamp down on people's rights, like what we're really worried about is disenfranchised people and marginalized groups and people that are more.

01:37:13.000 We're maligned, right?

01:37:14.000 So if someone can just like appeal to that.

01:37:17.000 So like we have no desire to stop gay marriage.

01:37:20.000 We have no desire to limit women's reproductive rights.

01:37:24.000 But what we do want to do is make a more fiscally sound city and have more conservative policies in terms of what are we spending our money on and what are the results?

01:37:34.000 You can't just say, oh, we work for a homeless initiative.

01:37:37.000 And so, oh, well, you got a blank check.

01:37:39.000 Do whatever you want to do.

01:37:40.000 It should be like, what have you done?

01:37:43.000 How have you solved the problem?

01:37:45.000 Hey, look, we spent $24 billion and homelessness went up by a significant amount.

01:37:51.000 Tens of thousands of new homeless people while we spent $24 billion.

01:37:56.000 This is not effective.

01:37:57.000 So whatever you guys are doing, you're shitty at it.

01:37:59.000 So we don't want you doing it anymore.

01:38:01.000 We're going to bring in someone who has some more...

01:38:04.000 Something that's going to progress the idea better.

01:38:07.000 Someone who's going to fix this problem better.

01:38:09.000 Someone's got a more pragmatic solution.

01:38:11.000 If they could do that, but they have to appeal to people that are deep blue.

01:38:17.000 They're deep blue.

01:38:18.000 They're blue no matter who.

01:38:20.000 And the problem with California is very unique and more unique than New York in that California, the entire city, is established around the entertainment industry.

01:38:32.000 And it's established around the dream.

01:38:34.000 If you go to Los Angeles, you can make it.

01:38:37.000 Well, in order to go to Los Angeles and make it, if you're an actor, you have to audition.

01:38:42.000 And when you're auditioning, you're auditioning to people that almost universally have a very specific political ideology.

01:38:50.000 You can't be a part of the group.

01:38:53.000 You can't be a part of the team if you're a right-wing Christian Republican and you're making films.

01:38:57.000 That doesn't exist.

01:38:58.000 You got like Mel Gibson and a few outliers.

01:39:01.000 That's it.

01:39:01.000 Clint Eastwood, a few outliers.

01:39:03.000 For the most part, if you are an actor and you want to work in Hollywood, and by the way, Mel Gibson and all those guys will hire left-wing people.

01:39:11.000 These people will not hire right-wing people.

01:39:14.000 So you see everyone sort of morph their personality and morph their political ideology and their social ideology around what's going to get them picked.

01:39:25.000 Because when you're an actor, you have to get picked.

01:39:28.000 So if you and I go for a part, and there's a bunch of other people going for a part, and we're all similarly qualified in terms of the look that this part is looking for, a lot of it is determined about whether they like you.

01:39:41.000 And Hollywood runs off the blacklisting idea.

01:39:43.000 Oh, yeah.

01:39:44.000 If you go against your union.

01:39:47.000 That's how unions have power. 1.00

01:39:49.000 Yes.

01:39:50.000 If you cross the picket line, you're going to be blacklisted.

01:39:52.000 And you'd be ostracized, and that has real consequences in L.A. because people don't realize what...

01:39:56.000 I always describe it when I'm teaching that class on filmmaking.

01:40:00.000 Hollywood is the very definition of a rigged game.

01:40:03.000 Yes, it's a rigged game.

01:40:04.000 They can shut you out.

01:40:05.000 And so this is the underlying philosophy of the entire city.

01:40:12.000 Even though there's only a certain amount of people that are actors in LA, there's a lot of people that wanted to be actors.

01:40:19.000 And there's a lot of people that want to be famous.

01:40:22.000 And so they get their fame from their small social media.

01:40:27.000 They get like a little...

01:40:28.000 Adrenaline and dopamine drip off of social media likes.

01:40:33.000 And maybe my TikTok can go viral.

01:40:35.000 And then they get a little fame from that.

01:40:37.000 There's a bunch of fame seekers.

01:40:39.000 All those people are locked into this cult-like thinking.

01:40:43.000 So it's very difficult to get them out of that.

01:40:48.000 The technology, I think, is going to revolutionize.

01:40:52.000 We're on the precipice of this.

01:40:53.000 We were talking about Heath Ledger earlier.

01:40:55.000 What happened to...

01:40:56.000 Those kind of independent movies that I remember being in high school before going into film school and watching those Monsters Ball, Candy, these small, independent movies that made you feel like they were just made for you.

01:41:12.000 They weren't like Marvel or Disney, right?

01:41:15.000 And we don't see those anymore because everything's changing in the industry for multiple reasons.

01:41:22.000 The strikes had a lot to do with it, I think.

01:41:24.000 It's this strange paradox where you have more of an ability to reach an audience than ever before, but there's fewer writing positions, movies being made.

01:41:32.000 There's this hiring shortage, but cameras more accessible than ever.

01:41:39.000 You were talking about the potential for someone to come along.

01:41:43.000 I mean, I think it's only a matter of time until it does happen.

01:41:47.000 The Daily Wire is trying kind of with Pendragon Cycle.

01:41:50.000 What's that?

01:41:51.000 They were doing an Arthurian legend.

01:41:54.000 Their attempted Game of Thrones.

01:41:56.000 Which would be, if it were to land, could be massive.

01:42:01.000 My theory is it could be the tipping point.

01:42:03.000 Because it's going non...

01:42:05.000 My understanding is it's non-union.

01:42:07.000 You have Angel Studios and they're kind of trying to compete.

01:42:11.000 But we've never had an alternative to the union model.

01:42:14.000 The traditional production model.

01:42:15.000 Which drives up production costs.

01:42:17.000 Because there's nothing stopping you from...

01:42:19.000 Getting a camera and going out there and doing it, except for the rigged game, which says, well, we're going to block you.

01:42:23.000 We won't distribute your movie.

01:42:24.000 There's all these different parameters.

01:42:26.000 You're not SAG-sanctioned, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

01:42:28.000 If Daily Wire could land the Pendragon cycle and it were to be a solid enough story on the equivalence of, like, Game of Thrones, it could change so much.

01:42:39.000 But there's the recent Brett Cooper stuff that's going on.

01:42:42.000 It's just so much Brett Cooper leaving the Daily Wire.

01:42:45.000 What's that story?

01:42:47.000 She's no longer at the Daily Wire, the comment section.

01:42:50.000 You know Brett Cooper, she created the comment section at the Daily Wire.

01:42:53.000 The comment section?

01:42:55.000 The comments section.

01:42:57.000 Are you aware of this, Jamie?

01:42:58.000 A little bit.

01:42:59.000 A little bit, yeah, and then they hired someone else to host it.

01:43:02.000 Yeah, I'll break it down.

01:43:03.000 What happened?

01:43:05.000 She developed, they hired her.

01:43:07.000 We want you to start this YouTube channel for Gen Z. We want it to feel like you're a streamer. 0.68

01:43:13.000 Let's hear what she says.

01:43:14.000 Let's rewind that shit.

01:43:15.000 Let's hear what she has to say.

01:43:17.000 Just a little bit.

01:43:21.000 Hey guys.

01:43:21.000 Some of you have heard the rumors online and the rumors are mostly true.

01:43:25.000 Today, December 10th, will be my last day hosting the comment section and working for The Daily Wire.

01:43:29.000 It is not true that I am being forced out.

01:43:31.000 It was my own choice to leave.

01:43:33.000 And believe me, this is bittersweet.

01:43:35.000 I have had the most unbelievable three years helping to craft the show.

01:43:43.000 And I'm grateful that we spent this time together.

01:43:51.000 And I'm grateful that The Daily Wire gave us a platform to grow this community.

01:43:54.000 But at this point in my life, I am ready to take on a new direction, both personally and professionally.

01:43:59.000 This means new challenges and new endeavors, which I will share with you soon.

01:44:03.000 As for this show, the comment section will continue with The Daily Wire.

01:44:06.000 My producer, Regan, is taking over as host of the comment section, and I wish her and The Daily Wire all the best.

01:44:11.000 We have had three great years, and I am proud of what we've accomplished together.

01:44:15.000 Leaving this show and the platforms that we've built is hard, but I'm very excited for what's to come.

01:44:20.000 Knowing that we have brought so many people together...

01:44:22.000 Okay, pause this.

01:44:23.000 I'm not hearing this.

01:44:24.000 So what I'm not hearing is, like, what caused...

01:44:27.000 No one knows exactly.

01:44:29.000 There's speculation, because the girl who took the place was her best... 1.00

01:44:33.000 Her maid of honor in her wedding, like best friend, was the producer of the show, would be like, Jamie, taking your place. 0.98

01:44:38.000 Except obviously not, you know.

01:44:40.000 But that's what's happened now.

01:44:42.000 And it's nose-dived.

01:44:44.000 It's pulling, like it used to pull like half a million views per video.

01:44:47.000 It's pulling 40,000 now.

01:44:49.000 And there was this theory that they had trained Reagan with, they hired an acting coach because her mannerisms were the exact same, hand movements, everything.

01:44:59.000 We were talking about nonverbal communication, the importance of that.

01:45:02.000 And it was eerie.

01:45:06.000 She has started a YouTube channel that's already amassed half a million.

01:45:09.000 She hasn't posted any videos.

01:45:10.000 So there's a lot of loyalists to her. 1.00

01:45:12.000 But she grew this channel to over 4 million people in the last three years, as you were just hearing.

01:45:17.000 And she starred in the Pendragon cycle.

01:45:19.000 She used to act. 0.97

01:45:20.000 What was the problem, though?

01:45:21.000 We don't know.

01:45:22.000 We don't know.

01:45:23.000 There's speculation that she... 0.99

01:45:25.000 It exploded the channel.

01:45:27.000 So she... 0.98

01:45:28.000 If we're applying critical thinking to this, it's more than likely that she approached Jeremy Boring at Daily Wire.

01:45:33.000 He's like, look guys, I'd like to be paid more than what I'm making because I'm pulling more views than anybody at the Daily Wire.

01:45:40.000 Possibly.

01:45:41.000 She was living on this farm with a commute.

01:45:44.000 She was a little fresher with that.

01:45:45.000 Maybe it's, she wanted to, there's speculation she wanted to run her show kind of from her house. 0.93

01:45:52.000 But no one knows exactly.

01:45:54.000 There's NDAs and everything.

01:45:57.000 It's hard when someone is a part of a channel and then their show blows up and they realize, like, oh, I could have done this on my own, which is the reality.

01:46:07.000 The reality is, like, being a part of a channel, like, it doesn't really get you much, obviously, because the new show only has 40,000 views, right?

01:46:14.000 True, true.

01:46:15.000 But Jeremy Boring's response would be, yeah, but we throw the Daily Wire's advertising money behind these people.

01:46:21.000 We spend a lot in advertising.

01:46:22.000 We lose a lot of money before we make any money.

01:46:24.000 Yeah, but from what shows?

01:46:25.000 Not the shows that are successful.

01:46:27.000 The shows that are successful are successful.

01:46:30.000 That's like the record business version of arithmetic.

01:46:36.000 You can't buy the elusive intangible.

01:46:38.000 Yeah, the record business is notoriously horrible with that.

01:46:43.000 So they have a model where when they sign an artist, the artist gets an advance, right?

01:46:50.000 And then the advance, you're...

01:46:53.000 You're responsible for so much.

01:46:55.000 You're responsible for advertising.

01:46:58.000 They take into account a bunch of artists they spend money on that doesn't create money.

01:47:03.000 So they have all this Hollywood math that they apply.

01:47:08.000 Hollywood accounting.

01:47:09.000 And at the end of it, they make more than you, and you make almost nothing.

01:47:12.000 So that's very likely a possibility.

01:47:14.000 And they throw as much shit against the wall as possible.

01:47:17.000 Think of a record company, you know, they might fund a bunch of different artists.

01:47:22.000 Prudhoe distribution.

01:47:23.000 Yeah, and then only one or two of them take off, but those one or two of them, that's Prince, and he's getting fucked.

01:47:28.000 And meanwhile, he's a giant superstar.

01:47:30.000 Like, Prince had to change his name.

01:47:32.000 He's like, okay, well, you own Prince?

01:47:34.000 You guys own, okay, I'm this now.

01:47:36.000 I'm a fucking squiggly line.

01:47:38.000 That's what he did.

01:47:39.000 So it was the artist formerly known as Prince.

01:47:41.000 Do you know that?

01:47:43.000 Prince, for a while, when he was in...

01:47:45.000 Was it Warner Brothers?

01:47:47.000 Whoever he was in dispute with.

01:47:48.000 He changed his name to a symbol.

01:47:51.000 And that was how he could still perform.

01:47:53.000 It's like, yeah, you don't own this, bitch. 1.00

01:47:54.000 And there's probably a non-compete clause.

01:47:57.000 That's just why she hasn't posted anything yet.

01:47:59.000 Crazy.

01:48:00.000 But, you know, that's what you get if you want the shortcut, right?

01:48:04.000 The shortcut is being a part of a channel.

01:48:07.000 You know, I'm going to connect myself to a channel and, you know, I'm going to agree to give them X amount percentage of what I do.

01:48:15.000 It's really not a smart way to do it today, and it's not necessary.

01:48:18.000 Because today, all you have to do is have a camera and a backdrop and just start recording.

01:48:23.000 And organically, if your content is good, your thing can grow, and then it's yours.

01:48:28.000 It's all yours.

01:48:29.000 And then getting advertising is not hard.

01:48:32.000 If you're successful, you get an agent.

01:48:34.000 You get an advertising agent, and they bring you MeUndies ads and all kinds of shit.

01:48:38.000 Next thing you know, you're making money.

01:48:39.000 You're making money off your channel.

01:48:40.000 And then your channel grows organically.

01:48:42.000 And then you don't have to deal with executives telling you what kind of guests you should have on or what topics you should avoid or what things you should accentuate.

01:48:51.000 We would like you to talk about this today.

01:48:54.000 All that stuff is...

01:48:56.000 And then as you get more and more famous from your work, you realize, no, the people like me.

01:49:01.000 This is the reason why this show is going on, and I've got to pay these assholes 60% of everything I'm making.

01:49:08.000 And this is dumb.

01:49:09.000 If I was on YouTube independently, I would be rich right now.

01:49:12.000 I'd be making good money.

01:49:13.000 I'd have a nice car.

01:49:14.000 And instead, I'm getting a salary.

01:49:15.000 And my salary is not really representative of how much income I'm bringing into the company.

01:49:20.000 I mean, you've got someone like Jordan Peterson who did partner with the same company.

01:49:25.000 Maybe that allows him to do more, like, traveling over, what did they do, like, the, you know, Jerusalem series?

01:49:32.000 Right, but I bet he got a better deal.

01:49:33.000 First of all, it was Jordan Peterson.

01:49:35.000 He's already famous, you know, and, like, they would throw money at him.

01:49:39.000 You know, like, there was that famous thing with Stephen Crowder, where Stephen Crowder sort of, yeah.

01:49:43.000 People were using that in context of this thing, this kind of...

01:49:46.000 Yeah, and the Crowder thing was kind of weird because he recorded a conversation, a private conversation that he had.

01:49:52.000 Yeah.

01:49:53.000 But the...

01:49:53.000 The whole thing behind it is you're getting money to agree to be a part of a company.

01:49:59.000 And the only reason why they would be willing to give you that money is if they're going to make money.

01:50:02.000 They're taking a chance.

01:50:05.000 I went through a similar thing with Spotify, but Spotify was great.

01:50:08.000 There was no issues at all.

01:50:10.000 It was like, we think this show is really valuable.

01:50:13.000 We're going to give you a lot of money to be exclusive on Spotify.

01:50:15.000 And just, that's it.

01:50:17.000 Pretty simple.

01:50:18.000 No input at all in terms of who I should have on or what I should talk about.

01:50:24.000 There was nothing.

01:50:26.000 There was a few hiccups during the COVID days where they were experiencing so many attacks.

01:50:32.000 They were getting strong pressure to try to remove the podcast.

01:50:37.000 And they didn't buckle.

01:50:39.000 They hung in there.

01:50:40.000 Good for them.

01:50:41.000 Yeah, good for them.

01:50:42.000 I'm very loyal to them because of that.

01:50:44.000 Because what they did was...

01:50:45.000 Pretty extraordinary.

01:50:47.000 A lot of people would have caved.

01:50:48.000 And they did not cave.

01:50:50.000 But you see how that now is going to...

01:50:53.000 They've already filmed Pendragon Cycle, this whole thing, this Arthurian.

01:50:57.000 So it's probably going to impact.

01:50:58.000 Well, I hope it's good.

01:51:00.000 Me too.

01:51:01.000 The thing is, like, who's writing it?

01:51:04.000 How good are the people that are writing it?

01:51:06.000 How good is the story?

01:51:08.000 It's all about the story.

01:51:09.000 Yeah, it's all about the story.

01:51:10.000 It's all about how good is it.

01:51:13.000 I was thinking about that on the airplane.

01:51:19.000 The logic of story.

01:51:20.000 Trying to connect all these dots and everything.

01:51:23.000 I think there is an inherent...

01:51:27.000 There are patterns.

01:51:28.000 Like I was talking about mathematics.

01:51:29.000 How I can't think about...

01:51:32.000 I need a visual.

01:51:35.000 I think when you're writing a movie, when it clicks into place, you can feel it.

01:51:41.000 And they call it cracking the story.

01:51:43.000 And they hire writers to crack the story, almost like it's a math problem.

01:51:47.000 So to me, that indicates that there's this fabric, this is how I think about it, there's this fabric of reality that stories tap into that you're trying to connect to, so you feel it when it clicks in, and you're almost, when it is, when it does click and you have that hook, you're like, this is the reason to make...

01:52:06.000 Why this movie is interesting.

01:52:09.000 Right, right, right.

01:52:10.000 Then you're almost making it for the sake of the story, not the audience.

01:52:13.000 But the audience will come as a consequence.

01:52:15.000 Yeah.

01:52:16.000 As opposed to today, where people think they can make movies for the audience, like Disney.

01:52:20.000 But they're discarding the very fabric of the reality of these stories.

01:52:24.000 They're thinking, well, we can change Snow White.

01:52:26.000 Right.

01:52:27.000 And then that screws them up.

01:52:28.000 Yeah, well, it's also people really resistant to that now.

01:52:32.000 They're getting so upset about it.

01:52:34.000 They don't want you to force feed them some sort of activist version of a story.

01:52:41.000 They just want stories.

01:52:43.000 They want the thing where, you know, you're saying like, you get it.

01:52:47.000 Like, oh, we found it.

01:52:48.000 This is the hook.

01:52:49.000 This is the meat of the story.

01:52:51.000 This is the exciting part.

01:52:52.000 This is the thing that resonates with people.

01:52:54.000 That's why it's so frustrating when you go to a movie and that never happens.

01:52:57.000 You never get hooked in.

01:52:58.000 Yeah, because you can take the same story and tell it different ways.

01:53:04.000 Logically, there's one ideal way.

01:53:06.000 You're never going to quite get there.

01:53:07.000 Right.

01:53:07.000 Because I was watching Beautiful Mind on the airplane, which is, I think, my favorite movie.

01:53:12.000 I'm trying to think of one that's better.

01:53:13.000 It's just...

01:53:14.000 Amazing movie.

01:53:15.000 Yeah.

01:53:16.000 Yeah.

01:53:17.000 That movie nailed it.

01:53:18.000 Yeah.

01:53:18.000 They nailed it.

01:53:19.000 So maybe that's why I'm thinking so much about, like, math and everything.

01:53:22.000 Well, there's kind of a math to it, right?

01:53:24.000 That's my point.

01:53:25.000 Yeah.

01:53:26.000 Yeah.

01:53:26.000 And then Dunkirk.

01:53:28.000 All right.

01:53:28.000 So this blew my mind.

01:53:30.000 So the golden ratio.

01:53:31.000 It can be found in music, movies, everything.

01:53:34.000 Then someone should be on your arm.

01:53:35.000 This is the golden ratio, 1 to 1.6.

01:53:39.000 Then from here, 1 to 1.6.

01:53:43.000 In your hand, 1 to 1.6.

01:53:46.000 Your finger to the knuckle, 1 to 1.6.

01:53:49.000 Now if you break down what Nolan did in Dunkirk, this is probably getting too nerdy and everything.

01:53:56.000 He took three different storylines, did what he does with the shepherd tone.

01:54:01.000 And air, land, and sea.

01:54:05.000 Land is a, the story takes place over a week.

01:54:10.000 Air, an hour, sea, a day.

01:54:15.000 And then he does what he does with the Shepard tone, which is in Batman and all of his movies.

01:54:20.000 It's an ascending tone, like a barbershop spiral that is infinite.

01:54:25.000 Ryu, the first sound is like crescendo and then it fades out and the middle one is consistent and the top one is going down and it sounds to the human ear infinite.

01:54:35.000 He took that which he's used in the Batman's bike, the music he's used in the prestige in most of his movies.

01:54:43.000 If you listen to Dunkirk, you hear this sound, and it's just increasing tension, and you don't even notice it almost.

01:54:48.000 It's because it never reaches a crescendo, so you feel like something's off, but you never quite get there.

01:54:54.000 He then takes that and structures the frickin' story as a shepherd tone to the point where, at the very end, and you are in that frickin', the golden ratio, so this is the meat of the movie, and that final hour of air...

01:55:11.000 The three stories converge.

01:55:12.000 There's a mathematical formula to why.

01:55:15.000 It's not a coincidence.

01:55:16.000 And that was what separates him.

01:55:19.000 So there's a math...

01:55:20.000 Math isn't the right word.

01:55:21.000 He seems uniquely uninfluenced by pop culture, too.

01:55:25.000 True.

01:55:26.000 He's...

01:55:26.000 I think he famously doesn't have email.

01:55:28.000 He's one of those guys who doesn't have a phone, doesn't have email, and obviously incredibly brilliant person.

01:55:35.000 So he's...

01:55:37.000 Obviously aware of email, he's aware of phones, but I think he's probably one of those guys who goes, you know what, the more that's coming in that's influencing me, it's gonna fuck with my ability to have a vision, a unique personal vision based on what I know resonates with people and what I know resonates with me and how to make a story that really works.

01:55:58.000 Yeah, I think you're writing for yourself.

01:56:01.000 You should treat yourself like, that's what I do with my YouTube stuff.

01:56:06.000 You don't try and do it for annoyance.

01:56:08.000 Well, you do it for the thing.

01:56:10.000 You make the thing the best thing it can be.

01:56:12.000 Yeah, which is what you want to see.

01:56:13.000 How do you judge it?

01:56:15.000 How do you know if it's good or not, right?

01:56:16.000 It's because of what I would want to see.

01:56:18.000 I'm going to try and make it as good as what I would want to see.

01:56:20.000 Right.

01:56:22.000 Yeah.

01:56:24.000 It's a fascinating medium, right?

01:56:29.000 Because now it's also being challenged by these shows that are essentially long movies, like Ozark.

01:56:36.000 Ozark's a long movie.

01:56:38.000 And you can get so much on The Sopranos.

01:56:41.000 You get so much more into depth with the characters and the interactions and everything that's below the boat.

01:56:48.000 Yeah.

01:56:48.000 There's so much more when you have six seasons or something.

01:56:51.000 Yeah, I heard you talking to Tarantino about that.

01:56:53.000 Yeah.

01:56:54.000 Well, he was talking, he disparagingly talked about Yellowstone being a soap opera.

01:56:57.000 But he also talked about Homeland.

01:57:01.000 About Homeland was an exception to that because it was essentially this amazing moment at the end of the first season.

01:57:07.000 Yeah.

01:57:08.000 Where the show is like a, Homeland first season was incredible.

01:57:12.000 And it is like a movie.

01:57:14.000 It's really good.

01:57:15.000 It's really well made.

01:57:16.000 And at the end of it, you're like, wow, this is a fucking incredible piece of just artwork.

01:57:22.000 Have you seen Taylor Sheridan's new show, Landman?

01:57:25.000 I watched one episode.

01:57:26.000 I haven't seen it all yet.

01:57:27.000 It takes a bit to get into it, but...

01:57:30.000 He's doing something that no one else is doing.

01:57:32.000 I was a little thrown off by the lady who's playing his daughter because she's clearly like 30 years old. 1.00

01:57:37.000 And I'm like, how are you telling me she's 17?

01:57:39.000 It gets worse with that.

01:57:41.000 But that's crazy.

01:57:42.000 Like, that girl looks like she's got to be 25 years old at least. 0.98

01:57:45.000 You think?

01:57:45.000 Well, let's find out.

01:57:47.000 Yeah, no, I know she is.

01:57:49.000 We looked at it.

01:57:49.000 From a producer's perspective, yeah, you're not going to hire a frickin' 18. You're going to hire someone over 18 for labor laws, for sure.

01:57:55.000 Well, how about to hire someone that's 18?

01:57:58.000 19, so then you can get around the labor.

01:58:01.000 Okay, even 18, 19. At least she looks like she could be 17. Yeah, that's her.

01:58:07.000 27. Dang.

01:58:08.000 Okay.

01:58:08.000 You got it.

01:58:09.000 27. Alright, you nailed it.

01:58:11.000 Beautiful lady, but looks like a lady. 1.00

01:58:13.000 Looks like a beautiful woman.

01:58:15.000 Does not look like a high school kid.

01:58:17.000 Good point.

01:58:18.000 And so, when you're seeing that, it throws you off immediately.

01:58:21.000 Like, what are you doing here?

01:58:22.000 Touche.

01:58:23.000 This is nuts.

01:58:24.000 It just doesn't make any sense.

01:58:26.000 I'm not saying she looks bad at all.

01:58:28.000 She looks great.

01:58:29.000 But she looks like a mature woman.

01:58:30.000 She doesn't look like a young child.

01:58:33.000 So when he's got this dynamic or he's dealing with this wild, rebellious teenage daughter, and you're like, hey, bro, she's lying.

01:58:43.000 When's the last time you saw her?

01:58:44.000 That might not be the same person.

01:58:46.000 Billy Bob's hilarious, though.

01:58:47.000 He's great.

01:58:48.000 He's fucking phenomenal.

01:58:49.000 He has some great rants about climate change and oil.

01:58:51.000 He's a phenomenal actor.

01:58:53.000 Well, that's the other thing about climate change.

01:58:55.000 If you really think that it's oil is the problem of climate change, well, you better change your whole fucking life.

01:59:00.000 Is that what he says?

01:59:03.000 Everything in your goddamn life is made with oil.

01:59:05.000 Everything in your hair, everything in your car, everything in your phone, everything in your fucking life is made with oil.

01:59:12.000 And you're reading Elon's biography on the airplane, but do you think he could get the solution with the battery walls and the battery roof?

01:59:25.000 Could that work?

01:59:26.000 I don't know.

01:59:27.000 It may work, but you're still dealing with some kind of pollution from brake dust.

01:59:34.000 We actually pulled this up recently.

01:59:37.000 We were talking about it was an enormous percent of more pollutants are released into the atmosphere because of electric cars.

01:59:46.000 Than combustion engines because of brake dust.

01:59:49.000 So electric cars.

01:59:51.000 The one thing good about electric cars is specifically Teslas.

01:59:55.000 Teslas have regenerative braking.

01:59:57.000 So when I drive my Tesla, oftentimes I don't even have to hit the brakes because I just let off the gas when I'm getting close to an intersection.

02:00:04.000 I gently tap the brakes when I get close to the line where the red light is.

02:00:08.000 But when you're driving normally, it's like one foot driving.

02:00:11.000 The brakes work, but you don't have to use them.

02:00:13.000 Because when you let off the brakes, or let off the gas rather, the car slows itself.

02:00:18.000 And it slows, it doesn't coast.

02:00:20.000 Like you can't just hit 60 miles an hour and then let your foot off the gas and it'll just kind of cruise along.

02:00:26.000 It doesn't do that.

02:00:27.000 It slows down, like considerably.

02:00:30.000 Because it's regenerating electricity through this regenerative braking aspect of it.

02:00:35.000 So that probably has less brake dust than other electric cars.

02:00:42.000 But, you know, there's electric cars that you'll drive, like, if you drive, like, the Porsche Taycan.

02:00:47.000 It's an amazing electric car.

02:00:48.000 It doesn't have that regenerative braking thing, or at least maybe it's a setting.

02:00:53.000 You know, the car that I was in didn't have it turned on.

02:00:55.000 But when you let off the gas, it just coasts like a regular car.

02:00:58.000 So those cars are much heavier.

02:01:01.000 Than regular cars.

02:01:02.000 Much heavier.

02:01:03.000 And there's a problem with guardrails because of that.

02:01:05.000 So guardrails are designed for a car that's a specific weight.

02:01:09.000 And, you know, most cars weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,000, 5,000 pounds.

02:01:15.000 But when you add batteries, so if you have a car that's filled with enormous amounts of batteries, that car is a lot heavier than a regular car.

02:01:26.000 And some of those cars just go right through those guardrails.

02:01:29.000 Whee! 1.00

02:01:30.000 Too much mass.

02:01:33.000 So you have more brake dust that gets into the air because you have to slow down this much larger, heavier vehicle or much more mass.

02:01:43.000 And when you're doing that, you're generating more brake dust.

02:01:46.000 And the only solution to that, we talked about it, like carbon fiber brakes, which are expensive and mostly in high-performance cars.

02:01:55.000 They have much less brake dust.

02:01:56.000 So, like, you know when you clean your car and if you're washing your car, you go to the wheels, there's all that dust that's around, the dark dust that's around the wheel that you have to clean.

02:02:04.000 That's all brake dust.

02:02:06.000 So that's getting it in the air.

02:02:07.000 So if you live in a place that has high traffic and, like, stop-and-go traffic, you get brake dust everywhere.

02:02:12.000 I'm reading an article that kind of disagrees with that, and it explains why here in this third paragraph.

02:02:17.000 Okay, so it says, Many of the claims about EVs causing air pollution reference figures from Emission and Analytics, a private company.

02:02:24.000 Founder Nick Molden said that its measurements show that particulate emissions can be 1,850 times more than those from modern car exhaust, which have become cleaner because of regulations.

02:02:35.000 But the headline finding needs some context.

02:02:37.000 The tests have not been peer-reviewed by scientists.

02:02:40.000 And the industry disputes the findings.

02:02:42.000 That doesn't mean anything.

02:02:43.000 What they just said doesn't mean anything.

02:02:44.000 Just because they haven't been peer-reviewed and that the industry disputes it, that doesn't mean that it's not true.

02:02:50.000 This was the third article I got to that said that there's less because of regenerative braking.

02:02:56.000 Right.

02:02:57.000 What we just talked about.

02:02:58.000 But regenerative braking, again, I don't think is in all electric cars.

02:03:03.000 I know it's standard on Teslas.

02:03:05.000 Crucially, all cars produce those pollutants.

02:03:08.000 That's true.

02:03:08.000 Not just electric version.

02:03:09.000 That's true.

02:03:10.000 But that's not true.

02:03:11.000 What they're saying is not true either because these heavier cars produce more.

02:03:16.000 That's just what they're saying.

02:03:17.000 Measuring tiny particulates is very difficult.

02:03:20.000 There are relatively few comparative studies so far.

02:03:22.000 That means there's still uncertainty over whether the extra weight of EV batteries will result in worse particulate pollution.

02:03:29.000 But it makes sense.

02:03:30.000 It's logical.

02:03:32.000 So if they're showing this, if he's done a study and it's showing this in a study, this is a logical conclusion.

02:03:39.000 Is that an electric Range Rover?

02:03:42.000 Yeah, I don't even know that they existed.

02:03:46.000 Was that a new thing?

02:03:48.000 I never saw one before.

02:03:50.000 There's a lot now.

02:03:53.000 It says, calculate that EVs are 400 kilograms heavier on average because of the bulky batteries.

02:03:58.000 Yeah.

02:03:58.000 So just because it hasn't been peer-reviewed doesn't mean it's true.

02:04:02.000 And the reason why they're saying this is because they're trying to put it into context.

02:04:06.000 Like, yes, electric vehicles are generally better for the environment, particularly if you have regenerative braking, but there's also an added element.

02:04:14.000 What the solution might be is to make carbon fiber brakes standard.

02:04:20.000 Carbon ceramic brakes standard that you need them just like you need catalytic converters.

02:04:25.000 It would be more expensive though.

02:04:26.000 I never heard of that.

02:04:27.000 Yeah, so most brakes have steel rotors.

02:04:30.000 You know, steel hits this carbon and it just releases more brake dust.

02:04:36.000 Or steel hits the pads, releases more brake dust.

02:04:40.000 I've got a hybrid RAV4. I love it.

02:04:44.000 Yeah, well, those are really good on gas.

02:04:46.000 I mean, something that's good on gas is going to be better, for sure.

02:04:49.000 Something that's bad on gas is going to burn more.

02:04:51.000 But the bottom line is...

02:04:54.000 There's problems with all technologies in terms of whether or not they go into a landfill.

02:05:02.000 This is a giant problem with windmills.

02:05:04.000 Windmills aren't efficient. 0.83

02:05:05.000 They're gross looking.

02:05:07.000 They pollute the landscape in terms of the way it looks.

02:05:10.000 You just see these fucking windmills everywhere.

02:05:12.000 And those things have to go in a landfill. 1.00

02:05:14.000 So you have these enormous fiberglass propellers that now have to be buried in the ground.

02:05:19.000 And Billy Bob goes on a good rant about the wind.

02:05:21.000 He rips them apart.

02:05:24.000 Yeah, they're not effective.

02:05:25.000 They're not good enough for what they do to the environment.

02:05:28.000 You know, they kill whales.

02:05:30.000 That's the other thing.

02:05:31.000 You know, Trump talked about that, too.

02:05:32.000 That these things, when they set these things up, you know, near the ocean, like the sound is fucking with these whales.

02:05:39.000 Oh, I didn't know.

02:05:39.000 Yeah.

02:05:41.000 It's not good.

02:05:42.000 It's not the way to go.

02:05:45.000 Better.

02:05:45.000 But, you know, if you have, like, enormous areas of land that are covered in solar panels, that looks gross, too.

02:05:51.000 Yeah.

02:05:51.000 But if we could just have, like, one designated area in the center, like, take, you know, a state and fucking make that state just a battery, maybe that would work.

02:06:00.000 Yeah, maybe L.A. Maybe when L.A. burns to the ground, like, look, it's already toxic.

02:06:04.000 Let's just turn the policies into a battery.

02:06:06.000 How are they going to rebuild if it's like, yeah, there's nothing we can do?

02:06:09.000 If this happens again.

02:06:11.000 Well, it's also the fire insurance problem that a lot of insurance companies pulled their fire coverage because they're like, look, nothing's being done to stop these fires.

02:06:18.000 We know the fires are coming.

02:06:19.000 We're going to lose all of our money.

02:06:20.000 We're just going to pull out.

02:06:22.000 And they did that.

02:06:23.000 And so now a lot of these people that lost their homes were not insured.

02:06:26.000 So now they're really fucked.

02:06:28.000 And then you got Gavin Newsom on TV talking about speculators coming, land speculators, doing his little fucking dance.

02:06:33.000 And they're like, what are you guys doing over there?

02:06:36.000 This is horrible.

02:06:38.000 This is horrible.

02:06:39.000 And what solutions are on the table?

02:06:42.000 I'll tell you, it's not as simple as don't drill for oil.

02:06:48.000 You know, like, goddammit.

02:06:50.000 I don't see the mayor making it through this.

02:06:52.000 She doesn't seem like she should make it through.

02:06:54.000 No.

02:06:55.000 Wasn't she like some sort of a radical communist activist when she was younger, too?

02:06:59.000 I don't know.

02:07:00.000 Yeah.

02:07:01.000 That clip of her in the airport?

02:07:03.000 Really?

02:07:04.000 Yeah.

02:07:05.000 Not good.

02:07:06.000 Not responding at all.

02:07:08.000 She looks shell-shocked.

02:07:09.000 And then smiling when she's on TV. We're going to rebuild with a bunch of construction workers behind her. 1.00

02:07:15.000 They're like, look, we're rebuilding.

02:07:16.000 She's smiling.

02:07:17.000 We're going to get to work.

02:07:19.000 You're not going to get to work.

02:07:20.000 You're not going to get to work.

02:07:21.000 These people aren't going to have the money to rebuild.

02:07:23.000 Where's the money going to come from?

02:07:24.000 Are you going to give them the money for those homes?

02:07:26.000 You're talking now about $300 billion worth of damage and counting.

02:07:31.000 Are you going to shell out $300 billion to give those people their homes back?

02:07:36.000 When someone has an $82 million home, are you going to give them that $82 million rather than pay teachers more money?

02:07:42.000 In North Carolina, in the middle of Appalachia, you have people with cheaper homes than anywhere in LA. They're not getting money back.

02:07:49.000 No.

02:07:50.000 They're not.

02:07:50.000 They're not even getting attention anymore.

02:07:52.000 No, that's what's crazy.

02:07:53.000 These people are waiting in line for fuel.

02:07:54.000 They're waiting in line for propane fuel so they don't freeze to death.

02:07:57.000 Yeah, that's crazy.

02:07:58.000 Crazy.

02:07:59.000 I was just down there over the holidays and saw my brother and I, we invested in a little, the only thing I've ever invested in, like that little Airbnb, like super cheap and it's just gone.

02:08:10.000 Yeah, well everything's gone there.

02:08:11.000 It was a crazy disaster.

02:08:14.000 But again, you could say that's climate change.

02:08:16.000 But what...

02:08:17.000 The problem with that statement is that the climate has never been static.

02:08:22.000 There has never been a moment in human history where the climate was absolutely predictable to the degree every year.

02:08:29.000 It's just not the case.

02:08:30.000 Climate varies.

02:08:32.000 It has always varied.

02:08:33.000 The real question should be, how much of an impact are we having on it and how much of an impact are we having on pollution?

02:08:40.000 The pollution in the particulate, that's a real issue.

02:08:43.000 That's a real issue.

02:08:44.000 And if other countries aren't addressing that, I read something, find out if this is true, that China right now is responsible for more pollutants in the atmosphere, more carbon in the atmosphere than all the other countries combined.

02:08:59.000 I wouldn't doubt it at all.

02:09:00.000 I wouldn't doubt that.

02:09:02.000 The majority of the pollutants in the atmosphere are coming from there, and they're not going to change.

02:09:07.000 So you switching to an electric car or you stop using a gas stove or whatever you're doing, it's not going to have an impact if CO2 is entirely what's going on.

02:09:19.000 And even if we got down to climate neutral, that doesn't stop global warming.

02:09:25.000 It doesn't stop a shift in the change that has always gone up and down throughout recorded history.

02:09:31.000 When we do ice samples, when they do core samples, and they go back 10, 15, 20,000, 50,000 years, there's always been enormous shifts in the temperature.

02:09:41.000 Half of North America was covered in a mile-high sheet of ice up until 12,000 years ago.

02:09:47.000 So miles in some places, more than a mile.

02:09:50.000 So there's always been shifts in the climate.

02:09:53.000 Long before there was any industrial revolution, long before there was any gas-powered cars, China emissions exceed all developed nations combined.

02:10:03.000 Combined.

02:10:04.000 And they're not going to change.

02:10:06.000 They're not going to shift that.

02:10:09.000 That's what they do.

02:10:10.000 Long term, I think China poses the greatest potential.

02:10:16.000 Threats still.

02:10:17.000 You had a CIA ex-CIA guy on who was talking about the 21-year plan for China that blew my mind.

02:10:23.000 Because when I was in graduate school, it was like 80% of the other students were from China.

02:10:30.000 No one believes that.

02:10:32.000 There was multiple classes where I went in.

02:10:34.000 I was the only...

02:10:35.000 A non-China, not just American student, non-Chinese student.

02:10:38.000 There'd be 15 people in the class.

02:10:40.000 Yeah.

02:10:40.000 When I showed my thesis film, I went in and the whole auditorium was Chinese and every other film that played that night was in Chinese.

02:10:46.000 Wow.

02:10:46.000 So you're like, and I tried to do a documentary on it and then I was kind of, people didn't like that.

02:10:51.000 All I was doing was asking questions like, how'd you end up coming straight for this?

02:10:55.000 And it's a societal, there's a, you know, what's the word?

02:11:01.000 The parents want to do it.

02:11:02.000 There's a social aspect.

02:11:05.000 It's viewed as something that you want to do.

02:11:08.000 And then there was the one-child policy for a long time so they can afford to do it. 0.83

02:11:12.000 But it's crazy.

02:11:14.000 Yeah, we're in a very strange time of narratives and truth.

02:11:19.000 Where narratives to many people are more important than objective truth.

02:11:24.000 And that's never good for anybody.

02:11:26.000 It's never good for anybody to ignore the reality of what's going on.

02:11:30.000 And there's a lot of, I mean, Peterson and you talked about this a lot, the postmodernism, the effect of postmodernism, the fact that there's an infinite variety of interpretations to stories, but that doesn't mean that there's not, everything's not just a social construct, and it doesn't mean that there's not an ideal to strive for.

02:11:53.000 Yeah.

02:11:55.000 And the problem with people that talk about climate change is they never talk about China emissions.

02:12:00.000 They talk about America.

02:12:02.000 Trump wants to pull us out of the Paris Accord.

02:12:05.000 They want to do this, they want to do that.

02:12:07.000 Look at what's going on in the world.

02:12:09.000 You're not going to stop China from producing more CO2 and more emissions than all the other developed nations combined. 0.78

02:12:16.000 And you're not even talking about it.

02:12:18.000 If you really wanted to address the problem, it would be that.

02:12:21.000 That's the problem.

02:12:23.000 That's the biggest part of the problem.

02:12:24.000 What's the biggest offender?

02:12:26.000 It's China. 0.90

02:12:26.000 And they don't talk about that at all because they don't want to be racist. 0.90

02:12:29.000 So it's like they just want to concentrate on people that, you know, live in America.

02:12:34.000 Yeah.

02:12:35.000 Yeah.

02:12:36.000 And then criticizing the idea of drilling for oil.

02:12:40.000 Well, you said at the beginning of this conversation, too, you were talking about the potential for both sides.

02:12:44.000 And we are in a strange time as well where we're seeing things coming from both sides that are very strange.

02:12:50.000 This rethinking of Winston Churchill and everything, there's just...

02:12:54.000 What's the rethinking of Winston Churchill?

02:12:56.000 When Tucker Carlson had on...

02:12:58.000 I'm forgetting the name of the historian.

02:13:00.000 Doesn't matter.

02:13:01.000 Martyr May.

02:13:02.000 Daryl Cooper.

02:13:02.000 Daryl Cooper, yeah.

02:13:04.000 I think people ask me sometimes after all this video stuff, they're like, what would you recommend reading and studying for critical thinking?

02:13:10.000 And I think Winston Churchill is the ultimate...

02:13:13.000 Example of critical thinking.

02:13:14.000 Critical thinking is all about thinking for yourself for the long term when everyone around you is telling you that you're wrong.

02:13:22.000 When the stakes are at their highest is what he was dealing with.

02:13:26.000 And it's such a fascinating time, World War II. I just think there's so much.

02:13:30.000 You could just study that conflict and gain so much insight.

02:13:34.000 One thing that my friend Chris DiStefano brought up on the podcast that blew me away was Operation Unthinkable.

02:13:43.000 I haven't heard that one.

02:13:44.000 That was a proposal from Winston Churchill at the end of World War II to go to war with Russia, that the Soviet Union was getting too big and powerful, and they would take the Nazis, that they'd take the German soldiers and then go invade Russia.

02:13:59.000 I haven't heard that.

02:13:59.000 It wouldn't surprise me.

02:14:00.000 He did not like Stalin.

02:14:02.000 Because with Roosevelt, they got buddy-buddy.

02:14:08.000 My whole thesis was on this.

02:14:10.000 The untold story of Churchill's role with Harvard, Harvard's role, the president of Harvard, meeting with Churchill secretly when the blitz was going on and Roosevelt was up for re-election, couldn't travel over there to meet with him because, and this echoes to today, exactly what we were talking about, 98% of the public were against involvement in World War II. That's why they called it the European conflict.

02:14:32.000 It's not our fight.

02:14:34.000 And he knew it was inevitable.

02:14:37.000 And he couldn't be seen talking to Churchill in that way because they were publicly, they were like, nope, lend-lease program, we're not assisting.

02:14:46.000 If you watch Darkest Hour, they do a good job of showing the extrangers.

02:14:50.000 They're like, we can send horses to pull the weapons across the border, but we can't be seen.

02:14:54.000 So he sent the president of Harvard of all places.

02:14:57.000 This is where the Secret Scholar Society came from.

02:15:00.000 It's the story, and I found it in the Harvard Archive when I was researching for my thesis film.

02:15:04.000 Whoa.

02:15:05.000 Yeah.

02:15:06.000 And I was blown away.

02:15:07.000 I was like, how is no one?

02:15:08.000 And it taps into Oppenheimer.

02:15:10.000 So James B. Conant, that guy on the left, that's the president of Harvard.

02:15:14.000 This is afterwards.

02:15:16.000 Churchill comes for an honorary degree after everything's won and everything.

02:15:20.000 Conant on the left flies over there, meets with him.

02:15:23.000 They make a secret deal.

02:15:25.000 They have all this research.

02:15:27.000 They're ready to do radar.

02:15:29.000 It's developed, but they can't build it.

02:15:31.000 They're cut off from the world.

02:15:32.000 All of Europe has fallen, except England.

02:15:35.000 They stand alone, their darkest hour, and he is desperate.

02:15:38.000 He's just trying to hold out until America will join.

02:15:41.000 Imagine being in that position.

02:15:43.000 Everyone around you is saying, we have got to surrender.

02:15:46.000 We have got to negotiate.

02:15:48.000 And he's like, no.

02:15:50.000 He's like, no.

02:15:51.000 Only when the last of us are choking in their own blood.

02:15:54.000 He's like, we have to fight to the death.

02:15:56.000 That's not logical.

02:15:59.000 But it's what saved them.

02:16:01.000 When does illogical behavior save you?

02:16:03.000 That's something that connects to the very fabric of reality that goes beyond what we can articulate.

02:16:07.000 It connects to spirituality.

02:16:09.000 When does living as though God existed save them, in a way?

02:16:14.000 So he negotiates with Conant, and they bring that tech back, develop a secret lab at Harvard to build it all.

02:16:21.000 That's where sonar came from, napalm.

02:16:24.000 There was a special, the Harvard candle, named after Harvard.

02:16:28.000 It's a remarkable story.

02:16:31.000 It's so deep, I could talk about it.

02:16:33.000 You know what I found out last night?

02:16:35.000 My friend Kurt Metzger told me this.

02:16:37.000 We were talking about the Elon gaffe, where he's like, my heart goes out to you.

02:16:41.000 Like, hey, don't do that, though.

02:16:43.000 That's the perfect example of when you see a story, you believe it's true.

02:16:46.000 If you believe he's a Nazi, you're going to see him do a silly hand gesture and see that as that.

02:16:53.000 Well, he's saying my heart goes out to you.

02:16:55.000 But that...

02:16:57.000 That is how the Nazis did it. 0.91

02:16:58.000 But this is the thing.

02:17:00.000 This is what I found out last night.

02:17:01.000 That's also how they used to do the Pledge of Allegiance.

02:17:04.000 Oh, really?

02:17:04.000 The Pledge of Allegiance used to be done like this until the Nazis came along.

02:17:08.000 And then we switched it to this.

02:17:10.000 Your hand over your heart.

02:17:11.000 So we cut out that part.

02:17:12.000 There's going to be a screen grab of you doing it.

02:17:14.000 Well, there's already a screen grab.

02:17:15.000 This is what's funny.

02:17:17.000 CNN, during the COVID times in particular, whenever I get in trouble, the photo they would use of me was me at the UFC weigh-ins.

02:17:25.000 So when I do the weigh-ins, I announce the weigh-ins.

02:17:27.000 I say, welcome to the weigh-ins, everybody.

02:17:29.000 I'm waving to the crowd.

02:17:30.000 That's what they did.

02:17:31.000 So they would use this photo of me to try to make it look like I was some sort of a Nazi.

02:17:37.000 Whatever.

02:17:37.000 Because I'm waving to the crowd and they take a freeze frame of it.

02:17:41.000 I'm like, welcome to the weigh-ins, everybody.

02:17:43.000 I put my hands out to the crowd.

02:17:44.000 I'm saying hi to everybody.

02:17:47.000 I'll show you this, Jamie.

02:17:48.000 You probably could find it if you look for it, but I'm going to show you what it looked like in the old days.

02:17:54.000 I'm looking at it.

02:17:55.000 I was trying to find a different explanation.

02:17:57.000 I have a picture of it.

02:17:58.000 I was just digging for better versions.

02:18:00.000 Well, yeah, that's it.

02:18:02.000 That's how they did the Pledge of Allegiance.

02:18:03.000 Oh, interesting.

02:18:04.000 How crazy is that?

02:18:05.000 That's crazy.

02:18:06.000 That's in 1942. Yep.

02:18:07.000 So this is, you know, and then we realize, oh, we can't do that anymore.

02:18:10.000 That's how the Nazis do it. 0.95

02:18:11.000 It's right around that time.

02:18:12.000 Pledge of Allegiance would be your right hand up in the air.

02:18:15.000 Interesting.

02:18:16.000 How crazy is that?

02:18:18.000 Well, we were just getting into World War II, so we didn't have the views of Hitler embodied in us.

02:18:25.000 Pretty bizarre, though.

02:18:26.000 It is.

02:18:27.000 You know?

02:18:28.000 Yeah.

02:18:30.000 Now you're not allowed to do that anymore.

02:18:31.000 I didn't know that.

02:18:33.000 It's so funny because of this, there's all these photos of AOC with her arm out like this and Michelle Obama.

02:18:39.000 It's like everybody's a Nazi.

02:18:41.000 It's so dumb.

02:18:42.000 You can go look at anybody and find that.

02:18:44.000 Yeah, if you move your arms at all.

02:18:47.000 You try to catch a ball.

02:18:49.000 Anything you're doing with your arms up in the air, now you're a Nazi. 0.50

02:18:52.000 How about that Hindu guy that kept his arm up in the air for like 60 years? 0.99

02:18:59.000 Not familiar.

02:19:00.000 We talked about him the other day.

02:19:01.000 Who brought him up?

02:19:02.000 I did.

02:19:03.000 Jamie brought him up.

02:19:05.000 So there's this guy who has not put his arm down in some insane amount.

02:19:08.000 His arm is shriveled.

02:19:09.000 It's useless.

02:19:10.000 Why?

02:19:10.000 It's a devotion to Lord Shiva.

02:19:13.000 To show his devotion, he decided, I'm going to keep my arm up forever.

02:19:17.000 And now his arm's frozen in place.

02:19:19.000 And now he's like a really old man. 0.89

02:19:21.000 That's what he looks like.

02:19:22.000 Okay.

02:19:23.000 How crazy is that?

02:19:24.000 That's crazy.

02:19:25.000 He has a useless right arm now.

02:19:26.000 Look at his fingers are all twisted up and fucked up.

02:19:28.000 His nails are all fucked up.

02:19:31.000 His right arm is essentially completely useless.

02:19:33.000 It just stays like that.

02:19:34.000 It doesn't move anymore.

02:19:37.000 Power of stories.

02:19:39.000 Nuts.

02:19:40.000 Yeah.

02:19:41.000 1973 decided to raise his right arm 90 degrees to the air.

02:19:45.000 His fingers have withered to the palm of his hand.

02:19:46.000 His knuckles are white with rot and his nails have grown long and twisted.

02:19:52.000 Well, he's a Nazi. 0.82

02:19:55.000 Oh, I didn't make that connection.

02:19:56.000 I was like, why are you...

02:19:57.000 That guy's doing a Nazi salute forever.

02:20:01.000 I didn't think about that.

02:20:04.000 That's how dedicated he is to being a Nazi.

02:20:07.000 He won't even put the hand down.

02:20:09.000 He's all in.

02:20:10.000 All in forever until he dies.

02:20:12.000 They're going to have to get him in a super long coffin.

02:20:15.000 How's Elon handling this whole...

02:20:16.000 He's probably like, what the...

02:20:18.000 Yeah, he was definitely what the fuck, and he was happy that the ADL, of all people, defended him.

02:20:24.000 Yeah, that was good.

02:20:25.000 Yeah, well, it's obvious.

02:20:26.000 But all these people on Twitter are just chiming in, saying it's clearly a Nazi salute.

02:20:34.000 He's doing a Nazi salute.

02:20:36.000 Yeah.

02:20:37.000 No.

02:20:38.000 No.

02:20:38.000 It's so dumb.

02:20:39.000 It's so dumb.

02:20:40.000 It's not clearly.

02:20:41.000 Yeah.

02:20:41.000 The whole thing's crazy.

02:20:43.000 But that's a sign of the times.

02:20:45.000 And they couldn't help it.

02:20:47.000 They saw a thing.

02:20:48.000 And they're like, we're going to run with it.

02:20:50.000 He's clearly showing he's a Nazi. 0.66

02:20:52.000 You know, that Trump's in office.

02:20:53.000 And he's a Nazi. 0.67

02:20:54.000 And this is...

02:20:55.000 Fascism is real, folks.

02:20:56.000 Here it is.

02:20:57.000 My heart goes out to you.

02:21:03.000 It's just weird.

02:21:05.000 It's illogical and weird, but it's a sign of this thing that is a real problem in today where people will pretend something is something other than what it is if it suits their narrative.

02:21:17.000 And that's what this is.

02:21:19.000 Yes.

02:21:19.000 The power of story.

02:21:20.000 Yeah, the power of story.

02:21:21.000 That really truly is a great example of the power of story.

02:21:26.000 Because the story that everyone's afraid of is that this right-wing dictator has gotten into power and he's brought with him this...

02:21:32.000 Billionaire oligarch who happens to be one of the richest men, if not the richest person, on the planet Earth.

02:21:38.000 And this guy is secretly a Nazi. 0.60

02:21:40.000 He's been hiding it all these days until Trump got in office.

02:21:43.000 He'd make a great movie.

02:21:44.000 Let's go!

02:21:45.000 Yeah, yeah.

02:21:46.000 He'd make a great movie.

02:21:48.000 Yeah.

02:21:49.000 It's...

02:21:50.000 Well, it's fascinating, but it also...

02:21:55.000 What it does is it opens the door for people like yourself.

02:21:58.000 It opens the door for reasonable, logical people who can talk about things in an objective, critical way and just, like, analyze, well, what is this?

02:22:08.000 Why do we think this?

02:22:09.000 What is the cause of this?

02:22:10.000 And that's really how you got on the map.

02:22:12.000 By just being a voice of reason.

02:22:15.000 And in a time where there's very little reason, anybody that steps up and says something that resonates with people to the point where they're like, yes!

02:22:27.000 More of this guy.

02:22:28.000 More people like that.

02:22:29.000 I like how this guy thinks.

02:22:30.000 I like how this guy talks.

02:22:32.000 And that's what I got out of it.

02:22:34.000 It's surreal.

02:22:34.000 I don't know.

02:22:34.000 I don't think about it.

02:22:36.000 Well, you shouldn't think about it.

02:22:38.000 Yeah, you can't think about it.

02:22:39.000 Well, then you get audience capture.

02:22:41.000 Right.

02:22:41.000 And you freeze, too.

02:22:43.000 It's like Heath Ledger acting.

02:22:45.000 If you think about it, like, oh, 100,000 people might see what I'm going to see, then you just can't talk.

02:22:51.000 That's probably why Christopher Nolan doesn't have a phone.

02:22:55.000 Same kind of thing.

02:22:57.000 To make the kind of films that he makes.

02:22:59.000 Have you reached out to him?

02:23:00.000 No, I haven't.

02:23:01.000 I don't even know if he does any interviews.

02:23:02.000 I don't know.

02:23:03.000 Rarely.

02:23:04.000 I would love to have him on, though.

02:23:05.000 I'm a huge fan of his work.

02:23:06.000 I think he's brilliant.

02:23:07.000 Yeah.

02:23:07.000 Obviously.

02:23:08.000 Not just brilliant.

02:23:09.000 Like, amazing.

02:23:10.000 Like, unusual.

02:23:11.000 Yeah.

02:23:12.000 Uniquely brilliant.

02:23:13.000 He's got this mathematical mind.

02:23:15.000 And he approaches story in that way.

02:23:17.000 So did Kubrick.

02:23:19.000 There's...

02:23:19.000 A lot of parallels there, right?

02:23:21.000 Yeah.

02:23:22.000 Yeah.

02:23:23.000 Kubrick, in his spare time, would do complex math.

02:23:26.000 I wish.

02:23:27.000 Yeah, that's crazy.

02:23:30.000 Yeah.

02:23:31.000 So his films were all, like, Kubrick's films all had, like, encoded things in there.

02:23:37.000 Yeah, I heard you talking to Tarantino or somebody about the lost...

02:23:40.000 Eyes Wide Shut.

02:23:42.000 Yeah, it was Roger Avery.

02:23:43.000 Roger Avery and Tarantino.

02:23:45.000 And so Roger Avery was discussing how there was supposed to be a narrator through Eyes Wide Shut.

02:23:51.000 And they changed that.

02:23:53.000 And after...

02:23:54.000 He died, when Kubrick died, before they made a different cut of the film.

02:23:59.000 And he firmly believes that it should be, like, recut and it should be done with a narrator.

02:24:05.000 And in AI, you could actually probably do Kubrick narrating it if you wanted to.

02:24:09.000 You know, you could get samples of his voice and he could narrate it.

02:24:14.000 But that would, you know, you would also, like, how would you know how he would cut it?

02:24:19.000 He'd kind of be fucking around.

02:24:20.000 But apparently there's many scenes that never made it into it that Kubrick wanted in and then in the final cut they changed.

02:24:27.000 Yeah.

02:24:28.000 The Shining is filled with them.

02:24:31.000 It's filled with, like, there's all the moon landing conspiracies have all clung on to it.

02:24:36.000 Because the room number, like the haunted room, is, I think it's 237. Is that the room?

02:24:43.000 Whatever the number is, is the amount of miles and hundreds of thousands between Earth and the moon.

02:24:49.000 The little boy, when he's in the hallway, is wearing the Apollo 11 t-shirt.

02:24:54.000 He's got a sweater that has the Apollo rocket on it.

02:24:57.000 There's, like, all sorts of weird shit.

02:25:01.000 I love stuff like that.

02:25:03.000 Oh, it's fascinating.

02:25:04.000 There's a whole documentary on it, the subtext behind The Shining.

02:25:09.000 The Shining is a fucking incredible movie, which, by the way, which is really interesting, Stephen King didn't even like.

02:25:15.000 He didn't like that movie, which is so crazy because it was different than his novel.

02:25:20.000 So in his novel, the Jack Nicholson character, I forget the name, the Jack Nicholson character starts off normal and becomes crazier and crazier.

02:25:30.000 And what he didn't like is that Jack Nicholson is pretty on tilt right away and seems off from the very beginning and then just descent into madness accelerates very quickly.

02:25:42.000 That's what I was talking about.

02:25:43.000 There's different ways to tell that same story.

02:25:46.000 You can feel it when it kind of clicks in, which is right.

02:25:49.000 The audience doesn't lie.

02:25:51.000 And then Stephen King did his own version of The Shining as a television miniseries.

02:25:57.000 Did he?

02:25:58.000 Yeah, but it wasn't.

02:25:59.000 It wasn't very good.

02:26:00.000 It wasn't effective.

02:26:02.000 There you go.

02:26:02.000 There was something about it.

02:26:03.000 It just didn't work the same way.

02:26:05.000 That elusive, intangible thing that can't be bought, can't be replicated.

02:26:10.000 Everyone's after it.

02:26:11.000 Yeah.

02:26:12.000 No one can articulate it.

02:26:13.000 Yeah.

02:26:14.000 What makes a good actor?

02:26:16.000 Why was Heath Ledger a good actor?

02:26:18.000 Right.

02:26:19.000 And that's another great example of why those boats are superfluous to everything else.

02:26:26.000 Yeah.

02:26:27.000 It's all about telling the story.

02:26:29.000 Right?

02:26:29.000 And some people...

02:26:31.000 What's going on?

02:26:32.000 Kubrick's assistant says in an interview in 2013, like a year after the movie came out, that Kubrick would have agreed that 70-80% of that movie was pure gibberish.

02:26:42.000 Because he wouldn't be doing stuff like that.

02:26:44.000 Which movie?

02:26:45.000 I was watching it.

02:26:46.000 Room 237. The one about the shining and all the hidden stuff behind it.

02:26:51.000 Even 80% is pure gibberish.

02:26:55.000 What does that mean?

02:26:56.000 That means 20% is legit?

02:26:57.000 I mean, he wouldn't tell an audience what to think or how to think.

02:27:03.000 And if they came out thinking something different than him, that's fine.

02:27:06.000 It's hard to say, though, because someone saying that is their personal assistant, they're not speaking for Kubrick.

02:27:12.000 Stephen King said the same thing when he saw it.

02:27:14.000 He said he had to turn it off because it was bullshit.

02:27:16.000 Turn what off?

02:27:17.000 The movie.

02:27:18.000 The Shining itself.

02:27:19.000 No, no, no.

02:27:19.000 Room 237. The documentary about The Shining.

02:27:22.000 Right, but Stephen King also didn't like The Shining.

02:27:24.000 You know, these are, like, people's personal opinions on things.

02:27:27.000 It doesn't mean it's not true.

02:27:28.000 And it's also, like, Kubrick, in many of his films, did have, like, hidden subtext.

02:27:33.000 He was a fascinating guy.

02:27:34.000 Like, 2001. 2001 is a fascinating movie.

02:27:39.000 You miss a lot of it when you have to, like, re-watch it over and over again to get what he was trying to say.

02:27:44.000 What was he doing in that film?

02:27:47.000 There's many, many layers to his films.

02:27:51.000 He had his own way of doing it.

02:27:53.000 He might not have done it mathematically with the score the way Christopher Nolan did, but there was something to it.

02:27:58.000 Mathematically, I shouldn't even say that word, though, because it's just patterns.

02:28:04.000 He's still using patterns.

02:28:05.000 Mathematics is just a language that allows us to articulate a form of those patterns.

02:28:09.000 That said, what Stephen King said and what Kubrick's assistant said, Also rings true because people try to find patterns in everything, even patterns that don't exist.

02:28:19.000 They always try to find conspiracies that don't exist and patterns that don't exist.

02:28:25.000 There's a natural inclination that people have to uncover secrets.

02:28:29.000 Like, what's the secret behind this?

02:28:31.000 What is he really saying?

02:28:34.000 What's he really doing?

02:28:38.000 Are you still...

02:28:41.000 Are you going to make films?

02:28:43.000 Are you more committed?

02:28:44.000 Do you feel like this thing that you're doing...

02:28:47.000 What is your Secret Scholar?

02:28:49.000 What is your YouTube page?

02:28:50.000 Secret Scholar Society is the YouTube channel.

02:28:53.000 Why did you decide to call it that?

02:28:54.000 That story I was telling you.

02:28:55.000 That was from that, yeah.

02:28:57.000 Right before the viral video, I was working on a short film.

02:29:03.000 There's a little experimental...

02:29:04.000 I shouldn't call it a short film.

02:29:06.000 It was me with a camera and that music teacher.

02:29:10.000 In like a month, we threw this thing together.

02:29:12.000 It's not a movie.

02:29:13.000 So people love to...

02:29:15.000 Warren's last movie is like...

02:29:17.000 It's like, dude, that's not...

02:29:18.000 Don't hold that to the standard of like...

02:29:20.000 The other ones you can hold to a standard of a movie, but that one was just an experimental...

02:29:23.000 Me by myself.

02:29:25.000 I would love to keep doing that.

02:29:27.000 Right now, it's about putting food on the table and fighting for the algorithm, keeping the algorithm on my side, which is...

02:29:33.000 Right, because you're unemployed.

02:29:35.000 Right.

02:29:35.000 And there's potential to teach, but...

02:29:39.000 I'm making more doing what I'm doing.

02:29:42.000 Yeah, and you're teaching by doing that too.

02:29:45.000 You are.

02:29:46.000 I mean, I do look at it that way because any kind of really intelligent discourse where you get to watch it and observe people talking about things, and you've done a lot of really good stuff where you're breaking down interviews and breaking down congressional testimonies and things like that and the way people are reacting to things and how people are laying stuff out.

02:30:05.000 All that stuff is very educational.

02:30:07.000 And for young people in particular, maybe people that found you through those initial videos.

02:30:13.000 Then they'll be able to see how you sort of break down all of these interactions.

02:30:18.000 And they'll be able to sort of think that way themselves.

02:30:21.000 Like, oh, why does a person say things that way?

02:30:24.000 What are they trying to do?

02:30:26.000 Why are they appealing to authority?

02:30:29.000 Why is it important to recognize that this is a pattern to shut down criticism?

02:30:35.000 And then why is it that this is not necessarily the truth?

02:30:39.000 Yeah, the art of critical thinking.

02:30:41.000 I was kind of thinking like...

02:30:42.000 Sherlock Holmes was my, as a kid, my favorite fictional character.

02:30:47.000 And I think it appealed.

02:30:48.000 He was really the first kind of superhero serial monthly episodes, Strand Magazine.

02:30:54.000 Sure.

02:30:55.000 And he has no superpowers, just his mind.

02:30:58.000 Which makes us feel like, I could do that if I could just see the world like him.

02:31:03.000 He has nothing I don't have, technically.

02:31:05.000 And he does it.

02:31:06.000 We're presented the same information.

02:31:09.000 It's just what he does with that information.

02:31:11.000 It makes you feel like you have a potential for that power within you.

02:31:14.000 You just got to know how to unlock it.

02:31:16.000 So that's kind of playing with the art of...

02:31:18.000 That's why the slogan on the channel is the art of critical thinking.

02:31:22.000 His was the science of deduction.

02:31:25.000 Yeah.

02:31:26.000 It is an art, too, though.

02:31:27.000 Because when someone does it really well, it's kind of beautiful.

02:31:31.000 Critical thinking when you watch a conversation between two people and there's an igniting of your mind that is kind of beautiful.

02:31:42.000 It's artistic.

02:31:45.000 Hopefully.

02:31:46.000 Hopefully you can sometimes get there.

02:31:47.000 No, I think you do get there.

02:31:49.000 You get there for sure.

02:31:50.000 You've gotten there with me.

02:31:51.000 I think there's a lot of people that do that.

02:31:53.000 And it's that kind of critical thinking.

02:31:57.000 They gravitate towards it because there's not a lot of it in the world.

02:32:00.000 And especially if you live in, if you exist day to day in a corporate culture.

02:32:06.000 Where you're sort of locked into whatever ideology your company is and you're trying to make your way up the company ladder.

02:32:12.000 So there's like office politics and there's a certain sort of mentality and narrative that's been distributed through the company and you're connected to it.

02:32:20.000 Like you're very suppressed and your thinking is very boxed in and you're forced to put those blinders on that we talked about earlier.

02:32:27.000 You have to put those on if you want to move in the company.

02:32:29.000 If you're in an environment that requires you to behave and think a certain way in order to...

02:32:35.000 Well, you want to succeed.

02:32:37.000 So what are the rules of this game I'm playing?

02:32:40.000 Okay.

02:32:41.000 You know, if you're playing poker, you have rules, right?

02:32:43.000 If you're playing chess, you have rules.

02:32:45.000 And you can't succeed without following the rules.

02:32:48.000 And that's the case in everything.

02:32:50.000 But oftentimes in society...

02:32:54.000 When you exist in a corporate environment or any kind of, especially an educational environment, right?

02:32:59.000 If you exist in an academic environment, it has very clear rules.

02:33:03.000 And if you do not follow those rules, you will not succeed.

02:33:05.000 If you go against the people that are in charge, you're going to, like, what happened to you?

02:33:10.000 You're going to get fired.

02:33:11.000 You're going to get removed.

02:33:12.000 You have to follow the rules if you want to succeed.

02:33:15.000 And people feel very suppressed by that.

02:33:18.000 Because they know that these rules aren't necessarily just.

02:33:21.000 They're not necessarily accurate.

02:33:23.000 They're not objective.

02:33:25.000 They're not reasonable.

02:33:26.000 They're not logical.

02:33:27.000 They're just the rules.

02:33:28.000 People hate the rules when they're just the rules.

02:33:31.000 Especially students.

02:33:32.000 Yeah, especially young people, man.

02:33:35.000 Yeah, and they can sniff that out so fast.

02:33:38.000 And now there's examples of the rules being bullshit.

02:33:42.000 You know, now because of your show and a bunch of your Jordan Peterson, a bunch of different things that are available now for young people to consume, they can realize like, no, these people that are making these rules are idiots.

02:33:53.000 They're assholes.

02:33:55.000 And they might be intelligent.

02:33:56.000 They might have a good education.

02:33:57.000 They might have a lot of information that they can spit out that makes them seem logical.

02:34:02.000 But they're not looking at things correctly.

02:34:03.000 they're they're captured by a narrative yeah i reading elon's books like on the airplane he had that algorithm it's essentially If there's a regulation, if there's a rule, figure out who's requiring that rule, question it.

02:34:21.000 I forget the other ones, but it's making it all more efficient.

02:34:24.000 It all stems from just questioning everything.

02:34:27.000 That's what's going to be really interesting about him becoming a part of the Department of Government Efficiency.

02:34:34.000 If he's going to apply that to the most inefficient...

02:34:37.000 I bet he will.

02:34:38.000 Because it says, right, he would go around preaching this algorithm.

02:34:43.000 And he genuinely believed it, and it makes logical sense.

02:34:46.000 There's a logical flow to him and his decision-making that's laid out in that biography.

02:34:52.000 Yeah.

02:34:53.000 But you're also going against a culture that has operated with impunity for so long.

02:34:59.000 And has grown exponentially.

02:35:02.000 Like, there's more government agencies than there have been years of the government.

02:35:09.000 Which is crazy.

02:35:11.000 That's crazy.

02:35:12.000 They just keep making new government agencies.

02:35:14.000 And the way to combat that?

02:35:16.000 Make another one.

02:35:17.000 Make another government agency that corrects all the government agencies' inefficiencies.

02:35:22.000 It's going to be...

02:35:23.000 To me, the Department of Government Efficiency and then the Make America Healthy Again movement, those are the two most fascinating things that are going on simultaneously with the Trump administration.

02:35:36.000 Because I'm so curious because there's so many hurdles with whatever Bobby Kennedy is going to have to jump through to make real change.

02:35:44.000 And you're seeing the response to that, like red dye number three getting pulled by the Biden administration.

02:35:49.000 Like, hey, motherfuckers, you could have done that a long time ago.

02:35:53.000 You knew that stuff shouldn't have been in food.

02:35:55.000 It's not in food in Canada.

02:35:56.000 You knew that shouldn't have been in food.

02:35:58.000 You waited until right before Bobby Kennedy got in, where you know he's going to make it outlawed.

02:36:04.000 You know he's going to get rid of all that.

02:36:06.000 And you see the resistance to it.

02:36:08.000 You're seeing this resistance to fluoride being removed from the drinking water.

02:36:11.000 Everybody's saying, oh, no, we need fluoride for teeth.

02:36:13.000 Like, brush your fucking teeth, bitch. 1.00

02:36:15.000 Let's not put neurotoxic chemicals in everybody's water.

02:36:20.000 The way I describe it, I said, it's like, people are dying of skin cancer.

02:36:23.000 Let's put sunscreen in the apples.

02:36:24.000 Like, no, no.

02:36:26.000 Put sunscreen on, motherfucker.

02:36:29.000 Or don't.

02:36:30.000 It's probably bad for you, too.

02:36:32.000 There's a lot of evidence that that's not good for you, that really, like, progressive sun exposure is the way to do it.

02:36:37.000 And the real problem is that no one gets sun exposure, and then you get too much all at once, and that's how you get sunburned.

02:36:42.000 Yeah.

02:36:43.000 It'll be interesting to see what he does with education.

02:36:45.000 Boy.

02:36:46.000 Good luck.

02:36:47.000 We need...

02:36:47.000 Yeah.

02:36:48.000 That's one thing I miss.

02:36:49.000 I do miss teaching.

02:36:50.000 I miss being in the classroom like that with those kids.

02:36:52.000 Well, I think you should definitely do more of that, but I'm really happy you're doing what you're doing.

02:36:56.000 Thank you.

02:36:57.000 Like I said, when I saw you, I was like, oh, is this young, intelligent guy, super reasonable?

02:37:02.000 I look younger than I am.

02:37:03.000 How old are you?

02:37:04.000 37. You're still young.

02:37:06.000 I'm 57. I'm old.

02:37:09.000 I'm allowed to call, you're just a kid.

02:37:12.000 I wish.

02:37:13.000 But, you know, it's like, it's an important service.

02:37:18.000 It really is.

02:37:19.000 And there's more people like that now in the public eye than I think has ever been because of YouTube, especially in terms of the impact.

02:37:29.000 Like, what's the most watched video that you have?

02:37:32.000 Like, how many views does it have?

02:37:33.000 A million.

02:37:34.000 Okay.

02:37:35.000 Just imagine a lecture that reaches a million people.

02:37:39.000 When does that ever happen?

02:37:40.000 Peter was talking about this Gutenberg revolution of YouTube.

02:37:43.000 And there's only one other professor.

02:37:45.000 Okay, you've got like...

02:37:46.000 Eric Weinstein and all that.

02:37:48.000 Okay.

02:37:48.000 Putting all of them aside, Sam Richardson, School of Communications, is the only—and he's doing it.

02:37:55.000 Every class is streamed live, and the university is cool with it.

02:37:59.000 All the students are cool with it.

02:38:00.000 There's like 200 students in the auditorium.

02:38:02.000 They come up on stage, and he's applying critically.

02:38:05.000 He challenged them on the CEO of Papa John's concept, where he got fired for saying the N-word with the context of, that's not a good thing to say.

02:38:16.000 It's really interesting to see.

02:38:17.000 And his office hours, I got to join him for his office hours and was live-streamed.

02:38:22.000 That's just using this technology in such a remarkable way.

02:38:26.000 There's so much potential for that in schools and education.

02:38:29.000 Everyone's so afraid because they don't want to put themselves out there.

02:38:32.000 That school was terrified that their name would get out there.

02:38:37.000 They're so used to going through life without any ability for the...

02:38:42.000 Public to see what's going on because no one would care.

02:38:45.000 First of all, no one cares.

02:38:46.000 And then suddenly there's the potential and it changes your world.

02:38:50.000 And the question is, look, if you're that scared of transparency, you're probably doing something wrong.

02:38:57.000 Right.

02:38:57.000 It's not just what you do, but how you do it.

02:39:00.000 Right.

02:39:00.000 And you should never be scared of discussions.

02:39:03.000 Yeah.

02:39:04.000 Especially if you're an educational institution.

02:39:08.000 You should never be scared of discussions.

02:39:10.000 It's one of the most important things.

02:39:12.000 Or innovation.

02:39:12.000 Yes.

02:39:12.000 This technology is incredible.

02:39:14.000 Yeah.

02:39:17.000 Yeah, it's nuts.

02:39:19.000 And it never existed before.

02:39:21.000 And there's a lot of resistance because there's been gatekeepers to information that have existed for the longest time, and it made the distribution of propaganda much more easy.

02:39:30.000 Yeah.

02:39:30.000 Much easier and much more effective.

02:39:33.000 Yeah.

02:39:33.000 And now that doesn't work anymore.

02:39:35.000 Because these things, like this, is bigger than all those things.

02:39:39.000 Why?

02:39:40.000 Because it's not full of shit.

02:39:42.000 It's that simple.

02:39:44.000 Interesting conversations from people that aren't full of shit.

02:39:47.000 Turns out that's what people actually want.

02:39:49.000 They've just been dumped on with nonsense for so long that people have got accustomed to thinking, no, that's what you're supposed to get.

02:39:55.000 You're supposed to get a late night talk show host version of what's happening in politics.

02:40:02.000 That's what you're supposed to get.

02:40:04.000 You need people with integrity.

02:40:06.000 So I would say thank you for having the integrity.

02:40:09.000 How many people, when presented with Kamala Harris or Kamala Harris, to do that interview, to be like, no, we're going to do it for real.

02:40:17.000 If we're going to do it, I'll do it.

02:40:19.000 Yeah.

02:40:20.000 It's like there's just so many other people would have just compromised.

02:40:24.000 I thought about it.

02:40:25.000 I thought about it.

02:40:26.000 I was sitting around like, how do I do it?

02:40:28.000 Sure, that's just tough.

02:40:28.000 I didn't know.

02:40:30.000 There's a concept in jiu-jitsu that the Gracies came up with about cooking someone. 1.00

02:40:37.000 And the idea is, like, someone can spaz out in the beginning, they can be real strong and pull out of submissions, but eventually I'm gonna cook them.

02:40:46.000 Eventually, I'm going to keep hitting my moves until I'm going to get to a dominant position.

02:40:50.000 They're going to get tired, and I'm going to cook them, and then I'm going to submit them.

02:40:54.000 And you need time to do that.

02:40:56.000 If Hoist Gracie had a jiu-jitsu match with a giant bodybuilder and the match was only 10 seconds long, he might not be able to get the guy in 10 seconds.

02:41:04.000 He doesn't have enough time.

02:41:05.000 But if you give Hoist Gracie an hour, that guy's going to get cooked. 1.00

02:41:10.000 And the thing about a conversation like with the Kamala Harris thing was like I genuinely just wanted to talk to her.

02:41:16.000 I thought I could like have a real conversation.

02:41:18.000 I've seen her be really funny.

02:41:20.000 This is like a really funny video of her meeting her.

02:41:24.000 Her mother-in-law and father-in-law for the first time.

02:41:27.000 And that the woman grabs her face. 1.00

02:41:29.000 She's like, oh, look at you!

02:41:32.000 Doug Emhoff's mom grabs her face.

02:41:34.000 It was really funny.

02:41:36.000 She's laughing hard, but she's laughing like it's authentic.

02:41:42.000 See if you can find it.

02:41:43.000 It's very funny.

02:41:44.000 And I was like, that person's in there.

02:41:47.000 And that person...

02:41:48.000 She is dealing with incredible pressure of being in front of millions of people.

02:41:55.000 They're all scrutinizing every word she says, and that pressure causes people to bumble their words and say things in cycles because they're trying to dismount and they don't know how to.

02:42:05.000 Maybe they're not the best public speaker.

02:42:07.000 Maybe they're not the most articulate at forming sentences, but they have good ideas, and you've got to get those people comfortable.

02:42:14.000 You've got to find out what is in there.

02:42:18.000 My thought was there was a few things they didn't want to talk about.

02:42:21.000 They initially didn't want to talk about internet censorship, but then they changed their mind and did want to talk about it, which I thought was interesting.

02:42:28.000 Maybe they had a solution.

02:42:29.000 They said, if he throws this at you, you're going to say this.

02:42:31.000 I'm like, okay, we got it.

02:42:32.000 Tell him we want to talk about internet censorship.

02:42:35.000 They didn't want to talk about the legalization of marijuana, but that was probably because of a prosecutor.

02:42:40.000 Prosecutorial record.

02:42:41.000 She prosecuted a lot of people for marijuana crimes.

02:42:44.000 So I was like, okay, we don't have to talk about those things.

02:42:46.000 I'll talk about whatever you want to talk about.

02:42:48.000 I don't care.

02:42:49.000 I just want to get to you.

02:42:51.000 And you give me three hours, I'll find out who you are.

02:42:54.000 We could talk about nature.

02:42:55.000 We could talk about the environment.

02:42:57.000 We could talk about space.

02:42:58.000 We could talk about, do you believe in reincarnation?

02:43:01.000 I'll get to who you are.

02:43:04.000 I want to get to who you are.

02:43:05.000 I've got to cook you.

02:43:06.000 Why wouldn't you do that?

02:43:07.000 Because she didn't want to get cooked.

02:43:11.000 Because it's scary!

02:43:13.000 Because you could fucking bumble it, you could fuck up, you know, or you could be Trump, where he comes in, he doesn't give a fuck, there's no discussion whatsoever about topics, he'll talk about anything.

02:43:25.000 And just talk.

02:43:26.000 And that guy would talk for three fucking hours, no problem at all.

02:43:29.000 No problems.

02:43:30.000 Didn't ask to edit it.

02:43:31.000 They wanted to know whether they had editing control.

02:43:33.000 They wanted to be able to edit things out.

02:43:34.000 Like if she did Bumble, which is Trump's big lawsuit with CBS because of 60 Minutes. 0.99

02:43:40.000 Because they edited her answers that made her seem like she had a more intelligent answer, which is essentially election interference. 1.00

02:43:47.000 In the debate?

02:43:47.000 Yeah.

02:43:48.000 No, an interview.

02:43:49.000 So there was a Kamala Harris interview and Trump sued.

02:43:53.000 And there's a lawsuit that's still going on right now.

02:43:57.000 It is CBS, correct?

02:43:59.000 What were his ground?

02:44:00.000 Because they changed her answer.

02:44:03.000 So someone fucked up and released, like, a teaser of the conversation. 0.57

02:44:10.000 And in the teaser, she was bumbling and fumbling to answer this question.

02:44:17.000 In the actual show on CBS, they had edited that and put in a completely different answer to something else as the answer to this question that seemed more logical and made more sense.

02:44:28.000 It was much more succinct and short.

02:44:30.000 And he was saying, like, you fucking idiots.

02:44:32.000 Like, you did this.

02:44:33.000 You released it on video on the internet first, and then you had a different version on CBS. Do you think people don't remember something that was just released?

02:44:42.000 Like two days ago?

02:44:44.000 As like a preview to this thing?

02:44:46.000 But in between the time that the video—his—this is Trump's argument—in between the time the video was released on the internet and the response that it got, all the negativity and all the criticism that it got and all the backlash to how she responded to that question, they edited it and changed the response.

02:45:04.000 And so he's suing.

02:45:06.000 And he's got a point.

02:45:08.000 You got a real point because you shouldn't allow them to edit it and make it look like it was better than it really was.

02:45:15.000 I mean, this is not just a conversation where someone fucked up about they made a flub and they said, oh, can you take that out?

02:45:21.000 No, this is like a response to critical policy issues that are going to affect the entire country if you run into president.

02:45:26.000 If you become president, do you know how to address a situation?

02:45:30.000 Do you have a plan?

02:45:31.000 Do you know what this problem is?

02:45:34.000 And do you have an actual solution?

02:45:35.000 And if you don't and if You're kind of bumbling around your words.

02:45:39.000 People should be able to see that because that's one of the things that we're deciding this election on.

02:45:45.000 For someone like her that's had those kind of experiences where she said the wrong thing and said things like, God, I wish I had a chance to reconsider that.

02:45:53.000 I would have said it differently.

02:45:54.000 Because that thing that you say, even if it's under a high-pressure situation like an interview on CBS, that high-pressure situation that caused you to fumble, now people are going to say, that is your opinion, period.

02:46:05.000 This is your perspective, period.

02:46:07.000 Meanwhile, if she had time to consider that...

02:46:11.000 Question and come up with a logical answer and then like rehearse that logical answer and been ready She might have done a much better job.

02:46:19.000 So That's the fear of not having any power over editing because in a three-hour conversation You can't really prepare.

02:46:28.000 I think they did think they had a preparation The only thing that makes sense to me is why they would just change their tune on internet censorship that they wanted to talk about that They must have had some sort of logical reason why a certain amount of censorship is important because you want to protect against misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech.

02:46:50.000 And so this was something that Tim Walsh was saying openly when he was on the campaign trail, is that free speech does not include hate speech, but it does.

02:47:02.000 How do you define hate speech?

02:47:03.000 Exactly.

02:47:04.000 Because your definition of hate speech might just be misgendering.

02:47:08.000 Caitlyn Jenner.

02:47:08.000 That might be hate speech.

02:47:10.000 So if you're talking about Bruce Jenner winning the decathlon, what are we saying?

02:47:14.000 If you can't say Bruce Jenner, because if you want to look at the reality of this biological male who wins the Olympics as a male and then transitions to becoming a woman, if you're telling me that I can no longer discuss the fact that this was a biological male with a different name and it's hate speech, well, you've essentially put the handcuffs on reality.

02:47:38.000 The quote, my favorite Churchill quote, democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others.

02:47:44.000 And I use that if anyone tries to get into the free speech debate, I do think the approach that Elon's using on X, short of the law, freedom of speech, short of the law, we already have that objective line, that framework.

02:47:58.000 We know when it's crossed, that's what the law is there for.

02:48:00.000 We don't need any other subjective interpretations.

02:48:03.000 What is hate speech?

02:48:04.000 What's happening in England?

02:48:06.000 It doesn't mean that there's not potential for someone to misuse it.

02:48:11.000 Of course.

02:48:11.000 The same way democracy is going to end in inequality in certain areas.

02:48:15.000 You're going to have inequality no matter what we do because there's going to be in capitalism.

02:48:19.000 Capitalism is the worst economic approach except every other one.

02:48:24.000 Right.

02:48:24.000 There's problems to it.

02:48:25.000 That's right.

02:48:26.000 That's right.

02:48:27.000 People love when they debate you.

02:48:28.000 They point out...

02:48:29.000 These little flaws.

02:48:31.000 Well, here's an anecdote of how hate speech was used.

02:48:33.000 Here's a potential.

02:48:34.000 Of course, there's going to be potential flaws, but it doesn't mean you have a better alternative.

02:48:39.000 What is your alternative solution?

02:48:41.000 Exactly.

02:48:42.000 Exactly.

02:48:43.000 Well, listen, man, I really enjoyed talking to you.

02:48:46.000 I really enjoy what you're doing.

02:48:47.000 I appreciate you, and thank you for being here.

02:48:49.000 Tell everybody again, it's Secret Scholar Society.

02:48:53.000 Yeah, Warren Smith-Secret Scholar Society.

02:48:57.000 On YouTube.

02:48:59.000 And that's the only thing you're using currently?

02:49:02.000 I'm on X. It's WTSmith17 for some reason.

02:49:07.000 Secret Scholars is the handle on YouTube.

02:49:11.000 And on Patreon, you have a Secret Scholars thing.

02:49:14.000 Oh, that's like, yeah, if you go to Patreon, you can watch behind the scenes and exclusive.

02:49:18.000 Oh, beautiful.

02:49:18.000 Perfect.

02:49:19.000 Love Patreon.

02:49:20.000 I love what they do.

02:49:22.000 Thank you very much.

02:49:23.000 Thank you for having me, Jay.

02:49:23.000 I really appreciate it.

02:49:24.000 It was awesome.

02:49:24.000 Thank you.

02:49:25.000 All right.

The Joe Rogan Experience - January 23, 2025

Joe Rogan Experience #2261 - Warren Smith

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