The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1737 - Catching Up With Brett Cooper

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00:00:17.040 Brad Cooper, how's life out on the farm?

00:00:21.960 It's going well.

00:00:23.160 I just watched one of my escaped pigs run by the window,

00:00:26.880 actually before we logged on, so it's always exciting.

00:00:30.920 Are you going to go get the pig,

00:00:31.880 or do you have someone to be the pig wrangler?

00:00:34.160 Who wrangles the pigs? 0.99

00:00:37.080 I do, Alex does, but this particular pig, her name is Patsy. 1.00

00:00:41.120 We have tried everything. 0.87

00:00:42.320 We have repaired fences a myriad of times.

00:00:44.720 We have a hot wire.

00:00:46.640 We've tried different brands of hot wire.

00:00:50.680 She is seemingly immune to all of it,

00:00:53.040 and so we've just stopped Karen. 0.98

00:00:55.000 So she's now just a neighborhood pig, 1.00

00:00:57.160 and so she just runs around, 0.95

00:00:59.400 and at night she puts herself to sleep.

00:01:00.920 So that's just Patsy for you. 0.83

00:01:03.320 Alex is convinced that now she's bacon.

00:01:05.160 She needs to be bacon, 1.00

00:01:06.040 but now I have like a fondness in my heart for her.

00:01:09.000 But yeah, she just runs around. 1.00

00:01:12.040 Is that the plan to eat the pigs eventually?

00:01:14.200 I would assume.

00:01:15.720 Yes.

00:01:16.120 Yeah.

00:01:16.280 Well, we already have.

00:01:17.000 We've processed three already, and then we bred more.

00:01:20.920 So if you want any pork, we're just going to be giving it to family and friends,

00:01:23.960 so I'll ship some out to you.

00:01:27.080 I would appreciate it.

00:01:27.880 Well, how many animals do you have now?

00:01:29.960 We have, oh gosh, I've kind of like lost track of the cows.

00:01:35.960 I think we have like 15 cows and two more that are going to be born in the next couple of months,

00:01:41.560 and then we have Patsy, the escape artist pig, 0.98

00:01:45.960 and then her two parents that we have on the farm,

00:01:48.360 and then seven piglets that were born.

00:01:52.360 So we have a lot of pigs right now,

00:01:53.720 and then we have chickens, ducks, and geese, and then two mules.

00:01:59.960 What possible function?

00:02:02.440 I mean, this is not what we're supposed to be talking about, but why do you have geese?

00:02:05.880 Like, geese are the most obnoxious animals. 0.99

00:02:08.760 They're loud, they smell, they shit on everything. 0.97

00:02:11.800 They are, but they're fun, Matt. 0.99

00:02:13.720 They're fun, and they actually do serve a purpose,

00:02:16.360 because they are great at defending the chickens and the ducks.

00:02:20.760 Obviously, they're not going to fight off coyotes,

00:02:22.680 is not what I'm trying to say, but for predators that are overhead and as a deterrent,

00:02:27.000 because they are so loud, they're great at protecting the rest of the flock.

00:02:32.360 Also, they're kind of, I know that this is not like a,

00:02:36.840 I'll make this like a family-friendly story,

00:02:39.160 but there is a lot of sexual things that happen in like the bird world,

00:02:44.360 and it all comes from dominance.

00:02:45.640 Like in the animal kingdom, there's just a lot of dominance.

00:02:48.120 And so chickens, like the rooster will be on top of a chicken,

00:02:51.000 ducks will be like fighting over one of these like female ducks, 1.00

00:02:53.960 and the geese have none of it. They are like anti all of it.

00:02:56.840 They stick their heads down, they put their necks out,

00:02:58.840 and they just squawk at all of them. They break up every single fight.

00:03:01.880 They stop all of the promiscuous activity,

00:03:04.760 and then they're also great like predator deterrent.

00:03:06.920 So that's why we have them, and they're just funny to look at.

00:03:10.520 So they're like the grumpy Puritans of the bird kingdom. 1.00

00:03:15.000 They're you. They're you.

00:03:17.800 You actually might identify with an African goose.

00:03:21.400 Maybe I do. I have been pretty upset at you for a while for being such a, 0.99

00:03:30.520 as you know, for being such a bad influence on my wife, 1.00

00:03:33.000 and encouraging her and her delusions of being a farmer,

00:03:36.280 her delusions of agriculture, as I have come to call it.

00:03:41.400 So, and a lot of that goes to you.

00:03:43.880 So I was hoping you would tell me that the farm is a total disaster.

00:03:47.240 You hate all of it. You regret ever doing it.

00:03:49.560 And then I could triumphantly show that to my wife, but you sound,

00:03:52.280 unfortunately you sound happy, which is not what I wanted to hear.

00:03:56.280 Do you still have, do you still have your goats?

00:03:58.120 I haven't checked in on her lately on the goats.

00:04:01.560 Um, yeah, we have two, we have two goats, so that's it.

00:04:03.960 We don't, they don't do anything. They don't do anything.

00:04:06.360 They're just, they're just there. They, they, they're not even though they're not.

00:04:11.240 They, they smell, they're ugly. 0.98

00:04:13.320 They look Satan, like goats are a symbol of Satanism. Okay. 0.99

00:04:16.680 They have these weird slit eyes that look at the, with the, with the pupils and they don't do anything.

00:04:22.600 So, you know, I was, I was out yesterday, the, the water is freezing where the goats are.

00:04:28.040 Yeah.

00:04:28.440 And so I got to go out and like break my wife has, well, can you go break up the ice in the, in the water thing so that, uh, so they can get to the water. 1.00

00:04:35.960 It's like, okay, so I'm out there, it's cold, it's dark, it's snowing.

00:04:40.440 Why am I doing this? What are you, what are you doing for me?

00:04:43.720 It was my question to the goats and, uh, of course they couldn't answer.

00:04:46.360 So typical, uh, what, so I wanted to ask you before we, before we, you know, you know, we're talking to talk about the pen dragon and, and all that.

00:04:57.800 But you are in the middle, since we're talking this week, you're, I do have to ask, you're kind of in the middle of a major controversy.

00:05:05.320 And, uh, the, the controversy, if you don't mind, because the controversy is that you, from what I understand is that you said hi to someone.

00:05:13.880 Yeah.

00:05:14.200 Uh, and that was, that was, that was rather scandalous.

00:05:19.720 Why?

00:05:20.160 Yeah.

00:05:20.360 It was scandalous.

00:05:21.520 So I was invited to a fashion show for near fashion week from a designer called, um, her name is Elena Velez.

00:05:29.120 She is super cool. 0.84

00:05:30.240 She's on the right.

00:05:31.440 She's very much a disruptor in the fashion industry. 1.00

00:05:34.400 And I learned that she had been a fan of the show and invited me to come see her New York fashion week show.

00:05:39.440 And it was a great experience.

00:05:40.320 I was super excited about it.

00:05:41.280 Like she's remarkable.

00:05:42.160 And it was just like a very, very different world than I'm used to being in.

00:05:46.000 So that was very fun.

00:05:46.800 And I went with Brittany Hugo Boom from Evie magazine.

00:05:49.760 I know you know her.

00:05:50.720 Um, and so we were there and after I had been invited, I learned that clavicular, the looks maxer that he was going to be walking in the show.

00:06:01.200 And so that obviously was hilarious to me.

00:06:03.800 And I was like, okay, this is going to be a great experience and it'll be funny to see him in person.

00:06:07.920 And obviously I had made an episode about him before he really even like took off in the X space.

00:06:15.160 I would say with like all of our people knowing who he was, I made a video being like, this guy is insane.

00:06:20.400 This whole looks maxing craze is being taken to a completely unhealthy level.

00:06:24.020 The kid does, you know, meth.

00:06:26.000 He, he does meth so that he can get through fasts.

00:06:29.400 He wears makeup.

00:06:30.680 He does this thing.

00:06:32.520 Oh gosh.

00:06:33.000 It's, I don't remember what it's called, but where he like hops around from like books to books on, on the floor to like make himself seem taller if he's with a woman.

00:06:41.260 Like it's just all of this insane stuff to try to make himself be super attractive.

00:06:44.600 That's the whole goal of like looks maxing.

00:06:46.460 Um, so I'd done an episode about that.

00:06:48.560 And then I had talked about him hanging out with like Sneeko and Fuentes and all of these guys.

00:06:53.120 And so I got lumped into this conversation, but I had been pretty harsh.

00:06:56.740 And so when he was there after the show, um, I was like, you know, I should probably go say hi to him.

00:07:02.180 Because he acknowledged that I was there.

00:07:03.980 I wasn't watching his stream, but I knew that he knew that I was going to be there.

00:07:06.260 I was like, I should probably just go say hi and be polite.

00:07:07.840 Cause I just like ripped him to shreds two weeks ago on my show.

00:07:10.800 And I try not to be an absolute.

00:07:13.640 And so, yeah, I went up and I said, hi.

00:07:15.580 And I was with Brittany and then recognized a friend of mine, Liv Schmidt, who I had talked about on comment section a while back.

00:07:21.560 And who I helped out when she had been canceled a few years ago off of TikTok.

00:07:25.620 And that was the entire interaction.

00:07:27.140 I said, hi, I shook his hand.

00:07:28.260 And the internet lost their mind because Alex was not at the fashion show with me.

00:07:33.260 They thought that it was like disgusting that I would say hi to this individual and that I smiled.

00:07:37.840 They like zoomed in on my face as I shook his hand and then took three steps back and was talking to my friend.

00:07:43.360 Anyway, it was a whole scandal.

00:07:44.480 So, yeah, I'm a terrible person apparently because I said hi to him.

00:07:47.420 Um, and I had a lot of people saying like, why wasn't your husband there?

00:07:50.220 Like, do you, do you think my husband would want to be at a fashion show?

00:07:53.380 No, he like did not want to be there. 0.91

00:07:55.540 Um, my public assistant and I were laughing and he was like, Brett, like husbands only get invited to fashion shows if they're gay rappers. 0.60

00:08:00.840 Like this is normal.

00:08:02.000 Anyway, so that was, that was the scandal and people have been talking about it for days now.

00:08:07.880 And that was the, that was the end of your interaction with this guy.

00:08:10.540 That was it.

00:08:11.180 That was the end of my interaction.

00:08:13.640 Unfortunately for the internet, I'm sure that they want more controversy, but no, that was literally it.

00:08:17.480 Well, one way that I avoid these kinds of things is I just don't say hi to anyone ever.

00:08:23.360 I'm not nice to anyone ever.

00:08:25.180 So that's, that's one, you know, that's, that's the advantage of being aggressively antisocial is that you never, you never find yourself in these situations.

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00:09:42.680 I do want to ask you about this because some of these concepts are just now coming across my, like making it into my radar.

00:09:52.960 Things like looks maxing, which I, in the last couple of weeks, I've been seeing this.

00:09:59.220 I never saw this term anywhere and now it's all over the place.

00:10:02.280 And what is that?

00:10:03.200 So that's, that's just, you want to look good and like you want to.

00:10:06.680 Yes.

00:10:07.280 That doesn't sound like a, a lot of this stuff is like, it doesn't sound like a new concept to me.

00:10:10.300 So you, so look your best.

00:10:12.220 Yes.

00:10:12.560 Is that what it is?

00:10:14.180 Exactly.

00:10:14.620 I guess it's a newfangled concept because we've been living in this society for years now. 0.86

00:10:17.920 Where everybody's trying to make themselves look as like hideous and ugly as possible.

00:10:21.360 Like maybe that's why, but it looks maxing.

00:10:24.220 It grew out of this idea that men wanted to make themselves look attractive and feel good about their attractiveness.

00:10:32.100 And they believe that they would move up in the social ranks with women and friends if they looked more attractive, which is true in our society.

00:10:39.760 So they are investing in their looks.

00:10:42.380 They are like the, the origination of it is, is healthy.

00:10:47.920 Like they were working out.

00:10:49.540 They were eating better.

00:10:52.160 They were trying to take pride in how they dress.

00:10:54.740 They would comb their hair, whatever it is.

00:10:56.280 And then it just blew out of proportion to now you have this kid clavicular kid.

00:11:00.760 He's like 20 years old where he's selling courses and streaming and inspiring all of these young men to do drugs.

00:11:08.220 And to, um, to bone smash is like a big thing that he does where you take a hammer to your jaw to, it's like creating these micro fractures in your bones that allows them to kind of be reshaped and grow back stronger.

00:11:20.960 So you have a better jawline, like just totally took it to a new level.

00:11:23.900 And, but honestly, this kid clavicular, he's now even bigger than just looks maxing.

00:11:28.880 He's kind of like this weird character artist in a way.

00:11:32.500 Like I keep saying his life is literally a reality show.

00:11:35.000 Like when I went and said hi to him, I inadvertently, like, I mean, I knew that I was like stepping into his reality show orbit.

00:11:42.520 Like he does these streams for like eight hours a day.

00:11:45.060 He has like a cast of characters.

00:11:46.680 It's like this whole world.

00:11:48.160 So it's less about the looks maxing now and more about just him as this like crazy internet character, but that's where it started.

00:11:54.880 So yeah, looks maxing is just the crazy idea of taking pride in how you look and as a man wanting to look good.

00:12:00.880 Yeah, it's interesting because there's this whole world of, uh, of streamers who, as far as I can tell, don't, don't really do anything.

00:12:12.360 They don't have any discernible skills.

00:12:15.760 They, they don't have any interesting opinions.

00:12:18.160 They don't have anything to say at all.

00:12:21.260 And yet, um, they have millions of fans and yet no, and yet nobody outside of those fans, like, yeah, millions of fans, but no one outside of, of, of,

00:12:30.880 that group knows who they are or would recognize them if they bumped into them in the street.

00:12:36.700 And so it's kind of, to me, it's this thing I've been thinking a lot about, about good.

00:12:41.740 Oh, no, I was going to, that's changed a little bit with clavicular.

00:12:44.080 Cause he's kind of now broken outside of that mold.

00:12:46.460 Like, usually I would agree with the streamers.

00:12:47.960 Like it's very niche.

00:12:48.700 Like what happens on Twitch and kick, like that's not a world that I'm really part of.

00:12:52.680 And you're right.

00:12:53.680 They'll stream for like eight hours a day and they're just walking around and they have like a posse of crew filming them just doing random things.

00:12:59.700 And I guess you could argue that that's sort of what happens on TikTok when girls are just filming, like, here's my day from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.

00:13:05.540 And they made a, like a smoothie and went to Pilates and it's like, why would anybody watch that?

00:13:09.000 So it's kind of like the male version of this.

00:13:10.860 But like, Matt, I was at dinner with, um, Alex and a bunch of our friends prior to going to New York.

00:13:17.080 And like these 35 year old guys were like, have you heard of clavicular?

00:13:22.660 Like, have you heard of looks maxing?

00:13:24.000 Like it's now made its way out of this kind of niche internet world.

00:13:27.680 So it's a bit wild, but yeah, usually it's just a very concentrated audience for sure.

00:13:35.020 And why is this one particular guy made it outside of that bubble?

00:13:39.080 Do you think what's the appeal?

00:13:40.480 I think he just has a, um, his team is really good.

00:13:45.060 I would say like they're blasting his clips everywhere and it's this mix of, it's different enough, I think, from the rest of the streamer content.

00:13:54.540 And I think the language has also taken off again, like looks maxing and mogging. 0.74

00:13:59.360 And now people are, you know, making their own words based off of that.

00:14:03.080 It's like, I'm yummy maxing.

00:14:04.480 I'm, you know, I don't even know that people are just doing their own iterations of it.

00:14:09.720 And so I think that all, you know, points back to him and has really blown this up even more.

00:14:14.180 So it's just taken on a life of its own, which is great.

00:14:17.060 You say yummy maxing?

00:14:18.540 What is that?

00:14:20.020 It's like, you're eating food.

00:14:21.180 That's good.

00:14:21.800 Like I posted when I was at doing the Superbowl, I was like, I'm yummy maxing.

00:14:25.800 We're eating wings or whatever.

00:14:27.240 And everybody was in the comments making jokes about that.

00:14:28.940 So it's just all, again, the language of itself has taken off or yeah.

00:14:32.660 Taking a world of its own, taking on a world of its own.

00:14:35.100 Here we go.

00:14:35.480 I can speak.

00:14:37.260 Yeah, sure.

00:14:38.820 Yeah.

00:14:39.320 This is something I've been talking about a lot is kind of the death of the monoculture.

00:14:43.280 And it used to be, we were, you know, we were, we, we all lived in one culture together

00:14:48.240 and we share this kind of cultural touchstones and a language.

00:14:51.140 And yeah, you had slang, younger people had their own slang, but, but generally we all had

00:14:56.280 the same cultural points of reference.

00:14:58.480 And now it's this fragmented, fractured atomized culture where everyone's kind of living in

00:15:04.660 their own universe.

00:15:06.260 And, uh, and it, to me, a lot of these streamers seem to be a good example of that.

00:15:09.820 A lot of the language that's totally impenetrable and inaccessible for anyone, unless you're like 1.00

00:15:14.740 in a specific age group and you watch these people.

00:15:17.600 And, um, I don't know.

00:15:19.140 What, what do you, what do you, what do you think about that?

00:15:20.740 Do you think there's something to that?

00:15:22.600 No, I completely agree.

00:15:23.740 And it's, it's also very evident on TikTok where there are like sub genres on TikTok,

00:15:29.240 like your algorithm looks nothing like somebody else's algorithm and you're being, you know,

00:15:34.880 fed this type of content and there will be a community within that.

00:15:38.940 And so even on one platform, you'll have people having completely different experiences and

00:15:42.940 speaking in a totally different language, essentially using different phrases.

00:15:46.160 The same is on X.

00:15:47.740 Like I'll look at, you know, my friend's feed and it's completely different from mine.

00:15:51.580 Maybe there'll be like some cross over there with people that we follow, but I think due

00:15:56.480 to algorithms feeding us what we naturally start interacting with or talking about, it

00:16:02.860 does create these factions.

00:16:04.600 Um, this reminded me, have you, this is a great example of this.

00:16:08.260 Have you heard of the trend of being Chinese?

00:16:14.140 I've heard of Chinese people.

00:16:16.220 I didn't know that it could be a trend.

00:16:17.520 Yeah, obviously.

00:16:17.880 Like, okay.

00:16:19.400 So there's this whole trend right now where people are adopting aspects.

00:16:23.660 You'll get a kick out of this.

00:16:24.600 They're adopting aspects of Chinese culture, but rather than just saying, oh, I'm enjoying

00:16:28.820 like a hot tea with lemon.

00:16:31.100 I'm eating some congee, whatever it is.

00:16:32.720 Like I'm going to a Chinese restaurant and having, you know, lo mein, whatever it is.

00:16:37.220 They're going on TikTok and they're saying like, I was just diagnosed as Chinese.

00:16:40.860 Like you're not just adopting parts of Chinese culture.

00:16:43.860 Or you're now saying, oh no, I am Chinese.

00:16:45.820 And it's so ironic because we just got, you know, we spent 2020 where people were screaming

00:16:50.060 about cultural appropriation and you can't have braids in your hair because then you 0.97

00:16:53.300 hate black people, whatever it is. 0.99

00:16:54.920 And now on social media through this little like subgenre, people are saying, I was just 0.99

00:16:58.500 diagnosed as Chinese.

00:16:59.660 I'm so Chinese.

00:17:00.340 I'm like at a Chinese moment in my life right now.

00:17:02.920 And people are, you know, wearing Chinese outfits.

00:17:06.740 They are posting TikToks using Chinese sounds and songs.

00:17:11.440 They are doing like funny impressions where it'll be like girls and they're wearing socks 0.97

00:17:16.300 and they have little like Chinese man slides and they're walking around.

00:17:19.420 And it's just this whole little bubble on TikTok.

00:17:23.380 And I have one other friend that also found herself on this weird side of TikTok and nobody

00:17:28.480 else knows what we're talking about, but it's huge.

00:17:30.320 These videos have hundreds of thousands of likes and comments.

00:17:33.480 And so it's not like a super niche thing, but in the grand scheme of the internet, it

00:17:36.840 is.

00:17:37.140 So that's just one example of it, I guess.

00:17:40.560 Are they, do they do the eyes?

00:17:42.460 Do they go all, do they go all the way to do the eyes too?

00:17:44.900 Or is that, is that out of a.

00:17:46.500 No, I should try that.

00:17:47.620 I should try it and make a video and see if that's like taking it a step too far.

00:17:51.260 If it's not fun anymore after that.

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00:19:00.040 Yeah, it's weird.

00:19:01.380 I mean, like when I, there's also a kind of nihilism that I see in a lot of these people

00:19:07.640 and a lot of this kind of the internet culture and the streamers and everything where it seems

00:19:12.360 like the ascendant philosophy, especially in younger generations, is less leftism and more

00:19:21.400 a kind of like nihilism where nothing matters, nothing really means anything, nothing is sacred,

00:19:27.440 nothing matters at all, life doesn't matter.

00:19:30.860 Is that, are you, do you pick up on that?

00:19:33.080 Am I imagining that?

00:19:35.780 No, I think that's accurate.

00:19:36.880 I think that there is less political allegiance, I would say, especially with my generation with

00:19:43.640 Zoomers, where you see a lot of young people who I think pollsters would say, oh, these are, 0.98

00:19:49.440 you know, they're becoming really conservative, they're leaving the left, but I don't really

00:19:53.040 see that.

00:19:53.800 I see it more so as Gen Z just kind of saying to hell with the labels and, you know, woke

00:19:59.740 ism, a lot of them think, you know, are cringe.

00:20:02.040 They don't want to have controlled speech, but they probably wouldn't say that they're

00:20:04.640 conservative.

00:20:05.340 They're kind of living in this middle, you know, middle ground.

00:20:07.700 And so that's one example of it.

00:20:09.200 And then I do think a lot of people who would normally be on the left are adopting that nihilism

00:20:14.080 where it's less about politics and it's just genuinely like, we don't care, nothing

00:20:18.620 matters, the world is burning, the economy is terrible, whatever it may be.

00:20:22.580 So we're just going to like make our TikToks and try to have a good time.

00:20:27.080 What about the generation after you?

00:20:29.000 What are you picking up from them?

00:20:31.060 Are they, are you encouraged or are you encouraged or discouraged by what's next?

00:20:36.840 Gen alpha, I guess.

00:20:38.080 What are you, what are you seeing from them?

00:20:39.800 I think, I think your kids will probably be the exception here because a lot of them,

00:20:43.720 I think, terrify people.

00:20:45.580 Like that's the reason why so many teachers are quitting or because of gen alpha.

00:20:49.420 Like the, this is the first generation of real iPad kids who have been raised by interactive

00:20:54.340 devices.

00:20:55.280 They are, you know, from the age of gentle parenting when millennials were adopting that 0.94

00:21:00.120 entire philosophy and they're coming into schools and they are totally uncontrollable.

00:21:04.500 They have no focus.

00:21:05.980 They're falling behind in school.

00:21:07.660 Um, many of them are violent, like causing teachers to have to quit because they don't

00:21:12.340 feel safe in these environments.

00:21:13.660 There was that whole trend.

00:21:15.640 I wouldn't even say trend.

00:21:16.680 I think that's the wrong word for it, but it was just a conversation about this a couple

00:21:20.400 of years ago about the Sephora kids.

00:21:22.540 And that was just another term for gen alpha.

00:21:24.600 But these, you know, 12 year old, 12 year old girls were going into support at the makeup

00:21:28.420 store, destroying the entire store. 0.76

00:21:30.680 They were using all of the tester products, throwing things on the ground, stealing.

00:21:35.640 It's also just insane.

00:21:36.840 The 12 year olds will be going in, trying on adult makeup that like, you know, a 30 year

00:21:40.860 old woman would be wearing. 0.99

00:21:42.080 They don't need that.

00:21:43.480 Um, they're all over social media doing makeup tutorials.

00:21:47.260 And here's what I got for Christmas.

00:21:48.720 And it's all of this insane skincare and they're, you know, adopting all of the very, I would

00:21:53.920 say adult influencer-y, very online behaviors.

00:21:58.940 Like I'll be making a video and it's, you know, some kind of 12 year old and she's like

00:22:02.240 sitting here, like tapping the drink or whatever it is.

00:22:04.960 And so they're an incredibly online and disconnected generation for sure.

00:22:09.800 Uh, so I, um, a bit concerned, I would say based on what I've seen, and I think the adults

00:22:14.020 in the room are also concerned considering that they are quitting and just saying to

00:22:17.380 hell with this.

00:22:17.800 I don't even want to work with these kids.

00:22:18.960 So hopefully we can change course a little bit.

00:22:23.240 It's kind of, it's early of course, but have you thought about what your strategy or policy

00:22:27.220 is going to be as a parent when it comes to screens?

00:22:29.320 I mean, it's, it's, it's pretty, uh, I'm pretty open about the fact that I'm, that

00:22:33.540 we, uh, we, we are very, we are very anti-screen in our house.

00:22:37.940 Not entirely.

00:22:38.480 I mean, we have a TV and stuff and the kids don't have phones or anything like that.

00:22:42.000 Um, these people that were, they got seven-year-old kids running around with iPads with full internet

00:22:46.500 access.

00:22:46.840 I just think it's like insane.

00:22:48.620 Uh, so have you thought about how you're going to, how you're going to handle that?

00:22:52.440 For sure.

00:22:53.280 I grew up in a house where we also had a TV, but we didn't have cable and it was just purely

00:22:57.920 for DVDs.

00:22:59.440 Like I grew up on, I love Lucy and, you know, the Andy Griffith show, things like that.

00:23:03.820 Uh, and we had a designated TV room.

00:23:05.660 So there were no personal devices, which I really loved.

00:23:08.600 And in reading, um, the literature about the impacts on technology, what most of the, I would

00:23:16.960 say, I think most of the pitfalls come from these handheld interactive devices.

00:23:21.280 Like it's less about sitting and watching a movie with your kids, which I know, you know,

00:23:25.520 you enjoy or watching the Ravens, whatever it is, that is less detrimental.

00:23:29.720 It is the putting an iPad in front of them and letting that piece of equipment parent them.

00:23:34.780 And so that's for sure where we are drawing the lines.

00:23:37.140 We have conversations about this all the time.

00:23:39.260 Um, no phones, no iPads.

00:23:42.420 I love the idea of going back to more antiquated technology.

00:23:46.960 It's where we will have, you know, a landline.

00:23:49.640 So there'll be like a family phone.

00:23:50.680 If you want to call your friends, you don't get to go sit in your room and have your own

00:23:53.780 iPhone and talk on FaceTime until all hours of the night.

00:23:56.640 You can go sit in the kitchen like I used to do and call your grandparents or call your

00:24:00.180 friends.

00:24:00.880 Um, and it's so funny there's now, I don't know if you've noticed, it's very cyclical in

00:24:03.900 a way, but they're bringing back that kind of technology.

00:24:07.000 And granted, you could still just go online and buy a home phone that you plug into the wall,

00:24:11.060 but there are now like old school rotary type phones that are in bright, colorful colors

00:24:15.720 that you connect to your, uh, your cell phone plan.

00:24:18.560 So it's connected to your iPhone, but it only has these certain phone numbers that your kids

00:24:22.020 could call and it can connect to other families if they buy that certain phone.

00:24:25.720 So there's now new technology that's coming out that is safer for kids.

00:24:31.100 Safer is, I think, the best word to use.

00:24:33.280 Um, less distracting, less addicting.

00:24:35.440 So that gives me hope that I think a lot of people are noticing that this is an issue.

00:24:39.160 So they're trying to innovate and make that easy for families.

00:24:42.120 Um, I also love the idea, Alex and I have been looking for one on eBay, but getting a

00:24:47.060 VHS player and having a collection of, you know, VHS tapes and DVDs and, you know, here

00:24:52.140 are the movies and shows that you can watch the old school ones before they were, you know,

00:24:56.040 editor edited before they had, you know, politically correct disclaimers at the top of the Disney

00:25:00.660 movies.

00:25:00.960 So those are all the things we've been thinking about.

00:25:04.760 Yeah.

00:25:05.180 I like how the new innovations are, uh, rotary phones and maybe we'll, maybe we'll innovate.

00:25:10.280 Uh, we'll, we'll go back, we'll, we'll go back to the printing press instead of computers.

00:25:13.820 And that'll be the next innovation I wanted to, I wanted to, so, so let's talk about, um,

00:25:20.300 so one thing that someone can watch on a screen that is actually worth watching, which is a

00:25:24.200 pen dragon.

00:25:25.620 And I have, I actually didn't watch the series until it was released to the general public.

00:25:31.560 Um, I was, I was forbidden from seeing it.

00:25:34.160 So I haven't made it to the episode yet that revolves around, uh, your character.

00:25:37.720 I have been, and I said this publicly that I was, uh, I was, I didn't know what to expect,

00:25:42.700 um, with, with this, with the series, because it's so, it's so ridiculously ambitious to take

00:25:50.740 on something like this.

00:25:51.600 Um, and I've been very pleasantly surprised, uh, by every element of it.

00:25:57.420 So what, well, tell us about your character and just kind of like your, how you feel about the,

00:26:04.240 about the series now.

00:26:05.920 Yeah.

00:26:06.760 Uh, so I play Ghanietta and this upcoming episode that's coming out on Thursday, the 19th, um,

00:26:13.620 is my, I would say title episode.

00:26:15.980 You've sort of seen me scattered in other episodes, just popping in and out, not really sure what

00:26:22.780 I'm doing or who I am.

00:26:23.840 Um, so my episode will be coming out on Thursday and I love this episode because it does feel

00:26:30.100 kind of like a mini movie in a way and I won't spoil anything, but it gives you a lot of context

00:26:36.520 for the rest of the series and for Merlin's character, Tom Sharp.

00:26:41.760 And so I play Merlin's wife and that's who Ghanietta is.

00:26:46.980 And so their relationship provides a lot of insight into why he is the way he is today and

00:26:53.380 what he's going through, where he's come from.

00:26:55.320 And it fills in a lot of the gaps and it's a really, really sweet episode.

00:27:00.600 And I just loved doing it.

00:27:02.760 It was such a pleasure.

00:27:04.700 My best friend, Rose Reed, I met her while working on Pendragon, but she actually wrote

00:27:09.400 this episode, which was very, very special.

00:27:11.700 Um, there was a myriad of writers working on the series and they all broke off and they were

00:27:15.060 working on different episodes and this was her baby.

00:27:18.720 And so it was very special to be able to work with her on that.

00:27:21.400 She's just a wonderful writer.

00:27:23.200 She did such a great job with it.

00:27:24.660 And Tom was a wonderful guy to work with.

00:27:27.480 And it's very cool to see, I was talking about this with Michael, but it's very cool to see

00:27:31.560 actors who are, you know, this is like their first big role.

00:27:35.220 Like, you know, this entire series is essentially on the back of Tom Sharp.

00:27:38.760 And this was his first time doing something like that.

00:27:40.960 And he took it so seriously.

00:27:42.820 He was incredibly committed.

00:27:43.800 It was great to work with.

00:27:45.360 And so it was just really special.

00:27:46.740 So it's a very, very sweet episode.

00:27:48.340 It has a bit of a different tone than some of the other ones.

00:27:50.980 So I think people will really enjoy it.

00:27:52.820 And it also, it was fun because I, um, it does kind of stand alone in a way.

00:27:58.280 So if you are hopping in just to watch this episode, again, it almost feels like a mini,

00:28:03.240 a mini movie, which is cool.

00:28:06.520 What, and that's true of a lot of the actors in the series, right?

00:28:09.180 Where this was kind of their first big, big thing.

00:28:11.200 A lot of, uh, maybe not newcomers, but people who, this is their biggest project they, they

00:28:15.640 tackled.

00:28:17.300 Yes, for sure.

00:28:18.120 And I always want to be careful without, you know, with saying newcomer or saying, oh,

00:28:22.440 it's like their first thing because so many of these actors, you know, were in school for

00:28:26.980 years studying acting and have done plays and episodic roles and, you know, a little thing

00:28:31.480 on a TV show here.

00:28:32.180 But this is again, they're like the first thing that is like really meaty that they're

00:28:35.780 getting to sink their teeth into and really take on.

00:28:38.600 Um, and so it's just the excitement and the response, even just from within the cast has

00:28:42.800 been really special.

00:28:43.420 Like we have a whole group chat and every single week when an episode comes up, they're

00:28:46.380 like, oh my gosh, this is so incredible because most of them haven't seen it either.

00:28:49.820 Um, there was a screening that the team did in London for some of the folks, but a lot of

00:28:54.020 people, they're just watching it as it comes out.

00:28:56.380 And that's, what's crazy about filmmaking and Hollywood is that you pour all of this

00:29:01.140 energy, like this love and blood, sweat and tears into this project.

00:29:05.400 You know, we all moved to Budapest.

00:29:06.800 Some, some of us were there for three months.

00:29:08.540 Some people were there for six months, but you are totally entrenched in this project

00:29:13.020 with, you know, this cast and all these great people.

00:29:16.000 And then you just leave.

00:29:17.720 And some people, you know, live in similar places.

00:29:20.940 So Rose and I, you know, live, you know, a few minutes from each other.

00:29:24.080 And some of the cast lives in London, so they get to see each other.

00:29:27.300 But for the most part, you just kind of break off and you go on and you do the rest of your

00:29:30.660 work.

00:29:30.880 You go back to whatever your day job is, or you move on to another project and you don't

00:29:34.900 think about it.

00:29:35.240 You don't see it for however long it takes to come out.

00:29:37.600 So this has been two years in the making, not just for the production crew, but for the

00:29:40.940 cast.

00:29:41.360 And so it's very cool to remember all the scenes that we did together and to see it all

00:29:45.260 come to life.

00:29:46.120 And yeah, it's really special.

00:29:47.220 And everybody is very, very excited.

00:29:50.900 What, how long did it take you to film this?

00:29:53.220 This, your, this episode that revolves around you.

00:29:56.760 It was very spread out.

00:29:58.400 So that's the reason why I was in Budapest for however long I was.

00:30:01.840 I can't even remember at this point.

00:30:03.280 Because with filmmaking, you usually are not shooting in a linear format.

00:30:07.520 So you're not going episode one, episode two, it was scattered all around.

00:30:10.860 So there would be some weeks where I would be filming, you know, basically 10 days in

00:30:16.360 a row.

00:30:16.780 And then I would have two weeks off because they were in Italy shooting something else.

00:30:20.180 And then I would pop in for a day here.

00:30:21.440 So it was more location focused.

00:30:22.800 So I think I was there for almost four months, but it was just scattered around depending

00:30:28.820 on how they had laid out the schedule and the location where they were filming at that

00:30:33.300 time.

00:30:35.460 Yeah.

00:30:35.820 This is the thing about making, uh, I mean, the things that I've made are smaller scale

00:30:39.360 in terms of people involved.

00:30:40.200 But one thing I've tried to tell people is that it, when you're, when you're making a

00:30:44.480 movie or show or anything, it's like, it can, there's so many.

00:30:48.120 So it's such a long chain of people who are involved at every level from pre-production

00:30:52.760 or production to post-production that, uh, if there's a failure at any point along that

00:30:57.040 line, it can ruin the entire thing.

00:30:59.040 And so, uh, I would imagine making something like this.

00:31:02.720 So you go do your scenes, but it's like, well, now we got to, you know, you don't have any

00:31:07.140 control over how the series is put together.

00:31:09.140 You go into the edit, you have no say over that.

00:31:12.360 So, uh, were you, how did you feel sort of seeing everything finally put together?

00:31:18.920 No, I was, I don't want to say pleasantly surprised.

00:31:22.180 Cause I think that diminishes it, but I was really happy because when we were on the ground

00:31:27.840 there and I saw the commitment from the entire crew and the cast, and I was watching what

00:31:33.060 you call the dailies, which is, you know, what they filmed throughout that day.

00:31:37.380 Um, and I would be on set watching on the monitor.

00:31:40.020 It looked incredible.

00:31:41.460 Like it was beautifully done.

00:31:43.440 The performances were great.

00:31:45.220 Um, I'd read the scripts, but you don't really know how it's all going to come together,

00:31:49.140 especially when you're putting in, you know, VFX.

00:31:51.320 Um, effects and they're going to do color correction and they made Tom's eyes, you know,

00:31:58.480 yellow, but we didn't have that when he was filming cause he wasn't wearing contacts.

00:32:01.500 So there's so many different pieces that come together to make it that final product.

00:32:05.040 And so of course there are variables there, but when we were there actually shooting just

00:32:08.440 purely based off of what I could see on the monitor and from my fellow actors, I knew

00:32:13.040 that it was going to be special and I knew that it was going to be good.

00:32:15.600 Like I was not watching this going like, Oh, this is like, what are we doing here?

00:32:18.760 I was like, Oh no, this is something different.

00:32:21.320 This is like a very, very cool production.

00:32:24.400 There is, you know, it was a huge swing from daily wire, obviously.

00:32:28.340 And I was really, really excited to see, um, that I, that I thought it was going to

00:32:33.340 pan out.

00:32:33.880 So when I did finally get to watch some of it, I was also forbidden.

00:32:36.940 Uh, most of the cast didn't get to see it until, um, right before, uh, right before

00:32:41.480 it aired to the public.

00:32:42.480 Um, so I think all of us were very, very excited after investing all of that time and the blood,

00:32:47.000 sweat and tears.

00:32:47.500 So yeah, very gratifying for sure.

00:32:50.980 Do you plan to continue acting?

00:32:53.080 Do you have any other projects lined up or anything?

00:32:55.600 I don't have any more projects lined up right now.

00:32:58.020 I keep saying that if it was the right thing, I would, it's not what I want to pursue full

00:33:04.100 time.

00:33:04.340 Um, obviously there's a reason why I walked away from it, but there's so much that I love

00:33:08.940 about it and I love filmmaking and I love storytelling and I feel really grateful that

00:33:12.520 the show that I do, I get to kind of combine those passions and I get to tell a story, communicate

00:33:16.800 with an audience, um, and make them feel something.

00:33:20.320 That's really why I loved performing and acting was because I got to connect with people and

00:33:24.320 through the art of storytelling, um, hopefully leave them changed and impacted in some way,

00:33:29.980 make them feel something.

00:33:31.000 And so I love that I get to kind of combine all of those passions with what I do now.

00:33:35.120 So if there was another project, I would love to dive in and sink my teeth into that, but

00:33:39.840 it's not what I'm pursuing on a daily basis.

00:33:42.160 So it would have to be something special.

00:33:43.840 So we'll see.

00:33:45.960 Are you hopeful in, uh, that conservatives can actually make a dent in the entertainment

00:33:50.980 industry or does it feel kind of like a fool's errand?

00:33:53.660 Like there's no, there's no hope of actually making a real impact. 0.87

00:33:57.440 No, I don't think it's a fool's errand.

00:33:58.960 I think that it has taken years of, you know, people taking these big swings and slogging

00:34:06.280 away and pushing through mockery and laughter.

00:34:10.920 And I think with a combination of shows like this and the things that Angel Studios is doing

00:34:14.820 and movies like, um, Dennis Quaid's movie Reagan, I think that we are making big strides, not

00:34:21.660 to mention your documentaries, but I mean, in every single aspect of entertainment, I

00:34:27.140 think the conservatives are taking real strides and they're doing so not just within this kind

00:34:32.460 of like conservative network bubble.

00:34:34.220 Cause obviously the daily wire is known for politics and the shows and the podcasts, all

00:34:38.740 of that.

00:34:39.100 But even outside of this conservative bubble, just conservative creatives, I think are taking

00:34:45.900 really big strides and our culture has changed enough and people have become emboldened that

00:34:51.240 I think they are finally getting their flowers.

00:34:52.640 Even going back to what we were talking about with New York Fashion Week, the designer whose

00:34:55.400 show I went to, she's very, you know, publicly not in lockstep with the left and the majority

00:35:01.900 of the fashion industry.

00:35:04.240 And yet she had an incredible show that was totally sold out.

00:35:08.900 You know, people were standing up against the walls, trying to get a peek at what she

00:35:12.080 was doing.

00:35:13.000 Taylor Swift wears her designs, Charlie XCX, Ariana Grande, like even with her being this

00:35:18.860 kind of like problematic figure and not shying away from these difficult conversations and

00:35:23.160 moving away from wrong think, people are still celebrating her.

00:35:26.600 And so I'm seeing more and more of that, obviously not just in entertainment, but in all of these

00:35:31.320 different creative fields.

00:35:32.300 So I feel, I feel a lot of help, which is very exciting.

00:35:35.860 And hopefully Pendragon will move that needle a little more.

00:35:38.960 Well, last thing, you know, if you ever start another medieval epic, my, my dream has been

00:35:46.080 to die a heroic and gruesome death in a battle scene.

00:35:49.080 I don't need to be a character. 0.98

00:35:50.020 I just want to die. 0.99

00:35:51.340 And I said that, I said that when this was being filmed, like just, you can behead me or 0.99

00:35:55.600 something.

00:35:56.180 I think a lot of people would love to see it across the political spectrum.

00:35:59.320 So if you're ever, if you're ever in that spot again, just put a good word in for me,

00:36:02.740 if you could.

00:36:03.720 Sounds great.

00:36:04.420 Maybe we could just do it ourselves.

00:36:05.920 Like we can do a short film.

00:36:07.080 You can come out to the farm.

00:36:08.560 You can like stand around with a cow and we can do like a, we'll get Dallas, who's the

00:36:11.780 executive producer of Pendragon. 0.99

00:36:12.880 We can just do a great beheading. 0.97

00:36:14.880 Do it just to really make it excellent.

00:36:17.140 We'll just film, we'll film a lot of very imaginative death scenes of me.

00:36:21.800 And I think people will really, really enjoy that.

00:36:24.240 The internet will love it.

00:36:24.540 Blue Sky will have a field day.

00:36:25.880 Brett, thanks for, thanks for coming on.

00:36:29.880 Appreciate it.

00:36:31.120 Yeah.

00:36:31.380 Good to see you, Matt.

00:36:32.020 Talk to you soon.

00:36:38.940 They told you America invented slavery.

00:36:42.500 They told you the Indians were peaceful.

00:36:46.060 They told you colonialism was evil and that Joseph McCarthy was a bad guy.

00:36:51.040 And guess what?

00:36:52.380 They lied.

00:36:53.040 For half a century, generations of American school children have been taught to hate our

00:36:57.700 history, hate our country, and hate themselves.

00:37:01.380 Time to set the record straight.

00:37:03.240 And since no one else is going to do it, I will.

00:37:06.760 Who sold us to slaves? 0.73

00:37:08.260 What were India and Africa like before Europeans arrived?

00:37:11.420 What caused white flight?

00:37:13.560 Some of the most well-known stories from American history are designed to demoralize you.

00:37:17.280 Trail of tears, smallpox, blanket smith, the red scare.

00:37:21.440 It's all baseless.

00:37:22.980 It's time for a lesson on what they're not teaching in public schools.

00:37:26.540 On the real history of slavery, of colonialism, of the Indians, of America, and the world.

00:37:33.100 It's time for Real History with Matt Walsh.

00:37:36.480 Now streaming only on Daily Wire Plus.

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The Matt Walsh Show - February 20, 2026

Ep. 1737 - Catching Up With Brett Cooper

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