The Truth About TRIGGERnometry Part 3
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 33 minutes
Words per Minute
183.87636
Summary
In this special episode of Trigonometry, Francis and Constantine talk about their favourite moments of the year, and what they're looking forward to in 2019. They also talk about what they've been up to in the past year and what's coming up in 2020.
Transcript
00:00:00.560
I think the biggest like standout moment for me was definitely the America trip.
00:00:04.880
Because it wasn't really a moment, it was like two and a half weeks
00:00:08.000
in which we interviewed a crap ton of amazing guests.
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I'll tell you what was a real highlight for me when I interviewed you
00:00:18.880
We did that in February, I've forgotten about that, yeah.
00:00:21.040
And by the way, we raised over £55,000 for charities that work in Ukraine.
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People, enough smart people, or smarter than us people at least,
00:00:32.640
are asking questions like, well, what is the positive vision for people like us?
00:00:38.880
Why should anybody join our tribe, whatever that tribe is, right?
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We've spent quite a lot of time opposing things,
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saying, well, that's wrong and that's stupid and that's...
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What does our way of thinking, what do the questions we ask
00:01:00.640
Yeah, because it's not enough to be against something.
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You can't base an identity on being anti-something.
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I think for the foreseeable future, I feel that it's our job to stay
00:01:21.680
Hello and welcome to a very special episode of Trigonometry.
00:01:29.280
And this is a show for you if you want interesting...
00:01:35.520
And this is the show for you if you want honest conversations with fascinating people.
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We have neither for you today because it's just me and Francis talking about the year
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that's just been and the year that's coming up.
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Huge for us in some ways, also quite difficult in other ways.
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It's been a year of ups and downs, of changes, of incredible experiences.
00:02:07.520
Well, I think the biggest standout moment for me was definitely the America trip.
00:02:14.080
And it was like two and a half weeks in which we interviewed a crap ton of amazing guests.
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We had that crazy Sam Harris episode that blew up all over the internet.
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What was your most memorable moment of the year?
00:02:32.880
To be honest with you, it was the America trip.
00:02:34.960
It had this strange, almost ethereal-like quality to it.
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Where, apart from a small blip at the beginning, do you remember with all the equipment where we
00:02:58.000
Like, every day had that surreal, dream-like quality, where we went to the Daily Wire,
00:03:09.360
That would be a meeting of the minds, wouldn't it?
00:03:11.760
Yeah, I can imagine they wouldn't get on that well.
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But it was an incredible experience, and it was so fun.
00:03:18.400
And it just showed us what was possible as well.
00:03:22.480
And speaking of what was possible, we're obviously sitting in our new studio,
00:03:27.760
I mean, the neon lights that people will be used to seeing were broken by one of the
00:03:37.920
And this room in the studio itself is looking good, but we've got more to do.
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And the office and green room part of the studio is nowhere near finished.
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And by the end of the year, we were forced to leave that, which is the eternal journey
00:03:59.440
People haven't seen the truth about trigonometry, particularly part one.
00:04:03.120
We talk about being kicked out of studio after studio.
00:04:06.800
But here in this place, we have a more or less long-term home.
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It was just one big empty room, and we've made it the way we want.
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But what were some of the other highlights of last year for you?
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I mean, some of the guests we've had on the show in the last year.
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I mean, think about some of our most popular episodes.
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Round about that January moment, which were very, very good.
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I think that was probably the first episode of 2022.
00:05:02.480
There were so many special moments in that last studio.
00:05:06.560
I'll tell you what was a real highlight for me.
00:05:09.040
When I interviewed you, the day that Putin invaded Ukraine.
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And by the way, we raised over 55,000 pounds for charities that work in Ukraine in one evening.
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And that, to me, well, first of all, I know that it will make a big difference to people on the ground there.
00:05:38.880
But also, I think it speaks to how amazing our fans are and what we've built here, too.
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Because that showed, you know, the number of people who watch and listen and pay attention to what we do
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I mean, when we said that it was going to be a fundraising Raw, I mean, I thought we were going to make a decent amount of money.
00:06:05.520
I didn't expect, because I had to work up, I was working up material for my tour, so I had to go and do a gig.
00:06:12.880
And I was like, oh, but if I leave at 8.40, that's plenty of time, you know, Raw will be finished.
00:06:19.440
Well, I felt really bad, because prior to doing it, I messaged a couple of our higher-end supporters
00:06:31.600
And I said to him, look, we're going to do this fundraiser. I'm guessing we'll probably raise about, I don't know, a couple of grand.
00:06:37.760
You know, you're a millionaire. Would you like to match it?
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And this is how you know why millionaires are millionaires.
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Because if they had matched it, they'd be in for about 50 grand each.
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So, yeah, it was incredible and very surprising.
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And I think sometimes you and I don't really realize how amazing the thing we've built is,
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and how much people enjoy it, and our community on Locals, which has been brilliant as well.
00:07:06.160
And it's been a really interesting year from a personal perspective for both of us as well.
00:07:13.760
And I had some fascinating insights into the way that the whole publishing industry works,
00:07:18.320
and books and everything, which we can talk about if you want.
00:07:24.560
He's seven months old now, which is just insane.
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It's changed a lot of the way that I see politics and life as well.
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Well, I certainly wouldn't say that I'm becoming conservative.
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I understand why people become more small-c conservative with time.
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I think it's life decisions and life events that really change that for you.
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Like, when I see the world through a parent's eyes,
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it completely changes how I perceive lots of things.
00:08:04.560
You know me, I've been as libertarian as anybody on the issue of drugs.
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But when I think about, do I want him to be able to buy heroin at the pharmacy at the age of 16?
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And I think it's also made me realize, particularly on the trans issue,
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which we've talked to death, frankly, but it won't go away.
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And so we've got to keep raising awareness of it.
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When you see how small and vulnerable and undeveloped also their brains are when they're small,
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you kind of go, they're not capable of making such decisions.
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And of course, no one makes a decision to transition at seven months.
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But you can see the progression from between where he is now and an adult.
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And you just go, these are not, children are not capable of making decisions of this nature.
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And they're likely to experience distress in teenage years and whatever.
00:09:02.160
And they're going to be looking for explanations of why they feel in a certain way.
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You know, and we've interviewed, in the last few days, we've interviewed both Ollie London and Helen Joyce,
00:09:10.800
which were both very powerful interviews in their own way.
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And that's one of the things that I realized, you know, a lot of young people are looking for answers
00:09:19.200
to the same existential questions that human beings have always been dealt with.
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But now they've got this fucking thing in their hand
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that just offers them this complete massive range of choices.
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And where in the past you would have felt distress or discomfort or questions about your future.
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Now you've just got this portal to hell in your hand.
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And so it's made me more conservative, more, I don't know if it's the right,
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it's conservative is the right word, but it's like my son isn't getting a smartphone for a very long time.
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I don't think we understand actually what smartphones are.
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I don't think we understand what they're doing to us.
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I think, I think it was Jordan Peterson who said this.
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We've all become part of an experiment and no one consented to.
00:10:08.240
They're changing our attention patterns in ways that we can't possibly understand.
00:10:25.920
But you and I grew up in an era, when I was growing up, there was no internet.
00:10:33.920
There were no computers for a long time in my childhood as well.
00:10:37.200
Um, and so you were not constantly plugged in to the, to this hive mind, but for young
00:10:45.040
people nowadays, who are growing up now, they've never experienced that world.
00:10:51.280
And the thing is, you recognize, particularly if you switch off from the internet for a couple
00:10:57.280
of days and you just go and do something out in the real world, the internet misrepresents
00:11:04.640
And yet, if that is all you know, if you've grown up with that from the beginning, it distorts
00:11:09.520
your view of reality, which I think is where a lot of this sort of culture war happens,
00:11:15.360
is because quite a lot of people have just become so disconnected from the real world.
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Then these phrases like, well, there's no difference between men and women, they become
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possible in a world in which you're not confronted with reality.
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And it's also, we get our ideas, not just of how other people are, what they're like
00:11:38.480
as people and how well they're doing or, or not how well they're not doing all of these
00:11:51.280
You can think someone is doing incredibly well and I mean, on one level they might be, or it
00:11:59.440
But in that moment, they might, they might be experiencing a tragedy.
00:12:03.520
And yet we look at them and we feel jealous that we are not them.
00:12:10.800
And so we have, we now think that this alternate version of reality is reality.
00:12:23.280
And that, you know, you touch on jealousy and that's one of the things that
00:12:26.000
has really shifted for me in the last few years, doing the show and Nikolai being born
00:12:33.280
It's like, I am so grateful for everything that we get to do.
00:12:38.080
Just the fact that we get to turn up and this is our job.
00:12:42.640
You know, we were talking, he was like, this isn't a real job.
00:12:48.960
And it's something I've been conscious of for a long time.
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And I've just, I've really forced myself, not that it was ever a big thing for me anyway,
00:12:57.840
but you know, everyone feels jealousy every now and again.
00:13:00.640
The fact that, you know, people commented on the fact that when we were on America trip
00:13:04.240
and we put those vlogs out, which our brilliant intern Elliot edited so well,
00:13:09.920
and we were saying grace before meals, even though none of us is religious.
00:13:13.120
But that's why we do it because our practice of gratitude is so important.
00:13:16.960
Um, particularly when we're building something and we're doing well and we're having a lot
00:13:25.120
And that's really something that I think we don't appreciate is the constant growth,
00:13:29.840
how fulfilling that is for us, because you and I are both very competitive and driven people.
00:13:34.480
And I think I, I always get itchy feet, certainly throughout my life in, in other jobs that I've
00:13:44.000
Once I start to feel like I've got it down and I know how this works and there's nothing new
00:13:48.560
and there's no problems to solve, I start to get bored.
00:13:51.440
Whereas with trigonometry, that really isn't the case.
00:13:54.080
So, and of course, you know, seeing a child be born and watching the first smile and like,
00:14:01.440
he's literally in the last two weeks gone from like constantly lying on his back on his front
00:14:06.080
to like crawling around everywhere. Like I was having a shower this morning
00:14:09.440
and suddenly the door opened and he crawled in, you know.
00:14:12.800
Um, just watching that whole process, it makes you so grateful for, for everything.
00:14:17.920
And so I, I've really been, I mean, it sounds wanky, but I've really been blessed
00:14:24.800
this year to, to, to, to notice and appreciate all the things that are going right.
00:14:29.680
Yeah. And, and I think it's important to do that because I think a lot of the time
00:14:36.960
we're so conditioned, especially in the West to, when things go right, you just go,
00:14:42.400
oh, that's the way it should be. That's what life is. Life should be like this.
00:14:47.280
And you're like, well, no, that's not how life works.
00:14:50.560
And by the way, we're about to find that out with the economic situation in the country
00:14:55.360
and the political situation, because it seems to me, I mean, actually Helen Joyce, who we
00:15:00.720
recorded an interview when I was bringing her, uh, when we were driving in the car,
00:15:05.200
uh, this is what she was saying. She said, when I worked at The Economist 12, 15 years ago,
00:15:10.160
it was all about, well, you know, we've got an extra 10 billion. How should the government spend it?
00:15:16.080
Yeah. I think the truth is, and people, I think people really haven't caught,
00:15:19.840
caught on to this. The next few years are going to be extraordinarily difficult, I think,
00:15:28.880
economically, culturally, politically, and socially. This notion that we've enjoyed in the post-war
00:15:35.920
period in the West, the, the world's always going to be better. Your children are always going to be
00:15:41.040
better off than you were. And technologically, that'll probably still be the case. You know,
00:15:45.520
they will probably still live longer and they'll still have better gadgets and whatever. But
00:15:50.160
the idea that they're going to be richer or that it's going to be easier for them to get a job,
00:15:55.200
young people, you know, it's really, really difficult for a lot of people. And I think
00:16:00.400
I look, I completely agree with you. I think that the reality is, is this is the beginning of the tough
00:16:06.560
times. We have seen chronic mismanagement by successive governments for a long time. And now
00:16:15.200
the chickens are coming home to roost, in particular with lockdown.
00:16:17.760
Just to interrupt, sorry, I want to hear the rest of your point, but I would go,
00:16:20.880
I think you're right about chronic mismanagement by several, you're bang on the money. I think
00:16:25.520
it's actually a bigger issue. Now, I think it's a, a broader problem. It's a global problem,
00:16:30.240
actually. The, the, the way that the economy has been managed, the getting into endless levels of
00:16:35.360
debt, never even trying to pay it off is a west wide phenomenon and perhaps extends beyond that.
00:16:41.520
No, no, no, no. But again, that absolutely agree. And we are at the very beginning. I was
00:16:47.920
thinking about it the other day. It kind of reminded me, like the COVID is kind of like
00:16:54.160
when, when we shut everything down and we gave money, what we basically were like was like a
00:16:59.200
landlord and everybody came in for a pint and we didn't have enough beer. So what do we do? We
00:17:05.040
just watered down the alcohol. Everyone got their beer, but no one was getting pissed. Yeah.
00:17:11.040
And all of a sudden what this point that you were expecting to make, give you that warm,
00:17:15.440
fuzzy feeling and take you to a better place, all of a sudden it ain't doing that. And that's what we're
00:17:20.960
all feeling with our pockets, with the money that we've got. It isn't going to go to where it used to be.
00:17:27.600
I can see why you don't drink anymore. The graphic way in which you described that just doesn't give
00:17:32.880
you the buzz. It doesn't. And I think that's the hard stuff. And Bitcoin, exactly. And I think that
00:17:41.440
people, more and more people are waking up to that fact. And you're looking at, and we've raised
00:17:47.680
Bitcoin. Bitcoin was the kind of get rich quick scheme for our generation. But again, with the SB,
00:17:55.600
with Sam Bankman-Fried or whatever his name is. Well, that wasn't Bitcoin specifically,
00:17:59.360
but I know what you mean, right? Crypto. Yeah, I'm talking about crypto in general,
00:18:03.680
because for our generation, really difficult to get on the property ladder, very hard to,
00:18:08.800
so what are you going to do with your money? Invest it in crypto. That was the dream. And again,
00:18:13.840
that's gone by the wayside. So I think a lot of people are looking at the economic landscape and
00:18:19.120
thinking to themselves, I don't know how I'm going to do what I'm going to do with this.
00:18:26.080
I don't know how I'm going to make this work. I don't know what my options are. Everybody is taking
00:18:31.520
a real world pay cut and things are getting more expensive. Well, it's almost like the period of
00:18:36.800
time that we're living through is just so completely different to everything that came before.
00:18:42.560
And I think you're right. The pandemic was definitely the catalyst. Then you have the war
00:18:48.240
in Ukraine. And the war in Ukraine, people have different views on how it started and what's going
00:18:54.160
on and what we should do about it and whatever. But it's the first time in a very long time that
00:18:59.600
you've had full scale military conflict in Europe, between two major nations in Europe,
00:19:06.240
in which everyone has felt that they've been somehow affected by it. It has thrown the very
00:19:12.560
idea of globalization combined with obviously COVID and China into the bin. And as Peter Zeyhan
00:19:20.640
talked about, the globalization is basically over. And that's not necessary that there are
00:19:25.920
that globalization did a lot of damage to certain individual people. But it was also the foundation
00:19:30.800
of Western prosperity and prosperity around the world in many ways. So that being undone quite
00:19:38.400
rapidly in a short period of time is going to have massive impact on the world. And yet I also think
00:19:46.320
that it's going to be an exciting time at the same time. Because I think particularly in the cultural
00:19:54.400
space, and you and I have talked about it with a few guests, but the one thing I'm really conscious of is
00:20:00.000
those of us, like you and I, who made it our business to oppose woke idiocy. And we did it
00:20:07.120
for a number of reasons, I think. Would it be fair to say that with you, it was because A,
00:20:11.680
you saw it destroying comedy, and B, your background in terms of your family in Venezuela,
00:20:16.640
and seeing what the far left can do when it gets off the rails?
00:20:19.600
Yeah. Or not necessarily off the rails, when it gets given an opportunity to run rampant.
00:20:28.320
Yeah. And not dissimilar in my case. I think in my case, it was, I mean, comedy was obviously a big
00:20:34.000
part of it. But I'm also just someone, because of my background, and because of what my ancestors
00:20:38.720
went through in the Soviet Union, you know, the concept of truth has so much value to me that I
00:20:45.280
wasn't prepared to go along with, you know, two plus two equals five. And that's increasingly what
00:20:50.000
we were, we felt we had to do. So we started trigonometry by opposing all this woke idiocy.
00:20:56.320
And in the process, I also think we feel that there are some people who go too far in another
00:21:00.800
direction. And we've, they were always there, but it's just, I guess, we were feeling our way out
00:21:05.840
and trying to understand where do we map into this whole thing. And I think now it is a responsibility
00:21:12.000
of people like us. And I hear different people having these conversations, like
00:21:16.800
Peter Thiel gave a talk to the NatCon conference, and he talked about a positive vision for the
00:21:21.760
future. And he doesn't exactly have one, but, and I don't exactly have one, and you don't exactly
00:21:26.080
have one. But I think people, enough smart people, or smarter than us people at least, are asking
00:21:32.800
questions like, well, what is the positive vision for people like us? Why should anybody
00:21:39.520
join our tribe, whatever that tribe is, right? Not the right wing lunatics tribe and the far left
00:21:47.120
lunatics tribe, but the non lunatic tribe? Why should anyone be on board with us? Because we've spent
00:21:52.080
quite a lot of time opposing things, saying, well, that's wrong, and that's stupid, and that's, but
00:21:57.760
what do we have to offer the world? What does our way of thinking, what does, what do the questions we
00:22:04.960
ask have to add to the conversation? And that's something I've been thinking about a lot, and
00:22:10.240
having my son has, has made me think about that even more. Yeah, because it's not enough to be
00:22:15.440
against something. Yeah. You can't base an identity on being anti something. You've got to be, because
00:22:22.240
if you look at music, you know, if you, every musical movement is a reaction to the one before,
00:22:28.480
but it's not just, oh, we are going, we, we dislike this, this, and this. It has its own sound.
00:22:35.920
It has its own tribe. It has its own way of being. It has its, it, you know, there's many different
00:22:41.760
things that form a new musical movement. So for us, it's important to actually think to ourselves,
00:22:48.080
well, what do we want to create? Because it's not enough to be anti. It's not enough to criticize.
00:22:53.680
Because let's be fair, the easiest thing in the world is to stand on the sidelines and criticize
00:22:58.080
people. We can do that all day long. Yeah. But if you want to make something better, if you want to
00:23:03.520
actually be a force for good, if you want society to improve, then you need to be a creator.
00:23:08.880
Absolutely. And I think this is one of the, in some ways, the tragedies that I think about
00:23:13.680
culturally that have occurred as a result of this woke idiocy, is too many people who are very creative
00:23:21.760
creative have now ended up in a position where, like us, rather than doing the creative thing
00:23:27.680
that they were always doing, instead, they're just talking about not being able to be creative.
00:23:32.880
Or they're, you know, they've gone from, you know, like, Winston Marshall, he's a very good friend
00:23:37.040
of ours, or the two of us, or Andrew Doyle, or you can, you can go on and on and on. There's a whole list
00:23:43.040
of creative people who used to make comedy or music or whatever, who's now, whose job now mainly
00:23:50.720
is to do something else. And I think that's something we need to address, actually. And so,
00:23:56.240
you know, there's a few conversations happening behind the scenes. But that is definitely one of the
00:24:02.560
items on my agenda for the next few years is how do we, you know, I'm tired of talking, look,
00:24:09.120
I haven't done stand-up since the pandemic began. And I'm really happy not doing stand-up. But,
00:24:13.920
you know, you and I do raw shows three nights a week. And that is an outlet for both of our comedic
00:24:18.400
and creative energies. But I think we need more. I think, I think that we've got to rather than going,
00:24:26.000
you know, diversity and wokeness and all this stuff has made all the TV comedies that we used to love
00:24:32.240
shit. We've got to make our own stuff, you know, and I think that's, that's the future. Likewise with music,
00:24:38.080
likewise with theatre, likewise with all sorts of things. And people should know that there is work
00:24:42.720
being done behind the scenes on those fronts. Yeah, it's got to happen and we've got to do it.
00:24:47.760
Because otherwise, all you're doing is complaining. It's glorified complaining. And I always see...
00:24:54.000
It's not even that glorified. No. It's just complaining.
00:24:56.400
Yeah, it's complaining. And I always see complaining like scratching a bit of eczema,
00:25:01.440
where at the, in the moment it feels good, but...
00:25:05.040
It doesn't improve anything. It doesn't improve anything.
00:25:07.760
And actually, long term, it just makes you feel worse. Because all you do is focus on the negatives.
00:25:13.360
And eventually, you just start spiralling because all you see are negatives. Whereas if you create,
00:25:19.760
that's much more positive. Because number one, it's more enjoyable. And number two,
00:25:26.240
good things happen when you create. Good things happen. You meet new people. You talk to new people.
00:25:31.760
New things, new opportunities open. And also, as well, people see you creating,
00:25:37.120
and that then spurs them on to do their own thing. And that's how communities are built.
00:25:41.600
Well, absolutely. With trigonometry, I think it's... I don't think we're blowing our own trumpet to say that
00:25:48.000
a lot of people in the UK didn't do what we do back when we started, and they now do it. And I think
00:25:54.320
part of the reason is they looked at us and went, well, if those two idiots can do it.
00:25:57.520
So can we. And that's great. That, you know, there's something that Joe Rogan always talks about,
00:26:01.600
which is he wants as many, as many people as possible to have a podcast and do a thing and
00:26:06.160
whatever, because you're trying to build... You need more people doing something than just a couple.
00:26:12.480
So, you know, we always try and encourage people as well. And I think that's really important.
00:26:18.320
So the question I wanted to ask you is, what have been some of the biggest mindset changes or ideas
00:26:26.000
that you've come up with during the last year that have changed how you look at the world?
00:26:30.000
The biggest mindset changes that... We had a business meeting with someone and we were talking
00:26:40.160
about, you know, trigonometry. And I was saying, and I made the point of, you know, the mainstream media
00:26:49.520
and I was just like going, you know, the problem with the mainstream media is, you know, they take
00:26:53.280
people and then they like comedians and they, you know, sanitize them and whatever else. And he just
00:26:58.960
looked at me and went, yeah, that's a victim mindset. And I was like, you're right. And then
00:27:05.360
I think it was you who made the point who said something about the mainstream media. And he went,
00:27:09.600
you are the mainstream media. And we were like, what? And he went, of course you are.
00:27:14.400
You've got hundreds, over half a million subscribers across all platforms. You are the mainstream media.
00:27:21.120
Millions of people watch and listen to you every month. You are the mainstream now. And that was a very
00:27:27.440
big moment where I was just, because I still, in my head, fringe is the wrong word. We're not fringe,
00:27:33.280
but I, that's what, if you see what I'm saying. I don't know exactly what you're saying. Well,
00:27:38.080
the thing is that the mainstream doesn't exist anymore in the way that it did because
00:27:42.480
in the nineties and the eighties, if you were on TV, everybody knew who you were because everybody
00:27:48.800
watched the same five channels in this country. Now, there are very, very few big stars. Like,
00:27:55.040
as we're sitting recording this, Jeremy Clarkson wrote a piece about Meghan Markle in which he
00:28:01.680
fantasized about her being subjected to the same thing as Queen Cersei in Game of Thrones.
00:28:08.480
And it was quite obviously a reference to that, but most people didn't get it because most people
00:28:12.320
haven't seen Game of Thrones, even though Game of Thrones is one of the biggest shows in the history of
00:28:16.800
the last 10 years, right? So that mainstream celebrity and fame, it just isn't available
00:28:22.160
anymore for the vast, vast, vast majority of people, even with sport, to be honest, you know?
00:28:28.720
And so I think, I think sadly for everyone watching, this is what the mainstream is going to look like
00:28:34.560
going forward. Yeah. And, but that to me was, that was a really eye-opening moment where someone was
00:28:40.720
going, no, what you've created now, you are part of the mainstream and you need to think,
00:28:47.440
act and behave like that. Yeah. And this idea that, you know, you're on the side, you know,
00:28:52.800
you're on the side, you're, you know, you're, you're fringe and whatever else, you're not. You are part of
00:28:58.080
the mainstream and you should accept that and you should embrace that and you should really step into
00:29:02.960
that role. And I think that's very important for both of us as we move forward. What about yourself?
00:29:09.120
Um, I think that's a big part of it. I think that one of the things that's happened this year is
00:29:17.920
my own audience has grown a lot, particularly on social media, doing the book and around the war
00:29:23.920
in Ukraine, it meant that a lot of people wanted to hear what I had to say. So, uh, I think the,
00:29:28.800
I'll end the year on like 200,000 Twitter follows, which is insane. And it's made me sort of behave more
00:29:34.880
responsibly if I'm honest, because I'm like, okay, quite a lot of people are watching this now.
00:29:38.800
I can't just, you know, uh, troll people in the same way that I used to or whatever. I don't,
00:29:44.880
I don't think I would troll people, but I would be more abrasive in the way that I communicated.
00:29:48.960
And also I think fatherhood has also had that effect on me as well, where I'm like,
00:29:52.560
okay, this is, you know, I have to, I don't yet have to be an example because you won't have social
00:29:58.880
media for a long time, but, uh, at some point I'm going to have to be an example. And I take that
00:30:05.120
responsibility very seriously. So that's been one of them. And the other thing is
00:30:09.920
one of the things that's happened over the course of the last year in particular is
00:30:13.920
trigonometry is, it's got bigger and bigger and it's meant, you know, as we always talk about,
00:30:19.760
every time the show gets bigger and we generate more revenue, the only thing we ever think about
00:30:25.280
is, okay, we need to hire another person so that the week, we can not be constantly overworked
00:30:31.040
and overwhelmed and dropping the ball here and dropping the ball there. And our team has grown
00:30:36.160
to the point where, you know, in addition to me, you and Anton, our executive producer, we now have
00:30:42.400
two more full-time staff and five or six part-time staff as well. And that's a big team to manage.
00:30:49.840
And, you know, whether we liked it or not, I mean, I always say this, you know, we're two idiot comedians
00:30:55.600
that started a podcast, but we now have like a small business to run. And it's completely changed
00:31:00.400
how I think about the economy, the tax system, the whole thing, because, and the America trip really
00:31:09.200
helped to see things in a different way as well, because I don't think in this country,
00:31:14.000
we quite appreciate how difficult we make it to run a small business.
00:31:19.120
Yeah, it is. And this isn't, again, coming back to the victim mentality. We are doing well in terms
00:31:26.000
of, you know, growing our audience and putting out great content. And I'm really proud of the stuff
00:31:31.520
that we've created over the last year. But it is not easy to run a business in this country. And when
00:31:37.360
you go to America and you see what it's like over there, it does make you think. And every time,
00:31:42.880
you know, every time I turn on the TV now, and we've got these strikes going on at the moment and all
00:31:46.800
of that. And I sort of think, the way we talk about people who have started a business or people
00:31:51.840
who are wealthy or people who are successful, it's almost like baked in that they're somehow evil
00:31:57.360
in this country. I don't know if you think that's true or not. But like, we always talk about, you
00:32:02.640
know, they've got to pay their fair share. And, you know, the top 1% of people in this country pay 33%
00:32:08.160
of all income tax, and the top 10% pay over nearly 70%. The top 10% pay nearly 70% of all income tax.
00:32:16.400
How evil are they? Do you know what I mean? And I'm not saying there aren't people at the very top
00:32:22.080
who are getting away with things or avoiding tax or whatever. But the truth is, I think, if people
00:32:27.440
understood how fucking hard it is to run a business of any kind, and most big businesses started out as
00:32:34.000
a small business, their attitude would be different. I agree with you.
00:32:39.920
And by the way, this is an area where you and I have spied a lot, because you come in with
00:32:43.840
your working class credentials, the who's responsible, the rich must, you know.
00:32:49.200
Yeah. Look, the problem is, is that I think when people talk about these things, they talk about
00:32:56.960
The reality is, if somebody who's doing very well for themselves, and it has a small business.
00:33:02.080
Yeah. Send us money. And let's say they're on six figures. That, to me, is not wealth.
00:33:12.240
That's it. Yeah. That's someone who's doing well for themselves, and that should be celebrated,
00:33:17.040
and all the rest of it. I think what people conflate with the two is people like Bezos,
00:33:23.920
who, you know, use every loophole possible in order to avoid paying corporation tax.
00:33:29.600
Allegedly. Allegedly. Please don't sue us. If you do, actually, it'd be good to sue us,
00:33:33.440
because then we get loads of publicity. But I think that's what people mean.
00:33:36.800
Yeah. But there's like five people like that in the world. Yeah.
00:33:40.960
Right? And they should all pay more tax. I agree. Yeah.
00:33:43.680
Their companies should. But that's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is like,
00:33:47.680
you and I had a big debate about the strikes recently, right? And the nurses, for example,
00:33:52.880
are asking for a 19% pay increase. Yeah. Which is unrealistic.
00:33:56.640
Well, I agree with you. But my point is something else, which is this. Like, for example,
00:34:00.880
with trigonometry, right? We've actually taken a huge risk
00:34:04.560
risk in getting the studio. We spent probably the best part of 40 grand building what we need,
00:34:11.040
right? And that is, that's, we built a war chest over the last year, because we knew we were going
00:34:18.560
Right? But right now, I'm sitting here thinking, well, you know, you and I have already,
00:34:22.720
and Anton have taken a pay cut, just so we can keep all our staff who we need to do,
00:34:27.280
make the show. And so we can continue to pay for the studio. And I'm looking at our finances going,
00:34:31.120
we better fucking step our game up next year, because I don't know how we're going to find
00:34:35.120
the money to pay for everything that we need, you know? And I think most small businesses in
00:34:39.520
this country, particularly in the current economy, are operating on exactly the same basis. They're
00:34:43.760
just making do, and just trying to make sure they don't have to lay off people around Christmas,
00:34:49.360
and so they can have the money to organize a Christmas party, and all of that sort of thing.
00:34:53.280
And that is, to a significant extent, what a lot of people who are creating the jobs in this country
00:35:00.480
are going through. It's not like their life is plain sailing. And yet, whenever we have these
00:35:04.640
conversations in public, it seems to me like we demonize the very people who create the jobs
00:35:10.880
and the opportunities for people in this country by taking a risk, man. Let's be honest, you and I
00:35:16.000
didn't take any money out of trigonometry. And in fact, we paid our own money into trigonometry so we
00:35:20.960
could pay Anton the measly sum of 500 quid a month to edit all our episodes, right? And by
00:35:26.320
a mistake, even though he was a vegetarian. And we did that for, what, two and a half, three years?
00:35:34.880
That we started, we got any salary at all. So, and we basically, I mean, not every small
00:35:40.800
business does this, but you and I essentially ruined our existing careers and made ourselves very
00:35:45.520
toxic in the comedy industry because we believed in what we believed in. So we stepped up and we took
00:35:50.720
a risk. And now, thank God that I don't believe in, but thank God we've created a small business
00:35:57.040
that employs over 10 people. And those people now not only have a salary, they have a meaningful,
00:36:03.120
they have meaningful work. And I don't know if you feel this way, but for me,
00:36:07.920
other than family, that is the number one priority in my life, to do something that I believe in,
00:36:13.120
that I'm passionate about. And the truth is, this is the first job that I've ever had when
00:36:18.800
I felt like that, you know? And I know that for many of the people who work on trigonometry,
00:36:24.400
they feel the same way. They feel the same way. And that means something, and that's valuable.
00:36:30.240
And yet, you know, people who do that and who create those small businesses,
00:36:35.120
they're sort of seen as these, you know, they're somehow suspect.
00:36:39.200
And I used to feel that. I remember when we had Rupert Lowe on the show, you know,
00:36:42.800
Rupert Lowe, business guy, owner of Southampton formerly, et cetera. And he talked about,
00:36:48.320
you know, we'll ask staff this. And there's always like, well, you're this posh guy with loads of
00:36:52.800
money and whatever. But the more we do this, the more I realized that while of course there will be
00:36:58.960
some people who get involved in all sorts of shenanigans and whatever, for the most part,
00:37:02.880
people who start businesses are actually really important. And I don't think they get enough
00:37:09.920
credit in this country. I think in America, they almost get too much credit, you know,
00:37:13.600
and there's not enough expected of them in terms of contributing to society. But I think in this
00:37:18.320
country, we have it the wrong way around as well.
00:37:20.160
Yeah. Well, small businesses are the bedrock of our economy. They always have been,
00:37:25.440
and hopefully they always will be. And that's why I was so against a lot of what the pandemic,
00:37:30.560
the actions and the policies brought in by the pandemic, because it was to punish the small
00:37:36.400
business owner, the average person, you know, with the mom and pop business, as they call it in the
00:37:41.280
States, whilst effectively giving helping hands to the huge conglomerates and letting these small
00:37:48.720
businesses go to the wall. And it was a tragedy. And look, I do agree with you. I think this country is
00:37:54.640
built economically on the backs of small businesses who do a lot of good, who do a lot of good, not
00:38:01.120
only for themselves and for this country, but for society as a whole. You look, people,
00:38:08.960
the staff who come in and work with us learn far more than if they went to work for a CNN or an MSNBC
00:38:15.280
or BBC, not to say that they won't learn, because of course they will. But when you get involved in
00:38:20.800
this type of production, you have to learn so many things. You have to be more flexible. The skill set
00:38:27.680
that you generate as a result of that is just far broader and deeper. And look, I do agree with you
00:38:34.800
that we do, that we don't give small business owners enough credit. I think the problem is, is that
00:38:40.240
our culture and our society, when it comes to finance and economics, is illiterate. A lot of
00:38:46.640
people don't understand. They think that, you know, if you're an entrepreneur or if you're someone who's
00:38:51.520
got your own business, that automatically means you're very wealthy, when the reality is
00:38:56.160
a very high percentage of small businesses fail. Most businesses just make it to the end of the month
00:39:02.320
if they can pay everyone and the guy at the top, or the lady, yes.
00:39:07.040
Yeah, unlikely. Statistically, draws a salary. That's a win.
00:39:13.680
Yeah, completely. And that, but that's how, I mean, trigonometry has been like that since
00:39:18.320
forever. And it's like that now. I think people see the numbers and they see how many people we
00:39:24.000
have on our locals. But this is literally, it's hand to mouth every month. We built up a war chest to
00:39:29.120
be able to do this. That's gone now. And our costs of, I mean, this studio costs about three times
00:39:38.000
And that's why you and I are taking less money and so is Anton, just so that we can manage it.
00:39:43.040
And, you know, I already, I'm already thinking, you know, we've got to come back next year and do
00:39:47.280
this and do this and do this and do that. Because, you know, I hope people watching this understand
00:39:51.200
this isn't, this isn't making Francis and Constantin wealthy project at all in the slightest.
00:39:56.880
No, this has always been a passion project. Yeah.
00:40:00.080
It always has. And to be, but the reason is, it's like for us to be able to do this as a job
00:40:07.440
is the best thing that's ever happened. Of course it is.
00:40:09.760
In our, in our professional careers, this is the best thing that's ever happened.
00:40:13.040
Yeah. Of course it is. Because it's very rare people are in control of their own destiny.
00:40:22.960
You know, you're still at the whims of... Say the wrong thing.
00:40:25.680
Yeah. You're still, and the casting agents and the, you know, the booking agents and the
00:40:30.960
directors and fashion, all of a sudden you may be flavor of the month one moment, the winds change
00:40:35.840
for whatever reason, and you're not as desirable, you're not as bookable. You know, there's always a
00:40:41.120
new hot young thing that's coming onto the scene. So we're very blessed to be in control of our own
00:40:46.720
destiny. Yeah. Yeah. And we work very hard because of that. Yeah. And we work very hard because of
00:40:52.800
that. And, but there is something very special to going into work and knowing that you are the one
00:41:00.320
who is going to make the decisions that ultimately will lead to success or failing.
00:41:07.040
Yeah, absolutely. So I suppose the point of this section is give us money.
00:41:14.960
Hey, Francis, do you like locals? I live in London, mate. So obviously not. The only pleasure I get
00:41:21.280
from the locals is when we share an intimate moment as we watch a Japanese tourist get trapped in a tube
00:41:27.520
door. That is good. But I wasn't talking about the locals. I was talking about our community on locals.
00:41:35.680
You mean the one where you get phenomenal behind the scenes content when you...
00:41:39.760
The actual space, please, please, please, please, please.
00:41:41.600
The actual space, please, please, please, please, please.
00:41:42.720
Where you get to ask incredible guests like Jordan Peterson, Brett Weinstein, Bill Burr,
00:41:50.160
Sam Harris, Adam Carolla, Heather Hying, and others your questions.
00:41:55.440
Not just that, you can get supporter only benefits like trigonometry mugs,
00:42:00.160
monthly calls with other top supporters and even a regular meal with me and Francis.
00:42:04.960
You also get phenomenal behind the scenes footage of our trip to America,
00:42:10.960
where we met a whole host of incredible guests and gave ourselves terminal indigestion.
00:42:16.880
We're also starting to do monthly giveaways for locals only. The first one will be signed
00:42:21.520
copies of Andrew Doyle's new book. Plus, you get access to an incredible community of like-minded
00:42:28.960
people who share memes, have fun conversations, and most importantly, you get to make new friends.
00:42:36.080
You can support us with as little as $7 or about £5 a month, or give us more for the higher tier benefits.
00:42:42.800
Go to trigonometry.locals.com. Go to trigonometry.locals.com and support the show.
00:42:52.000
You mentioned the pandemic, Francis. Now, that seems to be over.
00:43:00.240
What do you mean? Well, I don't, I mean, well, I mean, COVID is still there,
00:43:03.840
but I'm not talking about that. I'm saying that- The consequences are.
00:43:06.960
Yeah. Well, that's what I want to talk about. Yeah.
00:43:08.800
So, for me, this is, the pandemic was everybody going out and splashing the cash. All of a sudden,
00:43:17.360
we've woken up to the credit card bill, and everybody here is wondering how the hell are we
00:43:22.080
going to pay it? I agree. And I think, obviously, the economy, you know, poverty kills people.
00:43:28.160
Yeah. Fuel poverty kills people, and it will kill a lot of people this winter. And that is the product
00:43:32.640
partly of many things, but one of them is the spending during the pandemic. We have record
00:43:40.640
excess deaths in this country at the moment. And we warned about this. We had many guests
00:43:45.520
on the show to warn that these decisions that were being made were not cost-free.
00:43:50.160
And yet we were, you know, people would attack us and, you know, say we're being irresponsible
00:43:55.520
and whatever, even though I think the truth is we've been proven right on that.
00:44:00.240
Yeah. That's also the government's fault as well, because the government scared people.
00:44:04.480
Yeah. They put the fear of God into them. And, you know, people were terrified of this virus. And
00:44:11.200
look, let's be honest, it's a nasty bug. Well, you and I have had it three times now. Yeah.
00:44:15.440
And the first, well, for you, all three were quite bad. Yeah.
00:44:19.600
Weren't they? The third one was all right. The third one was all right. Whereas for me,
00:44:23.680
the first one was barely noticeable. And the second, the middle one was really bad last year.
00:44:28.160
And the one we had recently was, it wasn't fun, but it was okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not pleasant,
00:44:33.600
for sure. Even for no longer young, no longer healthy, but whatever we are. Yeah. Middle-aged men.
00:44:39.840
Middle-aged men. But, and also, it's important that we say this, chronic financial mismanagement,
00:44:47.600
and there was a lot of money that was, let's put it bluntly, misappropriated.
00:44:52.160
Of course. But that's always going to happen when everyone's in a panic and, you know, whatever.
00:44:56.000
Not to excuse it, of course, but that was always going to happen. You know, I haven't told the story,
00:45:01.040
I think, on camera before, but it just illustrates to me some of the lengths that people were prepared
00:45:07.040
to go to. And I don't think people really get it. So exactly a year ago,
00:45:13.760
there was a protest in Parliament Square that Silky Carlo organized, one of our former guests
00:45:21.040
from Big Brother Watch, which was against vaccine mandates. And Sophie, our video editor and I,
00:45:26.720
Harman, who works for us as well, and I, we went along to protest. And we got, it was a miserable,
00:45:33.920
wet, windy December day. It was really unpleasant. We got to Parliament Square and there was,
00:45:43.600
I don't know, maybe 150 people there. It was the dampest of all squibs. You know, it was muddy.
00:45:50.880
And then we got there and because I'd been quite outspoken about this issue and people,
00:45:56.000
a lot of the people who were there would have known me, Silky shoved a megaphone in my hand and,
00:46:05.280
I don't know what to say. I don't know what I feel today. It feels like a very strange time to be
00:46:08.960
alive in this country. I'm an immigrant to this country. I came here in 1995. I was brought up in
00:46:15.280
the Soviet Union and we saw the erosion of our freedoms and civil liberties immediately and also
00:46:20.880
over time. And that's why I'm here. And that's why I'm talking about this stuff, because that is what
00:46:27.200
is happening. Your rights are being taken away. I know that you might feel underwhelmed by the
00:46:32.960
number of people here. I know that sometimes it feels like you're protesting, you're speaking out
00:46:37.840
against it, nothing is happening. But know that people are watching, people are hearing what you're
00:46:42.000
saying. And we've got to keep it up. We've got to keep it up. We can't give up. We can't stop talking
00:46:46.800
about it. We can't stop protesting about it. And when people see that more and more people are against
00:46:51.600
this stuff, they will support us and we will make some changes. Thank you very much for coming out
00:46:55.600
today. And when Sophie and I were coming back to the studio, I was so deflated by the whole
00:47:08.480
experience because I was just like, look, we live in a country of people who've given in.
00:47:13.360
They've accepted the idea that medical staff and care workers, et cetera, should be fired from their
00:47:19.440
jobs that they've done in many cases for decades because they don't want to be vaccinated for
00:47:25.440
whatever reason. And they must be made to be vaccinated. And I felt, Sophie, myself, I think
00:47:32.080
most of us felt that it was just, it was wrong. It was a line that must never be crossed. But I felt,
00:47:39.120
going back on the tube or wherever it was, I just felt really deflated by the fact that so few people
00:47:44.000
were out there and we were clearly not going to have an impact and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:47:49.440
Um, but eventually the government did reverse that decision. And what was fascinating was that
00:47:55.920
when, when my wife was giving birth, uh, she was planning to give birth at home.
00:48:01.280
Uh, and that's not how it worked out. Uh, you know, she, she spent the whole pregnancy being all
00:48:07.040
holistic and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But we actually ended up having to go to hospital
00:48:10.960
at quite short notice with her screaming in the back of the car. Uh, it was quite an experience.
00:48:16.160
And then she had a long and it wasn't long, but it was arduous labor. And she was really adamant
00:48:23.120
that she did not want to have any medical intervention unless it was absolutely necessary.
00:48:27.360
But it was looking very much like she was going to have to have a C-section. And I knew that,
00:48:31.680
you know, it really wasn't going to be mentally good for her. She would blame herself and she'd be
00:48:36.800
upset and whatever. And it was a long, I don't want to get into all the details, but it was
00:48:41.840
a really long and arduous labor and it was very stressful. And actually her plan was that I
00:48:46.320
wouldn't be in the room when she was giving birth. She was going to have it all, you know,
00:48:49.440
in the dark and blah, blah, blah. But I was in the room and I had to kind of talk to the midwives and
00:48:54.480
sort of manage the whole process to some extent. And right as things were looking really bad,
00:49:01.840
um, this midwife came in who hadn't been there before and she was absolutely brilliant. And
00:49:08.880
because of her, because of this one woman, uh, my wife was able to give birth naturally
00:49:14.080
and our son popped out and he was all healthy, even though it'd been, you know, there was some risk
00:49:18.800
involved and whatever. And after all, you know, he was born, uh, he was covered in myconium,
00:49:26.240
which is like baby poo, which means that he was getting to the point where he was distressed in
00:49:29.680
the womb. Um, and, uh, when, when he was born, he was this tiny little thing and he popped out.
00:49:37.040
And the, as he popped out, this midwife started like rubbing him with a towel and he, and, and she
00:49:43.040
went, pull the emergency cord and like someone pulled the emergency cord and like seemingly dozens of
00:49:48.480
people ran into the room and I just stood in the corner like this as they all did something.
00:49:52.080
And eventually they cut the umbilical cord and this neopathologist came and looked at him,
00:49:57.120
made sure he was okay. And he was absolutely fine. So happy ending. And then when they all left
00:50:03.360
and it was just us, uh, with, with our son and this midwife, and, uh, she started asking us various
00:50:11.840
questions. And one of them for the medical questionnaire was, uh, are you vaccinated? She had to ask my
00:50:18.320
wife. Um, and my wife didn't want to get vaccinated because during her pregnancy, because, you know,
00:50:24.080
I think a lot of women were concerned about it and who knows if they were right or not, but my wife
00:50:27.920
felt very strongly that she didn't want to be. And this midwife who'd been incredible
00:50:36.960
asked this question and I felt bad because I was like, well, she, I'm sure, you know, she, she'll think
00:50:41.520
that my wife and, you know, would made the wrong, whatever. Uh, and I started going, well, you know,
00:50:47.280
but it's sort of making excuses almost. And she went, oh, don't worry. I'm not vaccinated.
00:50:52.720
And I was like, really? And we started talking about it. And then eventually I said, so you must
00:50:58.080
have felt very strongly about the government trying to mandate these vaccines. And she went, yeah, I was
00:51:06.000
going to quit. And my son would not have been born the way that he was born if she hadn't been there,
00:51:14.560
you know? And so when I think back to that pointless protest and whatever, and I don't
00:51:20.800
know if it made any difference at all, but I felt that the stand that we took and many other people
00:51:25.520
took at the time for what we believed in, even though who knows what impact we had, but it was
00:51:31.520
important that somebody, somebody made that stand. And by the way, I probably caught COVID
00:51:36.560
at that protest. It's quite possible because that was the day we had, it might've been at
00:51:40.720
that protest or it might've been in the evening where we had one of our live shows.
00:51:44.480
So we either caught it there or we gave it to everybody there, who knows, right?
00:51:48.160
But it wasn't impact free. My point is this, neither us being public about our opinions at the time
00:51:55.680
or going to that protest or doing any of the other things that we did. And yet in some small
00:52:00.000
way, I feel like the way he was born was a reward for us making that stand, you know?
00:52:06.720
And I think during the pandemic, we really found out who's who in terms of who's going to be there
00:52:14.800
when the vast majority of people go off the deep end like Lemmings. And that's, I'm sorry,
00:52:20.160
I know that people were scared, but that's what I feel people were doing during the pandemic.
00:52:24.160
I think a lot of people panicked. I think a lot, and people in government too, overreacted,
00:52:30.320
went too far. I think red lines were crossed on many occasions. And I'll be honest with you,
00:52:37.920
man. I don't think we're going to get the sort of public inquiry we need to make sure it doesn't
00:52:42.880
happen again. And I think that the next time there is a pandemic, I think it will be as bad,
00:52:47.680
if not worse. Yeah. I agree with you. I agree with you. I think, unfortunately,
00:52:56.880
nobody, some lessons are too painful for people to be able to digest. And I think the pandemic is
00:53:08.000
going to be one of those things. I think people behaved, some people behaved so awfully that it
00:53:15.520
is probably going to be too painful for them to look at their own behaviour
00:53:19.920
and to be able to analyse it and actually learn from it. Some people will. Some people will hold
00:53:27.120
up their hands and go, you know what? I was really wrong on this one. I was really wrong when it came
00:53:31.680
to vaccines. I was really wrong with the vaccine mandates. I was really, really
00:53:36.880
out of line, the way I spoke to certain people. But I don't think a lot of people will want to look
00:53:44.000
at it like that. I think a lot of people will frame it as, it was a pandemic. What are you going to do?
00:53:50.880
And then move on. And the sad thing is, is not learn from it. Because I think that moment that we all went
00:53:59.040
through, I think it was a moment which revealed a lot of things. When moments of crisis happen,
00:54:06.640
that's when the mask slips with people. And you actually see people for who they truly are,
00:54:11.360
both good and bad, of which we have in all of us. But I think with a lot of people, you saw the
00:54:17.680
authoritarianism come out. You saw the desire to control people. You saw the anger. You saw also the fear.
00:54:25.600
And how fear does... People say that jealousy is a very toxic emotion. And jealousy does create
00:54:36.560
toxic emotions and makes people do awful things. But in many ways, fear does as well. Because if you
00:54:42.640
think your own health or your safety is on the line, then you will do whatever it takes in order to make
00:54:51.520
sure that you are safe. And if that means throwing somebody metaphorically in the way of fire?
00:54:58.000
The thing that bothered me about it was irrationality as well, though. Because you and I...
00:55:04.000
Look, you and I also adjusted our views over the course of the pandemic. And our own experience with
00:55:10.320
COVID was a bit of a wake-up call. Because I think we were perhaps a little bit too lackadaisical about it
00:55:17.280
at times. You know, I mean, ultimately, I think we were broadly speaking on the right path, which was,
00:55:23.760
you know, the vaccine is really good for people who are elderly or vulnerable, but probably not
00:55:29.120
necessarily necessary for other people, particularly those who've had the disease before and who've got
00:55:34.560
some natural immunity. And we kind of stuck to that. But the irrationality, like when it was very clear
00:55:41.760
that lockdowns were not saving lives, when it was very clear that masks didn't actually prevent
00:55:48.160
the transmission of COVID, when it was very clear that COVID vaccines are not effective enough at
00:55:53.840
preventing transmission, to demand that people inject something into their body, that we now know,
00:55:59.680
as we knew at the time, carriers were at certain risks. To force people to do that, just...
00:56:04.560
I think to me, that goes beyond authoritarianism. And it is, like I say, it's a red line.
00:56:12.880
Bodily autonomy is such a fundamental thing about what it means to be human. The idea that I don't
00:56:19.920
get to inject things in your body. I mean, it's not complicated, is it? No.
00:56:25.600
But people were willing to invent all sorts of excuses at the time. And there'll be people out
00:56:30.880
there now who demand that. And it also, it moved into other realms as well. Like,
00:56:38.960
it's quite common now for people to go, well, someone says something I don't like, they should
00:56:42.000
be arrested. Yeah. Arrested for saying something.
00:56:48.800
And it just, that creep of, I get to control other people because I don't like what they do.
00:56:56.960
There was moments during the pandemic, and we've talked about it before, and we were not,
00:57:03.840
as trigonometry, as a business, we were not ready to up sticks and move to another country. We weren't
00:57:09.520
big enough. We didn't have the resources, the finances. We didn't have money in the bank to be
00:57:13.680
able to do it. But despite that, me, you, and Anton were sitting there going, look, if this other
00:57:19.840
thing happens, we have to think about moving to America. Yeah.
00:57:23.280
And like one of two states in America where you can have freedom still, you know, because I just,
00:57:29.360
I just thought we went so, so far in this country. And it scared me. And I'll be honest with you,
00:57:36.560
you know, I love this country, but I have to say, it fundamentally changed my view of this country.
00:57:44.880
It changed my view of this country. I was shocked at how many people
00:57:55.680
And I don't use that word lightly. They loved it. They did.
00:57:59.040
They absolutely loved the opportunity to tell their fellow citizen
00:58:03.600
what to do, how to do it, when to do it, where to do it. And you just think,
00:58:10.160
this isn't the country that I grew up in. This isn't the liberal tolerant society that I thought
00:58:17.200
that I lived in. The amount of people who just, there's the glee that they felt that they could
00:58:24.240
tell another person what to do with their body, where to go, how to behave.
00:58:32.240
I, I, it really, it disillusioned me because I remember when I was a kid and every time I went
00:58:39.040
to Venezuela and Venezuela has always been chaos. That's the way it always is. You know, it's Latin
00:58:42.800
America. And I always remember coming back to England and just as a kid, even as a kid,
00:58:49.280
like breathing a sigh of relief because it felt sane. And I remember in the pandemic going,
00:58:55.920
this is insane. This is the definition of insane. The way we're living, the way that people are behaving,
00:59:02.240
the policies, none of this makes any sense. And I was the one,
00:59:09.920
oh look, I'm going to be honest, I still want to leave.
00:59:12.880
Do you? Yeah. How come? I don't see a lot of future in this country.
00:59:19.760
Why not? Economically, it's broken. I don't think we have the caliber of politicians to,
00:59:27.120
to lead us out of this, either right or left. This isn't a partisan thing. If I saw incredible
00:59:31.520
people on the left, I'd be like, yep. I don't see anybody on the right who's got, who's a strong
00:59:36.800
enough figure to actually come out and be honest with the population. I don't see people of character
00:59:44.160
or vision on either side. I think, I think this is, we're in a really tough time. And if it was just
00:59:52.880
a tough time, but there were people that I looked at who I thought we can get behind them as a country,
00:59:59.200
I wouldn't be worried. That's not where my worry comes from. The fact that we are in this financial
01:00:05.200
situation. It's the fact that I'm looking at people in government, in power.
01:00:21.120
I understand. I wonder though, I mean, if you were living through the 1990s, would you have not felt the same?
01:00:27.040
The 1990s? Yeah. What part of the 90s? The early 90s. John Major's government,
01:00:33.920
or the end of Thatcher, or whatever. It's all limping to the, to the death knell, to the,
01:00:39.920
whatever the fucking metaphor is. Yeah, yeah. Limping into their own grave. Right. And then
01:00:45.040
Tony Blair comes along. Yeah. Fucks it all up. Invades Iraq, mate. Invades Iraq. No, but
01:00:50.080
you see what I'm saying. Yeah, I do. Look, I think to, to despair at the fact that our politicians
01:00:56.720
are not able to deal with the problems that the country faces is correct. But where are you going
01:01:03.840
to go? I would rather go to somewhere in, I'd rather, I'd rather go to America. Yeah. And look,
01:01:10.640
who are the politicians of, of vision and leadership there? Trump.
01:01:18.720
And AOC. And AOC. I just, I find the American spirit invigorating. So do I. So do I. But the
01:01:28.240
question for us is, see, I don't want to leave anymore. I think when we were in America, it was
01:01:33.760
exhilarating. Yeah. And we were going to, if, if we can fund them, we will do two more trips next
01:01:41.600
year to go and interview big guests and, and, and continue our expansion. And, and we have a huge
01:01:48.240
audience in America. Yeah. You know, I think the UK is something like 40 percent and America is 40
01:01:55.120
percent for us. So, you know, we've got as big an audience in America as we do here.
01:01:58.400
Yeah. But I think that, first of all, I don't like running from challenges, number one. Number
01:02:10.000
two, America has all these same problems, not economically quite as much, but culturally,
01:02:15.580
many other problems are worse in the United States. And you want to have children eventually.
01:02:22.760
And I have one already and maybe more later. I know people who live in America now who,
01:02:31.800
who are saying like, I want to move back because I can't face putting my children in this education
01:02:37.040
system, you know? And also, I mean, if Tim Poole will have you believe, and you know, him and I
01:02:43.800
disagreed with him about this on his show and he followed me on Twitter straight afterwards. But,
01:02:48.520
you know, there are a lot of people like Tim who are pushing the civil war narrative very hard.
01:02:53.280
Yeah. And that's, you know, probably because it, you know, it generates a lot of attention,
01:02:57.200
but also because there are people who are, we saw this too when we were in America. There are many
01:03:02.520
people in America who are very polarized and they have guns. Yeah. Right. So, I think I understand
01:03:10.680
what you're saying and I understand, but I also think that on these cultural topics that we,
01:03:19.360
we talk about on the show, we can win the fight in the UK in a way that you're not going to win in
01:03:26.400
America. You're just, the trans issue is not going to be like it is in the UK. No. We're winning here.
01:03:31.980
Yeah. We are winning and we are going to win. And you and I have put our reputations on the line
01:03:37.740
and our careers on the line to get people on the show who could explain that issue to us. And once
01:03:42.380
we understood what was going on, there was no way back. Right. And the more we talk about it,
01:03:48.580
the more we understand that there's no way back. And we're not going to give up until that issue is
01:03:52.360
dealt with properly. Right. And we're making progress. The Tavistock is shut down and is being
01:03:56.840
sued. And I'm not saying we did that, of course, but we did have one of the whistleblowers on the show
01:04:01.300
and other people talking about. Mermaids has now been exposed for what it is. The gender
01:04:07.160
recognition, you know, we're making progress. And I believe on that issue, we can win the fight.
01:04:11.980
The free speech issue is more difficult here than it is in America. But I just think we can make more
01:04:18.040
of an impact here. And look, the fact is we're a British show, man. Yeah. See, that is true.
01:04:22.980
I think a lot of our American audience wouldn't watch us if we were just like, you know,
01:04:26.740
the sixth best Joe Rogan in America. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Completely. I do
01:04:31.960
understand that. I do understand that. And it is a good point to make. I, to me, the pandemic was
01:04:41.240
something. Look, we did very well out of the pandemic. We all improved ourselves massively.
01:04:56.740
And it just, seeing what happened to the country that I grew up in, to the people that I identified
01:05:03.960
with, the behaviour, the politicians, the rhetoric, it took me back.
01:05:17.020
I understand that. I think the other piece I would maybe add is that you've got to realise
01:05:22.060
that in America, a lot of that was happening at an even higher level.
01:05:25.680
Yeah. And they went more extreme in many states.
01:05:27.420
Of course, in the Democrats, and particularly in blue states like New York, et cetera.
01:05:31.020
But also, I would say that this is, again, like that guy said to you, it's victim mentality.
01:05:35.820
I think this is an opportunity for you to recognise the scale of what we've created here.
01:05:40.300
You know, people sometimes say to me, Constantine, why don't you run for parliament? And I'm like,
01:05:44.160
because I'd have less influence being an MP than doing trigonometry.
01:05:49.520
Like, we are one of the biggest independent media shows in this country.
01:05:54.220
And, of course, we don't have the ear of government, but we are helping to shape the way that at
01:06:02.860
least our part of society looks at things and thinks and we're bringing interesting people
01:06:07.260
And I think, I think, I don't think we'll be leaving is the truth.
01:06:14.360
And that being the case, I think it's time for both of us to accept the challenge.
01:06:22.060
A lot of people listen and watch our show, listen to our show and watch it.
01:06:24.840
But it's our job to stand up for what we believe in and to bring on people who we think are
01:06:32.640
And, of course, we're always going to give a voice to different views and people who agree
01:06:38.160
But I think, particularly on this authoritarianism issue, it's our job to be the voice of people
01:06:44.640
And the most gratifying comment that you've always said to me, and I agree with this, the
01:06:50.800
most gratifying comment you and I receive from people who come up to us in the street
01:06:54.320
or message in or whatever is, you got me through the pandemic.
01:06:57.460
And part of that was, for a lot of people, hearing that dissident voice going, no, we're
01:07:10.540
But a guy came up to me in the shopping mall once, it was a few months ago now, and he
01:07:21.540
And one of the, for people who don't watch our Raw shows, which is like a current affairs
01:07:27.820
daily satirical show that we do like a live stream every, we do three times a week.
01:07:34.080
One of the catchphrases, whenever we talked about Jacinda Ardern or particularly her or
01:07:38.820
Australia was like, get back, get in the camp, you c***.
01:07:42.860
We're going to need to bleep out c*** because YouTube, I said it again.
01:07:45.780
YouTube demonetizes any video with that word in.
01:07:51.440
And he came up to me and he said, mate, oh, thank you so much.
01:07:56.360
And then one of these like eight year olds went, get in the camp.
01:08:00.060
And he was like, he doesn't know the other part of it.
01:08:02.020
But my point is, you know, we contributed to people and a lot of people said we kept them
01:08:11.820
And I understand the appeal and there are so many great things about America, but the
01:08:19.340
The reason the studio exists is partly because we went to America and we saw how people who
01:08:27.600
And they have their own compound where they have a nice green room and a place for people
01:08:32.180
to hang out and a big studio and their own space.
01:08:35.680
And they're not moving from residential apartment to residential apartment as we used to do.
01:08:42.640
They will make it possible for us to carry on doing this.
01:08:51.500
So I understand the temptation of the United States.
01:08:54.640
I just think we got to take that spirit and bring it here.
01:08:57.580
And it's going to be fucking hard because lots of people in this country don't want
01:09:04.580
They want to, you know, this is the thing that really bothers me so much is like so many
01:09:10.160
people in this country just want the government to take care of them.
01:09:16.620
The amount of people I saw on Facebook going, oh, the government have to take care of me.
01:09:25.540
The thing is, there's no such thing as the government.
01:09:27.820
The government is just other people in the country who pay taxes so that you can get what
01:09:34.320
The government is just the entity that administers the money they get from other citizens.
01:09:44.180
You know, that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a welfare state and a safety net to catch
01:09:49.900
And we've all been there to some extent, you know.
01:09:52.480
But I think we need to, you know, we need to step up, man, rather than running away and
01:10:09.820
And, you know, we didn't intend, we started a podcast to understand what was happening
01:10:24.440
I think when we were in America, we talked about it.
01:10:29.580
But I think for the foreseeable future, I feel that it's our job to stay and it's our
01:10:37.200
You know, there are a lot of people who start a show and some of them will have more viewers
01:10:44.560
They just interview celebrities about, you know, what was it like to be depressed and
01:10:48.560
what was it like to be this and how did you become successful?
01:10:51.320
And those are really interesting things to watch and enjoy.
01:10:54.380
But I think for us, we talked about it being more of a passion project.
01:10:57.960
And that's, I think, how a lot of people experience what we do.
01:11:02.900
It's partly about passion and it's partly about bringing common sense and rational discussion
01:11:11.860
and honest discussion of difficult subjects so that things actually change as a result.
01:11:17.980
You know, we're not just creating entertainment for people to just watch while they make dinner.
01:11:25.360
And I think we have a responsibility to be true to that.
01:11:32.860
And I think what I was saying when it was about America, it's just legitimately how I
01:11:38.300
feel about my disappointment with everything that was happening and the political class.
01:11:45.100
The reason that we created this show was because we wanted to find out what's going on.
01:11:53.040
And now when we've seen what we've seen and what we've experienced and you see the injustices
01:11:58.280
and you see the things that don't get talked about, but they should be spoken about.
01:12:02.860
And the thing that really annoys me is when people are too scared to have a conversation
01:12:14.560
And how the moment certain subjects pop up, people immediately try and like, almost like
01:12:21.840
whack-a-mole, hit them on the head because they don't want to address them.
01:12:26.900
And what happens is when people start talking, they just start saying narratives, things like,
01:12:32.120
you know, these people are desperate and they've come over here and, you know, every person,
01:12:35.880
no person is illegal, whatever it may be, and that we should look after these people.
01:12:40.540
And you go, well, look, on one level, of course, you are right.
01:12:49.580
That's not, you're not even doing the right by these people by doing that.
01:12:55.620
And all you're doing is facilitating organized crime.
01:12:58.960
But if you're not prepared to have the conversation, then you're not prepared to actually try and
01:13:05.520
And that's why I think that the most important thing that we do is, is to model respectful
01:13:15.000
Because the only, because by doing that, that's the only way you're going to come to a solution.
01:13:20.320
That's the only way you're going to be able to solve these particular issues.
01:13:23.380
And there are several examples where you can tell that that has absolutely been the case.
01:13:28.080
I mean, if you look at the issue of grooming gangs, the episode that we've done that I'm
01:13:33.800
most proud of, and I always say this, is with Ella Hill.
01:13:39.680
And that episode that we did with her is an extraordinary episode.
01:13:42.680
I mean, we're talking to a survivor of gang rape and abuse over a long period of time.
01:13:50.260
I mean, and that's all credit to her, by the way.
01:13:54.540
And that's why when we were on Joe Rogan, it was one of the first things that we talked
01:13:58.300
Because, you know, I knew it was going to come up one way or another.
01:14:01.500
I mean, you got in there early with the pedo banter.
01:14:09.020
Now everyone accepts that the grooming gangs happened.
01:14:11.820
Now everyone accepts that it needs to be dealt with.
01:14:17.140
There were many, many more people who campaigned about it.
01:14:21.780
And so, whether it's the transgender issue, whether it's the migrant crisis, whether it's
01:14:27.440
and there'll be, you know, people say, well, these are right wing.
01:14:30.240
There'll be left wing points as well that we've covered on the show.
01:14:34.000
You know, our episode with Julie Bindle, for example, right?
01:14:37.440
The, these things, you know, the first man through the breach always takes most of the
01:14:44.460
But for whatever reason, you and I want to be that first man, you know, or maybe we don't
01:14:52.100
Not saying we're first on any issues before people get carried away, but we, we, we feel
01:14:56.680
it's our duty to address the things that people don't want to talk about that need talking
01:15:01.140
Well, the whole point of trigonometry is that you go into the eye of the storm.
01:15:06.000
And that's what people want from us, is to go into the eye of the storm and to talk about
01:15:10.340
these big contentious issues that people are too scared to talk about, that politicians,
01:15:14.480
when they go on the question time, they will give empty platitudes because nobody really
01:15:20.800
wants to talk about the truth of the subject, whatever the subject may be.
01:15:26.900
Well, speaking of question time, you reminded me that there's actually been a lot of personal
01:15:30.860
accolades that you and I both have achieved this year, stuff going on.
01:15:33.900
You've just had a tour and you're about, I mean, by the time this is out, you will have
01:15:41.680
I've really enjoyed, and this is going to sound wanky, I've really enjoyed the journey
01:16:06.720
It's really, you know, I always, when I remember when I started comedy and I was working with
01:16:14.600
comedians, they were always going, I can't wait to get off the open mic and I get on to
01:16:24.140
And I was always, my attitude was always like, no, you should enjoy this.
01:16:30.120
Because if you don't, then you're not going to be able to appreciate what's gone and what
01:16:40.000
Think about the first interview we ever did where there was the beeping car alarm and we
01:16:46.360
had to run around and then the person was furious because it turns out they'd come from
01:16:51.520
a funeral and then we had to, our first ever interview started with me giving a groveling
01:16:59.900
You could argue that's the way it's been for the rest of time.
01:17:07.300
You need to go through the being asked to leave studios.
01:17:11.620
You need to be going through, you know, the arguments.
01:17:20.380
I was looking at our stats the other day because a friend of ours started a YouTube channel
01:17:25.080
and we did 11 interviews, including with Brendan O'Neill, Claire Fox and Diana Fleischman.
01:17:36.120
And we'd been going for two months and we hadn't even got 500 subscribers.
01:18:04.220
Do you remember when we first went to the Soho Theatre to watch Andrew's show and Diana
01:18:09.020
Fleischman broke 20,000 views, how excited we were?
01:18:13.620
And you went to me, it's not always going to be like this.
01:18:20.780
Do you remember walking out of that interview with Brendan and being like, oh, this was brilliant?
01:18:25.580
Or when Sargon came and then we had that rush of subs and we got to three and a half
01:18:34.120
I remember you shitting yourself when interviewing Sargon.
01:18:37.760
Because I saw my career disappearing in front of my eyes.
01:18:41.560
Do you remember when we went to that conference and then we first met Douglas Murray and then
01:18:45.640
we interviewed him and then the interview got cut short, not for technical reasons,
01:18:51.080
but because the cleaner wanted to come and clean and she had to kick us out.
01:18:55.560
It was a woman who had booked the room for something else.
01:19:09.040
There was a famous, you know, there was a band of honor and the lead singer was called
01:19:16.380
And on his guitar, he always had a sticker which said, the beauty is the struggle.
01:19:25.600
And the moments when you're in the struggle, that's what forges you.
01:19:35.800
I mean, look, America was great, but why was it so good?
01:19:48.900
And if people had given us things and it was, it wouldn't have been as sweet.
01:20:01.980
And even in those tough, tough moments, there were still moments of joy.
01:20:10.720
I have to say, though, I enjoy my life a lot more now, you know.
01:20:14.620
And it's been, you know, obviously my son being born and all that, but it was the year
01:20:23.700
I mean, it's embarrassing how few books you have to sell to get on that list.
01:20:27.980
And as I realize now, no one makes any money selling books, basically, unless you become
01:20:33.500
like, even if you're a Sunday Times bestseller, not particularly.
01:20:39.860
And it hasn't gone out yet, and I can't wait for it to go out.
01:20:42.560
But I did a debate in the Oxford Union, and let's just say I didn't hold back.
01:20:50.500
So those were really exciting moments for me this year, in addition to, obviously, the
01:20:55.320
America trip, going on Rogan, interviewing some of the guests that we've interviewed
01:21:04.020
And, you know, this studio is the big, big next step.
01:21:11.580
You know, we've jumped perhaps a little bit further than we ought to have done if we were
01:21:18.840
But I think and hope that our ambition will be rewarded.
01:21:25.600
Because ultimately, you need to overreach yourselves at times.
01:21:31.480
Because it's only by doing that can you actually get to the next level.
01:21:35.760
And a lot of the time, you need to make that leap.
01:21:44.340
We didn't have to build our own studio from the ground up, basically.
01:21:49.060
And now it's a studio with a green room and an office area and whatever.
01:22:10.700
What I'm saying is we could have played it safe.
01:22:21.000
The whole point of trigonometry is that you never play it safe.
01:22:26.340
If we played it safe, none of this would exist.
01:22:33.200
Nothing that we ever did was about playing it safe.
01:22:44.600
Because, you know, we've got a lot of work and we've got some...
01:22:47.560
Already got some brilliant guests lined up for next year.
01:22:56.720
But we've already recorded some great interviews in here too.
01:23:15.360
And I say we did because the audience is always 50%.
01:23:26.860
And I couldn't have asked for better audiences.
01:23:44.820
I'm really looking forward to doing more comedy and just being...
01:23:53.140
Because like you, we've just been so focused on this.
01:24:00.180
So actually, just taking some more time just to get back to being creative.
01:24:11.800
And I think it's really important because Raw is a great comedic outlet for you.
01:24:34.600
I just think we're very different people psychologically.
01:24:38.560
I think you really crave that attention and love from the audience.
01:24:47.940
It's like, I think it was either Bill Hicks or George Carlin when he was getting heckled.
01:24:52.600
He said to the heckler, they're here for me and I am too.
01:24:58.000
Like, that was always, I mean, maybe it's slightly psychopathic, but I always wanted
01:25:11.320
But at stand-up, I never really wanted to do that.
01:25:13.220
I did it when I was doing my own show a little bit and it was fun, but I never really felt
01:25:26.220
If it was that special to me, I'd find a way to do it.
01:25:29.620
You know, I am much more excited about my sub stack than I am about ever doing stand-up
01:25:37.320
And the book showed me that writing books is not the way to go.
01:25:42.600
It doesn't mean I won't do another book at some point if I feel like I really want to
01:25:52.920
And because, you know, I used to write for various newspapers, but now I can write about
01:26:00.340
I don't have to tie it to a current news event.
01:26:02.940
Not everything has to be, you know, look over here.
01:26:05.920
You know, I can write about something more significant or something that happened three
01:26:10.180
years ago that I think is relevant to today or put things in context in a way that you'd
01:26:21.840
In addition, but the thing is, we've got gigantic plans for trigonometry.
01:26:26.600
Not only the America trips, but also the guests that we're going to get here and all sorts
01:26:30.480
of other stuff that we'll be talking about next year.
01:26:33.620
And, you know, one of the things we realized is that we need to improve our social media and
01:26:41.160
We're also getting to the point where Roy's getting so big that, frankly, given the outrageous
01:26:49.000
shit that we say on there, that we need to consider paywalling that or paywalling most
01:26:54.660
Not because we want to, you know, make more money from it, just because we're eventually
01:27:00.480
You know, people, we don't live in a world where people understand jokes anymore.
01:27:05.400
And the stuff that we say on there is all done tongue in cheek with humor.
01:27:10.140
But all it takes is for some twat from The Guardian to clip it out of context.
01:27:14.040
And suddenly we find ourselves in the middle of having to explain why we wear a Nazi hat
01:27:24.400
So it may be the case that we put out shorter clips on YouTube after the Raw is done or it
01:27:31.840
But, you know, there's going to be interesting things going on and changes happening, which
01:27:41.200
People have a meltdown when we change seats, so let's see what happens when we change other
01:27:45.420
But, you know, I'm really excited for next year.
01:27:49.580
And I also feel like we had a Christmas party a couple of days ago and having most, unfortunately
01:27:58.240
But most of the people, I think, had so much fun and they, you know, our team loves being
01:28:06.080
And it's exciting building that with them as well.
01:28:16.020
Seeing this come together is honestly one of the most gratifying things that we've done.
01:28:20.480
Because what we're doing is we're taking a step into the unknown.
01:28:37.600
But because if you play it safe, if you do what everybody else has done, then you're
01:28:49.700
I don't think being like everyone else has ever been what either of us has wanted.
01:28:59.400
And, you know, that growth that we're constantly going through is addictive.
01:29:06.620
Because when we came back from America, there was various personal things.
01:29:16.140
And the thing that I realized, and look, it's a truism and everyone knows it.
01:29:24.820
You need to go through a tough time in order to appreciate it.
01:29:27.920
You learn far more when things aren't going well, both about other people and yourself,
01:29:37.420
Because when things are going well, you know, you don't have to really look at yourself.
01:29:44.960
You don't really have to think about, you know, your actions or your behavior or your manner
01:29:53.520
But when things are going tough, that's the moment.
01:29:58.760
And actually, if you're prepared to take on those lessons,
01:30:06.060
even though the process of learning those lessons is not pleasant.
01:30:14.360
And, you know, you had various personal things with family.
01:30:16.900
And, you know, you and I are always trying to work out the best way for us.
01:30:21.540
And sometimes that we argue and it's difficult and painful and whatever.
01:30:24.720
But the thing that I've really learned this year is that, look, I've always been a driven person
01:30:35.940
and I've always been successful in the things that I've done.
01:30:40.600
I'm not saying I've always been super, I haven't been super wealthy,
01:30:43.960
but if I've done something, I've done it well and I've had success in it.
01:30:48.700
And so I think when, you know, trigonometry goes well and I've got this book
01:30:54.440
and I've got this and I've got that and everything's going great,
01:30:58.040
it's easy to think in that moment that, you know, I'm this and I'm that.
01:31:03.760
But the truth is that the biggest lesson for me out of recent years and out of doing this
01:31:12.820
is if you want to do something meaningful, you can't do it by yourself, you know.
01:31:18.160
And you've really taken this, you know, I remember, I hope you don't mind me telling the story,
01:31:26.600
but the first time that I said to you, let's do this podcast.
01:31:33.200
And I said, okay, cool, I've got some contacts that I'll get some people on.
01:31:37.240
And then I came in and I was like, okay, I've got Pippa Malmgren, who's a former presidential advisor to you as president.
01:31:44.740
And you looked at me, I thought your ass was going to fall out.
01:31:49.140
But you've stepped up so much and you've grown so much.
01:31:54.860
But for you especially, I think coming from a pure comedy background, this was a big shift.
01:31:59.960
And, you know, doing the admin that comes with trigonometry was a challenge for you.
01:32:05.540
And you've really done incredibly well, even though it wasn't always easy for you, you know.
01:32:11.820
And likewise, I mean, think about, like, this studio being built.
01:32:17.320
Anton, who is our producer, he came, he joined Trigonometry to edit the audio and the video, right?
01:32:23.440
And he basically has just overseen construction of a tens of thousands of pounds project by himself in the middle of dealing with you and I having COVID and him having, he had flu and all this other shit.
01:32:40.880
And we've got, you know, Elliot, who's our intern, barely gets any money.
01:32:44.600
And he's created these amazing vlogs and he's helping Anton and Sophie and our other video, I don't know if she wants to be named.
01:32:51.200
And they've stepped up their game in terms of the content that we put out.
01:32:56.380
And, you know, Sean, our image, like, everyone is really working their asses off to make the show what it is.
01:33:03.560
And we've got other people who are going to be hopefully joining, you know, helping us improve other bits.
01:33:08.720
And that's what I've realized for me is I've always been a lone wolf in my life.
01:33:14.880
But working with you and working with our team has shown me you can be a lone wolf.
01:33:20.300
I could, if I wanted to, you know, if we could pack trigonometry and I could go and write and do whatever, I'd be fine.
01:33:27.640
But if you wanted to create something actually meaningful, you need to do it with other people.