After Party with Emily Jashinsky - Fauci the FALL GUY? Perez Hilton's Breakdown, with Drea de Matteo, and the $20 Burrito Debate

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

Emily Jashinsky is joined by Drea de Matteo, Emmy Award-winning actress and host of the “ULTRAFREE” podcast. They begin by discussing Drea’s latest career move in the wake of her outspoken stance on COVID and the growing push to hold Anthony Fauci accountable. Drea explains why she believes Fauci has ultimately become a scapegoat for a much larger system involving powerful institutions. Then Emily and Drea react to Wisconsin Democratic Socialist gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong's past calls to cancel holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas before reflecting on Drea's own political evolution and what she believes is drawing more young people toward socialism. Later, they discuss Ariana Grande's bloody new music video, Hollywood's fascination with dark imagery, Perez Hilton's recent hospitalization following a disturbing livestream, and the broader impact of social media, AI, faith, and technology on modern culture. They also reflect on the passing of Drea's former Sopranos castmate Vincent Pastore, with Drea sharing memories from the set and explaining why the iconic series continues to resonate with younger audiences decades so many years after it first aired. Emily closes the show by examining the raging debate on the right over a $20 burrito and why she believes Republicans should address rising costs and economic anxiety with practical solutions rather than dismissing voters' concerns, and more.   Cozy Earth: Visit https://www.CozyEarth.com & Use code EMILY for up to 20% off   Cowboy Colostrum: Get 25% Off Cowboy Colostrum with code AFTERPARTY at https://www.cowboycolostrum.com/afterparty   SelectQuote: Compare top‑rated life insurance options. Visit https://SelectQuote.com/emily to get the right coverage at the right price. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's up, everyone. Welcome to After Party. We have a hell of a show for me tonight. Our guest is Drea de Mateo, who is, of course, the Emmy-winning actress from The Sopranos, host of the Ultra Free podcast. And we did the show a little bit out of order today. So let me tell you, I am coming just from my conversation with Dreia. And it's wild in an amazing way. We go into such depth about a lot of us. She cares about Ariana Grande, Perez Hilton. The Perez Hilton. is so terribly depressing and disturbing. If you haven't been following that, we are going to break that down. We talk a little bit about, not a little bit, we talk a lot about Anthony Fauci, because if you know anything about Dreya's story, she has been really engaged in trying to get to the bottom of what actually happened to this country during the pandemic. And we talk about the DSA as well, about Francesca Hong and, of course, Vincent Bistori's passing some memories that Drea has of the Sopranos. I can't wait for all of you to hear it. Like I said, it is, it is a lot of wild and wonderful way. There's nothing better than somebody who's like a true artist, a true

eccentric in getting to pick the brains of someone like that. I always relish the opportunity. And I'm really excited for all of you to hear from Dreo. So at Dreya, as a reminder, please do subscribe to this channel. If you haven't yet, subscribing on YouTube is really the biggest way to help us out, help us keep doing the independent journalism that we love to do here at After Party, liking, commenting, all that's really huge. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast. The show is three days a week on the podcast. because we do a Friday show that's audio only, and you can write into me, Emily at double make care media.com, and I answer all your emails on the show. So, with that said, we're going to

take a quick break. And also, by the way, I should mention at the end of the show, I'm going to weigh in on the debate roiling online conservatives right now over affordability, over $20 burritos. Our burritos are really $20? We will be getting to the bottom of it in a major investigation here at the end of After Party. So stay tuned for that. as well. But quick break, we'll be right back with Dreo de Mateo. Cozy Earth has built a massive following for their ultra luxurious sheets. I'm part of that massive following proudly, by the way. People love them. I've been using them for years because they bring a premium five-star resort feeling right into your bedroom. And now that exact same level of luxury is available for the

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Earth.com and use code Emily for an exclusive 20% off. That's code Emily for an exclusive 20% off. And if you see a post-purchase survey, mention that you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Well, we're joined this evening by D'Amato. She is an Emmy Award-winning actress, but of course, you know that. And host of the Ultra Free Podcast. You can find that on YouTube. You can find it wherever you get your podcast. Drea, thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. Even though I haven't slept yet. I know disclaimed that. It's what happens when you're 150 years old and your dog, wake you up all night and your kid just has surgery. Haven't slept yet.

Kid doing all right? No, he's good. He had a little mouth. Oh, good. Okay, good. Well, listen, no sleep can be the best version of any of us, truly, because your filter goes away. Yeah, that's going to be a problem. We're going to be ultra, ultra free, just like the podcast. How are you finding the podcast world?

Again, it's literally called ultra free, which is what podcasting is all about. So right off the bat, you're nailing it. Is it been pretty fun? It's, I know, I've loudmouthed and I've always been going on other people's shows talking a lot of crap. Am I allowed to curse on here? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm definitely, you know, we never promoted the show, so it's been a slow burn.

And I'm also very banned. I'm continuously banned. Like, they had taken away my Instagram for three months, so I moved it over to TikTok. I tried the TikTok thing. Well, holy cow. one of my posts, unlike, you know, this kid who used to jump out of helicopters in the military got, you know, a huge vaccine injury, another military kid that I had on, another vaccine injury. Just talking about it says that it's misinformation. How can her life path be misinformation?

So TikTok's banning everything that I talk about, which is very disheartening. So, yeah, it's hard, you know, and I'm sure YouTube does too. So I probably shouldn't have said all that on here. No, no. We're just going to get. Well, I was actually thinking, I was actually thinking because we've been talking about Fauci a lot on the show. And it reminded me that we couldn't have, like, the last couple of shows we'd done, we could not have done them on YouTube in 2021, 2021, and so far there hasn't been any that we've noticed at least demonetization or suppression. So on YouTube, at least, I think they realize that people want to hear the stuff because they're genuinely curious. I mean, I would like to think that, but I also think that Fauci is a controlled narrative.

So I think that whatever we're allowed to run with is the narrative of the day, alt media. They already know now that alt media has to be, you know, given a bone to run with too. So I just, I don't buy into any of the theatrics right now, which is why it might be hard for me to talk about a lot of topics right now. But the people that they were banning were real life situations. Fauci is just this overarching, you know, sort of. He's like the face of it. He'll take the fall for the people behind him, possibly. I don't think that, I mean, there was a parody on today that I saw of Trump screaming at Fowler.

And he just kept saying, I plead the fifth. And in the background, this little tiny Bill Gates is just sipping a sofa. You know, and you just see him in the background. You're like, geez. I mean, he's another face of it. I think there's still more behind that. Well, I love that point because one of the things we learned from the Fauci Diaries, I read every single one of them.

One of the things we learned from them is that he was doing regular two-week check-ins with Bill Gates. And that has not made any of the media coverage, except for I think I'm no, no credit to me, it's just like an obvious thing that stands out to you if you read the diaries, but I haven't seen anyone else mention that. He's regularly having every two weeks a check-in call with Bill Gates. And this is a government employee. This is the highest-paid man in the federal government, I believe, at one point. That should be a major story.

And yet it's basically been crickets on that point from the diary. Interesting. I never read the diaries. I just liked all of the AI memes of him. Dear diary, I got to hang out with a fucking celebrity. He thinks I'm so cool. He's like, you know, he's such an embarrassment to the Italian people at this point. But yes, I think that that is his conversations with him and stuff.

I think that bleeds into Epstein territory. And we're not allowed to talk about that on the level. We keep it with the pedophilia, but we won't go into what the actual intelligence behind that was. And I feel like, you know, this is, it's just all BS at this point. You know, I had a moment of hope during the, during the election period. Like, you know, there was just this, I think we just got so caught up in the possibilities of something that might shake up everything because of Kennedy. Because of, you know, he would, that was my, you know, I had followed him for years. But then once we got in there, I.

sort of, I sort of went to sleep. The way all Democrats go to sleep, when a Democrats in office, it's like once he's, once they're there, no one's talking about anything anymore. So I always thought the Trump thing was cool because all the Democrats were awake and actually looking at all of the corruption. And then, you know, everything just kept going back and forth, back and forth between both sides. And now I just, I feel like I'm back to believing there is no side again.

I never believed in sides. always thought it was BS and theatrics and hired guns and actors. I felt like I could do this job. I mean, why not? The scripts here, everybody's reading a script. Even though some of the moves, I'm like divided on the moves that Trump's making. Some of them are fucking, holy cow, like, this is pretty bombastic and good. And a lot of them are like, holy cow, this is bombastic and atrocious.

So, yeah, anyhow, I just found a tangent there. No, well, I actually want to stay on this tangent because, As Rand Paul announced, he actually really is going forward with this Fauci contempt of Congress vote tomorrow. He posted on X. Anthony Fauci is fully protected by a sweeping pardon, immune from prosecution, and he still refuses to comply with a lawful subpoena. That's the very definition of contempt for the American people. On Thursday, the committee is going to vote to hold him in contempt. Meanwhile, in an email to the athletic just hours ago, Anthony Fauci's attorney,

responded to Aaron Rogers' comments, just absolutely laying. into Fauci on ESPN the other day. He said, Aaron Rogers doesn't know what he's talking about. He should stick to football. And there are a couple of things I want to ask you about this. On the one hand, you're saying, I think making an interesting point that Fauci has become a proxy. And that means he can also be a distraction. He's a symbol of everything that went wrong during the pandemic. So that means he can also kind of be the sacrificial lamb. And we can stop talking about Bill Gates, hold vouching contempt of Congress, and that looks like a big thing, but what happens downstream of it? And on the other hand, when people like you or Aaron Rogers speak out, it's like, shut up, just do your thing.

So what are your thoughts on both? Those are two layers here. Maybe we'll start with just that first part of it on the symbolic nature of Fauci, the scapegoat nature of Fauci, as you were saying earlier. I just want to say one quick thing in regards to just stick to football or who said it? Fauci said it? Fauci's attorney. Fauci's attorney's like because Fauci isn't speaking. That's right. He's in fifth mode. He's in, he's in major mafia, Guinea, Italian mode right now. You would know. You know, wow. I've never seen the mafia operate on this level before in broad daylight. In fiction, even in fiction. Incredible. Public enemy number one. I called him that from the very beginning when I saw he had an eye at the end of his last name. You know, when I woke up and saw all the hearing stuff, those that day that all that stuff was going on. I reposted a lot of it, but at the same time, you know, and I'm not a really, I'm not big on X and stuff. I was looking at my doing.

Like, for me, it's, it's theatrical. It was so theatrical, but at the same time, it was so infuriating to see the mockery of the kids that I know that were harmed. There were way more. There's, there are millions. And that's what I have, you know, I was talking to Dr. Nicholas Holshend. on my podcast, to an army guy who did all of the data on the embalmers and what they were

finding in all of the bodies in the last few years. It's absolutely astounding. So as much as I want to leave it alone, like this already happened, forget about it, there's bigger things at play right now. This is ongoing. Like these kids that I talk to, they're compromised forever. These are veterans. They're veterans at 26 years old, at 30 years old. So when I see something like that, sure, do we want to see him take the fall? But I don't really care about him. He's an old man. Let him sit in his house and deal with his conscience.

I want to know who's behind him. That's more important to me. I want to know who the players are behind him. I think a lot of people are aware of who it is, but we can't say it on YouTube or anyone. We can't say it anywhere. Everybody just, you know, wants to blame one country for controlling the world. I think that's also the lowest hanging fruit at this point. And I think people just want to stay away from the intelligence agencies.

And let's just take Fauci down. It's the easiest thing. Maybe he'll be taken down and maybe he won't. That's a really good point that we have so little intelligence context in the media coverage of Fauci, who was obviously overseeing dual-use research, quote dual-use research. He's getting briefed by the CIA. We find that in his diaries. Well, because he was obviously looking over bio-warfare research and dual use is the way that you say it's for civilian purposes, but also may have protective bio-warfare capacities.

This is Annie Jacobson has written about this. She was just on Joe Rogan talking about. She's on Sean Ryan talking about this, making an excellent point. She's an acclaimed author. It's not fringe or crazy. Yeah. It's not fringe or crazy to understand that Fauci was plugged into the intelligence world, having, you know, check-ins with Bill Gates. couple of weeks writing about that in his diary. You're making a really good point that the conversation

about Fauci is actually pretty thin in the media. Even if like it's obviously biased towards Fauci, but it's it's even that is only half the story about whether Fauci was right or wrong. He's plugged into something much bigger that's obviously wrong. Oh, 100%. I mean, you, and it does, and again, it doesn't, it's not being a conspiracy theorist. Even though you have people in the media right now, Like who's the guy who does the housewife shows? He was. Oh, Andy Cohen. That guy was defending Fauci the other day while this is happening.

Unless that's old news, and I, because I don't look at anything that's happening in the news that much anymore. But I was very surprised to see that. And again, you are undermining the amount of people that have been injured or you're undermining your own intelligence because you haven't done any freaking research to know that there are so many people. suffering from this. And forget about even the vaccine. I mean, just the, you know, that's the vaccine. I'm talking about the vaccine, which I know we're talking about the origins of COVID. But they're all all of it was a plan. It was like, I'm going to give you the problem. Here's the solution. And we're going to make a shit ton of money. And we're going to activate our whole eugenics and all of these, these things that and, you know, all of this sort of technology to, you know, bring together the whole

transhumanist agenda. There's just so much to it that is mind-blowing. And again, we're just looking at, I know we have to start somewhere with Fauci and put him there. But I think that there are other places that we could have gone even faster. But I think there's, there's just so much that it's all linked interconnected, even with all these wars and all these. There's just so much stuff going on that it's hard to really dismantle it all at once. But it would suck if we don't get a real bone from this, like, you know, that they don't really give us something that's solid after what they did to the world. Because that was the biggest. That was like a real, that was a real manipulation, man.

That was a real big sci-op. And do you get the shut up an act line still? Is that something? Because it's interesting for people on the right who have been so pissed off for years at celebrities. who genuinely are just like running their mouths for the sake of fashion, right? Like it's fashionable to say X, Y, and Z about BLM or transgenderism or whatever it is. And the shut up and sing or shut up and dribble line gets trotted out a lot. But now there are people like you and Aaron Rogers and others speaking out.

And you're really passionate. You're knowledgeable. You're doing some real work. Like you just said, you're interviewing people involved in this. You're talking to people who say they have vaccine injuries. and I bet people are tossing the shut up at act line at you probably still now. Oh, yeah. And that's what I was trying to say before when my menopausal mind hijacked my entire being,

is that I never wanted to speak out about anything. I've never spoken out about politics. I used to be so freaking annoyed to watch, like, all of them. Like, I loved Team America making fun of all of the, you know, the actors speaking out. Sometimes I would even get a little disheartened when I'd go to a cross. Rosby Still's National Young concert because Neil Young would do this like intense propaganda thing with, you know, the death count. And I was like, I want to just escape my reality right now. Can we just be here now and be together and know that we're all on the same page? Of course, Neil Young would end up completely pissing me off and I would have to take his pictures off the wall during COVID because of the way he tried to, you know, crush freedom of speech.

actually. Yes. I thought was so interesting. It was Spotify. Very big twist. And I may not agree with all, you know, I might not, you know, I might have been skeptical about even someone like Malone or stuff like that. Maybe now.

Back then I wasn't, but now I'm skeptical of everybody. So, but back then it was like, how dare you come in there and threaten, you know, just even make that claim with all that music before you. And now you just canceled yourself out completely where you put up. to this? Do you really feel this way? So yeah, I don't like when I hear any of the politicians say, shut up and act, shut up and dribble, but I understand, I do understand it to a degree, but at the same time, I feel like during COVID, comedians were the only people who took this narrative and said, wow, this doesn't make sense. Like, everybody became George Carlin,

everyone, you know? And the comedians were really, you know, and the comedians were really, instrumental in and keeping it, keeping the conversation moving around through humor, through comedy, because it was, God knows, you know, such dark times and such weird, you know, social stuff. Like, everything just became an inversion of, I don't even know what. I mean, I do believe the society is always resetting and we're continuously not knowing what came before us. So now we're living through our particular time where we're waking up. And I think the minute people wake up in any, you know, during millennia, I'm sure that there's been so many resets.

And this is ours. I mean, you even have like Schwab with his, the big, great reset. You know, it couldn't be more in your face, which is part of the thing. I think that they're continuously showing us what's going on. I mean, everything about COVID was easily, it was easily available while we were living through it. It just depended on where people were looking and who wanted to see the truth or what if you were, you know, stuck in your fear mode or if you were more curious. And then once you saw the truth, you couldn't unsee it anymore.

All that information was on social media, not just social media, but like, you know, children's health defense alone was crystal clear about what was going on. So I was a conspiracy theorist. I mean, I feel like the people wearing all this stuff, and I was one of them. I was unsure. I'm never going to be sure about anything. That's why I feel like even with all of the news coming out, we're always only going to get crumbs of it. So the goalposts are going to keep moving and we're going to keep changing our minds about how we feel about certain topics. And that's what ultra-free is about. It's like, you know, you can be right about everything and I can be free because

I'm going to change my mind, you know. That's beautiful. You know, I'm going to stop. I mean, freedom is very exhausting. Especially fighting for freedom, really exhausting. And it's disappointing to see, I think, the far left look like, I was curious to get your take on this, look like this candidate in Wisconsin, Francesca Hong, who's running as a Democratic Socialist of America candidate, probably going to win the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary for Democrats next week. And just a sampling of some of the stuff she posted on X. This is F5 through seven. She's like angry about people celebrating Christmas, angry about people celebrating Valentine's Day. Like just miserable, seemingly just miserable. Yeah, you can see some of this up on the screen. I miss working in a restaurant every day except on Valentine's Day. She comes, she then says the worst of humanity comes out from folks celebrating on another day. Capitalism tells you how to show love. She's also mad about Thanksgiving. And like I said, Christmas. She says, I teach.

who was working on our computer remotely changed the background theme to snow and Christmas trees. I feel slightly attacked. That must have been hard for her. And finally, let's roll this clip. Again, I know this is like pretty political. She said cancel Thanksgiving, uh, that it was the original super spreader event that killed indigenous folks and women. And she got asked about it on CNN this week. Here's Francesco Hong responding to Caitlin Collins. Do you still believe that Thanksgiving should be canceled? I'm a chef, and one of the first meals that I made that was for the community when I was 16 was a Thanksgiving meal. I always think my hospitality background in owning a restaurant for seven, eight years,

that bringing folks around the table to share conversation and build community is always a good thing. but Thanksgiving is also a time that's incredibly painful for many people in our communities. And so I think there I wanted to make sure that people understood that there are multiple views, but views can evolve. And the position that I'm running for right now, and I think my background as a chef, will actually help me become a better governor that's able to bring more people to the table. Okay, Dr. This is so lame, and it reminds me of the things that people were posting,

And in 2020, I mean, she also posted F8 that we should defund the police, abolish ICE, abolish the Senate throughout 2020. And her likely Republican opponent is already publishing this or is already pushing this campaign messaging. But it's so lame. And it reminds me of the stuff that people were saying in 2020 to feel rebellious and to feel like they were attacking the broken and corrupt system. But it was actually the type of thing that was very fashionable for the New York Times to write about and CNN to talk about back then.

I mean, now it's coming into some harsher daylight and they're having to contend with it and actually an election space. But like, it's so, to me, it just feels so lame and it's not really rebellious at all. It's just dumb. Yeah. I don't know her. I don't know her. My close friend is from Wisconsin. I just, I know, I know what she thinks about this topic.

And then I have socialist friends who consider themselves real socialists who don't agree with anything that is going on within the Democratic Socialist Party. Same. They don't like Mum Dami. They don't, they think it's all horse shit. I don't, I don't really, I'm not as educated on that aside from what was going on in 2020. And part of the reason why I went from at least thinking I was an ultra progressive liberal. Like, I never considered myself anything because I never believed in the system ever in my life

until I voted for Biden and then I voted for Trump. Two crazy moves that I couldn't believe I made either of them, but I did. And it was in my old age. I think it has to do also with becoming, you know, an adult, a parent, and, you know, suddenly recognizing the world that your children are going to inherit. So I was definitely, you know, how do you tell your seven or eight year old, well, Christmas is going to be canceled this year because, you know, all the schools are getting rid of it now and you're uh you know you can you can be a boy or a girl like there's just so many

different things that was go that were going on at that time yeah i think what i kept relating it to repeatedly when i would see like the Kamala posters and stuff and it was very um they look like propaganda like old old posters and it said forward on the bottom and i kept writing on top of it the great leap forward. It did look kind of Mao. It had the Mao flavor. It did. It did. You know, and my daughter, like, she really studied Mao during the, during COVID, you know. What I was saying, too, is like, you know, the kids can't go to school. I can't act. So now I'm this actor who's blabbing about this stuff because I'm not reading scripts for Hollywood anymore. I'm on your script. I'm on the Holly. I'm on this, this, this, uh, this.

The political script. Now, yeah, and my daughter, too. It's like, now she's, like, investigating what is going on here? So no Christmas, no Thanksgiving. Let's get rid of it all. And look, I'm not the person here to say that all of those holidays came from. Yeah. Listen, like I said, this world's been reset on repeat.

I believe that. So everything that we know is, I think half of it is, you know, little tiny ounces of truth mixed with crazy lies and maybe even, you know, some bad forces behind a lot of things to distract people. I do think that there's a lot to it, and that's really getting into the weeds, and I won't. However, we are here on earth during this time where the Catholics and the Christians, they do Christmas, you know, America does Thanksgiving, Fourth of July.

These are all of these events that kind of bring people together. Right. And whether or not you want to get into the deepest of weeds and say, you know, yeah, these are all, you know, some sort of freaking satanic ritual, which is where the alt media is going nonstop now with everything. And I'm trying to tease that apart right now, eventually with our podcast,

because it's like how far do we take this narrative before it starts to just flip upside down? So yeah, the socialist thing, she sounds, you know, I don't know her. I do think that some people who believe that when I was a kid, When I was a teen, because all the kids, the reason why my daughter investigated this is because all the kids are socialists. They're all communists. They're all, you know, idealizing this idea of, you know, anti-capitalism, you know, this free sort of loving society. But if we look at the past, when has it ever worked? You know, when have we ever not had it be just capitalism at the very top, you know, taking care of not.

taking care of the serfs. You know, it's just, it stays the same. Nothing, it gets worse. And I have a lot of Armenian friends and Russian friends, and they don't want to hear it. They do not want to hear it. And I understand why. I'm always just from the point of view, like, I just want to understand why you feel this way.

I'm not telling you're wrong or right. I just want to understand how you got here. Like, how did she get here? What was her, you know, what was, what was her experience that, turned her into a socialist, you know? I don't know. I want to know that. I want to understand. No, I agree with that completely.

I get a lot of flack from other conservatives. I've briefly interviewed Francesco Hong a couple weeks ago, and I'm very curious about this stuff too. But I do want to get deeper into those weeds of the dark stuff. Summer is here. And if you want to actually feel confident, feel less bloated, feel more energized this summer,

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That's 25% off when you use code afterparty at cowboy colostrum.com. after party. Well, we covered on the show Monday that Ariana Grande has said she's taking a step back from public life and is frustrated with the endless scrutiny of her body. We already knew that. She said it in the past. She does look increasingly thin or she has over the course of the last year. She dropped six minute, like a six and a half minute video called pedal recently. We could put V1 up on the screen with some really, really graphic imagery to say the very least. And it was, seemed to be a kind of, that's the best way to put a reflection on her publicity or the media coverage that she's gotten over the course of the year, how it's, of course of her career, how it's never enough.

You know, you can, you know, look one way and you'll be called Chubby, you can look another way, you'll be called too skinny. And at the end of the day, it's just you're not going to please everybody in this age of social media. But the blood drew some interesting responses as well. This is my MK Media colleague, Link Lauren's reaction, F11. We can put this up on the screen. He said specifically that there are a lot of demonic forces being flirted with in Hollywood

and entertainment circles. He knows of people in Hollywood world that do genuinely dabble in the occult. And he connected the Grande image to people almost succumbing to the darkness, I guess, would be one way to put it or to describe Link's thoughts. Maybe I should just, I'll just go ahead and read Link's tweet in full so people can know. what we're responding to. He said, Hollywood is a dark demonic place. I don't think it's a coincidence what's happening with Perez Hilton right now, which we'll talk about in a minute too. Look at Aria Grande's music video just a few days ago. Lots of darkness and occult imagery

being pushed online these days. And I know several high-profile people who dabble in witchcraft and dark arts in their free time. There's a reason I stay home 90% of the time and mind my own business, protecting my energy. We all should. Do you see people in the entertainment world dabbling in witchcraft and dark arts and the occult? Do you connect that to Ariana Grande, out drenched in blood in this video? I'm just seeing that for the first time. I've seen pictures of her extremely skinny. Oh, God.

The whole thing, okay, so Hollywood, this is interesting because I was just talking about this on another podcast. And if I said to my boyfriend afterwards, I was like, do I sound crazy? There is such an intense infiltration of social media posts. Like when I open my Instagram, I only look at the first five posts

and then I'm done. I follow like 3,000 people, but I look at the first five, and then I'm done, because I'm just there to post something. And every single one of them is on satanic Hollywood. And I don't leave my house too. And I was never a real player in Hollywood, which is probably why it wasn't such a big deal for me to walk away from it.

Who keeps walking back? I keep seeing someone walking back and forth. Oh my God, I hope the back of my head wasn't a, all my freaking extensions showing. No. Got the bullet hole in the back of my head. You know, Adriana. But, yeah, like, the work I've done, like, even the actors I've worked with, not anywhere. I haven't worked with that many people, really.

Like, I feel like I've just never been on the inside of it. So I am one of the fans looking in. I am the audience looking in. And I do see a lot of that stuff. But I also, I said this on this podcast the other day, you know, I have like symbols, tattoos on my body, right? Like I have, I have, you know, an eye of horace on my finger or I have crucifixes all over the house because I was raised, you know, Catholic and I'm not really that anymore. But these are just, they're relics. I collect all kinds of relics and things that I, you know, that have that resonate for me somewhere inside.

probably my DNA and my deep history without getting too crazy, but we're talking about the satanic thing. So we might as well go there with it all. Let's do it. But I could very easily see people, because everyone is so quick to condemn these days and to hate and to throw blame on everything and everyone except for themselves where, you know, I think a lot of us could become a lot more grounded

in our own deep. and A and remember who we are as human beings and where we come from and what, you know, that we're, there's just so much more to us, I think. And I'm realizing that now after the last few years. Maybe it takes 50 years to get here. But a lot of kids are also opening up to this idea. And you see them on Instagram talking about stuff. But a lot of times, you know, I'll vet some of these things. I'm like, I'm going to bring these kids on these podcasts. Talking about the supernatural, that sort of thing. You're talking about it nonstop. And everyone in Hollywood. wood is demonic now everyone now they could easily make that claim about me if they see a tattoo on

my body if they see egyptian art anywhere in my house or whatever that's satanic without fully understanding i can't say that i fully understand why i put certain tattoos on my body but i was drawn to something and i'm still on a path trying to understand the history of our of our planet it, you know. So, and it's, you know, it's not just the history of our time. I'm trying to understand the history of this entire place as much as I can. I'll never get there, but I'll always, I'll have a little bit of a better understanding. So all of this like satanic thing in Hollywood, like my daughter's into goth music, she, you know, but she's a super Christian. Right. And, but she paints her face like, like, like, kiss, you know what I mean? It's like, oh, they're going to look at Dr. DeMateo's kid and her, you

and that they're going to say satanic. And it's like, no, because you don't know us and you don't know anything, and you don't know what we're about. So I don't think that everyone in Hollywood is satanic. I do think that art, and this is where I become the progressive liberal, I think...

I like this. I see where you're going. Yeah. Like, I loved an artist named Cindy Sherman for years. I have some of her photographs. Sure, she wasn't on the same side as all of us when all hell broke loose with politics, and she went hard for the other side. But I never stopped loving her art and thinking that it was incredible.

You know, when I think about someone like Abramovic and her art, I might want to, I definitely felt like I need to try to understand this a little more. This feels really dark. But I also do understand expressing your pain in a music video about the music industry and metaphor and symbolism and all. And we should have the right to do that because that's for. freedom of speech. Like, I'm never going to sit here and condemn, what's his name, Kimmel, for talking shit on the president? Like, who cares? Like, this is freedom of speech. Either we have it or we don't. Like, everybody should be able to say what they want to say. But this overarching

satanic theme, sure, I think it exists. There are a lot of people out there talking about it. Whether or not it's satanic or Luciferian or devil worship, they're all different things. I know that's crazy and that's getting too deep into, you know, all the little details. But, you know, I think being attracted to the dark side of things to express discontent in society is not crazy. I do think the kid's too skinny. Yeah. She heard herself there. I haven't seen the music video.

I would need to watch it. But that's, you know, it looks like Carrie. I mean, we liked the movie Carrie. We watched it. We thought it was fine. but we also didn't know what we know right now about all the crazy secret societies and just there's a lot of stuff and all this, you know, people are obsessed with secret societies right now and the Illuminati and the, I need to make sense of this stuff at some point. And, you know, where you were going with that is so interesting to me that if you're an artist, you do open yourself up to probably inevitably darkness and maybe some incredible light depending on the role you're playing. or the song you're working on, whatever it is.

But you really open your soul, your heart, your mind in a way that maybe the average person going about their life in a 9 to 5 isn't always going to do professionally. And in 2026, we have this crazy level of mingling between commercial life and artistic life that's kind of a post-industrial thing where you have art that is worth, you have songs, popular music that only exists

because we have technology. It allows you to put a song out. to millions, billions of people at the same time around the world in different corners of the globe. So as an artist, you are also, if you're at that level, a commercial product. And to meditate on that, of course, it's going to be dark at different points. But that has to be a really strange place. I mean, I know you said you're kind of a fan looking in, but you have more proximity than the average person to what that wealth and fame can do to people, and especially artists.

who are naturally more open and maybe more spiritual, maybe more mystical, and then you have crazy amounts of money and fame pouring in. That combination has got to do a number on people. Yeah, I think music, I think the frequency of music, I think the act of playing instruments is one thing, but when you can use your voice to make people feel something, I mean, actors do this by acting,

but it's not the same as music and having a stadium filled with people all fixated on you. I can't imagine what that must feel like. You know, to me, like I was able to play in the sandbox for a short period of time. I was lucky enough to be there for a little while. But I never really, I remember years ago when I was a kid, I had a psychic that said to me, you'll always be in the side door. And that was my life. always been on the side door looking in. I never really walked through the door. I was more

interested in my personal relationships with people than I was in advancing my career. And then especially once I had kids, that was all that mattered to me and protecting them. And now they want to do these things, right? Like my daughter's a singer. And she's an animator. She's an animation school. So she's doing very strange, crazy, wild art because she was always Disney obsessed. And what am I going to tell my kid you can't be Disney obsessed because he would be Freemason? Like there has to be some semblance of balance here with these kids that are going to inherit this earth. I mean, sure, it's great for them to know certain things about the possibilities because we don't know anything for sure. We don't know, you know, what goes on under the tunnels of Disneyland.

And, you know, and that's the epitome of Hollywood and fame and all of that sort of stuff. you know, studios. But I do think that, I think that, yes, it is very hard to not draw all of these sort of, like there's these Instagrammers that are drawing these parallels between certain artists and satanic ritual going back to, you know, either the Greeks or the, you know, Egypt or, you know, Egypt or it's just so much. I can't imagine that half of these artists that are that that are putting this art out or even aware of half of this stuff.

Some might be. Some might not be. I mean, as actors and not every actor, but a lot of people, you know, we research stuff a lot in order to understand our environment and understand our world and more than anything, try to understand behavior. So, and we listen, you know, if you're a good actor, you're listening and you're reacting to what you're seeing and hearing. I was surprised to see a lot of actors

that are so fantastic listening and hearing what they were, I guess they were being fed different information than I was. I also don't really act that much. I have a bullshit meter that is like, it just goes off every five minutes. So I can barely participate in any projects that I don't think sound like, you know,

the language of the Sopranos, because that to me was the epitome of, you know, of reality to a large degree. But I don't know. I'm right now really observing this sort of downfall of Hollywood happening. Hollywood's a mess. No shows are getting made. The music business is a joke. But I do think that a lot of independent artists are emerging out of all of it.

I do think there's going to be a renaissance. Obsession. I mean, those films just took off. Yeah. And I also think that, you know, you can't, you can't, there's no, who wants to watch a show about a normal nuclear family behind a white picket fence that is not being tempted by something in the world. That's not real life. Like we, light doesn't exist without the darkness. And it goes back and forth. So I think people just have to get really grounded with who they are and feel. I think any

sort of energy in the wrong hands is where things just kind of fall apart. So if you're a famous artist who's cutting the heads off of freaking chickens to be there, well, we know who that person is then. You know, let's not follow that person. There's a lot of rumors about a lot of artists

that are doing that. But it doesn't mean that people that are sort of exploring dark music or dark film ideas, are necessarily, you know, worshipping ball or whatever, I don't know, whomever they're talking about these days. Well, this brings up the Paris Hilton, Perez Hilton, mixed up my Paris and Perez Hilton. So Perez Hilton, this story is really disturbing.

We have this page 6 report. They got the 911 dispatch audio. He was hospitalized. If people haven't seen the TikTok live stream, I don't recommend watching it, but it was hospitalized because of that. It, quote, revealed horrific details of the gossip bloggers self-harm. At 1041 p.m. Tuesday night, a dispatch call came in for a quote-unquote suicide attempt at the 48-year-old's Miami address. Multiple units, including fire, responded to the active police scene. Additional units were advised to stand by.

Further graphic details were shared, which page 6 has chosen not to reveal. authorities were dispatched after multiple calls from concerned individuals about a person live streaming acts of self-harm on social media. Miami-Dade, they confirmed that to page six, and Perez Hilton had spoken recently about, quote, finding God after medical issues he'd had in the months prior to this incident. TMZ is also reporting that he was transported from his home to a hospital late Tuesday after cops received multiple reports of alarming behavior during that live stream, which showed him bloodied. Despite speculation circulating online, law enforcement sources told TMZ the video was not generated by AI. And authorities say he suffered multiple lacerations during the course of the evening. Their sources confirmed he is now undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at the hospital. And some people thought he was almost mocking Ariana Grande, and some people thought it was AI.

Turns out it was absolutely real to the point where he was hospitalized, now undergoing psychiatric treatment. I did watch the video. I don't know if you saw it, Dre. It is horrific. He is just cutting into himself on the live stream. And it's a very jarring juxtaposition with his recent comments about Jesus and finding God, which is about the last thing I think anybody expected from Perez Hilton, the king of the mid-aughts gossip blogs, drawing dicks on people's faces back in the blocking days.

but man he seems to be going through it wow man I did not see was he stabbing himself or slicing himself slicing is what it looked like yeah oh I feel like that's all we hear kids doing these days too I know he's live all right well going back to what we were just talking about the whole satanic panic panic with a situation like that

I know this is going to sound crazy for me or for anyone maybe but I think that there's a lot of dark entities attached to a lot of people and they don't know it and they don't have the control over it. And I think a lot of it turns up as mental illness. Look, I know that a lot of people in our industry have shown signs of mental illness. You know, there's a lot of kids out there that are showing signs of mental illness these days. It's no wonder while we're staring at these screens all day and the information and the kind of this, this hypnosis that everybody's under. I do think that it's really, really dangerous.

It's, you know, he's an adult man. So it's even, I mean, he's going through rough times. I heard that he lost all his money or, you know, there's a lot of, I mean, I've been through all of this. stuff too. I think that being super grounded is really important. But I also think that, I can't believe I'm going to say this. I'm going to say it. I don't care. I've noticed that that having energy work done with someone that's really trusted, like super trusted, what some might call an exorcism, like to remove dark energy. You don't just become psychotic in your 50s, I don't think. I think that things can infiltrate.

I think that, you know, frequencies can disturb you. I think that too much pressure from the world, if you're not grounded, and then you become this open vessel for dark energy. I do think that dark energy is out there. I don't, what I was saying earlier, I just don't think it's everyone that is portraying this. I think that there are a lot of people that are. I don't think it's everyone.

But I think a lot of that energy finds people that. are open to corruption or not saying that he is or that are just open because they're because they're hurt because they are fragile in that moment, the vulnerable. And I think that that energy attaches itself. I think it probably did to, you know, to Ariana Grande. I think maybe with, with him too. And I think that also those drugs, to be honest, like the amount of drugs that are being fed as a solution to anybody's mental anguish right now, I'm not saying, that drugs are not necessary in certain situations. I think that they can be life-saving.

But I don't think that it's always the end game and the only game. I think that there are options out there, and a lot of it has to do with really getting back to who you are. I know you've got a level of playing field sometimes. I've been in that position myself when I was young. But I think that dark energy is clearly infiltrating a lot of people's spirits and breaking them down. I wonder how much of that you think maybe comes from the mechanisms that fuel social media and the algorithms or how much darkness actually could potentially be fueling the algorithm, the algorithm itself.

I rarely quote raw egg nationalist, but here I am the ex-account raw egg nationalist who quote tweeted an awful report about the Mexican influencers, Cesar Gastelam, who was executed during a kick live stream in Sinaloa, actually in Kulia Khan, I think it was yesterday. And raw egg nationalist said, there's something quite poetic about this and the Perez Hilton video. This is the only way the attention arms race ends. What started with Charlie bit my finger necessarily ends with extreme violence and death on screen. It's like what Adorno said about the atom bomb. And I think that Adorno quote is, no history leads from savagery to humanitarianism, but there's one that leads from the slingshot to the megaton bomb. But is that the case on social media that it, in the attention economy, drives people who are so online.

and so sucked into the algorithm to a very dark place in many, many cases. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't know that story at all. I don't know anything about that, so I wouldn't be able to say anything. But I do think that the dawn of the iPhone and the World Wide Web is a lot more, we're going to call it demonic. I don't know. I do think that these are technologies that might have been ancient.

this is me being a crazy person trying to, you know, trying to understand where we come from. You sound like Joe Rogan. Yeah, I do think that these are ancient technologies. And the only reason I talk about that so much is because my daughter is an animator. She's an artist. She's also a singer. And it's like AI is taking over the world. And, you know, AI is going to take over the algorithm too, probably.

It's banning me from certain platforms. I know that. Like, it's not necessarily a human being, always doing it. So yeah, I think there's a dark force behind it because anything, any, you know, that's why I'm trying to understand even all this, these secret society things. Like, were they intended from the dawn of that time to be something that is completely evil? Or are they holding onto secrets of the past that none of us are allowed to know so that we can know our own power? But that power in the hands of the wrong person, it becomes a dark, a dark power and a control mechanism. But, you know, Perez finding Jesus, and I'm like a big, you know, I'm a huge JC fan myself.

Likewise. But I don't know how I feel right now about any controlled religion at the moment. Like I'm moving around through all of that, trying to understand different people's points. of views and until I understand that I'll adopt what I think is best for me, but I'll never stray away from Jesus Christ and what he represents because for me that's, you know, it brings me solace, it doesn't, but I don't care if you don't believe in it. I don't care what anybody believes in. But as long as they're not trying to harm each other and hurt each other, or they're not deteriorating themselves, but I think that religion is even being used now to hurt people.

And I think that that's a huge freaking problem. And I think that's happening through social media and through the phone. And even with my kids, you know, my son is younger. And sometimes I'm like, you stop watching the evangelists. Like you got to stop now. Like this is, we don't need to go this far because the answer is inside of you. Like that Christ's consciousness, that lives inside of you. That does not, you don't go, you don't need to go look out and follow a bunch of people to understand that you actually have.

that inside of you. So I, all of these things with the phone, how do you convince millions of people that what they're looking for exists right here and it's, and that your body is an incredible temple of magic. And I think Jesus was trying to send that message to people. And I think his message got a little skewed along a little skewed. I think it, you know, like everything else, everything gets co-opted for other people's gain and control. So, you know, yeah, the phones are a problem. Well, in more sad news, I also wanted to get your reflections on your recently departed Sopranos colleague at Vincent Pistori, who did pass away on Saturday at the age of 80 years old, long life. And People Magazine wrote up in the wake of his passing that actually, spoiler alert, of course, for the Sopranos here, but he had shared his kids.

character's death with only one person. And that was his daughter. And that's amazing, Drea. That was, I mean, a cultural earthquake. And I wondered if you had any reflections to share on working with Vincent. I remember he was, he was one of the warmest. They all were. We were a family. You know, those boys, those men, those guys, my son's watching it for the first time. And, Oh, no, I forgot we did that. Oh, what a picture. I forgot that we did that. Look, that's where I was in my Ariana Grande phase.

I really was, and I wasn't well, and I felt like I had a demon on me at that time, so I just want to just say that. There was something that was going on, and I was like, this is so unhealthy, and I can't believe I'm even this weight. But you can see it now. Yeah, it's insane. but back to Vinny he was a real actor

you know he I remember doing a lot of theater stuff with him I was trying to remember because I don't remember a lot of things I got to be honest with you it's been a long time ago and you know this when you're 54

all of the things start to slip your mind for a certain period of time it's called menopause you don't remember a lot of things have to do with any men so Vinny's a man Um, anyhow, I, uh, I adored him. I don't know, you know, I don't know what else to say.

I adored, I adored them all. It was, it's just hard to see that, um, no, no, they're both gone. Yeah. And I love them both so much, you know. It was just like this warmth. Um, but then he was doing a lot of stuff in the theater too, which I, you know, I don't know if people really knew the level, the level of acting he was, which is why level of actor, sorry,

which is why he, you know, was the perfect person to die in that episode in that season because you cared. He's so lovable. Off screen. So he was the right choice for that, even though we all were so bummed out

that he was gone. You know, there's such good scenes. What's it like to have your kids watching the show for the first time? I mean, this is one of the things you're here from, like the cast of the office a lot is the show took off really when it went on streaming. Like it was successful when it was out, but it just went, you know, incredibly into the stratosphere when Netflix started carrying it and all of the streamers started carrying it.

I'm noticing something with The Sopranos as well, obviously one of the biggest shows in the history of television, if not the biggest show in the history of television. But it seems like it's really becoming popular with younger people. What is it like for your own kids to watch the show, especially given they're your children? Yeah, my daughter's not interested because she's too busy. She's like I said, crazy art. But my son is still little, 15. And he, you know, he watched all of Breaking Bad when he was on set with me.

And we were in Biloxi for a month. Wow. Watch the entire thing. And I was like, wow, you're going to watch that and not Mommy show. Yeah. Oh, gee. Yeah. And I'm like, you need to understand your heritage.

And it's like, oh, right, I'm going to show him about a bunch of people who kill each other. I mean, look, let's be real. I mean, the Roman Empire still has not fallen. I mean, I think that missing that in government over and over again, just nobody really wants to talk about it. I mean, my own people, I think, are responsible for half of the misgivings of the world to this day. It's just a huge mafia. But the genre, if we're just going to stay here on planet Earth for a minute,

enjoy all of the, you know, TV, movies, even though everything, that's the other thing. It's like they're saying everything's satanic. Every single movie is now propaganda. Every movie is produced by the Pentagon and it's predictive programming. It's like, oh, my God, can we just enjoy E.T.? Can we just eat it fun? No. You know, but I know that it had some bigger picture.

But as far as Sopranos goes, I know who created the Sopranos. And I know exactly who he is. And that was, you know, the most talented human being in the world in my, in my opinion. We did change the face of television and it was not some frigging controlled thing from the outside world or anything. It was organic.

It was natural. It was real. And it happened. And I was a part of that. And I feel very blessed who have been. Yes, kids are obsessed with the show. I remember walking down the street with my son. He's embarrassed to be walking down the street with me a little bit

because it's mom. I get stopped nonstop and it never stops. Is it by more young people now too? like Gen Z. It's nonstop. But this is the thing, a car skits in front of us and they freak out

and it's a bunch of teenage boys. They're like, holy shit, it's Adriana. And I look at Blackjack and he's like, oh my God. And I'm like, see, mommy's cool. And I said to the kids,

you just made me so cool in front of my son. So thank you. Thank you. I mean, he never cares that people are always stopping me. But yeah, It's all kids now.

It's all kids. I started posting stuff this week because there's this hysterical Instagrammer that does, he says it's soprano psychosis, soprano psychosis syndrome. All these girls are showing up in my feet dressed like Adriana. Hot mob wife summer. Not Halloween. Why is everybody doing this right now? It's usually on Halloween.

But, yeah, it's huge with the young people. And, you know, the mafia genre is a great job. genre. Like I said, who wants to watch a bunch of Italians who are just doctors and are just dealing with their family and feeding their kid breakfast and then feeding them at lunch and then they go to bed early. You don't want to watch this show. They want to watch a subculture. Subcultures are interesting. Well, and I think especially after 9-11 as institutional trust was cratering, I mean, that's, Sopranos is crediting with kicking off the idea of the anti-hero that you can get Americans to root for the anti-hero. And I think the end of the 90s, the early 2000s,

especially like Gen X is coming into its own in the end of the 90s. Like people were really sick of corporate bullshit. They didn't, they were stopping, like having this like warm feeling about our institutions. And it just tapped into that so early. It's all exploding now, but it tapped into that so early. I think David Chase even said that the show was like an analysis of the American dream falling to pieces or something. And I'm probably totally misquoting him. And it may not even be the sentiment.

but I think that that was sort of what he was saying. And what's funny is we're watching the intros and the World Trade Center is there, right? Yeah. But 9-11 happened while we were shooting. And then after a certain point, that disappears from the credits. It's no longer there. And it's like, wow, this really is the collapse. That was the very beginning where we could act,

where people that were in tune were actually could be aware that, wow, we're being, we're being completely blindsided by a narrative that is not the truth. I mean, for me. And that was the fall of the American culture in my time frame. You know, you're younger than I am. But, you know, for 54-year-olds, it's like, okay, I'm sure there were, you know, in the 60s, there were a lot of other, a lot more of those moments where people were like, this wasn't, like, you know, JFK.

I mean, we can go down the list of things that have concerned. But yeah, the Sopranos, when you look at it today, you really can't see it. Like, we had a podcast on it, and I stopped doing it because, you know, we were doing more of, like, college thesis analysis of the show. Right. And pulling symbolism out of it nonstop. That wasn't always there. But this was, you know, it's an abstract painting that we can, you know, we can say what we feel it is.

The same way, the ending of the show. Everyone's like, what did you think of the end of the show? I go, that's your, that's your. canvas, man, you can decide what you want to decide at the end of the show look like, because nobody would have been happy if he would have died or he would have lived. Everybody would have been pissed because everyone's married to their, to their disagreements, their opposition, their, you know, hatred. No one just wants to, like, try to understand things for what they are.

So, yeah, Sopranos is very much like that. And the whole idea of the anti-hero, I think, I mean, there were other anti-heroes and, you know, tons of movies that came before that. And this TV show was a nod to every big film out there. David Chase is a film junkie, I think. But yes, seeing, and this goes back to Fauci and Bill Gates and all of these people, if I can just, I don't want to, yes, I'm mad at them 100%. Tony Sparano, terrible person, right?

But you get an inside look at how he became this way. And I do think that someone like Gates and Fauci, Like how did you how did you get here? I want to understand that. You know, I don't want you to be out in public still doing the things you do. But I want to understand how the fuck did you get here? And that's why, you know, people are like, just kill them all. And I'm like, no, I don't want to kill them all.

I want to understand. They could go away and not be allowed to do these things anymore in a less corrupt system. But the whole system's corrupt. So, you know, we probably won't see accountability. even I don't know if we saw accountability for Tony Soprano. He killed Adriana. That's the genius of it. That's the genius of it.

Oh my goodness. I mean, I went way long and I just appreciate you for being here, Dreo, because I could keep going. I'm so grateful to you for taking so much time out of your day to come here on an after party. Thanks for having me. So your podcast is called Ultra Free, and people can check that out on YouTube, anywhere you get your podcasts, anywhere else that they should go to follow Ultra Fee.

It's your Instagram. Of course, people can see clips of it there too. Yeah, our website is ultrafree.com. And you can get shirts like this. You can one shirt that has, that says. Ultra fucking free. I mean, you know, I'm, it's rock and roll. We got to keep freedom rock and roll.

It always was at least appeared to be coming from the rock and roll, even though they were being controlled too back in the day. But nevertheless, let's be free. Free to change our minds. Free to not have to subscribe to any one thing. People thought we were some super right-wing t-shirt company. And it's like, no, we're not. This is for people who feel disenfranchised, period.

Like, let's just be free and love each other, that kind of thing. So yeah, ultra-free.com, anywhere you get your podcasts, you know, to find me. A real artist, Drea, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Life insurance, we all know we need it, but we keep putting it off because maybe it feels complicated, it feels expensive, or just like something that can wait. But stop waiting. Take care of it today with Select Quote. In just 15 minutes, high quality coverage can be secured to fit any life and any budget.

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possibly to become a socialist governor come 2027. We might see a socialist gubernatorial win on Election Day in 26. So people are trying to figure out what happened. people are trying to figure out what happened. And Matt Walsh weighed in with a post that we can pop up on the screen that set off this ridiculous internecing debate on the right. I'm going to break it down. He said grocery prices are insane. This was Monday. They're still rising. Addressing this problem should be the number one priority of every elected leader and to the stupid foreign wars and focus on this issue. It's one of the main reason socialists are gaining power. Now, Andrew Colvette, obviously,

of Turning Point USA, hosts the Charlie Kirk show with Blake Neff, who's been on this show. He said, one of our TPSA college students gave me his take on affordability. A burrito shouldn't cost $20. Andrew said, yeah, a lot of this is a hangover

from COVID-in-era inflation, but the lived experience is the same. It just feels like basic things cost too much. Joel Berry, you follow it along here? Joel Barry, previously with the Babylon Bee, now I believe he works for Jeremy Boring's show, responded, last night, made homemade burritos for our family of eight, and it costs less than $20 total for everyone.

I'm beginning to think the affordability crisis is really an I don't know how to cook crisis. Finally, it's going to, we're continuing to peel back the layers. Mark Tiesin responded to Andrew Colvette and said, Cry me a River. The burritos in the college cafeteria are included in your meal plan. The vice president of the United States responded and said, I'm surprised to hear Mark say this if you've ever met him in person. and it's quite obvious the man has never missed a burrito.

That is how intense the burrito discourse became on conservative acts. But there's at the bottom of all of these layers, once we've peeled them back, a very serious question. And that is, are people turning to self-identified socialists, whether it's reluctantly or eagerly, because politicians, Republicans and Democrats, are not doing enough to fix the problem of rising food prices. And just to bring some factual analysis into this,

do you remember how high egg prices were not long ago? I think you do. As a political class, might not remember how high egg prices were. But I'm just going to read from an Associated Press report. This went totally under the radar in early July. three companies admitted to, well, they didn't admit to any wrongdoing, but they did settle, let's say that way. They settled a really serious case the government brought, the Trump administration brought about price fixing. To settle the state's claims, the Associated Press reports, Cal Main, Versova, and Hickmans will collectively be on the hook for $3.3 million and $53 million. They have to donate. Those eggs would be donated by the companies and make their ways to food banks and nonprofits. The money will be distributed to the states. So, They did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement, but they settled because the evidence that they were price fixing was extremely strong.

That's why they're settling. Now, I'll get back to this in just a moment, but I want to also read from NBC News, which talked to the chief economist at Moody's analytics, who said that the Iran war is, quote, costing the average household more than $1,200. According to Zandi's calculations, the price of gas is costing the average household $360 more. groceries are costing the average household in additional $240, he said. Meanwhile, other modes of transportation are costing $110 more, higher interest rates are adding another $205 to household bills.

The cost of the Iran war is hitting American household budgets hard and it's set to hit even harder as the war wages on. Gas prices rise again and the military costs mount. Before the war, the national average gas price was comfortably below $3 per gallon. He said on LinkedIn, gasoline was about the only thing we buy regularly that had it become much more expensive since the pandemic. I did check gas prices today. The AAA average is over $4 a gallon nationwide. In certain swing states, including Michigan, it is over $4 a gallon, Ohio, Maine. So that's a obvious political problem. Going to read now from CNBC, which reported consumer

prices pulled back in June, but food costs edged higher once again, bringing the year-over-year gain to 3 percent, according to the latest consumer price index. Food at home, a measure of price changes at the grocery store also increased from a year earlier. So are people eating out less frequently? Are they going to Chipotle less frequently? A you gov poll found that 37% of American diners are eating out less frequently than they did a year ago, according to a report on that poll among lower income diners, the share rises to 44%. Just 8% of diners say they're eating out more than they were last year. Guess what? Gen Z and millennial diners are also cutting back more than their older counterparts. 57% of Gen Z and Millennials.

is cutting back compared with 52% of their older counterparts. I am just barraging you with evidence and statistics here for a reason, and I'm going to keep going. Forbes, the cost of college has steadily increased over the last 30 years. In that time frame, tuition costs at a public four-year colleges grew from $5,940 to $11,950 and from $28,820 to $45,000 at private nonprofit institutions that is adjusted for inflation. Forbes says, as costs have risen, so has. has the need for student loans and other forms of financial aid. Average student loan debt, according to this article, is around $35,000. And money-wise reports that for the first time in three years,

inflation is once again outpacing wage growth in the U.S. Consumer prices rose 3.8% annually in April 2026, while average hourly earnings increased by just 3.6%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reversal marks the first time since April 2023 when we were coming down from the pandemic, quote, that inflation has outpaced wage growth per the visual capitalist. Okay. Why did I just barrage us with these statistics and figures? Because evidence is overwhelmingly clear that prices are higher than they should be and that if you are a younger American, prices are especially high

because you are likely to be saddled with more student loan debt than people who came before you. And on top of that, mortgage rates really high. You're not building up the wealth in a home. You are likely to get married later, meaning you don't have two incomes. Now, whether two incomes are a trap, as Elizabeth Warren once wrote an entire book about, is a separate question. But all of this is a bad economy for young people. It's going to get worse. There's a lot of anxiety about whether it would get worse if Dario Amadei's projection that 50% of white-collar jobs

would be wiped out within the next five years comes through fruition. So people's anxiety about this is very real. And the response to Andrew's point about the burritos, which he did supply some AI evidence for, like, I think he asked Google or Grock or something about burrito prices, you can definitely build a Chipotle burrito that puts you in the range of $20 if you're adding like queso and guac and all of that. But that's besides the point. And it actually speaks to why the responses to Walsh and Colvette were so completely ridiculous. First of all, you are, I think, to be skeptical or angry about those points, displaying an underlying anger towards younger Americans and towards populism, which is actually entirely fair. I don't have that same anger. I do think

there is, of course, Christopher Lash wrote one of the best books on what was happening to us as Americans and what the 1970s with culture of narcissism, I do think there's a lot of self-pity. I don't think it's actually true of everyone. I don't think it's actually even true of most people who are younger Americans. They just want a playing field that looks like what it looked like for their parents. Now, interest rates, that's another question. But they want to see the political system work, not backslide. And to disagree with Walsh or Colvette, especially with the hostility that they got,

first of all, that kid who told Colvette burrito shouldn't cost $20 didn't say he was buying $20 burritos. Nor did he say he was buying $20 burritos every day. He simply said a burrito shouldn't cost $20. That's it. That is correct. That's why we just did the stat barrage. Figures show the prices have risen at a rate that is not keeping pace with wages. So nobody's going to deny that you can make a cheaper burrito at home and that it's still possible.

I do think there's some dumerism, by the way, on the right that is not entirely founded. I worry that we play into like a victimization narrative sometimes that is unhealthy. Not all the time, but sometimes that is unhealthy. there's a mountain of social science research that shows the more likely you are to see yourself as a victim of a flawed system rather than an agent, a free agent, who is able to overcome a flawed system, even if the system is flawed and even if you are a victim, that can really amissorate people to put yourself in the former category as a victim who is a victim of a flawed system. We do have a flawed system. That's not likely to change anytime soon. Every system is going to be

flawed. Our system is, happens to be less flawed than others. But historically, the sweeping of human history, we're very lucky. That doesn't mean that we should accept backsliding. And it doesn't mean that we should pretend as though a burrito should cost $20 or that it's okay to not worry about food prices, not keeping up with wages, about the condition of young people. And that is especially when you have people coming out of college, which we were told, I went to public school, you're told the college education is the ticket to the middle class. And you should go to the best school that you can get into. That is drilled into your brain in public school from kindergarten,

through your senior year of high school. That's what people do. They come out, they're 18 when they make that decision, that they're being egged on by our entire system. They come out sometimes with ill-advised debt, but $35,000 on average of student loan debt. Wages aren't keeping up with grocery inflation. So yeah, they're going to notice that the burritos cost $20,

and they're probably going to say something about it. On top of that, here's more questions. Or here's some more questions. What are we supposed to do with all of this? First of all, don't settle. Don't let the egg companies settle for $3.3 million and donated eggs. Prosecute them. What they did was against the law.

The administration, of course, should not have settled with these egg companies. That to me looks like a sweetheart deal and like they're getting off easily. That sends a signal throughout the economy. Donald Trump right now is going after what he sees as price gouging from the oil companies. That is almost certainly happening. The Biden administration overstated, quote unquote, greedflation as a way to scapegoat, corporations for their own super high spending levels as they were trying to get out of the pandemic that obviously contributed to inflation, still contributing in all likelihood to the levels of

inflation that we are seeing. But that was also happening. So prosecute people who are involved in price fixing schemes and don't make sweetheart deals with them. Don't start a war unless it's absolutely necessary and an urgent and immediate threat. I accept that we can have debates over that, But you have the chief economist that Moody is talking about how it's adding $1,200 on average of costs to Americans. Yeah, you can have more targeted tariffs. This is what Trump did with Brazil when the coffee prices were going up. You'd have a much more logical tariff rollout. You can make that case.

Cut back college subsidies. Cut back housing subsidies. Deregulate in a targeted way that actually is focused on cutting costs. All of those things are true. but to stick your head in the sand and respond in a way where you're saying the real problem here, the primary problem here is Gen Z laziness, Gen Z not making food at home when it shows millennials and Gen Z. You gov's polling found millennials and Gen Z are more likely to be cutting back on dining out than older generations. To lash out at people who are pointing out this problem rather than respond constructively,

is a political disaster. There's a messaging question here and a substantive policy question here. So even if you disagree with me on the substantive policy questions, which I doubt most people on the right disagree with much of what I just laid out, but even if you did, even if you disagree with that, the messaging is an abject disaster. It is going to push more people towards socialism. It's going to push more people away from the right.

People are obviously upset about the status quo. Whether you think they're right or wrong about the status quo, then you should meet them with empathy and try to persuade them that you have a better road forward that isn't just saying burritos don't cost $20 or burritos should cost $20. It's fine. Or just make your food at home and relax. The point is the burrito shouldn't cost $20.

So either make an argument for why a burrito should cost $20 or then just make your argument about why the burrito should cost $20. The amount of times I'm seeing burrito in this segment is driving me insane. Make your point, make your argument about why it's necessary for burrito to cost $20. And if you really think that's true, God bless you on your political journey. God bless you on your policy journey while wages aren't keeping up. with it, by the way. On the other hand, if you think that populism is wrong, fine, make a constructive argument about how this is the fault of tariffs, this is the fault of Biden-era spending. That's all well and good, but say your suffering is coming from somewhere. Don't say your suffering

is not real. And if you're meeting people by saying your suffering is not real, and then adding on to that, maybe you're just lazy. Maybe you just don't know how to cook at home. Is that true of some of Gen Z and some millennials? Yeah, of course it's true of some Gen Z and some millennials. Of course, maybe it's even worse than prior generations. I would even be willing to accept that. But to act as though that's the big problem here, when you have cold, hard facts showing that wages are not keeping up with food prices,

it's a political disaster and it's a policy disaster, frankly. So it's also uneven. You might be in one part of the country. This is from USAFax, who actually, you've heard me talk about USA Facts on the show. They support this show. But I found this on USA Facts independently of any of that when I was researching the segment. They rate over 12 months ending with June 2025 to June 2026. Wage Growth did outpace inflation in five states. And the highest real rage growth was in New Mexico at 5.9%. In 45 states in Washington, D.C., real wage growth was negative, meaning wages didn't keep up with inflation. Minnesota saw the steepest drop with negative 5.1% Minnesota, of course, right now, seeing a socialist surge, you can put those two together pretty easily and see, again, two layers, politics and I'm sorry, messaging and policy. And you can see pretty quickly how some of these responses are a disaster on both levels. So I thought I would weigh in on the great burrito discourse of 2026. reluctantly, of course, I'm not eager to be here debating burrito prices, but this is where we've come.

That's going to do it for us on tonight. I'll use the word again, wild show. Email me, Emily at double-maycaremedia.com. Get those questions in before tomorrow afternoons when I typically tape happy hour. That's our Friday episode of the show that was available. Wherever you get your podcast, we're three days a week on podcast, so check it out. Make sure to subscribe on YouTube, subscribe wherever you get your podcast, and we'll be back here with more soon. Thank you.