Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - “If You Travel The World, You’ll Find That People Are Mostly Based.” - Hot Takes With @ZubyMusic

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

The king of Twitter, @ZubyMusic, collabs with Alex Clark in an epic conversation that covers his life story of growing up across multiple countries, how conservatism is actually a shared belief around... the world, police brutality, and why fitness should come first. Just when you think he can’t possibly have any more hot takes… he delivers. Here on The Spillover, Alex always spills the tea. But for this episode, Zuby is here to spill some tea of his own.You know who doesn’t have spooky meat? Go...

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Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm not saying Kanye West will be performing at Turning Point USA's America Fest in Phoenix this December. But I'm also not saying he isn't. All I know is that this week it was announced that he's buying the conservative social media platform parlor from George Farmer, Candice Owen's husband. Both Candace and George are confirmed speakers this year at America Fest. And of course, each night of America Fest ends with big. musical guess, I wouldn't want to, you know, take any chances of missing out if I were you just in case. So go to AMFest.com to get your tickets and Code Popplitics will get you 25% off general admission. America Fest is December 17th through 20th in Phoenix, Arizona. Go to AMFest.com
Starting point is 00:00:51 and use CodePoplitics for 25% off general admission. Today I have the sort of guest whose brain I could just Pick and pick. No, I said brain, not his nose. And that's because he is some of the hottest takes burning on Twitter on any given day of the week. Thoughts on abortion? Check. Thoughts on gender? Check. Whether or not America is the greatest nation on the planet? Check. He's got some of the most thoughtful, reasonable, and well-articulated opinions out there. He's here today to also share some of his life story, which has totally informed his views of the world that I think we can all learn from, from growing up in Saudi Arabia to identifying as a female just to smash a weightlifting record, establishing himself as a successful artist and musician, to having a terrifying wrongful arrest.
Starting point is 00:01:54 His life has been anything but ordinary and his takes are anything but boring. What I liked most of all about him is that he's lived in so many different countries around the world, and he argues that people are more conservative than not, no matter where you go. Any ideas who today's guest is? Here's a hint. Zooby, Zoobie, Zoobie, Zoo. Zubi, Zoo. I had to do that.
Starting point is 00:02:18 My God, my producers are cringing. Please welcome Zooby to the Spillo. Everybody follows you on Twitter, especially conservatives. And a lot of people know you for your hot takes. But what I think is interesting is that you really split your time growing up between the UK and Saudi Arabia, which I think would really shock people. So I have to ask you, I mean, tell me something about living in Saudi Arabia that Americans would be shocked to know. And I know it's also just a really unique part of your childhood. So I'd love to hear memories of that. Yeah, sure thing. So, okay, things people would be shocked
Starting point is 00:02:59 to know. Let's start off with the fact that it is extremely safe. It's one of the safest, it's one of the safest places there. A lot of times people hear about me growing up in the Middle Eastern Saudi Arabia and some people imagine some type of war zone or some type of crazy place or high crime or anything like that. And you are far, far, far safer in a city or town in Saudi Arabia than you are in any American city or British city for that matter. Wow. So that's a giant misconception that people have. It's a very, very safe place. Another thing that is interesting that people might not know. There's so many of them. How about the week runs from Saturday to Wednesday and the weekend is Thursday and Friday?
Starting point is 00:03:45 Okay, I can get behind that. So maybe not all ideas are bad from over there. Yeah, well, it's different. So obviously in Islam, Friday is the holy day, whereas in Christianity, it's Sunday. So if you think in Western countries, Saturday and Sunday are the weekend because Sunday is the Sabbath over there, Friday is the Holy Day. So it's Thursday and Friday. So when I was growing up and I was going to school in Saudi Arabia, I'd go to school from Saturday to Wednesday.
Starting point is 00:04:15 And then Thursday, Friday was the weekend. So actually, when I came to the UK, I needed to adjust over to that. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of, man, there's a lot of unique stuff about that country. It's also changed quite a lot. I mean, I left in 2008 and things have changed quite significantly over the past 14 years in various ways.
Starting point is 00:04:33 Number one, you can actually go there as a tourist now. When I was living there, you couldn't, you couldn't just go and visit as a tourist. They started issuing tourist visas, I think only in 2018. And they also desegregated the restaurants in some of the public areas. Yeah, when I was growing up there, if you were in the cities, then if you go to a restaurant, even a McDonald's or a KFC or something, they'd have a family section and a men's only section. So there was actual gender segregation in the restaurants. And the country's opened up a little bit more.
Starting point is 00:05:05 It's liberalized somewhat in, I say, the good way. And I think that's since 2018. Yeah, when I grew up there, that was not a, that was not a thing. In the little community I grew up in, in the expect community, women could drive there, but not outside of it. Outside of it, it was against the law. Is the reason you think that it was so safe growing up is because people were just so afraid or what was being implemented that made it safe? That's a great question. I think it's a core part of it, I think, is actually quite. deep. I think it's a, it's a very, very, very God-fearing country. Very, very God-fearing country. And yes, there are harsh and strict punishments for specific crimes, especially violent crimes,
Starting point is 00:05:47 right? I mean, so that's a factor. But I think it's the deterrent matters, but I think also, as you and I know, people's values and morals and ethics matter. Families are a lot tighter there. There's much stronger family values. And it's not. You know, America is a great country, for example. The USA is a brilliant country. And it's the most diverse country in the world in every sense. But that also includes ideologically, right? So all of these culture wars and political divisions and battles and so on, it doesn't exist
Starting point is 00:06:21 somewhere like that, not like this. You know, everyone's vast majority of people are on the same page. It's not a democracy. So there's no voting in political parties anyway. There's no culture war going on there. There hasn't been all the breakdown of the family. that's happened over the past 50 or 60 years across many Western countries, the institution of a marriage is still very strong. Yes, it's ultra-conservative in certain ways, and that can go,
Starting point is 00:06:45 that can have its own issues and its unique challenges and problems. But a lot of the issues that, a lot of the social problems that exist in the USA, which especially American conservatives are deeply critical of, they're just very, they're far rarer in a country like that because they don't really permit things to go to such a level, right? I would argue, I would argue that in the west, across the west, certainly in the USA, like, I think it's gone, it's gone too liberal, right? It's gone too far in many ways. You've now got drag queens twerking in front of children. You've now got like, you know, people switching gender, saying gender doesn't even exist. Women can have penises, like, if you say the stuff in the Middle East, they'll just laugh at you, right?
Starting point is 00:07:33 They'll be like you, they'll want to lock you up. They'll be like, what is this person, what's this person even talking about, right? And then even things like the drug problems, you know, you've got over 100,000 Americans a year dying of drug overdoses, another 100,000 dying of alcohol. Saudi Arabia is like, we ban alcohol, we ban drugs. You bring drugs into our country and try to traffic them. We're taking your head. Now someone might be like, whoa, that's extreme.
Starting point is 00:07:56 That's excessive. And I'm like, maybe so. But it kind of works. it kind of works. I wonder if you, the fact that you've been able to experience growing up, you know, values from the East and the West, if that has really played a part in your ability to be such a deep thinker and critical thinker today. It has. And you know, my family background is also from Nigeria. So I grew up experiencing four very different countries and different cultures. So Nigeria, the UK, I was in an American school in Saudi Arabia from kindergarten up until fifth
Starting point is 00:08:32 grade. It's actually why I don't have a British accent, by the way. I'm sure a lot of people were wondering that listening. Yeah, it confuses people. And then Saudi Arabia as well. So I grew up from a really young age across these different countries and cultures and meeting people from all over the world. So my perspective on the world and life and a lot of things is not really, it's not, it's not even not really. It's not sort of standard American perspective or a standard British perspective or even a standard Western perspective because, yes, I'm a Westerner, I'm British, and I love the UK, I love the USA. There's many things I love about these places, but I've also experienced growing up in places that are very different. And my family background and ancestry is also from somewhere
Starting point is 00:09:21 that's different. So even when it comes to things like sociopolitical issues or cultural issues, I've told people before, because oftentimes people, people like labels, you know, we live in this age. Everyone wants to label people politically. And sometimes I joke, but it's not really a joke. Sometimes I say I'm a progressive in Saudi Arabia, a liberal in Nigeria, and a conservative in the UK and USA. Not because I have different views or ideas, but yeah, like relative to where the country is, right? If by Saudi or by Saudi standards, and even by Nigerian standards to some degree, like I'm, I'm pretty liberal. If I were in Saudi Arabia, I'd be, people would be like, oh, wow, that guy's a liberal. That guy's a progressive, right, compared to where certain things are in
Starting point is 00:10:03 society and in terms of equality and so on. But then if I'm in the U.S. or I'm in the UK, people are like, oh, Zubi's a conservative. I've even had people say I'm like super conservative or something. And I'm like, well, in the USA, they would probably say that you're a white supremacist now. I've been called that before, right? And you're just like, interesting. Like on a global level, I mean, if you travel around the world and you spend time in parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, even parts of South America, even parts of North America, you'll be like, actually most people in the world are quite conservative. But before you became known for like political commentating and all this stuff online,
Starting point is 00:10:48 I mean, you first and foremost are a musician. So how did that start in your life? Yeah, sure thing. So funnily enough, when I was a kid, I wasn't really into music as a fan, but I used to play piano. My parents used to get us to try different things. And so I had the opportunity to play piano. I played it up until I was about 12 years old. I even used to do recitals and stuff like that. But in terms of my career, I really fell in love with hip-hop music when I went to school in the UK, in my teens. And then when I was in university studying computer science actually at Oxford, standard origin story for a rapper, of course. So was it American musicians that you fell in love with or UK hip hop? It was primary. It was American.
Starting point is 00:11:31 American music was the gateway. I listened to British rap now, some of it. But it was American artists that I really started listening to. And when I was 18 in university, as when I started rapping, and I wrote and released my very first album in my second year of university. It was called Commercial Underground. It was a totally independent release. And over the course of time, I actually sold 3,000 copies of it just hand to hand,
Starting point is 00:11:54 completely independently. So that was the spark for my career. And then after I left uni, I spent one year doing my music full time before I went and worked in the corporate world for a couple of years. And then 2011, I took the big leap and I went out and became a full-time musician, dropped all the corporate stuff and just spent the next several years traveling all over the UK, occasionally out to Europe as well, selling my CDs on the street, doing pop-up shops, doing gigs, just performing all over the place, seeking all these opportunities. And then in 2019 is when people around the world started to discover me through all these different mechanisms on social media, through my commentary. I started my own podcast, started, wrote and released my first
Starting point is 00:12:41 book on fitness and so on. So 2019 was a real transformative year for me. But up until then, from 2006 to 2019, I was really a rapper. That is really what people, the people who knew me, that's what they knew me for. And I still do that. I've just added some additional strengths to the bow now as well. Why did you decide to stay in the UK and pursue your music career and not come to the United States? Largely for logistic reasons. I mean, I'm British. I'm a British citizen. I'm not, you know, you can't just go to the USA. And I mean, you can't illegally. But you can't, yeah, you can't just go to, Yeah, just go to the U.S. and be like, okay, I'm going to just live here and do everything here. I mean, it's not like that.
Starting point is 00:13:24 Do I, sorry, say that again. You love it there. You love, you love living in England. No. Oh, you don't? I wouldn't, I wouldn't have left if I do. I like, I love, I do love the UK. I like the UK a lot, but I don't see myself living there.
Starting point is 00:13:38 I don't see myself living there again. So wait, where are you living right now? On the road. I'm a nomad. Okay. Okay. So I was confused because I thought you were currently in the UK. I'm in Texas right now.
Starting point is 00:13:49 You're traveling everywhere. Yeah. How have you noticed with all the traveling going to the different places the effects of inflation in all these different areas lately? It's really bad in the USA. It's worse in the U.S. than in the U.K. actually. The U.K. might just be lagging behind. So it's possible that I mean, I was in the U.K.
Starting point is 00:14:08 Two months ago, I was in the U.K. And there was inflation. You noticed it. But in the U.S. it's nuts. I mean, when I was in Texas in 2019, I remember, I don't know, like gas being $2.20 per gallon. And now it's like four, it's more than it's like doubled. It's like $4.50 or something like that. And then just the groceries.
Starting point is 00:14:32 I mean, the UK, when I was growing up, the UK was always more expensive than the USA. Like when you buy groceries or you go to restaurants or whatever, the UK was always more expensive. And when I came to the States last year, I was like, ooh, the USA is now more expensive than the UK. And it was never like that previously in my life. So inflation is definitely happening everywhere. I spent some time in Turkey as well this time, this year and last year. And Turkey's hit an over 70% inflation rate over the past year, 70%. So for people here who are like, oh my gosh, you know, 10%, 20%, yeah, they've had a 70% over the past year.
Starting point is 00:15:09 So for people in various countries, it's been really rough. It is October, which means Halloween is right around the corner. Spooey season, as I like to call it. If you need a scary story to tell someone that will make them lie awake at night and will have the hair on the back of their neck standing up straight, just tell them that their steak that's labeled product of the USA is actually from overseas. That is spooky meat you cannot trust. What's even scarier is that meat isn't only on grocery store shelves in October.
Starting point is 00:15:50 No, of course. It's there all year long. Now, if you follow me on Instagram, you've seen that I have gotten really into knowing what's in my food and where it comes from. That's why I've been loving good ranchers. Their beliefs are simple that there is no quality like American quality, love, that everyone deserves to know where their meat comes from, preach and that each person should be able to afford it. God knows that's the truth. Good ranchers takes the guesswork out of the meat aisle and the premium price out of premium meats. Also, I love that proper animal care is essential to good ranchers. The ranches and farms they partner with are
Starting point is 00:16:28 required to use humane animal care practices and their cows are grass fed as they grow up and are used to a 100% vegetarian grain blend. That means good ranchers meat has a tender rich flavor and lots of marbling. You can find boxes that include chicken, steak, burgers, and even seafood. Good Rancher's chicken is 100% American Cornish, what they call better than organic, and has no added hormones ever. Good Rancher's seafood is caught, cut, and packaged on the boat at its freshest. Conservative-owned, and what I really love is every box you buy donates 10 meals to families
Starting point is 00:17:06 in need because we're not just conservatives. were care servatives. If you try good ranchers at good ranchers.com slash Clark, you will get two free pounds of Wagoo ground beef plus $20 off. That's good ranchers.com slash Clark. And you'll get two free pounds of Wagoo ground beef plus $20 off. Good ranchers. American meat delivered. Well, it's interesting that you're currently filming with me right now. You're in Texas because, you know, America in the last couple years, especially since 2020. And of course, the rest of the year had the rest of the world has been bombarded by this notion, of course, that all cops are racist, that they essentially prey upon people of color. And you legitimately did experience a wrongful arrest and violence at the hands of
Starting point is 00:18:02 people who are sworn to protect you and you're black as well. So I was really wanting to know from you when George Floyd became a martyr all around the world. world in 2020. How did that feel to you, especially given your experience? I feel like there are two really separate things. I don't draw much many parallels between the two, to be honest. Both incidents were weird in different regards. So what happened with me, I mean, just to give people context, because they're probably wondering what you're talking about, which is back in, it was either 2008 or 2009. It was more than a decade ago now. But I'd been out promoting and selling my music in one city in the UK.
Starting point is 00:18:45 I came back home, came off a train, and there were two armed police units out there, and they drew their guns on me and said that I was under arrest for a Section 1 firearms incident and handcuffed me and were questioning me and stuff. And long story short, they got the wrong person. So obviously I'd not been chasing anyone around any city with a firearm, but their wires got crossed and they ended up or they, you know, they arrested the wrong person.
Starting point is 00:19:14 So that was a weird situation. Um, I don't recommend it to people. It's not, it's not fun having lots of guns aimed at your head and having police shouting at you for something you haven't done. Um, but it was a strange anomalous event.
Starting point is 00:19:29 I survived. I was not injured. I just, if anyone ever is in this situation, I just recommend you, you just comply and stay alive and then work out what's going on later. Don't do anything stupid. What was going through your mind when that was happening?
Starting point is 00:19:42 Honestly, it felt surreal. It didn't feel real. It didn't feel real. I don't know if you've ever experienced something that doesn't feel like you feel like you're in a dream. It was very, very surreal. That's the best way I can imagine it. So it was frightening, but it was, I thought I was going to wake up at some point and
Starting point is 00:19:59 be like, whoa, okay, that was a weird, that was a weird dream because it didn't make any sense, right? Like I'm doing a trip. I do multiple times a week. I'm just, you know, imagine you just. get off, I don't know, you come out of an airport or you come out at a train station or whatever. And all of a sudden, all of this is going on and it's targeted to you. And you don't even know, you don't know what's going on.
Starting point is 00:20:17 You don't know who people think you are. You don't know what they think you've done. You've just suddenly got a bunch of people, ain't even guns at you and telling you to lie down on the ground and putting handcuffs on you. So it was, it was weird. And then the whole media, there was a media storm afterwards, which was also very weird, um, because they all kind of had their own agenda and they wanted to, you know, some people wanted to push the racial narrative or like people started people started like making up their
Starting point is 00:20:42 own parts of the story some people were saying was there a racial component in your honest opinion no no um the only part i say no the only part so about three months later i got the we got the results of they did a full independent police investigation to find out exactly what happened and i actually got access to all of the transcripts and everything because there were three different police forces involved in it and essentially what had happened is one, it was one person's mistake, basically. And that wasn't even the arresting officers. The arresting officers were acting off the information they were given. But the person who passed on the information sent them my description rather than the description of the person who had been
Starting point is 00:21:25 seen seen on CCTV in the city doing this thing. So those wires got crossed there. So is it possible that, you know, UK has a, especially south coast of England, I mean, you're talking less than 1% black population. So is it likely that someone jumped a gun in saying, okay, this guy is potentially that same person, the person who fed the info based on the fact that, okay, well, it was a young black guy and there aren't that many young black guys around. And he was wearing a hat and he's wearing a hat. So maybe that's him. He didn't even give the order saying like, yeah, boom, that's that guy. But anyway, it's a little complicated to explain. But the main thing was not a racial, wasn't a racial narrative. That wasn't, that wasn't the thing.
Starting point is 00:22:11 And then coming around to what you're saying about the George Floyd thing. I mean, that was also a weird incident. I remember when I saw that video, I saw that video. I remember I saw the video really early on because it was, it got retweeted onto my Twitter feed, literally less than an hour after, before before people even knew the name George Floyd. I just saw a video of, you know, a man kneeling on another man's neck and, you know, he he passes out and stops moving. And I was like, whoa, like, that's, it's very visceral video, very hard and unpleasant to watch. So that sucked.
Starting point is 00:22:43 And then, yeah, I mean, the sort of global, the global aftermath of that entire situation was, was weird. I think, I think as these things often go for the first 12 or 24 hours, I think it was kind of on track. And then within 24 hours, it had turned into another wedge culture war issue and excuse for people to behave badly and to demonize people who have nothing to do with the situation and each other. And I think that I think with so many things, I think one of the biggest issues we have in our countries right now is just, I think it's immaturity. I think it's immaturity. Do you think that it would have the same effect if most of the world? wouldn't have been in lockdown when that viral video came out? No, it wouldn't have had the same effect.
Starting point is 00:23:37 I think the fact that it was on video was a massive factor. And the fact that people had been locked in their houses for about two months at that time or whatever was also a massive factor. Because it was like putting a match on a powder kick, right? Like this has been building up. People are already angsty and want to go out. And people are getting mad because it drives people crazy being isolated in that way. and then boom, all of a sudden, here's a reason to go out there and to protest and to do this and that. And what started out as actually mostly peaceful protest quickly turned into cities on fire.
Starting point is 00:24:11 And all of a sudden, statues are being pulled down, not just in the USA, but even in the UK in different countries. And you've got like all these BLM marches happening in places where they don't even have black people and so on and so forth. And there's all these racial narratives, despite even to this day, as far as I know, there's no evidence that it was a racially charged incident. but unfortunately so many people, especially Americans, cannot get out of the racial framing of absolutely every issue. And I think that's extremely toxic and divisive. People can't just see people as people. You know, it's just, it's always got to be black, white, black white, black white. And it's one thing I hate actually. It's actually one thing I really, really dislike about the way that people frame many issues here. But, you know, it was a, it was a, the thing that
Starting point is 00:24:56 makes me saddest about it is that I don't really know if people have learned anything from it. I think there was a good opportunity for people to learn something and to come together and not be hyperpartisan and not play into the race narratives and this and that and actually reflect and come up with some potential solutions. But instead, it just became another stick to beat people over the head with and to call people racist with and to, you know, push stupid ideas like let's abolish the police and this and that, which then has its own downstream repercussions. You've seen crime spike in places where this has actually happened in various cities. You've seen buildings get looted and burned and another 20 or 30 people died in the riots of 2020, just in the USA. And it turned,
Starting point is 00:25:46 you know, one sad incident ended up turning into hundreds, thousands, millions of sad incidents. and hundreds of millions, billions, dollars worth of damage, and what came out of it? Like, what's gotten better, right? Since 2020, have things gotten better? Have the police improved or been restructured or retrained in any way? Not that I'm aware of. Has crime come down? No, it's gone up.
Starting point is 00:26:14 Are general race relations in the USA better? They seem to be a little bit worse. You know, most people are still decent, but I, I, I, I'd say that it's inflamed and created tension where it really wasn't necessary. So all of that is just a shame to me. That's kind of how I see it because, and I think this happens on so many issues. There's so much stuff that could be used to, oftentimes the same thing that could be used to unite people can also be used to divide people.
Starting point is 00:26:43 And it's kind of which one are you going to go with? This goes with politicians. It goes with the media. It goes with the everyday person. Okay, there's this incident. Are we going to use this as a weapon? or are we going to use this as an opportunity to rise above the partisanship for a moment and say, okay, look, we all agree.
Starting point is 00:27:02 This is a bad thing. We don't want this to happen. What can we do to make this less like? You see it happen. It happens every time there's a school shooting. Anytime there's a mass shooting. Same thing. You could use that moment to come together and learn something.
Starting point is 00:27:16 Because no one wants that to happen. It doesn't matter if you're independent, Democrat, Republican, liberal. Nobody wants more school shootings, right? But instead it comes down to beating people with a stick, calling these people murderers, calling these people. It's just like every single issue that seems to happen. And I don't think that is sustainable. I don't think it's sustainable for every single thing to turn into a partisan cultural war issue. And I think that there's a big risk, both in the UK and in the U.S., but the U.S. is honestly worse in this regard. And I think one of the greatest concerns I have about this country. And I really love the USA. But as an outsider, I can quite objectively see its flaws. I'm not afraid to speak on them. Interesting. That's why people like following you. Yeah. I think that's one of the great risks to this country because it's supposed to be the United States of America. And oftentimes it's looking a lot more like the divided states of America. And it's looking like people are seeing their neighbors as enemies rather than as neighbors.
Starting point is 00:28:22 And people are obsessing over people are also being trained to do this. And, you know, the media, academia, sections of entertainment activists. A lot of people play a role in the unnecessary polarization and division. There's always going to be some division, right? Like that exists. You can't have complete unity across human. You can't have 340 million people who are very diverse and, oh, you know, everyone's on the same page as everything. That's not even really how it's supposed to be, but it can be civil, it can be polite, it can be mature. It doesn't need to, it just seems like it's gone down so many levels even over the past 10 or 15 years where now it's,
Starting point is 00:29:02 now it's like, okay, people are really getting at each other's throats and actually starting to foment hatred towards each other. And I think that whenever significant parts of a population start hating significant parts of the population, it doesn't bode well. You can look at history. You can look around the world. You can see that when that happens, it's not good. And I don't think most people want another civil war or for states to start seceding and all. all of this to happen. I don't think it's necessary. I don't think it's ideal. Well, I think to just speak to like, you're really good at, I think, predicting cultural trends and these polarization trends before they happen. And in 2019, if people weren't following you then,
Starting point is 00:29:48 you decided to beat a female weightlifting record while claiming to identify as a woman, which is hilarious, but also just, it's a smart thought exercise, what you did there. So could you just talk about that and then, you know, the aftermath of doing that and the feedback you got? Yeah, sure. So this is, man, it's like two and a half years, three and a half years ago now, February 26, 2019. I posted a single tweet with a nine second video of me doing a 230 kilogram deadlift. I think it's about 520 pounds. And I just said, I keep hearing about how biological men have no strength advantage over women in 2019.
Starting point is 00:30:29 So watch me destroy the British women's deadlift record without. trying. P.S. I identified as a woman whilst lifting the weight. Don't be a bigot. I had I had 18,000 Twitter followers at the time, I remember. As we speak today, it's 830 something thousand. So it's gone up quite significantly. But I just put this out there thinking, okay, I think I thought it was a little bit funny. And if I think something is funny, oftentimes I'll just share it with my audience. And it just went crazy. It went viral for weeks, wrecked up millions of views all around. the world caught the attention of people as far and wide as peers Morgan, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Gander so it just went, it went crazy. It was it was the moment that a lot of
Starting point is 00:31:13 people discovered who I was. And that's so funny because obviously I've been grinding with my music for over a decade at this point. Isn't it just like almost frustrating, but funny at the same time how that works? Yeah. And then the thing I get known for is being the identifying as the strongest woman in England. And yeah, it just took on a life of its own. But because of all the other things that I do, I was able to parlay that moment into not just that tweet going viral, but my audience growth just going crazy and people's not just coming, but staying because they realized, oh, okay, this isn't just a flash in the pan, one-off, interesting tweet. Like, this is a really interesting guy. He puts out cool music. He's got a podcast. He's into fitness. He's doing this and
Starting point is 00:31:59 that. And so three and a half years later, that spark, that catalyst was able to launch everything that I do in my career and notoriety, fame, whatever you want to call it, into a whole new stratosphere. But since then, there have been many, many more viral moments and things that have really gained a lot of people's attention and which people follow me for now. So it was weird. It was so strange for that to be the thing that catalyzed my career in many ways. Well, out of all of your beliefs and worldviews, if you could only die on one hill, what would it be for? Oh, boy, that's a good question, Alex. I've never been asked that before.
Starting point is 00:32:45 Hmm. Because you had. Boy. I mean, I have notes here. You've talked about how you don't necessarily think that one country is unequivocally the best country in the world. You've talked about how people should be able to trade passports with people that live in other places.
Starting point is 00:33:06 I mean, you have a lot of interesting takes. Yeah. Oh, boy. God is real in Jesus is king. That's a good one. That's great. That's when you can hang your hat on, I think, Zubi. Let's go with that one.
Starting point is 00:33:19 Okay, so you just came out with a kid's book that you authored, which is called the Candy Calamity. And I'm assuming we're not going to be able to see this or hear this red. in drag queen story hours? No, I encourage it to be read in libraries, but if you can avoid the drag, then that would be appreciated. Tell us about the book. Yeah, sure thing.
Starting point is 00:33:39 So it's my first ever children's book. It's a collaboration with brave books. And it's all about health, fitness, and the importance of taking care of your body. So as I mentioned earlier in 2019, I wrote a book called Strong Advice, Soobie's Guide to Fitness for Everybody. And actually, you can see them both there. That's strong advice up there. and Candy Calamity there.
Starting point is 00:33:58 So I wrote a book for grownups about proper nutrition, exercise training, how to gain weight, lose weight, build muscle, all of that good stuff. And that book did really well and it's been helping a lot of people all around the world. And so I got the opportunity to work with Brave and I decided I wanted to do something that's also health and fitness related. We all only get one body. If you want to talk about pandemics, the pandemic that people don't like to talk about is the obesity pandemic.
Starting point is 00:34:24 This is something that's been going on. entire lives and it's been getting worse and not just affecting adults, but also affecting children. If you look at the obesity rates in the UK and the USA has just been rising and rising every single year, every single decade at an alarming rate. I mean, if we keep going at this rate, we're going to reach a point where people who are in shape are genuinely a minority. And I mean, we might already be there, but the trend is not good. And this has a lot of impacts on society, on individuals, on families, and on people, you know, collectively, it's not good to have a nation where, you know, the vast majority of men and women are walking around
Starting point is 00:35:07 completely physically unprepared for even a minor challenge. So I think you've said before that your physical fitness is, is you would argue more important even and will impact your daily life more than even who you vote for. Oh, absolutely. Which I thought was a really great take. Yeah, absolutely. And another thing I've said is that we live in this bizarre time where people treat their material possessions better than they treat their own bodies, right? Look when someone buys a new pair of shoes or a new dress or a new t-shirt or a new car, right? People literally treat their cars better than they treat themselves. A car is replaceable, right? I like a nice cars too, but if you scratch up your car or even if you crash it completely, you can buy another one.
Starting point is 00:35:49 It's replaceable. But your body has to last you your entire life from childhood up until you're old. if one of the major systems in your body stops working, you die. That's literally how, that's the source of death every time. A major system of the body stopped working. And there are so many things in this world we can't control Alex, but one thing you can control is what you consume, how much exercise you do, some degree, your sleep, you can control how much water you drink. You can control what you put inside your body and your lifestyle habits. And so I wanted to aim a message at children and families with that message, but in a fun way. The book's not. The book's not on the nose. It's very, it's fun. It all rhymes. I'm a rapper. I had to make sure my
Starting point is 00:36:28 first children books, children's book would rhyme. It's got a fun story in there. It's got some activities that families can do at the end. And I'm really proud of it. The illustrations are phenomenal as well. It's got a really positive message. And it's also, people can also, I want to say, people can get it worldwide, because I've had a lot of people asking if it's only available in the U.S. You can get it worldwide. If you go to candy calamity.com or bravebooks.com, you can find the link and you can get it there. So the feedback has been really positive so far. And I'm excited to get this book out to thousands more people. I'm excited for this too. It's called the Candy Calamity with Brave Books by Zubi. And Brave Books for, I call them Mom Servatives. For Mom
Starting point is 00:37:10 Servatives you don't know, it's like a subscription service. You can get a new book every month for your kids, I believe, all written by different authors, prominent, you know, Christian influencers, conservative influencers. But they always tackle topics that are really important culturally that, you know, no one else really in mainstream children's publishing right now is willing to cover transgenderism, Second Amendment rights, socialism, health, and the obesity pandemic epidemic. All of this is super great that Brave Books does. And like Zubi was saying, they have all of these like work books and activities that you can do along with the book. It's great for homeschool parents too. So Brave Books, check that out.
Starting point is 00:37:51 Zubi, thank you so much for coming on the spillover. today. I really appreciate, Alex. And one last thing I want to say about the book as well for anyone listening. I know that, of course, this is mostly going to be conservative-leaning people, but the book is also totally apolitical. It's not a political book. It's about health, fitness, nutrition, exercise, wherever you feel you lean on the political spectrum. This is, there's no politics in this book whatsoever. I want everybody to be in shape and to take better care of your bodies, wherever you rely on the political spectrum. So go to candy calamity.com. That's perfect. And what's your podcast, by the way?
Starting point is 00:38:28 It's called Real Talk with Zubi. And that's available on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever people listen. Zubi, thank you so much for coming on the spillover. I appreciate you, Alex. Thank you. If you liked this episode with Zubi, then go back and listen to Season 2 episode 2 with leftist dropout. She is a young woman who explained how she went from a cop-hating socialist just a few years ago to now a pro-life tradwife conservative. Absolutely mind-blowing. And then check out bravebooks.us to start their monthly subscription service for a new book and lesson plan with games that come with each one teaching your kids values you hold near and dear. You cannot
Starting point is 00:39:11 trust anything at the freaking children's sections in the bookstores. The scholastic bookfares, forget about it. Next Thursday. Thursday will be our special Halloween episode of The Spillover at 9 p.m. Pacific, midnight Eastern, anywhere you listen to your podcast, it is a true story that is fit to be made into a Hollywood blockbuster. It's definitely one of the most disturbing and crazy personal stories that has ever been told on The Spillover. The best way to make sure that you don't miss it is to subscribe to the Spillover wherever you listen so that the episodes automatically download. Now, if you prefer to watch the episodes and see me interacting with guests,
Starting point is 00:39:51 subscribe to Popplitics on YouTube or follow The Spillover on Rumble. I'm Alex Clark, and this is The Spillover. Love you, mean it. Bye.

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