EverydaySpy Podcast - America's HIDDEN Agenda In Ukraine | EverydaySpy Podcast Ep. 7

Episode Date: August 26, 2023

Russia has pulled out of the Ukraine grain deal and offered to feed Africa on its own. 17 African leaders have tried to broker peace in Ukraine, visiting both Kyiv and St Petersburg… but they are up against a whole lot more than they realize. Jihi and I are chomping at the bit to jump into this geopolitical mess with you right now! And if you stay to the end, we'll lift the skirt a bit about our own personal thoughts about aliens, UFOs and extraterrestrial visitors… Find your Spy Superpower: https://everydayspy.com/spyquiz Learn more from Andy: https://everydayspy.com/ Join the SpyTribe: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EverydaySpy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everydayspy/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EverydaySpy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Russia didn't invade Ukraine just to be an oppressor. They didn't invade Ukraine to dominate the world. That's not what Russia is thinking. Russia is thinking economically. The whole recent summit between Russia and the African Union, which in a way wasn't really much of a summit. I don't think people like to talk about the economic benefit for the United States sending trillions of dollars into Ukraine.

People don't want to talk about the fact that there's an economic benefit to the United States in doing so. So yesterday we went to a new ice cream place. We were on a different side of town and we wanted to treat the kids to some ice cream. And what I thought was really interesting when we went there was we always ask for a much smaller scoop for the kids. The kids always get it on a cone. So we're always like, you know, just whoever's scoop in it, we're like, you know, I know it's a single scoop, but just can you put like half of it on there, like half the size? And sometimes people will look at us funny and sometimes they'll be like, yeah, sure, whatever you want.

But this guy, it was a small shop, who's the owner, this guy looked at us and he had already done this giant one scoop for our six-year-old. I remember that. And he just looks at us and he's like, you pay the same amount of money. And I was like, I know. I was like, I am happy to pay you the same amount of money. She just doesn't need all that sugar. We don't need. Yeah, we don't need her to have all that sugar.

We are actually paying you to not give her a sugar. rush. Yes. That's the service. Right. And so even after that, so he he looked at us kind of funny and pushed back a little bit and then he put it back in and then he went to do another scoop and it was still like three quarters of the first, you know, the size of the first scoop. And I was like, okay, like I'm not going to keep pushing back on this guy. But I thought it was so funny that he just couldn't like conceptualize that we would be willing to pay the same amount of money for a smaller amount. And even after we sat down, the guy right behind us, the first thing that man did was turn around and say, can you believe this ice cream cost $6 a scoop? And I was like, oh,

you're the patron that he's catering to. Right. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. We've got a situation here where we were looking for a different service than what that customer is, than what the typical customer is looking for, right? So I can totally relate to the poor ice cream, ice cream man, ice cream barista, ice cream server, what do you call them? Ice cream server. Because he was legitimately confused because I'll bet what happens is most people probably go in there and they ask for two scoops of whatever.

And then they probably are like, oh, can you add a little more? Yeah. Can you get me a little extra? Right? Or it's just like the guy that sat next to us who decided to like complain about He wasn't even really complaining. He was like openly observing that the ice cream was $6. Yes.

A scoop. And that was expensive, but it was really good ice cream. That was basically his conversation. That's what he said. But this room raisin is worth it. That's what he said. Well, what I think is really interesting, though, is that this is a great lesson for entrepreneurs and for business people.

And that's where we're coming from, right? Yes. We didn't want the volume of ice cream. That's not why we were there. Right. We were there to give the kids the perception of a special treat, an ice cream treat, without ruining our day by giving them a sugar high or a gut bomb or anything else that comes with a giant scoop of ice cream and a very small child. Right. Yeah. And I think, you know, I chose that parlor because it had a specific brand of ice cream as well. So it's not like I went to just any ice cream shop. I wanted that specific brand and I know the brand and I was happy to get a small. amount, right? For the same price. For the same price. Yeah, it's really interesting because I find

what happens is many of us get into business thinking that we have to provide this value. And we think that we understand the value because we look at it through our own point of view. I think it's good to get a lot for a little. So therefore, whatever service, whatever product I put out there, I have to competitively price it. So many entrepreneurs, so many startups get really, really focused on pricing, pricing, pricing. How do I make it cheaper? How do I make it easier for people to get to and buy? When, in fact, margin, which is the most important element of business, is related to price,

but not related to low price. You want a larger margin, and if anything, you get a larger margin by increasing the price and decreasing the cost of goods. What we were basically doing at the ice cream parlor yesterday was, giving that guy an amazing margin on those two ice cream scoops. On those two ice cream scoops. But, you know, do you remember you and I didn't grow up with money? Right.

So do you remember being a kid and a family that when we were young, both our family started out poor? And then as we aged, our parents started making more money. But, I mean, I think both of us were in college by the time our parents were doing well. So do you remember having, you know, growing, being raised with that? kind of poverty mindset. And then what did it take you to make that mindset shift to becoming an entrepreneur to say the things like you're saying right now? Well, it's interesting because you're right. And it's not just us. It's so many people in our generation were raised in a

household where you couldn't waste food. Yeah. And every dollar counted. And I remember my dad used to make me order off the children's menu until I was almost 16 years old. Just always trying to maximize the value of a dollar. Always trying to. Always trying to. to saying I was five when I was really six or seven, always seeing if they could just squeeze out that little bit of extra value from everything they purchased. And that was, I think, part of their experience. I mean, your parents were working class,

my parents were working class. You had two, you had a family of two, had a family with three kids. So it was a different world back then. I mean, we're talking about, what, 94, 95, when you and I were 14 and 15 years old? Yeah. We have not built that for our children.

We've not built that for our family. Our family is tied to a business that we've built that's profitable. You came from a professional life before you ever joined CIA. I came from a professional existence, a professional background before I ever joined CIA. So we don't have that. Hopefully our children are not being programmed with the same poverty mindset to use your term that we had growing up. But it does take real work to switch that point of view. It's a legit point.

So what would you say is the most important work you've done in switching that mindset? It's for sure it's being in business. 100% it's being in business. Do you think it was the act of being in business or being in business was the catalyst for you to surround yourself with different people or read different books or what was it that like somebody else could replicate, right? What were the things that you did? It's 100% the business is the catalyst. I think that's a great way of putting it. Business is the catalyst for shifting that mindset.

Because without going into business for myself, I would have never started reading what I read. I would have never started learning what I learned. I would never start experimenting and applying with the lessons I learned from those books. The people that you hang out with completely change your mindset. I remember when you and I, what were we? We were early 30s, maybe, late 20s,

when we would go and buy cheap wine. Oh, yeah. We would experiment with the price point of wine. How cheap can you go before it's really horrible? Right. And then at some point, we were like, F this. Like, let's just, if we always spend at least $24, we'll basically never have a bad bottle of wine.

Right. And we made that switch. We went from trying to maximize the $14 wine. Yeah. To just being like, we don't even care. As long as it's $24 minimum, we'll buy it because we know it's not going to give us major headaches, nasty mouth, whatever else, right? Yeah.

So it's a shift in mindset. That difference between 16 and 24 is, what, $8? That's not a lot of money. When you think about it, it's not a lot of money. It's the same argument that I have with people who still talk about gas prices. You drive by a gas station. Oh, gas is 10 cents cheaper over there. That gas is four cents more expensive over there.

I come from a family where we know the price of gas at every single pump. But think about it. And we'll drive across the street, I mean, at least growing up, right? We would drive across the street to save two cents a gallon. Two cents a gallon. Yeah. Your average gas tank is like 10 to 12 gallons. Yeah.

So to save those two cents, you're saving 24 cents. Yeah. 24 cents. All that conversation, all that work. You're basically, you're spending five minutes moving your car from one side of the street to the the card. Are you saying that you five minutes of your life is worth only 24 cents? Right. Like it's mind boggling. Once you kind of get yourself a little bit of distance, you start to really see it. But you're right. It was all about business was the catalyst to changing the way I saw money and

cost and prices and service. And that's what took us to a nice ice cream parlor. Yeah. With great reviews. A certain product quality that we were looking for, the brand of ice cream that we were looking for. And then even when we got there and even when we saw the prices, we were willing to pay the same price for half as much product because we weren't going there for ice cream. We were going there for an experience. And our experience, we're happy to pay that price for an experience. But that's not what everybody who goes in there thinking. They don't all go in there for the same experience. Some of them want the experience of getting more ice cream. Some of them want the experience of negotiating and getting the ice cream. Some of them want the experience of negotiating and getting the

ice cream scoop to be bigger, freer, whatever else. I don't even know what they'd do. They want a different experience than us. Yeah, they want like a half extra scoop. Just a little bit extra. Which, you know, to be fair, we do the same thing when we go to those like, like when we go to Fresh Kitchen. We're always the ones that are like, could you put a little extra chicken on there? Yeah.

That's so funny. And that's just because we don't really want to have to buy a second bowl. Yeah. We just want a little bit extra protein. Can you just a little bit more? Just use that bigger scoop over there. Still one scoop, right? Yeah.

And it's going to be curious. I'm really curious to see how our kids grow up appreciating or valuing money. Because I know what we're seeing from them already is not what you and I had growing up. They want everything. Everything's so easy to our children. Yeah. They want a toy. They want a doll.

They want a stuffed animal. They want new Legos. there's most certainly a different relationship that they have with money than what you and I had. Yeah, and I think, you know, the great experiment of parenting is that if you do it differently than your parents did, then you really have no idea what the outcome is going to be. And so for us, when it comes to money, you know, I, we have never said to our kids, money doesn't grow on trees. Right. You know.

That was said to me all the time. All the time. I was like, I get it. Money doesn't grow on trees. But you work for making, and you make money. So why don't we just spend it? And the funny thing is, beyond that statement, it was never explained. How do you gain?

I knew you earned money by working, but the value of money was never explained to me. And I think part of it is because my parents were still trying to understand the value of money and how to invest. And I think they were still on their journey to learn about money. but our kids they know that we work for money yeah but they also know that we work on our own time and make we create work for ourselves for our money so it's it's not you know we don't wake up at five in the morning to be gone for 10 hours to come home and then that's how we make our money so just the way that they view work and our relationship with money is completely different already so yeah it's a big experiment for us and I don't know I'm hoping that's

that we're doing the right thing. So I'm pretty sure that you and I probably both learned our initial money habits from the game Monopoly. I hate it in Monopoly. And how did you feel about money for most of your adult life? Because I always lost. But most of us grew up with this love-hate relationship with money. What are the sayings in our culture, right?

Money is the root of all evil. Yeah. Right? People will do anything for money. money and power are the two things that are the downfall for all great people. Yeah. So it's interesting because we went to the school of Monopoly. And then outside of fighting for boardwalk and park place, I don't really understand anything else about the game Monopoly.

Paying rent on pieces that you land on. We went to board game School of Economics. Yeah. Which is not how the world works. The world doesn't work like Monopoly. No. Where you roll a dice, you take your turn, you wait for the next person's turn, and there's a chance card that tells you whether or not you're going to jail.

Yeah. Right? But economics really does rule the world. Absolutely. Just not like it did in monopoly. Yeah. I think that's the concept that I've an adult come to accept more and more, that everything is about trade.

Everything is economics. Every relationship is a transaction. I mean, from a personal relationship between a husband and wife, a mother and child, country to country, it's all about transactions, which is economics, which is trade. Yeah, and there's all sorts of economics and trade news happening around us all the time that isn't couched as economics and trade. It's couched as something else. It's couched as hegemony. It's couched as conflict. It's couched as oppression.

Right. Right. Do you have examples like current examples? And I think one of the examples where we're seeing that conversation, that economics conversation that's being couched as something it isn't is with the war in Ukraine. Russia didn't invade Ukraine just to be an oppressor. They didn't invade Ukraine to dominate the world because the whole world lies just beyond the borders of Ukraine. That's not what Russia's thinking. Russia is thinking economically. They're thinking pragmatically.

They're thinking about resources, trade, and the future of resources and trade as it relates to Russia and keeping the Russian government stable and to float. Right. Yeah. I mean, I think any time war breaks out, you know, I think people might liken it to a game of risk, right? World domination and, you know, who's, how do you? board game culture. Right.

Bored game kids. Oh, guys are board game geeks over here. So, you know, I think a lot of people might think, you know, the game of risk and war strategy and where do you put your military and whatever. But really, I think life is a lot more like the game of Catan, settlers of Catan, you know, where it's really about resources and trade and who owns the roads and... Who's got the biggest military? Yeah.

And relationships towards building to the next kind of... stage of evolution, of civilization. Yeah. That's really interesting. And it's funny, especially when you look at the history of UN resolutions, relating to Ukraine, you actually start to see this. Because the very first set of UN resolutions that went out in 2000, what was that, 22? Yeah, 22.

The vote was hugely against, like, it was a vote where the vast majority was condemning Russia. Yeah. There were a number of abstentions, and there were a number of people who voted against the resolution, but the vast majority of countries voted to condemn Russia. And then over the course of the next year and a half, we've had, what, four more, five more resolutions, all passed by a majority, but each resolution has a smaller and smaller majority. More countries are abstaining or voting no against the resolution, which is fascinating, Because what that means is as the Russian invasion has continued, arguably support for Russia has increased in the UN through abstentions and people voting against the resolutions.

What are your thoughts? And you can't really say it's support for Russia that's increased. It's support for, I wouldn't say it's support for Russia. It's the realization that Russia. that Russia has an impact on various countries. That's a very fair point. Like the Russia-Africa summit that just happens, you know, Africa is not affected by the war in Ukraine

until trade is affected. Right, until grain is affected. Yeah, and suddenly they feel the pain of the war. Right. And it matters to them, right? I mean, the same thing, I believe, happened to us in World War II when we didn't really want to get involved.

But then they started bombing the ships, trade started being impacted. And then Pearl Harbor happened. And then Pearl Harbor happened, right? I mean, but arguably our interest was peaked when our trade was hit. When our economics were impacted. Right, when our economics were impacted. Exactly.

That's super interesting. And you're right. The whole recent summit between Russia and the African Union, which in a way wasn't really much of a summit. Did you read about the peace plan? There was a peace plan that these seven or ten or twelve. I think it was 17, but previous. year had been like 46 or something. Yeah. So these 17 African leaders proposed a peace plan.

And it's couched as a peace plan in the media, right? Africa submits peace plan. And Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs responds that they're taking the peace plan into consideration. Did you read what it was? No, I couldn't find an actual read out of the plan. Because it wasn't a plan. Apparently it was these, these African leaders just kind of sat down at dinner and had a conversation with the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Russia. And they're like, you know, we really think that peace, peace would be a good idea. You know, what do you think, Comrose? And what do you think, Niger?

And what do you think, you know, Solomon Islands? And they're all like, oh, yeah, we think the peace would be a really good idea for you guys between Ukraine and Russia. Peace would be good. Yeah. And they went to St. Petersburg for this conference. It was the first stop after Kiev. So they had just left Ukraine where they probably had the exact same conversation with Zelensky.

And of course, what's interesting is. And, you know, Putin playing his, you know, the diplomatic game that he does, you know, he's, of course, like, thank you so much for your concern and your ideas. And I'm really going to take these seriously. But you also need to talk to the other guys because really it's their fault. You know, everybody's getting at the same thing. Everybody just wants dialogue so trade can open back up. That's exactly it.

That's exactly right. Right. Everybody, the whole world just wants things to go back to some semblance of normal. Not pre-20, not pre-February 2022 normal. That's never going to happen. But some sort of normal where trade can then pick up again. Or economies can start growing again. After COVID, then after the incredible amount of sanctions that the West put on Russia. And let's be honest, not everybody in the West agreed with those sanctions. Right. You've had Germany speak out against them. You've had France speak out against them.

You've had Poland try to get more. You've had Hungary pushback. It's not the entire European Union is not on board with this. They're not all in lockstep. And now here we are a year and a half later. Everybody's feeling it, right? Russian and German trade is very closely intertwined. So is French and Russian trade.

And then, of course, all of your third world countries, your third world Asia, your third world Africa, heavily, heavily dependent on trade and production out of Russia. Another great example here, I think, that absolutely goes without people talking about it, is India. India is one of those countries that has abstained from every UN resolution, right? So they have not condemned Russia. They are also one of the primary people, one of the primary countries that continue to buy

Russian oil, even though it's been sanctioned, even they're the ones that have floated the ruple, so it's back up to stronger value than it ever was before 2022. So you've got India, you've got China, you've got these other strong, wealthy countries who are seeing the importance of economic trade, seeing the economics of this conflict, and benefiting from it, even though they are also in this geopolitical game of reputation with the United States. I feel like, if anything. What it shows is it shows that countries now more than ever are putting their own best interests ahead of political influence from the United States. Yeah. Well, I mean, at the CIA, we always used to say there are no friends. There are only allies. And I think that

in America and probably a lot of Western countries, I think that gets muddied, right? I think we think of, you know, European countries as our, not just our friends, but I really do think we think, or not just our allies, but I think we think of them as friends, where China and India are great examples of not friends, allies. Shared interests. Shared interests, exactly. They don't have to like the other countries' politics. They don't have to like, I mean, India and China have had territorial disputes, but they know

that if they can tamp those down or put them aside, just to like, little bit there's lots of benefits for them and becoming allies on certain issues right and that's how countries really move forward that's true and I think that's why we saw them all we saw Russia China and India all form the bricks yeah right and that that trade block has been around for a long time and has been growing in total GDP yeah in comparison to the G7 countries which have actually been declining in overall GDP it's a fascinating point because it's all based on economics it's all settlers of Catan yeah

Not monopoly. Yeah. Yeah, it's really countries looking at each other of how can I get a leg up for my own country, not how can I make you look more like me so we're kindred spirits and brothers and democracy. Like it's not, that's not how those countries think. Yeah, and it's really, so when I consider the the grain deal specifically that continues to be off and on with. It's a bargaining chip for him. Exactly.

Putin knows. I mean, by virtue of the fact that he held to the deal for, I believe it was a year, like he said. And the agreement was for only a year. I am certain that he walked into that knowing that let me give you a taste of what it's like to have the ports open. So then when I shut them down, I have this large bargaining chip now. Now everybody's at my doorstep. asking me to please reopen. Yeah. Right? And now it's in my court what I do with this. And it's really interesting because even when you look at the response that's coming from the UN,

they're condemning Russian behavior. But they can't refute the fact that if Russia supplies the required grain to keep Africa from a food crisis. Yeah. Like the UN is saying Russia has the amount of grain required. and Russia has the logistical supply chains required, like they really can do it on their own. Yeah. So it's fascinating because what Putin did a year ago was accept the grain deal. And by accepting the grain deal, he cut off any investment in creating an alternative to Russia's supply grain.

They're like, Russia's going to play nice now. Yeah. So we're going to go ahead and keep continuing to use the port out of Odessa, right? And then when he shut it down, now all of a sudden he had a whole year to build up resorts. reserves, boost agriculture, everything else, knowing full well. He could shut down the ports by rejecting the grain deal and then supply Africa on his own. And now he has 17 leaders going through St. Petersburg to shake his hand and say thank you and support him in the UN. Yeah. And he doesn't, you know, part of the complaint is that what he's promised so far is not, does not match what was being provided previously.

But he doesn't have to. Right. Like you said, all he has to do is meet bare minimum requirements for what they need. He doesn't have to, you know, he just has to keep things from falling apart around him long enough for him to make his next step. Yeah. It's really interesting. It's really interesting because there's so much that ties as ridiculous as it sounds to say it out of my mouth. There's so much similarity between what's happening right now between Russia and Ukraine and what's happening in the neighborhood ice cream parlor. Yeah. Right? Because it really is all about does the service give you what you want? And if it does, will you pay the price? Yeah. Yeah. And to these African countries that want grain, they know they can't get it from Ukraine, so they get it from Russia. And then they pay the price, right? They go on their tour

through St. Petersburg and they shake hands and they get their pictures with Putin and they're going to continue being able to supply food to keep themselves from a food crisis. Right. Because they have their own people that they have to think about regardless. And you know, the U.S. isn't necessarily scot-free in all this because we also have economic-based incentives. We make our decisions based on economics. There is an economic benefit to us supporting Ukraine. Yeah.

Now, I don't think people like to talk about that. I don't think people like to talk about the economic benefit for the United States, sending old munitions into Ukraine. sending flawed anti-personnel mines into Ukraine, sending trillions of dollars into Ukraine, people don't want to talk about the fact that there's an economic benefit to the United States in doing so. Because one day, whoever wins, Ukraine will need to be rebuilt.

Yeah. And the United States is going to have a large line of credit for whoever wants to rebuild it. If Ukraine wins, the United States is going to be the first person to be offered, you know, joint capital, joint property, all sorts of incentives to come and rebuild, right? If Russia ends up winning it, they're going to have zero capital to actually rebuild the infrastructure that's there, and they're going to turn to some sort of World Bank that's in collusion with the United States.

It's a net win for the United States one way or the other. So you know that I've been on the History Channel television show, the new show that they launched called Beyond Skinwalker. And I found myself in this position now where, you know, our business is growing, and that show, the new show that we did with A&E and History Channel, is breaking records. Yeah. But I find myself having to choose, like I feel like I have to choose between the two because it's so time-consuming to shoot a television show. It is.

And it's so time-consuming to build and run a business. Mm-hmm. And I'm not sure if this is the right or the wrong decision, but as I try to choose which direction to go, I find myself seeking counsel from the kids. That's always the right direction. Always 100%. They have the best insights. So I've asked the kids if it's cool to see me on TV.

And what's funny is that they actually think it's cooler to see me on YouTube than to see me on history channel. Well, that makes a lot of sense. Which is hilarious to me, right? Because that's not how we grew up. There was no YouTube when we grew up. Yeah. The history channel was the bomb when you and I were 10 years old. Yeah.

And now apparently it's just another channel on YouTube. too. But I want to know what are your thoughts seeing me on TV? Is it cool? Is it indifferent? Are you used to it? I mean, I was gone for 90 days almost filming that show. I know. That was rough. But when I watched the show, the post-edit on the show is so good. And learning the behind-the-scenes of how the show is made has made me appreciate other shows that I really like even more. Seeing how TV is actually created. Yes. Because everything that happens in Beyond Skinwalker is real.

Yeah. It's just, it doesn't happen in exactly the order that you see it in your show. Right. Because they cut out large portions of dead time, downtime, whole days change. It's just so much more exciting. You know, instead of spending four hours with you while you're waiting to, you know, get some kind of signal, I spend four minutes watching. you with exciting music and then all I get to see is a really exciting thing that happened. That's true. Yeah. I'm way more exciting on TV than in real life. That's what you're saying.

I don't know if that's true. You are very handsome on TV though. But not in real life. I see what you're doing there. I see what you're doing there. I like you in real life too. But I am glad that it's a probably a demographic that's a little bit older because then I don't have to worry about competition so much. There is a term. There's a term. There's a term. There's a term among history channel television people. Yeah. And it's called history channel hot. You have to be history channel hot, which means exactly what you think it means. It means, are you hot to a demographic that's like 55 to 70 years old? That's what history channel hot is. Does your dad, does my mom think you're hot? If so, you have a real chance at being on a

History Channel television show. I love it. And that's how my 43-year-old mug gets asked back to a history channel show. So yeah, talk about behind the scenes. There you go. And it makes sense. I mean, I'm glad because there's a lot of channels out there where I don't qualify for that level of highness.

So thank you, History Channel and A&E for giving me that opportunity. It's also interesting to me because now that the first show has gone so far, well now that the first show has been such a success. As we look to plan a second season, the whole process behind negotiating contracts, setting prices, setting travel dates, creating an agenda, it's all totally different. And it's, to me, I feel like it all ties back into the same conversation that we were having about trade and economics. The economics of creating a first season show are completely different than the economics of creating the second season of a popular show.

Right? One's high risk, one's low risk. One, you need to kind of find a way to make ends meet, cut the budget as much as possible because if the show doesn't work in the first season, you need to find a way to create a new show. Right. In the second one, you already know the show works. You already know the cast works, the film crew works, the travel schedule works.

It works. So now you're taking much less risk so you can afford to spend more money. So as cool as the first season was, you know second season is going to be even cooler because you're going to have more money for more amazing locations. More locations. Exactly right. And everybody's worked together before. So it's not a new dance.

Like I remember for the first season, trying to figure out the relationship with your co-host, trying to figure out the relationship with the showrunner, trying to figure out the relationship with everybody, right? And TV shows have a huge group of people that never make it on screen. Yeah. Right? Everyone from the medic to the production. assistance, it's incredible the amount of people that go into a show. So I'm in discussions for the

second season and it's just like our example in the ice cream parlor again where it's not at all about how much you get. It's about the quality. And because the quality is what history channel's looking for, the budget's totally different. Right? So again, settlers, the law of the land in board game economics here is more like Settlers of Catan than it is Monopoly. Yeah. I can't wait to play our Star Trek Catan now. You're going to have to bust that out.

Now, we always promise that we're going to answer a question from our spy tribe. And I think that it's your turn to come up with the question. What was the question that you chose for a group today? Oh, yeah. There was a question that came in fairly recently, I think, because of what's been going on in the news of do you believe? Do you believe? believe in aliens. Shout out to History Channel and beyond Skinwalker.

Do you believe it? So do we believe in aliens? Do you want to go first? Do you want me to go first? You go first. So I 100% believe that there is intelligent life out there. 100%. Because just based on raw probabilities, if we exist, if human beings exist, then in this

gigantic galaxy and the universe beyond that, do we really think we're the only ones? The probability is so low that if it would happen once, it wouldn't happen again. And we're not even the only intelligent species on earth. Dolphins are intelligence, monkeys are intelligent. Like they're intelligent, everything from reptiles to mammals. We just happen to be the top of the food chain. But other animals are fully capable of internal communication, planning, execution, rendering tools.

if that exists just on one planet, probability-wise there has to be intelligent life out there. So I believe that aliens are real. Does that mean that they're here or that they've been here or that they've crash-landed here or that they're still here? Yeah. I don't know yet. But I do believe they're out there.

I find the question interesting because, you know, when you say alien, is it intelligent life? I agree with you. I think the probability is just that there is intelligent life somewhere else in the universe, is there life on another planet? Absolutely. I don't see how, I mean, probability-wise, how can you say no to that too? Do I believe in UFOs and identified flying objects? Yes, because there are flying objects that are unidentified. But, you know, do I believe that there is an intelligent life from another planet, from somewhere else in the universe? That's on

earth flying something around possible? I always believe in the possibility, right? But I also believe that it's possible that there are, so I believe that it's possible that there are secret things that people just don't understand. I mean, they... Of course you believe that. You were one of those secret things. They tested the atomic bomb and nobody knew about it. That's true. Right? I mean, people saw the blast and they were told, you know, a power plant exploded. You know, like things happen. in there that are secret and that are very worldly. But also, you know, I think that there are things that we possibly just don't have the capability to explain. The human brain can't possibly understand every aspect of the universe. There was, there's this story that I studied at the agency

about, it's a theory that the reason that the conquistadors were able to invade and win against the Native American tribes wasn't because of superior technology or superior race because the Indian tribes, the Native American tribes, had preponderance of numbers, area of familiarization, and very advanced weapons of their own. Yeah. But that the reason that the conquisadors, the Western or the Easter or the Western powers that came to the shores of North America, the reason they won was because their ships, the sailing vessels that they actually sailed on were so outside of anything that the Native Americans had ever

seen before that they were essentially blind to them, that they couldn't see them. They were essentially invisible. These ships came across the actual ocean, but that the receptors, cognitive receptors inside the Native American brains rejected what they were seeing and the invasion was essentially invisible. So these people walked off with muskets and kenters. cannons, they dropped anchor, they rowed ashore, they set up camps, and in the middle of it all, nobody even saw it because it was so different from anything that they had ever seen before

that it just got mentally blocked out of their receptors. Yeah, I've read the same theory. And if you think about early civilization, when people had multiple gods to explain every natural phenomenon that existed because they couldn't explain it, they didn't have a science. explanation, you know, I mean, just, you know, how amazing is a lightning. Yeah. And when you have zero idea where that's coming from or why it's happening. You create a story in your head.

You create a story in your head. Or you block it out altogether. Right. So how, that's interesting. So that makes me going back to my point about how do I believe that they've been here, do I believe they've visited us, even if they did, maybe we're just blocking it out. Right. And you, and on this show, you had a number of tests that, that had triggers where, you know, you had, you had a, you know, you had a test and then, you know, you had a result that was interesting and unexplainable.

But, you know, it's just, it's just. Yeah, there's no conclusion. It's just unexplainable at this moment. And maybe it will never be explained. But we have to be okay with that, I think. So maybe the bigger question is why do you think it is that human beings are so obsessed with the question of alien life? What drives that? Where's that curiosity coming from? Why can't we just let it go? Why can't we just leave it as an open question to be addressed a different day? So I think with human beings, it has to do with curiosity and connection.

I think human beings like to connect to other living things. It's why we have pets. It's why we connect to each other. why for the most part human beings want to be around other human beings all the time. They don't want to be alone on a deserted island. And then the other one is curiosity. I think that's one of the most amazing aspects of human beings is we are curious. We have questions.

We want to get them answered. We want to understand. My theory is much less, much less kind than yours. What's yours? So I believe that the reason people obsess with whether or not alien life is out there is because, we are mortal creatures. And as we progress through our life, as we approach the brink of that mortality, we want to believe that there is something more. We want to believe that there is something outside of just what we know in our planet and in our existence. We want to believe that our death

isn't just us returning to the earth and the end, that there's some larger universe, There's some larger purpose. There's some larger reason. And even better if that reason is that we're some large experiment that's being observed by alien race, right? Or we're some fabrication in a computer program that was put together by a larger entity. Or we're some science experiment that in some way, shape, or form is so interesting to some other larger, more intelligent being that our lives, matter more than we realize they matter. And part of the reason why I believe that is because of what I've seen in terms of

the normalization of interest in aliens and extraterrestrials. When we're young, we think they're cool. Yeah. But then from like, what, 15 to mid-20s, early 30s, we essentially just completely forget that they exist at all because we're very focused on our life. Day-to-day, what we're doing, getting laid, getting a job. Yeah. whatever it might be, right? Having the next fun, exciting moment. But then from like 28 to about 50,

we start letting it creep into our lives again in terms of entertainment. Oh, that's interesting. Let me read about that. Oh, that's interesting. Let me, what do you know about that? It's an interest. It's not an obsession. But then when you find and you follow people over the age of 50, and I've seen this in my ultra high net worth clients, and I've seen this in like people who just approach me at the airport because they're fans of the History Channel show. They become really intensely interested in proving whether or not alien life exists. And it's just, it's a preponderance of resources

and interest and energy that go into answering that question as we get older. So my theory is the reason people become more and more interested as they get older in answering the question about alien life is because we are facing the very real end of our lives. That's very interesting. It's an interesting theory.

Yeah. It's not nearly as fun and joyful as yours. People are just curious. Human kind is just curious. I'm like, no, humankind is dying. And we want to justify that our time here wasn't a waste of time. So we're hoping that there's some alien that's at least going to take our guts from us and, like, use that for experimentation. Well, I do wonder if the interest in dinosaurs is very similar.

every kid I feel like has an interest in dinosaurs and we're taught about them in school and then we forget about them for a while and then you have your own kids and you're reminded about the dinosaurs but the dinosaurs are interesting because they were part of a mass extinction and to me it's always this constant reminder of there have been I believe three mass extinctions in the history of the planet and it's going to happen again you know I'm hopefully not in my lifetime

or my children's but you know, it's on the horizon. We are mortal creatures. There will be, inshalla, God willing, there will be a boost to monte on the earth. During the next mass extinction. To witness the next mass extinction. I don't know if I want to wish that on Earth. I don't know if that's the legacy I'm open for. Well, hopefully they take pictures. For the aliens to see when they come in. There we go. There we go. Thank you for joining us. If you enjoyed our conversation today, please leave a comment. if there's anything you want us to talk about in the future, we take questions, we review the comments to get our questions for the podcast every time. So hit subscribe while you can, leave a question

or leave a comment below for us to follow up and see what you have to say and see what you think and how you like the show and feel lucky that you probably will not be around for the next mass extension. Thank you very much, folks. Take care.