Factually! with Adam Conover - There's No Such Thing as "Red States" with Trae Crowder

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Our political system—and the way we talk about it—often flattens the true diversity of American voters, especially in so-called “red states.” But millions of progressives live in places too often dismissed as conservative strongholds, even in the Deep South. Today, Adam sits down with comedian Trae Crowder—best known for his viral persona, the Liberal Redneck—to unpack the overlooked nuances of America’s political landscape.SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/adamconoverSEE ADAM ON TOUR: https://www.adamconover.net/tourdates/SUBSCRIBE to and RATE Factually! on:» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/factually-with-adam-conover/id1463460577» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fK8WJw4ffMc2NWydBlDyJAbout Headgum: Headgum is an LA & NY-based podcast network creating premium podcasts with the funniest, most engaging voices in comedy to achieve one goal: Making our audience and ourselves laugh. Listen to our shows at https://www.headgum.com.» SUBSCRIBE to Headgum: https://www.youtube.com/c/HeadGum?sub_confirmation=1» FOLLOW us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/headgum» FOLLOW us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/headgum/» FOLLOW us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@headgum» Advertise on Factually! via Gumball.fmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. Hey everybody. Welcome to Factually. I'm Adam Conover. I don't know anything Hey everybody, welcome to Factually. I'm Adam Conover. Thanks for joining me on the show again. I'm excited to be back in the United States. I just spent a couple weeks on the road.

We had some sold out shows in London and Amsterdam, and then Providence, Rhode Island. In between those, I took a week to just travel around Europe. I was in Amsterdam for an extra week. I went to Prague. I Ate a lot of really good food. I stared at some rivers I rode a bike and then every so often I would get a ping on my phone about something batshit crazy happening in America very difficult to be mentally out of America right now when America is traumatizing the rest of the world

with these insane tariffs that have been put on, with the fact that people are being disappeared from our streets and sent to El Salvadorian prisons. Shit is crazy in the United States, and that is apparent everywhere in the world. People all over the world are asking, what the fuck is happening in America? And so I'm back in America to talk to you guys about it. I've got a really great episode for you this week that I think we're gonna get into some of the deeper political dynamics that are driving what's going on in this country. Because look, it's easy to look at what's happening in this country and say that there's a problem with Americans, right? That the American people are the issue.

But I actually think the problem is that our political system distorts our sense of who Americans are. Take the Electoral College, right? You learned about the Electoral College in school. All the electors from a given state are awarded to the presidential candidate who gets the most votes. That means that the votes of everyone who voted against that person are basically thrown out within that state, and that creates the illusion of uniformity. It creates the illusion that we have red states

and blue states, where everyone in that state either is Republican or Democrat. And in our age of political polarization, the media endlessly amplifies that distinction as if people from different states are simply coming from different species. The reality though of who the American people are is way more dynamic than what is portrayed in the media. Look, nearly 5 million people voted for Kamala Harris in Texas and over six million voted for Trump in California. We do not have red states and blue states.

We have purple states full of different people from all walks of life who have different opinions. America is a big fucking place with tons of different political opinions within it. And when we forget about that massive political diversity, we neglect the real political possibilities in this country. We act as though big things are not possible when in fact they are. There is a huge amount of political potential for a new America just lying in wait for us to activate it across the country.

And my guest today demonstrates that in a way that I find really compelling. I know you're gonna love this conversation. Before we get into it, I want to remind you that I find really compelling. I know you're gonna love this conversation. Before we get into it, I wanna remind you that I am on tour, I'm continuously on tour, even though I'm back from Europe. Coming soon, April 16th through 17th, I'll be in Vancouver, Canada. We sold out the show on the 17th,

but we added a new one on the 16th, so get tickets to that. April 18th and 19th, I'm doing shows in Eugene at Olsen's Run Comedy Club. We've sold out a couple of those too, but there's tickets still available. May 9th through 11th, I'll be in Charleston, South Carolina. Can't wait for that. And then we are adding new dates.

Check them out. We got dates in Oklahoma and more coming all the time. Head to adamkonova.net for all those tickets. And of course, if you want to support the channel directly, head to patreon.com slash adamkonova. Five bucks a month gets you every episode of this podcast and my monologue ad free. We have an awesome online community.

We'd love to have you. Patreon.com slash Adam Conover. Now let's get to this week's interview. Today I'm talking with Trey Crowder. I love this man. He is also known professionally as the liberal redneck and he's a comedian and commentator from Tennessee. You've probably heard his standup comedy.

You might've seen his YouTube videos which go viral all the time. This dude is so sharp and funny and he contradicts so many of the narratives that we are fed of what Americans are like and just the way things work in this country. With the nonstop barrage of fascist awfulness coming through the news, it's gonna be a great time

to have him on the show to talk about what he thinks about this country and what we can do to change it going forward. Please welcome Trey Crowder. Trey, thanks so much for being here, man. Yeah, good to see you, buddy. Glad to be here. We met like a couple months back or last year in New York. I've been following you for a while.

You've been doing this stuff on YouTube, the liberal redneck for a long time. You're a liberal guy from the South. Where do your politics come from? What I've always mostly chalked it, well, the more elaborate answer I usually give is that I was raised by a single father and my dad, who has since passed away, he had one sibling, my uncle Tim. And my uncle Tim is an openly gay man. And so like, and I've known that my whole life, like since I knew what being gay was, like that he's been out since before I was even born, you know, my dad were very close. So I always thought that was sort of at least part of the reason why I didn't go

to, my dad didn't send us to church. Like I didn't grow up in church or anything like that. And he just grew up. My dad was also, he was kind of like a long haired, sort of rock and rolled, like dope smoking redneck kind of guy who loved like, he loved like David Bowie and David Lynch movies and shit like that. And was into, you know, more, uh, weird for where we were rural. This is rural Tennessee, Salina, Tennessee, by the way, like tiny little town.

So that was all kind of odd. I mean, he liked skinner too, but he liked this other shit also. And he had this gay brother we loved and we didn't go to church or anything. And I've just always sort of chalked it up to that. But I also think put more simply, I've just kind of really, even though it happened in a weird place for this to happen, I'm just kind of the way I was raised to be because like most of the other rural Southern liberals I know, and I do know a lot because I'm one,

so you know, birds of a feather and whatnot. My wife is one, some of my best friends. Almost all the other ones are blue sheep in their family. You know? Like the blue, you know, like they're the weirdo, you know, standout one that's different from everybody else. But for me, it wasn't really like, like my sisters like this too. My dad, they were like a family of like Southern Democrats and like my dad's dad,

my grandpa, I do mean Southern Democrat in the traditional sense with this to say like, yeah, he was also racist, but he was like a Democrat, you know, his whole life. He was, you know, not like, not like robe wearing racist, just like casually racist. I mean, the Democrats at one point were the party, the robe wearing racist. I know that's why I feel the need to clarify that my grandpa didn't, he didn't have the robe. I'm just saying he would just casually bandy about slurs and things like that. Yeah.

But was like a lifelong Democrat. And so was my dad and like my dad hate my grandpa died in 2004, but my dad like hated George W. Bush, you know, like with a fervor. And so, um, like I'm just kind of, you know, like I said, just kind of the way I was raised to be. But how unusual do you feel that? I mean, you literally built a comedy brand around it, right? Around being it like a unique thing.

Yeah. But I don't know, sometimes we like over-inflate how politically divided the country is, right? Because like so many states are actually just 60-40, right? Like California's like 60-40. I talk about that. I like to point that out a lot because yes, it's like, right, 60-40, right, like California,

there's a whole lot of people who voted for Trump out here, a whole lot of MAGA people. And in Tennessee, there's a lot of people who can't stand Trump, right. The blue, like California, there's a whole lot of people who voted for Trump out here. A lot of mega people in Tennessee. There's a lot of people who can't stand Trump and that is true, but I have also found generally the more like urban rural divide though, it's pretty, pretty, pretty universal. You know what I mean? Like a lot of those more mega parts of California are the more rural parts and it's same in Tennessee, like Nashville's,

you know, very liberal and everything. And so it was Memphis and wherever else, but then like the hinterlands, you know, are generally not a lot of times. And I'm from there. I'm from the middle of nowhere. So it was still like, we were definitely, like, I definitely was that kind of weirdo kid in school and everything. Even though I, at the same time, I still have plenty of friends that still do, who agree with me, I say plenty. There's like, it's like five of us. You know what I mean? But my school was tiny, you know?

Like there was probably 50 or 60 kids in my graduating class, which is the biggest one they've ever had there. Normally a graduating class at my school was like 30 to 40 or something. So, you know, five's not that bad, but it's still, it's still like very, very much a minority and it's gotten much worse and more divided in places like my hometown since I left there at 18.

Why is it? Well, I mean, I, you know, in 2016, when Trump was running, I had this whole thing, I was like somewhat sympathetic to it. I could understand how it had happened because I mentioned earlier, my grandpa's a lifelong Southern Democrat. That's true, but I have a very vivid memory of my grandpa. It would have been in like 97 or eight or something like that. Like NAFTA had passed.

My town is very small. The beating heart of the town's economy was this big, uh, clothing factory, oh gosh, but gosh, which in a very small town employed like 250 people. So like, everybody, literally everyone either worked there or they worked at a place that like sold stuff to the people that worked there. Like my dad ran the video store in our time. I grew up in like a nineties video store. That was very cool.

And my grandpa had a car lot and my gay uncle and his partner had a deli on the town square and my maternal grandmother had a, like a country diner, little restaurant, all the people at the Oshkosh Bagaes factory eating the deli and the diner and they rent movies for my dad and get cars for my grandpa and all that stuff. And then, uh, that factory left in the mid 90s and in like 96 or 97. And it just utterly decimated my hometown. And it's to this day never really recovered.

But I remember the vivid memory I have is sometime in that timeframe, mid to late nineties, I don't remember exactly. I was sitting at the counter of my dad's grocery store and I'm like 11 or 12. And I remember my grandpa storming in holding a newspaper and he throws the newspaper on the counter and he says, I'll never vote for another Democrat as long as I live. Wow. And, and so I think that just kind of sums up the general thing that happened there. Like, cause that county, despite everything I just said about a minute ago, that county

up until around really like two, I think even, no, I know, even in 2000, my tiny little rural County in Tennessee was a blue County, like it went for Al Gore in 2000, Bush in 2004 has been more, you know, a deepening shade of red ever since. And I think that that's, uh, you know, that's a big part of the reason why. So in 2016, when Trump was like actually playing into all that, talking about all the type of stuff, people were very open to it. Now, even then I was, my whole thing was like, okay, I hear you, but he's so clearly full of shit though.

Like, I get why that appeals to you. And you do have those things. Like I'm very sympathetic to like the plight. They have legitimate grievances. Like people in town, like they didn't, they didn't do anything to deserve what happened to them. Like my town, cause it wasn't just that the jobs left forever and the pills showed up for good at like the exact same time, like oxycontin and opioids and all that.

Those two things happened in concert with one another in the mid to late nineties and like the rural South. And it just, I mean, destroyed these, that, that community, but all, but all communities like it. And so, you know, again, I get what, why they're mad and upset and everything. But even in 2016, I was, I was like, okay, but you know, that he isn't going to do anything about it though. But then he won and I was like, well, he conned a lot of people.

And then this time around, I'm just like, I don't know. I don't know what anybody expected. You know what I mean? Like he had a chance to follow through on things and didn't and then got elected again. And now, you know, like as we're sitting here recording this like, you know, global economy is crashing and all that stuff.

And stock market is down 20% right now. And there's, I see like money people, like business Republicans, I've seen a bunch of them get shared around on Twitter today in a kind of point and laughy way, where they're saying like, look, I gotta say, I did not expect this. Like I thought economic reasonability would be at the core of everything, I really did.

But it's like, A, I feel like the implication of that is like, look, yeah, I knew they were gonna strip people's civil rights away and, you know, bring people into camps. I knew that, but I thought the economy would be good. Well, they thought that he was gonna keep on, cause in the first term he had Steven Mnuchin in there, and that guy was just sort of a normal, like the economic policy was just normal.

Trump didn't do much with it. And that's probably what they all expected was, okay, he'll send a bunch of barbers to El Salvador and their families will cry. But that's fine as long as the market is okay. You'll keep the economy doing normal. But the second part, A, yes, that, which I feel like makes you,

you're outing yourself as an asshole when you say like, that's cool with me. But also B, I still don't, I don't even understand that part because it's like, he was talking about tariffs and everything the whole time. Like all these people keep saying like, I just can't believe he's doing this.

It's like, he said he was going to, you know? And all the economists were like, this is crazy. So crazy that nobody thought he would actually do it. But it does speak to when you say what changed your town, which was free trade. And by the way, the interesting thing about that is your grandfather saying, I'd never vote for another Democrat again. A Republican would also have passed NAFTA.

Yeah, right. Clinton was being Republican-y. For sure. From a Democrat perspective. That's 100% true, but he still just got- He was the one who did it. Blamed for it. And that whole, like, and it was, you know, in 2016, obviously he's running against Hillary.

So it's like, it's not just Democrats, Clinton specifically, to a lot of these people are just, they just total nonstarter. It's funny that a Republican, well, Trump ran as a Republican, he was the first one to run against that free trade regime explicitly. Bernie did too, to an extent,

but the tariffs that he's putting in place are like through a lens, like him doing what he said he was gonna do and him responding to that anger that your community felt. It's protectionism. It won't actually bring the factory back. Right, but that's ostensibly, that's supposed to be part of the argument, right? I mean, yeah, no, I mean, yes, that's true.

But like, but again, it's like with so many things with him, it's like, okay, but, but it won't though. Or like, you know what I mean? Like it is, it's not gonna bring the more expensive. It's just gonna be, it's just a tax on, you know, working class and middle-class people, just a big sales tax for everybody. And you know, so you're still gonna be buying

hosh-posh-posh from China, it's just gonna be more expensive or from Bangladesh or whatever. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So I, you know, I don't know. It's been, uh, it's been a wild trip.

Cause also it's just, when I said in, in 2016, when I was sympathetic to their, where they were coming from, but I couldn't understand it with Trump specifically. It's because like another thing I know, cause it's like, he didn't come out of nowhere, he's been famous for being a rich douchebag my entire life. You know? So like, I know he was a known quantity and I know that before he got into politics, he represented like one of the worst types of people that a person could be to people in my hometown.

Yeah. You want to mean he's like a, like a silver spoon, blue blood, big city Yankee who thinks he's better than everybody else. And like, you know, his pompous and needs his ass whipped and all that stuff. Like it's just, I just could not and still kind of cannot believe that. He in particular is the champion, you know, but I guess I underestimated the whole like dumb bully part of it or champion, you know, but I guess I underestimated the whole like, dumb bully part of it or whatever, you know? But.

Well, he was able to channel a certain kind of rage, like deep American conservative skepticals, free trade skeptical rage. But is there, yeah, what, do you have any idea what it is that allowed him to make that cultural flip? Because it is one of the most remarkable things about him, that he started out as, you know, literally an asshole real estate developer from New York,

who could be more hated. But like, what is it that made him culturally appealing to folks you grew up with? Is there- That whole, I mean, what I said a minute ago, the dumb bully part, I think, like meaning like, you know, the whole thing was like, he tells it like, and he was very different, right? In the like national political sphere than anybody had been before, just in terms

of temperament and the way he talked and everything. And it was, and it just like, he talked shit and he made fun of people and all that. And I mean, you know, and he was like, he talked shit and he made fun of people and all that. And I mean, yeah. You know, and he was like, there's the racism part and all the other stuff that like, and it just the xenophobia and everything that's like inherent in it. But that whole drain, the swamp tells it like it is type thing, because they definitely, even though he had been that guy forever. The politicians in Washington were like the ultimate, you know, uh, they look down

their noses at us and fuck us over at every turn type of person. And so him being like talking about sticking it to them and draining the swamp and all that, just, I mean, that's the best answer that I've got, you know, I, again, I still think that it's wild, like even like trying to rationalize it that way all these years later, I still am kind of confounded by it, but that's like all I can really come up with. If you ever Googled yourself and found your phone number, home address, and even your family members names just out there, that's not just a glitch, it's data brokers. These are companies that collect and sell

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I assume that like a lot of coastal liberals love you because you're like, oh, you're one of the people who normally hates me, but we agree about stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a novelty sort of. Yeah, I mean, what does that like for you? Do you feel that they, there's shit that they misunderstand about, you know, folks where you're from or about you?

I mean, yeah, you know, and again, like I, you know, glad to have fan most of them actually are really cool, but like, yes, they're, they do say weird shit. Sometimes like from the beginning, it was things like you kind of alluded to it earlier, but things like, Oh, you're like, you're like seeing a unicorn, you know what I mean? Like that type of thing, like literally those words sometimes, but like. Just the idea that I'm the only thing, I'm not supposed to exist.

I'm the only one that exists, that there's no one else like me, whatever. And that's inherent in the name, the liberal, the redneck, you are highlighting that a little bit and making it sound unusual. But when someone says that to your face, it's like a little insulting. Well, but it's also, I mean,

I can't deny what you just said is true, but it also is just those two words just like describe me and who I am and where I'm from. Yeah. And I just put the two words together and it worked because people were like, oh, that's not a thing or whatever. You know what I mean?

Right. But for me it is a thing. Oh, who I am is a novelty to these people. Exactly, that's exactly what it is. Cause it's like, it is like kind of a gimmick, but it also is just, it is just who I am, you know? Like, B, they also, a lot of times they think, some of them who think they're being particularly shrewd,

think that it's like some kind of like a character or that like, or like that the accent is fake or something like that. Like I've gotten that a lot, especially out here, cause in LA too, there's another element of like, some people who don't even know who I am will think the accent is fake, because they think I'm like an actor or something.

Your accent's too good. And it's like when I go back to New York and I meet like someone from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and they have a perfect Brooklyn accent, and you're just like, this is too, it sounds too good to be real. Right, yeah. Like, there isn't, it has that same effect.

Yeah, I know, yeah, so I get that a lot. And then also, you know, people, I talk about it sometimes on stage, but like, I say that sometimes people, I say out here when I'm doing shows in L.A. because this is where I live, but that these coastal people, they talk to me like I'm a North Korean defector.

You know what I mean? We like somehow made it across the DMZ. You had to tunnel out of Tennessee. Exactly. I say what you're trying to do, I've literally had people ask me, like you're from the rural south, how did you get out? And the joke I say is like, well first I had to bribe a riverboat captain. But yeah, like that type of thing. I've had people ask me how I got to college or made it to college and that type of shit.

And of course it's the same way anybody did in school and applied but I do think there's like sort of a An unacknowledged divide like you said rural urban I also think there's like a divide in America of people who leave their hometowns Oh, yeah, this is people who don't like my mom No, that's definitely was the only member of her four sisters, four brothers and sisters to like leave and move somewhere else. Everybody else lives in the hometown.

And like we get along great, but when we go visit, you know, and I hang out with my aunts and uncles and cousins who like live in the same town as their grandparents grew up. Yeah. You know, and I, and you know, my side of the family is like all over the country. You know what I mean?

It's like, it's a different, it's a different life experience. No, very much. Yeah, most small towns are like that. either you either like I said like I did you like leave at 18 you like grow up Yep Dreaming of leaving you know like the moment I can leave I'm leaving yeah Or you like stay there forever or in the general like vicinity forever. It's like my wife Her she's from a different small town in Tennessee, but culturally it's the same place.

It's like four hours away on the other end of the state, but it's basically the exact same place called Waynesboro. And she, we live out here with our two sons, but she's got, she's from a huge family and every single other member of her family lives within a like five mile radius of each other in Wayne County, Tennessee. And again, they're great too. We get along great with them, but we're definitely the, you know, like the weird ones, the odd ones that like we come back for holidays and stuff. And, you know, one of my sons is a vegetarian and the other one's got long hair and all that shit. And it's just, it's weird to them. But again, just we could be, and in fact we were before we moved out here,

like living in Knoxville, like a city four hours away, even though it's a southern state, it's the same state, it still was kind of like that. Cause it's like you said, it's just that itself is like a dividing line. You think you're like fancy or whatever. Yeah, I mean, my grandparents, my mom was the only, the first step she took was she didn't go to the college

in her hometown. Instead she went, she grew up in the UP of Michigan. And instead of going to college there, she went to Ann Arbor in the, in the lower peninsula. Regular Michigan. Yeah, regular Michigan. She just went to the state university. And her parents didn't want her to.

They were like, you want to go, you want to go to the, oh wow, who are you? Kind of a little bit of that vibe. No, yeah. Definitely a the, Oh, wow. Who are you? Kind of a little bit of that vibe. No. Yeah. Definitely a very, very real thing. And yeah, it is kind of tied to the, the like, I don't know, political and cultural divide and stuff. Yeah.

I've always wondered what that is that makes some people go, I'm getting out of here and how that is tied to. Well, using me as an example, like, and again, I said, I got a bunch of friends who are from similar backgrounds, me, which is true. Most of them, like two of the other guys are comedians. My wife lives with me out here and it's like, we're also all the people that leave. Yeah. And I think they're tied together because if you grow up being this way in that

plot, like I did, you want to leave. Yeah. Cause you don't, cause I've didn't, I never, I've been a man without a country my whole life. Cause like I never fit in in my hometown. Yeah. I had great, great friends, some of them are still like my very best friends, but like overall. I didn't fit in in that town and I was like a weirdo and stood out for sure. You know, but then like, but I moved to Southern California and I definitely don't fit in out

here either. So it's like, but you just, you, your sensibility, like it's a, you know, like a cause and effect type thing or chicken and egg type thing. You know what I mean? Like people that are, there's a connection there because those are, those are the people that leave, the people that leave and the people that are more open-minded or every, however you want to put it, tend to be the same people. Yeah, like let's drill down on that a little bit.

You said the people who are this way, you don't just mean like, oh, liberal, like didn't vote for Trump or whatever. There's like some personality traits, some like frame of mind, some perspective, open-mindedness, something. Yeah, again, that's the type of saying open-minded is the type of thing that people in my hometown will hear and be like, you know. That's condesc something. Yeah, again, that's the type of saying open-minded is the type of thing that people in my hometown

will hear and be like, you know. That's condescending. Yeah, exactly. And I get that, but I just, I don't know how else to put it, wanting, just having even an interest in going elsewhere and seeing other things, like curiosity, if that's, I don't, that's probably all, that's all. I don't know how to say it in a way that isn't condescending. People like, people are satisfied, they're like,

this is, you know, this is where my life is, where my family is, and I love it here. And it's like, I love my hometown too. It's not that, it's just, but they don't, there's not an interest in like, you know, like we, I could not believe we got my in-laws to come visit us here last summer, but we did. Right.

But it was, my wife was always like, Oh no, my mom, maybe, but not my dad. And again, they're not even, they're not hardcore Trumpers or nothing. They're just like very small town sensibility type people. And then when they come out here, it's like, you know, like, you know, suggesting like sushi or something, you know, forget it. Like that's not going to happen. What did you do with them? What did they enjoy? What did they not enjoy?

Well, we just bought a house last year. So my father-in-law mostly just like did house shit, like what, you know what I mean? Found like jobs to do and stuff. And my mother-in-law, like they went to Disneyland with my sons and that sort of thing, you know, and but, but yeah, it's just, there's just not a grove and get, it's a sense of like that. All that ain't for bank for me, I guess. And also again, now it's a sense of like, and the people who live there, like they don't like me, they think I'm stupid.

They kind of, you know, and I don't like them either for the, so I don't want anything to do with all that. And also like people are afraid of cities and it isn't just, it's not just like a racism thing or an immigrant thing or whatever it's literally just. Cities are scary. Yeah. You know, like my meemaw who passed away last year, but she also, she fucking hated Donald Trump.

She was so like terrified of, I live in Burbank, right? And when I talked to her on the phone, she would be like, worried. I was going to get like mugged at the grocery store or whatever. It's like, Oh, you mean the whole foods and Burbank, you know, like, but she doesn't know what any of that means. It's just like a big scary place. I mean, a lot of the news elsewhere in the country is just constantly playing. Los Angeles is dangerous. Chicago is dangerous, New York is dangerous,

like this endless stream, but that only works because it feeds into sort of a deeper belief that people have that those places are like fundamentally terrifying and unsafe. Yeah, and even me, I'm, you know, again, I'm one of the weirdo ones, the ones who left, very much so, but like even me, like I don't like, I'd love New York, but if I'm, I've never lived in New York and if I'm in New York for more than like a five days or a week or so, like I start to kind of get overwhelmed by it a little bit. Cause it's like, it's a lot like, yeah, like I live in the Valley and the Valley is very like suburban. Yes.

Like LA is a huge sprawling city, but it doesn't, that part of it, especially does not feel like an urban metropolis or whatever, but like New York very much does and I love that for a change of pace for a few days, but after, like I said, a few days it starts, it starts to like stress me out. Yeah. I love New York and I want to go back there and spend more time there. But I do think if I, if I lived there again, like I did for 10 years in my twenties, like 365 days a year, it would, it would be a little too much for me.

I like going and coming back and like being in a slightly more relaxed atmosphere. Um, but yeah, you're putting a mind to me. I read like a study years ago, or at least this is the thing that I've heard, that like one of the main personality traits between differences between liberals and conservatives is like liberals really seek novelty or really highly value novelty, new things, things they've never done before.

And like conservatives generally don't, not every single person, but that, and that you can see that culturally, at least that makes sense. Yeah, right. No, yeah, no, yeah. The, the dumb way that me and my other liberal Southern buddies, but we have a saying kind of for that where we say, you know, same hits, different don't hit is

what we say for these people. We use the word hits to mean something is good, but anyway, just like same good, different bad basically is like the, the general philosophy of a lot of, a lot of people in towns like ours. When you're touring, who are you drawing? Because you say you feel like a man without a country, right? Like you're not like totally aligned with anybody. Are you getting both conservatives or liberals? Are you mostly getting liberals?

No. Liberals, yeah. I say man without a country, I mean more like culturally. Like I said, it's just like out here. Like I was the most, even though I wasn't California E at all, and they wouldn't have termed it that way, I was the most California E type person in my hometown. You know, which is like, you know, like I just, I fucking read books for fun. And I like Eddie Izzard and shit.

You know, but also I wasn't Christian. I didn't go to church and I was openly skeptical of it all, you know, but also I wasn't Christian. I didn't go to church and I was openly skeptical of it all, you know, which was like blasphemous. So like, you know, this is also the land of godless heathens and everything. And so like, I was the most, I guess, would be coastal type person in my hometown, but I'm like the most rednecky person in my neighborhood in Burbank or whatever. You know? So I, and so none of that even has anything to do with like politics.

But at my shows, it's almost entirely liberals. Sometimes they drag a conservative spouse with them when it's one of those couples. So like it's not completely bereft of any conservatives, but usually it's a conservative who's in a relationship with a liberal, so they're by nature more, I guess open to you. Are you able to speak to those people?

Because when I'm on the road, you know, I tour all over and people, you know, it's mostly I get a liberal crowd, but not everybody. And like my favorite compliment I get, I'll get occasionally is someone saying, like, I don't agree with everything. You say, but oh, I like the show. That was funny.

And you had some good points. Yes. And you know, and I talk shit about everybody. So like, do you get that? Yeah, I get that. That's also. And you had some good points. Yes. And I talk shit about everybody. So like, do you get that? Yeah, I get that. That's also one of my favorite compliments to give. Those affirmations, you know, conservative husbands or whatever.

But if they, I've gotten that a lot from when they say, like, I don't agree with it, but I did think it was funny. And like you said, it's like, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, that's like the best you can hope for. But also like you said, I'm, just to be clear, like I do,

because I know what my crowd is and I know what my internet thing is. So I do, I do like, I talk about politics, but not entirely. And not even really the majority of it. I would say that most of it is like, you know, just regular standup from the perspective of someone like me. So like I talk about living in California a lot, or I have some, I have middle school sons, I talk about that and I talk or a lot or I have some middle school sons I talk about that and I thought you know, I don't but like but when I do talk about politics

Which I'd say is maybe 10 15 percent of my act is political when I do talk about it. It's very clearly from a leftist perspective, so it's like You know the people in the crowd are not gonna Miss that but one of the nice things about stand-up is yeah the crowd are not gonna miss that. That's what I'm saying. But one of the nice things about standup is, you can't talk about politics too much in standup because people want, I find people want some of it

and then they want you to move on. They want a taste. That's exactly how I approach it, yeah. Especially right now, crowds want like a little bit of relief. They want someone to make a joke so they can laugh about it and then they want to forget about it. But if you do both, then the crowd, like they know you.

They're like, okay, I've heard about this guy's kids. I understand his perspective. He thinks a little differently from me, but I believe that he's a thoughtful, good person who's thinking through it. And then they can maybe laugh at your perspective, even if they don't entirely agree with it, maybe. Yeah, no, I mean, I have basically

the exact same philosophy about it. And I've had people tell me, you know, fans of like hardcore fans of mine who are very very into politics, very liberal, have said to me a version of like, I was worried that you were gonna be talking about nothing but politics tonight, and I'm glad you didn't because yeah, it's just I mean, it's exhausting like it's a lot. But then I also, I've got a big chunk right now about schools because again, I have sons and they go to school here and there's been a, so like in politics, there's been a big narrative. People have talked about schools a lot in recent years, like public schools, right?

And about them being like woke, right? And like letting kids identify as cats and giving them litter boxes and all that crazy shit. Yeah. And I don't even get into specifics of all that, but I just talk, I talk about the idea of public schools being woke is funny to me because I went to a public school in the rural South and it couldn't have been less of a woke place. And then I just talk about my school for a while. And so it's just, it's just me talking about the

school I went to, but it's framed in a whatever social commentary type of way or something. And then I talk about my son's school in the valley and how it is kind of woke, right? And I make fun of it a little bit too. So it's like, that is all like politics adjacent, but it's not, when I say 10, 15% politics, usually I'm talking like what, you know, we're talking about the Trump and the shit going on with it.

But I also have things that it's like, I feel like if you like me specifically For the politics it can like scratch that itch But if you don't care about that, you won't even necessarily think to yourself that it's a political thing but all those issues are Political in a deeper way. You don't need to specifically talk about Trump or the Republic of the Democrats, but you're talking about like America and our fucking problems and etc But see that's the exact,

because to me, all my favorite comedians were always people who like talked about shit. Social commentators, you know that type of thing. Even before I was known for being the liberal redneck or any of that, that was still the type of standup that I liked and wanted to do. But I didn't think of myself as a political comedian though, despite talking about things.

As an unknown comic in the South, I came up in Tennessee and Georgia and all that, and I would do anti-Confederate flag or jokes or make fun of the Bible or pro-gay or anti-racism and all this type of stuff that I didn't think of as being political. I was talking about real shit and I was like, I knew it was like edgy for some of those places or whatnot, but I didn't think of myself as like a political comedian. And so now I don't know exactly how to verbalize what I think that I think the more like straight up ripped from the headlines, like more topical type of stuff. I think of that as like political comedy. And then the other stuff like the shit with the schools,

I think of more as like social commentary or whatever. Yeah. Because of the climate of everything. Some people might look at that and say that it's like political, but I would not have described it as such before. Like I'll talk about that shit in front of any general audience, you know what I'm saying? And so I don't know.

I don't know exactly how to deviate. No, I know what you mean. It's like, I open my act right now by talking about like literal current events for like 10 minutes. That's me. Sounds like we do the same. And then I start talking about sex and dating.

Sure, the shows are very different. Yeah, because of who we are, but so far, yeah, we have the same approach, it sounds like, because that's what I do too. Well, I do, and then I do a lot of stuff about sex and about like, you know, men being sexually repressed and all this shit. I'm like, when I think deeply about it, I'm like, it's political or at least it's social.

It has to do with the politics of the country. But really, I'm talking about fucking and coming and that kind of thing. But that's my deeper perspective. That's the thing that's more interesting to me to talk about than even tariffs or whatever, right? Oh, no, for sure. Yeah.

Well, it's also, I mean, yes, I agree with that, but also it's just, I feel like it's not practical to expect or want to do like a full act of the first 10 minutes of what you do. Yeah. There's no, it doesn't have a shelf life. Like, do you know what I mean? Like it's always changing and it's just not, I wouldn't want to do it regardless,

but also it just isn't even a practical approach. You have to get into the more broader and deeper perspective topics. Like you said, that hopefully also sort of strike some of those same cords or whatnot. Yeah. You have to talk about people's actual lives and your own life. Right. I'm curious just to talk about education though, like, you know, Trump's trying to disband the Department of Education

sometimes it seems like Conservatives of the right-wing movement like literally does not want people to be educated Right. I know and that's part of the idea I get into a little bit of this like on stage, but it like Drilling more into the topic. I'm often, it's wild to me that the attack on public education, that like people who like, like Trump in my hometown, that they're on board with that or that they're okay with that. Because what I talk about on stage is like in towns like mine, this is literally true. There's one, every generation of every family goes to the same public school and has the same teachers oftentimes, for decades or whatever. I had teachers that my dad had, right?

And friends of mine, they have kids in school that have teachers that we had. And so I just can't believe, in the school, in towns like mine, the school is like a real institution. Like, you know what I mean? Like people, they have parades and ball games and pep rallies and bake sales and all this stuff. And it's like, nobody has a problem with the school. Everybody loves the public school. And they certainly want their kids to go to it. They don't want $4 million taken away

from the public school or whatever. No. And so when just the broader like attack on public education itself happens and they support it, I can't really wrap my head around that. Cause it's like, they, but it's like with a lot of things with them and my opinion, they don't ever think about it being, you know, their school or their kid or their whatever.

Right. It's all the other, right? You know what I mean? It's all like whatever the bad public schools, what I mean? It's all like, whatever. The bad public schools, which are, I guess, the ones in like Denver or wherever the hell they are. Minneapolis, but not their public school, but it's like, well, if they are successful

in what they're doing, it's gonna affect yours too. And then what? And I don't know what they expect or if they ever get that far. The attack on universities and even like medical research is the same way. Cause if you look at like mid-sized towns throughout the country, like what's the biggest employer?

It's the university, it's the university football team that everybody loves and it's the university hospital that is treating people and is like doing research and shit. And like, that's what they're defunding right now is like this engine for so many. Well, that, you're a hundred percent right about the economic impact of it, but I, so the college part is a little,

I don't know anybody in town, I don't care how much they love Trump, but they have kids, they want their kid to go to school, like, you know, to like Clay County High School. They wanted to like, learn, you know, reading, writing, and arithmetic and all that good stuff. But like, colleges can be a different story. There's a lot of working class people that are like,

now getting my family, I was first person in my family to ever go to college. And I was like, it was never, I mean, I'm a comedian. It doesn't matter that I went to college, but it was like never left up. Can be helpful. But I know I- To help you think through things.

I would never change anything. I loved my time in college and you know, it's one of my favorite parts of my life. Like it was great, but like, my family was always, like my grandpa, the guy I was talking about earlier, it was always like, you are going to college like no matter what.

Like you're, you know, you don't have an option not to. And again, I'm glad I did. So it's not universal, but there's definitely, there are definitely families in places like mine who just don't really have much use for college. Cause I think of colleges, even though they all got a doctor or whatever, you know, like generally speaking, colleges, you know, what's it like good for to a lot of them, you know what I mean? It's like a blue collar working class person and that's where people go to learn,

you know, all the commie gay shit that's ruining the country or whatever. So I think that's a part of that. It does also strike me though, like, and I say this as a guy who grew up in the Northeast, right? But in the Northeast, like all the sports teams that everyone rooted for were the pro sports teams.

That's what we had in like New York, right? Yeah. Like the Knicks and the Yan for were the pro sports teams. That's what we had in like New York, right? Like the Knicks and the Yankees and all of that. And when I think of like who people are just rooting, what sports team they're rooting for in more concerted areas, they're much more often fans of like a college team, right? A university team. Like out west or down south. My oldest son's middle name is Kneeland, which is the name of the stadium where the

Tennessee Volunteers play football. It's also the name of the stadium where the Tennessee volunteers play football. It's also the name of the, like the, the coach that fit doesn't matter. But anyway, it's like, that's my, I'm a big sports guy wearing a Memphis Grizzlies shirt right now, but like, I love the Grizzlies, the Titans, whatever. But like, if you gave me the ability to give just one of my teams, a championship, it would be the Tennessee Vols football team. Like without a doubt, like that's the one that's like, I bleed orange and, uh, at people and I didn't go, I went to Tennessee tech.

I didn't go to the university of Tennessee, but I've been a Tennessee Vols fan since I was four, three, four, you know, way before you ever can get to college. So you're a hundred percent right. It's so weird you bring this up. Cause literally just yesterday, I don't even remember what so weird. You bring this up because literally just yesterday, I don't even remember what made me think of this guy. I was just yesterday, I was thinking about this dude who, when I lived in Knoxville, it's where I used to,

my day job used to be when that's where I started stand up at and everything. And I lived there before I moved here. When I was living in Knoxville, I used to listen to sports radio, Tennessee volunteer sports radio, and they'd have call-ins, you know, we all know like the, the sport, the terrestrial radio sports call in crowd, you know, not a beacon of like, you know, local intellectuality or anything like that. Hey, they got a lot of energy. Yeah.

But they had a guy, they had a bunch of regulars. They have one regular in particular who called in a lot. And like, I was just thinking about him yesterday because it's like, he die hard Tennessee Vols fan. And every time he called in, he would talk shit about the university, like the college part of the university and the professors there. Like he literally be like, all them liberal professors down there, like they're trying to ruin the football program or something. But like complete separation in his mind. Like he would happily just like Thanos snap the college part of the university completely away. But if anything happened to the football program, it would, you know, it would be.

Uh, catastrophic, but it's like, he doesn't realize that they're the, you know, that they're the same thing, that they're the same like entity. Yeah. It's the university, but they but he doesn't look at that. Like the football team is separate from the college part when football team's good and the college part's bad. And I'm not saying everybody's like that, but like there are dudes like that

and they don't, they completely oblivious to how nonsensical that is. I mean, the reason college sports, I believe, grew up in the U.S. is partially because that was like some of the main institutions in those places in America, right? Like in a lot of parts of the country. It's like there isn't that much big business. There isn't that much, you know, urbanization. There's a university. Okay, great. Those people can play some sports. They have the capacity to build a stadium. You know, we can go. It like it's even just the sports park. It's less so now, especially in football and everything. But even like you look at baseball, like, like in the South for a long time, there

weren't a lot of pro sports franchises in most of the Southern States. Like even like in my lifetime, you know, the Titans and the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars and all that. Like, um, and with baseball, it's just the Atlanta Braves outside of Florida. Outside of the Florida teams, it's just the Atlanta Braves outside of Florida, outside of the Florida teams. It's just the Braves. And so like they thought of these places like Alabama and now look, obviously part of it for them is that they're like, it pains me to say the best, uh, ever, but

at college football, but they don't, you know, there's nothing else. They don't, there's not really anything else in Alabama. Like to root, like a source of regional pride like that or whatever. But the college football team was good. And so that, and then, and then by extension when the basketball team's good, they root for them too. But it's like, you know, I mean, Nick Saban's like a deity in Alabama. But they're just, there's not a lot of others. And I find my Northeastern friends and stuff, if they're big into sports, it's usually some, you know, pro sports friends. So they're not that big into sports, it's usually some pro sports friends. They're not that big into college stuff

for the most part, except for in the U.S. Yeah, I mean, it's not a part of the culture. My dad grew up in Florida in the South and he followed all the university teams growing up. And then when we were growing up in New York, it was all pro sports because those were the teams that had life and vitality to them. But the point you make about how,

like that guy who was calling on the radio show is compartmentalizing. I just like the team, I hate the university, and if something bad happens to the university, it won't affect my team. If something bad happens to someone else's school, it won't affect my school. I feel like the whole country has been doing that,

especially with who like Trump is taking retribution on. Oh, the tariffs will make other people pay more, but not make me pay more, et cetera. Do you think that's finally going to, I don't know, get through? People feel the effects? I don't know. I'd like to think so eventually,

but it's like, you know, there's a whole, I mean, it's that very popular subreddit, you know, the leopards ate my face, you know, that one, right? But it's like, that's kind of the premise of that whole thing is like, you know, I didn't think the leopards would eat my face says person who voted for the leopards eating faces party. And it's like, that's what they do all the time. And as far as it finally getting through, it's like, I'd like to, I feel like if it

keeps going in the direction it's been going, it affects more and more people negatively enough. If things get bad enough for enough people, you'd like to think that surely it would have to have an effect. I think there's a certain subset of them that will just, we'll never ever see it, but I think there's enough people that could be woken up or however you want to put it, if it does affect them personally enough. I'd like to think, but I don't know.

I mean, I guess maybe we'll find out, you know. Do you buy the theory that, there's this theory that, you know, there are the committed right-wingers, right? They hate liberals actively. They hate liberal culture. They have, you know, all those sort of various views. But then the reason Trump won was just,

a lot of people were like, ah, eggs are too expensive. And I remember 2019, and 2019 was pretty good for me. And this guy's more famous than this Kamala lady who I've never really heard of, right? Which is, I think, a big part of the effect too. And so that maybe that's sort of like a broad but shallow support that the economics could change is that.

Yeah, no, I do. I mean, I buy that because there was a few things that I feel like give some credence to that idea, which was like at the time we weren't the only place that had an election. And like, are the incumbent regimes, you know, really got wreck uh, wrecked in the elections after COVID and the inflation that they had everywhere. So there was like, it was reactionary everywhere, but it didn't matter which side of the political spectrum that regime in that given place was on. They had to pay for it, had to pay for, you know, the economic pain after COVID, even though if it wasn't their fault, it didn't matter. So it felt like it was a global trend, first of all.

And secondly, I mean, maybe this was apocryphal, but I remember hearing that after, like on election day in November, like one of the top Google searches in America was Joe Biden drop out or who's running for president. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's like that too. It's like, to me, it's crazy that, that there are people that miss all that or that they're just, they don't even really care at all. But it's just like nothing

but kitchen table stuff. If eggs are, who's eggs are too expensive. Who's in charge. Well, fuck that guy then. And it's like just as simple as that. And that they don't even know who's running. And it's crazy to me that those people are out there, but it, see, I guess apparently they are. And I do think that like, you know, if that just holds true, that's what I'm saying. If it gets bad and it, you know, we're just, we've gotten even more reactionary, you know? So it's like, if it continues in this direction, then it probably, you know, there'll be a big, a big, you know, retribution, uh, for the, in the other, it'll swing hard back in the other direction, you know, and then

when the liberals get back in and they come in and they fail to adequately clean everything up and, you know, a four year time period, then it'll swing back the other way. And it seems like we're doomed to go back and forth. I can't imagine that either. It's hard to imagine there being anything other than a Republican washout pretty soon, which is, I don't, how to fix that either. It's hard to imagine there being anything other than a Republican washout pretty soon, which is I don't, I'm not making predictions, but like, you know, the, the, the tariff stuff

is going to affect people before the next midterm election. Yeah. Folks, you know, we've been talking on this show lately about political polarization in America, how we're stuck in our bubbles and about how it's so hard to know whether the information that you're getting is accurate and unbiased. Well, to help me wade my way through the thicket of American political media, that is why I am so happy to use ground news. Ground news is this awesome aggregator. They collect all the news for you, but they give every single source a bias and factuality rating. So you know if the source you're reading is from the center right, the far left, that doesn't mean that what is in it is wrong, it just means you should know the perspective that they write from. Same goes for their factuality rating, where they give you a

actual rating of how factual each source is, so you can avoid misinformation and know that you're getting the real deal. We use ground news on this show in our research process. We find it super reliable. I think you're gonna find it really useful as well. You want to break out of your bubble and make sure you're getting the real story. So if that sounds good and you want to give it a try for yourself, well guess what? You can get 40% off a membership if you go to groundnews.com slash factually. Once again, that's 40% off if you go to groundnews.com slash factually once again That's 40% off if you go to groundnews.com slash factually You know there are very few things that I value more than my privacy

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30-day money back guarantee. That's NordVPN dot com slash Adam Conover. But also like it really seems like what happened in my mind is, you know, first time Trump ran and won it was like a fluke and the the traditional Republican, the establishment was like, all right, we'll just let him be president and we'll like sort of hold a lid on everything. But the second time he ran, the really far right wing elements, like the Heritage Foundation people

who've like been making plans for like 40 years to reshape the country, were like, this is our guy. If he wins, we can do all this shit. And then that's what they're doing. They're like, they want to destroy the federal government has always been their plan. Mm-hmm And so now they're just oh, we'll fire everybody will will, you know, ignore the laws on the books about it We'll just wreck house like they are doing their wish list to a degree that no political movement has ever done their wish list before

And like I just don't think there's enough people in America who actually like that wishlist. I know. I agree with you completely. Yeah. It's like, I mean, when you manage to remove the, uh, like party affiliations to certain ideas, like pretty much every poll ever shows that a lot of like progressive policies themselves are popular with people or that a lot of

those hardcore policies like that, like project 2025 stuff, are not popular with people, but it gets mixed up in the whole identity politic. You know, the people identifies like sports team element of who people vote for. Yeah, tribalism. Yeah, tribalism. And, but like you said, they haven't been able to, like you mentioned earlier, Trump's first term and it was Mnuchin and whatever. And there was, we found out in the January 6th committee, there was like even inside the administration, there was like team, team sane and team crazy or

whatever, you know, but there were still sane people around and there were still the old like political establishment type people that were Republicans that were like, weren't going to let things go too far off the rails, but those people were like, you know, sanity's not, you know, that ain't, that ain't what's up in the Trump world. And they were all, they dis, they're disloyal and they push back and all that. So this time around, it's like fanatics and true believers and people that are really there to like, do something, know it. And they're like-

And idiots as a result. Like if you're, if you're optimizing for who's a fanatic and a true believer, you're not getting the smartest people. You're getting like, these drunks who are like on a signal chat, right? Like, just do a stupid shit. Apparently, the chief, like, the mastermind of the whole terror strategy is that, is the Navarro guy, right? He based all of his whole philosophy on a persona that he made up for himself. And like, he made an anagram of his, his whole philosophy on a persona

that he made up for himself. And like he, he made an anagram of his own name. It's names Navarro. So it's like Ron, Ron Vano or something like that. He like sourced all this. You don't know what I'm talking about. I didn't hear about this. Yeah. He like in his like writings

for like justifying these terrorists, he sources it to an expert named like, it's something like, I can't do the letters. Oh my God. He's like written pseudonym articles that he's citing. Yeah, right, exactly. Jesus Christ.

Very much seems that way anyway, because that guy who's like behind all that, doesn't seem to exist, and again, it's a perfect anagram for his name. So it's like, it's just silly shit. That's the thing too, is it's like, everything is so like bad and catastrophic, but so dumb and silly and absurd at the same too, is it's like, everything is so like bad and catastrophic,

but so dumb and silly and absurd at the same time, but it's a real bad conversation. You should do all these big economic changes. There's this great economist named Eve Prounder, it's the opposite of my name, coincidentally. But yeah, just like, listen, oh yeah, he's an eminent guy from Liechtenstein. Yeah, yeah, right.

No, and that's like literally happening. And it's,. Yeah, right. No, that's like literally happening. And it's, um, but yeah, right. That it, so the first time around, because you didn't have that same element or that same drive and everything, a lot of their worst instincts were sort of not, you know, brought to bear. Yeah. They're really doing it this time. And those things we think are and will be bad. Yeah.

Undeniably so. So how could there not be kind of a reaction to that from the American electorate, however goldfishy their memory might be or whatever. Yeah. So I don't know. But by the same token it's not like Democrat policies have been good for working-class people. You talk a lot about class, right? Like how does that, how do you analyze what's happened in America class wise, you know? Like, Oh, well the Democrat, you know, I mean the big Democrat got, you know, taken over by the like moderate neoliberal pro-business forces that kind of left regular people behind a long time ago. And there's like a progressive element, but they get shut down at every turn.

And I think that there needs to be a, yeah, we ain't talked about them yet, but no, I mean, I'm not a fan generally. And I think there needs to be a, uh, leftist equivalent to like a tea party moment, like a paradigm shift or something that they had after, you know, they, when the country elected a black guy in 2008 and the, and the riot was like, we got to change everything to keep this shit from happening. We got to get way crazier, way dumber, right? And by God, they did it.

We need to have like the progressive inverse version of that happen, you know, where it's like there needs to be a reckoning, I think, with the Democrats, where people that actually like will advocate for the interest of just regular people again, instead of just, you know, obviously the same shit everybody says, cause it's true, too much money in politics and citizens united and all this and people are bought and paid for and they got everybody's serving corporate interests and loves the banks on either side and all that and the people that get left behind are just regular working class people and that should be it is the left, but it should be the, you know, the democratic party

should be taking up that, and again, they have some people who are actually in the party who do, but not enough. And those people have to fight internal civil wars with the old guard for no good fucking reason and it needs to change. Well, what's crazy is there's this idea on the left that it sort of can't be done within the Democratic Party, right? Or that left policies will never work or they go too far, right? The left does either say, oh, we can't make it happen within the Democratic party, right? Or that left policies will never work, or they go too far, right? The leftists either say, oh, we can't make it happen in the Democratic party.

The moderate Democrats say, oh, Americans will never go for it, right? For progressive policies. And so, just nobody ends up doing anything. When you look at what the right has done, the Republican party was taken over from the inside by the most right-wing element of the party. Like, the moderate Republicans are dead.

They don't do shit. Mitch McConnell's disempowered. And like now they're doing the craziest shit. And so we should look at it as an opportunity. You can do anything in America. No, that's exactly what I mean. When I say like our own version of that, that's what I mean.

That's one of the worst things that ever happened in this country in my opinion. But the inverse of that, the like leftist or progressive version of that happening to the Democratic party, I think, is exactly what needs to happen. I don't know if it's going to or not, but that's what I think.

Yeah, when you look at the arguments that Democrats, moderate Democrats are making against Bernie, oh, people won't vote for this, we can't actually do these things. Well, they ended up losing by trying to chart the safer path. Exactly. Oh, and Trump, they all thought Trump would lose because he's too crazy and the guy has run the table.

What would you like to see actually happen in terms of policy, you know? I think. Just drop my pen, it's completely pointless. Things like universal healthcare, UBI, and raising the minimum wage and all these things that just help regular people. Like economic stuff, I'm very,

look, don't get me wrong, I'm not, everyone should have equal rights too, and we can't compromise on that, but I think that the driving force of it needs to be the more like fucking FDR, New Deal type thing. Yeah. Like like, uh, infrastructure, education, like I said, healthcare, just building for the future, putting people to work, paying people what they deserve and tax

in the fucking rich and the way that we need to, you know, cause it's like, you can, whatever they could even, you can make multiple millions of dollars a year. And then just tax over that. You know what I mean? You could make the threshold pretty high, plenty enough for anybody or should be, and then just tax the shit out of what's over that. And there's still be rich as hell. Yeah.

You know, we can fix a lot of, so like that someone who's willing to, you know, take on billionaires act like legitimately, uh, and just turn to get this country back to like just regular people. The disheartening part is that Biden, for all of his faults, he had many, obviously, and the Democratic party overall has many, but he was starting to do a couple of things that you said, right?

Like when they came in, they were basically like, this is the new FDR. Like that was their aesthetic point. And they started doing some antitrust reform, started trying to like break up big companies, go after billionaires a little bit. Lena Kahn was at the FTC, going after, like stopping mergers and stuff like that.

And that's all a little bit technocratic, but A, the billionaires like fought back, right? As soon as a little bit, they started pushing a little bit, they were like, oh, we all gotta become Republicans and get Trump elected. And also it did not win him any points with working class people, despite him trying.

I know that part, yes, that part's very frustrating because I thought by the end, the like mental capacity things with Biden, I felt like were undeniable, you know what I mean? And that killed everything. Right. And that made it non-negotiable to me. But in terms of like, what things they accomplished or, you know, like, and actually got done.

I was, it was maddening to me, some of the discourse around the Biden administration all the time, because it just wasn't fair. You know, like people just didn't give him any credit for any things they actually did accomplish. And that then lets a whole other aspect of like, okay, propaganda and disinformation in the media and what that's become and where people get their information from and the bubbles people live in and that, and that, so then there's that, there's like, I feel like that and all the money in politics, like those two things, I feel like maybe the, the big,

you know, headliner items that are fucking this country up. Yeah. The main things that I don't, it's like, there's too many people making too much money off of how it all currently works to. Yeah. I mean, sometimes I think it's going to take, you know, something pretty extreme. Yeah. Depending on how bad it gets, you know, something kind of Frenchy or Luigi-esque, but I don't know.

Well, one of the problems we have though, is that like working class people do not support like leftist, like policies that are designed for working class people, right? I'm actually listening to this history of like the rise of the third Reich right now, just funny thing. I was like, I should maybe learn about like happened in the early rise of the Nazi party. You know, see exactly how that went down.

How you sleepin', how's it doin' for your sleep sack? Yeah. It's, honestly, it's more comforting than reading the news right now. Okay. Like, shit makes a little bit more sense. One of the things that makes a little bit more sense in that story is that like the working class

in Germany at the time, like a lot of them were communists, right, or socialists, because like that was, you know, the leftists were espousing ideas that were specifically for the working class. And so like one of the things the Nazis tried to do was, oh, we wanna get that support, we wanna take it away from the communists, right?

But like, if you look around America now, the people who are, you know, the leftists most wanna support actually support the other side to a crazy degree. And it's like, people call it disalignment, right? That like the people who the policies are supposed to help do not support the policies or do not support the people

who are putting the policies forward. And I have no idea how to solve that. I don't know how to solve it either. But I think it's like I said, I think it comes back to the propaganda and the media and all that and all the culture war shit. They don't think about like, there are people who genuinely believe that like,

every liberal is like a pedophilic blood drinker, or whatever, like baby-killing blood, like literally. And I don't know what, I don't, again, outside of, there would have to be some kind of regulation that reigns in what, like disinformation, and I don't know how that's ever gonna happen because it benefits too many people. And we have a first amendment

and like do we want to live in a world with that kind of regulation? I know, so I don't, no, I know. I don't know what, I don't know how you actually fix that either outside, all like giving them enough rope to hang themselves and that like we were saying earlier, this is all real bad and stupid, I genuinely believe.

And so if they, and they're, you know, headed down the track still, and if they keep doing it, hopefully people just won't be able to deny anymore. You know what I mean? However bad the propaganda is, they won't be able to deny. Like, things are bad and this is clearly the reason why. Outside of that, I don't know. And if the other side, I mean, one of the things

that's pathetic about the Democrats is they're not able to say, this is bad, here's why, and here's what we should do instead. Right? There's a couple people who try, Bernie has tried, right? But like the mainstream of the party, like Schumer and whoever else is leading, at least people are the current DNC chair, they're just like, they cannot even enunciate what the fuck is happening. Right, yeah, no, I don't, yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's another one to just, like I said, paradigm shift, new leadership, new approach, all of it.

Yeah. Yeah, you're right, it's like, it feels like they've been playing by a different set of rules the whole time. Yeah. Even though it should have been abundantly clear by now that all that is out the fucking window. You know what I mean?

Like it's completely, a whole new ball game, but there's still a lot of them, like Schumer and his ilk are like still acting like things work the way that they always have in this country. Yeah, because they're all 85 and that's what got them there. What else would they think, you know?

Yeah, right. Exactly. I think that what we don't think about enough is, you said we need a new FDR, and that would be great, except that what brought us FDR was the Great Depression. Yeah, I know. Like, that was the result of the 19th century corruption regimes, which is like,

that looks like what we have now, so maybe that's where we're headed. Yes, I know, the Gilded Age, the Robert Barons, and everything, like, wealth just running rough shot over the entire populace and no regular, yeah. No, it's a startling parallel, but it's also like, yeah, I don't like, I don't love the idea of that either, but I'm saying like, I kind of think

that that just is happening. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like I know it's like, you have to have Hoover to get to FDR and all that, but it's like, well, I think we're maybe there, like at the beginning of that process, it's kind of what I mean when I say like, if it gets bad enough, then maybe it'll swing, maybe we can finally course correct. That's kind of, I guess, a more diplomatic way of me trying to say basically that,

you know, is that that's what it's going to take. And I don't want that either. Again, I got kids, but it's like, it doesn't really matter what I want at this point. It's kind of what I think might be happening. It certainly seems like we could go in that direction with like suddenly 50% tariffs on everything, meaning average things are gonna get 50% more expensive

and the stock market crashing, if that persists, like there's an entirely new economic reality that'll like reshape people's lives in ways that are unpredictable that they might not even be aware of. It's fucking crazy, world-rantering. Yeah, no, I know, yeah. It's like, you know, sure, you agree.

I'm very, I'm tired of living in interesting times, you know, the ancient curse. Like, I like boring shit, man. Well, you know, movies and I like boring shit, but well my you know Movies and stuff not necessarily, but like my times. I like what the times to be boring That's why everybody's nostalgic for for the 90s the 90s really look like that was the peak of America civilization American civilization and of course that's because that's when I was in high school They do so feel the same way, but what was great about it, it was boring. There was not that much happening.

Monica Lewinsky was the biggest thing that happened in the 90s. You know, the president in a sex scandal, which is like by comparison now, like oh what a nice little thing to gossip about. Yeah, no, the president is an adjudicated rapist or whatever. He got reelected after that happened. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's absolutely, that was a real like kind of a real turning point moment

for me, for a lot of people was, you know, during the first go-around with Trump and like the pussy tapes or whatever they got, like that was like, it was still at a point, for me at least, with our politics in this country, that when that first happened I was like, okay. Well, I agree. No one can survive. I know he's got different rules there vows But not to that extent and then when that didn't matter at that point was like, oh, okay

We're entering a whole new era. I had this idea in the back of my head that From growing up in the 90s that so much of America was still like small C, socially conservative. Just like prudish. Yeah, prudish. The same people who didn't like seeing Janet Jackson's boob on TV would object to the man saying pussy on tape. Yes. And just hearing that and go,

oh, well that's pretty crass. I don't like that. That's not what they say at church. So I'm not gonna vote for him. And that was a big change. That like, we don't give a shit about that anymore. That we're a much crasser, sort of ruder country than we were a couple years ago.

It was something that took me by surprise. Yeah, no, I agree with you completely. I thought the same thing. But I think that specifically, like you said, it's what they, that ain't how we talk at church. It's like, that's a whole other thing. Again, this isn't a lot of ways, it's been kind of a long time coming for the American right.

Because that's also tied to like the successful campaign to just fundamentally align Republicans and Christianity or whatever. Like in the, because it didn't always used to be that way. That's a massive part of it all too. It's like there, it doesn't matter. Like he's their guy. It doesn't matter the reality of who he is or how he is or what he does. It's like he just is their guy. So he's like, you know, a holy man or whatever. And Barack Obama was a secret Kenyan muzzle or whatever. I know you're not a Christian, but if I can speculate a little bit,

is part of it that like, well, he's a sinner, right? You know, like everybody sins. He's a, of course he's a piece of shit. We're all pieces of shit, but we can all be in furtherance of God's plan. You know what I mean? Is it that accommodation? I have never known these people to hold back

from judging other pieces of shit, regardless of how big of a piece of shit they might be. That's kind of like an underlying precept with at least the Christians that I grew up with. Everybody knows it. Like even other Christians all like acknowledge it. It's like there's jokes about it and shit. It's like, why do you always go fishing with at least two Baptist?

Cause if you go with just one, he'll drink all your beer. Right. Like, there's tons of shit like that. So it's like, no, I don't think, I don't think that you're taking an almost like two Christian viewpoint of like, oh, it's, you know, he's a sinner. He's a lost soul. He could still be saved or whatever, but I don't think it's, I think if they, if they didn't fit, if it wasn't, if he wasn't like their, you know, their guy, their champion,

their sports team that they're a part of that they root for, I don't think they would, they would hold back at all calling him a, you know. Yeah. Philandering piece of shit or whatever, but they just, they just ignore it all and pretend it isn't there. Yeah. Maybe, okay. Let me speculate in a different direction.

Cause a lot of Christians in America have a fundamentally apocalyptic worldview that like somebody needs to come along to sort of bring about the destruction of society in order to create the kingdom of God on earth? Is it that? Maybe.

I mean, that's what I've been told by my Christian friends or like ex-Christian friends about like, I guess a lot of the Israel stuff evidently is tied up in that for American Christians because that's part of like the Bible and the prophecy or whatever is like they literally want that conflict over there to elevate to the level of like, bringing Jesus back and the revelation in the end times. And so that's why they support Israel politically or something. So there's definitely an element of that, but I really do just think it's like they just, it's like I said, it's just more of the tribalism than anything. Like I said, you're, you're, you know, a Christian, which you're a Christian and Republican and those two are kind of one and the same.

And so you just, you know, you got your team and he's like the coach or the quarterback, whatever, of your team. And it doesn't matter. Unlike with sports and sports, if the quarterback like sucks openly out loud, they were going to call for him to be replaced, but here that it doesn't apply for whatever reason. Yeah. What do you think about, in terms of comedy,

like being a liberal guy from your area, we've also seen like a huge rise in right wing comedy in the last couple years. Oh yeah, absolutely. Any thoughts on it? Oh, I'm not gonna lie, I don't know about you, but I never really saw that coming, really. I mean like long enough,

because I grew up a comedy nerd nerd and always wanted to do a standup and I didn't start. What is your love for. My favorite. Yeah. The, I remember specifically like the moment I thought, cause I said, I grew up in my dad's video store, so I always wanted to do some kind of show business something, uh, but with standup specifically, it was Chris rocks, bigger and

blacker that's the special that has the stuff about, you know, dads. Like, all he gets is a big piece of chicken. Nobody gives a fuck about dad. Because I said I was raised by a single dad. I just remember my dad loving that shit. It's funny how comics have a similar story of like seeing their dad crack up at something. Yeah. But that's literally what it was.

So that was the moment. So Chris Rock to this day for sentimental reasons. And also, I mean, I just think he's great. Chris Rock is my all time number one. He's my favorite guy, but also I got into all, like I said, I loved Eddie Izzard and I loved old Richard Pryor stuff and I loved early Dave Chappelle. And I just, you know, loved all of it. And, uh, but, oh, right.

So that adds. And like, I always knew I wanted to do comedy, but I was in the middle of nowhere and I finally, I get to Knoxville and I'm 24 and that's when I start in 2010. And like back then, as I sort of alluded to earlier, I would too in Knoxville and in little bar shows and stuff right there, I'd make fun of the Bible and that type of stuff. And it was like super, that was like as far as you could push the envelope, it was very ballsy in the time and place,

right, to a lot of like, be a lot of comics who also were there, be like, I can't believe the shit you get away with, like that type of thing. And I always thought it was because I sounded like them, you know what I mean? Like even then it was kind of a Trojan horse type deal, but either way, it was like, like I said,

ballsy and edgy and now in comedy in general to a lot of comedy fans, it was like I said, ballsy and edgy. And now in comedy in general to a lot of comedy fans, it's like whatever, it's woke, pandering, liberal bullshit and like the real truth tellers now, the ones that push the envelope and stuff now are the guys who are on the right because they say retard and stuff like that. Literally they're just telling racist jokes from the 50s, like street jokes.

Black people eat watermelon, and that's being a bold truth teller now. We were talking about how everything, the pendulum always swings or whatever, and everything's reactionary in this country. So I guess that's part of it, but I still didn't, I didn't really foresee that until it was already kinda on us.

But it's wild to me, you know, that it's so, cause it used to like people, even when I first started, even like in 2016, when I first went viral, people would ask, they would be like, it was, you know, how like for a long time it was like, are women funny? It was hilarious. It was a thing. Well, that there also was a thing, like I would get asked, like, are there any good conservative comedians?

You know what I mean? Like that used to be, are there any funny conservative people? They don't have any. And now it's like the biggest ticket sellers and biggest names in all of comedy are on that side. And I just, I never would have. The biggest ticket sellers in comedy literally hosted Donald Trump on all their podcasts last year, you know. And they're overtly conservatives.

I mean, they're like, they speak at his rallies, they went to the inauguration. But yeah, and I remember in like 2014, 2015, hearing liberals say, there's no such thing as conservative comedy fundamentally. It was the same as how Democrats used to say that there'll never be another Republican president because demographics are changing.

You also had people say, oh yeah, comedy just is liberal. And I always thought that was suspect because everybody likes to laugh and everybody, all you gotta do is figure out what people think and then say something that surprises them but also confirms what they believe and you can make them laugh. And of course those folks wanna laugh.

But it has been crazy to see it become one of the biggest parts of comedy right now. Yeah, no. I mean, it seems like it is the biggest part of comedy to me, yeah, I mean, of course you know that. But the argument of like, because I used to think too, is like any comedians generally are like, they're skeptics, They are shit talkers.

Do you know what I mean? Like they question things, question authority. They make fun of things. They, you know, like pull that pull shit apart and, uh, you know, try to expose it. And that's, and I did used to kind of think that those general traits were kind of antithetical to being at least like a hardcore conservative. But then, like I said, reactionary put it, the sense was that the left push so far that like, you know, oh, you can't say anything anymore.

You can't joke about anything. Right. And then I feel like that was a real big impetus for the push in that direction for right wing comedy in particular was the whole like, who are you to tell me that I can't joke about something? But again, they're, they're like screaming about that on like $20 million Netflix specials, biggest podcast on earth. So don't get me wrong.

Yeah. But I'm just saying that like feeling I think was a big. It's crazy how that feeling took over when, you know, now, if you say the wrong thing, some guys come and put you in a van Yeah, right and like take you out Salvador. That's always been true to yes. They're the ones who really cancel people I thought you got is that the book from Cliff Nester? Yeah talks about like how I'm gonna show behind you where it's like You know like Lenny Bruce went to jail Yeah, and shit like people you used to you couldn't talk you couldn't like say the word pregnant

Like yeah comedy routine or whatever and that was always the equivalent of the right, you used to, you couldn't talk, you couldn't like say the word pregnant in like a comedy routine or whatever. And that was always the equivalent of the right, you know, like the conservatives or the equivalent of at that time who were policing what could and could not be said. And still to this day, they're the ones who really cancel everybody. And that was true the whole time.

You know, they cancel Bud Light and Disney and all them all the time. They got something new to be pissed off about. I mean, it doesn't, you don't need to say Republicans. It's social conservatives who are in positions of power, legislate morality and what people can say. And like social progressives or social liberals, whatever you want to say, don't do that.

They say, we'd prefer you not say that thing, or they might show up with signs or something like that and protest you if you're really, you know, you're really far beyond. But like, no one's passing laws about it, you know? In most cases, what people are complaining about is just college students didn't laugh at my joke. College students who are,

have never been to a comedy show in most cases and are like nervous because they're around their friends. You know? Yeah, I guess for Big Name Comics, I guess it was different and their expectations were off because of that. But I've always gotten the impression, it's like every comic I know knows that college shows as a general rule are at least like hit or miss.

You know what I mean? Like an oftentimes not marriage. You can't make jokes about dating because they don't do it. Well, they just don't, like you said, they haven't been to a comedy show or they're too cool for it or whatever. Sometimes people don't even show up and when they do, do it. Well, they just don't, like you said, they haven't been to a comedy show or they're too cool for it or whatever. Sometimes people don't even show up

and when they do, they're just like, they just don't give a shit about it. So it's not- They're in their pajamas. They're taking a break from studying. Right, exactly. So it's like, it's not necessarily tied to, oh, they're too uptight.

You know, politically to laugh at this, it's just like, they wouldn't, some of them just wouldn't be laughing at anything. They got like misinterpreted or whatever, I don't know. Yeah, that just put me in my memory once of like, almost 10 years ago I did a show at a girls college, like I forget which one, but it was like a historically, you know,

all female university. And that was like one of the more intense shows I've ever done to be laughed at exclusively by an audience of women in my mid-20s was like, kind of rocked me to my core. Also, yeah, just like, growing up, the judgment of women always meant a lot to me. You know what I mean?

I was like, oh, I hope that the women around me think well of me. And then also having to tailor my material specifically to that particular circumstance. I'm gonna do comedy for exclusively an audience of 19 year old women is like different than a general audience. And like I think a lot of comics just are not able

to make that adjustment, you know, of like where are the people in front of me? But do you think that, I guess let's wrap it up with this general topic. I think too much is made often of whether comedy is politically powerful. To me it's like an expression of what's happening politically. Or maybe we're able to detect something about what's going on politically, because we're going and trying to make people laugh in person. But at the same time like

Conservative comedy or right wing cut what this trend that we're talking about It has been like part of the politics the last two years in like a really definite way That's so like how do you think about it? I used to always I definitely agreed with you and people would ask me I would be like I don't think I don't know that I buy that political comedy or comedy in general or satire like really changes much of anything or changes people's minds or whatnot, but I do still think it could be important

because it like speaks to some important shit that's happening in the world. It gives people a way to think about it, a way to laugh at something that might be hard to laugh about so it can still be cathartic or helpful or whatever. So it's still good and important. I just don't, I don't know that it's really

like making a difference. And sometimes you get some liberal comes up to you and they're like, thank you, thank you for making a difference. You're like, you gotta chill out. Right, yes, no, I'm a giggle monger. At best, but yeah. No, so that was always my position,

but you're right though about this new like right wing version of it. It's it, it's it. Cause I was like, I've got two sons, my sons are middle school aged and they're both, they're good boys or not into any of that type of shit yet, but I think about it all the time. And when I say that type of shit, I mean like alpha male, you know, like I live in fear of Andrew Tate, man, or them finding him or what, or liking it or

any of that stuff. And I don't see them being like that, but I think about this shit a lot because I have sons and that I do think there was something to that whole thing of like, uh, finding a way to talk to or reach or appeal to like young guys, you know? And because they vote too, and they could be a powerful demographic and they pretty much exclusively are, you know, owned by and driven by these right wing forces right now, lately, like in the media and stuff, or in comedy and in podcasting and all that. Yeah.

So like, I don't know what the answer to it is, but I, you know, again, I do think about it a lot because it's like, it's like personal to me, you know, hear all this talk about what young guys are like now. And also it's like, I'm a man, I was a young guy, I have sons. It's like, I do think there's also some of that, like, and I'm white, I'm a white man with white sons. And the whole like, you know, the idea that like white, young white dudes get the impression, however fairly,

from society or the media or whatever frequently that they, you know, suck or that they should just shut the fuck up or that nobody wants to hear from them or that they shouldn't be doing anything. I don't think that's completely unfounded. And I can see why they would, uh, some of them would, you know, push back against that and be like, well, fuck you then. Yeah.

You know? And so I think that, uh, you know, people need to be more honest about that and try to figure out a way to, you know, uh, try to offer some kind of other option, counter programming or whatever. Young white men come in here, the water's fine. Yeah, please. That's what I'm saying. Go to, go to a tree-crowder show.

I literally been thinking about trying to fucking start Twitch streaming, dude. You know, something, cause I do, cause I, that's how much I've been thinking about this, but it's like, you know, but also I know enough. Cause I have sons like I'm, I'm a dad of the guys. He's like, I know that I'm not cool. You know, when he's like, it's like cool. Is that's also, you know, not a raging right winger or whatever. So, but I don't know.

Oh, the ends are cool. Plenty of those guys are dads. They're, you know, solid family values, but also... That is true, yeah. You know? I know. But I do think a lot of it's like... It was kind of Trojan horse, I feel like, meaning like a lot of that stuff did not... It didn't start out as like overtly political or that wasn't the main appeal.

And it's stuff that young guys like and so they start fucking with it and then that gets like... Yeah. Filtered in. Yeah, no. It's like you're just listening to your favorite workout podcast or comedy podcast and people want to go, Joe Biden, you know? And then it's just ambiently around and that's just like what your bros think, what your pals think. Yes.

In the same way that liberals operate, right? Like I listen to a podcast and there's this like ambient, you know, here's all the stuff that we agree on that you get sucked into. The people I like all sort of think this way, so I'll think that way too. It doesn't need to be political content. And that way, like I think that literally political comedy is often not the most important thing. It's like just what your favorite gamer or comic

who talks about completely different things, thinks. I fully agree. I've been, again, that's another thing I've been thinking a lot about lately. Yeah. That's sort of like, I guess, I don't know if Trojan horse is the right way to put it. Cause I don't know how like deliberate it is for everybody. Yeah.

That's how it works. But I do think that you're right. That's like it, that is more important. You know, it's just having, you know, a more reasonable sort of voice behind some of these things that, you know, draws these people into it. You just got to start your hit podcast about the Tennessee volunteers and, you know, then occasionally drop a little politics in it or whatever your interest is.

Yeah, no, I know. I mean, been thinking about it, not maybe not that specifically. I don't know. I mean, I do love sports shit, but yeah. I mean, I think that type of thing is what is needed. Yeah. Are you working on it? Are you building towards anything bigger now than what you're currently doing? Or like, what are your inspirations?

I'm mulling all this out. I mean, my general, I also want to, like the traditional Hollywood stuff, I also want to do, you know. I mean, you had a TV show that was great and the people loved, so I don't, um, I don't make those anymore. I don't make TV shows anymore.

I know it's good for me, but, um, but yeah, like, you know, I write scripts and put shows and stuff like that too, but I also am thinking about, yeah, sort of next steps or whatever for just my own thing, because, you know, like most of us now, my, my whole career is just, it's me and my following, you know what I mean? It's the Hollywood apparatus or anything. So I'm trying to think of what the next step in that's going to be. And I haven't figured it out yet, but I am the great thing about that is that like, you know, when you build something here,

you know, podcast live touring, what we do, it's like, no one can ever take it away from you, right? You can, it can't be canceled. You don't have to make an executive happy every year to keep it going. But then you miss the sort of like infrastructure like the super suit of the media, you know, of being able to build something bigger, right?

That maybe goes further. That's like the constant war I have too. It's like, oh, do I put more time into something that isn't a safe bet? Like, you know, to pitch something where like, maybe I waste my time or do I keep building like the thing that I have that is, you know, giving me a stable life currently,

but is not going to have that chance of being like another, another lottery ticket or another like big project that would be fun to do. Right, yeah, that is the question. This also reminds me, I should have said at some point, cause I haven't, I have a YouTube special out now called trash daddy. Oh hell yeah. Yeah.

The second one, it just came out a couple of weeks ago. So check that out. I'm almost always on tour or treycrowder.com. So where are you headed soon? Uh, some of the same places you are. And I don't know when you just come out like within a week or two or what, or anyway, um, it's going to come out in two days. Oregon, uh, Eugene and Portland and Houston, Texas and then Seattle and

Vegas and then La Jolla and on from there. Oh, yeah, man. Where do people get tickets try crowd or dot-com? We are a e crowd or dot-com and the new special trash Eddie Trey. Thank you so much for being here man I'm awesome talking to you buddy was a good time Well, thank you once again to Trey for coming on the show. You heard his tour dates. Mine are April 16th through 17th. I'll be in Vancouver, Canada. April 18th through 19th, I'll be in Eugene, Oregon. After that, Charleston, South Carolina, Tulsa, Oklahoma, whole bunch of other cities.

Head to adamkonover.net for those tickets. And if you want to support the show directly, head to patreon.com slash Adam Conover. Of course, five bucks a month gets you every episode of the show ad free. For 15 bucks a month, I will read your name in the credits of the podcast It's been a little while since I recorded one so we got some we got some new people to read off We got a Anthony and Janet Barclay. Thank you very much. We got David Sears VG Christian Brower tank guy

Damien Frank Matthew Robert Miller Griffin Myers. Oh, no, not again Sam Biggins Taylor kinetic Oh, no, not again. Sam Biggins, Taylor Kenefick, BK Ryan Copselroth, Robin Ward, Alex Womack, Grant King, and 90 Miles from Needles. If you'd like me to read your name on the show or put it in the credits of every single one of my monologues, head to patreon.com slash Adam Conover and adamconover.net for tickets and tour dates. I'd like to thank my producers, Sam Radman and Tony Wilson, everybody here at Headgun for making the show possible. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you next time on Factually. That was a Headgum podcast. Hey, I'm Wayne Brady. I'm Jonathan Mangum.

And we're two big improv nerds who get a chance to play and make stuff up on shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway or Let's Make a Deal. And we're now hosting a new improvise show called What If on the Head Gum Podcast Network. And on What If, we believe that improvisation is a conversation. So we get to have conversations with guests from the worlds of TV, film, tech, and literature. Guests like Bobby Moynihan, Aisha Tyler, LeVar Burton, and Adam Conover. We ask them the big, ridiculous questions like, what if you heard a monkey's feelings? What if your grandma was a secret agent?

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