Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Ed Sheeran's Apology, Trump's Journalist Ban, and Shaquille O'Neal Named Honorary FBI Special Agent

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Thought Warriors, mount up! On today’s show, Rachel and Van discuss Ed Sheeran’s apology and almost immediate take-back, and Trump's ban on leftist media platforms from the White House. Speaking of which, Hasan Piker takes on some leftist media critiques on MSNow’s 'Clock That.' NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is “Shaqtin’ a Fool” with Kash Patel, plus Rep. Lauren Boebert’s freaky side comes out again, allegedly. Van and Rachel talk all that and more. (00:00) Welcome to Higher Learning (7:46) Ed Sheeran’s ... apology? (26:28) Trump escalates his war with the media (47:39) Hasan Piker vs. the world (1:10:17) Shaqtin’ with fools (1:29:25) Boebert's alleged sexcapades Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Marco Escalante and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Chris Thomas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, y'all thought warriors. What is up? How are learning is on? Is Ivan Lathin Jr.? And it's to be Rachel in Leland. Okay, so do you eat meat loaf? No. You don't eat any meat.

Do you eat a hamburger? Not anymore. Okay, so no meat. I haven't had a hamburger probably in 20 years. No meat that's, you haven't had a hamburger in 20 years? So no meat that is packed together in a meat pie. Like, see, like even like a chicken pot pie. Well, see, a chicken pot pie was something.

It's a bunch of stuff thrown in. I'll tell you something, though, if you want to, if you, you look like a pot pie, nigga. Like, you look, you look. Jay, you look like a pop-p-p-a-nagued. So look, there is one place in L.A. Where if you want to have your mind changed on the pot-pie, you go there. Do you know what this place is? You know where the mixie L.A. blacks go where we go to hang out and have drinks where we like to go.

Diall go? What doesn't? Linden, nigger. Oh. They have a meatloaf? They don't have a meatloaf at Linden. They have at Linden an ox tail pop pie. Oh, you know what?

They got oxtail pop pie. Oxtail stuffed pet. It's like puff pastry with the ox tail. Have you had it? No, I don't eat that kind of stuff. Guys, we're talking about this because I'm pretty sure I have Arfid. Is that what it's called Arfit? It's, yeah.

Arfit. It took a parent telling me when I was like describing what my issues are with eating. Like if it looks, taste, sounds wrong, I'm not eating it. And I'm scarred. So meatballs, absolutely not. Like, a big old ball of meat biting into that is disgusting. You know why I don't eat chicken sandwiches? Because somebody tried to tell me that that was just an enlarged nugget, and it grossed me out.

So this is actually not a pot pie. Okay. We're back to the oxtale. It's called not a pop pie. It's the linden our oxtail waggle pie. Nuts. And you never had it. I go to the Linden a lot.

I go to Dot a lot. Dot, because Dot is the bar next to Linden. That's where you go? That's where I go. You go to how shit? We haven't seen each other. I have some DJs. I'd be DJing there.

That's what a mix of you and that beats listening to 42 girls? What nights do you go? I've had to stop going on the weekends. Why? Probably the week. It's a little too much. Yeah. It's going down and dot.

It goes pretty much down. Yeah, we not done. I prefer like a Tuesday. Thursday night. Oh, yeah. No, I'm not going on a week. Oh shit. talk about how we go out. Benar, where are you going? Where you be going?

I don't be going out. Sparremerey and Rano? What? What? Do you know what that is, Bernard? Yeah, I know, but I don't be going out. You know, you'll just be chilling? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Homebody. I know why, because you, you know, we got, we fixing that. Everybody get off my dick about it. This happened. Okay, look. So, this is the thing. So, Linden. You never go to die. I've been to die before. How many times? Once? I think twice. I've been to die twice. Look, it's the, I don't, I don't go out a lot in L.A. You do not. And this is by design because I need to stay focused. You don't want to run into people. So like, I need to stay focused on stuff like that. Like, you are in your L.A. You just got here. Yeah, I just got here and I moved during COVID. You moved during COVID. And I'm divorced.

This is, this is your time. It's not my time. My time. My time. was before and I had my time and I might have overdid it. Okay, so now it's not my time anymore and when you go out to places like Dot, sometimes you'll be like, damn, is this still my time? And then you're like, nope, not my time. Take your ass home.

Not my time. You know what? I know it's too much when it's not my time. When I start seeing the same people, I'm like, yeah, now I got to go. Because now I look like I'm outside a lot. If I see the same person again, I'm like, yeah, I got to go home. But the reality is... I don't want to be... I have this, I'm like, people think I'm

outside all the time. That is not true. Most nights, I'm home. All right, now, nigga. Now, nigga. Now, the reality is, both Lyndon and Dot, legitimately, are the best places that you could come. Shout to Celo. Shout to Alana. Yeah, they are the best place. You come there. Nobody is not sponsored. These are our people, but whatever.

But the food is great. The vibes are great. It's the type of place that you wish they had when you was more outside, when it was like 16 or something like that. You know, there's a lot of good shit going on, man. got the comedy show going on Wrapping the Real. We got going. There's a lot of shit going on. L.A. People keep talking about all this shit about L.A.

Man, L.A. is alive, man. You know what? And if you don't think it's alive, get out. Fuck, you go. Leave. Now, if you had to leave because something bad happened, like you couldn't find work or anything like that, don't worry about you. We're going to hold your space until you get back. Because we hope things turn out better.

So I'm not saying, but anybody else is like, oh, we fucking hate it. It sucks. Blah, blah, blah. Peace. Bye. Get out. Bye, don't need you, bye. It's a free up the space. The way you keep saying it, I just keep thinking Jojo. What? Get out.

Leave right now. She was so mad. You know, it's like it was free up the space on the 405, but other people that had to leave for different reasons and stuff like that. Sure, sure, sure. I want to extend grace and stuff like that. But I'm sick of complaining, man. It's LA, bro.

We're not done with bricks, moutes. Y'all fuck with 42 Doug? Yeah. You don't like them? I didn't say that. But why you don't like him? What did he do? I don't know.

Because everybody that we like now, as soon as we start liking them, something comes up from their past or they do something crazy and we can't like him no more. So just go ahead and tell me, I'm on 42 Doug right now. What did this nigga do? Just tell me what he did so, like, we could cancel him too. Just tell me what everybody did. What's the song I like that he has with some?

He got a bunch of records. No, with somebody that I'm thinking. But like just, you know, now as soon as you like somebody, they suck, and then you got to get all their music off of title. Title, which has been canceled, which I'm still on. Everyone thinks that I hate certain groups or entities. I still use title because I like title. I didn't even know what's still going on.

Title is the best. Title is the best to me. That's tough. Wait a minute. Hold on. No, no, keep it. Okay. Hold on.

Keep it. That's okay. Y'all know what I mean. One of us will be here next week. The other one won't. Yo, that's, you know, the home team is the home team. You know what I'm saying? The home team is the home team.

But, you know, I've been a title user for a long, long time. I tell you what, though, I do do. I watch all my podcast on Spotify. That's where I go. That's the home of podcasting. Spotify. The international home of podcasting. Come on.

Let's get into a motherfucker's show. By the way, I have had to make, okay, so moving forward in the podcast, I want to keep a list of when, people I know getting trouble and I have to call them. Okay? Before we talk about them on the podcast. This week, I wouldn't say trouble. Trouble for one.

Critique for the other. I have to make two calls. This is a two call week where I had two conversations that just got off one of them that lasted for about an hour each. Oh, wow. Yeah. Okay. Are you going to bring some of that into some of those, that conversation or is it all private?

Well, I'm not going to bring any of the things that was said in the conversation, but perspective that I got from the conversation, whether I agree or disagree, that will be discussed. Okay? So all of you guys right now, it's going to happen right now. All right, but I don't know this, nigga. So let's talk about him first.

Jate? Ed Sheeran returned to the stage in Philadelphia Saturday after a chaotic week surrounding his loop tour, which we previously discussed, apologizing to fans and saying he had made mistakes in his handling of the controversy over Macklemore and Gaza. Sharon became emotional during the statement and called it one of the worst weeks of his life.

Let's take a look at his pre-show comments. My cats have always been a safe space for everyone, and that amount is huge to me. Honoring my commitments, my fans, is also completely central to who I am, and that is why I'm here tonight, on my own, and continuing my own tour. All right, so that was the gist of what he said before. He went on to perform songs. was able to get a band of people that he knew to come in and like, you know, take the place. Everybody jumped off.

Finnis jumped off. Everybody jumped off. They left. Finnis is gone. Finnis is out of here. I love it because you just learned him. Now you tapped in. But I know because Finney's is out.

Finney said we can't deal with this show. Okay. And so the tour continues. And Ed Sheeran has addressed the controversy. He played his songs. People loved his songs. The audience seemed to be very, very. sympathetic to everything that he was saying.

And then at the end, he gave one more address post-show. Do we have the technology to play that? The one thing that I would like to apologize for is the first bit of the show where it wasn't about music and I had to talk and I understand that people have children here and I understand the families didn't buy a ticket

to hear that first bit of the show, but that was something I felt like I needed to say. I felt there was a lot of questions Rach, what you got? Be compassionate, Rach, guys going through a lot. Well, I'm confused. What are you confused about? I don't understand why the second part was necessary.

If it was something that you needed to say, then say it. Why are you now making any kind of concession or an apology to certain people? It almost is backtracking or almost both sides, both siding it again. If you felt like compelled that you needed to address all the conversation that was happening around your tour and your opening acts and your band leaving and the Robert Kraft of it all and your first statement about saying it wasn't me, it was the promoter, all of that. If you felt the need to say that, then say it and stand in it. Why are we now making an apology for the people who might have heard it who didn't want to hear it? It makes me wonder like, well, which one is it, Ed? Because I don't understand why if your show is about love and about unity, isn't that what you said at your message at the beginning?

Weren't you talking about this being a humanitarian crisis and about it being about the people? Like, those two go hand in hand, so I don't know why you needed to separate as if your message was not about unifying. if your message wasn't about the people. It's almost as if, I don't want to say backtracking, but it is a little bit. Like it's like kind of... Trying to have it both ways. Try to have it both ways.

But I just don't understand why, again, it was necessary to do that, or it was necessary to say, children didn't need to see it. What is so wrong with children seeing you prioritize humanity? What is so wrong with children understanding what injustice is? What freedom is? what humanity is.

I don't get why the message at the beginning was so wrong or hard for children to hear and that's not what they came to get. If your message is love and unity, then your message at the beginning was about that and you shouldn't need to take it back at the end of the show. It's just really that simple for me. Yeah, it's interesting to apologize for what children hear

when we're talking about children who can't hear anything. That part too. children who've had their eardrums exploded by bombs going off, and those are the lucky ones, because the rest of them were wiped from the world brutally. Sometimes they weren't. Sometimes their entire families were, and they roamed around in the rubble until they maybe found somebody to take care of them. So it's interesting to say that you're sorry for what children have to hear and go through, because we're talking about what children have to go through.

I think Ed Shearer has this whole thing wrong. I think Ed Shearing thinks that people are mad at him because he's not pro-Palestine, and I'm sure there are some people that are mad at Ed Shearin because he won't take a stand. I think that it's not really about that. Ed Sheeran now represents not even not taking a stand Ed Shearing now represents not taking a stand for the ability to take a stand

which is what we're talking about what we're talking about is do you get to say that what's happening right now in Gaza is a genocide? Do you get to say free Palestine? Do you get to say not only that the genocide needs to stop, but that there needs to be a place where the Palestinians govern themselves with full freedom,

movement rights, and human dignity. Can you say that? Is that acceptable to say? People are actually fighting for the ability to say that, for like to be able to say that. And so what happened to McLemore was he said it and they were like, you can't say that. Right. I saw something else that's interesting about this when we talk about this. I saw Bill Maher, one of the world's great cowards.

I saw Bill Maher, and Bill Maher was talking. Now, I've watched this show for a very long time. Very long time. Always been a great show. What he was able to do on that show for many, many years, was this really unique dance of politics, cool, and current events. It was like the best way to spend a Friday night if you were into politics, right? It's entertainment, but it still had a political tension to it.

And I remember a time when Bill Maher was really upset. set because college campuses did not want Milo Yanopoulos to come to the college campus. Oh my God, these kids are trying to control like what happens on these campuses and they don't want to engage in debate and they don't want to hear other stuff. Milo Yanopoulos was going to those campuses and Bill Maher was up in arms. If you don't believe it, go find it. Don't believe what I'm saying? Go find it.

It's like, oh my God, the most repressive place in the world for ideas right now is a college campus where these kids shout down anybody that dissents and blah, blah, blah, blah, and all of this stuff. I watched that same guy go on his show a couple of days ago and say that Robert Kraft has the right

to kick McLemore off of the tour for saying something that even Bill Maher said was in no way egregious or anti-Semitic because Robert Kraft owns the stadium.

Now, the kids that decided that they didn't want racism and xenophobia to come to their school so they protested, they should shut the fuck up and let them come speak. But if you get on stage and advocate for the rights of people, that's too far. It's not really about saying something. It's about what you're saying. It's about an expansion of what's socially and intellectually palatable. and how much say we get in that. And so when Ed Shearing is on the stage, and Ed Shearing is telling us what he believes,

the question is, does he believe that we should be able to say that on the stage? And then to come back after and apologize for it tells us that he doesn't really think that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or he, I don't know. I don't know. It was extremely odd. When I saw the second part of it, I was like, what are we doing here? But I think you really point to when you say he doesn't get what people are saying that they're actually disappointed in him by, why they're actually protesting him.

I think that that is even more highlighted by the fact that he did not say that the removal of McLemore from the tour is wrong. Because there was a part in his, we didn't play the whole thing, but like there is a part in there where he does talk about, you know, people having a say of like what artists say on the stage. Like there's something that he alludes to with that. I don't have the exact wording. But to specifically say,

Mack Lamar feels a certain way. He's about unity. He's about peace. He's about the same things that I'm talking about as I'm starting my show. And he was removed for saying those things. That is wrong. That was also really missing from his apology. And that points to the fact that he isn't really grasping the bigger issue of it all.

you should be allowed to say what you're going to say, and somebody with money or with power shouldn't be able to control it. That's a bigger issue. And we're seeing that literally happen in another story that we're going to talk about later today. And I really wished he would have taken the time to say, you know, like even address,

not just that McClermore was removed, but also the fact that other people decided to remove themselves because of what Robert Kraft did, because of that type of power that was inserting itself into their artistry. See, I almost interrupted. I mean, I don't want to cut your wisdom, since the queen of the universe, the newbie in Nile River, the sediment and the sand of how the Nile moved. Hey, I watched this documentary real quick about the earliest ancient cities.

Okay. Yo, man, building the city back in the day was tough. It was hard, man. You know, it's funny, we don't think about stuff like that. like just how like we live in a city and for thousands of years they were just trying to build cities

and they go back and they look at these old ancient cities and they figure out how old they are they use carbon dating but they also can figure out all kinds of things. They can figure out how do you think in an ancient city

they can figure out whether or not the city had a good sewer system? How do you think they can figure it out? Trial and error. They detect feces on the wall and if you have feces on the wall of these ancient ruins then that tells you that they didn't really have a good sewage system

they could talk about the diet of the people by the amount of cavities in their teeth they can find out almost everything and it took a long time to get these cities going so everybody out there that's moving around in the neighborhood or whatever like that just give it up for the ancient Mesopotamians and all of the people like that there's one that was like in Ukraine is one thing about that but we talked about the Nile and how the Nile moves, because all this stuff happened in Africa that sometimes a Nile would move.

Give it up for the fucking people in the cities, man. Give it up for them. Give it up for them. But Ed Sheeran, so the thing about him is that he has now become the poster child for censorship of ideas that could free people. And while there are plenty of people that are mad that he won't take a position

and issue that they feel like it's pretty cut and dry, there are other people who are just going to go, hey, you represent the whip. And the whip is, you can't say this or else I'm going to punish you and get you out of here. And it's shearing still feels like by watching that video that this is happening to him. Oh, he definitely thinks that. Which in a way, he is without a doubt being made the flashpoint of this. and I couldn't imagine what that would be like.

Sure. But what people are really worried about is what is happening to them. And whatever that them is. If that them is the Palestinian people, if that them are other protesters around this country who have been persecuted, people on college campuses, some people who have been deported, all of that. The way that even the Trump administration has punished colleges for what they said was anti-sense. Semitism when really what was happening at these colleges were protests on behalf of the Palestinian people. All of this stuff goes into whether or not Americans or people around the world and whatever issue are going to have the ability to link arms and make change. And who's going to stop that?

Now, interesting that we get into critiques of capitalism or I get into critiques of capitalism on this podcast. And that is what made the decision here. What made the decision was a guy who, who, has a stadium, stadium, which is the means of production in NFL football that just went, hey, I'm so rich, I can tell you what you can say. You can't perform because you can't perform in the stadium because I own the stadium's mine because I've amassed it. And I don't want to continue to beat the dead horse of having this conversation about how we live in a society where so much of what we do and how we do it is controlled by so few people. So they don't just tell you when you can sing.

They tell you what you can say between songs. And how far down the road you guys want to do that? Or do you want to be free to say what you want to say or do you want to be them? I think also to your point about Ed Sheeran and he believes this is happening to him. Yes, he is the poster child for it. It's his tour.

He came out. He kind of hid behind a statement, hid behind, hid behind or like shifted the blame to somebody else without actually taking a stand. And it highlights where we are in a society too. Well, we're just not going to allow you to do that anymore. And we're also going to call you out on your hypocrisy. You know, a lot of people say, I'm not political. I don't really do that.

But the receipts are there. There are multiple instances where Ed Sheeran has either been a part of an initiative, placed his signature on something, done a benefit concert that was absolutely related to politics, whether it was Ukraine, whether it was Brexit, whether it was something, a policy issue involving the LGBTQ plus community. So you don't get to now say, well, this I don't want to be a part of because this isn't what I do. No, people, we're in a place right now where people have had enough of that, and they're going to call you out on your hypocrisy,

and you don't get to hide behind your money all the time. You don't get to hide behind your talent at times, because people are tired of seeing other people hurting and the injustices that other people are suffering in such a disproportionate way? Yeah, and by the way, it's like, you know, you're political about what you're allowed to be political about, right? You're political, of course, you're political, you're political about causes that don't involve putting anything on the line. And you don't have to. You don't have to put anything on the line.

Legitimately, Ed Shearing could have been like, hey, I try to stop them from doing, what happened to McLemore is absolutely wrong. Any place, there are plenty of stadiums. There are plenty of stadiums. I don't know. You know what I don't want to do? I don't want to say that there are plenty of stadiums that they could have done the tour we're going to different stadiums because I don't know that.

I'm into this philosophy thing now, and I don't want to say things that I don't know just for a rhetorical entertainment for you guys. I don't know. I don't know what it would have done. But what I do know is that at a time when somebody is being assailed for a belief that puts human beings first,

I think all of us are going to have to take a long look at where we stand on that type of persecution and how they get at somebody and whether or not we are aiding people in stamping out voices that are saying something needs to change somewhere. It's a conversation we've been having for a long time on this podcast. We'll see what Ed continues to do. We'll see if shape of you can get them out of this one. You know what I'm saying? What's his records? He performed. That's one of them.

What's the other records? Thinking out loud. Thinking out loud. Let's see. Because you've got to have. He performed to a pretty much, I mean, like, yes, ticket sales went down and people think he was being reactive because of, you know, it was, yeah, it was still a full house. There were people who were interviewed before saying that they want to be able to enjoy the music. They want to be able to separate it.

That is a very big narrative as well. So I think Ed Shearron will be fine. But I do appreciate the fact that people stood in what they believe. They left the tour. They either refused to go to the concert. They held him accountable. Like, we need more of that. This is the deal.

Does Ed Shearing have the records to get out of this? Because most people that get into this situation like this that we talk about, some of them have the records to get out of it. Some of them don't. Think about it. I'm not going to embarrass nobody, but there have been people, rappers that we liked and people that we liked that got in trouble. And then we was like, I don't know if you got the records to get out of this situation.

you don't really have. You ain't got them records yet. If you had the records, it would be different. Like, what was the y-h-lady? What was her? Oh, uh, she didn't have the records. No disrespect. Actually, bleep her name.

But I don't want to, I don't know what she's going through in life right now. I don't want to, like, just hit her. I saw she dropping in music. Hit her for no. Like, it's people that didn't have the records. Like, you don't have the records. Like, you don't have the records to get out of this. It's sharing you would think has the records,

but we'll see. Like if this happened to Harry Styles, Harry Styles was watermelon sugar his way right out this motherfucker. Harry Shiles was as it was, he would even be like going crazy. Other people they'd get out of it. I think Ed Shearing does too,

but it remains to be seen. All right, no press ever at the White House ever again is over, it's done. Trump said fuck you guys, J. President Donald Trump has barred CNN, MSN now, and political journalists from the White House

saying the outlets repeatedly published what he considers fake news. Trump announced the decision Friday and warned that additional news organizations could also be banned. On Saturday, CNN reporter Betsy Klein, MSN now correspondent Akela Gardner, and Politico reporter Cheyenne Haslett were denied entry to the White House. Their credentials were either deactivated or confiscated. All three organizations are pushing back saying they stand behind their reporting and called the restrictions in unconstitutional interference with journal. Now, since this, Rachel, it seems as if the press corps has bandied together in solidarity. Even Fox News. Even Fox News. And no one is going to, like, cover the president

and cover what's going on in the White. The whole pool is done. The pool's gone. The pool's gone. Ask your question about this. Does Trump care about that? Now, at a time where we need intense scrutiny of the president, is it a weight off his shoulders that the press isn't on his back? Did this backfire? Or was this the grand design? Well, I'm not saying that this is what Trump wanted,

but I'm saying he loves to be in front of the cameras, but at the same time, he likes to move with impunity. And the press, at least in theory, is supposed to act as a check imbalance against that impunity. Now, at least close to him, The reporting will be done, but there is no press.

Is this really a punishment to them to the administration? I think it is because I think that Trump is trying to get rid of. He says that he's doing this because the three outlets that he banned are reporting fake news, which we know fake news for him is unfavorable news. It's not that it's not true. It's just that he doesn't like what they're saying about him because it's not in his favor. So he banned them so he could have outlets there that. are actually going to either ask him softer questions, aren't going to call him out,

aren't going to bring up things that don't make Trump, that make Trump and his administration look a certain way, look a bad way. And specifically, we always know that, or at least, not always know, but these days, everything is tied to the midterms. So he doesn't want to be questioned about things that are going to impact how the midterms go. And so I think that it is absolutely a backfire against Trump that even conservative outlets are like, we're not going to be a part of this because what he wants is favorable news. It's not that he doesn't want any news. He wants the news to be good for him as we are winding down and getting to the midterms.

He doesn't want to be called out for the things that he's doing. Something else here. I don't know if you guys are paying attention, but Republicans are rebellion against Donald Trump. Now, this doesn't represent a principal change, but it does represent what they believe. is an ineffectual leader. There's blood in the water. It's so funny that the issues that people have been talking about

for the last two years did not move them, but diesel went up and they went, this is fucking too much. It's always the economy. How could this guy allow diesel to rise? That didn't happen, guys. I want everyone to know that they don't give a fuck about diesel rising.

They don't care about that. I'm going to tell you what happened. inside the bowels of the Republican media apparatus. There was dissemination. And the dissemination was go. It was go. And they rallied around an issue that they thought would be palatable to their side. But I can guarantee you right now, there is a coordinated effort on some parts of the establishment of the right to get off the Trump train.

and that is self-preservation. They didn't all come to the same idea at the same time. What happens inside of these places is people start to go, okay, I'm going to lose my race. Okay, my audience is cratering. There are people all over the place that are beholden to Americans in a specific way, either through the election or through listening to stuff. These people are looking for a way to get off this. and there's conversation and thoughts

that come from different places that go these are the issues that are acceptable to hit the president on and we're going to get off the Trump train as much as we can and we're going to get off the train in a way that if we really have to run behind it really fast after the midterms

if we really have to run behind it to catch it again you ever seen like one of those movies where somebody's trying to run and jump on the box car and somebody's sticking their hand out and shit like that that they can go back and get back on it again But for right now, if it looks like he's completely defamed after the midterms, then those people have to find a new bed to lay in.

And then they will do that. But not everybody came to the same fucking conclusion about diesel prices at the same time. There was talk. There was a grand conspiracy. And now, even Fox News, oh my God, is taking a stand against the president. He's weak. They see it. He's weak.

telling you, this happens a year ago. Fox News is the only fucking place in the building. Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, that political capital is kind of crumbling a little bit, and they see a way to kind of get off the train a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it also just, to the point of your first question, it's not favorable to Trump at all, period, even without them pulling out the pool of the pool, like a Fox News and these conservative outlets, it's, it just looks bad that again, first amendment rights are big for them. And I really think that when you're telling people they can't assert their First Amendment rights, that backfires, especially for independence. You think Fox News is principled on this?

Daddy. I think you have to make the argument that that's possible. I mean, I get that you, I mean, principled. I'm not saying I'm for. I know what you mean. I'm not saying I'm for Fox News, but I just think that for conservatives first, not think we know, First Amendment rights are a big deal to them. And it just looks really bad also right before the midterm. Conservatives stamp. Also, like, this is not going to pass in court. Like, this is, there's precedent for this,

whether it's an individual reporter or it's an outlet period. We've seen it very recently. AP News, Gulf of Mexico versus Gulf of America. Like, there's, like, he's not going to win on this. So that's also going to show that he's weak. conservatives don't like free speech they like their speech yes right so like they trample on free speech

all the time they do i'm not saying that they're not hypocrites in all the things we we can do it you can't do it but i'm just saying i think it's i think it's more than just diesel do you think it's more than just diesel I think it's more just diesel too I don't think that it's I don't think that it's I don't think that any issue has made them break from president

Trump. President Trump has been able to run his entire political career like a celebrity runs their career. We're talking about on today's show celebrities and how they run their careers. And this is some of the stuff that I learned from TMZ. And this is why, and I'll make an impassion plea to everyone, I am not asking for people to detach themselves from movies, video games, streams, music, sports.

I'm not asking anybody to attach themselves from that. You can't. It's part of the way that you remind yourself that there's more to life than just like your job and stuff. Like you watch somebody else do their job and you get inspired. Sometimes people can do amazing things.

And it's like, oh my God, I'm a human being. Look at this person, dance. Look at them sing. Look at them running, catch the ball. I watch people run and catch the ball. I'm like, wow, look, how? How could he do that? He runs and catches the ball.

Look at fucking McDarious run out there on the streets. McDarious Jenkins. He's going crazy. You know, that's how these names be. These names are going crazy. You know, like, you know that this is true. McDareas. These names, like, Shah Abraham.

Abraham is cool. The Shah Abraham Leophis. These names, the Key and Pills sketch is true. It's true. It's true. But shout out to the names, and Amy Key, whatever you want. Nothing's wrong with Shai Abraham. But what I'm saying is this.

is like detaching yourself from all of that stuff is impossible. We have to in some way detach ourselves from celebrity. Celebrity is killing us. Celebrity is killing us. What Donald Trump has done is fundamentally changed politics forever. It's not him by himself. there's always been politicians who were celebrities. Obama was a big celebrity.

JFK was a big celebrity. To a degree Clinton, like any Reagan. Reagan, yeah. But what I'm telling you right now is the way Trump has changed it is fundamental. Celebrities exist only in the realm of PR. Only in PR. Public relations is all that matters. It's only perception.

Like legitimately. every once in a while you get to be democratic about a celebrity, meaning you vote when the movie comes out. Like the movie comes out or this motherfucker has been bad in his last four movies. I don't go see this one, right? This motherfucker has been bad on his last five records, her last five records. I don't listen to this one, right? You get to be democratic about it.

But what's happened with celebrity now with the advent of the internet, It's become a little bit more ever-present. There are people right now that, like, you haven't liked a movie of theirs in a very long time, but you like them on social media. You like their liquor. You like when they pop up on somebody else's thing. You just like the idea of them. You don't even like the thing that they do as much as you like the celebrity of them.

You like the presence of them. Think about it. There's a bunch of people. I'm not going to name them that you haven't seen them in anything that you really, fuck with in a long time. But you still get happy when you see them because they're good in an interview, they're good on social media, you like some of the other stuff that they do. You just like that they're around celebrities that you actually like. You like the fact that it's two people. And that is, there is a multi-billion dollar industry dedicated to generating that type

of affinity for someone. And there are a whole bunch of decisions that have to be made. No one in modern American politics has understood that like Donald Trump. Nobody has. No one. The MAGA playbook has weaponized the ability to just always be in your face to make you talk like they talk, to make you say fake news, to make you say whatever other Trumpism is out there, right? They've mastered that. and across the board,

if we do not find a way to pull back from the soothing nature of celebrity, everybody else is going to jump on the same train. The Democrats will be looking not for their next political leader, the next person that actually does something, they'll be looking for their next celebrity.

Yeah, yeah. And I'm not saying star power has not always been a part of this. I'm not saying that. But it is one thing for the constitutional law professor who has been a community organizer or the Rhodes Scholar who has been all around learning politics or the people that devoted their entire life to this is one thing for those people to become stars. It's another thing for it to work the other way around for a star then to get into this because then they run the whole thing like a fucking celebrity. Put the name of everything, building arches everywhere, all of this stuff, just making shit fake pretty, which is what celebrity really is.

And so we're going to have to hold ourselves accountable in this regard a little bit more. But his star might actually be fading a little bit. I think it is fading. I mean, he isn't his lame duck air. I think, but I also think it's just fading. Yeah. Do you think that there's a possibility that things get super desperate? by Trump if he loses.

What will be the hell marry? If the Republicans lose the midterms, House and Senate, there's going to be a pretty fucked up hell Mary here. Oh, yeah, there is. What will be that hell Mary? I don't know what it would be. The hell Mary could come before the elections

in some way to, like, not make it happen. Okay. Is that the hell Mary? This motherfucker got me going crazy. I'm not going to lie, guys. We see your legs. I see your leg. Legs are wiggling.

You are diggling. just like I don't, I, like, let me ask you this, between the shrooms, coffee, and actual medication. Like, let's rank them, one, two, three. One being the one that gets you like the most

jittery. That's the greatest. Three is the least. Which mean? Between the shrooms, the coffee, and actual medication. The shrews, so he is. So least to most, jittery.

So, that leg. has not stopped. You've been doing the stanky leg for the last five minutes. So here's the thing. Here's what I'll say. So I can't do the shrooms no more because for some reason

when I take shrooms in a day I can't fall asleep at night. That's weird. When I take shrooms in a day, I do this thing where when I'm trying to fall asleep and it's very scary. Oh, you see things?

Not. No, but now I'm going to see him because you just brought it up. Now I'm going to see stuff. You just called that on me. Like, I don't want that. I've rebut that. I've rebute that.

I'll rebut that. So, so, the shrooms this thing happens to me. I don't know if this happens to other people to where when I'm trying to fall asleep I get this like, when my body starts calming down and then get this shot of anxiety

and then I wait back up and I'm like, fuck. As soon as you start, what's happening? What's happening? What's happening? You also take too many. And then I have to listen to Greek mythology videos. The Greek mythology videos like overcome it. Hmm. Yeah. The fear. Or just they make you sleep.

The Greek The morphology videos just work for me. Okay. The 12 labors of Heracles. Rank them. So the greatest one then is the 12 labors? No. Because I would say it was the hydra.

Focus. The million lions. So I'm going to do it for you. Okay. So this is the jittery. So number one, the most jittery is by far. It's got to be the coffee. No, no, no, no, no.

By far the most jittery. Oh, no, actually it is the coffee. Coffee's number one jittery. Number two, just having me wired was Vivance. Vivance had a nigga in his sweating. That's so weird. Man, I would take ViVis. It's different things for different people.

Yeah, because I'm on it, and I'm like this. I took Vivance one time, and the mailman came over and was dropping off the mail. I was on ViVans. And I looked at the mailman, and I was like, are you really afraid of dogs? What milligram were you on? And he was like, what? What do you mean, sir? I'm like, well, there's this.

commonly held belief and notion that mailmen are afraid of dogs. Are you afraid of dogs? Do dogs bark at you? They'd come at you? Dogs. And he was like, he started laughing. I was like, I got a dog. Stay right here. And so then I went inside and I got Bowman. And I came back out. I'm like, look, I'm trying to take away you're afraid of dogs. Mr. Melman. You're afraid of dogs. And he was laughing and playing with Bowman. And he goes,

hey, aren't you the guy? I was like, focus. You, dog, treaty. And now me and him became cool. He comes, you know what he lets me do? So the mailman is not supposed to let you take the mail before he closes the mailbox. Interesting. Let's me do it. Oh, wow.

Wow. Look at you. I can come out there and just when he puts the mail in. Next thing you know, he's going to leave the bag for you to deliver it. I just do the mail myself. I like it. I like mail people. I don't think anybody dislikes them.

They are so determined. That's their job. I know, but, like, think about that. Like, they got to deliver the mail to everybody. They're real-life Santa Claus's. Yeah. Think about it. Like, a male person is an actual Santa Claus.

Like, they- For some people. Sometimes it's a bill. Sometimes, because I have male anxiety. What's the male anxiety? Like, I will not. Oh, I know you have male anxiety because these niggas ain't shit. Oh, no.

Oh, okay. But I have, I will wait, like, a month before I go open my mailbox. I do this. Because you know why? Because when you go to the mailbox and there's no mail, that's a letdown, man. You put your hand in there, the empty mailbox? It's a letdown. It's when there's too much.

I'm like, what is this going to be? Then why would you check it once a month? Because I don't, I'm avoiding it. I don't want to see, because it could be property taxes. It could be. This is the type of shit that I'm talking about. There's too much mail. It's like, it's, it's exact.

I'm like, is there going to be something? Yeah. Came out of nowhere. I literally had that just how. happened to me. I'm like, why am I paying this? I thought insurance covered this. Yes. It's like the same thing as people avoiding checking their bank account. A lot of people I never check out. Man, back in the day, back in the day, I used to never look at my shit. See? You up there at the thing, but it's stupid though. You up

there at the thing paying. I remember I went to La Paz Liquor on Magnolia in Burbank. I had my debit card. I got a bag of chips. and some soda. Gave him the car, fucking roller coaster. Can I afford this? What's the question? Magnolia and Burbank

run parallel to each other? No, it's in Burbank. Magnolia in Burbank. See, he's trying to fuck over here. What's my neighborhood? Magnolia in Burbank. Shout out to Capricorn programs. I go over there, me and Jeff and Paul

we're going in there and they buy and shit. They got the money. I just got out here. I don't know if it's going to be there. And then, you know what I realized? That I didn't have the money in the account that I was able to charge it but it still counted as an overdraft.

Union Bank. Shout out to Union Bank for fucking me. It's still charged. They charge it as an overdraft fee. Anyway, but you let the mail accrue, and then you're afraid of too much mail, but then you do the thing that insurers. It's not afraid of too much mail.

I'm just afraid of mail. That's why I let it, like, I'll just avoid it. It's like, I'm like, oh, well, now it's spewing out of the box. I got to open it. God. You're afraid of mail. because now it's spewing out of the box. It's crazy.

That's crazy. Can we grow up? It's like, that's nuts. You said it. Yes. And I said it and you took it to whatever. You and Bernard are 10 years old. Hold on, wait a second.

But like literally, I'm going to let the people make their own decision. That's a clip. Now I even think about that. Like, I'll say things and I'm like, oh, thank God, Vans not here. because he'll take it to another level. It's not another level. It's the level you started. Mail spewing out of the box

should be a normal term for me to use. That's literally what it was doing. Spewing out of the box, falling out of the box. The box can't handle it because it's too much mail. You need to write a amount of mail for the box to be able to handle it because a lot of people think because either it's not enough mail or it's too much mail

because the box is only a certain size. So if it's too much mail, It could also be, but then some people would say that the box will adjust to the size of the mail. That you can adjust to too much mail, but too little mail is nothing you could do about it. God makes those decisions, though. All right. It's the coffee man. I apologize.

Once again, I said I'm sorry. Let's talk about people we know now. Okay. Now it's time. This is part of the podcast where we talk about people we know. Go ahead. Progressive Twitch streamer and political commentator Hassan Piker joined Simone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels on MS Now's Clocket for a wide-ranging and at-time's heated interview

about his growing influence in progressive politics ahead of the 26 midterms. The host said they invited Piker because despite disagreeing with many of his statements, his large following makes him increasingly relevant in the political sphere. Let's take a look at what they had to say. I used to work campaigns aside and I have to tell you, if I was a strategist or a consultant or, you know, the political director on one of these campaigns, I would ask you. absolutely be telling my people to disavow you because, depending on where we are, I really would because

we want to win. We want to win. And so like, if you're not going to help people win, that's the disagreement we have. I've elected people, though, and you've never elected anybody. I know, you're right. You're absolutely right, but here's the thing. I'm not expecting these people to hug and kiss me or even

defend me visiferously. I'm expecting them to tackle the form, tackle the framework, to expose the hypocrisy. Now, the hypocrisy is not going to work for MAGA. They're a cult. We know that. But there are plenty of people in the broad coalition that we have designed, the anti-Trump coalition,

that will go, oh, my God, finally someone is addressing the fact that they are holding a Twitch streamer, a rabble rouser, to a higher standard than the president of the United States of America. This is so insincere. You watched the whole interview. We talked yesterday while you were watching it. I hit Rachel's like, what's I do with you? It's like I'm watching the interview. I was like, oh, you're chilling?

Rachel's like, yeah, I just spark one up. I did not say that. She didn't spark one up, Judge. What did you think, though? What'd you think? I guess I'm really trying to understand what, for what they said, and Jay just read it, why they wanted him to come on the podcast

versus how they handled the interview. I think, I'm like, well, why were we doing this? because it felt like, especially towards the end, rather than it being an interviewer or a conversation, and obviously, you know, Simone said it, we agree on some things, we disagree on a lot of things. Instead of having that conversation within the political landscape, it felt like it was, they were parents reprimending a child. And you guys, you should listen to the whole thing, but this is more towards the end. It felt like they were trying to convince him that he needed to tone things. down in order to get politicians to win. That is exactly what they were doing. And I talked to Simone before we came in here, and she said to me, not in those exact words, but that was the point of the conversation.

And I like, we've had Simone and Eugene on the show, I don't think that that's good journalism. I just don't think that the goal should be, because now you're no different from what we're seeing a lot of the establishment do. And I understand there are a part of like a they're at MS now like it's a it's it's it's a corporation it is more of the establishment than of course hasan piker but i think the conversation could have been a lot more rich if

you know you focused on his goal isn't necessarily to get people to win it's not about being political to push certain politicians to win it's about speaking what he believes to be power to truth and it's about exposing hypocrisy it's about combat the establishment, a system that we have, that has held us captive for so long, and we've been held to these certain ideals that have been passed down from generation to generation to party to party. We aligned ourselves with specific parties just because it was maybe what our community does, what our race does, what our parents did, our grandparents did, and kind of breaking

free of that and really voting and believing on things that actually will help you at the end of the day. And I think it would have been beneficial to, instead of kind of reiterating some of these stereotypes that exist with Hassan Piker, it's having that conversation of what motivates him to speak in the way that he speaks to and why so many people are now using his name, why he is a threat to the establishment on both sides of the political landscape. I think the conversation could have been so much better with that rather than saying, you know, at one point Simone says in it, if I was still consulting, I would tell people, I would tell my candidate to denounce you. That is not good. That is actually totally against, I don't want to say this, because I'm really trying to be,

I'm not trying to speak to about them as people. It's just the way that the interview was conducted as a whole. I just feel like that is such a bad way to handle this conversation. Your message is basically, well, we just, we don't really care. We just got to get a Democrat there. Well, where has that, look at where we are so far. And Hassan kind of pushes back on this to that, like that thinking, line of thinking, has gotten us Trump twice. Like that can't be what we do.

We actually need to listen to what people want. We actually need to see how people are impacted by some of these policies and these issues. And we need to remove people and ideologies that combat against that. We need to stop voting specifically to get the party in and focus on the policy and the people who are going to be implementing the policies that work for the people. That, why should we be fighting against that? And I just, I was really shocked when that line of conversation happened and she said, I would tell them to disavowalue. That's a powerful thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what narrative are you pushing in this interview? That, to me, was like the thesis of the interview. No, that was, but no, she was very forthcoming about the fact that that was the point of the issue. The point of the issue from what Simone said from the clock at perspective was whether or not Hassan Piker, now that he is campaigning and stumping alongside candidates should tone down his rhetoric to help those candidates win. That was the point of the conversation. That's all that they wanted to talk about. They did not want to talk about specific policy.

They didn't want to talk about the framework, the worldview of Hassan Piker. They wanted to talk about whether or not now that he has engaged in direct, not surrogacy, but almost like going to rallies, campaigning with Syed and people like that, whether or not he should tone it down and watch what he says because they will use him as a target. Now, I think the problem that I had with the conversation, that most people had with the conversation is what you just laid out, which is that like, I just don't think that very many people believe in that. I think that their backgrounds would have them look at it through that lens. What she told me, she says, I am trying to

gain power. And the way to gain power is to win elections. I completely understand that. I think what people are more interested in, though, right now is who actually has that power because it seems as if in the past we want some elections. And the material changes from winning those elections hasn't come. I'm not going to say that there hasn't been any change or there hasn't been any policy. But the things that people are going through right now and what they want their lives to reflect in America has to be more about and centered in politicians and political thought that like you said, challenges are commonly held beliefs.

I think a lot of people feel that way. So they don't want to talk about how you talk about the thing. They want to talk about the thing. One thing that we have learned in the last 10 years is that a brutal lie beats a polite truth. The brutality of a lie can defeat a truth told too politely, too quietly, too quietly, too meekly. And so now what people want is that truth? or the other side of that issue to be told brutally for someone to stand up and say, these people are fucking you and here's why.

And not always nicely and not always in a way that doesn't combat people. And sometimes honestly, in a way that makes people uncomfortable. And I think that whether you like or hate Hassan, whether you think he's getting too much credit for this type of talk, when there have been people who have put their careers on the line for this for a very long time, I think people look at that and go, well, if we're in a situation that we are right now, why are we telling him how to talk? Like, why are we looking at it that way? I brought up on the phone too, I'll bring it up to you guys now.

We had a great conversation, by the way. I think everybody has different jobs, and we are litigating and negotiating which parts of this we agree with and which parts of this we don't agree with. There's a way to disagree with the tenor of the interview that happened on Clocket, that is in community and love and respect. And there's a way to be a fucking asshole about it. choose your own adventure. I would say this, though, this has never worked. In 2011, Bill O'Reilly and Fox News criticized Obama for having what they called a very dangerous rapper to the White House. It got to a point to where Bill O'Reilly and John Stewart on the O'Reilly factor actually debated

why President Obama would invite this dangerous, heinous rapper to the White House. Do you guys remember who that rapper was? You are saying that he is celebrating a cop killer or promoting cop killing. No, I'm not saying he's promoting cop killing. Well, people on your network are.

Let's just speak to me. All right. I'm talking to you. Celebrating, celebrating a cop killer, yes. Okay. Here's the only distinction. I would make there, and I can't speak for him. What I think he's doing is

not celebrating but honoring someone he thinks was wrongly convicted of cop killing. It was fucking common. Never would have guessed that one. It was common. Fox News

and the O'Reilly show went on a whole run because Obama invited common to the White House and common thinks that Asada Shakur is innocent. They went on a whole deal to the point to where he debated it with John Stewart. And John Stewart had to point out the hypocrisy.

I would love for you guys to go back and watch if you can stomach it. The debate on the O'Reilly factor between John Stewart and Bill O'Reilly, where they talk about Leonard Peltier, when they talk about like a couple of different people that have been invited to other White Houses and stuff like that.

But this was the guy that they used. My point in bringing that up is there will always be somebody, to Hassan's point, that the right, especially the MAGA right, positions next to you as an example of how immoral you are. And if it's not a person, it'll be a book. And if it's not a book, it'll be a thought theory.

It'll be CRT. If it's not any of those, things, this same president stood on a stage a couple of weeks ago and demonized people that are in favor of reparations. They will not run on what has happened or what they are doing or what they believe they're always going to run on you. And whoever that you is, they will serve as that. Right now, it's Hassan. Hassan, by his own admission, has said some things in the past that were fucking too much or that he didn't think about the way those things would land.

Get it, got it, good, all of that stuff. But to me, when I look at the grander scope, I would rather have conversations directly about policy, directly about what affect people, directly about challenging the political safe rooms that we live in, rather than talk about how we talk about them, I am not political strategy, it's never been one. I'm not saying that we don't have to win elections.

I'm saying that talking about how scary boogeyman are is never going to be the thing that moves me just because common is not a scary boogeyman. That's a put the guns down. That's a get knowledge of self. I mean, his name was common sense. That's a nice boy that grew up in a place in Chicago where he saw a lot of carnage

and is trying to change people. The moment that they do stuff like that, I go unsirious, I'm not hearing none of it. I guess this is what I don't understand. If that was the purpose and the intent of the interview, why bring him on? Because I feel like then that does more damage than it does good.

I mean, you have conservative outlets using their interview in their favor. And I don't understand how you didn't anticipate that, specifically if that's where you wanted the conversation to go. Within the interview, you say 60% of voters don't even know Hassan Piker. Well, guess what? That probably went up more with your interview. You know, you talk about how you would have your candidate disavow him.

You would advise against him. But then you're giving him a platform. I just don't understand why you would want to platform him, because now you're helping out the right who's using him as an enemy, but also splitting the Democrats who you're saying that he's supporting certain candidates, but his presence with them is problematic. But then you also have the establishment who's also saying that he's problematic. So your interview isn't helping certain candidates either. Like you're calling him out and making him to use your words, the boogeyman again.

I do not understand why they did this interview. I think it actually put more harm to candidates than it necessarily. than maybe that they were trying to do. Because the right is using their interview now as well. Like even these MSN now hosts have a problem with Hassan Piker. Even they're condemning some of the ways that he's moving and his rhetoric and the ways that, you know, past things that he said. It's problematic.

So I push back on you. I push back. Go ahead. A push. Because I don't think that we can conduct our interviews or, you know, talk necessarily concerned with the way it'll be weaponized in bad faith by people. I'm going off of what their purpose was. I get it.

So I don't think that that's not a purpose to me that at this point holds very much merit. Like it so I'll just, same thing I said on the phone. There'll be no surprises here. I do think though that, man, are we going to learn at some point to be, um, uh, to be graceful in our criticism. And I get it. I understand, guys. I know what everybody is going through

and how everybody feels. I know what the internet is. But this is the only reason why I always stress community. And I do have the opportunity to be able to pick up the phone and call some of these people in these situations and have this conversation in a different way. I am also not tone policing people. But I am saying that just for the sake of us,

like I've gotten out of group chats. that make me reactive. I've gotten off of Twitter. I'm learning about threads right now. I've tried to become less reactive and more committed to legitimately having conversations and unpacking these things in a way that to me doesn't cast somebody

as the villain all at the time. And so I'm just saying in that regard, everybody's people, and you talk about people, just think about the things that you're saying. However, the criticism of this interview as I said on the phone and I'll say to the audience now I completely agree with because I do not think right now that having a conversation about how you say something if the thing that you are saying is not like hateful or singling out one group not saying that he hasn't said things in the past that even he would say were past the limit but a lot of the things that he says now to me even the stuff. that people would say is incendiary.

I think the only reason why it's really incendiary is because it challenges a commonly held framework of good and bad that we've been taught for a long time, the good guys and the bad guys, that him and a lot of other people kind of now refuse to accept. So saying certain things out loud, it feels like, oh, my God, I can't believe that you said that. But at the same time, people are looking around and going, like, what's over? wrong about that. And so to me, this was an interview between consultants, political strategists, people who, this is their entire job, and someone who they think might be not trying to do that,

but tangential to that purpose because you're on stage with a candidate. And they're saying, do you know how to do this? And I think everybody else is going, number one, that's not what he's trying to do. And number two, we like what he's doing. Yeah, yeah. My criticism isn't personal. My criticism is trying to understand if the goal is to win, as Simone said, I want to win. When you say words like disavow and the way that I feel like the latter part of that interview went, it felt like infighting within the left. And so to me, and so it felt like it wasn't not necessarily saying they were trying to unify, but it felt like it was furthering the split. And if the goal, goal is to win, I didn't feel like that that was accomplished by the interview. I didn't feel like it's one thing for you to say, you know, you're staying next to these candidates. There are people who see your presence with this person and it works against them. I get that. I think that's actually a fair question for him to answer. But as far as like the overall theme, I think it looks like

infighting. And I actually think it worked against trying to, I guess, bring the party together. Well, at best, it looks like infighting at worst, the way people Reddit was that Clock it in some way was doing a hit job on him for a mainstream media a corporation like MS now or like CNN or anyone else that has a very defined set of political principles that it's not just which I don't believe this to be true but it's not just them, but wherever he goes, even by some of the quote-unquote left-leaning political entities, he's asked these questions. And not necessarily him, but the candidates are asked these questions. You distance yourself from Hassan Piker, as if they are saying that Hassan Piker's set of values,

his values, the way he looks at the world, not even the things that he says, but the way that he looks at the world, those values don't fit in polite society. And I just think a lot of people are challenging that assumption. I do too. Now, they were like saying, hey, can you win? Should you tone it down? You're on stage. You don't want to win.

It's one thing that Simone said to him during a conversation. And she said, do you want to win or do you want to be right? This is the crux of this conversation to me. Because what I believe is we will win if we are right. And being right means calling out the inconsistencies and the inequalities of this system in a way that is brave and bold and changing the political calculus for the average American and what they think that they should be getting from politics and what they think that they should be getting from a politician. Voting for the nicest, most popular person

who's going to get in there and tell you how hard they fought for something and the fact that it didn't work out is not going to be the thing. You see the Democratic base on issues like Israel, on issues like Medicare for all, moving left away from the center of the party. And the center of the party sometimes feels like they're trying to hold on to the antiquated version of what it means to be an American Democrat. And the question is whether or not

they will listen to the people that are saying this is what we need or whether or not they'll fight for their own power within themselves and try to meld everyone into speaking and acting in the way that they talk. I'm going to be honest with you, though. In speaking to her, she said this is what I wanted to talk about. And this is what I have done for my entire career, which has helped people win elections.

Everybody has different jobs. Any like, all these people are bought and paid by this and stuff like that. Come on, man. Let's have the conversation and then out here in the marketplace of ideas, let people identify what resonates with them the most. You know, so for me, I thought what happened on Clocket, that to me, I knew that people would be pissed off about that. I'm like, why are we doing this?

But that's what they wanted to do, and that's the way they looked at it. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what they believe. They conducted the interview the way that they wanted to. Yeah. And the way that they wanted and what they believed. I just think people are litigating their beliefs and what they think is effective.

All right. second phone call that I've made Shaquille O'Neal has added another title to his resume Honorary FBI Special Agent as FBI Director Cash Patel presented the NBA Hall of Famer

with the distinction Thursday at the FBI National Academy's session 299 graduation in Quantico, Virginia. Shaq was recognized alongside 265 law enforcement officials from across the country with Patel calling him one of the country's strongest supporters of law

enforcement and presenting him with a commemorative badge and plaque. Thoughts? You have the phone call. No, let's talk to you. You know what's funny. You know, it's funny. You know, okay. You have the phone call.

So let's just, let's do the thing where we talk about the issue. Okay, that's what we do here on higher learning, when we talk about the issues. All right, let's do the thing where we discuss the issues. Okay, we talk about the issues. So who was the brother that called out Shaq? Was the name of the creator. I want to make sure that we say. his name.

Do you have his name? Tough. Tough that that wouldn't be in there. Bernard, learn. The video's in there. All right. Play the video. Play the video.

Play the video of the brother Colin Hachak. Dr. Shaquale O'Neill says, I hear you broke boy. Have a great time in your apartment with your family. Well, let's get one thing straight. I ain't your fucking boy, nigger.

I'm a whole ass man out here. So let's get that shit straight, my nigga. I ain't your fucking boy, partner. I was just a nigger who supported your ass with your whack-ass fucking movie Blue Chips. Your whack-ass Shaq-Fu Kung Fu game. Your bummy-ass sneakers. Your low free-throw percentage. Your inability to have a fucking conversation without sounding like,

how is it? I was just a nigga who is a fan of you. You know what I'm saying? But clearly my video has reached out to Shaquale O'Neill. and a person who makes sneakers for low-income families and shit is just spewing classism in my motherfucker inbox, nigga. So that response by OG Big Matt to that DM is totally warranted. That DM from Shaq, in my opinion, is totally fucking disgusting.

Of course. Told them as much. Totally disgusting. It leverages his station against that man. It leverages his money, his accomplishments. And then he says that he doesn't allow to have an opinion on the way that he views the world because he lives in an apartment or whatever. Okay. Or because he doesn't have money.

Because he doesn't have money. Which is. Keep trying to tell you. Well, like once again, guys, we get back to what attaining in America. allows you to do what it entitles you to. Because the reality is we see this all across the board. Shut up, broke boy. Shut up, broke ass.

Shut up, broke. You haven't done this. You haven't done that. How could you possibly have an opinion about what it is that I do when I've made so much more money than you? And we have to break ourselves from that. We have to break ourselves from that from thinking that that is something that entitles you

to having some kind of different. latitude to speak. Anyway. Okay. So the back and forward between them is one thing and how Shaq handled this. Do you want to discuss that or do you want to discuss Shaq going to the FBI in the first place? I mean, you pretty much laid it out. Let's talk about Shaq going to the FBI because I think that that one sentence that Shaq sent that man says a lot about Shaq. and even if it's I mean you had the conversation I don't know maybe he's just

is going to say he was trying to be funny maybe he just like wrote it like wasn't putting too much thought into it but like I couldn't imagine myself saying that to somebody and it's just like it's very elitist and I think it speaks to what like rather than it's not even just being an elitist as somebody who has more

money or power or fame than you just like a black man saying that to another black person Like it's just, it's, there's so much in that one sentence that's wrong. Right. And I really hope that, well, I know he didn't get it. He was responded with some kind of video. I didn't even watch it.

AI video or raps. Yeah, like it's, it's, he's very disconnected. Yeah. So this is why I'll say, about the other part. This is why I say to all of that. So I want everybody to know that like, as black people, community is a choice. Mm-hmm.

Culture is a choice. and it becomes more of a choice the higher you move up the ladder because America will tell you that you don't have to be in community anymore. You're different. Different. You're one of the special ones.

You're not one of them. You don't have to be in community anymore. You get to be away from it. You get to dictate how it goes. So you have that, which is just based upon American attainment. Then you have it based upon a lot of the way that these athletes

and some of the people that are rappers and stuff like that, luminaries go. is that since you're 17, somebody's always criticizing you about something, right? You're always getting criticized. Because you're always getting criticized, all the criticism sounds the same. So somebody's saying you can't make free throws,

you fat, you out of shape, somebody's saying all of this stuff, and then you get back at the reporters and everybody likes it. Everybody goes, hey, man, Shaq came back out, and he got right at the reporter. Well, this athlete comes out,

Kevin Durant came out, and we're right at the reporter. He's defending the, way he plays or even saying stuff like you shouldn't be critiquing this game because you never played it pulling that type of rank you get in the habit of doing that. Then you do it to somebody

that's not criticizing your play. That's not criticizing something that you've done in your career or a movie or a shoe or anything like that. They're criticizing something that you've done that they feel like puts them in harm's way or legitimizes something that's disgusting to them.

But your response is in the same energy as it has been this other entire time. That's not an excuse. What that is is an opportunity in these times to really explain what the difference is. And I'll say this to more than Shaq, to anybody else. So Shaq has been fucking with law enforcement for a long time, so part of his personality. I know people that have called this out for a very, very long time. But for the most part, it's like, fuck it. Nobody really cares.

This is different. This is different. And the reason why it's different is because this group of people is different. This is the example I'll give because what you're going to hear and what all of the brothers that have actually done ancestors that have actually done this stuff will say is, look how much work I've done in the black community, look how I've supported the black community, look at all the things that I've done in the black community. Anytime somebody kind of gets in trouble for being too close for the Trump administration, this is what we hear and I get it. I get it because look at me. I've shown over a course of decades that even though I don't have to be, I'm into these causes.

I want to help. I have an analogy for that. Okay. You ready? Let's imagine that you are a father. I'm just going to use father in this situation. And you have a family and you are the best father ever. You go above and beyond in fatherhood.

You are at every t-ball game. You're at every recital. Every single bill is paid, but it's not just money. It's love. It's connection. You are there for your kids. You are emotionally regulated. You are a good husband.

You do everything right for years and years and years and years and years. The best dad, the best leader. You look out for their friends. And they have a safe place to come into, right? then one day after these years of being this great guy and this great figure people break into the house they break into the house and the lives of your family are on the line it is a flashpoint moment where your family is looking to you as somebody that they've looked up to and invested into and someone who has done the same with them they're

looking at you to protect them. And you run in the other room and lock the door and leave them out there with these people that are trying to kill them. Or let's say that you don't do that. Let's say that these people are outside the door banging on the door trying to get into your house and your family and you let them in. How do you think the people in that house are going to feel? about you despite everything that you've done for as long as you've done it.

At the moment that their lives are in danger, at the moment that they feel like a threat is existential to them, you, despite everything that you've done in the past to show how much you love and care for them, cannot meet the moment of protection. Do you think that those people have the right to go, man, I appreciate everything that you've done, but I need you now right now more than I've ever needed you before? do you think those people have the right to say that? You know what the answer is? It doesn't matter whether or not you think they have the right to say that

because they're going to say it. And so for every single black celebrity or luminary that we've had community with and loved and been insompaecco with for a long time, I'm telling you, even though it might not feel like it to y'all, even though it might not feel like it to y'all, because y'all can't tell the difference between the boat you was on last week and the boat you was on for.

years ago or 10 years ago or 15 years ago for a lot of people out there is different to them. They are being inundated with information and images about how a group of people are assaulting them. It's 600 black people out of the workforce, 400,000 black women, right? There's all kinds of numbers and metrics about how this is a specific threat to them and they just want to see you guys say no. They want to see you close that door. They want to see you rally around that family and close ranks.

They want to know that when something is trying to get them, that you, even if you won't go out there with your sword and kill them all, will at least lock the door so they can't get in. That is where this disappointment and really this hurt comes from. And honestly, we should have to keep explaining this. this is different and so if you want to treat this the same way you treated somebody writing a bad article about

a game seven that you had, go for it but people will remember this I'm not saying you have to live your life by what they will say but I want people to understand the gravity of the situation that people find themselves in. Well the statement that he made to OG

Big Matt and him standing there with Cash Patel accepting this honorary FBI agent award or whatever it was, I don't know if it's forever for a day, they go hand in hand. How dismissive he was to somebody who was disappointed. And then the way that he critiqued him to show that basically, I'm better than you,

so you need to be quiet, is a privilege that exists with certain celebrities who reach certain status. And I will say black people, because we're talking about our community, where they just are so disconnected, they just don't care. Shack's statement to that guy, he didn't care. I don't care what you think. It was dismissive.

I don't care how you feel as a black man or a part of the black community. You broke. You live in an apartment. When he stood up there next to Cash Patel, that's the exact same energy. You can be as apolitical as you want, which Shack has been political and then hasn't been political. And I would say he's pulled back more so over the years. He said complimentary things in the past about Donald Trump. He's actually done stuff with Biden and endorsed, I believe, a Democrat in Florida at one point.

But he's since pulled back. But you standing up there next to Cash Patel, one, we don't even have to talk about the history of the FBI with the black community. One, just who Cash Patel is and what he represents and how he is using this agency as a political weapon to be a part of, quote, Donald Trump's army. That's that in itself. somebody who is highly unqualified to even have this position and is only there because he bends the need to Trump and is using it in favor of things that Trump wants to do. But even recently, how the FBI has pulled back on like the Southern Poverty Law Center and that is something that they use statistics for to determine where hate crimes are without like have a whole map on it. He's pulled back on that to try to say that that was problematic or that was political or that was something that was against Trump. That's happened under this current administration.

That's the FBI. That's Cash Patel and that's something that directly impacts the black community. Then you just have Cash Patel being problematic. Then you have him being a part of the Trump administration that's even more problematic to the community. And you are dismissive of all of that and decide to take a picture, hold a plaque and stand next to a person, an administration, an organization, an agency that represents all of that that is in direct conflict. conflict with your community and your response is

broke boy go back to your apartment. That's shot. I just, I tell y'all something. I'll tell y'all something. Just once again, it is very important. It is very important

for black luminaries, liminearies period, to do things for the community. It is going to sound weird because these people do so much and it's so important but I have to say this it doesn't buy you anything like you're not I use the analogy of a family with children earlier or with people in the children because this is paternalistic this is the belief that if you do a scholarship that you should not that that shields you to

criticism. I want to make sure that everyone understands the challenge that's coming right here. And it's, look, there's a million things that could be said in response to this. Well, how much do you do? Show me what you do. Show me where you are. Fair. Fair. If you guys, if it's, if it's stack collecting, cool, fair. Fair. Not everybody has a million dollars, six million dollars to do. Fair. If it's stack collecting, fair. I'm just saying, how much can you love and care about a community if they are not allowed to exist in not just critique, but concern for what it is that you're doing? The question is, why are you doing it? Are you doing it because you're people's daddy? Whomever this would be? Or are you doing it because you want to see

their lives improved? Because if you want to see their lives improved, then you will listen to them about things that they think can and should improve their lives. And everybody has a day coming where you've done the thing wrong and you need to listen and reassess who and what you are. It's happened to me. It's happened to everyone. Everybody has an opinion. Sometimes those opinions are insanely useful for you to reassess how you move in said spaces.

The mic jumped up and hit me. but then sometimes you got to go, you know, these motherfuckers, they just want a pint of blood today. In this situation, I was and remained disappointed in somebody that I've known for a very long time, know him, no members of his family. And I hope, I hope, just like I hoped on that phone call that I talked to him for a very long time. Just I hoped on that phone call that he will understand what the crux of the criticism is here. and why this is not something that you can just shovel off by saying, bro, boy, you're not shak. Did you talk to him before or after the AI video?

After. Okay, good. Yeah, so it was after the AI video. Okay. Because, you know, I want to exist with people and hope that they get why people are doing the things. There's plenty of things on the Internet that we have to ignore. But criticism over this image of him being there with him is not one of. and just bad timing.

This is like, you know, this is a week after the dog thing. I know. I know. I thought about it too. So I'm surprised that Peter didn't have anything to say to Shaq. You know what I'm saying? Cash Patel. I don't know if Shaq even knows.

Cash Patel said he took the BCality. You're allowed to do BCality as an FBI agent. You're allowed to do it. What a profound thing. Hey, what was the BCality meeting like? We talked about. We talked about. No, no.

Got to go back to it. I hung out with Bolshe went out with Bolshe and all day yesterday. You can't have votes. What was the BCality meeting like? What was it like? So I want to know what happened in the meeting where they were figuring out, hey, man, we have to really,

we have to really do something to attract new recruits. We need the best and the brightest out there. We need people who we know are on the hunt for all the bad people. And Cash went, get rid of BCality. That'll open the doors.

Get rid of BCiality. Get rid of BCiality. Get more candidates. as something that we exclude people for. If we just let in the dog fuckers and the cat lickers, then we will have a crop of people to choose from. And everybody went, cat, you're fucking with me, right?

He's like, no, no. Have you ever seen a dog what a dog looks like when it just hops out of a pool and it shakes real quick in the water? Come on, let's go. You show it out. This last story is for you. I see a sex story, I say, especially in politics, an alleged, an alleged story.

This is alleged? Yeah, like, well, Jade, go ahead. Representative Lauren Bobert is denying allegations that she had sexual relationships with three current or former staffers, claims made in an ethics complaint filed with the House Committee on Ethics on September 17th. The complaint filed by David Wheeler of the political group American Moines. Muck Rikers, names former district director Clarice Navarro, Ratzlaff, District Chief of Staff Raven Feigen, and former chief of staff, Jeffrey Small. Weiler cites anonymous sources as the allegations have not been independently substantiated. Okay, so it's very important that we say that

this is allegations. Yeah, alleged, ledge, ledge, so all of this is alleged. Now, it was also allege that she gave somebody a hand job in a Beetlejuice play. So that was a handy J in Beetlejuice. Now let me tell you what the issue. Let's say that like she had gone to like,

I don't know. Let's say she had gone to Jason's lyric to play. Okay? You guys ever seen Jason's lyric before? Yes. You've seen it. Have y'all seen Jason's lyric? No. They're young. I don't give a fuck about none of that.

So y'all have never seen Jason's lyric before. No. Have you heard of it? Have you heard of the movie? The 1994 romance crime. Okay, you're reading it. I don't remember it. Okay, so Jason's lyric got, it got Jada Pinkett, it got Alan Payne, Trench,

Lisa Nicole Carson, Lisa Nicole Carson, beauty! Belumptuous Bucksome Beauty! Okay, and this is what happens in Jason's lyric. They're in Houston, and, Burkine Wobon, also, who is a national treasure. They in Houston, and, you know, niggas is Robin Banks in Houston. Jason is trying to survive Houston. And Lyric is a girl that works at a soul food restaurant.

And he meets her, and then they fall in love and they sweat. They sweat. Where there's a part in Jason's lyric where she comes to the TV repair store, where he works after it's closed, and they have sex. in the TV repair store. That is the type of thing that would turn you on, certainly turn me on, as a

14 year old boy, if that was on the stage and you would go, what's happening? I will say this. There's nothing in Beetlejuice either the movie or the play that would get you going to the point to where you would be like, it's got to go down

right now. Right now. So if you go to Beetlejuice and you get turned on By ghosts and shit that's happening on the stage, you are what I like to call a certified freak. It's the fuck I'm talking about. Freaky ass. And so I'm saying that all of this stuff is allegations,

but also from someone, not Jason's lyric to play, which if they do that on the stage, because they do Jason's lyric to play, I don't know if you guys have seen it. No, I've not seen it. It's traveling as a part of the stage, which if they do that on the stage, I could see some people in the audience being like, oh my God, daddy.

You know what I'm saying? But Beetlejuice, what the fuck in Beetlejuice would make you decide that you got to go fishing for the snake inside a beetle juice? So when I saw these allegations and they're just allegations, I thought to myself, that seems like the type of motherfucker that's capable of some shit like that. Based upon what I know about Beetlejuice and that getting her. going, I'm not saying she did it. I'm saying there's something inside of her that I don't think can be contained.

Yeah, you're saying you just can't write it off. It does say, you're saying that they're like, you're like, hmm, maybe. I'm saying that it is a leap. It is a leap between the two, the two things. It's a leap. Have you seen Beal Juice before? Well, I've seen parts.

Okay. What parts in Beal Juice did you see? Of them dancing around the table. what about that would get you going, right? What they're singing? They're singing, that Harry Belafonte, they're singing that, oh, oh, gosh. Oh, man, come, man, they want.

You're singing that death. Nothing sexy about it. Nothing sexy about it. Nothing that would get you going. Jason's lyric is not just that. There's another part of Jason's lyric where they're having sex in a field. I remember. I know you do.

I know you do. I know you do. I know you remember. And when they watch it, they're going to remember. And not just that, but Lisa Nicole Carson. Bernard. When you see Prime Lisa Nicole Carson, you're going to remember that. She comes back in Devil in the Blue Dress.

There's a part in Devil in the Blue Dress. This is a very funny part of the movie. Just real quick. Can I just have just a second of latitude? No, you're already there. Okay. There's a very funny part in the movie Devil in the Blue Dress. So Don Chito.

who plays mouse, a fucking psychopath who is Witt Easy, they go to this guy's house, right? This might have been before that. I can't remember. They go to this guy's house. I don't know if Mouse was actually Witt Easy when this happens. Anyway, Mouse is in the house

and the guy, his girl, is there with him. Right? Everybody gets drunk. Everybody gets drunk except for Easy and this guy's girl. and so as soon as this guy starts like passes out from the drink she looks at easy and she's like what's happening now he's still in the house easy looks at easy goes corretta your man is in the next

room she wants information for him so she sleeps with him and just as he's getting into it she gets off of it and she goes talk to me about it and dizzell so goodness disdance goes, Corretta, you didn't got me going. We got to finish this. And so she was like a little bit more than they do a little bit more. They have sex while the guys passed out in the other room. And he couldn't say no. You know why?

Prime Lisa Nicole Carson. That's where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com. Why. All right. So I'm saying that all of this stuff is the stuff that could get you going.

Beetle juice. I watched it before we came here. I don't see it. I watched both of them. I watched Beal Juice one. In preparation for this? And Beal Juice two. Just to see.

Just to make sure you weren't mistaken. If there was anything in Beetle Juice that could get you like, oh, shit, this got to go down. You don't know what, you don't know what she might have a fetish about. You don't know. I thought about this. Okay. Do you know what Beetlejuice is about? He's dead.

Dead, niggas. You are a necrophiliac. I could go deeper with how, allegedly, of how deep the rabbit hole goes, you want to fuck a ghost? Beetlejuice is a demon. Beal Juice is a demon.

God say his name three times. Beal Juice, Bealjuice, I won't say it again. Who knows what's going to happen? So Beetlejuice is a demon. What got her going in Beetlejuice? could see like her looking at her staff going damn this motherfucker kind of looked like Gina Davis a little bit was happening it looked like Alec Baldwin I'm I'm allegedly allegedly

but I'm just saying based upon what I know and what I've seen before I feel like she capable of some of this shit like I feel like this could have happened I don't I can't say that it's a big allegation I don't know that is I knew you would enjoy the story so yeah it's freak shit. I mean, what the fuck? It's freaks shit. It's like, it's freak shit. We'll see where it goes. We'll keep you guys posted. But also, just to let you guys know as much fun as we're having with Beal Juice,

some of the allegations here are actually pretty serious in that she would have paid $200,000 in hush money to one of these people to subvert an ethics investigation here. This goes back to what people will use,

how they will use power and influence to insulate them from what from praying on staffers. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I feel like we're hearing about this more than we're not. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure it's always been a thing.

Again, this is an allegation, but there have been other congressmen that have come up with having inappropriate relationships with their staffers. You know why? Why? The staffers know they don't have to take it now. So the staffers know now, before there was this kind of hush, hush attitude over what going on in Washington with your subordinates and stuff like that. Like you did

this stuff. Some of this stuff, even like as a casting couch situation in L.A. was almost seen as like just part of the deal. Yeah. You had guys that were horny around and also this stuff was kind of culturally accepted. Like if you met certain politicians, it was like, oh, this guy's a scamp.

He loves to fuck and he's going to try you, you know. And particularly after like Monica Lewinsky when people were able to look into that situation and go, hmm, how much of power dynamic was at play there. Like, for example, did Monica Lewinsky become attracted to Bill Clinton because Bill Clinton is suave and genteel and brilliant and the president of the United States?

Or was she put in a position where she felt like she had to do that? And even if in that case, you argue one or the other, how many staffers go to Washington and get in positions where they feel like they either have to perform for whoever the powerful person is or, or be a little bit more accepting of some type of conduct because of the way the city works. Now they've seen, you know, there'll kind of be consequences and then, you know, they're kind of

letting people know. They're doing stories. I'm just saying. We'll see what happens. You don't, I mean, what are you? Do you think up or down? You think she did it? I don't want to make that, that, that, I don't want to say. I don't know. We don't know. There's not enough out there. It's being reported. She's denying it.

allegations. What happens? They're allegations. I don't want to speculate. The name staffers also are denying the accusations. Do you think there's going to be people to say you're not speculating with Lauren? Have we learned our lesson or are you treating her different, man? I got to call you out.

Learned our lesson with what? I'm not even going to bring it up. You know what I'm saying? You already did. I'm not going to bring it up, man. It's because, you know. All right. I'm saying, I'm not going to bring it up.

Why are you treating her different, though? Get it. about. Get her, Rach. I'm not. There's nothing for me to go off of. Ray, say she did it right now. That's what people are going to say.

Say she did it. Rach, indict her. Get her. Van. Van. I'm sorry. Everything I just did and said, I apologize for the entire last minute

and a half of the podcast. So, never happened. It's the coffee. It's the coffee. This is one of those times where their thinking caps are already off. So go ahead and end it. They're gone?

They're gone. They're gone. They left us. Hold on, wait a minute. I want y'all to go in the comments, and right now, tell me. What minute you left. Whether or not you're already gone. I want you guys to go in the comments right now and tell me whether or not you're already out.

You know how I know they left? Why? Because I left. Well, I'll tell you straight up. There's this more shit I could talk about. There's more shit. I tap about five minutes ago. That's more shit I would like to discuss, you know.

There's more, I mean. I'm afraid to even ask. Ask what. All kinds of things have been going on. No, no, no, no. I don't like that. I don't like that. What?

You give me something that you're interested in. No. Hey, somebody just say something and I'll talk about it. No. Just bring something up. Well, Ellis, you lost. All right. Take things caps off, but do not stop learning.

I'm Van Lathin Jr. I'm Rachel Litts. Bye, guys. All right. Before we get out of here, though, guys, I do want to say one thing. There will be no podcast Thursday. a Friday, barring something outstanding.

If something crazy happens, Rachel and I are in Sweden for Spotify. Yep. It's a work trip. The home of what do you think they was going to think? It's a work trip. No, I'm just saying we're still working at my point. We are in Sweden with Spotify this week,

the home of podcasting. Shout out to Spotify. And so the times just don't like, match up for us to be able to do. I have to leave. So there'll be no podcast this Friday. We will be back Monday with a jam-packed four-hour episode of higher learning. Okay.

Back Tuesday. That's when they get it. And four hours tough. We're not going to do that. We're just not going to give ourselves a time limit. We're just going to go. We're just going to go for the podcast. But we gave y'all, what, three podcasts last week, right?

So we got to take one back. We're just working. We're just working. We're just, we've got to go to Sweden to do this spot. But I promise you. The podcast is dropping on Tuesday is going to be good. Absolutely. We'll be good.