Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Everyone Needs to Give Kyrie Irving Some Grace. Plus, Armie Hammer Said What?

Episode Date: January 15, 2021

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss the interesting situation with Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets (17:00), the House voting to impeach President Trump (40:00), and the bizarre alleged DMs from Armie Hammer (1:00:00). Then they give a recap of this week’s episode of 'The Bachelor' (1:08:00), and answer some mailbag questions (1:19:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors, what is up? Higher learning is on and is I, Van Lathan. It's me, Rachel Lindsay. What? Oh, you're about to say something. Oh, you're about to jump their head. No, no. Don't try to pass over that you were just stuttering to get to your first statement.

I got a question for you. I was just thinking about this. Do you think Siri is a freak? Van, I can honestly tell you that's a thought that's never crossed my mind. Never. I don't talk to Siri enough. Do you talk to her often? All the time. And she has different reactions based upon like who I ask her to call. I just find Siri using Siri pure laziness. Why is it pure laziness? Because it's you ask people, you ask her to call people for you, right? How long does it take you to just go through your contacts and click the person's name?

A lot longer than it does to ask Siri? What you're talking about? It doesn't even cross my mind to use Siri. I never use Siri. I don't even know if Siri's connected to my current phone. Do you use your AirPods a lot? No, because they die too quickly. I have my AirPods in all the time, right?

Don't they die quickly? I don't know what kind of defective AirPods you got, but my AirPods, they work just fine. So I have my AirPods all the time. And so when you have your AirPods in, all you do is you say, hey, Siri. And then she says, what up? And then you say, call whoever. And it's a lot simpler, actually.

Do you voice text, too? Do you do all that kind of stuff? No, I don't do that. I don't do that. That's like, just. But I only call a couple of people, so it's like, it's easy. Like, hey, Siri, whatever. But what I'm saying is that Siri acts differently based upon who I tell her to call.

I think Siri is a freak. Give me an example. So I tell her, be like, hey, Siri, call my mom. She's like, one second. She'll call my mom. I'd be like, hey Siri, call Jesse Williams. Okay. I'm like, Siri, what's wrong with what's your thing?

Like, you like Jesse? They'd be like, hey, Siri, call my brother. Like, one second. I'd be like, yo, hey Siri, call Trace Austin. Oh, okay. Siri, like, I- Do you really have Siri calling all these people? Do you want us to know you, these are your friends?

Or are you just giving examples? I'm giving examples. Okay. Jesse. I never know what you, man. Like, Jesse, I do. I know Jesse really is your friend. That's why I asked.

Yeah, we're producing Two Distant Strangers. The trailer is dropping today on Complex.com. But I really have noticed recently, and I'm being serious about this, that Siri has different reactions based upon who I ask her to call. You don't, you don't fuck with her at all. You don't fuck with Siri. I don't. So I really can't answer this. But what does Siri do if you're like, call,

Rachel. I don't know. I could try her right now. Because you don't tell her to. Hold on. Let's see right now. Let's see what Siri does. Let's see.

Because you might not be hot to Siri like that. This is so, this is so in your head. Go ahead. You might not be hot to Siri like that. Siri ain't the freak. You are, Van. That's really what's happening. You actually might not be hot to Syria.

Siri might not be fucking with you. Like that. He's, it's true. I just, hey Siri. Hold on. Hey Siri. call Rachel. Oh, wait.

Hold on. It's like a dagger to the heart, man. Wait a second. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I got to change it. I got to change it because I don't have you save another Rachel. Hey, Siri.

Hey, Siri. Oh, maybe I asked her with two. Series is a little shy today. I think, Siri. Did I insult Siri? Let me ask you again. Hey, Siri. Call R.L.

See? Dry. That's you. I got you saved under R.L. because I know too many ratios. You got two different numbers? What? You got two different numbers?

That wasn't my regular number that just called you? I know. Man, what's going on today with the internet and stuff like that? Actually, no, no, it's right. It just didn't pop up with your name. It only popped up with your phone number. I mean, just the number. Weird.

Something's happening today. Anyways, do you think that computers can have? I don't even think I have Siri set up. Hey, Siri. Yeah, you're Siri. real quick. I don't have. But you have Siri on your phone.

It comes on your phone. Do I have to press up? Don't you have to set it up though? Like enable Siri? Do you have to enable it or does it come? Jackson? Are you going to jump in here and tell us about like this is the oldest beginning to a podcast that we've ever had before?

Like it was something like my mom and my dad. Jackson, do you have to enable Siri? You do have to enable Siri. And funny enough, I don't use Siri either. Yeah. Who asked you? Like, maybe it's a generational thing. I didn't ask you if you used Siri.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop. Bullshit. I never asked Jackson if he used Siri. Never. You implied that by asking for his input just now. I asked him if you have to enable Siri. It's a bride. I never asked him if he, I couldn't care less who Jackson uses to make his calls.

But you know what, Jackson? If you had said Siri was a freak, he would have cared. I think she is. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with it. Like she uses different voices. Like she uses different voices. Sometimes she says, I'll be right back with that. But sometimes she's like, okay.

She uses different voices. She never talks to you like that. She never talks to you like that. I use Alexa more than I use Siri. Oh, Alexa, definitely you're free. Alexa is a sex positive woman because she controls the lights. Not in my house Well Alexa

That's because ain't no sexy shit happening That's because you live in a puritanical home So that's very true because my husband is here Right But you know even the vibe is not in there When I come home Alexa be like Hey Captain sexy is back Them the lights 30%

You know what I'm like This world you live in This world I can't It's a true situation that Alexa Alexa definitely is a sex positive woman. These are sex positive digital women.

By the way, can I ask you a question? Why are they both women? How come is not is this, is that like against them? I think it can you? To who? I think my Alexa, I mean, my Siri used to be a British man. No, hell no. I don't want that. No, no, what? I think you

can change it. I think you can change it. No, you definitely can change it. That was the point was, you could change it. But see, the point is it comes with that, like, What if I don't want, like, what if I want, I don't know, like, Tunisia or something like that? That would actually be Tunisia. If I had a black woman that was in my phone, like arranging stuff, I would be way better at keep herself organized.

It would be completely different because even the power of the voice. I feel that. And also, see, the problem with having a black woman is the voice is I don't think that she could stay neutral. like it would be like, hey, Tanisha, call Charlemagne. You think you need to talk to him again?

You've been on the phone with him all day long. Like, isn't there something better you could be doing with your time? My bad. She would keep you in line. She definitely would. Hey, Tanisha,

call Rachel. Who is that bitch? Oh, yeah. You know? Shout out to the sisters. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul predicts. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner.

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and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more, or visit trimfireradio.com. Um, a crazy couple of days in news, Rachel, how are you giving yourself breaks? How are you giving yourself breaks

from all of this crazy, terrible shit that's happening in the world? I'll be honest. I'm not really doing a fantastic job at it. I'm really just bearing myself in work and working out. That's really it. What is you?

So, so are your, so, working out is an incredible way to take breaks, by the way. It is. But I'm really just working, working, working, and not paying attention to us. So, like, I'm just trying to escape the reality of all of that. So I'll, you know, I'm still binging Graze Anatomy.

I'll watch my housewives. I'll work out and I'll work. That's it. I'm trying to stay away from the news because it's just becoming overwhelming. It's a lot. I'm tired. I'm just tired of it. Can we move on to the next chapter?

You know? How are you? What are you doing? Well, therapy is helping me. I did something today in my somatic experiencing therapy today. It's called a body scan. Now this is new, right? Isn't this like cutting edge?

This is the therapy of the therapy here. Like we're getting deep into it. It's me and Abby. These are my therapist at one to one. Okay? So I have shout out to Coli is my regular therapy. And then I have Jim, who's my primary therapist. I have Abby who does somatic experiencing.

I have Denny who does acceptance and commitment. Then I have John for my cognitive behavioral therapy, right? So all of these different people have different modalities that they do and it's all different. And sometimes it's like a little worksheet that you do and different stuff. It's really great. But Abby today we did somatic experiencing. We did a body skin. knock your socks off maybe

knock your socks off the stillness in your body you're noticing your thoughts you're drawing back on your breath that's your anchor it was really amazing oh it sounds like meditation it's meditation but it's different don't try to act like it's the normal stuff that you can do I think I'm a big advocate

for meditation but you know like you focus on your breathing and you you center yourself but then you like work on you breathe into certain areas of your body and you know it sounds I'm not knocking it it sounds fantastic It seems like you're knocking it. It seems like you're doing that thing that people do.

I'm not Siri. This, what you're talking about sounds amazing. I mean, like it really helps. Nah, I know. I'm just messing around with you. Somebody called me out for gas lighting on the Thought Warriors. The Thought Warriors, let me tell you to guys something. The Thought Warriors have been really, really frisky in the DMs these last couple of days.

Your DMs. So what are you saying that's making them frisky? They said that they didn't like the fact that I was like, the thought warriors aren't really the toughest bunch. Did you say that? I did. A lot of my thought warriors jumped in and like,

yo, I'm ready to get down for mine. I'm like, all right. Don't kill me, killer. But sorry for the thought warriors. Y'all, yo, my bad, homies. Y'all. I love when they hold us accountable on stuff we say. That's all they do.

Well, why not? What's wrong with that? They just try to make you better and obviously let you know who they are. It's true. Shout out to all of my Latinx thought warriors who hit me up and said that the first time they do something big in their life, it is that their parents and the immigration stories and their parents' beginnings that they think about. A lot of people hit me up and they wrote very beautiful messages about how they had overcome things or accomplished things. Shut up, Bozeman.

they had to overcome things or accomplished things and and Fos knows what's up I'm just joking around and they thought about their parents because they don't overcome so much it's very beautiful. I just personally don't

maybe I'm self-sitting you know things I get a you know like stuff happens to me I win stuff and I think I'm the illest yeah I mean I

I was talking to my mom about that about you saying like you don't you don't think about your your parents first or like certain stories or how you got to where you are. It's not your first thought. Yeah, my mom was like, what is he talking about?

I was like, I don't know. Speaking of moms, speaking of moms, I was so happy to see Anthony Anderson's mom grill you like she did. I saw your comment. I was trying, has she grilled you the same way? Is that why you were coming? Nope. But you know who did grill me the same way?

Your daddy. I'm glad that I tell you what karma is not just an electric car it's also something that happens to human beings I love that that happened to you now you get to see what it's like to sweat I really was sweating

and the way it aired was in reverse but when she came on it was the first thing she said to me where are the babies how's the marriage why aren't you an attorney anymore you know you can do both though right Get her.

I know you ain't working as an attorney because I see you on TV all the time. This is literally how to go and I was like, oh, can we start the interview, please? I love her, though. I love her, though. She's going to do my baby shower.

She's going to actually throw it for me. Oh, is she? She's going to throw a baby shower for her. Oh, that's amazing. When is this happening? Are you pregnant? No. No.

Oh, that would be such. That's going to be such a, who are you going to announce with? Because you have a choice. You have a choice. It won't be here. Wow. I love your reaction.

Were you going to name this as a choice? Oh, come on, man. Y'all, fans' feelings are hurt right now. Just a little bit. Same way I felt when you said Siri, call Rachel. And there was silence. Not going to do it here. I bet you I know who you'll probably do it with.

You'll probably do it with, it's probably doing it on extra with people or something like that. Meanwhile, voices for the culture can't even get these celebrities to come and announce these babies. There's a different between an announcement. and telling your story. Remember that. Oh, your pregnancy story?

You know what I won't do? Is an ad. I actually despise when people announce them with a, like, the pre, like, I just took this test and, you know, I won't do that. You won't see me do that. You know, I'm private and more about my personal life. I know. I know you're very proud. All right.

Well, that'll be a great baby shower. Shout out to Anthony. Shout out to his mom. What an amazing group of people. Look. Oh, shout out to my mom. We mentioned my mom. her birthday today as we're podcast. Oh. It's her birthday. Oh. Mom's birthday. Yeah. Oh. This is a big

development. Is it? Yeah. This is Mrs. Lindsay's birthday. What is she going to do for her birthday? What is she doing? She's actually in Houston with my grandmother. She goes down like once a month to help take care of my grandmother. So she's spending it with her mom. Right. I'd imagine that there'd be some kind of big blowout, like a church social or a bake sale or... I mean, we are in COVID times, man. You know? Or maybe they could do a virtual potluck. I'm sure your mom likes to let her hair down on her birthday.

Is that the way she doesn't? Or you just made my mom's sad. Just like a square. You better stop. Better leave my mom alone. My mom, when it's her birthday, she'll most likely have a stripper's G-string her mouth somewhere. Stop. Stop. Stop.

It is. She likes to get it. Why? She likes to get it. That's what she does. All right. Okay. There is a storyline that's going on. Listen, I'm sure a lot of you guys are expecting us to start to show off with the recent developments in Washington surrounding the impeachment of President Trump and the political tug of war that is happening seemingly for the soul of America. We're going to get to that, but we're going to start somewhere else. The reason why we're going to start somewhere else. Because I fuck them all. It's getting, it, it, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, the, fucking sick of it.

It's just the same old shit. Fuck them all. All right. Same all. Move on. We'll come back to it. Nobody wants to do the right thing for the country. It's all about their pals and shit like that.

Anyway, uh, there's a more interesting situation that I am fascinated with. I don't know if you guys know this, but something's happening in the world of the NBA. Brooklyn Net Star Kyrie Irvin I think has missed four games five games now due to personal reasons. I don't know if that's true. He hasn't played since January 5th.

He hasn't played since January 5th. Now here's what's going on. You guys might have heard that there was just a recent trade that happened yesterday where James Hardin is on his way to New York. Shout out to everybody over at Sews and Starlets and scores.

Y'all about to really, really run it up. James Hardin is in New York. you're about to be giving out the one dollar bills. But that was a whole big deal, NBA stuff. But something that's more interesting is the Nets have a star, a guy scheduled to make around $30 million this year, Kyrie Irvin, who's sort of an enigmatic star. It's an interesting figure, you know,

that has, is not injured, that has just stopped playing for personal reasons. and no one really knows. I'm sure there might be a couple of people that he's talked to, but if there's been any indication to them why he's not playing, there hasn't been any indication

given to the NBA fans, fans of the Brooklyn Nets on why he's not playing. Now, I've heard through sources that it's possible that Kyrie Irvin is disturbed about some of the social justice issues that are happening,

and because of that, he's deciding there's too much going on right now and he's not in a mental space to play. Let's just go with that. We don't know why Kyrie Urban isn't playing. Remember, this is somebody who is not going to work. This is somebody who is missing time. He was seen at a party with his sister.

I guess she had a birthday party. He was also seen on a call with Cynthia Nixon where they were discussing progressive initiatives. So he's showing up to those things, but not to work in the NBA. let's say that he's decided that there's too much on his heart from everything going on in the world

and he can't play. Does that excuse, not excuse, does that reason fly with you, Rachel? Yes, that reason does fly with me because I think everybody can say there's a lot going on right now. And everybody, I don't know who you are if you're not affected by what's happening

in the country. And if you're not affected by what's happening, that's an even bigger problem that we don't even even. even have time to get into. But Kyrie has been very vocal about the fact of his frustrations with what is going on in our country and his frustration that they were playing in the bubble in last season. You know, Kyrie did not want to participate in that because he felt like playing basketball took away from what was happening in the world. And he didn't want to be a part of that,

which I totally agree with. I think we talked about that on the podcast. There were a couple of other players who opted not to play out. And there's players that don't have the same options that Kairi does. And they can't afford to do that. But Kairi is who he is. And he has really been involved with social justice and been vocal about it. And if he is mentally affected by what is going on, it's the equivalent of being, it's the equivalent of being mentally affected by something else that's going on in your life. He's got mental health issues that are prohibiting him from being able to do his job. And I think people are piling on him because of his track record, and I don't think that's fair. I think you have to separate what he has previously done to what is going on right now.

You know, we saw Kyrie leave Cleveland because he didn't want to play in LeBron's shadow. Then we saw him go to Boston because he wanted more of a leadership role, but it seems like things just, he didn't get along with whoever it was, higher ups, coach, players, whatever, it may be that situation didn't work for him. So he goes to the Nets. What's happening to him right now is not the same as what we've seen before. And I just feel like if you really are affected by what's happening in this country, then you have to give him a break and you need to give him some grace and some understanding and let him work out those issues because it's tough and it's not stopping at all.

It's not stopping. When you say his past track record, maybe tell people a little bit, oh, is that what you meant when you said what was going on with him and LeBron? You're not talking about any of the off-the-court stuff, any of the earth's flat stuff, any of that stuff right there. I'm not, I was asking. Him saying the earth's flat does not have any bearing on me.

That isn't it. To me, people, him not playing games. Him, sometimes he wanted to participate, sometimes he didn't, him not getting along with the discord that he had in Boston.

Like, that was a really bad time for him. And people were talking a lot about like, well, what does Kyrie want? You left to have this position. Now you have it. Why can't you get along with people?

He seemed a bit like a brat. You have to separate that from what's going on with him right now. What is happening in him with 2020? Let's also not forget he was hurt. He's been, he's had injuries as well. What if he is truly suffering, and that's what I, I don't have sources like you, but I figured that he is being affected by what's happening right now in the country just because he has been vocal, you know, since George Floyd about his frustration with the way the NBA is moving forward and playing in the season. So that's what I said. You've got to be able to separate the two, you know, I respect Stephen A. Smith a lot. And, um, but I,

I think that he really jumped the gun and saying that Kyrie needed to retire when, if he is truly suffering from mental health issues. That's just too much of an extreme when we don't know what's really going on with this man. Right. Okay. So a couple of things. Number one, it was very interesting that Kyrie came out and said he didn't think that players should go play in the bubble. He won't play in the bubble. Well, he wasn't going to be playing anyway because he was out because he was going to have shoulder surgery.

So he wasn't going to be playing anyway. but he still had the right to his opinion. And still have the right to make sure that... And he was right. Can I just say that he was right? How? How was he right? In the sense that he expressed his frustration about the fact that what was them playing in the bubble, people instead of talking about, hey, this just happened in this community with this cop and this person of color, instead of having that conversation, they're going to have a conversation about how someone played in the game last night.

That was his whole issue. And then we saw what happened with... Jacob Blake, and then you had the NBA completely shut down because playing the players weren't going to be in the right headspace. They were affected by what happened. It was going to take away from what was happening in Kenosha, Wisconsin. So that kind of played into Kyrie's point. If you play these games, if we understand you need, people need the escape from what's happening in their reality, but don't we also need to be focused on the reality of what's happening as well so we can make a change in it? I think them not playing those day, those.

what was it, a game or two, 48 hours. I think them not playing in the NBA and the WNBA proved Kyrie's point. It depends on the way you look at it, right? Because they wouldn't have been not playing if they weren't playing. So if they hadn't restarted the season, they wouldn't have been not playing.

So what they did in that moment, it wouldn't have existed. Nobody would have seen anything because all the NBA players would have been at home. And I'm not saying that that would have been. That would have been the statement. They're not, this, this is why we're not playing because it's still happening. But I have my doubts on whether or not, and I, to me, the play, it was, I've never played one minute in the NBA.

It was up to the players on whether or not they wanted to come back. They decided to come back. Whatever they decide, I support them. And, you know, you can support either side of it in terms of whatever it is, right? But I think, though, that them being out there probably would have garnered a lot more, probably garnered a lot more of tension them walking off than if there would have been no game schedule at all. And they would have come out and said, this is why we didn't play.

Because people were forced because inside the NBA had to spend a whole show on it. Kenny Smith. Except for Kenny. Yeah. Kenny, Kenny's been walked off inside the NBA. So their demonstration and how seriously they took it, not look, I'm not going to say that it resulted in any actual change. But it seems as if the NBA players made a clear indication to America

where they were and what they were prepared to do. And that whole, I guess, gesture was only possible because they were actually playing basketball. Can I just say that that gesture would have still happened? if they had said we're not playing because of this reason. It just would have been at a different time. If they had said we're not going to have a season, then that whole, it still would have been a big gesture

when they made the decision to not even have a season because of it. You see what I'm saying? It just happened to, it would have happened at a different time. Right. I do think, though, I agree to a point. I do think, though, the fact that they started and they were in the middle of it and then it stopped, it just, people have been gone back to watching basketball.

like people got something snatched from them. I give you an example of something. The thing, and it's crazy the way American life works, the thing that made the coronavirus such a big deal is that there was an NBA game that was scheduled to play. Right. And then they canceled the game right before the game. I remember looking at that and seeing people walk around in the NBA game

and thinking, yo, if it can stop the NBA, then it's a big deal. And I think people probably knowing that guys were warming up and they walked off the court, it probably resonated more, but I can't say for sure. Sure.

But what I will say about Kyrie's point to that was that he was right in a sense that these issues were bigger than the lead and that he felt like basketball was going to look small up against them because that certainly did happen. And we've seen that. I say a situation right now,

I think he's handling this poorly. Okay. We all feel the exact same way, right? And I'm not going to say that we all got to go to work because we're in a different situation than Kyrie Urban is, right? Kyrie Urban is in a financial situation to where he has a degree of freedom to where he really doesn't have to. That's true.

But there's still something to be said, I think the first time, and maybe there's a communication between him and the Nets that we don't really know about if there is. is they certainly didn't say, they're certainly not saying anything. The first time he didn't play, Steve Nash,

the coach of the Nets, went on record as saying that he didn't know why Kyrie Irvin wasn't playing. So I'd say this. I'd say, if you say, hey,

I can't play for the next X amount of games because of what's going on in the world, I think it's worth you picking up the phone and saying, I need a two-week leave

of absence. I agree. I agree. I need a two-week. leave of absence. I need a one month leave of absence to where I need to not go in because I've been here before. The day the Nip passed away. You know, the Nip died.

I know things are going well. I'm like, yo, I need to, you know, go home. You know what I mean? Not the day because that was a Sunday, but like, you know, we come back. I'm like, y'all, I need to go home. But I need to, yeah, like, yeah, like, you know, You know, it's a lot. You know what I mean? Just drive around, whatever. It was all good.

It happened. I did it with Michael. Absolutely. It's a deal. But I do think just not coming to work. It's not, I don't give a fuck whether or not Kyrie Irvin goes to work or doesn't go to work. It doesn't. I'm not saying that he, I'm saying that there's a way to go about doing this.

And to me, there are other guys on the team. that rely on him too, right? The other guys on the team, just from a team standpoint, not from a, I get it, I understand it. And if Kyrie Irvin said he was going to take off the rest of the season because of what was going on and all of that stuff like that, I'm like, I'm with you. I'm getting.

If any time there's a black man or a black woman that feels like that America's just being too much for them right now and they need to take a time and get their headspace right, obviously that's going to happen. Not comparing them to us. When I had the first of whatever nervous breakdowns I had last year, when we first got that. Everybody's scheduling a podcast,

was scheduling way down in the hole and all stuff like that. I hit up the people, the people. I had up Bill, Juliet, all of them. I need two weeks. I'm not sleeping. I need two weeks. Like we're ahead on the podcast. I need two weeks.

That's different than everybody being ready to shoot and then me just not logging on the Zoom. Absolutely. I agree with you. The way he handled it was completely wrong. But I guess what I don't like is people harping on him when you don't know what this young man could possibly be going through. It's like when Kanye had his breakdown, right?

People were laughing. They thought they found it funny, all the stuff that he was tweeting. And it's like, this man is having an episode. It's actually not funny. You know, like he's, this is a cry for help. This man needs help. I don't, we don't know. We're still speculating as to what the issues are with Kyrie.

But if it is mental health, then I don't want to be one of those people. Well, if it's mental health for sure. And I mean based off like what's going, for whatever reason is causing, is causing his, his mental health to suffer. I just, I agree with you. The way he's handling it is wrong. I honestly think the way his team is handling it wrong. Steve Nash as the coach should never say, I don't know why he's not playing.

Is that what he said? I don't know why he's not playing or I don't know where he is. Yeah, I think that he said, someone asked him, he said, I don't know why he's not playing. Your head coach, in my opinion, shouldn't be saying that. I think you should keep all of that in-house because all you're doing is feeding into the media frenzy. And being in the media, oh, you tell me that.

I'm thinking, oh, Kyrie's off doing his own thing. He's not even communicating with his coach, his teammates, his higher up. Like, it gives, it's, to me. Well, he might have not at that point. But that's not, but it's like, keep it in house, right? Like, no, look, I get it. Keep it in the family, right?

Like, you don't need to be telling family's business that you ain't talked to, you know, the other family member. Like, let's just figure it out. To me, it just sends a wrong message, especially when you know the history of Kyrie. I don't know. Maybe a rookie mistake for Steve Nash being had, like, a new head coach. I don't, could be because now we're all interested, right?

Yeah. Right. But for me, But for me, I also think, and, you know, I want to get to, I think about everything that's going on in the country and all the black people that get up and go to work every day. You know what I mean? Like all the black people that get up and go to work every single day with everything that's going on in America. Can I ask you a question? Sure.

If you didn't have to go to work, would you? Well, it depends on, I guess, the job that you have, right? And that's the difference with Kyrie Irvin. Carrey Irvin has, he's got money where he can just kind of sit back. They could avoid his contract for this year. You know what I mean? They could not pay him the $30 million and he's got enough money so he doesn't have to, right? But there still is something to me the integrity of being part of a team and have another guys.

And for all we know, just so we, because we don't know, for all we know, Kyrie put on, like, put everybody on the squad on the group text and was like, yo, shit is too heavy. Like, I don't, I don't want to come and play. I don't want to play. I want to get my head right and put my feet on the pavement and try to figure out what's wrong with this world. And I can't play basketball. And I don't owe anybody an explanation as to why. And all of the teammates went, yo, you do you, bro.

You do. So that all could be true. Yeah. If that's not the case, if he's just kind of not showing up, which is how it's being made to seem, and we don't know. And I keep saying we don't know. I'm not hedging. I'm just saying, we really don't know. Right.

Like, we really don't know. But it's just, it's interesting because there is a lot of work to be done. And it's work. It's actual work. When people say we're out doing the work, it's work. Yeah. When people like Mison and Tamika Mallory and Tiffany and Tiffany Lofton and Philip Agnew, George Johnson, and all of these people, Michael Arson,

and all of these people are out there and they're saying, we're doing the work, like 19 Keyes, and they're saying we're doing the work. It's actually worked, you know? Yeah. And they got to do the work. They're not, I'm not comparing them to Kyrie. I'm just saying, you know, those people never call in sick to their jobs. Like, they got to do the work.

They go to work sick. They go to work beat on. You're right. But, and obviously he plays basketball and there are social justice warriors. Or social justice activist, should I say, that warrior terms, whatever. It's just interesting because there's a part of me that she's got that old southern black man that says, hey, show your ass up to work. I get it. And then the other part is like, man, fuck work.

We've been working. I just feel like if it is an issue of you being frustrated by what's happening in the world, I would rather see you say, I need to take a sabbatical and put your boots to the ground and maybe get in like, maybe that would make you feel more fulfilled than playing on a basketball court, doing more, you know what I mean, on the ground. Yeah. Yeah. But I think at this point, you know, somebody got to know something that maybe they know more

than they're telling us. but basically around what you just said a second ago. If the Nets know what's going on, then they should share it with everyone. Share it with people and let people decide because I want to see what people are going to think about a man deciding that his place in the world isn't just on a basketball court,

that it's doing more. And he needs to go explore that for whatever time he needs to do that. But right now, the narrative is that Kyrie Irvin is pulling a no-call, no-show every time it's time for the Nets to play. For various reasons, right? Because some say he doesn't like the new hiring

of Steve Nash as the head coach. Do we know where he is on Hardin? Apparently, he wasn't involved in that decision. These are just rumors that are out there. Right. And once again, there was video of him at a party. It was a sister's birthday. I know.

It was a sister's birthday party. I know. But remember, see, that's how I got to get at Kyrie. I got to talk to Kyrie real quick. Let me tell Kyrie how you do this. All right. So I would do this thing where I would have these days at TMZ where I just wouldn't go to work.

And by the way, I'm not even Kyrie. I just wouldn't feel like it some days. So I'm not coming. But I always went through the proper channels. There was an email. And TMZ made it so easy. They didn't even know. They made it so easy.

because normally when you're not coming to work you've got to pick up the phone and you got to call somebody y'all I can't make it and sometimes the voice on the other end of that phone is a hard call to make

but TMZ made it easy they had an email that you can email in hey I'm sick and I'm not coming to work I was like Jesus Christ and that was it oh it's lit

so so you you send the email and the people go, oh, I'm sorry, man, I hope you feel better, blah, blah, blah, blah, cool. Turn it off. Fucking turn the music up. Here's what you do. If you're going to take a sick day and you're going to be out,

don't be in a sick day where anyone would really recognize you. I would take my sick days only in Riverside or in Orange County, where it's like I'm not going to go to the grove and have, oh, aren't you the guy for a a plan? Riverside and Orange County from my sick days, right? No pictures from sick days. Hey, you want to take a picture with you? Van Latham for TMZ?

Nah, not today. I'm actually at work and there's a rule against us taking pictures while we're at work, blah, blah, blah. You can't, you got to lay low. There's the way you lay low. You take limited calls. And whenever you, whenever you do take a call, especially if it's from a number you don't understand, got to do the scratchy voice answer. Call me right now.

Let's say I'm taking the sick day. Call me. You want me really call you? No, just call me. on the phone right now. Okay. Okay. I'm calling you.

Ring. Ring. I pick up the phone. Okay. Hello? Jesus Christ, you sound terrible. It's actually getting better. You should have heard me early on.

It's actually... Okay. Ferris viewer. This is so dramatic. It's so dramatic. All right. Let's take a break. This episode is brought to you

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Go. What do you think? No, no. I mean, you know, Van, I'm a fool. I'm an idiot. Call me naive. Call me hopeful. Call me kumbaya, as you did on the last podcast. But for some reason, I sat there and I watched every person. person in the house give their statement, whether it was 30 seconds, whether they passed,

whether it was a minute, I watched. Because I for some reason truly thought that there would be more, I mean, it passed. He's impeached. But I thought I would see more Republicans be so disgusted by what happened last week, the fact that their lives were threatened. They were in that capital not knowing what we were seeing on the outside. They had no idea other than hearing it and knowing that they were coming, knowing that guards were drawing their guns, hearing glass breaking, furniture being thrown around, people yelling and chanting for their names, for their heads. And despite all of that, you still somehow equated to mean words from celebrities in Hollywood, equated to rioters and looters from this summer,

equated to that Trump had six days and so many hours until he was going to be impeached and we just needed to move forward together as one, blamed it on the fact that they would be inciting the 74 million people who voted for Trump. I mean, it just blew my mind that this is where we are as a country. I couldn't take my eyes off of it, though.

I still watched it. I knew he was going to be impeached because I knew the Democrats had, have the majority in the House, but I just expected to see more people from the other side, Republicans be so disgusted and really want to send a message

and that they would vote to impeach him. And they didn't. It was only 10. And I, you know, it is what it is. So, and I'm a fool. I'm a fool. I'm a fool for watching it. You're a fool. You're a fool for love for love of politics.

So the House voted 232 to 197 to impeach President Trump. like you said, 10 Republican congressmen, Congresspeople, I'm sorry for that. Congresspeople voted for impeachment. Mitch McConnell, I said he is not bringing the Senate back for a trial before January 19. So we are going to have an American spectacle where the first 100 days of President Biden are also going to be running concurrently, or not concurrently, at the same time as a Senate impeachment hearing, which is going to be interesting, say the less.

I can't think of a more peculiar way to start your first 100 days, but Joe Biden doesn't get to do anything in a normal way. So that seems like it's par for the course. Look, I think that this is sort of indicative of where we are. Okay. Absolutely. I don't think that there's anybody who's thinking of Brian, D. Sicknick.

I don't think anybody's thinking of that, of him. Is that the police officer that died? That is the police officer who was killed during the Capitol riots. Okay. So I'm going to put the world in the vacuum right now. I'm going to pretend like I'm not a black guy for a second, right? I'm going to jump in this vacuum. Let me tell you why I have to do this.

Because in order for me to talk about people who have lost their lives and different things like that, I have to deemotionalize that because I've been too much of it. It's too familiar for me to know. that somebody didn't deserve to die and didn't that they were killed, right? I have to, in order to make this make sense, I have to jump into the American fantasy that that's not part of American life, right?

That's not part of the dysfunction of American systems. But let's, so let's start with that. Brian D. Sicknick, right? A guy who's not much information out of the bottom, but had two dogs, two Dach Huns, is that how you say it? Dach hunts?

What are you going to? Dach Hunts, the dog. I don't think, I don't think, it's such hard sound. I think it's like a dashin. How is it? Dashin. Dashin? Okay. So a guy who had two dashins, I don't know how to say it. Love the dogs, play with the dogs, his family asked for privacy.

And by all accounts, was dedicated to his job as a capital police officer, right? So he didn't realize that some time ago, the president of the United States, in a sense, ordered his death. he didn't realize that. Right. Because you have to remember, the 74 million people who are incited, they don't need any more inciting.

They've been incited. They were being incited before the election took place by someone who was saying that the only way he could lose was if they were cheating. And the Republican Congress people who helped the president echo that for political reasons, they also were inciting those people. Those people, Rachel,

were as good as their word. They didn't do anything out of character for them. They did exactly what they said they would do. Exactly. They did exactly what they had hinted that they would be doing, right? If you listen to the proud voice, if you listen to any of these other groups, they say things might have to get violent, we're ready for that. If you listen to these other people that are talking about, Rudy Giuliani stood on that stage

and he said, trial by combat, they whipped those people up. And they thought that it wasn't going to mean anything. Only for Brian Sicknick, it did. He is now in the Great Beyond. He is in forever. He has been sent to eternity. And he's been sent there by a mob whipped up by fear and lies.

Now, let's say that nothing else had happened in the capital riots, only that. Let's say that only that had happened. If they hadn't broken any of the windows, that they hadn't gone in and breached the place, that they hadn't laid pipe bombs, that there is in all of this information and evidence, that there is a much larger thing behind all of this than what any of us think. Let's say that only that had happened. that a police officer who is supposed to be

by the rules of American decency sacrosaned in terms of bravery, honor, and respect. That's what they say. It's not a lot of times what... Not a lot. That's not what we get from the police. But that's what they say. It's what they say. The same people who were marching. That's what they say.

Right. A police officer got up, went and did his duty, paid with his... life, with his life, left the family behind. Paid with his life for a political lie.

Right? Paid with his life for a political lie started by the president for no other reason than his ego. If there are this many people who cannot put the brakes

on this nonsense after that. Remember, we're in a vacuum now. I'm not talking about, they're not going to put the brakes on for us. The car don't have any brakes when it comes to us, right? Like you, you stack 10 innocent black bodies up, and what do you have in America?

You got 10 feet. That's all you got. Like, they're not going to care about the blood or the sweat or any of the stuff that are our bodies. That's what you got. But if those people have moved to the point to where somebody who was doing their duty was killed for nothing, and they can't see where the country's going. If America can't be as big or as small as Brian Sicknick, then there is no America. Now, we talked about the fact on a podcast a couple of days ago of what America and whether or not there has to be in America.

The reality is that there isn't anymore. there's not it's gone because if there was if there was like a semblance of anything that we said made this country what it is this wouldn't even be an issue anyone would be considered everyone together would say hey that was too much this has gone too far and what we need to do is hold everyone accountable who is involved with it and move on. Because accountability isn't just a term that's for black and brown people.

I know that it feels that way. Accountability is for everyone. Consequence is for everyone. See, it's almost as if jail and healing are synonymous. See, when we fuck up, it's in order to make every, everybody's safe, that person needs to go to jail.

Or die. When they fuck up, it's in order to make everyone safe, we need to heal. And the only way to heal is to make sure nobody gets in trouble for it. You guys, the country is bullshit. And I'm telling you that, I'm only saying that because it doesn't have to be. It really doesn't have to be. It doesn't have to be bullshit. like that officer's life, I hope the police

around the country are seeing that there's a world where their lives don't even matter. Exactly. You know? They make a big deal whenever a police officer is slain. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that,

but they're not making the big deal about this one. Because it's not about the police. It's not about any of that. the police only means police in America is the opposite of nigger. And as long as it means that, then fine, the police lives matter. But see when the police are the opposite of oppression, when the police are the opposite of systemic lie and dysfunction, which they rarely are, they just happen to be in this case, then the police will be niggers too. And so for me, looking at all of this, the fact that people like Dan Crenshaw

who had served the country so bravely overfighting in some geopolitical, geopolitically murky war, but had served with honor and dignity that they could be under the thumb and under the boot of someone as cowardly and feckless and completely more bankrupt as President Trump has let me know

that America doesn't really exist. It's just a thought. It doesn't exist in any way. In action, it doesn't exist. It's not real. Because none of these people are acting. I'm not even asking to see through and to racism.

I'm asking for basic dignity. Yeah. And it's not there. I mean, well said, man. I mean, it's true. I would say, I think because America, you know, when it comes to race, we've always said that there are two different Americas. But when you break it down and you take the racism out of it,

just speaking about America and the way that you put it, America means something different to so many people for so many different reasons. And you're right. if you can't honor the life of this officer, it's not even dignity. It's just decency. Just human decency. It's gone.

It's gone. It's so divided. And it's sad. And then that's like, and then that's why we just talked about this at the top of the podcast. How do you detach from it? Where do you go from here? How do you have any hope?

You know, people were so excited when Biden was elected. But then you saw what we, had to go through just to even verify his election and then people still aren't honoring that. How does he step into this presidency and even give in a fair chance to try to unite this country, to try to bring us together, to give the people some hope, to have an America again, as you put it? How do you even begin to do that? When he's not just going to be fighting with Congress to get things passed, he's going to be fighting

against as these political, these elected officials keep telling you, 74 million people. as well, who are going to be against every single thing that you're doing. It's depressing. It's depressing. So here's the thing about the 74 million people. So you're in a fight, right?

So you win a fight by not fighting it. You went a fight by talking your bully to your side. You went to fight by appeasement. There was another time that appeasement was tried.

I want everybody to do your higher learning homework tonight. And I want you to research a guy named Neville Chamberlain. Okay? I want you guys to all research a guy named Neville Chamberlain. He tried him appeasement. Appeasement was his thing. He was into it. the result of him trying to appease the unappeasable

led to cataclysm that was unimaginable. Okay? I'm not equating the wrong side. Fuck that. I'm saying don't look at your bully and expect him to stop kicking your ass because you ass nicely. Well, that's what I'm saying. He going kick your ass to you kick his.

And the reality is even if you kick him and then put your hand out and go, we could squash this, you still got to kick him. Yeah, Van, I mean, we talked about the civil war. We talked about that several times. Even before we actually saw what happened at the Capitol, we've been talking about this. Well, now more than ever, that's a reality. It's not even just cultural. It's civil. Like you said, you're going to have to, I don't know how it's going to be done.

but it's not going to be done unless, yes, like you said, you put up a fight. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. I don't know. Let's take a break. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows Winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need Weather Tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes sideways. Catchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.

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Visit your local deli today. Discover the craftsmanship behind every bite. Borshead committed to craft since 1905. All right. We're bad. That was emotionally draining. I really don't want to talk about it. I might ban all.

I don't know. I might ban it. I might ban how I. We might. I was, excuse me. Sorry. I'm, God damn it. I'm sorry.

Could we? We'll see. Ha. Ha. Ha. I say. No. What if we didn't want to talk politics on the podcast anymore?

Would you be down with that? No, I wouldn't be down with that. Because I think people come to us to hear when some, especially when something happens where they need some type of understanding or want to hear different perspectives or they want to hear our take on it. You can't take that away from the thought warriors. However, it doesn't have to be in every single episode. What if I pull like a Kyrie?

I'm just not going to talk about politics. The way you talked about Kyrie on this podcast, you'd be the biggest hypocrite if you did that. I'm not looking. So I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say I haven't pulled a Kyrie before. I didn't say you haven't. You just said if you currently pulled one.

I'm still old. I have $200, maybe $300 worth of unclaimed money that's still there. Have you ever done that? Have you ever gone on those sites, those unclaimed money for the treasury of your site? You might have some unclaimed money. Seriously.

No, I haven't. Go to the treasurer of Texas, right? and put in your name and see if you have any unclaimed money. Like, seriously, you have unclaimed, let's do it right now. Look, watch this, unclaimed money. Treasurer. Like, so look, put in unclaimed money. It's a thing.

People don't know about this. Unclaimed. Surprised you just didn't ask Siri. Unclaimed property, right? So unclaimed property, Jesus, unclaimed property, Louisiana, right? So look. Okay. Louisiana.

Unclaimed property. property division, all right? So I go to the unclaimed property division. And literally it's called claimet, Texas.org. Claim it. You better claim his name. Okay, so claiming unclaimed property.

So Van Lathen. Van Lathen. I'm going to put my people's zip code in there. I'm going to search unclaimed property. Boom. Oh, I can narrow it. Okay, look. Oh, here it is.

Look. Oh, I got mad. Unclaimed property. So... Are you sure it's the right one? I think this bottom one is for my dad. But look, here it is. Van Latham, unclaimed property.

It says right there, over $100 worth of unclaimed property. Right there at the top of it, you can see it. I love how you're covering it up. Well, look, really, really. There's no reason to cover it up. You can see it over $100 of unclaimed property. Do you know what that is?

What? That I'm almost sure. I'm almost sure comes from the fact that when I was a senior in high school, I was working at Walmart and they had scheduled me to work on a weekend and I told them I'm not working. And they were like, yo, you better come to work. I'm like, I'm not working. If you put me on the schedule, I'm not coming. So they put me on the schedule I saw and I just never came to work again.

never came to work. And I was scared to go pick up my last paycheck and they never mailed it. So this over $100 is probably like $300. This over $100 is, I guarantee you, it's that last check from Walmart. So it just sits, it's just, there's just all this money just out there just sitting.

It's people have a claim. Another one says that I have under $25 of unclaimed property. That might be my dad, from a checking account, you know? I don't have any. You don't have any unclaimed money? It says there were no exact matches. So let me see how you claim the unclaimed money.

View unclaimed property. Okay, you need to do this on another day. Okay, okay, I'll do it also. Okay. Okay, so real quick, do you think Army Hammer eats people? Well, if the messages are true, then, yeah, he likes to, you know, it's his thing allegedly

because he has denied it okay he has come out with the statement let's just go ahead and set it up right because so Army Hammer has said

he doesn't want to be a part of the Me Chu movement he has come out stupid he's like he's like oh he is

he's it uh over the weekend in one of the craziest stories I've seen one of the craziest stories I've seen. It was a bunch of DMs allegedly from Army Hammer

when he was talking to women about eating them saying like he wanted to drink their blood and eat their body farts. Break their rib and barbecue it. Barbecue their ribs. Wow. Like demanding these women call him daddy and saying all of them are rape,

biting, and apparently I I was able to, I wasn't able to track it down to like one source. And we didn't cover it at all. Listen, we didn't cover this. Rachel still laughing. We didn't cover this at all. We could have covered this on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, army. Hammer has come out and, and, and, and sort of address the allegations.

He said, I'm not responding, which is a, our army. Come on. He said, I'm not responding to these bullshit claims, but in light of the vicious and spurious. Here it goes. God damn. So I'm talking about spurious. Online attacks against me,

I cannot in good conscience now leave my children for four months to shoot a film in the Dominican Republic. Lionsgate was supporting me in this, and I'm grateful for them for that. So I guess what he's not doing is there was a movie with him and J-Lo called Shotgun Wedding, that he was supposed to go shoot in the DR, and he's not going to do the movie now.

Lions Gates said, can you please just take time and spend time with your family at this moment. We don't need this kind of publicity. We don't need it. Well, they have to... That's... Well, yeah, well, you're right.

Because Lions games got to make sure whether or not there's any validity to this, right? They got to make sense with it. Right. And maybe we don't know what type of investigation they're doing, but since these messages came out and they came out from a different account, two former girlfriends have come out,

and one, in full detail with page six, talked about the emotional abuse that she felt in their relationship. And at first she just thought he was kind of quirky and it was a little weird. But then she said it took it too far. She had PTSD afterwards. I mean, she gave a full account. And another woman did as well. So, I mean, you know, where there's smoke, there's fire.

They have since dug up some of his Twitter activity and they have seen things that he's liked. They have pulled out. What was he liking? It was like, like, somebody was like tied up and leather. And the other thing was like poking at her. Like, like she was trapped. Like she could move. And it was like something with her nipples.

It was, I saw, I like saw it quickly. I love puritanical Quaker rage. And then there was like a playboy interview. But that one wasn't, that wasn't even that bad. But just people are just digging up everything that Army Hammer has done. What do you think? I mean, when I saw it, I was like, this is wild. I'm not going to pay attention to this.

And then the ex-girlfriend started speaking. Then he pulled out from the movie. Yeah. And he's going into hiding. The behavior since the news broke is suspect. This is what I always wonder about stuff like this. If you're Army Hammer, and once again, allegedly, because we don't know, if you're Army Hammer and how do you decide who you're going to

let into the Mechoo area of your life. Like, how do you, how do, because the moment that those text messages go out and you say you want to eat somebody's heart and dripping the blood and all of that stuff, you can't take that back. So to me, the only thing that would make me think that he didn't do this is it would be wild reckless for him to be going on like this if, in fact, he knew that these women were going to have access to these text messages forever. This is like the type of stuff that's really, really, really disturbing.

It's like Clary Starlin on the case to try to track down Army Hammer. It seems like in reading the ex-girlfriend's account, it seems like the emotional, allegedly, the emotional abuse that comes, that he puts on these women in these relationships, it seems like he breaks them down to where they need him, you know? And so they're so broken. And it seems like he almost goes after a certain type of, yeah. Yeah. Like a certain type of woman.

And it's where he's controlling them. And so it's, yeah, I know I can understand how. Because when I hear her talk, it's like before she knew it, she was caught up all up in it and didn't even realize how far it had gone. You know, you start saying yes to some things. Yeah. And then you reason it. Oh, you're right. And then you just, before you know it, you're in too deep.

And then you love them and you don't know how to get out of it. So, yeah. It's the same way that happened because I watched that, that the vial with Keith Reneer, the Nexium thing on HBO. Oh, yeah, I haven't seen that. And it starts off with, hey, just send a picture of this. Hey, send a picture of that.

Before you know it, you're naked, getting branded and pregnant. You know, so it's definitely, there's definitely a way to that sort of manipulation. And that type of, I guess, mind. control. But look, this is not in any way to say that Army Hammer did any of this stuff, but it's to say that those are some, those was, it was so weird

that we were like, we can't really talk about this because it's just like some talk online. But then I guess he decided that he couldn't go do a movie or a movie got put on on hold. Now you have to wonder. I'm wondering now, with the women that you're saying that ex-girlfriends that came forward that were talking about him. Were they talking about the specific allegations of the quasi-cannibalism stuff,

or were they talking about different things and different ways that he would be towards them? So the one I read, she did say, she's the one who said about the break your rib off and barbecue and eat it. She talked about how like, like, oh, like, oh, you have a cut. I'd love to suck the blood out of it type thing where she was like, that's kind of weird, but okay. I mean, one girlfriend said that he said he wanted to break her toe off and keep it in his pocket so he could keep a piece of her always with him. I mean, that's like that's what, man. That's kind of romantic, you know what I mean? You know what, man. Like you got somebody's big toe?

Well, we know what movement you want to be a part of. Oh. Okay. I can't get over it. I can't get over the name of the food. I can't get over it. Meet you move. I can't.

listen, I, you know, I, that's a lot. That's very, you know, for the women who, you know, have come out and spoken about it and who have been victimized, you know, I don't want to knock anyone's story, but, you know, like, our thoughts are with you. Because that's, that is some heavy stuff. And I can't imagine going going through that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Wow. What a crazy time that we're in in terms of the news. All right, we got to get to it now. I watched it. I watched The Bachelor. You saw the second episode?

I saw the second episode. Okay. And. Okay. So a couple of things. Okay. All right. So we're going to get to the weeny rose later.

We are not. We are. We're going to get to the Matt James weenie rose later. We're going to get to the weenie rose later. Overall, this is a very solid episode of television I watched. Okay. There are a lot of things that happened to me. I like stupid shit.

Okay. And, you know, going on an ATV and then getting money and then all of a sudden there being a hot tub in the middle of the woods, it's dumb as hell. So I was into that. It's so dumb. It's the dumbest thing. It's so stupid. Why is it so stupid? Well, it...

It was their date. It was the date set up. It's not like he said, hey, I... It's dumb. Okay. It's dumb. It's very bachelor. Very bachelor and dumb.

I like the date overall. It was pretty cool. But, you know, I got to be honest with you. I think there are two storylines in this particular episode that were dealt. One was what I feel like is a clear-cut Bachelor frontrunner that's appearing before our eyes on the show. She's Bree. I feel like Bree is the frontrunner right now, you know.

Bree has, she checks all the boxes. Just enough color for Matt to be okay with it. She's, it's working. Okay. And then also, yo, we have got to end the reign of terror that is known as Victoria. It's too much. It's too much too soon. She's not a good villain.

It's way over the time. It's, yeah. It's way over the top. I'm sure they want her to play it up and do this whole thing. But it's just too much for me. She's just the most fucking annoying person. I'll tell you, a good. good villain, one is funny.

They're witty. They're calculated, but they're still, you can tell when they're good because they're friends with the people in the house. This girl doesn't, she's trying to be every characteristic of a bachelor, bachelor, bachelorette villain all into one episode. It's, I'm convinced she's an actress. Like, even like the, like, just the whole, the whole appearance of it all just doesn't fit within the show.

Like, none of it just seems right. It's like I know the Bachelor It's Shemotty TV and it's a TV thing But there's a part of you that's supposed to be kind of into the actuality of it And it's hard to do with someone who's straight out of central casting with that So she's ruining my bachelor a little bit I needed to go at first I thought she was okay

No you don't like it She's extreme She's extreme She's extreme You said you hate her I did not Do you know that like Look people have called me out

Rightfully so sometimes On this podcast for pandering to women I've been called out for it That's the thing Having said that It's still kind of hard for me to watch Women Participate in like a paint war

Over men It The problem is I'm too obsessed with race I'm race obsessed, let's be honest. Okay. So what about this got to you? Because I always change things in my mind. I do it.

I go places. I'm at the ATM. The ATM says we don't have funds. No funds in the ATM. The ATM is broken. And I go to the ATM, you would have had my money if I was a white man. You know what I mean?

I'm race obsessed. I do it to the electronics. Sometimes I accuse my Xbox of racism. Wow. You know what I mean? But and so when I was... So this was black against white? It wasn't black against white, but I made it that way in my head.

That's what I'm saying. That's what you're saying. Because I'm watching this and I'm thinking, what if this was like 15 black dudes, like all having a paintball war for a white chick? Or not even a white chick. What if it was 15? black people all having a paint ball

war for white people. Like what if that was, how would that make me feel in watching that? And I know it's for TV, but I would be so disgusted. And I think, how can women sign off on a Bachelor,

man? That shit is fucking terrible. I'm sorry, dog. That shit is all fucked up. That's not, am I being too Gloria Steinem right now?

That shit is fucked up. I don't know where we are. I don't know which world we're in. Are we in the black? I mean, did you come back to what really happened? Are you talking about what you imagined in your head? I'm out of that world. I'm back in the real world.

Like, is that, I just felt it's weird to me to watch you. I guess it's, we didn't do anything like that when I was on. We didn't fight each other. We played volleyball. We played beach volleyball and had a competition. I wasn't involved in anything. I'm really trying to remember if I, now on my season, there was like, we were in.

in Denmark and there was a Viking, we had Vikings. And it's like they had to, we'd to row across the water. And then we learned different Viking games. And at the end, there was like a competition and the men had to actually fight one another. Like who was the best one. You actually probably would have enjoyed this type of day. Doesn't bother me so much for men. Because it's men?

It doesn't bother me so much for men. Let the men fight for a lady. But see, I actually, I just love competition. So to me, when I watched this date, I thought that would have been fun. Like, capture the flag. Like, I'm just super competitive when it comes to that stuff. So I would have loved that type of date. I wouldn't have thought of it the way that you did.

I'm too fat to watch people waste cake, too. Well, that's what the real issue is. Let's just be honest. It has nothing to do with race. It's not the fact that the women were fighting each other. It's the food. I was like, I'll eat that cake. I don't want to, why you throw cake?

So you would have been sitting at a corner. They would have kept shooting the cake. camera over two, you would have been sitting behind the tree. Eating the cake. Eating the cake. Eating the cake, can I mean. Oh, okay. So you had that and you had a girl pass out at the end.

We don't know who got the last rose. Yeah. I'm sure she's fine. Give her some electrolytes. Hopefully she's okay. So look, the Matt James weeny roast is how much of a weenie

was on each episode? of the bachelor. Okay. Normally, it's normally, you know what I'm saying? The worst is if you got a five-weeney episode. That's the worst. The best is a one-weeney,

a single Oscar-Mire, if you will. I would like to reiterate that I am not participating in this roast. You're a part of the Matt James Weenie roast. It's my proxy. Well, not by process.

By association. Yeah, definitely not by proxy. You're part of the Matt James Weenie roast. Okay. So I give Matt three weanies for this episode. I'll tell you why. You raised it from the first episode. This would have only been a two,

two and a half weenie episode. But let me tell you what the biggest weanest move of this whole episode by Matt James was. The biggest move was that Victoria came to Matt and ratted out the lady. What was her name? Marilyn. Maryland.

Victoria came to Matt, rated out Maryland. And Matt took Victoria seriously. Maryland, who is a normal human being who's living with fucking Gargamel, had to end up going and apologizing and embarrassing herself on television because Mr. Ascomaya himself

couldn't see through the obvious, obvious, crazy person of the show. I don't even want to say crazy and stigmatized mental health. I want to say the villain of the show. When he went for that, I'm like, yo, Krinus de Weenis, what are you doing? What are you doing?

That actually got him 0.5 all the way up to 1.5 more weenis on this episode. So I want to repeat that I am not participating in the roast, but I would like to add something. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah, hell yeah. Bring it, Rach. No, no, no.

Just to go along with your theory, we did have Matt James on my Bachelor podcast. And we talked about Victoria. And he goes, you don't like her? And we said, Bob Winnis. He said, I said, you did?

And he goes, she's funny. And I said, where? She hasn't done anything that's funny. Wait, wait. And I go, when was she funny? Can you please give me an example from what we're seeing? He's like, you didn't think it was funny the way she talked to Maryland? Strike.

Strike, Matt James. Matt James. I said, no, I don't like to see a bully. Five winness. Bulldoze over somebody who can't defend themselves. Poor Merrill. It was pitiful. It was painful. It was painful to watch.

He thought that was funny. I was shocked. No. A we're righting. Are we writing this down? No. Five out of five. Five out of five.

I'm merely providing information. I am not, I repeat. I am not participating in the weenie roast. I just wanted to provide more. provide more information. Matt, you just got him an extra 1.5. I did not. I just was simply giving the facts. You just, you, I didn't know nothing about that. You got him an extra 1.5 winness.

I will not take responsibility. I will not take responsibility for this. That's a five. As a matter of fact, how about this? For the rest of the season, he starts at five and works his way down. That's, he starts five wieners, everything. That's all you. Mailback, let's do it, Jackson. Come on. From Lexi Ford. What's your most and least favorite condiment?

Ooh. Oh, God. Well, we all know I'm not a foodie. So I'm not really in the condiments. The worst I would say is mayonnaise. I don't like it at all. Right. Smells to me.

I guess the best is ketchup. Van's going to have some elaborate thought as to why. You know how you talk about it. food. I mean, just a second ago, you were eating cake behind the tree. You know what I mean? On the group date. So go ahead. Explain what's the best and the worst for you. It's very simple. The best to me is ranch. The worst to me. The best to me is ranch. The worst to me is mayonnaise, which is weird because ranch and mayonnaise are kind of like cousins. Is it consistency? It just tells you one thing right there that it just takes, you know, one extra parent to fuck all your

cousins up. You know, some cousins you love, some cousins you hate. Ranch and mayonnaise are cousins, but ranch is better than mayonnaise. All right. And by the way, I don't like just like ranch. I like cranch. Do you know what cranch is? No. Cranch, they sell it. It's ketchup and mayonnaise mix. ketchup and ranch mix. That's so disgusting. It's a ketchup and rants mix. That's cranch. I got some in the, in the refrigerator right now. Put a little crunch. Like they sell it or you made it? No, they sell crunch. That's disgusting. Whatever. Move on. Jackson. From Kelly Owens, what's the advice you'd give to your younger self?

Man. Oh, Jesus Christ. I think I tell my younger self that you're okay. How young are we talking about? We're talking about, like, which, like how old? I think that's up to you. Let's go to 20s. Let's go to 20s. 20s. I'd say you're cool. you're okay, you're all right. Don't worry about it.

Like it's going to be okay. No, not that it's going to be okay. Like you're okay now. It doesn't feel like you're okay. There are some things happening with you that like you don't, not that you're okay. I'd say it's not your fault. Gotcha.

I'd say just don't worry about it. It's not your fault. There'll be a time where you'll start to figure it all out. That's what I would tell. Okay. mine would be you don't have to please everyone. Oh wow.

And it's going to be okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. See, that's a real introspective question, Jackson. I don't know. You kind of ruined everything. You should have picked something else. I see some other questions on there.

And that made me sad for a second. Because I'm thinking about mailbag's a bit of a roller coaster. You're going to be happy, sad. We're going to be going more funny ones coming. Well, we know not to go back to the 20s. Yeah. I'm thinking about a 370 pound dude

eating his soap to death. You, Jackson, move on with the fucking mailbag I didn't say 20s. He's projecting. He's projecting. He's projecting. All right.

This one's fun. Sure. Where's Abby? From Diandre Viejos. From DeAndre Viejos, what is something your parents told you when you were younger that you fully believed only to realize later it wasn't true?

Example, you can't drive with the lights on inside of the car. Oh, something that my parents told me when you were young. younger that you fully believed only to realize later. What a fucking fantastic question that it wasn't true. I feel like you probably have a really good story. Oh, I do, but we don't have a lot of time.

That leaving the refrigerator open makes the entire house cool. No, it don't. It makes the stuff inside the refrigerator warm. But I would leave the refrigerator open and my dad would be like, what are you trying to cool off the whole house? What you're doing? Close the door. It doesn't make the house cool at all.

the stuff gets warm but that doesn't make you know what I'll be honest with you I'll keep it all away gangster 80% lies that you were told as a kid 8 out of 10 nigger

80% 80% completely untrue I know you don't because all your parents did was read you Bible verses but like right but for me

literally 8 out of 10 like you go somewhere with your uncle be like, who is that woman talking to uncle like that? Oh, that's just his friend. Don't worry about that. Don't tell your auntie, nothing.

All, like, I'm telling you, like, eight out of ten, lies. Lies. That's, that he answers for me because I don't, he's right. They didn't really lie. At least I don't know if they did. They lied? I'm sure they lied. I just can't, I'm sure they lied to me.

I just can't think of something. I just can't think of it right now. Yeah, Jim, lies. Good question, D'Andre. All right. No, we can do another one. From akin Bruce, what's something most people don't know about you? Something that most people don't know about you,

that I am actually a people pleaser. I don't think people know that, that I actually, as problematic as I am, that I actually want people to like me. I think people see that. Oh, wow. Maybe they don't. Maybe that's just me speaking out. Well, I'm so, I'm so like argumentative and opinionated

you would think that that wouldn't be the truth, right? But I'm the kind of person that beats you down with his opinion. And afterwards go, hey, man, let's go to Sonic. Anyway, what about you? See, I'm not. I'll be like, and I'm done with you. Fuck your feelings. What about you?

What people don't know about me? Something people don't know about me. I played the piano, classic piano for years in concerts. And I was, I played for church, starting at age 11 all the way to 18. Oh!

Oh, you play songs. Can you still play? I don't think so. I haven't been around a piano, and it's really sad. I went from 5 to 18. I was in competitions, and then I went to church and played. I played in Sunday school.

And I really think maybe it would come to me. Maybe some of the church songs would come to me. But yeah. Waste of talent. Waste of talent. You don't think you can remember anything, though. Maybe. If I sat down at a piano,

maybe it would come to me. I'd feel the spirit. Yeah. All right, that's enough male black. Mel Black. That's enough mail back. Jackson, thank you for picking the questions that either stumped us

or made us have to like combat our inner child. You do such a great job at your game, at your job, you know what I mean? What would we be without Jackson? What would we be without Jackson is the question. It's a real question. Whatever. All right.

You got to expect that out of me? No. You don't. I am. Well, I do, but I really don't feel like giving it to anybody because I feel so disappointed. I'm serious. I feel so disappointed by the things that have transpired.

this week. You know, I'm not going to give a hand clap to the 10 Republicans in the House that voted the way that they should happen to come to impeachment. I'm not giving you. I'm not doing that. The best thing I could think of is Airbnb.

Why would they do? I don't want to get the story wrong. I don't have it pulled up. But Airbnb in anticipation of what could possibly happen at the Capitol, I believe they are canceling their reservations. They're not allowing people to come in,

stay in place on their property so they can go possibly do damage or worse like what happened last week. So good for them for being proactive. Yeah, I don't have nothing spent it out. It's tough, right? It's tough. It's getting tougher.

I'll make sure that, you know, we have one next week if people deserve it. But there's a lot of shit going on and, you know, we have to work through it. You guys, make sure you take breaks. We tell you take your thing caps off, but make sure you're able to decompress from some of this stuff, man.

It's really, really heavy out here. And we haven't even on this podcast talked about COVID. So my God. All right. That's enough for us. Our learning is over. Take you thin caps off. But do not stop learning.

I am Van Lathen. I'm Rachel Lindsay. We out.