Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Jay-Z Closes Out 30th Anniversary Tour in L.A., and the 2026 Midterm Elections Are Here

Episode Date: October 27, 2026

Higher Learning is back!! On today’s show, Van and Rachel talk about gaming, Soul Food, and Jay-Z closing out his 30th anniversary tour in L.A. Plus, they break down the key senate races in the 2026 midterm elections, Vivek Ramaswamy’s horrendous ad, and Van gets deep into Greek mythology. (00:00) Welcome to Higher Learning (41:00) Jay-Z’s star-studded L.A. finale (56:35) 2026 midterm elections (1:26:40) Greek freaks (1:42:38) Ramaswamy is just the worst Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Marco Escalante and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Oscar De La Luz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, y'all thought warriors. High Learning is on as I Van Lazy's Jr. And it's me, Rachel. So let's talk about the game. Okay? Let's talk about the game. I don't think women understand the game. Not the game as in game.

First of all, that's, no. Zodge. No, no, no, I got key. But women, women don't understand the game. Shout out to all the female gamers out there doing their things. There's a lot of female gamers. I want to shout out the young black female gamers that are on the game. game. Okay. So let me not do that. I drifted into the land of Saj and I pulled myself out of it.

Saj out. Okay. No Saj. You got a recliner there. Now I drifted because I got out. Tokyo drift. Okay. Now, sometimes I'll say this. I will say the way I feel. No generalizations, no drifting into the land of Sajj. sometimes it feels like the time spent playing the game your significant other might not understand what you really doing the game is another planet it's another realm, it's another world

I get that you don't have to leave a house and go out to shout out to Boil and Rue back in Baton Rouge I don't know if they still open shout out to the GS Sports Lounge shout out to all of these different places that you go to experience a different world I can experience a different world inside of the game. I'm on college football.

I'm recruiting. I'm talking to kids. That's from Homa. That's from Metery. I'm offering scholarships. I'm trying to get them to come to LSU. That's in the game. I'm offering kids.

I got so many hours to recruit. I can send the house. I could check their social media. I can contact their family and friends. I can try to flip them. I got a prospect list. I'm on the game playing the game as coach Terry Lathen, coaching LSU to a championship,

but then I leave that and I'm going around a different, I'm trying to get a five-star out of Texas. Your neck of the world. How much do you average a day on the game? Not as much as you would think, because I don't have time. But the time that I do have for the game, can I experience a different world?

Because you know what I used to do? What? I used to go, get a little. a little olive oil, did a little coconut oil, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, zip, and go to the... You entered a different world, another world. The game is helping. You know what I'm saying? I'm off that.

So I don't understand though why. And can I, can we broach this subject in love? Why does doing something that makes me happy, why does it have to be criticized? This is a subjective thing. Because it doesn't happen to me as much. I'm not saying it happens to me as much. But as soon as we got it, you guys were talking about, you were like, I don't like a nigga who played a game.

That's what you said. No, I didn't say that. I said, I've never, no, I didn't say that. I said I've never dated somebody who plays the game like that. That's what I said. So I actually don't know this. Would you date a man that love to play the game? Yeah, like a few years, the guy I dated before I went on The Bachelor,

he played video games and that never bothered me. Right. Because that's your hobby. That's what you do. He didn't play all day every day, but he might spend like three or four hours in the game. okay like that doesn't I've just never dated somebody who maybe that's all they do which I would imagine that's what people complain about so I didn't say I don't like it I said I've never really dated anybody who was a gamer there is a thought sometimes from some brothers because me

and the brothers would talk about this sometimes that like you know when we having our own time that maybe that bothers the sisters a little bit maybe you know why would that bother the fact that you do in your thing, because I do my thing. I don't want to be bothered. So I'm not going to do that to you. Yeah. I love for people to have hobbies and interests.

I actually love to understand your hobby and interests. I actually like for it to be sometimes opposite than mine, because then I can go into your world and experience something new. It's why I've never dated somebody who does, worked in law. I always thought that would be boring. And I didn't want to like, well, you should do it like this. Well, you should do it like this. I like dating somebody who does somebody totally different than me.

So when I come home, I'm like, tell me what you did today. Like, tell me what you do. I think this is so interesting. I want to dive into your world. Are women ever annoyed about the fact that like guys could have fun doing almost anything? I don't understand this. That is a miserable. I understand.

I'm not going to take away your feeling, but I could not even imagine my brain. Jade, time in. I couldn't imagine my brain sitting there watching you enjoy something and being like this. No, you know what happens sometimes? You know what happens sometimes? You know what happens sometimes?

Who are these people? I think sometimes it does feel like women feel like they have to stop men from engaging in hijinks and shenanigans because there are hijinks can go too far. And so sometimes I think this comes from the fact that women feel like men are always unsurious, engaging in hijinks and shenanigans. And they have to be serious all the time. So when I'm playing the game or when I'm like, you know, me and my boys come over,

sometimes we'll time each other in the 40. Like when we're like trying to do what's up. Shout out to Layla. Oh, shout out to Layla. Layla got you those because I got them too. Shout out to Laila. Actually, shout out to the whole Nike bag that Laila said. Nike's quick.

You didn't post. I got the same ones with Twitter. I forgot to post. I'm going to post it pretty soon. Shout out to actively black always, you know. But you're wrapping both. Ripping both. But yeah, shout out to Laila, man.

I got a post. Did you post? No, I didn't post you. Man, Layla. And that's my girl. Layla. Okay. But look, it sometimes feels like, because here's what happens.

This is why I can understand it. So, you know, we're out there and the homeboys get together and we start talking about like, who can run the 40. Now, here's the thing. See, if I walked up on this conversation, this will be funny to me. Now, here's the thing. If there's anything that men do not know about is their 40 time. The funniest thing to do right now, anybody that's watching or listening to me, just go on Twitter. Twitter and ask, what do you think you run in the 40?

And you're going to hear guys come back and go, you know, I ain't ran in a while, but I think I can get about a four or five. Anything, anything under five is ridiculous. You guys, I understand. Just so y'all know, a four, five is flying, okay? A four or five is flying. You are flying. You have a jetpack on.

What do you think at your peak you could have run the 40-in? I was not a 40-10. type of guy. Okay. I appreciate the honesty. From other places. I was quick, not fast. Good feet.

Get in and out of space. And I could use leverage and all the rest of my skills. It's not a 40. I was faster than you thought. But being sudden like that, that wasn't my thing. The way you just answered that lets me know you have been asked and that is how you've approached the answer before. Like you got your answer ready to go.

I've run the 40. Like I've run the 40. And what wasn't it? It was a 4-8, the best I could ever do. Okay. The best I'm talking about that's Vand. That's better than I thought. That's van at like 220 pounds, six for the best I could ever do, right?

Like the best I could ever do. That's like, that's not fast. I was not fast like that. Like I could jump above the rim, all of that stuff, but just wasn't sudden like that. But that, because of that, I know that everyone is so much slower than they think that they are. everyone. So when we get around each other sometimes, it's like, you know, back in the day, man, you know, I could get you about a, I could get you about a four, five, four, whatever.

I think I could go four or six right now and then I go, and this is my, you can't, bro, you can't run a four six right now, bro. You can't run a four six right now. No, you're not going to run a four six, bro. Nobody this bitch is breaking five. Why is the 40 the measure? Because that's a hard thing. It's not like, I don't know.

Like why, I obviously understand what the 40 is. But it's like, why do we use a fort? That is so hard to do. So this goes back. There's actually a video by a guy. I can't remember the guy on YouTube. Let me find his YouTube. And he actually does a whole breakdown about how speed is actually overrated in the NFL.

And he talks about John Ross and Xavier Worthy and it's not to denigrate these guys, but other guys who had these crazy 40 times. but for whatever reason, they can't get open, they can't stay on the field in the NFL. They're already still playing. Who knows what's going to happen

with his career? But he also gets into the history. I want to shout this out. He also gets into the history of the 40-yard dash when it was used as a barometer for speed and like what that means, all that stuff.

But you're getting around with your friends, you want to run the 40. And it has to be sometimes the ladies that come out and go, now listen, when somebody goes, to the hospital. We're not going to stop.

It was very funny because I remember one time it was my mama. My mama came out and my mom was looking around. She's like, now something's going to happen here. A calf, a hamstring, something's going to happen. And we still go fry this fish. So we are not stopping anything that we doing because y'all running the 40 in the street. So I understand is what I'm saying is sometimes women have to come in and stop the hijinks from ensuing because the

hijinks then have a cost, especially the older you get. Yeah, we just got to bring you back to reality. This reminds me. That's bringing back to reality. It's what women sometimes are up there. It reminds me the video of those men. Remember the football players? They were out there. Like, well, they were in their 50s and 60s out there. It's like, it's also like a dream. I don't know. I don't know. Whatever.

Video game doesn't bother me. This guy's name is Michael McElvey. This is the 40 man. This is a guy who is making long-form video. videos on YouTube about different things I have to do with sports. These are videos are like half an hour long and stuff. But he one, he makes one about speed in the NFL. These are great, great, great videos.

One of them is about how we can't really identify talent. He does another one on star rankings in high school and which positions star rankings matter at because star rankings really matter at running. They almost don't matter at quarterback. And it's really phenomenal the way he goes into this stuff. He's really awesome. Okay, so this weekend I went to a mafia party, which I think you would be very good at, by the way.

Have you ever played? No. You would be so much fun. And I'm gonna bring you to the next one. Because you said you heard that I went to this one last month. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I went back to this one. Okay, sweet.

And we all dressed up as characters for Halloween. Oh, nice. The theme was 90s, 2000 gangsters. I went his cousin Faith. There you go. Clearly she was one, right? Within her own family. And I watched Soul Food.

And I know we talked about Samuel before. But I watched Soul Food for research purposes this weekend. And I can't remember, did we talk? Because I was really thinking about this. Did we talk about Bird and Lim and what Bird did? This taps into Gender Wars Talk. did we talk about whether or not Bird was wrong or right for what she did by calling up Simul to help Lim get a job?

I don't think we talked about the specific... Because I was really thinking about this. I mean, she was dead wrong, right? But I don't think we talked about specifically whether or not she was wrong or right. We just talked about what happened. Because they both were wrong. No. Oh, let's do it.

No. Let me tell you why they both are. She is wrong, okay? because Lim, for those who haven't seen it, and you should, Lem loses his job. It should be on rewatchables.

This is a conversation for that. Yeah. Bill, get at me. Well, if we're to be on rewatchables, you would have to have watched it one time. So I don't know if they've seen that bitch, but. Let us take over. I've pitched this before for Thanksgiving.

This last time. Okay. Remigables. People with two, people tune in for the wrong reasons. Reneggibles. Think they're getting a different kind of show. Okay.

So, Lim. Loses his job. Lynn was in jail, loses job. He lied on his application about being in jail before, and they find out they fire him. He goes to his brother-in-law who's like, do not tell your wife.

All right. So he doesn't tell her. You know that ends bad. She finds out. And she's like, do you want me to help you? There's a lot of people who come through the shop. I might be able to ask some people, hey, you know, like, can you maybe find some work for my man?

He said, don't do that. I can find my own job. She goes, all right, okay, I'll let you. She doesn't listen. She calls up Samuel, who's her ex, who's always flirting and try to get with her, and ask him, basically flirts with him and ask him to help her man, Lim get a job. They concoct some kind of story. Lem comes home so excited.

This, like, broke my heart actually, to watch this in the movie. He's so excited to tell her that he did it. He had been on six job interviews. They all said no. The seventh one worked. They celebrate everything. He's so happy on the job.

He goes on the job. He gets the job done early. You know, he's working the press. They're like, he's like, man, really good job. He's like, yeah. He was like, yeah. I can work the car. I can work the car rate.

I can work the car rate. I can work the car rate. Yeah. He's like, yeah, I know how to do that. He's like, I can do that. Like, when? So proud of himself, right? gets the extra job and he's like, good job, man.

Like the guy on the boss is like, good job. Goals just eating his lunch, mind his own business. Here comes Samuel. Basically tells him, oh, you didn't know. You know, bird, bird, I know your wife. We call it Cola. Cola back in the day. Your wife, she asked me to help you get this job.

We got to help each other out. Okay, Lim obviously upset, beats him up, loses the job. Bam, comes to birds. Like, it's a, it's a, what's the chain ball? Thank you. chain ball. I couldn't think of it's too bad with things and stuff like this.

A chain reaction, a bad event. No, no, no, that's a chain ball. No, fuck that shit. It's not, it's a chain ball. Hey, next time something happens, that beast is a chain ball. That's a new shit. Put it right here.

Lower thirds. Like a series of events that happens in a row. I'm so bad at stuff like that. Okay, go ahead. Chain reaction. All right. So, you know, whatever, goes to jail, all this stuff.

Like, people think he beat up Bird. All right. I just couldn't get this scene out of my mind. It broke my heart that he was so happy and was so proud of himself. And I'm like, Bird was obviously wrong for going behind his back, especially because she got mad at him for lying to her about him still having a job that he did not have. So then she goes out and does something he asked him not to do. However, Lim is wrong. too. Wow. Because your wife is trying to say, hey, a lot of people, the shop is doing really well.

A lot of people come through this shop. I might be able to ask one of my clients. Didn't have to be a man. I might be able to ask any one of my clients. And Lim refused help from his wife. His pride would not let him. I'm not saying this should have been Simul, but his pride would not let him, let his wife help him get a job.

At the end of the day, the goal is the betterment of their family and the success for them as a family, as a unit. And his pride said, no, I can do this on my own, which left her desperate in the situation. She was wrong, but I thought they both were. And if men and women could just both put their pride or whatever it be to the side and come together, what she should have said was later,

I'm your wife. I'm not saying you can't do it on your own, but we're a partnership. Let me help you. It doesn't make you any less of a man. It doesn't mean anything and nobody has to know. Yeah. But let me help you for us. Yeah, yeah.

Well said. So this is what I would say. So there are two different questions being asked. The first question is whether or not Lim was wrong for not accepting help. The answer is probably yes, right? That's separate from whether or not she should have gone to her ex to get a job from him. That's its own thing. Yes.

Because that is something that A, she knows he would not want her to do. She violated twice. She violated insofar as she completely disregarded his wishes, which whether or not his wishes were wrongheaded or not. not, he made it clear what he wanted. And she disregarded those wishes. Then she disregarded those wishes with someone who had a romantic interest in her. Then she also accepted a gift from that person because she was wearing a bracelet that Simul of St. James had bought her when Lim crashed into the goddamn place on some

baseline abusive type shit. So all of that is dead wrong. And it's front of mind dead wrong. And you know what it tells me? What? It tells me that Lim probably had reasons that he did not want her help. Because he probably had reasons he did not want her help. Why?

Because the fact that she didn't respect the boundaries that he said tells me that he feels like he has to be something more to her for her to respect him. Because the disrespect that she engaged in was pretty profound. Not only did she not listen to him, but she went to a man who wants to fuck her to get the job for her husband. Now, you can look at that as look what she would do. The only problem with that is that accepting the gift tells me that there's some things that Bird did not get. No, Bird is very, she's the youngest. That's one of her character.

So what I'm saying is if I'm a limb in that situation, he probably felt unsafe to be vulnerable with his wife because I'm just being for real because there was a tension outside of their relationship that she liked. The wearing of the bracelet changes this dynamic completely. It's one thing to go to somebody and do something that you don't want to do

because your husband needs a job. I get that. But once you kind of examine, accept that, then the gift, then that says something else. I want to say another thing. Samuel St. James came to the wedding. Her sisters admonished her. Why would you let that man fill you up in his wedding gown and your wedding gown?

At that same time, Lim. Thank you. Thank you. Was on the day. I love that scene. Thank you. At the same time.

So Lim and Bird both had some things. that were going on. But go ahead. Tell him, Lim was not for one minute. It was like a whole, it was two songs. It was a song.

He was dancing. He was dancing with, and we never get the explanation why his ex-girlfriend was there. Or why Samuel St. James was there? Which she asked, she said, who invited him? Lim's ex-girlfriend was bumping and grinding on him.

Wearing a tight dress, her dress was coming up, her ass was out. It's grace. He was all over her. She was all over him. Yeah. And nobody said anything.

Anything. That's that. Big Mama jumped in. I know. I cried during that part. Yeah, Big Mama jumped in. It, like, it made me very emotional. You know why? Because if you watch that movie now with those ancestors having had transition.

Oh, I can't even. Like, if you, if, it is the first time I've watched. And if you, if you watch Soul Food now, this happened to me, if you watch Soul Food now, after those people that held your family together have transitioned, you feel a different way about what family means and what they were actually going through. They were trying to preserve their family knowing that the matriarch of their family wasn't going to be there to do it

and y'all, that is impossible. It's very, very, very difficult to do. In that scene, I'm going to cry now. When she jumped in and danced, I like had a visceral reaction. Like I burst out crying because I realized it was the first time that I watched the movie

since my grandmother had passed. So to your point, to your point, I was like, we went from gender wars to getting emotional. No, to your point, watching, like,

Thanksgiving's aren't the same anymore. Yeah. To, um, anyways, just like she talks about the fist and the fingers and how you all have to stick together. And I was like, man,

I'm trying to watch this movie to be cousin faith. And I'm over here having like this really emotional reaction to the movie. Anyways, got that out. point is,

let's stay in that real quick. No, I don't want to stay in this case. I don't want to say it because it was just of such a real, and that happens when that person dies, it really is. And she knew it, which is what she was trying to preach to them in the end,

like before, you know, it all happened. You know what I want to stay here, though? I'll tell you why I want to stay here, though. I want to stay here because we also deal with the pressure,

and it's the same pressure that that movie was dealing with. And the pressure is that, we cannot be those people. Sometimes the pressure that I feel is that I could never be my dad, is that my dad was so much stronger than me. And my dad was so much more capable. People respected him in a different way. He was so much more aloof to criticism.

He was so much less reactive that I couldn't possibly be what I'm supposed to be in my family because that way of being died with him. And in Soul Food, now we're doing the rewatchables, the renegibles. but in Soul Food, that family, everybody had to do a little bit of work, which is what they find out at the end of the movie, to replace that. And then they become that. So there's this generational fear that legitimately lose a recipes, which is what the movie is about, that once they're gone, we'll never get them back.

We might never get them back in that way, but no one would have known how to diffuse that except for Big Mama. And then the whole movie, they could never do it. until they went through the fire and figured it out at the end. Right, because... Even though the bird was wrong and you're so right.

You try to emulate what the ancestors did. Like you try to be like that person. Well, Big Mama did it like this. This person did it like this. And the reality is you're not that person, but pieces of you, of memories of you. And as you put them together as a unit, you represent what this person meant.

And then you go on and you create your own traditions. I mean, you keep the tradition, but you also are doing it in your own ways at the same time. It hits me because we have not, we didn't have, I remember the past the end of 2020. We had a Thanksgiving like that for the first time. Last Thanksgiving, we're not this year. And it was the next generation saying,

hey, we haven't been together like this since she passed. And we didn't do it at our house because it's just something different. Ridden in Airbnb all came together. It was like the most beautiful thing. And we're not doing it again this year. I actually said to my mom when I was just in Dallas week ago last week. I want to take it on myself that we do do this, if not every year,

every other year, because the matriarch would hate to know that her being gone, everybody's gone their separate ways. Like you're supposed to still keep it together, you know, and create the tradition. Anyways, all this to say, I want to go back to the gender wars. Lim and Bird both had their issues from the beginning. All couples do. But I don't want to discount that because you did assume facts that weren't in evidence when you assume some things about Byrd of he am not feeling safe because something deeper with you said something hold on hold on he don't don't didn't assume anything I said what I what I what I said was that there is evidence I'd actually did the other thing counselor don't law me I don't want to

get into big words okay that I don't understand chain ball yeah it's chain ball whatever You said like what I what I said was there is evidence that maybe she is not as in tune with his feelings as she should be being that she was wearing a bracelet. And for him in the scene and in the scene where they're talking about this where Lim and was it Kenny? Yeah. Like Kenny his brother-in-law they're talking about this. Lim is talking about the fact that he does not feel safe. He does not feel safe.

He doesn't feel safe coming home and saying, yo, I lost my job. He doesn't feel safe in being vulnerable. I'm not saying that that's 100% well-founded, right? But I am saying that the fact that she emasculates him by going behind his back to her ex and a form of cucking and he gets the job from him. then this accepting gifts for him is probably the reason why Lim probably knows he's with the baddest girl

in the hood and probably one of the reasons why he felt unsafe. He was not unsafe, insecure. And I just watched this movie. The unsafe thing, I'm not taking the way. I just watched this movie. Gosh, I can't believe we're doing a whole rewatchable. This is my yes, let me on the show.

I just watched this. A couple of things I want to say. There's a scene. Like, I don't remember all of this if I hadn't just seen it. I say insecure because I want to go back. You're right. That conversation between Kenny and Lim is so deep. He doesn't, he's, he's scared to tell Bird that he lost his job because he's already like, because the family doesn't. Oh, what, what you go to jail for? Oh, the sisters are looking at him already a certain way because Bird got the person who came out of jail. So there's an insecurity. I'm saying, they're wrong for, they're wrong for what they, who wouldn't feel insecure? Wait, wait, let me just say, they're wrong for what they, how they made him feel. But how could you not feel, especially. especially like Terry and Miles being a lawyer.

Of course you're going to feel a certain way like everybody's looking at you. So there's already that. So he comes to Kenny where he feels safe, right? Let me go to another black man. He's in the family. Kenny and him have this conversation of like, you can't go to your wife because your wife's going to do say this to you and this to you and make you feel this way.

So they agree. So it's already showing that you're right. There isn't this open line of communication where they feel they can be vulnerable enough to talk to their wives about what they're going through. They feel like they're going to be judged. However, when Bird finds out that he lost his job, she actually doesn't judge him. She, you know, he's at the house.

They didn't know he was there, scared him. She's like, why the fuck are you at home? He's like, I lost my job. And she's like, you didn't feel like you could tell me that. And he's like, Kenny told me not to tell you. She's like, why the fuck are you going to Kenny? And then she's like, what? And then he tells her.

And he's like, I've been on six interviews. Because at first she goes, don't do that black man. shit, right? And he goes, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm about to dive into this and pull this apart. She says, don't do that. And he goes, you don't know what it's like to be a black man out here. I've been on six interviews. And she goes, you're right. I don't know what it is to be a black man. And that's when he's like, I've been on these six jobs, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And she sits there and she listens to him and she goes, okay. You're like, she hears what she stops. Right. So at that moment, they hash it out. And she doesn't

keep going, you better get out there and find a job. That's no excuse, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. She hears him. He's vulnerable. You don't know what it's like. She's like, you're actually right. I don't. And in that moment, it's like that there's this breakthrough of, I'm telling you what it's

like and she receives it. Now she fucks it up. She still uses her. She fucks it up. I know. I'm not defending right. I'm just saying. So let me say a couple.

You can't say that she did actually hear him in that moment. So we've been on this for a while. Let me say a couple of things. We don't have a heavy news show either. We don't have a heavy show today. Let me say a couple of things. One is that I want to name the insecurity and unsafety thing that I'm, I want to name that piece of it. Because insecure is sort of being used in this situation as slightly a pejorative.

No, there's another scene I didn't mention. Okay, okay. Real quick. Miles is in the car. He picks Miles up in the car. Miles is coming home from school. Lim does. And Miles is in the car and they're talking.

And he's like, what are you doing? He's like, you all dressed up. He's like, I lost my job. Don't tell your aunt. And then they start talking. Miles opens a glove compartment because he tells him to get something, Miles sees the gun. Miles starts giving him big mama advice.

And he, at the end of it, he goes, maybe you just need to love yourself. Okay. So that's why I say there's this insecurity because he starts telling him how he messed up. There is an insecurity. It doesn't discredit what bird did. But let me... And Miles goes.

Let's play this out. Let's play this out a little bit. So he isn't insecure or unsafe around the men because there is no reason for him to put on airs around him. The boy knows. Kenny knows. He's not unsafe around them. The thing that makes him feel unsafe is.

his identity as a man as it is perceived around the women in the family. The women in the family who in that family run the family. They do. That is not a family that comes from patriarchy. That is a family that is a matriarchal family. Because the dad had to gamble. Because the dad had the gambling addiction. So there could be extra added pressure existing in that space for him.

Right. The reason why I use the term unsafe rather than insecure. is I use that term across the board. I don't look at somebody's insecurities as being something that is fabricated in their mind. There's always a reason. Now, that doesn't mean that you always have to submit to somebody's insecurities, but there's always a reason why someone feels like they can't be the best version of themselves. In that situation, I'm saying that his feeling of not being safe wasn't unfounded because,

Because after they establish a clear boundary that he set, she does what she wants to do anyway. Yeah. And she does it. And she does it probably because of her own feelings of not being safe around her sisters who are judging her husband. So they're at a table. And her sister, Terry, her other sister, these women are at loggerhead sometimes. And the family is judging her husband. So she probably feels that same sense of not insecurity,

but not being safe with her family to be like, Hey, Lim lost his job. So that makes her do this. The thing is, if everyone felt safe together, if everyone felt they could be the version of themselves that they actually are, yo, I fucked up. I'm a formerly incarcerated person. This is going to be hard.

If you love me, you're going to have to love me through this journey. Hey, I'm in love with this formerly incarcerated person. This love isn't going anywhere. We are going to have a family. If this family is going to love on limb, they're going to have to love on the version of limb that's right in front of them and not wanting limb to be Kenny

or wanting them to be Michael Beach's character. Miles. Miles who fucked the family. You're going to have to love on him the way it is. No one could really do that. And so all the wires got crossed. And then you uncrossed these wires in conflict. So what I'm saying here is what I want from people around me in my life and I am struggling for this, struggling because of how duplicitous and fucked up I can be, how much of my father isn't.

I just want people to be able to say, hey, Van, I don't feel safe around you or, hey, van, I don't feel safe, period. I want people to be able to get rid of all of that so that we can get to actually figuring these problems out. I, like in watching it back, you know, obviously you don't watch it like that the first time, it really is, like we always joke about the gender wars, but it really is an excellent movie to analyze it and also to show how much we need each other. Like I've always said that. I really think that men need women and women need men. I don't really, I don't subscribe to the whole.

I don't need a man. I don't need a woman. I think that we're best when we work together and we listen to each other and we figure things out together in a partnership. And obviously I know I'm speaking from a heterosexual point of view. I mean, I'm just saying like a partnership in general. I'm just talking about, yeah. Yeah, I just want to be respectful. I just want to acknowledge that.

But you said something that is so true. Despite Big Mama being the matriarch of the family, she did not emasculate. the men. The sisters did. And I actually think, listening to what you're saying, because I do think they're both wrong, Bird is very immature. She's the baby, and she's constantly making mistakes, but she's also trying to be her big sisters. Terry absolutely emasculates, man. And Big Mama even tells her, all right, now you need to pay attention to your own husband because you're on husband number two. She's constantly emasculating Miles. I laughed when I was watching it because I was like, Miles is a lawyer who quits to be a musician.

Love Miles. If there's a Miles out there. I loved that. But even with Miles, though, Miles did not feel comfortable. Because all the women are good. The way Terry talk, not Terry, Vivica Fox's husband's, I can't, character, I cannot think of her name. The way she talks to her husband. She's always like telling him, bossing him around.

Like there's not, and it works for them. Like he's, he's okay. They've been in this marriage the long. as we celebrate their anniversary within the movie, that dynamic works for them. But she's always telling him what to do, always bossing him around. And so there is this level of deferring to those women. I think Byrd was like, you know what? What would Terry do in this situation? What would Vivica Fox's character do? And she tried to do that. Maxine. And thank you, Maxine, and fuck the whole thing up. But in analyzing it and they come together in the end, it's like we have to work together.

Yeah, it's a fucking family. And last thing I say about this, because we have to, we have to get to the show. Last thing I'll say about this, last thing I'll say about this is like, you know, I come from my actual family. And so we had a,

I have a relative that like, my father was so happy when this person was released from prison. I remember we standing there, we're watching, we're waiting for him to get out of prison. Dad's watching. He's like, about to come out.

He's my dad. is like on top of the world. And, you know, I'm 12 or 13 at this point. I'm like, Dad, what did Uncle So-and-so do? And dad went to, are you going to tell me? You know, people make mistakes, son. Like, is somebody going to let me know like what this person did? Well, you know, we got high hopes for him.

Always have. You ain't never heard nobody sing like him. That's what they got to do. What does I have to do with? How do we get to his singing voice? But we were a family and our triumphs were together and our mistakes were together. And then people got out of jail, got out of situations and their life started the day they got home. Their life started the day they got out.

They came back to a room and that room was made up for them. And really, their past was that bed that you rearranged. and kept good for them. Let's see what you can do now. And because we only could rely on each other, I'm not saying that there were things that we accepted, that we should have accepted. I'm not saying that.

But what I'm saying is that we had no choice but to work these things out. There was no fucking choice but to figure it out. You had to figure it out because these were the only people that were going to be around you. It's not just your family, but it's your community too. And now what I wonder is that we are so righteous and so right with all of the right ideas and all of the right politics and the right set of understanding that we just feel like we can all do it alone. Try it. I don't agree to it. Try it.

We weren't meant to be. I'm not saying that we, I'm not asking you guys to go and listen to R. Kelly. Okay, I'm not saying that. I'm saying just, you know, inside of this whole people thing, there are going to be some mistakes made. And you got to find a way to litigate those mistakes in a way that remembers that at the end of the day, there's this connection that a lot of us have inside family and community

that we don't have as much choice about as we think. So full great move. And that ends our episode. The renegable. That was my audition. That was good. See? Look how we went through the whole movie, Rach.

And there's more we could do. Phenomenal. Because we even talk about fucking the family. I love soul food. We knew what was going to happen with her as soon as she popped in. She popped in. She's so beautiful, by the way. She popped in looking all.

It was as soon as she went and saw him sing. My mom was like, as soon as she, we watched it. My mom was like, mm. It wasn't there. I knew she was going to be true. trouble, but I was like when she went and saw Miles sing, I was like, but Miles, Miles saw himself in her. Yeah. Because she had that comment about the dancing, the dancing, the wanderlust, all that. He had no choice and then he hit it. Boy, Michael Beach, rough 90s. Love Michael Beach.

I just talked about this. Like, all right, all right. Can we get into the show now? Yes. Can we get into the show? Let's take a quick break on the other side. You got to go to the bathroom? I got to You go for it too. That's the coffee. On the other side is just let's get into the show. All right, we're back, Jay. Jay Z wrapped up his 30th anniversary concert series with two sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles on October 23rd and 24th, celebrating 30 years of reasonable doubt and 25 years of the blueprint. The weekend featured many surprise appearances featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Scarface, John Legend, and many more.

The night's sharpest turn came when Hove responded to social media chatter that the stadium was empty and that the stadium was empty and that the. the tickets had been given away, telling the crowd to question everything in this world of AI. Let's take a look. People still right there. Thank you. I got a real quick before a message for y'all tonight. You got to be very well what's going on in the world, right? People tell you that nobody was in here tonight, but you got eyes.

You can see. People tell you. you that the music wasn't great but you got to ask you got to understand you got to question everything it's been going to forever a lot of everything it's been going on forever right he called it's not a propaganda before but now technology is called up on us people can trick a lot of technology for us so artificial intelligence because it's been looking at you guys it's been to get us you got real intelligence it's not artificial intelligence We feel, right?

This concert tonight, we fell. But stupid trade came out, we felt. Rachel, you were at the show. Which one did you go to? I went the first night. Okay, so how was it? I had to go. I had to.

It was a very last-minute decision. Why? I acted like... Well, because, you know. You went to a dialogue. We hold... Oh, by the way. Shout out to...

Never mind. Who? Shout out to. Nothing. No, I got to know now. I want to know. Nothing. What people do.

So, that thing... that thing, the dialogue thing, you know what I'm talking about? No, what did you know? So the Peter Till big conference thing. Oh, okay, okay. I was invited to that. I missed the invitation. Oh, you would have gone?

I don't know. I don't think that I knew that, like, I, it was in my email from months ago, I was invited to it. You just happened to come across it or somebody said, hey, you were invited. I was looking for a different email, searching back through the company emails. And it had been forwarded. Wow. And I did, now, God be covering me.

Missed it didn't go. No, I'll never be at that bitch. But well, maybe they'll hear this. Maybe, maybe they'll say, maybe there is some interest. Maybe he'll want to do something. No, no, no, no, no. It was just a funny thing that happened. It is interesting that they invited you.

Yeah. Ah. No, I had to, I said it. When we had Jamel in this podcast and she was like, there's no way that he comes to LA and I'm, be it my husband are going. I said, and if for some reason you get rid of your tickets, I want them. I went to go.

Last minute decision to go. I went, I had a great time. Now, what I'll say is, this is why I think people were talking about it. So I went the first night. Show was supposed to start at eight. This was listed on the tickets. I got there. I was always going to get there beyond at nine.

We get there around nine. When you walked in, at nine, it looked empty. So that's what I think maybe people would look like. I will also say the energy was very just blah. People weren't, like compared to, I'll just compare it to Cowboy Carter having gone there. It was like, it was a different crowd. People were like excited. They just like people singing day.

It was different. It was very chill. Where I was like, wow, they didn't really have like a DJ going off in between. And I thought, I'm very curious to see what this show is going to be like. man, as soon as the show started at 930, completely packed out because I was in line getting a drink. So I came back and I'm like, bam, it filled up just that quickly. The energy was fantastic.

It was absolutely sold out. All this people, and maybe this is just an L.A. thing. I'm not used to this. Everybody being like, I get you being excited, who is he going to bring out? Who's he going to bring out? Because of what he did in New York, I really was there to watch a JZ concert. Yeah. Now for me to be from Texas and for Scarface to come out, I was over the moon.

I mean, and I went with a friend who was from Texas. I was like Scarface. Then he also. Shibuzi? Now why would I be with him? For multiple reasons. Why would I be with Shibuzy? I don't know why.

I'm sorry. She was also not from Texas. He's from Houston. No, he's not. He's from like West Virginia. For real? Wow. Think about it.

That explains a lot. Yeah. No, I was with my girlfriend, Tyler. And we were excited. He also did, my mind is playing tricks on me. Did Bushwick Bills first. Yeah, just talked about that song. Yeah.

And that I can't sleep. I toss and turn. Can't sit in the tall pieces of body's being burned. It just made me so happy. But it was a great show. And then at the end, he brought out DJ Khalid. and John Legend. We had already walked out

because it was like, have you heard John Legend's album? I went to his album party. Oh, I missed it that night. Yeah, you don't come to stuff. I'm tired. And people, people, I'm tired too, but people, I need to have some fun.

But people are like, man, he just don't be coming out stuff. I saw a boy, Stilo. He was like, I told him, Rachel, you're outside. You don't come back. I saw him. I saw him.

I don't get FOMO, but when I saw the carving party, shout out to Cilo and Alana. Little FOMO. I saw Seelos at the Jay-Z walking up, and then I saw them Saturday night with Alana too. Right. Yeah. Can you see some? I'm tired.

And I'm on, I just, I'm pounding information. I'm just like spending all of my time reading and watching whatever I can. But more than anything, I'm tired. You need a balance. I do need a balance. But I'm just going crazy right now. I don't sleep, though. Like, I need, yeah, you're different.

You got a better social battery than me. I'm glad that you said all of this because I do see some people online treating a Jay-Z concert as if it's a January 6 rally. It's something that you're not supposed to be at. You guys, this is the reality of the situation. Jay-Z made and has made amazing, brilliant art for decades, right? For decades. I feel like we need to operate with some sort of nuance. and balance. Because you have criticisms and or critical of certain aspects of what people have done or

said does not mean that you are at longerheads with them, at odds with them, or you want them to fail. I do not know why people were so elated and giddy that tickets might have been struggling or that they might have been giving tickets away. Any of those things, whether they were true or untrue, they seem to be untrue from every single person that I saw that went to the concert, that energy is specifically the type of energy that I keep talking about is anti-community. Do I want people that other people might have criticisms of to actually contend with those criticisms and address them rather than saying, hey, you broke? Hey, I'm doing so much.

Actually talk about the thing that we're talking about? Yes. Of course. Is there a problem at all with celebrating the litany of good things that those people have done? The litany of good art that those people have contributed. The litany of good work, both artistically and in other spots that those people are responsible for? Not at all. As a matter of fact, if you don't do that, if you don't contextualize your criticism, your critique,

or even your celebration of someone, then to me, you're not being honest. So I did see a shit ton of people that looked like they were taking solace or, like, joy, in the fact that maybe they thought, oh, my God, like Jay-Z's taking a hit or something like that. In order for that to happen, I would have to believe that he were Darth Vader up there.

And I tend to not think that, even about people who I have criticisms of whether it's their belief in capitalism or their associations or any because all those same criticisms can be lobbied at me. So to me, I don't know, man. Like when people were going out, I was coming back from Chicago and I saw people on a flight from Chicago and they was wearing like rock shit. Jake, it was clear that they were coming out here for the concert and these are black people and they are happy. They're happy to go have fun and turn up and party And man, there's so much going on And it was a millennial crowd

Y'all better go throw them diamonds up in the air Have a great fucking time The diamonds were getting a little tight Okay The diamonds We're getting tight Tell me what you mean It's like this, okay?

Okay They were getting tight like that What that mean? Oh, you know what this means Wow You don't own it Loose Tight

Oh yeah, keep telling that story because more people do that, do that again a couple times. I don't do it again. I saw it on the screen. I saw it on the screen. I saw it on the screen. Because they got a whole procedure

when you can go get that timed up. Relax. Relax. Relax. Relax. But no, yeah. To a point where I, and that is a myth of the tickets, I looked up tickets up until the hour. It started again.

I thought about going back again another night just because I had so much fun. And I do think that everybody has their line, right? If you are so upset by what's an artist, an athlete, a public figure politician does that you don't want to support them, that is your business. We have our lines. I'm never going to go to an R. Kelly. I'm never going to a ditty thing. I'm not going to Kanye.

That's my line for my reasons. But I also feel like we've been talked about disappointment. We've critiqued. We hold people accountable when there's something that we're. we don't agree with, but to me, because people were very critical also of our you, me, and FD talking about Jay-Z in the Super Bowl. They were like, oh, they're glazing him. And I'm like, guys, Jay-Z.

And I was like, guys, I saw a lot of that. I was like, I was accused of glazing? Yeah, you were. Jay-Z? Yeah. Did you see a Jay? I didn't see it. People were disappointed in our Jay-Z take about being excited about him.

I don't think I said I was excited. Or looking forward or thinking it was going to be a good show. Oh, it would be a good show. Like, you said it's going to be the best show. It has, I said. That's a, I said. And FD goes more than Prince. It has the capability to be the best show with everything that Jay-Z has done.

So that's a big statement. So people were, people, people started to get honest. But it doesn't mean nothing that Jay-Z has done at this point to me says, I'm not going to go to a concert. Like I said it on the podcast. I knew I would probably go had a fantastic time. You know, this is why. This is the thing, you know, so anyone that like evangelizes capitalism or, you know, tells everyone that their salvation rests in wealth accumulation or, you know, does some things politically that align that are out of interest of the people, we're going to talk about those things.

I do not have a problem or like hate those people. Sure. I believe that certain things that have done that I have witnessed being done are just completely fucking wrong. And I will say that a million times every single day. But, I mean, it's getting to a point now. First of all, I can't even hold anybody accountable. In order for me to hold you accountable, I have to be like, my father held me accountable. My mother held me accountable.

My community at large would be able. to hold me accountable. I guess in that way maybe you can. But I don't believe that I'm holding people accountable. I believe that these issues are to be pulled apart so that people can understand what they want politically better. That is why you do it. So I don't know.

Anybody that went out to a concert and had a good time, that's cool. I mean, you know, it is what it is. But shout out to, you're right, John's new album is fantastic. I love it. Fantastic. Shout to him. I left. And then they came back with the song he, that John has with, with Callid.

If it was just Caled, I would have kept going. I came back for John. Callag up to John. John's about to be kicked out of our fantasy football league this week. Guillotine? He might be kicked out the guillotine. He better have, he needs a really great showing. Did Callet do a free palisine?

No, I said it for him. You said it for him? They should have said that to him while he was up there. But if he, it would be interesting to say, see if Calut would have said that. He hasn't said anything. I know, but if Calut would have said that, it would have been interesting to see how that went.

If it would have been a whole McLemore situation. Could you imagine Calut in the McLemore spot with the NBA guy, the NFL guys getting together? No more Calut. And then Jay-Z going out, it's cool. No more Cali. He's all. You know what I mean?

No, Cali is cool. All right. That's how I'm sorry. Ah, you got me. No more Callet. Okay, I'm sorry, guys. Guys, I got big news for you. Calant can't come out to say we the best before I do.

Look, I'll listen to the records. I love them. We're having fun. We, nigger. Remember? That's how he used to be. That's what he used to. We the best.

No, before I was we the best. It was we. You say, nigger? Nigg. Tough. Tough, man. Tough, tough, tough, tough, tough. What are the highlights from the concert?

That's it? We can move off the concert. Yeah, yeah, we can move off the concert. But everybody, a bunch of people, to me, yeah, I guess y'all say I'm glazing. I thought it seemed like he stimulated the economy because it was mad people coming around. Talk about they're going to run in, they're going around and stuff like that. Is that what they were saying? In town for the concert, it seemed like that to me.

I don't, like glazed. I mean, I got a call. You said it was the, it was the, this is going to be the, this has the potential to be the best show. I think that's what we're going to see this stuff at because I'm getting this shit off so much. I think I saw it on YouTube. Oh, they said Van is good. They glazing hove. This is, oh, you know what?

This might have been because that episode, shout out to FD. That episode had a lot of FD's people. Yeah. That were in it. And shout out to them because FD has been able to curate a community on his YouTube. These are people who are engaged and informed. So we appreciate them engaging with us on the thing. I don't like being called a glazer because I don't.

I don't dick, right. Shut up, Rachel. All right, next. Let's get into some politics. The 26 midterm elections are just around the corner, and control of the U.S. Senate is up for grabs. Republicans currently hold a 53 to 47 majority, meaning Democrats need to flip at least four seats to take control.

With 35 Senate seats on the ballot, several key races in states like North Carolina, Texas, Ohio, Michigan, and Georgia could determine which party controls the chamber. let's get into it. Okay. So where are the numbers at, Jade? What do you mean? Yeah.

Tell people where the numbers at. What are the numbers right now? Available to you through the World Wide Web. Jay, Jay, let me tell you something right. I'm not bad at it. I'm not bad at it at all. I even specifically asked if you wanted to format in the same way. She said, and I got no response.

She did say this is the format so far if you want me to put something else in there. I saw it. Available to you in the World Wide Web. I love that. So let me tell y'all something. You know who is getting y'all right over this? And I got to say this. We don't agree on everything.

But the one guy who is getting people right on this is Roland Martin. If you want to know exactly where these numbers sit, the races themselves, what the Democrats, we. They know we. What the Democrats need. hold and what the Democrats need to gain. Roland will come on and instruct you on this. And the thing that I like about the way that Roland does it. Because he curses you at.

His rolling comes on and he goes, look, fucking idiot. He does. He does. He was like, I'll see you guys in my comments saying that we can lose in Michigan, but gain somewhere else. Hey, idiot, we got a hold there. And while I try to be like super, oh, let me be cool enough. Hell no.

He was like, look, dummy, you're saying something and you're wrong. This is the right information. So I would encourage everybody in these political seasons to support places like Native Land podcasts, like the Black Star Network, which is Roland Martin's Network, places that are ingrained in this, right? Also support places to the left of that. Watch FD's stuff. Watch Brianna's stuff. Watch Dr. Jared Ball.

Expan your political palate to the people that have the radical politics that I'm more in line with right now. But also the people that are giving you the balls and strikes of what's happening right now and see what you agree with more. Don't let my views or Rachel's views become your views. Watch it all and then demonstrate your own. Okay. Now, the key Republican held seats for Senate. For Senate. Let's go down here. North Carolina, Roy Cooper versus Michael Watley, Ohio, special election, Sherrod Brown versus John Hustead. Maine, Troy Jackson versus Susan Collins.

Texas, that's an open one. Cornyn lost the primary as Jane Tala Rico versus Kim Paxon. Alaska, Mary Polota versus Dan Sullivan, Iowa. Josh Turek versus Ashley Hinson, Kansas. Adam Hamilton versus Roger Marshall, South Carolina, Annie Andrews versus Darling Graham. Florida, special. Angie Nixon versus Ashley Moody, Nebraska, Osborne versus Ricketts. And then there are a couple that they're trying to hold. There's an open one. Of course, Abdul Syed versus Mike Rogers.

Incredibly, incredibly nasty campaign happening up there. You watch a Detroit Lions game. All you hear is Abdul Syed. Here's a picture of him in Osama bin Laden together. Yeah. Playing checkers in Yemen, 1997. That's how it is watching a UT football game. I'd be like, good grief. UT football game, same way.

James Talleygo personally aborted a baby. Yeah. 2017. Here's him with the blood on his hands. It's James Talleygo with fangs and there's a fucking head. No, they're like, do you want your kid coming back with a septum piercing and blue hair and a woman one day and a man the next? Literally, those are all the commercials are.

It's so funny. bro. It's so funny. James Talarico wants to fuck you. Yeah. Yeah. Legislation that lets him have sex. He is reintroducing prima noctra. You know what that is? Prima Nectra used to be this doctrine that said,

this is not funny. Prima Nectra was this doctrine that said, a lord of an area in feudal times could have sex with your wife on a wedding day. Prima Nectra. Why the wedding day? Just like you get married and the Lord has the first crack at the lady. Man. So it's prima noctra.

We've had a rough woman. She's prima noctrine. You can do it like the Lord gets the first crack. Grace. James Tala Rico wants prima noctra in Texas. The Tala Rico dick getting thrown all over the place. Okay. Other place you got a whole Ossoff versus Mike Collins.

That is Georgia. Ossoff is looking pretty good there. And in New Hampshire, Pepples versus Sununu. That's a lean Democrat right now, it looks like. I guess, okay, look. And some of these, Angie Nixon, polling says that she's down a little bit. A race is going to be closer than I think people think that it's going to be.

There are ample opportunities here for some flips. Michigan, North Carolina. Michigan wouldn't be a flip though Oh it's a whole excuse me Michigan's a whole but yeah so there's a couple of opportunities here for for a flip Tala Rico is one that's Texas Ohio

Yeah North Carolina Most of these are toss-ups I guess the question for us is Being that some of these races Are in other states and stuff like that What does one person feel like they can do To affect the chances

to put a stop on the MAGA agenda, and is it foolish for one that does not quite jive with the center of this Democratic Party, right? That seems to be still the establishment in the power base, right? Because we're not talking about a bunch of Angie Nixons, a bunch of Abdul-El-Sayyads, people like that that are running.

Some of these people are your quote-unquote bargain. Yeah, look at the senator in Kansas. Right. Look at New Hampshire. Is it foolish to still have any semblance of the vote blue no matter who doctrine in your mind? Is that playing into the power of the establishment overall to really, really hope that the Democrats win? Because a lot of my leftist friends, they always tell me, hey, Van, you know, free people to the left of me, should I say. Say, hey, Van, you know, sometimes you sound like a vote blue no matter who regular DNC Democrats.

Well, that's not who you were in the primaries. Right. But now we're talking about the general. I just don't understand. I get it. I get the principle behind it. I'm not knocking what people feel. I'm not saying if you do decide to not do that.

Your vote doesn't count. I mean, you need to vote. But look at where we are. This is the same conversation we had in 2024. We didn't agree with everything that Kamala Harris, you know, was put out there, but look at the other side of it. And I understand people saying, look at where that thinking has gotten us so far. But we are in desperate times. We are looking at a time where, obviously, MAGA in the executive branch, the Republicans control the legislative branch,

and they pretty much do the judicial as well at this point. If we're looking to fight back and have some sort of control to stop things, that requires us. us to get control over the legislative branch. And so I just don't understand the thinking behind. I can't vote for that Democrat because they're a centrist at this point. The point is control. Deal with it when we get there. Unless you're dealing with like a fetterman at this point,

I just think that we need to get the blue vote out there. And so you can have control and we deal with it on the back end. I have an analogy for this. You guys want to know the analogy? Yeah. Yeah. go for you. So you know, you guys ever been watching the action movie? One of these action movies that's like propaganda, probably CIA put it together or something like that because it's probably like a CIA

agent that's like undercover somewhere doing some kind of deal and he's the best or it's about the Navy Seals or the Green Berets, whatever. And then someone gets shot, right? Yeah. Someone gets shot. Boom. They get shot. That person is eventually going to have to have an operation because they got shot. Someone's going there, stitch it up, do all kinds of stuff. But what's the first thing that you have to do for that person in the moment? It's the first thing you have to do. You guys know? You have to stop the bleeding.

You have to stop the bleeding. Yeah. So you have to press on it. And in these movies, there's always a different way to do it. Sometimes, because as soon as the now, because there's so many special operators that have their own YouTube channels, as soon as somebody gets shot, even in the Marvel movie, Black Widow gets shot. And the first thing Black Widow does is she's running.

She's applying the pressure. She's applying the pressure. She's stopping it, right? But there's always something. It's like, hey, man, I got to take this hot fire and carterazzo the rule. Rambo, you know? A, hey, I get, tie it off, tie it off, tie it off. Make sure that you put a tourniquet on it.

You have to stop the bleeding. Once you stop the bleeding, then you can go in there and you can operate. You can clean things up. You can patch it up. You can make it a new. I'm going to put all my cars on the table. I think the way the Democratic Party is right now, I think that needs to be dismantled. Not taken apart and thrown away.

I think it needs to be taken apart and rebuilt. The Democratic Party needs to be left on a lot of the issues that is on right now, but not because these are issues that I believe in, because these are issues that the American people believe in. The American people are coming quickly to terms with the fact that modern establishment politics do not center their needs. They're coming to terms with that. Sure. It is these parties that are lagging behind people and what people want.

These parties are beholden to corporate interests. These parties are behold into foreign entities, right? These parties are behold into special interests. And because of that, they can't govern even in the world. way that their constituencies want them to, ideas that are very popular, ideas that are populist. So I believe that whatever the thing that is, is that is tethering the Democratic Party to these kind of do nothing policies and ways of governing, those things need to be dismantled. And you need to build a new party that sewers the needs of the people, their future, their wages,

their housing, their health care, them needs to kind of rise out of that. But you cannot do any of that until you stop the bleeding. Now that puts me at odds with a whole bunch of people that I really respect that to the left of me that say the only thing that we need to do is build a new party and a new entity. I hear you. I understand you. We are where we are right now. We are where we are right now.

For those people, because I get the frustration, right? I mean, just in the last 24 hours. And I agree with you. I don't agree with in some of these places that could possibly turn that haven't had a Democrat in decades like Kansas representing the Senate, Kansas and even Iowa. Iowa, the Democratic nominee just didn't add in the last 24 hours where he is basically, it's saying women. should only play in women's sports. And he uses the fact that he was an athlete as an argument for it. And people are like, this is terrible for you to be doing something like this in the last 24

hours. But he's doing it probably to appeal to other people in Iowa. Obviously, this isn't the main issue and this is what the issue is the economy, the issue is the war. And it's something that they continue to get wrong. To me, it's so obvious that Trump, one. on populism. What is popular right now is populism? What is it? What are people directly being impacted in right now? Not some thing that you're trying to make people

care about. I don't know if you've seen the ads that people are doing. You're not on TikTok, but are mimicking the ads that people are getting in Texas and different places. That it's like he went on right wing populism. Right. Yeah. Still populism. He talks about the economy, though. That was his big thing. You're going to get better. You're going, it's going to be the best. These prices are going to go down. I'm going to get this down. Your job. are going to be, it's still right-wing populism, but it is populism that's still centered around the economy. They might have been motivated by different things. Was it not? His whole thing was the economy. So there's a difference between running on the economy and running on policy. So because what I'm talking about, when I talk about populism, I'm not talking about this sort of idea that you say what people want to hear. I'm talking about populist policy.

Correct. policies that people believe in that then like manifest themselves in material improvements in their life. If you go back to 2024, that was the criticism on the left side. Trump is saying what's popular, but there were no policies, but people still chose to ignore it. Like that voted for him. He's not saying anything.

What's the policy? How are you going to get there? You're promising all these things. Right. Because this is what people want to hear. I get you. But at the end of the day, he was playing off the belief of populism, of that your lives are going to get better. Your economy is going to get better.

You're going to feel it. And for some reason, I still believe moderate Democrats are still not understanding that. And case in point, what this Democrat, Josh Turrick is doing as he's running with this ad eight days before the election, what he's running on, which is not what necessarily people want to hear. I got off a little bit, but my point, what I was really trying to say was for the people who say, we have to dismantle the party. We have to vote. We can't vote for this candidate just because we need to turn it blue. We have to vote for what we believe in and these people are against our beliefs.

My thing is, if you want to dismantle it and you have to have power to dismantle, what is their way of going about it? Well, I mean, number one, when you're talking to a person, I never, ever, ever want to extinguish the fire of radicals. I'm not either. I'm asking. I'm trying to understand the path. So what they are saying is a very clear, what the critique that they're making to me is clearheaded and straightforward. And that critique is that a lot of the policy that you're talking about is sometimes a half measure at best. a half measure at best, meaning it's part of the way there.

It's a negotiation with a snake. And when you negotiate with a snake, the only thing you can hope for is less venom. I understand. But you will be bitten. I understand. So the only thing you can do is get out of the environment with the snake or you got to kill a snake, right? If you want, and I don't advocate the killing of animals, by the way. Shout out to animals because we kind of in their situation.

so we got to find a way to live with the animals. Shout up P-22. Shout up Beth Pratt. Now, so that I understand. I think that radical politics are the radical, the mainstreamment of the radical political movement right now in America, left-wing radicalism, is one of the most important things that is happening right now. These ideas will be mainstreamed because I believe that.

that these ideas are in many ways the elixir to a lot of problems that will continuously present themselves in American life. These ideas are the elixir to techno feudalism. These ideas are the elixir to the continuing power of the capital class. These ideas are the elixir to people who don't care about your health care or your housing, who don't care about America's treating of people in the global South and the lack of dignity. people who say that they don't care about the lives of Palestinians, the lives of people in Africa, different countries that America's partners, like the UAE, are leading different genocides in different

places like in the Congo, right? Like the people that don't care about that type of stuff that center themselves in this world to such a degree that they think that American exceptionalism is treating everyone else with almost zero dignity. Conquering and not cooperating, choosing leaders and then coming back and telling people, if you take the other guy, then we will emiserate you in perpetuity. If we don't like your style of government, then we will embargo you into starvation. We will kill children. We'll starve children before we let you govern yourselves. I think radical politics believes that there is a shelf life on that. And that expiration date is coming up.

very, very soon. That milk is iffy already. And so I don't, I don't ever want to extinguish them. I know you don't. I would say though right now, the Trumpism and its specific, uh,

destruction, it's destructive capability. The destructive capability it has right now means that black people, queer people, uh, Latino people,

uh, they're suffering. right now and we have to stop the bleeding. I agree with everything that you said and I actually agree with that thought. That if that's radical, I agree with that radical thought. But I, but no, no, no, no, it makes sense. I still believe, to use your analogy, you have to stop the bleeding, but what is going to be required, if Democrats take over the Senate, if Democrats are able to flip the House, then there is going

to be something people are demanding. They're voting for a specific thing. What, to your point, about the expiration date, people thought, people who voted for right-wing populism thought they were going to get that. They waited, they waited, it got worse and worse and worse. The idea that this is Biden and his administration's fault and the Democrats' fault does not work. So if the Democrats get in and nothing changes, they can't say we're still trying to clean up for Trump, that, that logic does not work for the people anymore. And what won't, I don't think people will be satisfied with saying, oh, okay, well, now let me go back to the other side because this side isn't doing it. I think we've gone back and forth so much to your point with the radicals. I actually

do think that if something does not change for the people under this, might be time for them to rise. So let me, I give you an example. And I hope that the political. world hears this. Because there are a lot of lies that are told. People treat the American electorate like they are truly stupid. And I think that when we talk about how stupid the electorate is,

we help them do this, right? We help them do this job. I've seen those videos of those Trump supporters. Seeing them, okay? Like, I've seen videos of people saying that's stupid people everywhere. that Donald Trump was like running the country when Joe Biden was the president. It was a shadow presidency.

Donald Trump was still calling the shots behind the scenes. And then I think it was Walter Matheson goes, well, if Donald Trump was calling the shots behind the scene, isn't Donald Trump responsible for the border? And they go, no, that was Biden. And then he goes, wait, you just said Trump really never left office. So if Trump never left office, then the border would be his fault. No, Biden did that one. So everything that was good, Trump did it.

Everything that was good. Biden did it. Trump was still the president for those four years. He never really left. So I've seen those videos. But let me tell you why casting the American electorate as truly stupid also has a downside to it. It's because then you treat those people like they're stupid. And anyone that you are treating like they are stupid, the only thing that you can do to that person is con them.

So if you treat somebody like they're dumb, like when you, a kid, the only thing you can do to a kid is con a kid with a Santa, what a Santa Claus fantasy and parent them. You never talk to them like they're equal because you realize they don't know shit, right? You realize that they don't really know anything so you don't contend with them like there's somebody who has any say over anything. Okay. The voters will understand a political insurgency that prioritizes different things that have been prioritized in the past.

Sure. They will understand the message discipline of Angie Nixon of Abdul, of Zoraamam Dani, of all of these people of Booker and Kentucky, who we're hoping to have on the message discipline of those people, that message discipline will resonate. Is that message discipline that amount to this like complete critique of capitalism and we are going to collectivize everything? No, it's not. Is that message discipline oftentimes a sort of milk toast criticism of Israeli government

policy and American adventuring all over the place. Yes, is it sometimes shrouded in? I don't want to spend money anywhere. Is it sometimes? Yeah, sure it is. It definitely is. But that politic that seeks to change the dimensions and the dynamics of American

political mainstream expectation, people will respond to that. I agree. And they'll respond even to you attempting to do it. If they truly believe that you have their best fucking interest at heart.

They see the other things. They see strongly worded letters. They see you actually just being controlled opposition. They're not as dumb as you think they are. They're not. And even the ones that are dumb, they're cunning. They understand when somebody is kind of bullshit in them and double talking them, right? If they're not already in the cult, which they're cults on both sides.

So what I am trying to say right now is that it's time. to actually act as if the voters are going to respond from what it is to what it is that you do or are trying to do. I agree. And so I think that that insurgency can actually live. I think that it's a real thing. I think the reason why you don't often get it, the reason why you don't often see people actually try to realign these politics

is because they have no interest in doing it. They don't really want to. No, I agree. And so because they don't really want to, it's kind of like they step out and they're like, ah, man, you know, it's tough, but we got to keep maintaining the same relationship. The best thing for America is a strong Israel, but we got to really look hard at our relationship with them, the money that we're saying.

We got to take a strong look. That's not what they're saying. They're not saying take a strong look. They're saying stop. They're not saying take a strong look. So like, you know, all of those words. just to say that like, I personally think at this point now, we have to stop the bleeding, but we also cannot stop the radical voices that are making very, very real points about how

the society that we've created is increasingly exploiting working Americans and other non-Americans globally, we're increasingly becoming pips here domestically and abroad. Just hit the stroll, work for me, suck my dick when I tell you to. I'm serious. We're increasingly becoming that. Increasingly be, I went too far. I did. That's okay.

I almost had it. See, that's why I'm not on the next level. Because I was almost there and then I went too far again. I'm sorry. guys to everyone listening that called me a dick rider. I don't like that. One of the things you said is like, what can we do if we're in a state that's not impacted? I think we have platforms, so it's different. But if you are in one of these states, I was posting a bunch of stuff this morning. Look at your ballots when you are, don't get discouraged.

If you're going to the polls and you're voting, don't get discouraged. Recheck your ballots when you're voting. There's a lot of reporting going on that the votes are being changed. There's a lot going on where people are trying to discourage you telling you you can't vote. You've got to go somewhere else. It's why you got to go out and vote early. Don't wait to the day of. You don't want to be put up against the line where then you don't, you've run out of time. So I think those are, that's important to say at this point. I'm trying to think of what else like you can do. The game is being played. Don't let any polling. Good or bad deter you from going out to vote. Don't let any polling stop you. If any of you guys have ever played sports

or watched a sporting event, I've been in games where we've been down 20. We don't just jump off of the fucking court. I've been in games where we're up 20. We don't just jump off the fucking court. In them or watching? I'm up in. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Big. Big. Brick. Brick. Now, see, what we talked about earlier. Why? Why? You just be careful on that pickup court. You just be careful. Bust your ass.

Well, you're like... Obviously, I bust your ass. Like, obviously. She's not saying she would be better than... Look what you just said. She didn't say, I got you. I said be careful. She didn't say, I got you on the court. You wanted to do one on one. I'm saying you'll be careful.

Why are you telling you to be careful? Because last year you had a guilty of injury. Everybody needs to be careful on that pickup court. One, You are paying to play on the court. Jade, this might have been before your time, but in fans' bio on Twitter, he used to have a goal date to dunk. This is what I'm talking about. This is a true story.

I know. Do you know why? I'm defending Jade. He hurt his foot. So Jade saying, be careful. No. Makes sense. And you just, you came out.

I bet I bust your ass. Jake. But look. But look. But look, I'll tell you all this, though. See what I was talking about earlier? See what we were talking about earlier? I'm just talking about stuff.

And then what y'all got to do? Y'all always got to bring a nigga down to earth. Shades showed concern. There's not anybody that I ever hooped with that's going to be like, Van couldn't go out there and get buck because I call up anybody. But y'all always want to make me feel less than. I just want our kids to be safe. See?

We bring you. That's all I'm saying. We were trying to run the 40. Just let us pop back to peace. Nah. Just bring you back to reality. Why? Injuries.

I believe. You said that's necessary sometimes. So you don't get hurt. Jade is literally saying what you said. You said sometimes we got to come into the house so we don't get hurt. We don't pull a hamstring. A hand is trying to run to 40. Jay literally listen to what you said and said, you know what?

Be careful out there. You know what? It's funny. It's funny. It's because I'm doing a stretch. I'm losing weight. I wear hokas almost all the times. As a matter of fact, these aren't hocus.

My feet is actually hurting because I all had the hocus on. I'll have my custom orthotics in. So I got to put my custom orthotics in these. I got to go get another pair of orthotics. I'm sorry for saying I bust your ass that was not very nice. It's okay. It's all right. I thought that you were, I apologize.

I just want my Kings to be safe on the court because there's too many injuries that be happening. My dad is still trying to go out there and play. And I'm like, bro, be careful. But we play. You could go play, just be careful. Just stretch out. Where should I say you play? I played last week.

Okay, I thought you stopped. Yeah, I'll play last week. You just stretch out, you know? A stretch is great. That's men. That's bare minimum. I would be hurt if I went on the core. Can I tell you y'all something right now?

Tape your ankle. So you know what I've been listening to a lot of? I actually have to stop. This is an aside. I'm listening to a lot of Greek mythology. Yeah, you said when you go to sleep, right? I go to sleep, I listen to Greek mythology. First of all, I would like to say some about Greek mythology that I never really realized in the eighth grade.

Greek mythology is oriented around rape. Yeah. No. It's oriented. Zeus is a monster. It's great. mythology is oriented around rape. Almost all the stories have at least one rape in them.

Yeah. Zeus wanted to... Zeus beside it, they were out there. Zeus wanted to create Hercules because he needed a hero to go out and conquer the lane. So he chose a woman that he wanted to be Hercules' mom. And he disguised himself as her husband coming back from war. and then had sex with her.

Another time, like, he rained down upon a woman as gold. And that got her pregnant. Another time he was a swan. Another time, he never just went, hey, you know, I'm Zeus, the king of the gods. And, you know, I know I'm not supposed to do this. I'm married. You're probably married. But I don't know if you want to come to Olympus.

Maybe, you know, he would never do that. Straight up. Rape. Yeah. Right. And like these stories, the story of Hercules, by the way, is so depressing. So depressing. Can I just tell you that can I just have a quick clear out to tell you guys how Hercules is live?

Heracles, how the life of Heracles ended. This is how the life of Heracles ended. Okay. So when Heracles. So they told you to say it like that. Your video said you need to say I like that. That's a question. Yes, because it's Heracles.

Hercules is the Greek, Hercules is the Roman. So it's Heracles. Okay, so Heracles had the 12 labors of Heracles. Why did he have to do them? Because he killed his entire family. Hera, who did not like Heracles because Heracles was the product of Zeus's philandering. One day he walked into his house and Hera turned his family. made them look like monsters.

And so when they come out to say, hi, Dad, we're glad to see you. He saw them as monsters. He killed his family. He killed his family. Then he had to go out in a tone. That's why he did the 12 labors of Heracles. One time, when he was doing them,

he went to go visit a friend, and his friend was a centaur. Centaur is a half horse. You know what I mean? It was a centaur. So he went to go visit his friend, and he was hanging out with them and it was fun. They were having fun. They were doing

a man, centaur things, running around and all that stuff. And when Heracles was leaving, he saw this wine. And he was like, I want some wine. I'm going to take a walk. And he wants some wine. Well, he drinks the wine and he didn't realize that that was the Sinatar's wine. It was all of them.

Centaur. Is it Centaur or Sinitar? It's centaur. So that was all the centaur's wine. All the centaurs from around, they shared that wine. It was communal. wine for them that have been given to them by the God Dionysus. And so when he opened it up and he drank it, all the centaurs from around came around like, yo, what the fuck you are? Like, you drinking our wine?

Like, what's wrong with you? You're full of shit right now. Don't fucking drink our wine. And Heracles was like, wait, man, talk to me. I'm drinking the wine. The wine was up on the shelf. I've been eating everything. I didn't know.

It says nothing on the wine that I can't drink the wine. His friends that are centaurus came out. was like, yo, this is our boy Heracles, don't trip. He's like, this is our boy Heracles, don't trip. He didn't know he couldn't drink the wine. And they was like, hey, man, fuck you. Why are you telling us, this is our wine? We kept it at your house.

He drank the wine. You should be with us. Everyone went crazy and shit went down. Heracles ended up pulling out his bow and arrow that was actually dipped in the blood of the hydra. It's very poisonous. And he started busing it off at Centaur, just picking them off, killing them. killing different centaurs, right?

He actually wounded one of his friends, and he had to live in pain forever because he was immoral, and he got hit with the poison of the hydrant. Okay. So one of the centaurs was like, I pledged revenge against Heracles. I will pledge revenge against him.

So he waited for 10 years. Wow. To get his revenge. This guy got his revenge. Heracles was at the end of his life. you know Heracles remarried got a new family

right and so the centaur was across this lake from Heracles Heracles was on the other side of the lake but the centaur was on the other side with Heracles's new wife

and he attacked her tried to force himself on her another rape yeah okay another rape tried to force himself on her Heracles was on the other side and saw this

and so he shot him with the bow and arrow. Boom. Leave my girl along. So the centaur is down. He's like, oh, look. He looks at Heracles' wife and he says, hey, you know, I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry for what I did.

I shouldn't have done that as he lay there dying. He goes, if you want me to make this up to you, I can do something for you. Inside of my blood is a love potion. And that love potion will make Heracles fall back in love with you if he ever strays. So if you gather up my blood and put it in like a vial, my blood has something inside of it that can bring him back to you in case he, he strays. She goes, hey, I kind of know my guy a little bit. Maybe I need some of this blood. Thank you. What you did was wrong, but I'm going to take you up on your gift. So she gathers up the blood and puts it in the vial.

Okay, cool. She's got the blood. Later on, a couple of years later, Heracles starts to get bored. He starts to get bored As all of these guys do, by the way In Greek mythology, he starts to get bored Hercules also, by the way, had a couple of guy lovers Yeah, that's in Greek mythology a lot Yeah, all throughout.

There you go, keep a gangster, okay? So Herakley starts to get bored So he goes to another place To visit one of his old friends, he's got a kingdom And when he gets there, you know, This king is having an archery contest And the archery contest winner gets to marry his daughter. Okay.

Heracles joins the archery contest. He's already falling in love with the daughter. He's been there a day. He's sorry. He fell in love right away. Okay. So he joins the archery contest. And he sees the daughter.

He wins. And then the king says, hey, you can't have my daughter because you killed your family before. And I don't fuck with people that do that type of stuff. That's frowned upon. So you can't have my daughter. So Herrickley goes, fuck it. Kidnaps the daughter.

Takes the daughter, takes a couple of her friends. Goes back home to his wife and his family. Goes back home to his wife and his family. The wife watches Heracles walk up. And he sees her with these new women. And he sees the way he's looking at one of them. And it's obvious that he's in love with one of these daughters. She sees it.

So guess what she says? I need the potion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what she does is she says, hey, baby, come in here. It's time for dinner. All right, it's time for dinner.

We're going to have dinner. Dinner. And I got this special robe for you. She takes the blood of the centaur and she puts it inside of the rope. Okay. Because that's going to hit his skin, make him fall back in love with her. Here's the problem. The centaur was all bullshit.

Of course. because he knew that the arrow that infected him that had come from the hydra was poisoned. And his blood is poison. His blood is now poisoned. He wants to get back at Heracles. Heracles puts the goddamn robe on and the robe starts sticking to his flesh. He says, ah, it hurts bad. What the hell is going on?

This is poison. Ah, the Heracles. And he starts pulling the robe off and chunks of his flesh start coming. off as he pulls the robe off. And at this point, everybody realizes what happens. Heracles has hours to live. The wife hangs herself, can't live with what she did. Heracles, with hours left to live, goes around pulling up trees to make his own funeral

pyre because he knows it's all over. He ends up pulling up all of these trees and builds his funeral pyre, then has a friend set him on fire while he's there so that he could die having planned his own funeral. Zeus? Ever none of the wives?

He's like, hey man, you killed your own family, the wife, all of the stuff you've done. It's okay, son. Come up here with me anyway, and he makes Heracles immortal. Of course, job well done. You degrade women. You cheat on your wife.

You know what I mean? Like you do like that. Like father, like son. During this time, Heracles killed the hydra. He captured the hind. He killed the boar. He did a lot of things. He ridded the land of Greece of the birds.

There's all kinds of things. He also the stables, the 12 labors of Heracles, almost every single story in Greek mythology is, to me, emblematic of how we treat like powerful men that have a lot on them today. Like these guys did all of this stuff at the end. They're remembered as heroes. And the fact that they killed their own families, their wives hung themselves, all of this other stuff. It becomes a part of their story, but not the main thing.

When I was looking at all of this different stuff about Hercules slash Heracles growing up, now that I've gotten into Greek mythology, I don't remember the part, some of these other parts being talked about, killed all these centaurs. Centaurs was just mad because of the wine. Yeah. They had a grite. They didn't even teach Greek mythology in my school. I was in it.

Like the guy cried because, remember I told you this? He cried because of the film strip. Green mythology, eighth grade, we would do a film strip every day. And when there's one kid, like, it was just starting to do the film strip. And the teacher gave his film strip to me. And I looked over and he was crying because he couldn't run the film strip. Oh, like, nigger, you being for real right now. I'll let him do the film strip.

You, first off, real quick, how many children do you think is documented the zoo's had? All of the heroes. Like, I mean, the whole fucking thing. Just give you a number. I'm not sure. It's a lot because Perseus, uh, Helena Troy, Pollux,

Castor, like just, a lot of them are his children. Achilles? 20, 30. It's got to be way more than that. It's got to be way. Yeah, it's documented about 100. But there's,

but they've lost count because, you know, he was outside, whether they were divine and mortal or, uh, mortal children. You ever seen drunk history? Remember drunk history? Remember drunk history of the show?

I never watched it. You just did it without being drunk. Well, maybe caffeine. Caffeine lit. But you should think about this. You should retell these stories because they're so funny. And most people haven't heard these versions of them. You should really think about this.

I was quite, and I actually really love Greek mythology, but I was quite entertained by your story. You should think about this. This could be another, not that you need any more jobs. Yeah, it's a lot. But maybe to get out because I feel like you really want. wanted to tell that story. You've been listening to all this Greek mythology. It's all in here. You really want us to teach us the true way to say Hercules. I can't even, you said Hercules

as many children as Zeus has in that story. That's how many times you were saying. Heracles? Heracles. Heracles. Heracles. Heracles. Shocking, I couldn't even remember to say it. You should think about retail, just so you could just get it all out of your head. Briefly, I'll say this. Heracle. Briefly, I'll say this. another thing that's fascinating me about this is just how much of our current language and almost thought process is based upon this. Like the story of Narcissis and Psyche and Echo and all of this of like Echo. Achilles. The Achilles.

The term Echo comes from the fact that like, just calling out for a lover, but that call was never answered and it's supposed to all of these terms and all of this stuff, it's so... Of course. Like, oh, you're flying too close to the sun.

All of these, yes, yes. But this mythology ends up kind of being ingrained into what it is that we think it becomes the basis for the words that we use. So it's almost been incepted into a way. Some of these, of course.

These thoughts of women these thoughts of other people, the thoughts of stuff. It comes from these people who we regard as like these awesome storytellers that this stuff is really brutal. And they are not at all. They do not hide the fact that certain people matter in this world. Certain people don't. Like the fighting of the gods is almost analogous right now to the way these people that

we deem gods, these celebrities and stuff, the way they fight and the way that the average mortal person doesn't have very much say because we're just kind of captors in this world where they can fuck whoever they want, they can kill whoever they want, they can do whatever they want. That's in the Bible. Yeah. Now you can really get them going. I'm just, I mean, read the Old Testament. It is there.

I'm just saying it's like a tell as old as time. Of course it's in grains in our society. Heracles. I had to stop listening to it at night because one time, normally I fall asleep, but like one time, I listened all the way through to the end and the running around with the funeral pyre became like a splinter in my mind

I was like, I don't want to talk about it. Where are you listening to this? Tell everybody where they can listen. It's this site on the Instagram, on the YouTube is called Life Guide. And I like the way Life Guide starts because it goes, Life Guide. Life Guide is a channel.

And the way he says stuff, he goes, 2,000 years ago, a blind poet named Hama wrote these amazing stories about gods and men, slaves and soldiers. And then he gets us to the whole thing. He goes, little do they know, the Odyssey has just begun. And then the music comes in.

I'm kind of hooked. I'm kind of hooked. Take us out in that voice. Vivek Ramoswamy. Oh, are we doing that? Is a piece of shit. Vivek Ramoswami. Are we doing that?

We should do just, can we just give them five minutes? Okay, let the voice. The voice was to end us. Don't do it. Don't do it. We just give him five minutes. We don't have to get into the whole thing. By this point, we're late to this story. Yeah, we're late to the story and he's doubled down.

By this point, we're late to this story. And basically said she's not fit to serve. So it's... Jade, I'm going to take this one. Go on my. Go for it. You guys all know this story, by now. Vivek Ramoswami at his camp of Magogles

ran an ad featuring Amy Acton mother in which Amy Acton's mother accuses Amy Acton of lying about different aspects of her life. Amy Acton, according to all reports, was in a very abusive situation with her mother and her mother's then husband when she was 12 years old. This husband was accused of sexually abusing Amy Acton. These abuses became known to the authorities. This man, along with Amy Acton, along with Amy Acton, and he was. Acton's mother, then fled to another state, basically as fugitives. This meant that Amy

Acton and her brother had to bounce around to different group homes and being the foster situation. And out of this terrible, terrible and tragic dysfunction, Amy Acton built a life, a life where she's succeeded and achieved and now is on the precipice of being voted, the governor of Ohio. Vivekwama Swami decided to find her mother. and cast Spursion on this story, calling Amy acting a liar. And then also run and rerun this ad that is further traumatizing her,

what happened to her. $4 million on the end. $4 million on the end as a child. You know, you go so many different ways here and talk about what a sniveling, cowardly weakling, Vivek Ramoswamy is now. and what he has always been, which is a con man that is lustful for power and relevance,

and will do anything for it. I might even get to a whole thing. Guys, really, man, really seriously, this is what it comes to. A political movement that is based and oriented around the range, of a child, the people that you entrust to keep your children safe, leveraging that to try to gain power, how could anyone who respects children, decency, or safety, who respects a civilized society, cast a vote for Vivek Ramoswami?

I almost never say this, but if you vote for him, if you vote for Vibbik Ramoswami, a pro-pedophile vote. And he has made it that way. He has made it that way. If you vote for Vivek Ramoswamy, you are voting for the harm of children. Because in running that ad, beyond decency,

beyond the safety of children, beyond the respect for what Amy Ackin and her brother went through, Vivek Ramoswamy is saying that nothing matters except for me. me gaining power. And that has been codified by J.D. Vance and by the president and by everyone else. These people are disgusting. And I am not in a moral position to make judgments.

But God damn, this is where we're at. It's just, okay, so you're doing it right now because you want the power, you want the position, you want to win. But what next? I look at Jady Vance. I look at Vavec, Ramoswamy, and I'm like, all of this, you're sacrificing your entire self in order to win. You're sacrificing your family. You're sacrificing your children. Levec is doing all of this for a party who, you know, I'll generalize, but for a lot of, he has been attacked and looked at a subhuman because of his ethnicity and his religion. And you still desire to be a part of this party so bad that you're willing to sacrifice everything you stand for, who you are and your family. And J.D. Vance is right there. I would post the same question to him. What is next for you?

J.D., you're somebody who wants to run for president. You have a wife who is Indian. You have a daughter. I don't know if he has more than one, but you have a daughter. And here you are totally disregarding sexual abuse. and your excuse is, all the Democrats have done something worse. Who cares what anybody has done? Why don't you just stand up?

And to go to your point, to bring in the Greek mythology, it again plays into how women are regarded by certain people. Not everybody, but it is so easy for you to minimize a woman's right or what a woman stands for or her worth because you're just willing to throw Amy Act into the wolves in order to win. It goes without saying the sexual violence against children should not be politicized. It goes without saying that exploiting someone's childhood trauma should not be something.

It's wrong and shouldn't be politicized. And it goes without saying that you shouldn't platform someone's personal experience or trauma for your own personal gain or for persuasion or for manipulation. All of that goes and said. But then you say, like, we talk about. What obviously this is and how sick it all is, but this is the party who at once voted for somebody who they thought was going to reveal all these pedophiles that exist within, with money and power and in politics.

And instead, they have gone from saying that they want to reveal this in order to protect children to end up protecting the very people who are committing these acts. I mean, we shouldn't be shocked by this when these are politicians. and people who have voted who disregard sexual assault victims and praise those who are found liable for sexual assault when the evidence is insurmountable and it's right there in their face.

How do they reward these people? They put them in a position of power and continue to place them in power. We shouldn't be shocked by it, but this is just so outright and disgusting. You would think that maybe they would, excuse me, that maybe they wouldn't do it like this, but we shouldn't even be giving them that.

Why would they show us anything? thing different. Yeah. I mean, well said, you know, there was a part of me that almost wanted to

go through the list of Republicans that had criticized him for this. But that's like a lowering of the bar to a degree that I don't think

I can bring myself to do. Yeah. I would say people just pay attention to the people that just go, you know,

no kids, man. Like, no kids. Like, no, no kids. No,

no trauma to children, just the base level of humanity. When you guys, if someone were to ask me my opinions of the political project of MAGA and what the political project of MAGA has met and does mean right now to, you know, American public discourse, this is what I would bring up. This is what I would bring up. This is how this thing has mutated. the way we even do something that there was never much scruples involved in in the first place. This is what I mean about like stop the bleeding.

This is what I mean by that. And you guys don't have to agree. But this story wasn't just enraging. This was depressing. This was depressing, man. Like fucking depressing. And I'll tell you something. people say that one of the talking points from Vivek and everybody else was that if the ad was ran against him, then by the Democrats, then everybody would have been cheering the ad on.

I hope that that's not true. I know I wouldn't have been. I hope that that's not true. I hope that that little bit of gamesmanship, that observation, that you guys can. look at the people that you're supporting, that you're voting for, that you're advocating for, that you want to give power to. I hope that you can give power and vote for and punch a ballot for a candidate that would have condemned that at, that would never run it. You don't have to hope because you know why that's not true? Because they didn't do it. So you even being like,

well, if they had done it, guess what they didn't. Yeah. So we'll cross that bridge if we get there. they didn't stoop to the levels that you did. They did not continue. Like, I just, I thought, I thought it was fake again. It was so outraged as I was like, no way. Guys, no way. And Vivek is such a weakling. He doesn't even have the strength to just say, I'm sorry, I fucked up, I reached too far.

He doesn't even have the strength to do that. This guy is such a fucking turd. I'm sorry, man. Like, this dude over the whole time is a fast-talking weak con artist. Just like that will stop at nothing. There are a lot of people out there that realize that these elections, these couple of elections this season is what might send them back to the political wilderness. Obviously, I don't know where Ramoswamy goes from here.

He's done the president thing. He's done the governor thing. I don't know if he tries to do mayor or whatever. I'm sure he's a podcast, whatever. We're not going to be able to get. rid of Vivek Ramoswamy, but God damn, it will be nice if we could, man. It'll be nice if we could. We're going to save the comedian Ian Edwards and his, his, uh, his claim, his pro-animal

claim about shark attacks for Thursday. Okay. We're going to save that for Thursday, but we're running that Thursday because I want people to understand that what Ian Edwards was a very funny comedian said about shark attacks. It's very true. I want to talk about this as I continue to advocate for animals. And we will. You love animals?

I do. I have two. I might be getting to a vegan situation. Okay. I might be going there, man. We'll see. Just, Jade, I'm sorry. By the way, Jade, I don't know if I bust your ass.

I don't know. I can't say that to anybody right now. I'm to my coach-in-face. Obviously, you have height over me, so. What do you think the score? And body. Well, look. The score?

I mean, are we playing? What are we playing to? Three dribbles. Okay. To 12. I'll say 12 to 8, you're winning. You think you get 8 off? I used to play basketball.

And I hoop from time to time with my boyfriend. It's the three dribbles and the height difference that would be concerned. No, no, no, no. The only, yeah, my only concern is that. Without three dribbles, it will be worse. But I do think I have some stealth. Without three dribbles, I'm going to dribble the ball into the paint. and just continuously score.

Three dribbles is the way. He's just going to knock me over. Yeah. What is going to happen. That's really what is going to happen. That's something that happened. When I came to California, when I came to California and niggas was doing King of the Court playing one-on-one,

it was three dribbles to really show who had a bag. In Louisiana, it's prison basketball. So when you are going one-on-one, it's part skill, but it's part fucking will. Yeah. It's part hustle. It's part-basket. It's part. Boom.

In that era, they're probably playing three dribbles there now because it's like taken over the country. But like now when I first got out here, it was like, you're not just going to bat me down

and score. It's boom, boom, boom. You got to get to a move and score the basketball. Yeah. You might be more of a hooper than I am. Like, I think I'm more of like,

you know, there's a difference between like a street baller and a train basketball. Yeah. You might be a little more street. More street. You got a damn Republican.

All right. Take your thing back's off, but do not stop. He's more street. The voice. Yeah. The voice. Yeah.

No, no, not that means. No. Which voice? The Greek. Oh. Take your thinking caps off, but do not stop learning. Higher learning has ended. That's how he talks.

Oh, do you want to say your name? I'm Van Lathen. Our Odyssey has finished. The Life Guide. And I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Bye, guys.