Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Reckless “Behavior,” Mental Health, and the Kate Middleton Conspiracy

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay recap and give their impressions on the Kate Middleton conspiracy (06:07) before discussing former president Donald Trump’s comments on the possibility of losing the upcoming election (18:18). Then, they talk about mental health and Bill Maher’s segment discussing mental health in America (43:36). Lastly, they talk about the latest ruling in Texas that made sites like Pornhub react with a ban (1:11:02 ). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producer: Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? I learning is on. It is I Van Lathan Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. God damn right. So you brought the cowboy hat in the studio. Yeah. I enjoy it. I catch it.

I do too. I know. I really do. So why is it that your first instinct is to hate? It was not. It was absolutely not. And for those listening and not watching, I wanted them to know because I feel like you bring a particular energy when you have the hat on. So I wanted people to know that.

What kind of energy? It's more positive. More positive energy? It's more positive. You guys feel like— You guys feel like I'm more positive and happier with the cowboy hat? Don't ask Alia. She's going to be like—

Alea is—so Alea is my nemesis. And like every single day, I want to just find a different— Because Alea is such a worthy adversary. I like that. Yeah, she's on top of it. Yeah, she's on top of it. She walks around with this like this smile on her face, but it's kind of like a fuck you smile.

It is. It's like, fuck you. I like her. She's nice. You're going to go far. Ashley's here. Ashley's actually in studio. I sure am.

Smashley in the studio. Yeah. Smashley. Ashley came in town for NAACP Awards. You were not there. She was not there. Okay. But she.

It was an excuse to. What was it? I had to watch the Lakers game. I was tired and I didn't want to go. No, you weren't tired. I was super tired. By the way, here's the thing. Of all the award shows that you could miss, the NAACP Awards is the one that you wouldn't want to miss because it is just a beautiful black. And it was. And you know what I mean? That's the one you don't want to miss. It's always, it feels very uniquely gratifying to be recognized by the NAACP. Agreed. But just one particular time after South by, after doing like 15 podcasts last week, I just, I just need some rest. You guys, I'm burning a kettle at both ends right now. And then the WrestleMania is coming up. So I just...

You got to go. I'm going to WrestleMania. Okay. Yeah. I mean, the way you have... Somebody said to me when I posted that I did do or watch Dune, that you needed to pick between being. the number one voice in wrestling,

something about Dune, and there's a third thing that you're on to. Maybe it was the cowboy thing. They were like, you need to pick. You need to decide who you are. Are you the number one voice in wrestling? Are you whatever you said, maybe you said it on a ring or verse with Dune?

Or are you a cowboy? I'm a cowboy who has devoted his life to Dune and is also the number one voice in wrestling. Can I ask you question? I'm serious. Can a nigger have a, interests? Can a nigger have interest? You guys, I'll ask you guys right now. Everyone's always telling black men, specifically black men. Oh my God. Get serious. Get like this. Can a nigger play

the game? Can a nigger love Dune? Can a nigger love wrestling? Can a nigger who lives this life being scrutinized and being oppressed? Can he just live? What's wrong? with me being a cowboy. What's wrong with me loving Dune? What's wrong with me loving wrestling? What's wrong with me having hobbies? Can a nigga cut his nails? I have to go. I have to go. I have to go. They're distracting. I have to go to. So look, this is why I haven't cut my nails. Can a nigga not be criticized? This is, this is why I have to cut my nails. Okay.

So I normally just cut my nails, right? But I want to get a manicure and I haven't had time. So I don't want to cut my nails and get the manicure. So I'm going to go get the manicure today. You know what? I'm going to start. I'm going to I commented. You know what? That's fine. Go ahead. Oh, please. And if you spare me from criticism on this podcast. I'll be honest with you. Yeah, I need to cut my nails. It's a thing. But don't see what you just did. You just deflected from the fact that everything that I try to do, that's not, everything that I try to do, I criticize for it. A, grow up and stop caring about Dune. No. I never said that. I'm not going to stop caring about Dune, guys. Dune is fan.

It really is fantastic. Grow up and stop caring about wrestling. You know what? All the stress that I got, why can a nigger just watch wrestling? He can. Thank you. By the way, the judge loves wrestling. You told me this before.

Yeah, and he doesn't watch it now, but faithfully. My goal would be to go see wrestling in Dallas when Smackdown and Raw goes there or AEW, and I'll go with the judge. He would go with you, yeah. But no, he wouldn't. He wouldn't go. because I was in Dallas and I tried to hang out with your parents

and your parents didn't want to hang out with me. You know what I'm going to do? I'm just going to go into the judge's court. I'm going to go into the judge's court. I'm going to sit down there. Chambers. Chambers? Well, I don't have to go to the court first. You can walk through.

It's like, it's big. Is it public? Can I just go watch the judge? No, you have to go through security, like main security and then security on the floor. And then, like, they have to have your name in the system. like to know that you're coming. Why?

I don't know. At least that's how it's been for me. Why on God's Green Earth would I not be able to? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. I could be wrong. I've just always said to. It's probably a security concern,

but if my tax dollars are putting niggers in jail, I want to be able to go and watch and make sure things are above board. You really do need to go to Dallas and go to a hearing or a trial or something like that. I want to see him in action. I want to see. He would perform.

Yeah, I want to see him in. action. All rise. All rise? The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul PREDICs. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25 bonus.

Offered by Fandul Prediction Markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant. 18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer particular. protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at banduel.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start.

Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur.

Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Trimphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit trimfire radio.com. Are you following Kate Middleton thing? No. No.

Who's following it back there? I know enough. But are you interested? I'm... I know so much about it. Alea, break it down. No, that was Ashley. That was Ashley?

Oh, excuse me. Ashley knows about it. Ashley, break it down. Okay. So here's what I know. She was getting stomach surgery. Allegedly. Allegedly.

And she got it around like December, January time, right? She got in the same exact hospital that King Charles went to for his cancer. His cancer treatment and everything had a bunch of people come by to see if he was doing okay. But nobody came to visit her while she was being in there, right? So then they started posting pictures of like a woman in a car. Oh, that must be Kate with her mom. A woman in Williams car. Oh, it must be her, but she has on the giant sunglasses.

It can be any white woman, like, honestly. So people are like, well, where is she? Why is she not being, like, visited? Where is she at? It's been, like, months, right? And then they post a picture. And it's her, and she's with her smiling children. But if you start looking at the picture, her hair is, like, sinking into her shirt,

and her kids look strange, and they're wearing the same outfits that they wore on another like thing. And they don't do that. They don't take pictures in the same outfits because they're like special people, right? So people are like, what is this picture? And then they took it down. They took it down everywhere. And they're like, oh, sorry. Actually, it's me, Kate. And I very much like love editing photos. And that was an accident. And I was just having a little fun and experimenting. And it was like, no, no, you want. Is she dead? No. Get to the Fair. Oh, that's, that's where I, what I think it is. I saw a TikTok theory about it. Oh, my God. And I'm thinking, do you, do you know about the affair in the neighbor? I know, I know a little bit about it,

not that much. I don't know that much about it either. But allegedly, they're saying, there was no surgery. Yes. It's that he's been having this off and on affair with this woman, who they've photographed. And, and I saw this conspiracy theory that said, the reason that they're, they're putting this woman out front and they're showing her picture and they're talking about her in a positive way is because allegedly William is Charles. Allegedly, he's having an affair with this woman and allegedly she's pregnant. That was the conspiracy on TikTok. And so Kate's like, fuck this. And she's leaving. She's like, I'm not doing this. And that's why she's in hiding. So the woman's pregnant? This is a theory on TikTok. You mean to tell me that Prince.

He's definitely probably having an affair. Wait a minute. So Prince William allegedly has a woman pregnant. You mean to tell me Prince William can't come up with that $500? She wants to keep it. That was also in the TikTok. She said, I think he thought he could talk her out of it. This is the conspiracy theory.

And she said she's decided to keep it. And Kate had a nervous breakdown. That's what they said. It's not that she was the stomach issue. When Kate found out she was pregnant and keeping it, Kate had a nervous breakdown. So this is the big one, though, because the kids, have not been seen either. So people think that she just picked up the kids and, like, ran away.

She's like, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore. But actually, my favorite theory is the BBL theory that she's just gone to get a BBL and is recovering. O'Lea, I have not seen that anywhere. This is so much more fun than I thought it would be. Can you imagine if she just came back with that dang swangin? Especially if, think about this. So I like to combine the theories.

I like to think that she got a BBL because he stepped out. So think about if there's this world where Kate Middleton, like, leaves, and then she starts fucking with Gunna. You're not going to be able to fuck with Gunna unless you got that thing swanging. So maybe she went to go get the BBL. She's going to pop up in Miami. Maybe she went to get the BBL after he stepped out. And now she knows she got to get in with these rappers,

because that's the way you get back at the motherfucking, the royals, man. Gonna? You get back at the royals, but Ray J single? Ray J is single right now. If you want to... What's ever a British rapper?

Like, Skept. Nah, it's not gonna work. Why? Because that's not... Skepta is... They're looking at Skeptor as one of their own. Shout out to Skepta, by the way. Shout out to Skepta, I fuck with Skeptor.

But you can't go Skepta. You got to go love and hip-hop-based type person. Or just a... above that. Like with a, like, you got to go a nigger from Atlanta. Kate Millerton got to let a nigga from Atlanta smash. Quavo. Cuevo, perfect. That's it. That's the one. Kate Milton and Cuevo. If she, go get the BBL and then go to Cuevo. You know, go to Quay. The Royals would get turned upside down. They don't want no brown babies.

And then all the kids would become Migos fans and all of that stuff. This is perfect for me. That's way more interesting than I thought it would be. I don't care, though. Thanks, Leia, for the BPL theory. I mean, I don't care, though. So, but I ask you question real quick, just before we move off this, this is another reason why I think black women are unfairly criticized. Okay? Okay.

So you have Prince Williams' mistress, who is allegedly pregnant, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. And she is electing to keep the boyfriend. baby and we know why. The baby has royal blood. Now, I'm sure this woman that he's having an affair with is not a commoner. Is she a commoner? She's not a commoner.

She's not, I'm sure she's not a commoner because he probably doesn't have very much proximity. So she was like kind of, that family was kind of groomed to like marry the royal family. Apparently it was supposed to be her older sister, but that didn't work out. So it was her and they went to the same school and then it worked out. Because Kate really wasn't supposed to be that woman. Yes. It's like the Princess Diana story, like literally. Right.

Now, these people are all nobility. Princess Diana was definitely nobility. But I'll say this. So what I'm saying is there's this narrative, I feel sometimes, that it's only black ladies that have children for proximity to wealth. There's this avatar of. of it. And it's this chick hanging out backstage at the concert or on the sidelines of the game. Man, white women invented that fucking game. They invented that game. And by the way,

the entire game itself is only possible because of patriarchy. Patriarchy makes it almost necessary for a woman to connect herself to a man for breeding purposes and nesting purposes. I'm just saying. So I think that I'm just saying So a lot of this... Who else has done it? What do you mean? What other white women have paved the way?

A bunch of them. I mean, I can't name them all offhand. But it happens all the time. Black, white women do it to athletes. No, I agree with you. I'm just... I'll tell you one thing right now. I will come back with a list.

A list. Really, to be honest with you, It's white women now in the BBL world that are doing it because these young, Negro rappers and athletes cannot stop nutting. They won't stop nutting. It's more people nutting. Okay. Like, it's just the reckless every, I'm literally saying this.

Like, I'm not trying to call any of these brothers out, but I'm just saying, I saw Justin Jefferson. She was white. the girl that, from LSU, the girl that he got pregnant. Oh, he is a kid. She was white. Trayvon Diggs and Joy Chavis, like, she's not white. She's not white, but I'm just saying, every single week, reckless nutting is happening.

And then it gets messy and people wonder why. He doesn't get condoms. Anthony Edwards. Because of the AIDS scare is over, I feel like reckless nutting is back. People stopped reckless nutting for a little while. I just don't understand why people act like there aren't other STDs out here. Like, herpes is a real thing. Herb dog?

You know a lot of people who haven't. Okay. I'm just saying it's out here. I do not understand why people are not protecting themselves. What I don't want to do is like getting to like shaming people that have. No, I'm not shaming them. I'm just saying it's common. Yeah, right.

I'm talking about herpes. Yeah. So, but like what I am saying, Saying, though, is that use condoms. That's bottom line. Like, use condoms. Maybe they don't, maybe this is what they want. Maybe it is.

To think that Prince William, and we spent way too much time on this, because we've got to get to President Trump, ex-President Trump, but to think that Prince William was just nutting with everything on the line. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, with everything on the line, think about it. He doesn't care. He doesn't give a fuck. And now... He's going to be king.

He's going to be king pretty soon. Just think about how many reckless kids he going to have out there if he becomes a king with this type of nutting behavior that he has. It's interesting to me. That was a fantastic breakdown from Ashley and Alea. We should give Ashley and Alea a corner to break down something in pop culture that's just too young for me. Because I saw people talking about it and I couldn't bring myself to care.

Now I'm invested. Well, because you've created a new storyline that definitely doesn't exist. and that's the BBL. She had the BBL too because of the mistress. You created that. So now that's why you're interested. Last thing I'll say before we move on, that's not as shocking as you think it would be.

Like I worked in Bizarro World for almost a decade. People change. People do stuff. People come out and they fucking end up doing stuff you never seen them do before. Sure. Kate Millington is still a young lady and she would have the rest of her life to antagonize the royals.

With that booty? With that ass. Clap, clap, clap. Let me ask you a question. Y'all tripping right now. I bet y'all never envisioned the world. She's not a royal. But y'all never envisioned a world

where Adele was with these niggas and it happened. Yes, I could. Really? Remember when she was like dressing up and like That's after though No Wait wait wait wait wait so Adele by when she went to the 90 Hill carnival

That was her that was her announcing to the world That she was down for the nation The nation of insemination By an African nation Is she pregnant? No she's not but what I'm saying is That was her when Adele left Because she was married to a white guy right

When Adele left Obviously when she had these bandings knots in her head. That was after, that was after the divorce. And then that was around the time, then it was skeptic and now it was like Rich Paul. She dated Skepta? She dated Skepta for a while. I did not know that. Yeah. Like, and by the way, that's Adele being Adele. She was with them for a while and now she's with us. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, Reliable Internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum business to keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile

services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support, millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimfaya offers self-injection or intravenous influence. fusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tremfaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with

moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections, or lower ability to fight them and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiatoradio.com. President Trump.

Interesting, interesting, interesting, interesting statements made by the president, your favorite president, the president of vagina. It just gets me every time. Recent campaign stop. He was actually, I think, trying to catch a plane, and he talked about what will happen if he is not elected. Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole, that's going to

be the least of it. It's going to be a bloodbath. Okay. So, Trump's spokespeople tried to clean this up. It came back and they said the president was talking in the context of, the ex-president was talking in the context of the auto industry. And he was talking about the auto industry and its struggles during the Biden administration

and that he was making reference to the fact that if he wasn't reelected, if he is reelected, the auto industry will rebound and he would bring jobs back from overseas into America. But if he's not elected, that it would be a bloodbath in the auto industry. That is what they are saying. Okay, question. Didn't a lot of these unions renegotiate

and they're in a better position now? And didn't Biden go and speak to them and... So this is what I would say. I would say that to that, giving Biden credit. I'm not giving him credit. I'm just saying he supported the unions. I think that's a little too far to say that he supported the unions.

Did he not go down there and say that he believed in, you know, he did his whole. I'm from Scranton. I believe. I don't want to make this a criticism of Joe Biden type of segment. I want to keep it on Donald Trump. But I think that most people would say that we're up on that situation, that his support for the unions was more rhetorical than it was. anything else and it was

tepid at best. I think a lot of people were it's a weird position for a president to be in. But I would say that there were probably a lot of people, depending on your political viewpoint, that were unimpressed with Joe Biden's support for unions and unimpressed with his support for the auto workers. I don't know. I mean, he called for unionization. I'm like looking at

up. Yeah. I mean, it was more than they had seen a president do before in regards to unions. I remember that being the rhetoric around it. I'm not trying to change the subject. I'm more so saying in response to this, how Trump's saying, if you do this, if you don't vote for me,

it'll allegedly, that's what he was talking about, be a bloodbath when I feel like maybe the workers didn't get everything they wanted, but under the Biden administration, you had a president who supported unions and the work that they do. Trump is really mad about this. He says the fake news media,

the Democratic partners, and the Democratic partners in the destruction of our nation pretended to be shocked in my use of the word bloodbath even though they fully understood that I was simply referring to imports allowed by Crooked Joe Biden

which are killing the automobile industry. The United Auto Workers, but not their leadership, fully understand what I mean. With the electric car mandate being pushed by Biden, there soon won't be any cars made in the USA unless I'm elected president in which auto manufacturing will thrive

like never before. all that stuff was in caps. So the rally was actually in Ohio and he was saying we're going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line and if you're not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected.

And he said, now if I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it. But they're not going to sell those cars. They're building massive factories. My thing is this. He said, if I don't get elected,

it's going to be a bloodbath for the country, that'll be the least of it. Right. That to me is Trump talking about something other than the specific issue that he wants to wrap all this sentiment up into. So he's wrapping the sentiment up into, hey, I was talking about the auto industry

and imports and EVs and where electric car batteries are made and how that's affecting the automobile industry here in the United States of America, which I think it's actually, a good conversation to have in terms of what manufacturing we need to be doing right here at home and how we can goose automakers into rebuilding a little bit of American manufacturing here. And you also have the issue of electric cars. Sure.

And that's something that, to be honest with you, is a much, much deeper issue than a president can address or a prospective president can address at a campaign stop. It's going to take a lot of conversation and a lot of talk, a conversation about globalization, treaty organizations, agreements, all kinds of stuff like that. Economic treaty organizations and all the kinds. Just like the whole neoliberal economic structure is going to be under indictment if you have that conversation.

I don't know how much any American president really wants to get into a full-on pissing contest with the business community just because it seems like the business community is always going to win that. But it seems as if what he said was things are going to be a bloodbath in the country and bath for car for car makers for the automobile industry if I don't get elected. What do you think Trump thinks his bloodbath consists of? I mean, before you even linked it to that his team is saying he was talking specifically about the auto industry, when I read bloodbath, my mind immediately goes to January 6th.

Political violence. Yeah, I see an uprising. I see like you think that it was bad with January 6th. We're going to war. I see scenes from that upcoming movie Civil War happening. I feel like he is, he is, he says these things to incite his base, to get them riled up, to get them ready. Stand back and stand by. Like that's what that's giving to me.

I think. Did it not for you? Yeah. Okay. But I think that a lot of the people who are quick to defend Donald Trump And I think it's important to look at these statements in context Because I believe that Trump and what he represents And just the dissonance of his electorate

It's enough on its own without adding anything to it So if this were a situation where you could look at it and be like, okay, this was taken out of context, I think it's important to be intellectually honest about what he might have said or might have been trying to say or whatever, whatever. Number one, the response to it by the Trump side wasn't quite honest. He wrapped a statement up in there about the country that was right. And then number two, Trump has a history of like you said. said threatening, both directly and in a veiled way, political violence, if things don't go his way. Like, even in some cases where he's talking to people, just let you know, if you don't do this, people are going to be very angry. People are going to be very upset.

He weaponizes the actions of an increasingly unhinged base. Like, they're getting more unhinged as a reason why people should. should give into his wishes. People should do what he says. So it's not out of character for Donald Trump to say, hey, if I don't get elected, there's going to be a bloodbath or going to be something like that.

He's talked about civil war in the past. These are things that don't seem to be in the far recesses of his mind. These are, in my opinion, tools to be used by him in order to influence people to do what he wants them to do, which is vote for.

him and give him more power. It's like fear-based campaigning, not even in the fear-based way that we get in general political campaigns. Everybody campaigns on fear. If you don't do this, these people are going to take over and do this and this and that. This is directly, hey, I've got my hands on my finger on the trigger of a very specific gun. And if I don't get the White House, I'll pull that trigger. I mean, yeah,

The term bloodbath alone is so extreme and so violent. And to your point goes hand in hand with him talking about riots, talking about violence and destruction, or violence in the streets, talking about death and destruction. Like he's done all these things. And he's basically like, if you don't beware, this is what is to come.

Yeah. And so bloodbath, I don't care how you spin it, was intentionally used to be extreme. there's nothing unambiguous about it. Let me ask you a question on the whole Donald Trump situation. I mean, there's nothing ambiguous about it. So we're going to now see a lot more Donald Trump

for the next six or seven months or whatever it is. Okay. How do you think the media should handle President Trump? Are you a person that believes that President Trump should be shielded from mass media because or hidden from mass media or I guess censored from mass media because of the amount of lies and the rhetoric and the whipping up of people that he does or do you think that the way to show people who he truly is and influence them and give them the truth of him is to to show him when he's talking to give them Trump unvarnished and uncensored.

What do you think? I mean, it's difficult for me to answer either way because the mass media, the people who are watching the mass media, are not voting for Trump. That's how I feel. I feel like we're eight years in and dealing with Trump connected to the presidency one way or another. At this point, he has shown us who he is. He's getting increasingly more extreme, in my opinion, and it hasn't deterred.

his core base. And Republicans have shown us time and time again that they're going to vote based on that he's attached to their party rather than concern over the things that he's saying. I just don't feel like, I don't feel like Trump is gaining attention, like the media covering him,

I don't feel like Trump is gaining any voters. And I don't feel like by them covering him that he's also going to lose particular voters. I think the people who want to vote Republican are going to vote Republican because it's a one issue for them or they on the other side are like, well, it's better than Joe Biden

because that's how they think. And I think the core Maga-Base is going to vote for Trump because he's their cult leader. At this point, I don't think whether you give him media attention or not, I don't think it's, it goes either way.

So then I guess I would say then don't because I'm sick of hearing about him. Go ahead. I think he should be covered as much as possible. For what, for the purpose of what? The devil is most effective when he's hidden.

And I agree. Like when you can't see it coming. So to me, people don't have as much of a bad taste in their mouth about Donald Trump as they did at one particular point because they haven't seen him enough. I don't agree with that.

Okay, so look, this is my this is my way of looking at it. So people came out in force in 2020 to vote Donald Trump out of office. Things are a lot different than what they were then, right? However, people were sick of him. The number one reason Joe Biden was able to win in 2020 is because people were sick of Donald Trump.

Sure. And they were sick of him from a call cultural perspective, as much as they were sick of him from a policy perspective. He was on the news every single day saying absurd things regarding COVID, saying drink Lysol, saying hit it with a bright intense light, saying he knows more about science than many other people, right? and particularly in that point in the face of such a real and grave threat, people looked and they said, hey, we can't have this motherfucker running the country.

It just didn't seem like it was taken seriously. It didn't seem like it was taken scientifically seriously. And they were like, you know what, This is an inflection point where we need different leadership, not even better leadership, not even competent leadership, well, definitely better leadership, but we need different leadership. Trump walking over with the Bible in D.C. upside down. All of these things made people go, this is not the guy. This is embarrassing and this is dangerous.

And I think part of the resurgence of Donald Trump as being a viable mainstream candidate is the fact that people don't remember how much of an idiot he is. And I think shielding him from that actually helps propagate the narrative that things were just normal when Donald Trump was the president. Right. I think it's important to fact check Donald Trump. I agree with that. I think it's important to fact check Donald Trump not only in real time, but after he is done speaking. That burden is on the news media. It's on the news media to be up to the task to A, standing up to him and to people that support him,

and B, having the appropriate knowledge to counter some of the untrue things that he would say. And now we know that there's a penalty to be paid for that, right, with the entire Dominion lawsuit that Fox was under. you lie and you put the wrong people in the crosshairs, you'll have to pay for it. But I just don't think you gain anything by shielding him from scrutiny. So I understand your point. And like I said, I can see it both ways.

I guess for me is... I'm sorry. I'm allergic to something in here, guys. There's something in here that I'm allergic to. I'm allergic to something in the studio. It's a thing. It's just that the way you blow your nose, is just like, talking about extreme.

It's just extreme. The noise, I don't know. It was just, it was excessive. Sorry. Actually, you should be apologizing for me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Anyways, there's no like, excuse me,

I'm about to blow my nose. It just comes. All right. My issue with the mainstream media is that they become obsessed over the way that they report on Trump. I agree with you. When Trump makes extreme comments

about a blood bath or he's on, you know, what's truth social, saying his, you know, saying things that are lies or of that nature. I think that, yes, you should discuss them. There should be articles written about them. But as far as what happens to me is like, I get frustrated when I turn on mainstream media and it's like we're talking about something so small when it comes to Trump. And I feel like sometimes he overtakes mainstream media to the point where we're hearing more about him and what he's doing and like taking this story and the subparts of it and talking about it every single day to where we're not even talking about the other side of it. We talk more about all the things

that Trump is doing and sometimes we're not highlighting the other side of it. That's where I guess I feel like we need to dial back. I'm not saying don't cover Trump. I'm just saying let's not become obsessed with it like we have before in election years. Fair point. I will say this. I don't think you win this election on either side with your diehards. Sure. I don't think you win very many elections with your diehards.

And we should say, just in fairness, that Trump and the Trump portion of the Republican Party has been losing elections here pretty consistently for the last for four years.

So there's that. So apparently people haven't lost their total. disdain for Donald Trump. But his opponent is vulnerable. The ongoing massacre in Gaza makes his opponent vulnerable. The

not unwillingness, but the, it seems as if sometimes Joe Biden, besides the state of the union, is incapable of messaging in an energetic way to his base, which makes them less energetic about coming out. But Donald Trump,

regardless of how you or what you think of them inspires emotion in people, either intense love or intense hate. And I do think that there are people at the margins wondering whether or not they're going to participate in the

election that are probably motivated by him to vote him out. And that will increase to me the more that they understand who he is. I think the best thing, the best thing for anyone who is against Trump or anti-Maga is to see as much of him as possible. Is that, is the message getting to them, though?

Well, it did in 2020. And it seems to have... I don't know if it got to them or just got to other, the people who... It got to them. They voted. And so, like, obviously, it's different than it was. in. But you know, once again, I'm just not in, and we can move on to Vice President Pence and we'll get that audio ready. I'm just not one of these people that believe that the best

way to deal with the problem is to ignore it. I agree with you. Yeah. I, it's the obsession. You can admit that there was an obsession. Maybe that's too strong of a word, but it was overkill when it came to covering Trump. I agree with you. Don't ignore the problem, right? Right. I think that's what we did in 2016. Well, I think we ignored. We didn't take it seriously. Ah, this is just him. There's no way this guy is going to make it this far and step by step. He kept

getting there. So I think we've learned our lesson from that. So I will agree with you. We should not ignore it. But we shouldn't just be, it shouldn't be all consuming. So this is what I'll say. The media, we really will move by the things. The media doesn't have the responsibility to

destroy or minimize Donald Trump. The media has a responsibility to the truth. So the truth. So it's very simple. Donald Trump is running for president. He is the presumptive. Basically, he is the GOP nominee for president, right?

So he's running for president. Boom. You have to, that person is a new story without a doubt. When they say, when they lie, give the truth. That's it. When they lie, give the truth. The difference between now and then was that Trump was so good for ratings

that every little thing that he said was covered ad nauseum. Every little thing that he did was covered as ad nauseum. And I feel like the fact checking, both on the spot and after he was done talking, took a back seat

to inundating us with what Donald Trump was saying that all the times. Now, I mean, you know, he went on there and he, when he was talking in that same speech, he said that some of the people that were coming up from the southern border weren't human. He said that they were animals.

Well, if you're going to talk about the fact that he said that, I think it's important to put a human being that understands the situation at the southern border on to let Americans know that no matter how you feel about what's going on down there, we are talking about human beings, no matter what he says. I think contextualizing what he does is more important than like hiding him from America because we're going to get a lot, a lot, a lot of Donald Trump. And it's important that we get that in a way that's responsible. All right.

Pence, real quick, said he is not going to endorse Donald Trump. Give us the audio. Come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year. Look, I'm incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made. America more prosperous, more secure. But that being said, during my presidential campaign, I made it clear that there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues. And not just our difference on my constitutional duties that I exercised on January the 6th.

Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years. And that's why I cannot. and good conscience endorsed Donald Trump. Okay, so he's done. Yeah. I mean, we kind of already knew that.

Yeah, he's finished. That's a death rattle from the political career of Mike Pence. I just don't have very much respect for people who kissed the ring and then try to vomit back up.

the remnants of the rain that they kiss later on? But he's not. And this is why I don't have respect for him. Okay. In one sense, it's like he is devoting himself not just to, it's to his beliefs rather than saying, I'm just going to vote for the Republican nominee because that's the party that I belong to.

All right, cool. Give you credit for that. Maybe you'll be able to influence some other people to speak out who would typically vote Republican and might say, hey, I don't want this guy in office. You know, there was a second people thought Mitch McConnell, not really, but, you know, once Nikki Haley was out, he endorsed him as well because he said there was never a world where he would not vote for the Republican nominee.

So I will give Pence at least that. But his reasoning for not voting for Donald Trump has nothing to do with the fact that he threatened his life and his family's life, that he encouraged other people to hang him, that he or the people that he was inciting wanted to hang him, that the fact that he wanted him to go against the Constitution and, you know, like come up with more votes, that he didn't want him to certify the votes, that none of those are reasons as to why he's not voting for him or any of the outrageous things that Trump's done.

It's because of abortion and it's because of TikTok. Yeah. So it's like you're not a hero here. You're not even, the main reasons why Trump should not be in office, don't even phase you. It's low states. He's not, I mean, he's not. At least, I mean, for guys like Mitch McConnell and other people, I mean, Mitch McConnell won't be in the Senate for too much longer.

But it's low stakes for Pence to do this. It's, it doesn't really matter. He won't, he's not a viable political figure in America anymore. There's not an election to win. It's a low stakes thing for him to say. Some people will be all into it, whatever, whatever. I'm giving credit for what? Exactly.

He was his main lieutenant in the whole fucking thing. He should have been leading this anti-magnar charge. And says he's proud of what they did during their administration. Curious. I mean, pants. Okay. Bill Maher. This is all you.

All me? This is you. This is you. You brought this topic up. I want to hear your take on first. Bill Maher defended Biden's record, which I'm sure a lot of our listeners will listen to. and slammed people obsessed with mental health. Give us the audio.

And finally, new rule, being obsessed with your mental health is bad for your mental health. I've been thinking a lot lately about a puzzle many are struggling with. Why are Biden's approval ratings so low when things are generally pretty good? Of course, there are problems. America's a big place. But wages are rising. Unemployment is negligible. The stock market is soaring.

We somehow brushed off both. the Trump presidency and the pandemic. Yes, inflation persists for a lot of things, but, you know, an actual good, nice-sized TV now costs 60 bucks. Who gets credit for that? We've got next day shipping, stuffed crust pizza, legal weed, GPS, and porn on the phone. Cheer the fuck up. Stop acting like life in America in 2024 is unbearable.

Biden's ratings are in the toilet, not because he's doing such a bad job, because a lot of Americans like to live with their head in the toilet. Also, and don't get mad at me, I'm just citing statistics, but the people who really shouldn't be that bummed out but are acting like it anyway are exactly who you think, white women. An estimated 35% of whom are on antidepressants, although in their defense, have you seen the prices at Lulu Lemon? But every bad feeling isn't a disease,

and Americans really need to stop pathologists. everything. Okay. Curious, why is this... Why did you say that this is all me? Well, you brought it up, and I didn't know if you wanted to talk about it

that he did compliment the Biden administration or his take on mental health, which basically is like, suck it up, get over it. And I know that, you know, you've been open on this podcast before with mental health

and what you've gone through. So I didn't know if this, like, struck a nerve with you or... you agreed with them. So there are two different things that work here for me. One is the first part of it, which is people don't realize

the rate at which the country is improving. That's actually true. There are all kinds of studies on this. But I think the reason why that is is because of images and pictures and things that they're in. dated with. Like, I watch these, I watch the Hill, right? And Robbie Suave, Breonna Joy Gray on the Hill, it's great fun to watch. They do a great job. But it was just one particular

back and forth between them where Brianna was talking about crime going down. There are cities in America right now that are absolutely on fire. And I do not mean to single out cities, but I have to be honest about the fact that Washington, D.C. right now, in Philadelphia right now are pretty bad in terms of crime rates that are going on there. But in a lot of other major American cities, crime is getting close to returning to pre-pandemic levels. And if not, being close to returning there,

it's trending towards that. We have to remember that pre-pandemic America was as safe as it had ever been. We had Serise Castle on here, and when she talked about the fact, when she talked about the crime, she talked about the fact that 2018, 2019, these are some of the safest years on record. So matter what they tell you, no matter what mascot they use, whether it be Chicago, Jacksonville, any other place like that, crime overall was down and had been coming down in America for a long time. And a lot of reasons why.

A lot of reasons why. I want everybody to look into, I've talked about this before. I want everyone to look into the prevalence of lead in our environment. It's just the prevalence of lead in our environment and how crime rates changed once we got the lead out of some of these places. All right. It was thinning out these kids' brains and driving them crazy. All kinds of things have led to that reduction in crime.

But in this back and forth between Brianna and Robbie, she mentions that crime rates are going down. And Robbie says, well, if crime rates are going down, why am I seeing videos all over the place of groups of teens going into stores smashing and grabbing and then running out? So the question is not about whether or not crime is actually going down. The question is about whether or not someone like Robbie Swave feels like crime is going down. It's not about whether or not you are safe. it's whether or not you feel safe. And it doesn't take a crime happening every single day,

two or three times a day, to make you feel unsafe. The emotional impact of a crime makes you feel unsafe if your church is the victim of a crime. If a place that is typically not the victim of a crime is the victim of a crime. I remember a guy got shot at El Paso in Beverly Hills and people after like the world was coming to it in when stuff like that happens

just literally 10 miles south all the time. Right? And people were like, oh my God, if it's coming to Beverly Hills, it's not safe in Beverly Hills anymore. So all of those things and your access to that type of imagery, that affects the way you view

whether or not you're safe or what crime actually is. How could you feel that property theft is going down if you see kids running into the Apple store and ripping all the iPhones off. Your eyes are telling you that's not true. Yet it is. So I get what he's saying there.

The mental health component is challenging for me because when someone says, hey, just cheer up. My answer is always, how? And I'm not going to get all deep into this, but like for a guy like Bill Maher, I'm sure that he has a good life where nothing really bothers him.

Although he did just fire his agency. Oh, yeah. Because he didn't get invited to a Hollywood party. Right. So obviously, Bill Maher is just like the rest of us. Sure. And he gets bothered by things. Incipid things, one might say.

Right. So I'm looking back to like a time where I had a real life suicidal ideation. to where I'm, I was rescued by humor. Like, I'm laying down and I have a shotgun. And the shotgun was bought because I wanted to protect my home. And I'm just literally, I'm looking down and I'm like, I can say for 100% certain that I'm never going to feel good again. Like, I have that intellectual thought that this is now my life,

that I will wake up in the morning at 5.30, 545, because I'm really not getting good sleep. And then I would drive out to the beach and I would walk up and down the beach or walk up and down the streets of LA and cry until about noon. Cry until noon. Like literally, cry to my eyes were swollen up.

Cry to, like, ask different people. As people saw me. Little Rail one time. Shout out to Little Rail. Saw me walking. up and down Lassianiga at like seven in the morning. Tiffany Haddish like drove, like people were going to work and doing stuff and they,

and people would stop and be like, man, what's up? Like what, like what you're doing? I'm just walking around just trying to get some sun, trying to get just crying. Until about one where I would level out for a little bit.

I'd have maybe two decent hours. And then I knew that I was going to have to try to sleep and then I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep. And so then that would make me anxious. And then I would wake up and do all of this again. So I'm laying down one morning. I'm waking up one morning. I'm like, this is just life. I can't see a way out of this. There's no possible way that you could feel this way and then one day feel better. And I go like the shotgun is right there because this is torturous. This is like, this is painful. Like the air is heavy.

Like I can't see. Like I'm, it's, it's, it's, it's, I don't feel anything. Um, and so I'm, uh, and I laugh. And the reason why, and, and I laugh because in my brain, I go, that was real. It wasn't, I wasn't thinking it, it, the feeling that I was in, it superseded everything else. It superseded my fear of death. It superseded my fear of what my family would do after I was gone. Like all of that.

Like I was in pain. And once I actually had the thought and the thought was real and I realized that I really felt that way, I set up and I laughed. I'm like, I need help. I got to do something. Called my therapist. My therapist was like, and shout out to Nick. Nick May. I always talk about Nick, my partner, Nick, and what a great guy, Nick is.

Call my therapist, and my therapist was like, how much ammo do you have for the gun? I was like, I got about 400 rounds. She was like, give it to somebody. And so Nick, I said, hey, Nick, can I come drop 400 rounds of shotgun ammo off at your house? And he was like, yeah. By way, he still has it. But I have ammo from my other ones. But. But. You also told his audience, remember you were kidding. Right. But and so when guys like Bill Maher say what he says, right, first of all, he's connecting two things that I don't think are connectable. I agree with what he said about people not understanding the actual stakes and the actual situation in America right now.

But I think that has a lot to do more with how we get information and what images and social media does to us. Narratives are so important right now, which is why you need to have corrective narratives all the time. you need someone that says, hey, that's a scary situation, but just to let you know, that's not happening as much as you think that it's happening. Like, not because, just because something can happen or does happen doesn't mean that it's happening all the time. Right. If that were the case, people would never get on planes. People would never take boats out. People would never do all that.

There's an expectation that goes along with some of that stuff, not a complete elimination of risk. the expectation that it's generally safe. And weaponizing fear is saying you're not generally safe. It's saying because of somebody's policies or because of something else that's happening, you're not generally safe. And you are. You're generally safe. You are.

And you're getting safer. Yeah. And your things are, the economy is turning. It's getting generally better. Now that might not be affecting you right now the way that it should be because of other factors, but there's data. It's generally getting better. Okay. As far as you and whether or not you're going to generally get better, it's irresponsible of somebody to go on their platform and say, hey, cheer the fuck up and not tell you how.

It's irresponsible for somebody to go on their platform and say, you're making it up in your mind and not tell you why. It's belittling. It makes it easier to take the other. way out. Well, Bill Maher and his audience of clapping fucking imbeciles says, hey, you guys are over indexing. You guys are talking too much about how bad you're feeling. Well, I mean, the reality is things are a little different now, Bill. We get confronted with catastrophe every single day. We get images of dead kids every single day. We get images of, yeah, sure, porn hub is on your phone, but right after the girl twerking, there's a dead kid.

And right after that dead kid, there's somebody getting shot, and then there's Donald Trump, then there's the bloodbath, and then there's this, and then there's that, and then there's this, and then there's that. So if you want us to feel better, tell us how. And there is a how. There was a how for me. That how was, I called somebody and I asked for help. That person told me, number one, something to do to take myself out of harm's way.

then that person, Colie Williams, was my therapist at the time, Colie Williams, she gave me tools to feel better. And when I started feeling better, I didn't even realize it. And the reason why I didn't realize it

is because I was too focused on getting better. Medication was a part of that. Like Coli once told me, she's like, as soon as you get up, she's like, what makes you feel okay? I'm like, I feel pretty okay when I'm laying in a hammock,

Okay, as soon as you wake up, go laying a hammond. Go laying a hammock. Meditate two or three times a day. Breathing. All of this stuff. And after I did it for a while, I didn't even realize I was doing it. I remember one day I was just in a place having fun. Like, you guys can go back and look at old, like, clips from this podcast where my beard is grown out, where my mustache is all fucked up, where my eyes look something.

looking in when all of this stuff is happening like I was going fucking through it and then one day we're somewhere and I'm feeling better yeah and I'm like oh my god like things don't feel as bad I'm feeling better then I start playing basketball again then I start lifting weights again then and then all of a sudden I'm coming back to life but I did I had myself I did a intake. Six hours of therapy a day cost me $10,000. Like all of these things that I had access to, other people don't. Like I had to literally almost like commit myself to where I'm doing somatic therapy.

I'm doing cognitive behavioral therapy. I'm doing general therapy. I'm doing all of this stuff like I'm doing therapy three times a day every day for six weeks. So when someone says something like this, the reason why it's so destructive to me is because either you ain't been there or you ain't been there in a while. And to belittle somebody that's in that position when all they want to do is believe that it's possible to feel better. It's not that they don't want to just get, they want to believe that it's possible to feel better. Even the belief that it's possible, man, me and Kalulika were walking Bozeman one time, and Bozeman was a puppy.

So every single, he would walk a little while, and then he would stop. He would walk a little while, we'd stop. We were trying to get him to walk further. He would walk a little while and he would stop. He would walk a little while and he stopped. Like, we're walking down the street and we're getting, the dog would stop. The dog would stop. I burst into tears.

I walk to the park crying she doesn't know what to do he's looking at me like what's wrong with dad it's fucked up so with a platform that big coming out and saying hey just like suck it the fuck up I tried I really did

like I tried I tried man I tried to be like oh it's going to go away whatever I tried I tried man. Like I don't know what to say. Like I did like I really tried. I tried to just be like, okay, we're just going to sit down and watch a movie, whatever, whatever. Man, I tried everything. I tried to, I tried. Nothing worked except for a set of behaviors that got me out of it. Yeah.

And I was lucky because I had some money to put into that and some insurance. So I don't know, Bill. That's a tough one for me. Yeah. This is why I wanted you to talk about it. Why? So I could rank? No, because it res— I am not as connected to it as you are.

And I knew that you could speak to it in a way that I couldn't, and I knew that I'm sure it helps somebody who's listening to this podcast. And I wouldn't want to take away. It didn't need my voice. It needed yours. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window?

Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a lot. a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients, zero shortcuts, everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken, garlic aoli, crumbled bacon, corn salsa, 40 grams of protein made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweet green wraps hit different. Order now at order.com. This episode is brought to you by weather tech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and make it a mess. You don't need weather tech floor liners in the summer, unless you hit the beach or go camping, then you'd want a cargo liner or a road trip goes

sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Oh, you want to talk about Don Lemon? No, because I really want to bring on Justin and I talk to him about this. He had a really good take as to why he could speak to his own personal journey. No, he's not dating anybody. Okay. But he, it made a lot of sense. So give me a, so we're talking about the fact that I brought up the black gay man with white man dynamic. You get pushback from that? No. I didn't get pushback. I think that's also because we really didn't do like a whole

segment on it. What I got, at least for right now, was outreach from a lot of black gay men who wanted us to have this conversation. Did they give you a reason? No, they didn't. They, I mean, some of them wanted to come on and talk about what they thought the reason was, but I don't know that it's a big deal. It's like whatever, but it is. It's interesting with Justin's explanation to me was interesting. What did you say? I never thought of it. I don't want to say it for him. I just didn't think of it that way. It dealt with things he dealt with growing up. It dealt with, again,

I don't want to take away his story. But it dealt with like his own trauma. Uh-huh. And he made just some kind of point about like, I don't want to deal with the same trauma sometimes. But see, but see, my point is this,

and just to stay there, and I'll wait until he gets on there. But that's what niggas that fuck with white girls say. But you know what? They say, but they say the, do they say that? Yes, they do.

they don't, sometimes they don't say it in front of y'all, but in these conversations, they'll be like, they will say, man, all of that hurt and that pain and that, and that, and that, for being black. Yeah, for being black. Yeah, for being black. For being, like, all of that hurt. See, look, look how you're reacting. See what I'm saying?

Look how you react. I bet you didn't react like what Justin said it like that. I didn't. See? Look how, look. Look. That wasn't, that I guess for me, as somebody who was. in an interracial relationship,

I never thought of, man, like, he has a different journey than me or we don't, that was never my reason for wanting, for attraction or wanting to date somebody who was outside of my race. So I just, I'm one of those people who's like, I feel like we understand each other better and there's something beautiful in that.

I come from that school of thought more than I'm like, oh, you got, we both dealing with issues for being black. That's like never crosses my mind. Let me tell you what, let me tell you what I've heard from these types. of black men. A black man. A black man.

Yeah. Yeah, cis black men. Let me tell you what I've heard. What I've heard was, you get money. Money is freedom. You get you. And this is from guys who intentionally do this. They intentionally, they intentionally like to be around white ladies. They're like, yo, you get money, you get this.

And money is freedom. and you're around people who have never, ever looked at themselves as like less than before. Everything comes a little. That is so full of shit. Listen, I'm telling you, they say everything. I don't believe any of y'all that say that.

They say everything comes a little easier. They say, they say her family got money. They say, like, all of that stuff is not things. You talk into some ignorant ass people. Now, see, now here's a deal. So I agree. Right? And so, and so,

And so when I'm having these conversations, I'm like, my niggia, you like white girls. It's okay. Just say it. Yeah. But look at your reaction to what they're saying as it relates to Justin. It's a totally different reason. I just gave you one thing. He had some deeper issues that that's why my friend.

But all these people got deeper issues about why whiteness means. Oh, because none of Justin's things were they have it easier. No, no, no, no, no. No, no. But look, what what these guys are actually saying. is that whiteness is a release from trauma. I do. Which is wild to me because being in an interracial relationship brings its own set of drama.

Like it brings its own set of hay. You have to deal with totally different issues. And if you have children, that's a whole other issue. Rachel, you understand. I agree with you. I'm talking to these ignorant-ass folks that you talk to. You're dealing with more drama and a different, it's like it opens up a whole new door for you.

So what the fuck are you talking about? In my opinion, those guys who particularly only date women who are not, who don't look like them, are doing it because they feel like, as you said, they get to a certain level, maybe in their career, maybe with money. And they feel like when they get that type of woman, it's a trophy. See, I think that's too simplistic. I don't. I think they think that they have, that that's what they deserve. I think they think that they could never get it before. So it's a prize.

I do think that. I think that that's too simplistic. And I'm only people who specifically date that, not people who date everybody. I'm talking about people who only date people who don't look like them. I think a lot of the reasons that they do that, first of all, all these things are like steeped to me in self-hatred. But a lot of the reasons why they do that is because they see whiteness as being less traumatic. and a conduit to an American sense of freedom and an American experience that blackness is not.

Sure. And so I'm interested to know the parallels in that because even if, even, I will just wait until he comes on because even, because it's really not that different. Well, let him say. Let him say. Let him say, but I will say, I understand what you mean about the way those type of men view white,

but the moment you attach your blackness to it, it becomes something different. What do you mean? Well, that's what I'm saying. I said it opens up a whole other door as you become this interracial couple. They view whiteness is one thing and they view blackness as something different.

The moment the two of you come together, it brings something else out. Yeah, but niggas like that, they don't care. I think people that care about it, I think people that care about it aren't the type of people that even have these mentalities because the people that care about it, you're not even going to,

niggas like that don't care. They go. They don't. They don't. They really don't. That's why I can't take the excuse of, oh, well, this is why I'm doing it.

No, you don't care. This is what you want. This is all you want. And go. But do you understand, no, do you understand, no, Rache, how it's an excuse in one point and a reason for somebody else?

It's like, it's like, it's like, I think both can be true. I think you're, I think there's a double standard here for you. Well, I'm not saying, because black women. No, not black women. I don't, look,

black women go out there and get your happiness. It's interesting. But go out there and get, go out there and get your happiness, right? Go out there and get your happiness. I'm not talking about that. All I'm saying is,

when you hear some of these guys talk, because I'm the type of nigga that ass. Be like, yo, man. Because you like, I'm the type of nigga that ass. Like, bro, you really don't, like, yeah, let me tell you something, bro, it wasn't until I started

making a little bit of money because it is because of that, blah, blah, blah, and all of this. It's just easier. It's just this. It's just that. I'm like, oh, so you think that whiteness is some kind of elevator into this American experience that you can't have with a black woman.

And so that to me is very profound because when you say that, that's so dehumanizing and debilitating to black women that I'm like, there's a real sort of issue there. And if somebody else says the same thing, I've had all of this different. I know it's not quite one-to-one, but it's sort of similar to me. I would like you to implement one of these dudes into the playbook. No, hell no.

I want to meet one. You want to meet one? Okay. I want to meet one. But see, I'll tell you something else. They're not going to look at you the same. I know. I've heard this before, and I hate that.

I've heard that back all the way going back to college, and I have a huge issue with that. They're not going to look at you to say. I have a huge issue with that. These people are racist and they don't even know. I've had these conversations are the fun conversations. These are conversations to where I'm like, look, it don't matter if you, if you see a white woman and you like to cut her jib and then you date her, hey, it happens, man.

Look, it happens. Like, it's a thing. But if you're telling me that there's a conscious effort to exclude black women from some type of social and emotional circle that you've created for all of these reasons, I think that's worth investigating. Investigating. It is. Is this a matter for the BBI?

Oh, my God. You guys don't understand. Did I tell you the BBI closed the case? Yes, you did. We have to talk about Pornhub. I thought you didn't want to talk about Pornhub. I think it's important to talk about it. We're going to break down Biden's budget proposal on the next podcast.

Yeah. Good. This came across my desk, Pornhub, because I had a friend reach out to me and demanded that we talk about it on the podcast. He was very upset. said he had came home from a long day of work and wanted to, you know, light of a blunt, have a drink, and just relax. And so he logged on the Porn Hub and saw that it is no longer,

he no longer has access to it in the state of Texas. Well, first of all, your friend needs to step his game with. Because Pornhub has gone the way of the Dodo Bird in terms of being relevant for porn users for a while now. Oh, really? So people don't use Porn Hub. They do. But what I'm saying is that I can tell that he's still living in the old ages. I'm out of it.

But look, Pornhub and other affiliate websites have blocked access to users in Texas amid a legal battle with the Lone Star State. Look, this is what happened. So you have to have age verification measures to ensure adults only over 18. and are able to see the site. Now look, what this means is this is not just saying,

because sites for a long time have said, hey, are you 18 or not? Right. And then you would say, yeah. You put your birthday in. Like, a leaker site does the same thing. Right. And then it's a hey, okay, cool. And in the old days, it would be like, hey, are you over 18? Yes or no. And then if you said, no, it would be funny. The site would send you to Disney.com. Really? Yeah, it was funny. Like, back in the day, like, if you said, no, I wasn't 18, the site would send you to Disney.com or they would send you to Disney. where they would send you to Yahoo or something.

But sometimes it would be funny the sites that they would send you to if you said no. Which was actually probably pretty good for Disney because those are just kind of clicks that they're getting based off like a joke or whatever. But now this new age verification software, I wish I would have thought of this, is actually like based upon real shit. Like you got to go in there and you got to type your, you got to put your driver's license information. in or put your credit card information in. It's actually real age verification software by a third party site that is really going to determine

whether or not the person that is doing this right now is 18 or not. And it's a little bit more advanced. They already have this in Louisiana. Oh, you know that? Yeah, they've had it for some time. Yeah. All right.

Continue to cast this verses. I've changed. I believe, yeah. Not like, I mean, okay, so listen, what really happened was I got out of the life. Just the way you referred to it. It's the life. It was a porn life. I got out of the life.

I'm not saying that, you know, at the time, but it's like. You got out of the life. But you're still in the know. I'm in the no. But I'm out of the life. The life was, I couldn't even be as successful as I am right now if I was still in the life. It was taking too much time. Smoking like an addict.

It's just all of these pejorative terms. People have different types of personalities. But look, so this message was display Thursday users with internet addresses in Texas on Pornhub. Now, there's ways to get around this. Like, you can get like a- See what I mean?

In the note. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Now, if you got like a VPN? Yes. Did you see what happened in Texas with the VPN? No, what happened? It was the most, it had been the most searched in the state of Texas

after Pornhub, dismantled in Texas. So people are trying to use these virtual private networks to circumvent this and get access to their porn. Yeah, if you get it, but the thing is, to me, if you're going to go through all of the trouble and getting the VPN, why not just put your name

in the age verification thing? Because people don't want them to have their data. That's true. So that's the thing. So people are going, hey, this is just another way to data farm and to get all of people's information. Imagine if this is released. While they're trying it.

Right. If somebody cracks the site or something like that. Look, look, I don't really know what the deal is. Pornhub had to disable in Texas. They did it because they felt like this age requirement verification was too restrictive. They felt like it was taking away freedom of expression. And it's going against content creation and some other points that they made. But they feel like it goes too far.

They said they're down with age verification as far as saying type in your birthday. are you over the age of 18. But the measures that Texas has in place, I guess with the license and whatever else information you have to enter, they say feel like jeopardizes the rights of the user. So they're appealing the case. Might make it to the Supreme Court. So here's the thing with Pornhub.

Pornhub has actually in its past fought against a lot of political and cultural adversaries. Pornhub used to be different. Now, to post videos on Pornhub, you pretty much have to be a verified Pornhub user. Oh, amateurs could do it?

Anybody could upload before to be? Yeah. Man, I'm not as in the no. You're lying. No, I'm not. I really didn't know that. I do not believe that this is in fact true that you don't know. I didn't know anybody could upload. I did not know that.

It used to be you made a Pornhub site. It was much more akin to a regular. tube site and you would go and do your thing and it would be like whatever. There were a couple of different organizations that these are mainly religious organizations that were able to take aim at Pornhub using different types of of issues as cudgels. They were able to say, hey,

Pornhub supports sex trafficking. Pornhub supports the like minors being on there. And they were able to make a case to credit card companies that at different banks, that if you support Pornhub, you support all of these things. Pornhub then had no choice. because if they lose credit card companies,

if they lose banks that are willing to facilitate transactions on a porn hub, they can't be viable, they can't make money. They had no choice but to delete millions of videos by unverified porn hub creators and only keep Pornhub verified accounts as people who could, upload videos, which completely changed the site and made the site more of a conduit to mainstream porn, right? Because now you're verified that means you're not just somebody who's just uploading your flicks on Pornhub and making some money. Now you're probably somebody that's a little bit more of a professional in the business

and a little bit more of somebody who does this like all the time. It's not like just a tube site where people are uploading stuff and uploading other content from other places and all of that stuff. And that changed it. And now the second war on Pornhub is what people are saying is this type of software. This type of software that through the difficulty of actually registering yourself or giving your data, deters people from actually wanting to go on Pornhub and then cripples pornhub and crippled sites like Pornhub. But make no mistake about it. This is political.

Oh, sure. This is not as much about what goes on on PornHub as it is about what people, some people, deem its decency. The interesting thing about the issue is, I think we would all agree that there is porn on the internet that is way too easily accessed. Twitter. Right. I think we would all agree. agree that that is an actual concern. The question is, what do you do about it?

How do you litigate that? Like, what do you do you do about that? How do you legislate that? How do you get involved to where you make it harder for people that shouldn't be looking at porn to look at porn when the computer is such a digital conduit to whatever it is that you want. You scare people, like what they're doing right now. This isn't about that, though, to me. This isn't about that. This is about religious-based politics. This is about the politics because a lot of these companies,

and I don't want to, you know, a lot of these companies that have done this in the past, these were companies that were in lockstep with the religious right. And this stuff, it's almost like the same thing with the abortion issue in a way. You can frame the issue around freedom. You can frame the issue around privacy, but what the issue really is at its core, for most people that are really soldiers in it, it's a philosophical issue. And this one is one too. These people think porn are bad, is bad, and they don't want people to have access to it. And so what they want to do is make it as hard for you to have access to pornography as it can be.

You know what I mean? And so that's the deal. Now Pornhub is gone in Texas. How many people live in Texas? I don't know. Millions. Probably like, how many, what's the population of Texas?

Look that up, Ashley. How many, how many, like how many people live there? A lot of people. Thank God you got out when you did. You think I should come back in and, you think I should lend my voice to saving Pornhub?

No, I don't. I think you're fine. You, do you think this is a crusade for me? I don't. Maybe this is the way back in is to save, who's going to save porn hub? You got your hat on. This is me. You got your hat on.

And it's Texas. I could be wanker, Texas Ranger. Wanker, Texas Ranger. That's me. Saving porn. That's actually a good point. Wanker, Texas Ranger. Get on.

Get on it. Get on what? Get on what? But look, actually, this is an interesting topic to talk about, and I would like to get, because there are people from these organizations that are around, I would like to facilitate a debate. I want to do a higher learning debate series.

Well, isn't this a full circle moment? seeing how we have discussed porn quite a bit more than I would like to on this podcast. What makes you so uncomfortable about it? No, I'm not uncomfortable. Let you tell it. I'm well-versed in it. You think I'm lying. Why, I know that you are.

Why just talking about porn make you so uncomfortable? It does not make, I'm the one who brought up this topic. Rachel, do me a favor. Does it make, you want me to log on to Porn Hub right now? Nope. Because it's going to say, welcome back, Rachel. But do me a favor. Do me a favor.

Name five porn stuff. I can't. Like, I can't even begin to try. You can't me one to like... You can't name five porn stars. Like, I'm really in my mind trying to think of. Think, come on, Rachel, five. I don't know.

How many porn stars can the room name? I really, and I'm not trying to be funny. You guys are fucking lying. I named Adam 22 and Lane in the Plug because that weird Bachelor series on YouTube was hilarious. Okay, so add a 22 and later the plug, you're going to name them. That was a good one. Okay.

So name, so five, you guys can't name five for stars. Reed. What do you say? Is it Riley Reed? Riley Reed, I know what so. Oh, my. Who's the girl that, um, that, like, left porn? She was like such a big name.

Sasha Gray. No. Yeah, that's the one I was thinking. Yeah, Mia Khalifa. There we go. Oh, damn. I could have seen Mia Khalifa. Mia Khalifa.

Okay, keep going. I know you got, because you know why we're doing this? We're doing this because all of y'all are fronting? No, I swear to. All of y'all are fronting and it's very upsetting because just be yourself, man. Be yourself, guys. Here's the thing, it's not that I haven't seen porn. I don't watch it like that to know who these people are.

I don't. I can barely name actors and actresses in movies. You think I'm able to do it in porn flage? You guys got some more back there? We were laughing because I said I have been named 25 of them. Go, Ben. Name your top 25. There you go.

Okay, you guys are about to ask me right now. Can I name 25 points long? Go off. Okay. All right. We're going to do men, then we're going to do females. What? 25 each?

You can name 25 men? No, I'm just going to name 20. Oh, oh, Mandingo. Men? Keep going. Keep going. That's not. Man dingo, she says.

Okay, go. Can I name 25 points? Okay. All right. So, skin diamond, honey gold, Asa Akira, Nautica Thorn, Mika Tan, just doing the Asians right now, Mika Tan. We are all flabbergasted back here by the last year. fact that you said I'm just naming the Asian ones.

I want to do it in order. Flabbergasted. I want to do it in order. But now my mind's going to... In order of what? I want to... Okay, so I'm going to put the Asian ones to the side for a second. So it's five Asian ladies.

Then you got black ladies. You got Diana DeVote. You got Jan Jackman. You got Janet Jackman. You got cinnamon love. You got obsession. You got Pinky. You got Roxy Reynolds.

You got Tiana Trump. How many am I up to now? 11. I'm up to 11. You got Tiana Trump. You have Chanel Hart, Cherry Hilsen.

Cherry, not Carrie Hilson. Sherry Hilsen. Minaj Arras. You have Ebony Eyes. You have dynamite. You have champagne. You have. have D.

How many I'm up to now? 18. 18. All right. Then you throw some guys in there. Mandingo, Brian Pumper, Nat Turner.

Nat Turner. Nat turn her. Turn her. I do love these names. Jake Steed. Kieran Lee. He boss was with me. Shout out to Kieran.

It's him. And it's, oh, last fire. Oh, Ricky Johnson, Ricky's room. That's 25. That's 25? You didn't name any white people. Oh, that's before I get to the white people.

Like, I mean, I didn't even get to the Latin ladies yet. Olivia, lovely, Isis Taylor. It's before I get to the white ladies. Well, ma'am. Demi Sutra, Jenna Fox, all of these people, those are two black ladies. I could probably name you 100, 150 points. No wonder you look at us for not being able to name one. But you said you were about that life.

It was a lifestyle for you. But let me tell you something else, though. Seriously. I'll tell you something else in a real way. There are other points of us that I know that you guys know. Who? Jenna Jameson. Oh.

I know that you guys know who some of these people are. I forgot about it. We forget about them, Van. I know. It's not front of mind. Because you, I know what you like now. Okay, everybody knows. Everybody knows who Mandingo is.

Everybody knows who Mandingo is. Why? Because he's got that thing. Because he got that. Ah, Madingo! Shout out to Mandingo. Shout out to Lexington Steel. Never heard of.

You never heard of Lexington Steel? What? I'm serious. I'll tell you if I have. Cherokee. You ever, Cherokee, the ass? The ass. Cherokee.

Never heard of it? All right. Look, I, you got to go right. Look, you guys, I'm telling you, the debate that we're going to have, I want to have a higher learning debate series. I actually think that the Thursday show should be a debate show. From here on out? Yep. I think from here on out, the Thursday show should be a debate show.

We should have a porn advocate and an anti-porn person or either somebody from the ACLU and an anti-porn person. we would moderate you and I the discussions on different things porn, anti-porn stuff like this, the gun debate, we should do that on higher learning higher learning debate series. All right. Maybe once a month to start.

Once a month to start. I'm for it. I like it. And when you say it, you mean mandingo's thing. Okay, cool. You know what? Take us out with Van just naming porn stars. I can name more.

It's Asian. Asian ladies in my head right that I forgot. I could name more. But look, I don't feel bad. It's like the NBA. We're not telling you to feel bad. We're more so just like, wow, that you can name and then you're shaming us for not knowing.

I'm not shaming you guys from not knowing. I'm saying I know you no more. So name me, hold on, hold on. Close your computer. Close your computer. For $300. For $300, name four porn star.

Can they already have been named? No. Well, I have no, I will be here all night. We will literally be here all night. Actually, I'm proud of you guys. I will say this. I will say this. I'm proud of all you guys. You guys spent your time doing other things than investing into Lubberderm.

All right. We got to go. Take the thing caps off. But then I stop learning, I am Van Lathen Jr. I'm Rachel and Lindsay. Hi, thanks.