I've Had It - Manifest This, As*holes

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

We're manifesting thoughts and prayers on our mood board for 2026 with Kal Penn.Get tickets to see I've Had It LIVE in Atlanta, Georgia, on February 1st: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast.Thank you to our sponsors:Shopify: In 2026, stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial and start selling today at https://shopify.com/haditASPCA: To explore coverage, visit https://ASPCApetinsurance.com/HADIT.*The ASPCA® is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insuranceHoneyLove: Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to https://honeylove.com/Hadit! #honeylovepodLola Blankets: Get 40% off your entire order at https://Lolablankets.com by using code Hadit at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.I've Had It Podcast: @IvehaditpodcastJennifer Welch: @mizzwelchAngie "Pumps" Sullivan: @pumpspumpspumpsSpecial Guest: Kal Penn @kalpennSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

So are we supposed to start the podcast? Ready. One, two, three. Patriots, gay, triots, they triots, black triots, brown triots. Sorry, I swear to God, you guys, I'm sober. All of the fascist, Nazi, MAGA, psychopaths can do what? Pumps. Fuck off. That's a good one. That's a good one. It's a long fuck off because I because I really want them to fuck all the way off.

How great would it be if there was a trend that started with people like, you know, how they're watched legal observers to the ice people, if they just started like in all-a-pump style, just like doing their arms like an ego going, fuck off. Fuck off, fuck off. Yeah, and we could make it. Yes, I would love it. Pumps, what have you had it with?

Kate, what I've had it with is when you are a subscribing paid member to a news service or a magazine. And you've paid the money. And then they pop up ads like you push down, like you scroll up to read the rest of the article and an ad pops up. And you have to hit the X mark, which I always invariably end up going on to the page of,

that I'm the advertisement. But my whole thing is, if I hadn't paid for a subscription, I completely get it. Like that's, how they make money, that's how they stay flip, I'm in. But I've paid for this subscription. And now, instead of just having the normal ads, you have the trick-suck ads where you think you're pushing X to get out, but really you're going to their sites. So I've had it with that.

I've fucking had it. They're double-dipping. It's a total double-dip. I will say this. I agree with you. The pop-ups, the constant unsolicited advertisements. And when you're on a page, these things are popping up without your consent. Right. You know, it's ruining the scrolling experience. And so I oppose that. Now, when it comes to like certain articles, there were these journalists, real journalists, have done like incredible investigative journalism.

In order for these journalists and these non-fascist media outlets to make money, they have to put stories behind a paywall. Right. Totally on board with that. I get that. Even if there's an ad in the paywall, if they need to pay these journalists, keep the lights on, I get that. I think that rub are these unauthorized pop-ups. Yep. I agree. I mean, I do not mind paying it, but I do not like having to pay it and the pop-up. But you're right. I have to I'm happy to pay for independent journalism because the Mainstream media is just absolutely collapsed in every area, most of them, not all, but quite a few. All right, let me tell you what I've had it with. This has happened to me a couple of times at the airport.

The airport, as we all know, is the epicenter of just world-class grievances and fuckery. This happened to me twice recently. I was ascending on an escalator. And the escalators were very crowded. the person in front of me when they get to the top of the escalator simply steps off of the moving step that goes in and then holds and stays in place. No walking. Creating a domino effect of me walking backwards, having to take steps backwards. The person behind me thinks I'm an asshole. Right. And I'm like, hey, dude, you got to go. You got to move. And so it happened once. I'm like, You got move out of the way.

We're all coming up. Well, the second time it happened, I have my dogs with me. And they're very like, they know when we get to the top, I say, ready, one, two, three, jump. And they both jump over and they're, I mean, just incredible. I mean, just really incredible canines. Okay. Despite like incredible personalities, you know, Mr. and Mrs. congeniality, Mr.

Photogenic. Photogenic. Megawatt personality of the whole nine. They're really like, they behave very well. So I'm gearing up the dogs and I'm like ready and they're I mean and they're like you know, they're ready to go. I'm like one, two, three, jump and then they bang right into the heels of this woman who's just on her phone.

Oh, I was like you've got to move like you have all of these people coming up and I'll tell you one thing. I'm really digging about New York culture versus Oklahoma City culture is you can say very sincerely what are you doing man you got to move out of the way and that's not considered rude in New York it is a reality-based statement that is appropriate to the situation in Oklahoma if somebody did that they would it would be considered rude and so if I were in Oklahoma I have to go sorry you need to you I'd have to like tiptoe around this person is the norm violator this person is the one clogging the escalator so whatever statement is ejective

rejected at them is projected at them is warranted because they're creating an obstacle, endangering the lives of other human beings at the airport, endangering the lives of people's pets, and all around just being narcissistic, selfish assholes. And the lack of escalator etiquette is just something that I could go on and on about for quite some time. Well, I'll tell you what, everything kind of always boils down to the lack of self-awareness. When people are on escalators, there's a higher duty of care because you're going up and people are behind you. But your duty of care, you can't hurt everybody.

If you just want to stop yourself, that's fine. But the stopping on the phone, I see it all the time. I see it in airports primarily where you're walking and somebody, like stops to check their flight or a text or something and it's like people are moving and airport is not a you know stop and smell the roses type place it's we're going from point a to point b we don't need a lot of gawking and stopping and reading your fucking phone and i will say i have caught myself doing it before and i immediately am like oh my gosh i got to stop you know if a text comes in and i'm looking at it i'm very so i know that it's really easy to do and so i really try to stop

step out of it. But here's the thing. The older I get, the more New York I become, because I just don't have time to fluff people over stupid shit, especially if I don't know him. I'm never going to see him again. I don't care if you think I'm nice. I don't care if you think I'm kind. I just don't care. Just shut the fuck up, move on. We're not doing this. Yes, airport hallways should be treated like a roadway, a highway. Yeah. If you're on the highway, you don't stop in the middle of the road to check your phone, to check your Instagram notification to take a phone call. You don't do that. You pull over to the side or you exit. The same thing needs to be with all walkways, staircaseways, the flat moving walkways and airports. They are active traffic zones.

If you wish to cease movement, you need to pull over to the side much like you would in a car. And if you don't pull over to the side, expect to be confronted with behavior that some may call kuntie. And that kuntiness is warranted. That is when you are a cunt for good, a cut for order, a cunt for civility in the airport. And sometimes, kuntiness needs to be weaponized to whip people into shape and these lollygaggers in the airport. And the absolute morons, I mean, stupid morons that stop after they step off of an escalator and don't have the deduction skills to play the tape through. If I stepped off, somebody after me, considering this is a very busy airport, is probably going to step off as well. You're not the only MFer on the escalator.

Yeah. People are just, the longer I live, the more I think people are stupid, especially now in this 2020, 26, I feel like, I guess I just didn't know that such a large percentage of the U.S. population is so done. You just, I guess you just assume that everybody, you know, is average intelligent, maybe a little below, maybe a little bit. You don't just think abject fucking dumb shits. And you're just seeing it more and more. What year is it again? 2026. What I say?

2026. No. What'd I say? I always say, but now I can't remember. People are just so stupid, especially in this year, 2000, 26. Oh, that's probably. Two thousand. Other day we were filming and I was doing like a,

We're filming an I-HIP news and you do it and I always chuckle every time you do it because I have certain things that I say wrong and I'm completely oblivious to it, but that's your hiccup. And so I have all of these like in in 2024, the stats of the, you know, government or polling was X and I have to go through all these years. And as I'm doing, I'm like, don't do what pumps does. And it gets in my head and then I start doing it and you pick up that I start doing what you do and then you start giggling. And so, you know what, I think that it can be 2000, 2020, 26, if you want it to be pumped.

Yeah, it's gone a long time. Okay, I have to tell you what happened to be yesterday. So I went to our little sandwich shop that we always go to. Oh, yeah, I love that place. Drove through. Order my family. They have a drive-through? Yeah, they have a drive-thirt.

Ordered my sandwich, no tomatoes, like I always do. I get my sandwich. I pull over in park so that I can unwrap. it make sure my lap doesn't get stuff on it. And I realized the only thing in it are cucumbers and lettuce. So I whip back around. I go through drive through and said, hey, I just ordered our number 11, but I just got a lettuce and cucumber. And it's like, oh yeah, we'll get that made for you. And then I just finished a book. So I was getting a new book. So the guy hands me the sandwich and he gets. I asked you three times if you wanted a number three and you said yes. So I think you need to listen

better. Good for him. So you ordered the cucumber sandwich? He says I did, but I know I didn't. I always ordered the same thing. And I was kind of not paying attention. And I looked at him and I'd go, what'd you say? And he was like, I asked you three times and you said yes. And so you need to listen better. And I just looked at him. And I wish I would have said fuck off, but I just moved my car. But yeah, I got scolded. Did you get the right sandwich? Yeah, he gave me the right sandwich. but then and I've kind of been nauseous since then I'm wondering if he spit in it or something not like full grade vomiting but just not quite right and I'm thinking what Karen backfire the Karen backfire I got scolded I got scolded see okay here's the thing I hate that you got

scolded but I have been with you multiple times when and Kylie jump in here really quick here's Kylie welcome to I've had him Jennifer for head beaver in charge, Kylie. We're all here. We're all here. Here's the thing. We have been having conversations before the three of us where Kylie and I are completely on the same page and you're in the year 2020, 26.

It's true. It always has been that way. And so I have to say to the sandwich shop owner because they run it, they're, they've been to that sandwich shop multiple times with you. They've never gotten my order wrong. No, they have it. They are efficient. They are nice.

I feel like it's a great work environment because every day you go in, if you eat inside, it's a different genre of music. Like sometimes it's like metal. And then another day it's like disco. And then another day it's like hip hop. And all of these music genres, if you look at the people behind the sandwich counter, you can tell it kind of matches each person. So I even said to Pumps one,

one day. I feel like they let the employees play their music each day. And I really like the sandwich shop because Pumps and I both love sandwiches. So here's what I have to say. I do think that the notion that the customer is always right has been an enabling breeding grounds of Karenism. And I'm glad you got the correct sandwich, but being your friend for 25 years, I do think you probably ordered the cucumber sandwich because I've witnessed these types of things a multitude of times. Yeah. I mean, I'm certainly not going to deny. I thought I did, but you never know. But yeah, I sometimes I make no sense. Pumps, you've totally fucked Seth and I up because of the 2020, 26. He texted me yesterday and was like, hey, Pumps said

2020, 26 in an app, which I'm always listening for it. And I literally didn't catch it because it sounded right to me. And I went back and I was like, she said it right. That's the thing to me. Like now I'm like, now I'm there. You know, like I have clarity about how to say the years. And now I'm, I'm in like the long COVID brain fog, perhaps 2000, 20, 26 million. Yeah. Trump from America. Fuck it. That's what I think. That's what I think you just, I think you continue doing it. I don't think our listeners care. And I think they quite frankly find endearing. Find it quite charming. I do. I do. I think they do. All right. Kylie, what is going on on the World Wide Web regarding the world's top DEI podcast?

I have some top reviews. This one is five stars. It says if you don't like this podcast, you're a fat ass. And Disco Maddie writes, it doesn't matter if you are a size zero. Yes, that's exactly right, Disco Maddie. That's exactly right. When I call you a fat ass, it has nothing to do with your ass. It's just that you're a fat ass because that's just a good, satisfying. It's satisfying. Like when you go, fuck it, I'm not doing it.

It just doesn't feel as good to say. I think I'm going to stop. It's bucket feels profoundly more satisfying. I love Disco Maddie for describing perfectly your ideology about fat ass. She just, and it was so, she nailed it in such a simple way. Way better than I ever have. Okay, this one has a beef with you, Jen.

It's titled Monsters. It's Five Stars and Nick's writes, I was in the process of leaving a five-star review when I discovered Jen is in fact a psychopath because only a psychopath leaves their cell phone in their car and raw dogs a workout. I personally do not have the maturity or the Constitution to directly confront the grunting and farting and sharding from fellow gym patrons, Sands Sound Barrier. I hope you make lots of eye contact while you're raw dogging. Okay. Nix 9479. Next 9479. I just want to say, number one, thank you for calling me a psychopath. Right. I appreciate that. And I mean that sincerely. because the last thing I want to be in this Nazi fascist country that we live in is a non-psychopathic fighter.

Secondly, the whole gym thing, like in the phones situation at the gyms are horrific. The grunters that you are talking about, I'm one of them. So I'm like, and here's the deal. I go to this gym in New York, you guys. And it is all these hot gay men everywhere. So, of course, I'm on cloud nine because that is like my happy place. Being surrounded by gay men, like takes me back to college, all of my best adult friends, gay men.

And so I look around and, you know, gay men are groomed. They have on great outfits. They have great bodies. And this little trainer of mine, she's this little young whippersnapper. And she comes across as super friendly and super-friendly. and super congenial, but she is like a diabolical psychopath that has, like, she just rigorously trains me. And she's like, she'll stack on more weights.

And I'm like grunting. I'm like, oh, or I'm like, fuck my life. And I look around and I see everybody with the earbuds in and I support the earbuds, but there is a nuance to my psychopathy. If you have your phone with you so that you can hear something, no problem. here's my fucking problem. You got some asshole, some hot gay guy, of course, doing, let's say, leg presses. And so he's on the machine, bo-gardeing the machine.

And then he's going to take a 30-second to 60-second break. Next thing you know, he's on Instagram. Next thing you know, he's like, well, who is this bitch tagged here? Next thing you know, who follows. And then we're down a rabbit hole that is 10 minutes, which I relate to because I do the same fuckery, right, Instagram all the time, which is why I don't get on social media in the gym. And if that means I am sanctimonious, or I am on the moral high ground, or I am a Serena Williams-style grunting hypocrite, I will own it, I will bask in it, I will bathe in it.

But it is the trying to do two things that shouldn't be done at the same time. You cannot do leg presses and do reconnaissance on Instagram in between leg presses because you never know once you start a reconnaissance mission on social media to figure out who this bitch is, who her friends are, do they follow anybody, any of the trumps? And you're trying to get the deep, dark bottom of something. I relate to this. I enjoy this. It's a hobby of mine. I do not do Instagram reconnaissance missions in between leg presses or bicep curls. Queens. And I really, I just want to say there's no one that does a reconnaissance like Ms. Well. I mean, if you...

Oh, excellent at it. If you need a mission accomplished in the reconnaissance world, she's your gal and she is focused. And I don't even think... Thank you, Pumps. I think you have too high of a standard that you would even start that at the gym because your standards are so strict. Thank you, Pumps. And the cross-contamination of it would seem to cheapen the reconnaissance mission.

Absolutely. It would be such a flippant thing to do in between bicep curls that I'm going to conduct this, you know, very important investigation in the middle of the gym. When somebody's waiting on the leg press machine, you know, like I wouldn't cheapen the toxic, absolutely none of my business reconnaissance mission that I'm on. I would keep it pure and dignified. Right. In its toxicity.

Yes. I would keep it toxicically pure. That's right. No cross-contamination. All right, Kylie, what else? Okay, I've got a very interesting news story. This says in Denmark, offices banned Small Talk for a week. Burnout rates dropped to record lows.

Finally. One, it began when this HR director, Sophie, noticed her team seemed exhausted by noon. She said they weren't overworked. They were over-stimulated, endless chatter, fake smiles, yada, yada. The first two days that she set this up were uncomfortable. people didn't know what to do. They reached for words like caffeine, but by midweek, the office grew quiet, calm, even focused. Productivity rose 23%. Absenteeism dropped, and employee started taking breaks alone. It felt weirdly peaceful, one analyst said, like we remembered what concentration

feels like. Good for her. What a great idea. How innovative. I like it. I like it too. I think that If we didn't have a profession where the number one top thing that we have to do is small talk, I would institute the same policy. And I've had it podcast and IHIPP News, unfortunately, said policy would cause us to go bankrupt and lose our loved, beloved, coveted listener. Yeah, that's right. But here's the thing, small talk is exhausting. And here's the funny thing is, I can have the exact same. small talk conversation with because I don't remember it. I don't remember what I said last time.

So then I go to if I see somebody again like a week later, all my small talk things have already been used because it's just I just act like it's not happening. I just void it from my mind. Even though I know you're going to say you say that me, you're the worst down it. I know I am. I know. Okay. The last new story I got I also thought was super interesting. It says women over 40 are having more babies than teen moms for the first time. ever. And it writes, women 40 and older are now giving birth at higher rates than teens. For the first time in recorded U.S. history, the trend is linked to delayed marriage, career priorities, IVF advancements, and improved prenatal care.

I think this is fabulous. I think this is absolutely fabulous. The thing about breeding is particularly on the right, they really think it's their business. And the pressure that is put on young couples, are you going to get married? And when I talk to like my friends, not friends, but peers, acquaintances in Oklahoma, my oldest son has been with his girlfriend for several years.

And they will say, do you think they're gonna get married? They're 22 years old. It's like the furthest thing from my mind and the furthest thing from their mind. But there's a regional component to this where if you get in the Bible Belt states, there's all this pressure on it. All of my New York friends, when I mentioned,

oh yeah, my son's in law school, he lives with this girlfriend, they've been together for several years. Not one person has ever followed up with, do you think they're gonna get married? And then after that, in the South, it's followed up with, you can have kids, you know another kid,

there's all this pressure that I think comes from conservative spaces. This story like women having it all, being able to have a career and let's face it when you go Kylie, get your ass by get your ass back up here. When they, when you go through adulthood, your 20s, you're really, you think you're hot shit, you're an adult, but you're not. Your 30s, all of your inner child shit, all of the trauma comes out.

Your 40s, you're kind of starting to getting a little more. Honestly, like I think 40 is a much better mental headspace to have a child than in your 20s. I think it's going to create better parents. I think that it's like the perfect time to have it. Now, for conservatives, they're going to think, oh, this is terrible because actually women are going to go out into work spaces and kick white men's ass with their efficiency. They're less hysterical whining grievance, titty baby.

Oh, my God, the way all these maga men are. And so I'm sure that I bet Elon Musk is probably going to tweet something about this or J.D. Vance. They're probably going to have a heyday about women in the same. their 40s having kids, which I think it's fabulous. And I think it's so bullshit people in Bible Belt states to think of two 22-year-olds getting married. That's fucking crazy.

It's nuts. Well, it's not outside the norm in Oklahoma for like an 18 and 19 year. I mean, it's not, I don't hear about it as much, but it definitely happens. I think that I would have been such a much better parent had a I waited because I feel like I was far more competent in my 40s because I was a complete fucking disaster in my 20s and 30s. I agree with you. I think always, but I think that like Josh and I talk about it all the time, like, you

know, how difficult early parenting is, how hard it is. And the more life experience you have on the planet, the better setup you're going to be. I think delaying parenthood, quote unquote, planning parenthood, donate to planned parenthood is incredibly important because there's just a lot of generational fuckery that goes on with straight people and the breeding and the we got to get married so we can have sex. And then they don't know anything about protection and then they start popping out all these babies like those, what are they called the Duggers? I mean, you know, that's the biggest goddamn shit show you've ever.

ever seen in your life. One of the Dugger guys is like some peto sisters. I mean, it's just a goddamn nightmare. And I just think we need to really, really emphasize as a counterreaction to Elon Musk, who is the world's richest deadbeat dad on the planet, J.D. Vance, who has three kids that he will not even stand up for mixed-raced people in the United States of America. Erica Kirk, who appears to not spend any time with her children, on the moral high ground, lecturing everybody to breed immediately. And women give up your careers and breed, breed, breed, breed. We need to be a huge resistance to that because it is inherently sexist, misogynistic,

and will make women less safe. And it causes a lot of generational fuckery. I mean, if people are getting married for the sole reason to fuck, they really have no business getting married. Just go ahead and fuck. Get that out of your system, mature, evolve, and then pick your spouse and decide to breed a decade or two later. You don't need to do that in your early 20s. It's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy.

In my college experience, in my sorority in Oklahoma, a majority of the girls were simply looking for a husband. husband and all of the ones that married their college boyfriend, I have a few that are two times over divorced already. And I'm 30. Yeah. Yeah. It happens. No, there's a whole infantilization of women that has taken on a new form where it's like, okay,

you have been released enough to go to college and that's not friends. around upon, but then when you get to college, I think Charlie Kirk said this, you need to get your MRS degree. And you don't have a lot of schools on the coast, you have women that are going to school to get degrees that want to be boss bitches that want to be badasses. Where all three of us went to school, it's not that. It is you're shopping for a husband, you're way more interested in, you know, the who's going to marry who and all of this kind of old school. Iron Age bullshit. And if you just just to remind everybody, the University of Oklahoma is the school

that has the student, Samantha Flunkney, whatever name is, that wrote a bat shit essay like crazy, insane Bible thumper psychosis and turning point shakes down the University of Oklahoma and she comes out the victor in that so that they could fire the very intelligence, very very qualified professor who happened to be trans. Yeah. University of Oklahoma is really fucked that situation up. Bad, bad, bad, bad. Because even all the things you said about the essay were true,

it was horribly written like grammatically. It's just unbelievable that a college student would write that shit. All right. Kylie, you may dismiss. We love you. I hate it when she goes out early when she tries to slink out the podcast. And that's why I'm like, get your ass back in here. All right.

We have a guest that we're super excited about. His name is Cal Penn. He is an actor. He is a writer. He is a producer and a podcast host. Now he's just making us look like assholes. Actor, writer, producer, and a podcast host overachiever. The name of his podcast is here we go again.

Let's welcome to I've had it, Cal Penn. A Christmas miracle has taken place. So we decided. to go do a live show in Atlanta on January 31st. And we were for sure like the ticket sales are going to be lacklester. Nobody's going to become, I'll be damned if it didn't sell out in like a couple of days. So the organizer was like you should do another day. And I'm like, it's a pretty big, pretty big ass.

Pretty big a half for two old broads like us. Right. So we added an additional day. Ticket sales were getting about close to halfway February 1st, center stage in Atlanta. And it is also a matinee because we are going to normalize matinees. We're going to normalize a reasonable start time. We're not going to start a show at 8 or 9 p.m. And you're going to- It's past bedtime.

Wake up the next day feeling hungover, strung out. Why did I hang out with all of these radical leftists, anti-fascists? We're not going to do that because we're pro matinee. We're pro-democracy. We're anti-Maga and we're anti-fascists. Come see us. It's going to be so fun. I love getting together at a live show with all of the people.

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Well, I was great until I read your bio, actor, writer, producer, and podcast hosts. And I feel like Pumps and I are just total slacker losers. No, no, this is the, you know what's funny about bios and it's like they take 20 years of your career and it's like five lines. So it looks like you've done it at the same time consistently for that length of time. And nobody wants to talk about like, I remember one of the first talks. shows I went on. I think it was it was like Craig Ferguson or something like that and I started telling a story about like all the jobs you have to work to save up your gas money to go on auditions and he cuts me off and he's like nobody wants to talk about that you're on a talk

show nobody wants to hear that tell us the juice about making the movie and I'm like okay okay I understand all right Cal Penn what have you had it with let me just pull up my list because I've made a list I love a grievance list. I have a grievance list. I know it makes it makes me sound more grievancy. The petty or the better? That's that's sort of how I felt about it.

And I'll give you the first one. Okay. It's this idea of manifesting something. Oh, yeah. And it's usually said with, I think what we all call like Instagram influencer voice. this year I'm manifesting that I'm going to I'm putting the energy out there I'm like guys I think that's called coming up with a plan right I think that's right or it's the opposite it's I put the energy out there and I manifested it and nothing happened like well because you didn't put

it's the plan and then the action behind it right so anyway so that's like a big pet peeve of mind is like either you're talking about planning or you're talking about luck it's it's one of the two it's one of our um long time grievances there's this woman oh is it really okay yeah there's this woman on instagram and this was like right when we first started the the uh podcast and i'm like looking at instagram looking at influencers to like come up with content and this woman she has like a burkin bag and a rolls royce and she pulls up to the plane and her husband has a matching Rolls Royce and this big giant like private plane. I mean like big fucking Gulfstream, right? And she writes in the comment section

like, I manifested this life. You know, hashtag Gulfstream, hashtag Birken, hashtag Rolls Royce. And I just, I mean, I just thought, are you kidding me? And here's the problem. It's it's kind of like, okay, I get one narcissistic nut job. I get that. Right. Yeah. Is this aspirational for people? Because that's the problem.

Like, are people doing that and then all of a sudden they've got a mood board with a Gulf stream and a Rolls Royce and zero job? This is the thing is that you hit both of them at the same time. It's like I'm all for a board of goals and timelines and how I'm going to execute and all of that. But the mood board of energy is not bad. And also the flashing it and saying, I manifested this implicit in that is that anybody who does not have, if they want one, a private jet or a Birkin or whatever, just didn't do it hard enough. Yeah. Right?

Like they're the lazy ones. I'm like, okay. I think we need a lesson on capitalism. It's kind of like, I feel the same way about when people say. say we need to pray for the family after a horrific school shooting. They're like, we need to pray for the family. The prayers doesn't help. What you need to do is put action into.

You know, it's just like praying with, it's just not helping anything. If it were, we wouldn't have all these massive school shootings and this continue to go on. So that's what drives me crazy to kind of on the same line. Maybe it's all just a coping mechanism. Maybe. I mean, I just, I think. The thoughts and prayers crowd all have a lot in common, which is what we say in Oklahoma, all had no cattle.

I mean, it's a big performative. We're going to pray and we're going to do all this shit and we're for family values and we're for life. We're for all that shit. But then and then they just do the performance like Ted Cruz when he starts talking about praying, I'm like there's never been a bigger walking talking advertisement against prayer again. against men, against Texans, against senators, against husbands, then you, Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz, I feel like doesn't get it.

Like, there are a lot of politicians who have met, who, who have walked me through this idea of like, they want to endorse another politician or actors. We get this all the time, right? Like someone's like, oh, can you help me out on a campaign? Or the opposite, please don't help me on this campaign. Because your presence would do more harm to this political campaign than good. I don't think Ted Cruz understands that calculus. No, he thinks he runs around saying, you know, he's got an exploratory committee for the 2008 presidential election.

And I always, every time I see that, I'm just like, why does he not know everyone hates him? Like universally. Yeah. It's unbelievable. Yeah. That's wild. All right. Moving along.

Let's go to what I think I have on your list of grievances. Yeah. Something pertaining to tips. Yes. So. Tell us about. about this? Here's what it's not going to be. It's not going to be. I agree with this also, but it's not going to be like somebody poured you a glass of hot water, handed you a tea bag, swiveled

the screen around and wants two extra dollars. That I understand the grievance. And also that that's like complicated because of the way our minimum wage works in the United States. That said, the grievance that I have is when you get your bill and tips are automatically calculated like it'll say 20% check here 15 check here you know 25 check here but when you look at it those numbers have been calculated after taxes like you don't calculate tips after taxes it's on the net it's on the service provided and I generally I at least I'd like to think of myself as a generous tipper I think it's important having had service jobs in the past I know how much you rely on that But the pet peeve is that that added thing is like it should don't tell me it's 25% if it's

actually not 25% of what I ordered. If it's 25% of the because like I'll tip 25% but it but it shouldn't actually then be like 32% that I'm tipping. Unless I want to tip 32% like just let somebody tip what they want to tip. It's the hoodwink it. Yes, but it feels it. It's it. Because again, having had those jobs back in the day and having.

so many friends in the service industry, I know how many shitty tippers there are. I know how many people are just like, they didn't do much. Here's $2 or the food sucked. So I'm not going to tip. It's like, all right, things are a lot more complicated than that. But the little pet peeve is that just like, just be honest about how it's calculated. I'm with you regarding tipping because I waited tables all through college, bartended. And it was a really good job for me. Not only was it good money, but, you know, when people did tip well, I didn't work Sunday morning with the thoughts and prayer crowd, notoriously terrible tippers in the South. Just had to throw that in there because I didn't realize that, by the way.

Oh, they're terrible. Horrible. Nobody wanted to work Sunday church because you're not getting tip. Jesus, what I think the opposite? You know, it prepares you for life. It's so good. Oh, no, no, it's not the opposite. They're the worst, the worst tippers. But anyway, there is an abuse going on, tip abuse, and it's, harming people in the service industry, these machines that are kind of like, I forget what they're called, but it automatically sets up the tip screen. Here's an example. I go to the gym. I always like to get this bottle of lemon water. I go to a self-service refrigerator. I open the door. I grab the bottle.

I walk to the counter. I scan it the bottle and then a person has to like push a button to populate where I can do my Apple pay. Yeah. All they do is push the button and there's a tip option. Yeah. And this really, the employee has nothing to do with the way the computer system is set up. But it damages workers that are really, really hustling where their minimum wage is it for waiters has been $2 for like 40 years or something. It's crazy.

It's crazy. Minimum wage has not increased in 20 years. And so it's damaging them. them but I think that I'm hopeful that we can start targeting if we ever get our country back that the corporate exploitation of this the corporations are not only exploiting and giving their workers a bad name but they're exploiting you the customer too because they don't want to pay them a livable wage that's very well said and much more succinctly said than my little rant and a great example of that I remember that you know the restaurant sugarfish

It's like a sushi, sushi chain. Yeah, I love that place. So there are one of those no tipping restaurants. And at first, when I heard about this, you know, I'm like skeptical. Like, is that because what does this mean? And then you dive into it. It seems at least from people who I've talked to who worked there as well, that they're a living wage restaurant, the tips are built into the price of the food that you order.

And that's generally a protection against shitty tippers, right? Because they want their staff and their members to be taken care of. So if that works well, and to your point, if that gets rid of the corporate greed, what a nice stopgap until we finally have a living minimum wage for people in these wonderful professions who service our food when we go in. Wouldn't it be nice if these corporations or some billionaire opened up a Starbucks style chain? And at every register, it said, please do not tip. We pay our workers a livable wage. Yeah. I mean, is there a psychosis to once you become a billionaire, you just become a horrible person?

You know, can there be a benevolent billionaire that emerges and takes over? Or is that not possible? I mean, like I've heard small, smaller scale examples of this, like a sugarfish chain or something like that. I love that. They do the livable wage thing, but also real small businesses, right? There was a family friend dentist that I knew when I was a kid and my parents' friends. And they told me, you know, they pay full benefits, health coverage, everything to all of their employees.

And it's just a small like, you know, eight-person dental clinic at the time. And I remember being in high school or college and kind of really, really. realizing what that meant. I'm like, aren't you guys losing a lot of money doing that? And they both were like, well, first of all, we're immigrants who got to come here for a better life. Most of our employees are first generation immigrants who went to trade school. And we just think it's a no-brainer. Like, they are the reason we have this thriving business. We have to cover their health care and their benefits and all of that. And the way it was explained, I was like, oh yeah, wait, why isn't this just a thing? Where is the human decency aspect of it that cuts ahead of the greed there to your point?

Anyway. All right. Is it true that you are, have been friends with mayor, mom, Donnie since you were 14 years old? So what I love about this question is it implies that he and I are like the same age and I'm like way older. So that makes me feel good. Oh, good on you. It makes me feel very good. So thank you.

Yeah. So I've known him since he was 14. Not you. Okay. Not me. I was in my, I guess, late 20s. His mom is a wonderful academy nominated film director named Mira Nyer. And when I was a kid, one of the first movies of hers that I saw was called Mississippi Masala,

which was incidentally one of Denzel Washington's first movies. And it's, you know how like when you're, when you're, young, there's like a couple of movies or actors or directors that make you go, wait, maybe this is a thing that I can do too. So she was one of those people for me when I was a kid and then cut to this movie called the namesake that she was directing that I, for whatever, could not get an audition for this movie. My agent couldn't get me in. So I wrote Mira a letter that basically said, you're one of the catalysts for why I became an actor. I love the book that this script is based on. You have to let me audition for the lead in your movie. And she called.

and said fly to New York. I was living in LA at the time, flight to New York and audition for me and I walk into this audition. And the first thing she says is, I just want you to know, I read your letter and my 14-year-old son Zauron is a huge fan of your stoner movie, Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.

And for the last three months, he and his best friend Sam have been begging me to audition you for the lead in my independent drama. And they showed me clips from Harold and Kumar and it just showed me that you're the wrong person for this job. But then I got your letter and I was like, all right, let's let him come in. It'll mean a lot to him.

And then thankfully, I did well in the audition. I ended up getting cast in the job. But so the day of the audition, actually, she says, once you're done, my son would love to say hello if you have a few minutes. And so he'd stop by after school. And I said, once I got the job also, I like half jokingly was like, hey, man, if you ever need anything later on, I got your back. And I'm just glad when he ran for office, he wasn't like this crazy right winger who I I would have owed a favor to, you know. Oh my God.

That could have been really bad because you made the promise so long ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you live in New York or L.A.? I do. I'm in New York for a long time, but I'm in New York now. How about you guys? I'm in New York, I'm in Oklahoma City. My youngest son graduated and I decided to flee the Bible Belt.

I'm a Bible Belt refugee. Yeah. Awesome. But were you able to participate? participate in his, did you campaign for him? Were you, did you go to his inauguration? I went to his watch party and it was just electric. Oh, awesome. Yeah.

You know, he, I helped him from the time that he ran for state assembly. I was really honored to kind of give him a hand with some fundraisers and a few events and things like that. And I was also really floored, like look, these, you're asking the most biased person in the world. I've known him since he was 14 and he's the reason I got one of my favorite jobs. So just clamp that little nugget as you will. But, you know, he, he texted me a few years ago when he was an assembly member and was on a hunger strike with the New York City taxi workers for debt forgiveness. And he was just like, hey, man, you know, will you come down and just sort of say hi to the folks are on the hunger strike with me? You know, it would sort of help with

morale and we're hoping to put a lot more pressure, whatever. And I was like, oh, you're actually on a hunger strike. Like I read your Twitter that said you were doing it, but you're like, actually living there for this. Yes, of course, I'll come by. And I had texted a guy I knew in Mayor de Blasio's office at the time and just doing one of those things privately. It's like, hey, I'm going to go see my friend who's on a hunger strike. Maybe somebody from the mayor's office could come out and that would kind of help get this taken, you know, put a little pressure if you can privately. And the response I got was like, yeah, we're aware of the hunger strike. Obviously, we're not doing anything about it. There's not going to be any debt forgiveness, but thanks for letting us know

that you're going. I was like, well, that's gross. And then I go. It was very inspiring to see Zoran with all the taxi workers and, you know, cut to a few weeks later. And they achieved this debt forgiveness plan against all these odds. And I was just so proud of him and was following all of his, you know, whether it's his human rights advocacy or this free bus pilot program and seeing how, I mean, you saw this with the Trump video in the Oval Office, but he, he, he, he, definitely appreciate so there are plenty of people who may disagree with him on on policy or tactics or anything but he's not afraid to actually have a conversation a friendly is too trite of a word but a like a human conversation with somebody about

shared goals and things like that and I just feel like who who does that anymore you know so it's been it's been exciting and yes went to inauguration it was so cold but but a really special special morning were you surprised how Trump just fond all over him in the Oval Office after he'd been, you know, he's a communist, all the shit he has said. And then it was just like, he was like, I love you, Zoran. I was, I think like a lot of people, like I watched it live and, you know, I was like sitting like this very seriously as it started. And by the end, I was just like, this is amazing. I think, I think two things. One, you know, the Zoran you see is really who he is and who he has

always been even since he was a kid. So it does not surprise me that he charmed the president in that sense, right? And wasn't because I feel like if you look at all these Democrats, whether it's Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries or any of these people, they're like, you know, they're clearly intimidated by Trump. Like if the only thing you can do is to either agree with him or continue to fund ICE or take a picture with a baseball bat and be like, we did it, then that's not, there's nothing real about that, right? And I think Zoran is not intimidated. Like I said, he's, he's happy to have a conversation with anybody and he does it in a very human way.

The flip side to that also is, I feel like we're now in this place where there's this manufactured outrage about anything the president does as if he didn't promise he was going to do it. Exactly. And he is an Emmy nominated reality TV star. Totally. You don't replicate that if you're a Democrat. The mistake that I think Gavin Newsom is making is you're punching down, trying to get all this traction on social media.

It feels good. It tracks because, but it's all a response to this Emmy-nominated reality TV star. You have to craft your own path in a positive, progressive, forward-thinking way that gets results if you actually want to drive the narrative. And there are no Democrats right now who are doing that. They're all only doing a response to what the president is. So it was refreshing to Caesar on in the Oval Office having an actual conversation with the president in a real way.

The stakes are really high and he didn't hold back obviously in that meeting, but it was still a great meeting. And so it doesn't surprise me that they get along and hopefully that lasts, you know. Yeah. You know, I think that shows how much of what Trump does is performative. And there's no question he's a race. However, this man has no conviction. Trump doesn't have conviction in anything except for him and his ego and protecting his fragile ego.

So when Zoron walks in, a brown-skinned Muslim, is Trump Islamophobic? Sure. Is he racist? Sure. All of those things. There's no question. But he's such a prostitute, Donald Trump, that when Zoron walked in, he was a walked in, he saw a good looking winner.

And that superseded even his racism. And that is how what the con. This man is the world's best Khan artist. Because when Zoran walked in, he didn't see brown skinned. He didn't see Muslim. He saw, well, here's this good looking winner that took on all these asshole hedge fund guys that probably used to look down on Trump, you know, because they knew Trump was full of shit in Manhattan, et cetera.

And so I thought it was a really fascinating. I was boarding a flight and I'm like refreshing my Twitter, refreshing my Twitter, trying to get like inject this into my veins. My favorite part was when they're like, you called the president of fascist. Would you like to take that back? And Trump's like, can I be, don't worry about it. It's okay. You can say yes.

Yeah. Sure. Yeah, he's fascist. I'll just add to what you said that, you know, the, the, and this is true. my understanding is this is what the mayor shared with the president is that one of the ways that he won obviously was by expanding the electorate and registering new people to vote. But there were a lot of people who voted for Zeran who were Trump voters. And so he reached out to them and said, what was it about the president's campaign that made

you want to vote for him? And it was all affordability. And so I think they, I assume at least, it seems from the readout of that meeting that they connected on that and that Zoran presumably shared a lot of that with the president that, look, there are a lot of people in New York who were rooting for you and are rooting for me also. So maybe we can deliver the things that they voted for both of us for. And how refreshing would that be if we actually got results from that? And let's not kid ourselves. Yeah, I was going to say. I'm not saying.

I appreciate off all of them. Czoran is surrounded by a lot of very smart people and they had the psychological profile. And I'm sure that he went in and flattered him in a way that that Trump responds to. Like you see anybody who wants to get something from Trump has this psychological profile. What's so crazy about this whole thing, Cal, is the president of the United States is the easiest motherfucker on the planet to manipulate. Like if I wanted to manipulate him, I could go, you know what, I think your hair looks great. And honestly, I don't care what Stormy Daniel says.

I bet your dick is bigger than Obama's. Yeah. Huckline sinker, he'd be in. You have the easiest motherfucker on the planet to manipulate. But I do think there is a very important component to what Zoran did. And taking on the billionaire class, and more than anything, he's able to walk into the White House in a way that Schumer and Hakey and Hakey are unable to do is he walks in with full-blown conviction he has conviction he stands up if he sees an

injustice he stands up to it immediately if he sees or hears somebody do something that is racist he stands up immediately it doesn't sit on the side and percolate no exactly all of these other democrats are just there's no conviction it's all it's either for show or it's somebody as awful as christian gillibrand who doesn't even show up or comment Totally. She's like agreeing with Trump on all this. Yeah, let's continue to fund this nonsense. It's just so it is very, I'm not foolish about how difficult the next four years will

be for him, but I am hopeful that the new leadership style with a lot of the coalitions that Zoran has built is, it's exciting, it's hopeful. You know, it's hopeful at a time where there's not a lot to be hopeful about. If only he were born in the United States. Oh, I know. Honestly, it's going to be refreshing to have somebody who can't be president in an office like this. Because so often people are like, oh, I can't make this choice because I'm going to run for president one day. And it's like, it's limiting.

That's a great point. Yeah. Although I would sure like it. Yeah, no, for sure. It's saying, but I'm just finding, I'm just kind of outlining the silver lining there in the fact that he can't be president. Okay, it's time for a fresh start, fresh energy of the new year and finally launch your business with Shopify. 2026 is the year you rewrite your story, own your future, and make your entrepreneurial dreams come true. Start your business with Shopify in 2006 and become who you're meant to be.

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with Shopify by your side. And now a quick message from today's sponsor, the ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program. Listeners, you know that my pets are a part of my family. They are my children, my spouses, my everything. I cannot overstate enough what an integral part of my well-being and serenity my pets produce. My dog, Tabby has been having seizures lately

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Welcome to Had It or Hit It. I would hit it. Had it. I hit it every day, sometimes twice a day. All right, had it or hit it, faux food allergies. Ugh. Had it. Had it. Had it hard.

Let me just, so I'm allergic to tree nuts. It is an anaphylactic allergy. I have to go to the hospital if there's cross-contamination, if there's a little bit of like somebody doesn't know there's cashew paste and something, all of that. I'm out at dinner with a friend who has elected to be gluten-free or something free. Now again, I just want to be clear, I'm not talking about somebody who has a medical illness and can't have gluten.

That's obviously in the same category as a medical allergy, which is what I have. I'm talking about the faux ones that like I read an article in two weeks ago, I decided to like start going gluten-free. And so when I say something like, I'm deathly allergic to Trina. and they're like, and me too with gluten. Like, no, you're not dying. You are not dying. You might have a little tiny tummy ache

that what you're doing is really awful because there are people who medically cannot have gluten and you are now screwing it up for everybody else by pretending. Just say that it's a preference. There's nothing wrong with a preference. I don't eat pork.

It's a preference. You know what I call this? I call this history on it. histrionic allergy disorder. You have people that have celiacs disease and that is real and that is a problem and it's less than 1% of the population. And then you have the histrionic allergy disorder people who all day long they talk about I'm gluten free, I can't eat gluten, I can't eat gluten. Then they get fucking all liquored up just snockers all get out and then it's 2 a.m. And it's gluten galore and there's absolutely zero.

fallout from it. And it's those people, the lying liars that are hijacking other people's allergies for histrionic purposes that I have a huge problem with. I feel like I and the tree nut allergy crowd should get together with the actual celiac crowd and do a really funny doc short about the people you described who like just will get shit faced at 2 a.m. and then eat all the gluten. Like there's a funny documentary there. I completely agree. You can get producer credits, Jennifer. Exactly. I can add to my bio like the next time I'm on a podcast. And what you can, I have as many qualifications as Cal desk now because I'm at yeah pretty you Cal great. Hey,

you do it. You don't need me. I'll do the voice. Okay. All right, had it or hit it. Smart phone charging plugs. Oh Lord. Just had. Just had. At it, man. I get that they are built to make us spend money every couple of years and you got to get an adapter for the thing and like, look, I've got, I've got, is this a video pod also? Yeah. Or is it just for us? Okay.

So you know, you got this, this thing, but then you have to put this on it now. You have to buy that if you want to. And then, but then that's not going to work either. So then you just have to buy a new, like I get it. I understand that that's how it's built for this, but man, that's just. just annoying. Yeah, like Apple doesn't have enough money. They can just let us all keep the same chargers. Here's what irritates the shit out of me on it. Right when hotel rooms started using, just don't use the electrical outlet. We'll just make a place for your charging cord. It's like five

minutes later, then we all went to the USB court. So now they don't have plug-in available. And you can't charge your phone. That drives me fucking crazy. Yeah. Yes. So, so we're all in the same boat here. Yeah. I almost feel like everybody says, well, no, it's better. I'm like at some point, we have to call a racket, a racket. Every time I go get a new phone, it's a new charger making my then ear pods require a different charger. You know, it just, it's it's a never ending road of rackets and fuckery from these corporations. And I just think we need a universal cord across the board. Yeah, I don't want my bundle of wires as if I'm an 80 year old man like next to my plug.

No shade to all the uncles who I based that comment on, but they know what I'm talking about like just bundles of wires and chargers, just clear electrical hazard. Like I don't want to be that guy. Okay. Had it or hit it. You're going to have to help us with this. Fad drugs. Fad drugs meaning, for example, ayahuasca or things that have had actual, you

uses in native cultures or communities that are now like, pay $9,000 and go on an ayahuasca retreat somewhere in Mexico. Like the fad that like, this is a cleanse. Like, first of all, you, it's okay to say that you have $9,000 and you want to just get high with a bunch of other venture capitalists in the middle of Mexico disguised as a thing that's apparently based in native culture, even though a massive corporate. is putting this tour together. Totally fine if you want to acknowledge.

So to me, it's that. It's like, that's the, if that's what we mean by fat drugs, yeah, I don't. Look, also with all this stuff, something like that, what a personal choice. It's not for me. It's only irritating when you have to hear about it.

It's like your friend who goes to Burning Man and calls Burning Man home and then says that like the real world, I don't know, they have a term for this. The real world is not the actual real world. Like their actual home is the two weeks at, burning man and they're so high for the next six weeks and you you just you have to interact so that's to me that's the category I'm not saying don't do it if that's your thing man go for it

who am I to judge it's just that when it comes into your day to day it's like oh right he just got back from burning man we need to we need to keep our distance for six weeks and make sure he drinks a lot of water and exfoliates and exmal and make sure your feet are clean that's like I've never been, so I shouldn't talk, but I'm just like, I don't think you can pay me enough money to go. It just sounds absolutely horrible. All these people rolling around in a kettle, pedal, like, I can't imagine anything grosser. The art looks incredible. The experience doesn't seem like it's for me.

Plenty of friends who have gone and have loved it. I haven't met anybody who went and was like, it was okay. So I feel like whatever you see on Instagram is probably pretty accurate in terms of like, should I go or should I not go? Yeah, not for me, but definitely right for, you know, the next door neighbor who went 10 times. Okay. Had it or hit it ice? Oh, had it. Had it. Had it. Had it. I mean, what more is there to say? They're even the idea of what it was supposed to be of, I mean, it's just so far beyond the pale of, they're going after. innocent immigrants and American citizens shooting them in the face.

Both parties continue to fund ICE. I mean, it's completely ludicrous. I think ICE needs to be abolished. But furthermore, let's talk about what is called the Kavanaugh rule right now. And this is a Supreme Court ruling where because of the way you look and those of you that are listening, Cal is a brown-skinned man. And because of the Kavanaugh rule, you can be stopped legally by ICE or looking the way you look in the United States of America. Yeah, it's really clarifying because the Supreme Court for years and years, the precedent was you cannot racially profile that it was illegal. And now it's like, oh, well, if Trump and his administration want to do it, we're all for it.

I mean, it's sickening. It's sickening. And it also like imagine what this does too, right? If you are a person with privilege as I am, imagine there was some ICE agent who decides to detain me. Pretty cursory, a pretty cursory Google shows you that I was born and raised in the U.S. and what I do for a living. Now imagine you don't have that luxury or that privilege,

whether you're a citizen or not. There's just completely no grounds for this. It's all just, it's not just the racial component, but then the privilege aspect on top of it is, that somebody like me doesn't have to worry because of what I do for a living, but somebody who looks exactly like me or the majority of New York, you know, has to worry because what do you do for a living? And is there a record of who you are? And do you have the right idea on you when you're just running to the grocery store? It's, it's, it's grow. I agree with you. It should be abolished.

And I, I think, you know, there were plenty of rational people who just sort of thought, oh, let's, it can be, it can be fixed. Ice can be. fixed. No, I think it's clear that it's past that point. And I keep going back to this because we have to remember who funded it. I mean, I hope our, I hope people on the left lawmakers and, you know, are feeling that pressure. I hope so, but I don't think that Chuckles or Hakeem are going to do a goddamn thing about it. You bring up a very important point. And it is that most of these Republican laws, whether they are abortion bans, the Kavanaugh rule, which apparently Justice Kavanaugh, that whining, snot, slinging, crying beer drinker during his confirmation hearings,

you know, men are not emotional, therefore fit for office. He doesn't like that this is being called the Kavanaugh rule. And so I want to always bring it up and rub that in his face, that he is the one that wrote the affirming opinion on such a racist piece of shit legislation. and his name should always be linked to that. But the poor are attacked first. From our home state, Oklahoma, there's an abortion ban. And if Pumps has a daughter, if her daughter were pregnant, for whatever the reason, it's nobody's business, but her daughters,

they would have the money to fly to California, to Colorado, to a safe space. And the poorest people get hit the worst by all of these Republican laws. And at the same time, these are the family values, the Jesus people, the moral high ground, the Lord this, the thoughts and prayers. And to me, and I'm just going to say it, and I've been saying this on and on and on again, MAGA is a death cult. It is just all of their policies, all of their actions lead to death. The dismantling of the EPA, the dismantling of the FDA, the vaccine rescheduling.

Mr. Brain Worm, piece of shit, RFK Jr., the abortion bans, the ice raids, the concentration camps, Alligator, Alcatraz, Seacot, and others. It all leads to death. And so none of this helps anybody. And the, you know, there's a, there's another budgetary fight that's coming up like now in the next few weeks. So we saw the last time Schumer was like, the Affordable Care Act doesn't matter enough. Let's go ahead and open up the government. So now we've got that fight again, plus the ICE fight, tack on abortion, human rights,

obviously young people who happen to be LGBTQIA, like on and on and on. You know, my boyfriend Josh is from rural Mississippi. You talk to young white kids in rural Mississippi and the access points that they have for healthcare education that are being cut off as well. I hope that anybody who is, I don't know how many actual, aside from like in AOC, Bernie, et cetera, there are. But, you know, I hope that in the coming weeks, the views of yours, which are pretty well reflected in everybody who's so pissed off right now, I hope they take that to heart and say, you got to, you got to give us some concessions here if you want, if you want things to be open.

You bring up something that I've been so passionate about all of my adult life. And it is young, queer, and gay people in really deeply red spaces. And it in the 90s, in the early 90s, when I was a student at the University of Oklahoma, I was an atheist in the Bible Belt. I didn't want to hang out with all the Bible study girls. I hung out with gay men. And they were the most welcoming. And the same people that bullied me bullied them.

So we were able to have this, you know, relationship. And what so many of these men went. through as the AIDS epidemic was still very, very dangerous in the early 90s. I mean, they just started the cocktail of drugs, but it was, I had some friends that were on it and they were so sick from taking the drugs to treat their AIDS. But more than anything, their peers and their families and their churches and the isolation and the bullying that they were exposed to and the lack of love and emotional safety that they felt that still very much exists. And this administration has exacerbated this homophobia. And in red

states, this type of homophobia is institutionalized. It's taught to children. It's embraced. It is nourished. It is watered. It is still so insidious. And it's one of the bigotries that white people kind of get a pass for and even did in more liberal times in the country. And it really is something that I have really fought hard for and continue to fight hard for my whole adult life because so my mother told me when I was younger and I asked probably like six like why would somebody be gay and she says well darling all you need to know about that is nobody in the right goddamn mind would choose to be gay in the middle of the Bible belt so immediately taught me you know this is not a choice that our our responsibility is to love these people so to your

boyfriend from Mississippi I mean that is these are very unhurstable heard voices that need our support because their governments bully them, their churches bully them, their friends' parents bully them. It's just awful. Yeah, well, well said. And there are so many great organizations that are doing that real work, right, who are not as who don't trend as much as some of the larger great organizations that do a lot of this work. So I'm glad you brought that up. Hopefully you're, are you still in touch with all those friends? Yeah, all of them.

That's awesome. Yeah. All right. Last one. Had it or hit it, the United States of America. Oh, hit it. Hit it. We live here.

This is our home. You can't abandon your home. I'll overuse the phrase that boring politicians overuse, like the experiment of the American democracy or whatever. But the true part of it is, look, you know, we, I'll be super transparent and biased. living in a place like New York City, which has a hard left turn as of the last two weeks, is for those of us who are on the left, a pretty hopeful place to be, especially when there's so much regression at the federal level and in a lot of other supposedly blue states. So I am not ready to abandon yet.

If it continues down this path, I would like to explore Ireland. No, I'm just kidding. No, I think hit it. This is our home and you have to continue to fight for what you believe in. I think one of the most insidious things that the right certainly does, but even frankly, Kamala and Biden did so well is if you speak up and protest, making you feel like you're anti-American or you're part of the problem. Kamala did this with a lot of the human rights protesters on the Gaza issue when she was running.

Biden obviously did Trump and Vance do it now regularly. for almost any issue, including ICE protests and abortion protests and all of the above. So the second we start believing that raising our voices means we're un-American, I think that feeds into the like, should we move somewhere else? It's like, no, don't believe. That thing is false that they're asking you to believe. They're asking you to believe that so that you feel disempowered and that you feel complacent. And then that's how they continue to win. So I'm going to say hit because I'm still a believer that we have to keep showing up and doing that. the right thing. I love it. And you know what I love about New York City and some other really brave

cities in the United States when they're called sanctuary cities? And this to me is so important because so many people are marginalized or vulnerable and to feel like you have a politician like Zoron or like Mayor Frey in Minneapolis right now who is really meeting human suffering and providing sanctuary in a time of mass abuse. It's like, I think about the Trump administration as being like life beaters. You know, they're just beating everybody up. They're toxic. They're drunk.

They're horrible. And you want sanctuary. And you want safety. And you want emotional safety and camaraderie. And it's interesting coming from a space like Oklahoma, which claims the moral high ground. They're so religious, BFF with Jesus Christ and all this stuff. And the cruelty.

that is injected into Oklahoma politics. Like they banned all trans care. Schools are allowed to fire a trans professor at the University of Oklahoma because her student is a dumb shit that wrote a dumb shit essay. And so thinking about that trans professor at the University of Oklahoma, knowing that turning point probably has her identity

as targeting her, I think about the idea of sanctuary cities and how much more quote unquote alpha. that idea is and how much more manly it is. And I mean manly in the sense that women can be in this too, to take care of people. How much more courage it takes to stand up and look at a bully or look at a bigot or look at a homophobic in the face and say, no,

little dick, you're not going to do that and we're going to keep these people safe. And I'm so fucking sick of these alphas. like celebrating the biggest, dorkiest villains in America. And so I'm with you. I hit it. And I think we need to keep emphasizing our friends that are getting targeted by this administration, the poor, all of those beautiful blue dots and horrifically red spaces.

And we have to fight for sanctuary, not just in New York, not just in Minneapolis or Los Angeles, but everywhere. That false, the false self-defined alpha thing. is clearly just massive insecurity. Totally. It's just it's and it's so obvious that it's massive insecurity. It just is it it makes me kind of laugh except then the stakes get real for really vulnerable people. And you know, that's why we got to keep showing up. Yeah, so true.

Cal Penn, you're cool. You're so cool. You both are awesome. This was really fun. I've had it. Yeah, thank you. I'm going to work on my bio. Yeah. She's going to write that documentary so she can be a bio and then you can do a writer. Yeah, I should add a line of like was hungover for nine years or something like that.

Just so it's clear that that all didn't happen in the same year. We can do like a tip for tat back and forth as we do podcast appearances. All right. It's so lovely to meet you. And I hope to connect with you again. Oh, I want to plug your podcast. It's called. Yes, please.

listener. It's called Here We Go Again. It's distributed by IHeart and it's available on the IHeart radio app or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And can I do a quick 30 seconds on what it is? Because I realized I didn't do that yet. So we go again. I wanted to explore the past, present and future of specific topics in a way, mostly history and pop culture in a way that kind of makes you feel like you learned something from it. So I didn't want to replicate, there's so many great political podcasts, but I didn't want to replicate the doom and gloom thing of like, here's how shitty something is and here's why it'll continue to be shitty. So, for example, our first episode was Bill Nye. Everybody loves Bill Nye.

And he joined me to outline the space race. So in the 80s, the space race or 60s, even, you know, how do we get to the moon was all between the U.S. and the Soviet Union in competition. And so much of the competition today is now privatized. It's between billionaires, right? So like, why did that happen? What's the direction of it? Are we still funding space exploration? And how does it like help us on earth. So those are some of the kind of it just it's a fun light listen that hopefully makes you feel like you learned a little something at the end. I like it. I'm going to check it out because that's interesting. Yeah. If you're if you're a little bit of a nerd, I hope you hit because it's it's been a and also there are things like so we had Pete Buttigieg on to talk about.

Actually we talked about infrastructure, which is a horrible word that you should never put in the title of what's the podcast about. But you know, he he was the transportation. secretary, so he was able to outline certain things. But I was like, you know what, this is my podcast, and I just have my grievance. Actually, you might like this. So my grievance was like, you're probably the only person in America who can answer this question for me. When your flight lands early somewhere and you might even be like 30 minutes early, why does

the captain get on and say something like, ladies and gentlemen, we're 30 minutes early and there's no gate ready for us because they didn't know that we were coming. What do you mean they didn't know we were coming? Literally, the technology is such that they knew we were coming. That's how you were able to land, right? So I was like, Pete. What do you say? So he said, I was hoping for like some conspiracy answer, but he was like, well, yes,

they shouldn't lie to you about that. The real reason is that certain types of planes have to occupy certain types of gates. So even if you see that there are like 10 gates open, the gate may not have been assigned to that type of plane. and then also the ramp operators also they may not have enough ramp operators at that airport for all of the flights going in and out so if you're early outside of whatever that slot that you were allocated you just have to wait and it was like uh well all right thanks for the real answer pete but he was great he was such a great guest before we go i just had to remind everybody as donald trump is sitting around with like 95 000 ass kissers behind him

and somebody mentions Pete Buttage Edge. He just like looks up and he goes, Pete Boot, Edge, Edge. Have you all seen this? I've seen that clip or he just, he can't say it, but he's like not even paying attention, but it's such a trigger. Yeah, because somebody described him how to say it. It's Pete Boot, like a boot on your foot, edge, edge. Oh, right.

He always goes, Pete Boot Edge, Edge. Yeah. Pete Boot. Our toddler fucking moron president. Cal Penn, you're cool, cooler now that you've been with. I have I hip ladies. No question about it. You can add that to your intro, guest on I've had it.

Yeah. All right. You have a good one. This was a lot of fun. Thank you for having me. Okay, let me tell you how I feel about him. First of all, I loved designated survivor and I loved him in it. So I've been aware of him for a while, but he's one of those people that you're with and

you just feel like he, he's a very optimistic sunny side person, I feel like. And I like that. that because you and I probably won't get classified as that. So I just enjoyed him a lot. Yeah, I love that. And as you say that, I agree with you about that's the feeling that I have after. And then I immediately start to empathize with how Kalmas feel right now as he gets off of this podcast.

And he's probably like, you know what? Those are the two biggest Debbie Downers. Right. All they do is bitch and moat and cry on the planet. I feel like I need to go exfoliate right now. Yeah, no, that would not surprise me. Like he brought us up, we brought him down. Yeah, yes.

All right, listener, please buy your tickets for our live show in Atlanta. The first day sold out because we're hot shed. Right. Nobody was more shocked than we were at the sales. Kylie might have been more shocked. Left for Sunday, February 1st in Atlanta at center stage pumps. tell them we will see you next Tuesday and Thursday. Listen up, Patriots, Gaytriots, and Natriots.

We have a new podcast that has dropped. It's called IHIP News. It's Monday through Friday every day, 15 to 20 minute hot takes on the political landscape of the United States of America always served with a side of petty grievances. We are on all the available platforms, Apple, Spotify, Google, whatever you get your podcast and YouTube. Please go rate, subscribe, and reviews

so that we will chart upwards with America's greatest legal mind, pumps. Pumps, what does an eagle say? Ciccaw! A little bit more enthusiasm. Caca! That's it. That's, that's...

Ciccaw! That's the patriotism that this country means right there.