Lovett or Leave It - Martha v. Meghan and SNL v. God

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

It's a Lovett or Leave It + Terminally Online crossover! We’re dark this week at Dynasty, so instead we’re bringing you a special episode of our subscriber-exclusive show. Lovett stirs the pot wit...h Meghan Markle’s new pasta dish. Pod Save the UK's Nish Kumar finds himself in God’s Country (America) alongside Morgan Wallen. Writer Halle Kiefer finds a BOGO deal for winter boots on TikTok. And producer Elijah Cone steps into the Bali Time Chamber… perhaps forever.This April, enjoy 30 days of Crooked's Friends of the Pod subscription—FREE. Support Crooked’s mission while unlocking ad-free episodes for Lovett or Leave It, exclusive content, a great Discord community & more. Sign up now at crooked.com/friends or through this feed on Apple Podcasts to start your free trial.

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Starting point is 00:00:55 And this spring they have the best deals for your yard up to half off on select plants and other deals. And listeners to our show get 15% off their first purchase. When using the code love it at checkout, that's an additional 15% off at fastgrowingtrees.com. Using the code love it at checkout, fastgrowingtrees.com, code love it. Now is the perfect time to plant. It's spring. Use love it to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Hey everybody, I want to tell you about a podcast from New York Magazine called Pivot. It's hosted by tech journalist Kara Swisher and NYU Business Professor Scott Galloway.
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Starting point is 00:01:50 You can listen and follow Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube. It's love it, believe it. Stretch your thigh. Hey everybody, welcome to a special episode of Love It or Leave It. Here's the deal, we were supposed to be off this week, but we just made Love It or Leave It ads-free for Friends of the Pod subscribers, and we thought we can't just go dark in the week when Love It or Leave It goes ads-free. That'd be crazy. Even better, for the month of April, you can sign up for Friends of the Pod and get a 30-day free trial. It's the best way to support this show and Crooked Media.
Starting point is 00:02:25 With your subscription you get access to exclusive content, ad-free episodes of Love and Relieve, it pods save the world, Pods Save America and offline. Enjoy all the great content with no commitment. Speaking of no commitment, I don't know if that doesn't make any sense. Nish is here. I don't know what that means. Speaking of no commitment, Nish is here. You don't know what that means. Speaking of no commitment. You don't get enough credit for your transition.
Starting point is 00:02:49 Oh, I'm seamless. Like butter over here. Over to you, Elijah. Great to be here for our terminally online Love It or Leave It ad free bonanza crossover show. I'm here. Love It or Leave It writer Halle Keefer is here. Hi Halle. Hi, thanks for having me. And Pod Save the UK host Nish Kumar is here. Hi Nish. And
Starting point is 00:03:10 famous commitment foe. Yeah. Ooh, does that feel accurate? How do you feel? Does that strike you? I've been in an entirely monogamous relationship for 13 years. It's actually the only thing I can say that I'm decent at is commitment. It really is a transition that would work much better if Nish was a CAD. Ooh, international CAD. I think I'm one of the least CAD-ish people that's ever truly, that's ever lived. I've not put up strong numbers is what I would say. I do associate CADs with being British.
Starting point is 00:03:43 I feel like over here it's just, we just got fuckboys. There's no class to that. Yeah, we don't have enough FOPs either. No. No, yeah, we've got CADs, we've got FOPs. We've also got fuckboys as well. We've got, there's a huge diversity in the different type of assholes we're able to provide.
Starting point is 00:03:58 It's a gorgeous country. You got going over there. It's part of the special relationship. The fuckboy exchange between our countries. Now there's going to be a tariff on fuckboys. Now we're going to be paying an extra 20% just to get a fuckboy into this country. You're going to pay so much more money on Hugh Grant. And now domestic fuckboys, they're going to hike the prices. So this is a special crossover episode with our subscription show Terminal A Online.
Starting point is 00:04:25 It's a format we all like. We figured we'd do it for a love of it or leave it this week. It's a in part behind the scenes show. Nish, you are a Crooked Media host currently on tour here in America. Take us behind the scenes. Have you found anything unexpected while touring in America during Trump 2.0. I mean, it was, I will say the, I'm not, I would say I'm not interacting with a broad section of the American populace at my comedy shows. It turns out there's no huge crossover between fans of obscure British comedians and voters
Starting point is 00:05:01 for the Donald. And mainly people have sorts of just broadly been apologizing to me for the state of the country. But I just, I don't think as a British person you particularly want to get into apologizing. I just think, I think once you pull out that thread there's nothing, there's nothing left to, nothing left to go on. Next thing, the Ashmolean is empty and then there's nothing for people to look at in there. Well, there you have it. The tour has been a lot of fun.
Starting point is 00:05:33 Oh, great. Okay, good. I'm glad to hear it. Well, love it for your behind the scenes. We just won a Supreme Court seat in Wisconsin. You were there a lot. How was your experience in Wisconsin? You were going to knock on doors.
Starting point is 00:05:45 So I just want to say, now that we have won the election, I can now tell all of you that if we lost, I think we really were totally fucked in a pretty universal way. Yeah, for sure. Now, it's not that, you know, Elon Musk was out there saying that this was a civilizational election.
Starting point is 00:06:02 I'm not sure that's true, but I do think it would have made the next year pretty bleak if even in this environment, we couldn't manage to protect abortion access and stop a right-wing judge from rigging elections after Elon Musk dropped 25 million or more in that race. It's in hindsight, right, knocking on doors,
Starting point is 00:06:22 and I talked about this before, Elon Musk did make himself the main character, not just on the news, but just conversationally, he was someone people were bringing up. And not just the Democrats, we were there kind of turning out the vote. It wasn't just Democrats, but even the independents we met. They were like, Elon Musk, they're setting Teslas on fire, it's a lot of money, what's he doing here?
Starting point is 00:06:41 It just was on people's minds. And it's one election, but this is a rejection of money, what's he doing here, what's going on? It just was on people's minds and it's one election, but like this is a rejection of that. Or at the very least, what you can say pretty definitively is that $25 million, which is an insane amount of money to drop on one statewide race in Wisconsin, not California, it's not New York, it's Wisconsin, is not enough to overcome the underlying dynamics.
Starting point is 00:07:05 And so when you have a swing of plus 15 or more in Republican House races in Florida, combined with the fact that Elon's money didn't make a difference in Wisconsin and could very well have hurt, that's enough to tell you that Republicans, especially from the more moderate districts, are in real trouble and it's going to tell you that Republicans, especially from the more moderate districts, are in real trouble and it's going to make voting for a Republican reconciliation package to cut taxes for billionaires and millionaires and cut services for people a much tougher pill to swallow. So I think the Republican political job of getting that bill over the finish line got
Starting point is 00:07:39 a lot harder and that's the most important thing. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's always dangerous when I get into political analyst mode, but people forget that like Doge was like a very late thing and Elon Musk being part of the administration was like a very late thing. It's not like something they campaigned on.
Starting point is 00:07:55 And there's something fundamentally American about telling the richest man in the world to go fuck himself. Absolutely. That was pretty cool. Absolutely. And we did that in Wisconsin. I do, my thing about it was him sort of like, you know, sort of blaming George Soros
Starting point is 00:08:06 in the lead up to all this. And it was like, first of all, you're so much richer than George Soros. And it's like, well, maybe, like the idea that this, it was him versus George Soros, it's like, well, maybe George Soros, maybe our side won, because George Soros wasn't out here jumping around,
Starting point is 00:08:20 fucking humiliating himself. Wearing a cheese hat. Like, I'm like, do you, like, and that's, I feel bad, I don't feel bad, but it's just sort of like interesting that like he's going to be around because he has nothing else but this. Like, he's gonna be in every state.
Starting point is 00:08:33 It's gonna be, he will not learn anything from this because he's not capable of it. So we're just gonna have to see his influence. And my hope is that a lot of people will see this sweaty fucking loser and understand, like this is not a compelling of people will see this sweaty fuck-a-loser and understand, like, this is not a compelling representative for conservatives or whatever he thinks he represents. And so that was nice. I thought that was satisfying.
Starting point is 00:08:52 Yeah. I was actually, I did a show in Madison, Wisconsin on Sunday night and I made some pretty choice remarks about Elon. So I guess what I'm saying is, you welcome America. Hell yeah. The nish bump. Thank you, nish. The nish bump.
Starting point is 00:09:04 Hell yeah. The niche bump. The niche bump. Thank you, Nish. The niche bump. The niche bump. Hell yeah. The 250 comedy nerds at the Majestic in Madison. Hey, it didn't hurt. I think it was the swing vote. Didn't hurt. You know, your Quibi show that I was on was called Hello America,
Starting point is 00:09:15 and it's follow-up that sadly can't exist because Quibi doesn't exist. Could have been your welcome, America. Yep. All right, well, thanks for protecting small b in George Soros and way to go Wisconsin. Let's move on to Terminal Online. If you're unfamiliar, it's a segment where we share kind of how when we were two online each week, we'll rate everyone on a scale of one to five, one being your fine, you can
Starting point is 00:09:38 deal with it at home, five being your terminal. So love it. What were you two online this week? So I saw a video and the second I saw it, I understood why it existed, even though the poster is famous for a kind of subtle, a velvet glove, right? A fist inside of a velvet glove. So I love the content that Meghan Markle produces.
Starting point is 00:10:10 I love it. Thank you, thank you, Nish. OG fan. For anything you do. Number one fan. Welcome to America. We did it. We booted those people out for your good. We're gobbling it up over here.
Starting point is 00:10:19 I think they self-deported, but the content is fantastic. The show is amazing. I love watching someone move peanut butter pretzels from a bigger bag to a smaller bag. You finally learned how to make popcorn, so that's good. You learn how to make popcorn. It's excellent.
Starting point is 00:10:36 But in the first episode, Megan makes a one-pot pasta. And it's actually, I think one-pot recipes are the best. I actually, if you were to look in my Google history and you won't, and I hope you never do, mixed in between, you know, the various sexual searches. How to, you know, what is, how do sex good? How do sex? Priest with a flat tire, that kind of thing.
Starting point is 00:11:01 I don't know. But you would find one pot recipes, love one pot recipes. So I watched that recipe and I actually thought, you know what, I'm going to maybe make a version of this one pot recipe. Meghan Markle, you taught me something. And then I go on TikTok and I see this. So here's a recipe that has taken the internet by storm. Everybody wants to make the one pot pasta. You add your 12
Starting point is 00:11:27 ounces of linguini. Add one onion, which is peeled and very thinly sliced. 12 ounces of cherry tomatoes. Four cloves of garlic. I'm going to put a little garlic here, a little garlic there. Quarter of a teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper, two teaspoons of salt, and four and a half cups of water. Sprigs of basil, sort of stick them in there, onto the stove, bring to a boil. And you'll be stirring this constantly and you're going to have an amazing, delicious pasta. It is fragrant and it is well cooked and it is just
Starting point is 00:12:06 ready to eat. Put it right in your bowl. Is that enough for you? So play it from the very, just play the first line of it again. So here's a recipe that has taken the internet by storm. Everybody wants... That's it. Here's a recipe that's taking the internet by storm. Everyone wants to make my one pot pasta. And I saw it and I just, first of all, that I didn't, it wasn't that I was, when I watched- That's Martha Stewart for listeners. Yeah. Just so you know. For listeners, that is Martha Stewart.
Starting point is 00:12:40 Clearly people had mentioned to her, whether she saw it online or in real life, I don't know, but it got back to Martha that Meghan Markle in the first episode of her show where she's meant to be a Martha Stewart-like figure, she's making a fucking Martha Stewart pasta. And what does Martha Stewart do? She just in that perfect Martha Stewart way says,
Starting point is 00:13:00 everybody is talking about my one-pont pasta. Everybody wants to make my one-pont pasta. Everybody wants to make my one-pont pasta. Let me show you how a fucking pro does it. And that's the Martha Stewart I love. That's the Martha Stewart that I watched when I was a child to live inside of the fantasy. And that's the Martha Stewart I still believe was wronged by who James Comey. Wow, wow.
Starting point is 00:13:26 And this is where I wanna come back to. Because Martha Stewart went to jail, not for insider trading, but for lying about a crime they couldn't prove, a crime that would have been over $5,000. This woman is a fucking billionaire. She blows $5,000 just walking by a William Sonoma. She doesn't care about $5,000.
Starting point is 00:13:55 That is nothing. She would throw $5,000 in the garbage. Oh, that's a dog's birthday to her. It's a... It is. A little outfit for one of those giant dogs she's got. And yet, James Comey decided that even though he couldn't prove that she had committed insider trading, he was going to get her on lying about a crime she didn't commit.
Starting point is 00:14:20 And that James Comey is the same fucking guy that also decides in another novel way to go in front of the cameras and publicly indict Hillary Clinton. And isn't it amazing that two of the most famous examples of women being torn down by the government in novel and interesting ways are both by this six foot seven fucking menace, James Comey. And when Martha Stewart went to jail, she was treated like fucking dog shit that she had deserved it because she was rich and she was bossy and she was tough.
Starting point is 00:14:57 And it was a powerful woman laid low at a time when everybody was patting themselves on the back for America being post-sexism because James Bond was allowed to punch women. Did we do that? What? We did that. We, I think there's a,
Starting point is 00:15:12 I'm gonna Google that. James Bond punching a woman. I'm sorry, you were cooking, love it. I'm sorry, you can come back to it. But the point being, Martha Stewart, when she went to jail, she lost that perfection that she was known for, right? They took that from her and it was wrong. It was wrong what happened to Martha Stewart.
Starting point is 00:15:36 It was wrong, but you know what? It made her tougher and more interesting. And it led to this Martha Stewart, the Martha Stewart that goes on TikTok to just delicately, as if removing the meat from a fine soul to destroy any comers. And I appreciated that. And that's what I saw.
Starting point is 00:15:58 That's what I felt when I saw this brief moment of her saying, everybody's talking about my one pot pasta. Thank you. It's Olympic levels of passive aggression. I love it. I absolutely love it. It's so elegant in its contempt. Yeah, I feel like as an American, there is Martha Stewart represents both the fantasy and also she's put in decades of work, right? So she has that behind her. So I feel like the people who we allow to cook food are either someone like that, someone like an Ina Garden,
Starting point is 00:16:29 where they've spent decades, the, I'm trying, Nigella across the pond. You know, someone who's like- Big Nigella farm. Exactly, we all are. It's sort of, someone who's been at it or a completely insane person where this is the first time, but they're like bubbly personality,
Starting point is 00:16:44 like almost like a TikTok star, like, you know, like a real, we're going to allow that. Like Julia Child, someone like that. Someone more of a character. Meghan Markle to me, it's like a million people can make that pasta. I need Meghan Markle to be funnier. And I don't, that's not why she's here,
Starting point is 00:16:59 that's not what she's doing, but I'm like, like, because as you're saying this, like the other thing is also like, Martha Stewart's genuinely very funny. And I feel like other than that, the last time I saw her was like a series of interviews. She was like, man, I cannot find a decent man to fuck me. Like I'm out here, like she's posting thirst traps.
Starting point is 00:17:15 She's like, I am looking for a man. And I really respect that. It's like she's been around so long. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. You do what you need to do. Give yourself a little treat and watch a compilation of the moments where Martha Stewart is getting absolutely roasted by Miss Piggy.
Starting point is 00:17:32 Oh yes, I've seen that. Incredible. Miss Piggy would go on the Martha Stewart show and absolutely rip Martha Stewart to bits and it is a fucking delight. Just two queens, two queens. I like how you're describing this, like Miss Peggy's like,
Starting point is 00:17:48 she's making her own decision here. Again, much like the promisay, as far as I know she is. I don't even know what Miss Peggy's doing. I'm not sure what you're saying. Here's what I guess what I would say is- Well, she's a puppet. Right, no. Elijah, I don't even hear this from you right now.
Starting point is 00:18:02 Hey, nobody cared about Jim Henson until he put on the mask. Look, I'm sorry, I'm just getting side triggered by a genre of post that's like, we need to give Superman more credit for how he fought Batman in this clip. And he's fake. He's not real. And so you're getting side aggression from something I'm experiencing, and that's not right. A friend of mine watched the Meghan Markle show and said, I can't think of anything that more clearly feels like fiddling while Rowan burns. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:18:34 Yeah. Like at this time in American history to have a whole show that's about a rich person cooking quite basic food in a millionaire's house that's not the actual millionaire's house that they live in, but is a rented one for the purposes of making it to each other. It all feels a little bit, let them eat one pot pasta. Yeah, it really could be called pottering around with Meghan Markle, looking for things to do. She, in the opening episode, she harvests honey
Starting point is 00:19:02 with a beekeeper and it's a small detail, but she is wearing a pristine, out of the box, white beekeeper's outfit. And it's like, hey, dirty it up. At least pretend. Get some honey on it. At least pretend you know who these bees are. At least pretend you know these fucking bees. It is crisp, clean.
Starting point is 00:19:25 There's a lot of discourse in the UK at the moment about whether, you know, because there was a sense that they were driven out of the country, you know, on account of racism of the British state. And now I've read a couple of things online and from the British press about like, ha, well, we always knew. And you're like, two things can be true at once.
Starting point is 00:19:42 Oh yeah, yeah. You can be the victim of racism and be a complete dickhead I am living proof that it is possible I look at you with a complete piece of shit and the victim of racist abuse. I would watch you Collect honey. I would watch you make a one-pot pasta dish like I like like it's a little Little joie de vivre. I feel like we love rich people so much. We hate beautiful women, but we will allow them to do certain things. They either have to be funny or they have to bring us into our life. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:20:12 Like, Ina Garten's husband, my husband's coming home, oh, Jeffrey. She's like, I refuse to give you anything. And there's something I admire about it, but I'm also not going to watch it. Oh, I'm going to watch it. Yes. I'm going to watch it. Well, there's an audience. And just to cycle back, now it depends on what you mean by hitting a woman,
Starting point is 00:20:27 but Roger Moore does slap a woman in the man with the golden gun, which was quite a while ago. I am thinking of Pierce Brosnan fighting, and I believe die another day, Okay. is what I'm remembering. I believe he fights Madonna with a sword.
Starting point is 00:20:44 He does, he fences with Madonna. Yeah. Okay. That is what comes to mind for me. As it should. Well, listen, Bezos has got hold of James Bond now. So the next movie is gonna be him fighting, unionizing Amazon workers and fucking an election. Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:20:59 Did you see that Amazon just put a bid in to buy TikTok? Well, I did. Great. But it makes sense because TikTok, which is actually ties into my video, where it's like TikTok is just a store now, I'll tell you that Amazon just put a bid in to buy TikTok. Well, I bet. Great. But it makes sense because TikTok, which it actually ties into my video, it's like TikTok is just a store now, and occasionally then you get interesting videos around it. So it makes like an Amazon button on TikTok.
Starting point is 00:21:13 That makes total sense. Right, right, right. Finally, I can watch a viral recipe and then be served an ad for how to buy something called like, No Wombi paper towels. Is that what you're getting? I feel like I'm getting just like ass leggings. It's like, have you ever thought about how your ass is a mess?
Starting point is 00:21:28 Give the illusion of an ass as in one piece, these leggings, like a, you know, Trump-Loi ass and leggings. I'm getting increasingly baroque videos of basically people setting up for themselves human cages to sleep in at night. No, okay, this is intriguing. That people are setting up,
Starting point is 00:21:46 they're binding and taping their faces, they're sleeping with things in their mouth. And they're building little tents inside of their beds. People aren't okay. No. This is an effect of, this is the Brian Johnsonification of sleep. Because it's all about the guys who are obsessed
Starting point is 00:22:02 with rejuvenation and de-aging. Specific sleep is a big part of that. But with Brian Johnson, Because it's all about the guys who are like a good point you've an Asian and the yeah Specific sleep is a big part of that but with Brian Johnson his sleep schedule precludes him from sleep sharing a bed with another person Oh, and I think that's for the best. I think that that is who would be there Whatever who that over that is they're also not doing really well, so I think that's good You're familiar with Brian yes He famously came on said he's measuring his his nocturnal erections and then his son. I'm like, that should be a crime. Even if he says it in adult, it's like, that shouldn't be allowed.
Starting point is 00:22:32 You must be sent to jail immediately. Yes! Well, counterpoint dudes rock. Well, let's, how online is Love It for this? I mean, the pasta controversy seems like it's part of the core appeal of the show. Like it's a feature, not a bug. But the passion with which you're talking about James Comey
Starting point is 00:22:53 makes me feel like this is a three, at least. You gotta go to the doctor's office. Yeah, I think I should go to the doctor. I think I should go to the doctor. What's two again? You just got the sniffles. You can deal with it at home. I think I should go to the doctor. What's two again? You just got the sniffles, you can deal with it at home. I think two. I just think Martha Stewart is a heritage
Starting point is 00:23:10 American brand. I feel like it is she's not very online. So I feel like and Megan Merkel feels like she's never been on the internet and that's part of her power is that she hasn't been, like that part of her brain hasn't been destroyed. And yeah, so I'm going to say two. Not too high though. Not too online. Yeah, I'll go with two as well. And yeah, so I'm gonna say two, not too high though, not too online.
Starting point is 00:23:25 Yeah, I'll go with two as well. I think that, I think there's a lot of old media in the mix here. The Martha Stewart and Comey references keep a lot of old media in the mix that suggests Lovett is also still watching broadcast television. Yeah, this is an analog, I guess I'm having an analog obsession.
Starting point is 00:23:39 This is an analog's condition. That's good, it's nostalgia. And I just feel like it's, we have to cling to something from the past and I think Martha Stewart is a good, good thing to cling to. I also, it does also evoke an era where you reach a certain stage of your career and it was time to launch a magazine that had your name on it and your face on every issue and that was a beautiful part of it too. Yeah. Like there was the Oprah magazine, oh, there was the Martha, there's Martha Stewart living,
Starting point is 00:24:04 there was George, which was Washington. Living, there was George, which was always George Washington. Oh, I forgot George, yeah. So that's different, I suppose. But okay, I accept my diagnosis. All right. So, I was going to tell you, you got the online sniffles, you can deal with it at home. We'll be right back with more Love It or Leave It.
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Starting point is 00:25:48 I have a TikTok video. I'm going to call it when we don't watch the whole thing because it's quite long. So if we could just take a look at my video and we can discuss. All right. So while my food is finished cooking, I'm going to give you guys a speed run of the cute winter boots that I found these last few days. So this first pair I found in Tennessee. I really think this is more of a Valentine's Day boot
Starting point is 00:26:05 than a winter boot is because it's like, it's pink. It's got all these cute little black hearts about it. And the cutest thing in my opinion is the aglets. If you guys don't know what an aglet is, you should definitely look it up or look up that Finneas and- All right, I think that's plenty. So basically the audio you just heard
Starting point is 00:26:19 is a young woman on TikTok talking about buying a pair of boots. And at the end she says like, you buy it on the TikTok shop, you know. And what she's showing is a series woman on TikTok talking about buying a pair of boots. And at the end, she says, like, you buy it on the TikTok shop, you know. And what she's showing is a series of notebook paper where she has written out, basically, please Google Tennessee SB 6602, HB 6601, which is a... It's one of those things where... The reason I want to break this up is, like, I read the news all day every day, but there's a lot of state level stuff I don't see.
Starting point is 00:26:46 And this is the first time I had heard of this bill, which is awful, and I'm going to read what it is. And so what this woman is trying to do is how can I use the fact that TikTok is essentially just a shop to try to boost this into the, you know, essentially this is an ad for these boots. How do I boost this and spread this? And the bill, which they both passed, so Tennessee created through this bill, essentially,
Starting point is 00:27:09 they put aside $5 million to create sort of a separate immigration enforcement division through the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. And then basically what they're saying is if you have to go renew your license and you are a legal resident but a non-US citizen, they are only going to give you a temporary license, which visually looks different.
Starting point is 00:27:29 And so, like, if, say, you could prove you're a resident, I'm assuming birth certificate, Social Security card, passport, you get a regular card. If you can't, they give you a temporary one, so when somebody looks at it, they can then see it's temporary. And I presume they want to basically create separate IDs in case you're not a citizen. And then it makes it a felony for local officials, such as a county commissioner or city council member,
Starting point is 00:27:54 to vote for any policy making any kind of city or town a sanctuary city. So basically, if you are an elected representative in Tennessee, you can be charged with a felony for voting for a sanctuary policy. I didn't hear about any of this. Like, this is just something that I completely missed me. And I don't know if this is just me being online, but it's one of those things where I, unfortunately, for work have to be online. And then I appreciated this young woman's attempt. And the rest of the video was about like trans people's passports. It's all about like IDs and how they're changing IDs and I really appreciate that she was trying to do what felt
Starting point is 00:28:28 like a unique thing. I've seen people do this with other things but I hadn't seen it for a specific state law like just to look it up and so I don't know I appreciate whether it's effective. I have no idea. I mean the algorithm does at least for me on TikTok is constantly showing me advertisements so I was like well I'm glad this came to me, and maybe it's because I have purchased something on TikTok and now it knows that about me. So maybe I am getting more of these things, in which case I appreciate the effort.
Starting point is 00:28:56 So I don't know if that's online, it's just the only thing I've seen this week where I'm like, oh, I hadn't thought about the layers that this person's trying to access in TikTok. So I think that that's kind of what's going on, but it's also part of another trend, which is people on TikTok. So this idea of like winter boots, have you seen,
Starting point is 00:29:18 like when people say I need to get a pair of winter boots, it is also meant to mean like we need to have a revolution, but we're not allowed to talk about it on TikTok. The content will be downvoted. And the writing it on the paper is a kind of performance of this is dangerous and banned information. And you see people on TikTok making videos of they're not telling us about the protests happening
Starting point is 00:29:44 around the world for America. They're not telling us what the protests happening around the world for America. They're not telling us what's going on. There's no way to find out what's going on. We have to find interesting codes here on TikTok. But all of these issues are being talked about. If you, instead of trying to get your news via Chinese algorithm or a tech bro algorithm, you go to newyorktimes.com
Starting point is 00:30:05 or a tennesseenewspaper.com or literally just consume news without it being mediated by these wealthy people. All I'm all the way of saying is, there are people that are like performing that were already living in an authoritarian state when in reality what's going on is people are just choosing not to consume a lot of news.
Starting point is 00:30:26 And like both, like I'm not saying this is not a great way to get people to know about what's going on in Tennessee, but also there's a lot of people acting as if TikTok is the only way to get information. When there's lots of ways to find out what's going on in the world right now, no, the internet is not preventing us from seeing what's happening.
Starting point is 00:30:41 It's just that you are not a news consumer anymore because you have given yourself over to these tech platforms. That was, thank you for articulating that because I get so frustrated by what you just described. So, love it, Elijah, very down on TikTok. I thought it was helpful, so I don't need this rant. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like, I work here.
Starting point is 00:31:04 It's not for you. I've heard- It's not for the listeners of this? I said something, and instead of responding to my side, you went on this rant, which I've heard from before from both you and Elijah. I don't need it. I need you to engage with what I said,
Starting point is 00:31:16 which is, as someone who does read the news, I'm not not going to New York Times. When you say that to me, it's honestly very insulting. You know that I read the news all day. But it's not a you. It's not a you. Then who are you talking to? I'm talking to the people making these videos
Starting point is 00:31:28 that are acting as if this information is not readily available. It is. I feel like I want to have a conversation about what they're doing, and you have a pre-prepared monologue you go into. It's not prepared. But the thing is, you're saying, oh, I'm saying you're not being served that video because you bought something on TikTok Shop.
Starting point is 00:31:43 You're being served that video because the algorithm knows that you are part of a group of people that will respond to content about acting as if we already live in a fascist state which is exciting and interesting for a subset of people. You are an avid consumer of news. You are different than the people that are acting as if that is the way we need to convey information. But it isn't. The problem is people being on TikTok and thinking that's a way to find out what's going on in the world. It isn't. You know
Starting point is 00:32:07 that, because you don't consume all your information from TikTok. That's why it's not directed at you. Why can't it be both? And why can't we talk about the positive parts of TikTok? I'm not on TikTok. We can. Of course we can. I pay a young person who actually understands it to put clips of my stand-up on TikTok. But what I, so I have no dog in this fight, okay? I have no dog whose birthday it may well be in this particular fight. I would say, what I would say is you're actually all correct in different ways.
Starting point is 00:32:35 Yes, I agree with that. It is worth celebrating because of the amount of particularly younger people who only consume all of their media through things like TikTok and Instagram. It is definitely worth celebrating the idea that whoever this person is has managed to slightly game the algorithm to sneak that information. And even if one or two people who had no concept of that have seen that and engaged with what's happening in Tennessee, then that is a hugely valuable thing. Definitely also the other side of it which is we need to train people to get information from places other than social media is a
Starting point is 00:33:09 huge important thing because there's this sort of pervasive idea now that the biggest problem is that everybody views the internet as a completely impartial source of information. That the old media is owned by oligarchs and the new media is completely democratic, but it isn't. It's just a different form. We've just got slightly fewer oligarchs now. Whether it's an oligarch or the Chinese government, either way, what information you're getting through the internet is still massively filtered through a specific individual's perspective.
Starting point is 00:33:42 So that's the thing that we definitely like need to break with people. And also there is this very funny, I feel like it's a very specifically British thing, British internet subsect, which is the mainstream media won't cover this story. And then underneath it, there will be a link to the BBC News website. Where did you find out about it? Where did you find out about it? I completely agree. What I'm asking is that we move past the monologue and we move past totally dismissing TikTok. Because I agree.
Starting point is 00:34:10 I'm on it all the time. I'm not totally dismissing TikTok. It was a reaction to what you, I saw that video from you for the first time. It's not a pre-prepared monologue. Ali, can I offer a way to engage with it? What do you mean? Well, for us to move forward with the video you're bringing
Starting point is 00:34:24 and bring it in into our work. Yeah, you can tell me what you're saying. I think... (*laughter*) Yeah, Elijah, tell me. Well, we've been making these... Direct-to-camera, like, for social videos. And what I'm taking away from what you've brought today
Starting point is 00:34:42 is that, you know, like, we source things from The Atlantic and the New York Times and watch the post all the time is that instead of being like, hey, there's this huge story, love it. Now you should be starting these videos off by saying like, no one is talking. And then immediately putting the graphic behind you that says like New York Times headline. And that's just how we should do them going forward because that's the language on the platform. So everything you're saying is not in this video. The first thing she says is go ahead and Google it.
Starting point is 00:35:06 Now, I understand what you're saying that there is an underlying conspiratorial idea that maybe gets people interested in it, but the idea, I think it's deeply condescending to immediately dismiss using the app in different ways to get out specific ideas. I don't think this person would have said, don't go to the New York Times. This person should just Google it. I'm not, yeah, I'm not criticizing. I'm saying this is part of a trend,
Starting point is 00:35:31 and it's a larger trend. I have no problem with this video. I'm not criticizing the video. I am saying that the part where she is talking about winter boots is a specific, it's not about buying winter boots. It's a specific trend where that is meant to stand in for. We can no longer speak honestly.
Starting point is 00:35:46 It is time to foment a revolution. And it's so dangerous to talk about, we have to use the term winter boots. That's a real trend. But I think that that trend really is more about trying to use the algorithm. I think, yes, I hear you're saying, but I'm also like, that is how you do kind of have
Starting point is 00:36:00 to use the algorithm. If you want to manipulate the algorithm of an app that is just a store now, that doesn't seem unreasonable. And I think we have to engage with the idea that people are using the apps in this way, and we'll have to, like Twitter's unusable. I don't know, it's like, if people are manipulating them, I think that's interesting to talk about
Starting point is 00:36:17 rather than immediately dismiss it as conspiracy. Right, but what I'm saying is they're not doing it because it's not a, look because it's not a store thing. It's not trying to game the algorithm around. It's taking the term, it's instilling in the idea of like winter boots, this sort of secret knowledge. It's about a secret knowledge that everybody has. And it's a way of kind of performing radicalism without ever doing anything without leaving
Starting point is 00:36:44 your house. You see that here, I'm not saying in this video, but you see that with that trend, you see that with people kind of celebrating Mangione, you see that in a lot of different ways where people are performing a kind of radical chic from their house where their politics means you can make videos,
Starting point is 00:37:01 you don't really have to do anything outside of your house, you don't have to do anything other than consume tick-tock and you are being You are you are being political you are being radical when really? Everyone is just kind of putting on a little show for each other and I worry about that I don't think that's an illegitimate thing to worry about Even if there are it is also as we use every day These platforms is a great way to inform each other and try to get people to riled up and actually to do things in the World, I don't I don't disagree with that.
Starting point is 00:37:26 I'm interested in everyone's opinion on this because the UK Labour Party has said this week that there's gonna be like massive push on getting information into social media and like actually like government messaging is gonna go through. Is that a waste of their time or is that valuable? Because is the idea that you should be speaking about these things where people are actively listening? Like that's the thing that I can't decide whether it's either condescending or patronizing or it's actually practical to actually start having conversations in places where people are talking right now. I mean, I think it's practical. I also think and I don't know what because every country has like different rules around it. I think for me, for example,
Starting point is 00:38:05 when you see Amazon's about to buy TikTok, then that will automatically change how people receive information through TikTok. So I definitely think, I think the rapid response videos are great. I think meeting people where they're at, I think is gonna be important, and also acknowledging that TikTok is where people
Starting point is 00:38:20 get a lot of their information. So I don't know, I think it is important and practically helpful, yeah. Yeah, I think it is important and like practically helpful, yeah. Yeah, I think it's just about how they do it. They have to figure out ways to communicate, honestly. And like, you know, there are good examples and bad examples. Like I actually am surprised,
Starting point is 00:38:35 I'm pleasantly surprised by how much of a reaction there was to Cory Booker holding the floor for 24 hours. I did like, I thought it was a good thing when I saw that he was doing it, and then I would click in and out. I like Cory Booker, but he can be pretty cheesy, and there are cheesy moments. But then tons of it is getting clipped, tons of it getting shared. There is just a hunger out there for people to see politicians actually doing something and taking it seriously and being passionate, in part because a lot of what politics is just doesn't
Starting point is 00:39:04 get to those places, and in part because a lot of what politics is just doesn't get to those places. And in part because a lot of our politicians haven't done enough and haven't seemed like they care. Yeah. It's valuable. It's also, I feel like a little bit of a misread because you have to be on the platforms. But this is kind of like when everyone was shitting on the at Democrats account for putting up like a big graphic and then they started doing better social media.
Starting point is 00:39:23 Well, the problem with reaching low propensity voters isn't the stuff coming from the at Democrats account. It's reaching people through places where they don't normally get political or news information. So you gotta do a lot more than that, but it's a good like first step. All right. How online is Halle?
Starting point is 00:39:40 Love it, I think you knowing the winter boots kind of like, like Halle's sick, like she's a three in my opinion. This revealed that you actually should be in the hospital at four. Yeah, I think Halle's a three. I think Halle is sick, but doesn't necessarily need that much treatment. I would say there's an interesting thing here
Starting point is 00:39:57 because it's almost like there is a bit of online sickness, but at the same time, you got some actual useful use out of it. So it's almost like you had bad diarrhea, but what you pooped out was a tapeworm. So like this, like, you had an online sickness, but it did have some, like you knowing about this Tennessee state legislation is positive. So you, you, I can't think of a better, less disgusting medical analogy than it is. I mean, it's like, it's, um... I mean, I think it's the same way that, like, penicillin comes from mold. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:29 Mm-hmm. You know? It's a... It sometimes leeches help. Yeah. We're all a little healthier for it. Okay, so Ali's a three, Lovett's side four, for knowing that winter boots trend. We'll be right back after these messages,
Starting point is 00:40:45 but before we go to break, a reminder that you can now get Love It or Leave It ad free and a 30-day free trial when you subscribe to Friends of the Pod at crooked.com slash friends or through the Apple Podcast app. Love It or Leave It brought to you by Quince. If you're planning to go on vacation soon, you should treat yourself to a first-class quality suitcase at an economy price tag from Quince. John, just went on a trip.
Starting point is 00:41:09 Yes, I did. And I needed some warm clothing because I saw snow for the first time in a year. Wow. Yeah. And I got some, I had a nice sweater from Quince. Nice. Mongolian cashmere. Vacation season is nearly upon us. This year, I'm treating myself to the lux upgrades
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Starting point is 00:42:10 your next trip treat yourself to the luxe upgrades you deserve from quince go to quince.com slash love it for 365 day returns plus free shipping on your order that's q u i n c e dot com slash love it to get free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com slash love it Nish what were you to online this week? Well, I am completely obsessed with Morgan Wallen Walking off SNL. What a dud. And then full dud And then and then going on Instagram and posting a picture of a private... I'm obsessed with every element of this story. It's almost difficult to disentangle what I'm most obsessed with. So the bare bones of it are Morgan Rollins, the musical guest on Saturday Night Live,
Starting point is 00:42:54 on Saturday, he then breaks with the broad protocol of the show, which is the musical guest stays on stage with the host and all of the cast and does the good nights. He walks off during the credits. He then goes to his private jet, which presumably is not on a fixed schedule, so there was no temporal excuse for him to leave. He then posts a picture of it and the caption that says, get me to God's country. He then now, as of I believe this morning, is selling hats and t-shirts on his official website with the viral quote, get me to God's country on them. And to me, the reason that I think this makes me incredibly
Starting point is 00:43:32 online is I before two days ago had never heard of Morgan Wallen. And now he feels like the most important character in my life because he's intersected with my interests, which are SNL and comedy. And so the fact that he walked, like even I know, even British people know you don't walk off during the good nights. You stand there, you wait for about, I think, a minute and a half. Yeah, the credits for the length of the credits. Right. It's a shoulder's put down for 50 years. They celebrated 50 years this spring. Yeah. Everybody knows for half a century, you do the same thing. But the thing that I think is so, like the idea that people are now selling, people selling merch based on posts is like,
Starting point is 00:44:13 it's the end game. We're all in just a kind of like a sort of existential internet nightmare. Everything's merch, yeah. Going back to also the idea that he's like, I'm gonna go back to God's country, the real, obviously that's incredibly condescending and patronizing, but also within that, this like guy where he's like, I need to go back to like the real America via private jet. Right. It's just beyond proper. Also I believe he went to Nashville, which is country music Hollywood. Like it's, like what God? White God, I guess? I went to Nashville for the first time about three weeks ago. I had a very fun time doing a tour show there.
Starting point is 00:44:49 I went to Broadway. I will say, God has not touched that place in a long time. Oh, no. Absolutely not. And I do mean this as a full insult, the most British place I've ever been to in America. Because if you take away the trappings of country music, which is popular in Britain, but not to the same extent, the behavior of the people on Broadway, I have never felt more at home
Starting point is 00:45:09 in America in my entire life. Just people drunkenly fighting with each other on a Wednesday night. I'd like to thank whoever it was that got drunk and had a fight in Nashville for making me and my partner feel like we were in London. Yeah, there wasn't the... But for the threat of gun feel like we were in London. Yeah, there wasn't the... But for the threat of gunfire, it could be London. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot less street vomiting.
Starting point is 00:45:30 I'll say that much for it. I feel like it's like if London, if there was just 50% more bachelorette parties. No, again, that is what... There's parts of London that are specifically devoted. And it's like being in the purge, like all the normal rules of society are abandoned. It's like Amsterdam in the wire for human decency. Can I ask a question? Oh, Amsterdam, a lovely reference.
Starting point is 00:45:52 Can I ask a question? Has there been any reporting that anyone was rude to Morgan Waller? Did anything go wrong for him that he felt- He was just too close to some homos. I know, but I don't want to- That's really what they're saying. I don't want to jump to that obvious conclusion,
Starting point is 00:46:06 but it's like, was it just being around the now gay-afind SNL where now we have like real representation at long last in this medium? Yeah. That was just too much? I think unfortunately, yes. It obviously is not important, but it's so rude.
Starting point is 00:46:25 Like it's like, it's so cool to be on SNL. It's like so many musicians and bands would kill for the opportunity. It's the opportunity of a lifetime for so many people. And you're just like, you spend the week with these people. And then you just- You agreed to go on. You agreed to go on. You signed up for this.
Starting point is 00:46:42 And then you just like want to publicly be rude. Like walking off is a way to publicly be rude and then post getting back to God's country. Which again, I don't totally understand as a phrase, presumably if you're Christian, you would believe that- I think it's the hobos. I think unfortunately that's it. Is God not everywhere?
Starting point is 00:46:57 Oh yeah, New York is godless. No, no, no, they think that it's like- That's the, yeah, it's like- The warriors over in New York. What was it? I think there's a 30 Rock joke where they call it sex criminal boat or something. Like in Kenneth Parcell's hometown in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The problem with the way that he's left and the fact that he's put back to God's country
Starting point is 00:47:17 is the whole thing reeks of, I was around a lot of people and I don't want to blow anyone's mind here, but some of them weren't white. And I think even some of them might also have been people that were homosexuals. Like it just, it's very difficult. I know we don't want to all boil it down to that, but it's very difficult to not boil it down to that. Well, I think it is that just because he has not issued a statement clarifying. If it wasn't that, he could just say like, oh yeah, no, sorry.
Starting point is 00:47:42 I was just in a rush to get back to my plane. Oh, like referencing a song that's coming out like he could have said anything to clarify It and he didn't and my thing that I don't like about it Is that this merch is obviously like it looks like the most chat GBT merch It's like that's AI they like it out. It's ugly. It's very generic And they immediately start mass producing it. I'm sure like the worst quality so it's not even like oh, okay That's a funny thing that people like caught on and we had somebody to draw something up. It's nothing Well, and also so Kenan Thompson gave an interview
Starting point is 00:48:14 After this all happened and he he did say it was weird. He they didn't seem to be he suggested that there was no inference that something had happened in the week that would cause him to be upset. And he said that he definitely saw it when he prematurely departed and he said it was all sort of weird. But then he said, I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something, which is like a very, a line you can easily imagine in Keenan's voice. But yeah, there was no inference. He'd refused to be part of a pre-taped sketch, and apparently they replaced him with one of the Jonas Brothers.
Starting point is 00:48:48 But the report is that he was reportedly supposed to be in a pre-taped musical sketch, and he declined to be in it. But other than that, there doesn't seem to have been any kind of particular fight about it. But I just think the like, grift of these people, like to post something, and then almost immediately have merch ready to go on it that like it
Starting point is 00:49:06 it shows you the transparency of all like How little any of this means to any of them and every everything? Everything now is just a grift and a way to sell merch like it's there's no There's absolutely no Love or art or anything behind any of this. It's literally just, we're going to be dicks and then we're going to do a grift based on posts. And the whole cycle just feels very Trump 1.0. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:31 Like, he didn't get the memo of how crazy Maga is now and just like being passive aggressive, walking up posting on your Instagram stories, like actually very soft and kind of bitch made. Like, you can just go on and just like criticize these people now and have the full culture war fight. But like, no, he's just kind of bitch made. Like you can just go on and just like criticize these people now and have the full culture war fight, but like, no, he's just kind of very sensitive to,
Starting point is 00:49:49 we don't, we can't really articulate, we just have to speculate. There's also just like a, like lack of like gratitude, not even just to SNL, but like who cares about that, but like just in a broader way to like, to get to be a famous musician is such a lucky thing. And it like, it reminds me of this, it's not my, it's somebody's joke about Paul Newman
Starting point is 00:50:11 and the career, the path every famous person's career takes, which is who's Paul Newman, get me Paul Newman, get me a Paul Newman type, get me a young Paul Newman, who's Paul Newman? And that's the path everyone takes. And like, okay, great, you're in your big moment. Like, what did you do with it? Right. You acted like a little bitch.
Starting point is 00:50:32 And also it's like to have, like you said, the most soft life. Like, this is not a problem. You're creating an issue that doesn't exist because you have no problems, which to me is very conservative in terms of like, we have to exist, and by we I mean anyone who's not conservative, we have to be,
Starting point is 00:50:50 they're confronting our existence or New York's existence in order to storm off and sell merch. If it wasn't for New York or SNL, then what would the merch be? It's like you don't have anything without the resistance that you've created in your mind. Yeah. It's also a weird thing to be like, I've got to get out of this place. Who's like iconic television show invited me to do a performance even after which again, I didn't
Starting point is 00:51:16 realize at the time he was scheduled to perform like in 2020. Oh, yes, I remember that. Until that some footage emerged of him breaking COVID-19 protocols and his appearance was like, I think it was like cancelled and then they came back to it. So like, it is weird that there's like, this is an organization at an institution that is showing you like a huge amount of like leeway and you know, it just seems like such an incredibly Petulant thing to do but then when he starts selling the merch you realize like literally everything is a group like these people wake up
Starting point is 00:51:55 Every morning and all they can think about is what is the next? Griff and you're like we're like all being dragged into hell by a group of people whose only interest is to try and sell hats And I know yeah Nish is a one. Yeah, that's a one. I agree. You saw the biggest culture story of the week. This is on people.com, it's not online, yeah. My only argument for this being an online thing is I literally had never heard of Morgan Wallen
Starting point is 00:52:20 until I saw a picture of him on Twitter looking like he didn't understand how cameras work. We're not saying you weren't a zero when you found the story. Right, yeah, absolutely. You were healthy and fine, and now you just have a, what is a one? Is it like a headache?
Starting point is 00:52:35 No, you're fine, no, a one is you're fine. Oh, okay. A passing headache, you got a little dirt in your eye, maybe, you had to blink it out. I think zero is somebody printed a tweet and pushed it into the middle of the book. That's the dream. That's how Meghan Markle interacts with the internet. Just a printed out binder of tweets for her to look through. All right. So this is a one. We'll be right back with more Love It or Leave It. Love It or Leave
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Starting point is 00:54:54 You're calling it that? Okay. I'm calling it that. Oh, okay. I think it's Ashton Hall and a lot of these like male, like, get ready with me things are what I like to call fancy dog content because it's just like if men were like fancy poodles that like get, you know, like frouche and all that kind of thing.
Starting point is 00:55:10 Pampered, yeah. Definitely. This is specific content for high priced retreats where men get together and like eat steak and like do cold plunges and like don't suck each other off. Like maybe like- Why not a little bit? That they do?
Starting point is 00:55:24 Come on. Let me play an example. Join me as I host my first men's retreat, Design Your Life. The intention was simple yet profound, helping men live life by design rather than by default. We gathered at an incredible five acre property just outside Austin. It offered space and solitude,
Starting point is 00:55:42 creating the perfect container for deep transformational work. Each day began with meditation, followed by workouts, immersive workshops, and five-star meals prepared by our onsite private chef. We also had surprise guest speakers and unique experiences that added to the magic of the weekend.
Starting point is 00:55:58 The breakthroughs, belief shifts, and aha moments were truly inspiring, not just for the guys, but for me as well. Witnessing these transformations reminded me of the incredible power of presence and intention. There were no distractions." Alright we get it we get it we get it. So I don't want to shit on this one too much in particular because this is actually like a relatively non-toxic example of the genre. My point is that this is actually a genre. And the staples of this genre are men getting together
Starting point is 00:56:29 with men in a secluded location, sobriety, prepared meals made by a quote unquote private chef. That's not necessarily true. Often these meals are very meat heavy. Meditation and journaling, working out, and cold plunges. Now, this sounds like a nightmare to me, getting together with a bunch of randos, being totally sober and talking about our life goals,
Starting point is 00:56:50 but it's a whole little industry. The mother of all fancy dog male treat their retreats is something called the Bali time chamber. And I would love for you guys to take a look at the Bali time chamber. Yeah, that's a tough one. No veganism, no women, no distractions, no smoking, no drugs, no video games, no laziness, no partying, no procrastination, no hookups, no toxic relationships, no scrolling, no Netflix.
Starting point is 00:57:17 When you enter the Bali Time Chamber, the only thing to do is work on yourself, train consistently, eat premium meat, do sauna, walk to the waterfalls, reconnect with nature, build new habits, read books, do ice bath, meditate, exchange knowledge, learn new skills, get in your best shape ever, and network with other like-minded men. This place is something different. It's a sanctuary for men to grow. Would you go there? Well, would you? First of all, a lot. Of course I would. Yeah, 100%.
Starting point is 00:57:45 So I was at a... The Bali time chamber. I was at the Bali time chamber. That's the last time I saw love it. Oh yeah. I was at... No Netflix. I love describing it as like exchanging knowledge.
Starting point is 00:57:58 You mean having a conversation? You're talking about having a conversation? Yeah. Yes. But I was at this dinner and somebody ordered a skinny margarita. And it was a bunch of women at the table. And one of them was saying,
Starting point is 00:58:12 like, I feel so bad ordering a skinny margarita. I feel silly saying that. I wish we had another name for it. And somebody at the table said, oh, we should call them clean margaritas instead of skinny margaritas. And we were talking about it that like, a skinny margarita is girl-coded,
Starting point is 00:58:27 but clean, eating clean is more guy-coded, is a way of being on a diet. It's Coke Zero versus Diet Coke. Yeah, that makes sense. And like what you just showed has existed for women forever. It's called Canyon Ranch. It is a fancy resort that you go to
Starting point is 00:58:44 and you're given a certain amount of healthy food. You do spa, you do exercise and sauna. No Netflix. No, sadly. HBO Max and Hulu available. Yeah, probably for sure. I don't know what the smart TV situation is these days, but it's just so funny to have to like,
Starting point is 00:59:01 you know, it's like pH balanced, strong enough for a man, but pH balanced for a woman, but like in reverse. Cause it's just like, you mean you wanna go to a spa for the weekend with the boys? Yeah, let's wait. What I wanna know with that first one, it's like, what are the aha moments
Starting point is 00:59:16 and what is the transformation? Like I would love to know what you walk away from, more connected to or what you're thinking is, because seeing this I'm like, oh, it's like a fun vacation. I'd go to the Bali time chamber, but it wouldn't be for a cycle, it wouldn't be like, oh, I'm gonna spiritually or psychologically change.
Starting point is 00:59:35 It would be like, I get everything else, but the idea that these are sites of deep masculine change, that's, I guess, I don't know what that means. Well, it's a lie, It's a lie. Oh yes. I'll tell you what wasn't mentioned in either of those two adverts is an hour speaking to a trained therapist. Well, yeah. I would love for one of those adverts just to go, oh and by the way, there's an hour where a kind person says it wasn't your fault that your daddy never hugged you. Anyway, like it's the like I listen with there is a crisis of masculinity. It's this this huge
Starting point is 01:00:09 thing where men are being radicalized by these like online charlatans. They should we probably do need to have a conversation about better the way men are behaving. But I don't think we will achieve that through the barley time. What else like God knows how much it is. That's like a $15,000. I mean, like, who knows how much it is. That's like a $15,000. I mean, like who knows how much you're paying? I know how much it is. I submitted my email. Have you priced it out? I submitted my email and I got the literature. So it's actually surprisingly cheap
Starting point is 01:00:32 to go to the Bali time chamber. Oh, okay, well. Why aren't we there? It's about $1,400 a week. Wow. Okay, that's not bad at all. I love the Bali time chamber. Love it.
Starting point is 01:00:41 Let's do a corporate retreat with the Bali time chamber. No women. But yeah, that's the other part of this too, which is like, I don't know what problems these men have, but I am sure it will not be solved until they have a healthy relationship with women. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:00:54 Even in that second video where it says the phrase, build habits, can't do that on a weekend. You just actually can't do that. That's not how habits work. These people are not transforming. You don't fucking get it, dude. The Bali time chamber, one day in the Bali time chamber is equal to one year outside the Bali time chamber.
Starting point is 01:01:14 So it's like the eternity. So it's like the beach from old. Oh, okay. It's like the beach from old. It's actually like based on the hyperbolic time chamber from Dragon Ball Z according to the literature. Oh my God. Wait, I'm sorry.
Starting point is 01:01:26 Hold on a second. It's actually inspired by fucking Dragon Ball Z, the show that people my age watched while stoned out of their minds in college. Are you fucking kidding me? I thought that was a judge. Seriously. I thought that was a judge.
Starting point is 01:01:39 It's in the brochure that I got sent to my email. No. Shut it down. Here's another thing they don't fuck, no. That's tough. Shut it down. Shut it down. Here's another thing they don't mention, Nish, besides therapy. They don't mention in either the one from Austin where they go to the Airbnb that we first watched or the Bali time chamber that it's shared bathrooms. So if you get diarrhea.
Starting point is 01:01:59 Shared bathrooms and that amount of steak is an absolute nightmare. Exactly. So let's watch the last video, which is a video that I got of someone going to the Bali time. Okay. And then I kind of want to make a point that plays to what you guys are saying about what you actually learn from these. Today was my last full day at the Bali time chamber.
Starting point is 01:02:16 Here's how it looked. Woke up at 4 45 as always followed by my non-negotiables, which are hydration goals, gratitude, stretching and visualization. I also knocked out a cold plunge. After that, I jumped into a fight. I mean, those are all good things. I got out of the feet of elevation, came home to BTC, did some breath work with the other guys.
Starting point is 01:02:33 And then after the breath work, while we were all very focused, we did some visualization. I had six eggs, rice, tomatoes, baby potatoes and coffee for breakfast. Then I jumped into two hours of deep work in the morning. At 12, I knocked out a push day. I didn't actually get any clips of the push day, but here's some clips of me doing muscle ups. After that, I had lunch, a steak, some fish, shrimp, potatoes.
Starting point is 01:02:53 Since today was my last day, I really wanted to go back to the waterfalls. So at 2 p.m., we went to one of the waterfalls, just 10 minutes away from the Bali time chamber. Came home, did some more work, then had this massive Bali time chamber special burger for dinner. After that, I did my reflection journaling, said bye to all the people that I met, as well as all the amazing staff, did a few tasks on my computer that I had to do,
Starting point is 01:03:13 and then went to bed. Next chapter of my life is going to be moving to Miami, dialing in, and building a business that's going to change the lives of hundreds of men. If you guys want to keep up with my journey, follow my page for more. Hundreds of men. That's like a threat. Yeah. His business is a window washing company, so I'm not exactly sure. Is that actually what it is?
Starting point is 01:03:30 Yes. Deep work. Just so you know, if you read the caption to his Instagram, he says in all caps, I love growth, which really just cracked me up. I will say, but if that's your deal, if that's what you're excited about, I think it's actually very cool to be passionate about. It is. Yeah. If what you're excited about is I'm going to move to Miami, I'm cool to be passionate about, like it is. Like if what you're excited about is like,
Starting point is 01:03:45 I'm gonna move to Miami, I'm gonna start this business, I'm gonna hire a lot of people, I'm really gonna build something. Like I think that that's like a beautiful thing. The thing that made, like you see that fucking influencer do that four and a half hour morning routine, which it only is possible if there's nothing that can disturb your routine,
Starting point is 01:04:01 you have no obligations, you have no responsibilities, and there's an off-camera woman handing you bowls of ice. And like the challenge of life is doing those good things for yourself, gym, eating well, doing your whatever tasks, while also caring about other people and understanding that life is hard and there's things that get in the way. Like, yeah, it's not hard.
Starting point is 01:04:23 You can journal when you're at the Bali time chamber, but like, are you gonna be journaling when you're down there in Miami? I don't know. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. It strikes me as kind of like a multi-level marketing, like an emerging multi-level marketing system for men
Starting point is 01:04:36 where you're always making content about how you're a fancy dog. And part of it is now you go to this retreat where you're really a fancy dog and you're constantly convincing people through more it is now you go to this retreat where you're really a fancy dog and you're constantly convincing people through more content about who you went to your retreat, about how fancy of a dog you are. And people should always be listening to you
Starting point is 01:04:53 about how you're a fancy dog and you're getting higher up the pyramid. Well, right, it's when your money comes from videos about how you're a fancy dog. Like how do you afford to be a fancy dog? By showing people the ways in which I'm a fancy dog. Yep. It's also-
Starting point is 01:05:08 I would just, go ahead guys. No, no, no, go. I would totally fucking go to the Bolly time chamber. Well, sure. Of course. It looks fucking awesome. Of course. Should Crooked cover it?
Starting point is 01:05:17 Not for Elijah, but for you. Yeah. I think it'd be good. I just think with all the stuff about like, we need more spaces to discuss masculinity I do think that the solution to this is not further secluding men from women. That's the that's the thing that rubs me up the wrong way with a lot of this stuff is like half of the problems we're facing our men are disappearing into these like all male
Starting point is 01:05:39 online worlds that divorce them from the reality of society, which is half of the people in it are women and you need to learn. I just think that everything about it, I don't know, maybe it's just a personal prejudice for me, but whenever I look at those videos, I was like, I do not want to be stuck in a remote retreat with a bunch of guys that used to beat me up at school. It looks like my worst fucking nightmare. Well, it is funny, the Bully time chamber versus the other one is like a downstream thing from like the Joe Rogan,
Starting point is 01:06:08 Andrew Tate, Maha masculinity, where like it's not enough to just want to go and better yourself like the first one, like it's a grievance based bettering yourself. Yes. No women, no vegans. That's a part of the marketing. All right, we're getting late on time here.
Starting point is 01:06:24 How online am I? I have so much to say about this that I feel like I'm more online, but we'll stop here. I got the literature sent to my fucking email. I'm gonna be getting a lot of Bollywood. Oh yeah, they got your ass. Yeah, I mean, I think you're going. So I think you're a four.
Starting point is 01:06:37 I think you're a four. Yeah, absolutely. Elijah, I want you to know something. You had asked me, do you know what this is? And I couldn't have told you what the name is, but I have 100% been served these videos. Well, yes, I think if you're a man, you're getting it. I'm getting slightly less so now that I'm a lesbian,
Starting point is 01:06:54 but like the white woman's version of it, I actually know someone from my college who changed her name and opened one in Ojai, and I believe hers is three days long for $5,000. Oh. So it's like, it is the equal about it's like one, I will go on vacation and I will be healed. It's a healing vacation, but it's strictly gendered. Used to be, we call it a jumpstart.
Starting point is 01:07:12 You know, you can get that, at least you could get away with it. You're going for a jumpstart. I'm gonna jumpstart my diet. I'm gonna jumpstart my health. I'm gonna jumpstart my thing. But now it's like, I'm gonna go through a transformation. No, you are not.
Starting point is 01:07:23 Is that because this vacation just seems too Faggy? Gay? Yeah, I'm going to go through a transformation. No, you are not. Is it because this vacation just seems too... Faggy? Gay? Yeah, I don't want to... I don't want to reduce everything to this, but it is literally like all I think when I watch these videos is as capitalism decays around us, the system is not delivering what it needs to for individuals. You can't make enough money from your job, so you to have like a second job your house is unaffordable
Starting point is 01:07:46 Everything in your life is increasingly expensive and now the solution to that is you know And a different private company more of your money to settle down the mental health crisis that are brewing by living in the consequences of a collapsing economic system like it is So evidence to me that everything about this is like late-stage capitalism Yeah, at least you're jacked You're fucking ripped man. I will yeah the late-stage capitalism though. It's actually here's the thing Yeah, I think it's like not we've always done this capitalism is thriving It's that it's gone so good at cap
Starting point is 01:08:22 Capitalism has gone good at capitalism that it is chewing us up and spitting us out. And we are all, like all of this is about maximizing, right? Maximizing your time. Like you're like, like very low, was there anything in that video about being happier? No, no. No, no. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Starting point is 01:08:38 Yeah. To get extra deep off Nisha's point, like it's about control after like a global pandemic, political upheaval. You can control your non-negotiables in the morning, your hydration, your gratitude, like that, like your breathing, you know, like that kind of thing. And so, no, it's not about happiness. It's just like clinging on to this little bit of shit you can control,
Starting point is 01:08:57 which is like being a fancy dog. There wasn't one bit of the video where anyone was laughing. No, no, it's not a laughing matter. Transformation is no laughing, and laughing is gay. No straws either. No straws, no chicken, no chicken. That's a red meat trip. I love just, man, I love being a regular dude
Starting point is 01:09:17 who just loves a drink and has a couple friends who like to have a little drink. Okay, just have a little drink. Okay, love it, be an alcoholic like your forefathers. Love it was A2. Don't be an alcoholic. All right. Let's recap. God, the Bolly Tide Shaper made everyone a little crazy. Okay. Love it was a two. He's got the sniffles for Meghan Markle's one pop pasta. Halle was a three. She needs to go to the doctor for winter boots and gaming the TikTok algorithm to tell people
Starting point is 01:09:45 the news. Love it got a side four for knowing the winter boots trend. Nish is a one. He got a little piece of dirt in his eye for Morgan Wallen. Yeah, you got to up your game here, Nish. On SNL. And I was a four. I'm in the hospital for the Bali time chamber.
Starting point is 01:10:02 You're at the Bali time chamber. Yeah. I'm at the Bali time chamber. God. He's got a chamber. Yeah. I'm at the Bali time, God. He's got a heel. Once you go in, you never come out though. I love to make fun of the Bali time chamber and I would totally go to the Bali time chamber. It looks great.
Starting point is 01:10:12 It looks great. All right, we are at time. We'll skip over Q and A's, but normally it shows Q and A's from our discord subscribers. Go sign up for Friends of the Pod. Get that 30 day free trial, get ad free, love it or leave it,
Starting point is 01:10:23 and so much more. What were the questions, Elijah, Elijah, what were the questions? Well, the question wants to know what Anish's favorite part of is coming to America and have you ever gotten in a public altercation that you're willing to share? We could do either of those.
Starting point is 01:10:37 They're from our Discord subscribers, subscribe for the Discord. Well, we kind of hit your first one. Yeah, my favorite thing about touring in the States, the shows were great. And also, I have been, I am playing chicken with gal every single day. Oh yeah. I'm in America.
Starting point is 01:10:53 Yeah. From the start. I had a brief respite in Canada, but every day in America, I am playing chicken with gal. You coming to America is like me going to Wisconsin. Yeah. In terms of food This whole country is one big fucking cheese curd deep-fried bonanza for you And for me I see gradations because I live here that you can't see but for you LA Milwaukee one big
Starting point is 01:11:18 Fondue the thing that I'd never been to the south at all and the southern states in America I'd never been to the South at all, and the Southern states in America share the South of India's deep love of okra. And so I have been in absolute okra heaven. Oh my God, deep fried okra is crazy. I went to a fried chicken place in Atlanta and had a side of deep fried. I went to one place in, God, I went to a place in Portland and I had, it was like a kind of southern invitation place. So maybe that's why I got the judgment. When I was actually in the South and I ate a portion of okra, it was not remarked upon,
Starting point is 01:11:54 but in Portland when I ate some invitation okra, the waiter actually said to me, you know, normally that's a portion for three people. Take off your judge's robe. But yeah, so my side issues, my favorite thing about touring is understanding that the Southern states share the love of awkward that the Indian community shares. And it's like my treat food from when I was a kid. So I had that. That was the real highlight. That's nice. That's awesome. All right. Love it. You want to take us away? Thank you for letting us on the Love It or Leave It feed. That concludes our special crossover episode of Love It
Starting point is 01:12:27 or Leave It on our subscription only show, Terminally Online. There's another Terminally Online out today just for subscribers, so much content. Subscribe to Friends of the Pod now to get ad-free Love It or Leave It, ad-free Pond Save America exclusive shows like Terminally Online and Dan Fyfe for Show Polar Coaster and so much more.
Starting point is 01:12:43 It's the best way to support what we do here at Cricket Media as we try to build a progressive counterweight to right-wing media. Boy, do we need one of those. Holy shit. The fulcrum on the counterweight's fucked right now. It is kind of just you guys. I don't mean to say it like that,
Starting point is 01:13:02 but I read the news and I'm like, uh-oh. This guy? Don't tell Midas that. And remember for the month the news and I'm like, uh-oh. This guy? Don't tell Midas that. And remember for the month of April, you can get a 30-day free trial. Just go to Cricut.com slash friends or sign up through the Apple Podcast feed to get started. Thank you, Nish. Thank you, Hallie. Thank you for having me.
Starting point is 01:13:17 Thank you, Elijah. Thanks, everyone. See you sluts next week. RIP Val Kilmer. RIP Val Kilmer. RIP Val Kilmer. Yeah. Pouring out for a real one. Love It or Leave It is a Cricket Media Production. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, and Lee Eisenberg. Kendra James is our executive producer, Bill McGrath is our producer, and Kennedy Hill is our associate
Starting point is 01:13:48 producer. Hallie Kiefer is our head writer, Sarah Lazarus, Josson Kaufman, Peter Miller, Elaine Pierre, Will Miles, and Mahana Del Shiki are our writers. Evan Sutton is our editor, Kyle Seglin, and Charlotte Landis provide audio support, Stephen Colon is our audio engineer, and Milo Kim is our videographer. Our theme song is written and performed by Shure Shure. Thanks to our designer, Sammy Kaderno-Reeves, for creating and running all of our visuals, which you can't see because this is a podcast. And to our digital producers, David Toulos, Claudia Shang, Mia Kelman, and Matt DeGroote for filming and editing videos each week so you can. And our Productions app is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild
Starting point is 01:14:18 of America East. It's love it or leave it. Love it or leave it. It's love it or leave it.

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