Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Dan Schneider Exposed Dark Truth Behind Nickelodeons Hit Tv Shows

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

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productions that do involve him, which includes all that, which includes the Amanda show, which includes Sam and Cat, which includes I Carly. If you're looking at Nickelodeon as a network for however many years it is dominant, you know, especially in the 90s where it is dominant in children's TV. You know, you've always had, just honestly in show business or entertainment or honestly any specific location, you've always had the idea of child protections on set or the work environment, always being lax, right? Right.

So, you know, this was a bigger topic. There was a huge, like, kerfuffle about this, not specifically in with Nickelodeon, but specifically about conditions for child actors. It's always been, like, every decade, there's always been, like, a couple years, but it's like, oh, my God, child actors have to go through so much. Nickeloneon was, like, kids TV at peak, right?

So it's essentially a network where, kids are making TV for kids, right? Disney Channel, you always have this slightly overarching kind of feeling of like, well, the executives are kind of in charge. Always felt that the kids were running the Mad House in Nickelodeon. At least that was how it was kind of presented, like they really got it. So, you know, during the 90s, you have shows like all that. Keen & Cal, I don't know that specifically Keenichel was the same producer,

but all that Amanda show, Drake and Josh, I Carly, also bleeding in the early 2000s, that are very indicative of children's TV and which influences children's TV for decades later, and there was a producer on there named Dan Schneider, right? Dan Schneider used to be a writer on head of the class. You know, it was a significant writer there. And the success of that,

being on head of the class and being an actor on there, and the success of that led him to being hired, as a writer and eventually executive producer and producer on shows for Nickelodeon. I think the chief thing is specifically when thinking about this documentary is like it's not that the environment wasn't built to be conducive for kids or for workers. It's that every protection that was there that was specifically supposed to be put in there was bypassed or ignored, right? And I think you see that across, you know, like,

we always like to say, like, especially after the documentary, like, oh my God, like, Hollywood is this cesspool of, like, villainy and scum, which, you know, fine, but, like, that's everywhere. And you can see it in throughout history with, like, you know, whether it's meatpacking industries or any place, even recently when kids were found to be working, in me packing industries a few months ago, that child labor laws are not, like, especially included.

And that can horribly traumatize children, especially when they're being put on camera to an audience of tens of thousands of people during their early formative years. And they're abused in a work environment. And their careers are kind of fucked with over a large period of time. So Dan Schneider is the executive producer on all that. He does really, really well, right? All that is like Saturday Night Live four kids. he builds an apparatus on that show and a cadence on that show that is very, very kid-friendly.

And he has stars like Keenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, but Lori Beth, Denver. There's a lot of really well-known people that come out of all that. However, on all that, there are significant, there are multiple jokes over time that start to be seeing this, like, Oh, this is actually kind of an adult joke put in a kid's context, right? So, like, for example, one of the things the documentary talks about is this skit called nose boy, where this kid has these two giant noses on his shoulders. And the noses kind of look like dicks. Like, it's supposed to be a nose.

You can see a nose, but they kind of look like dicks. Right. And you have the kid pretty much in front of, like, in this executive, you know, like, for this, for the skit. and he goes like like ah choo and then a bunch of snot flies on this woman's face in the in the in the in the room supposed to be look like a cum shot joke right um now listen if it's not meant to be a cum shot show like that there's other jokes that are a little bit more explicit than that but like that's pretty much towing the line but like even if it isn't on a network like that that needs to be checked like usually that wouldn't the fact that it went through so easily is kind of absurd. And that's not the only thing. There's a lot of other allegations. Like, for example,

there are a lot of, Schneider was also said to play favorites on set. Like, he would be like, oh, you're a great cast member. We're going to put you into this and do that and make things happen. And then when you found another cast member,

he liked, he would, he would, like, forget this one and their career would be fucked. And they would, in the case of Amanda Binds, there's a female cast member on all that who was doing really, really well.

and she had this show that was kind of being made around her, and then Schneider found Amanda Binds, and now that's the Amanda show, and that's how you got that. There was also allegations on set, especially in all that, of treatment towards black actors. Black and brown actors were said to approach Schneider

with frustrations about being on set and the way that was being handled. And, you know, every time that was approached to Schneider, he would, they would know what you're seeing as like making, making trouble being problematic. One specific one specific actor,

his mom was very, very uncomfortable with some of the ways he was being used in sketches. Like, for example, the first time he appears on screen, he's kind of like, it's a joke like he's like selling Girl Scout cookies, but it looks like he's like a

crack dealer selling that. It's not appropriate for children's television. So, you know, she expressed frustration with that. for like two seasons and she was and he was not brought back for the third season largely because of his mother now like all of these allegations just kind of keep piling up over Schneider over the years right and Snyder keeps silencing them over those years and it's not just with children specifically like the entire work

environment is fucked the writer's room for the Amanda show has two female riders and they're told to shows to share a salary you know for this one writer's spot. Now, like, when I heard that in the documentary, I'm like, that's kind of insane. Why would you make, what, two women have to share the same salary? I checked in with the director's Hill of America. That is actually quite normal.

When writers are hired and they're starting out, they hire it as a writer's team, you know? So that is technically normal, but they were the only two female writers who were hired on, like that's what the documentary claims in that team format. also they were consistently put into a pretty like fucked up environment where one of the biggest examples is

one of the main writers she she ended up becoming somebody who like executive producer on modern family and a writer on modern family but she is she was telling Dan a story and Dan midway through the story is like hey can you just

a story about her in high school and Dan tells her like hey can you lean over the chair like you're being sodomized and continue to tell me that story, which is a weird, yeah, a weird fucking thing to do in the middle of a writer's room meeting.

Right. You know, I mean, like, he's an odd guy. Didn't he also say something, wasn't there something where they, suddenly they wanted to have kids

sending pictures of their feet or something like that? Like, wasn't that one of the skits? I don't know. I don't necessarily know about that. That wasn't included in the documentary. I think the other thing you have to also recognize

about the doc is, like the story about Dan Schneider's been building up for a while, right? And you have you have egregious stuff in there already. And so the issue that comes to pass is because you live in the age of the internet where all of these things can get wrapped up and attributed to this when it's already bad as it is, right? And when misinformation gets wrapped up in there, it's hard to discern what's real and what's fake. I don't know about the feat thing for kids. I do know that there were skits on, like,

there was a show he had called Sam and Cat with Ariana Grande. And there's, like, these online episodes that he would put up of, like, just extra things. And, you know, there's one thing where Ariana Grande is like, have you ever had to try to get a juice from a potato, right? Which is an absurd joke that you would see on a Nickelodeon kind of thing. Like, here's something that doesn't really make sense, but it's absurd. But the image you get with Ariana Grande squeezing a potato, which she is clearly underage,

looks super fucking suggestive and weird. Right. And again, like the nefariousness of this is that all of it can be explained away by this is just absurdist kid humor, right? Which some of it is. But a lot of it, when it's put on a network's eye, especially in the early 2000s in the late 90s, like a network should have called something on that.

Well, I mean, is it being brought to his attention that, hey, that seemed inappropriate or is he just got such clout that nobody even suggests bring it to his attention or that he just, he just, he just, he just. We're jumping ahead here a little bit. Oh, sorry. Schneider. No, no, it's all good. It's all good. Schneider does respond to that. And he does say like, hey, nobody brought this to my attention.

There was a bunch of people on set. Why wasn't it brought to my attention? in his apology. That's not true. The documentary multiple times makes clear that parents, that other people in charge did bring it to Schneider's attention.

And every time it was brought to his attention, Snyder was not great to work with at the time. He was incredibly aggressive. He was incredibly like my way or the highway. Fuck off if you don't like it. Right. You know, like for example, in the writer's room, there was examples of like Schneider would

you know like send emails or text messages over AIM which I guess was a workplace thing at the time and and send shit like like hey yell out like this random phrase in the office you know just to prank people and sometimes it was like things like

why he'll say I'll give you $40 if he told one writer I'll give you like $300 if you eat this whole thing of ice cream right and she's like oh i'll do that like i'll eat this like two pint of ice cream in like 30 minutes and then later on he he did again he asked again for like another prank similar to that he's like i'll give you a hundred dollars if you do this and she's like oh can i add that to my tab and he took her aside and he gave her this whole dressing down i'm like don't you ever talk like that to me don't say that i'm not good at my bets don't so he's like a little bit of a sensitive

like assholeish producer type right right you know and um like again yeah like that's what I'm trying to say is like this was brought up to him multiple times and the chain of command that should be in place to make sure these kids are okay to make sure this environment is safe to work in to make sure that nobody is getting abused was not enforced in a way that was conducive to everybody being okay now this is also not every single nicolodian show this is also not every single dan schneider's show but this is multiple productions that do involve him which includes all that which includes the amanda show which includes sam and cat which includes i carly right that being said drake and josh both drake and josh had decent experiences with dan

schneider drake which i'll get into in a little bit uh is one of the biggest subjects for the documentary because of the abuse that he and go this is going up on youtube right i'm like like i have to talk very carefully about it just so you guys don't get demonitized and everything yeah yeah this is youtube yeah so so like even even me you haven't talked so there is there is allegations that Drake Bell suffered as well under another actor on set called Brian Peck, right? Drake was obviously the star of Drake and Josh. He was also on The Amanda Show, right? Drake is this kid who is found and he makes his debut in The Amanda Show as well as Josh Peck, right?

And so at the time, you know, on all that and on the Amanda show a little bit, there's a guy named Brian Peck, right? who's a dialogue coach. He's been in the industry for quite a while. You can find videos with him with, you know, Caprio, kind of helping him with stuff and them all being chummy chummy. He's a golden pains, I think. Super well-known, like, talent in the industry. Right.

And so he plays pickle guy on Alvath, which is a guy who just eats a bunch of pickles and shit. So pretty much Brian Peck is really, really friendly with Drake. And Drake's dad is kind of his manager at the time. He's like, hey, you know, why don't you guys come over? I will, which is always the best first time. Like, like, what is it? Why don't you guys come over?

I will chat with, like, we'll work on acting and everything like that, which is a little bit of an innocuous thing. Like, hey, actor, help an actor. I'll do some dialogue with Drake and make him look a better actor. So, uh, Drake's dad takes Drake over, right? They have a pretty good first session. All is well. Drake, uh, Drake ends up, uh, what is it?

They go bath, they have a few sessions. And then over time, Drake's dad starts to notice that, man, Brian is, like, really, like, getting close to Drake. Like, hanging around, like, a little to, it's weird. Right. It's a little bit weird. And so, he notes it to some of the other parents. The parents are, like, he's normal. And, like, it should be noted that, like, Peck is, like, a big thing to remember through the story is that Peck, like, again, when we're talking about, like, the old.

the Hollywood like secrecy like adrenaline chroma like that's no like this is somebody who the thing that makes nefarious people very nefarious is that they are charming they are really really like chill with everybody else and the people they abuse

like are hidden well so like when crazy stuff like this happens you have to understand that they are intelligent con men who are doing this so he had a large amount of the cast food he was very friendly with everybody he was very friendly with everybody He was very friendly with the industry executives.

A lot of them are seen as like, oh, he's a normal gay guy. He's just having some stuff, right? So essentially, Peck starts hanging around Drake a little bit more. Drake's dad is like, dude, like, it's a lot. And he tells parents and parents are like, well, Brian's normal, right? Well, Brian's fine. And so I'll also note a story later. that happened during this time.

But essentially, as that goes on, Peck then notices it and then starts to try to separate Drake from his dad. So during dialogue sessions, and Drake's dad stays away from set because he's like, okay, I'm deemed to be like a problem or whatever like that. I'm messing up the

vibe of the set. Peck goes up to Drake and starts putting in his year like, hey, your dad's trying to steal your money, you're not doing this, he's preventing you from opportunities, there are all these issues happening and all of a sudden through that kind of like worm in your ear, Drake's relationship with his dad stuff to erode little by little by little by little, right? Drake's dad and his mom were divorced at the time and at one point, Drake is staying over with his mom

and his mom calls his dad and is like, hey, Drake doesn't want you to be his manager anymore. Drake's dad is upset, but it's like, you know, if that's what he wants, that's what he wants, right? And Peck essentially takes over that role, right? Because Drake's mom is in Orange County, and Drake's mom doesn't want to drive him up to Nickelodeon to do all this stuff. But while Drake's career is exploding, him and Josh, Josh have a really good, like, kind of rapport with each other. And they're set up to possibly do a spinoff because Dan really likes them on that. And so Brian Peck is like, hey, you know what? if your mom's not going to drive you, I'll drive you up to LA. You can come, you can stay over here,

we can work on dialogue together, and then you know, you can go do your networking, whatever else you have to do, right? At this point, Drake's dad is not in the picture for that managerial portion of it. Well, when Drake starts to stay over at Brian Peck's house, within the first night, some stuff happens, and Drake is like, what the, what the, he wakes up and some stuff is happening. He's like, what the fuck is going on? He said, oh my God, I'm sorry. And then it happens over and over and over again for months on end for a long fucking time with this kid being abused. Right. And the most like if you read the court transcripts, the documentary doesn't have him say it out loud because it's pretty horrific.

There's some horrific shit that happens. Like horrific, which I can't describe it. He doesn't tell anybody or the guy. going to tell somebody you're a 14 year old kid you have no way to drive keep in mind it's also the early 2000s in the early 2000s if anybody says they are abused the contrition is you want attention right like like harvey wine scenes of users didn't just start in 2016 there was a long period of time where people let said stuff right like and you know uh it it it's not right like he had he didn't say anything because again he's 14 he doesn't want all keep in mind also brian peck is a beloved

person amongst everyone right he's his manager too so he's what he might hurt his career he doesn't want to say anything is he you you exactly get it he's his manager he he's locked into so many significant um compromises if he fucks up this relationship also how's it gonna get to la's mom doesn't want to drive him this is like it's it's a textbook case of a minor in a situation, a hugger minor in a situation they do not want to be in with someone in a position of somewhat power who exerts way more influence than they should and ends up hurting and damaging this person in a way that is insane and unwarranted. And so it's a perfect storm of that.

And this guy built it. You have to understand, like, Peck built that whole situation up by separate. trading Drake from his dad by doing all of this stuff, right? And, you know, there are, like, over time, it just got worse and worse and worse. And finally, Drake is over at his ex-girlfriend's house. Well, like his girlfriend at the Times house. And Peck keeps calling the phone of his girlfriend's mom. and like Drake is like I don't want to talk to her

talk to him and he's like he just keeps calling like hey we were supposed to go to Disneyland or blah blah and essentially Drake's like Drake's girlfriend's mom at the time is like hey can I talk to you and he's like why is this man calling you so much and Drake is like oh you know he's just mad about something and he's like no somebody doesn't call a 14 year old boy

this much incessantly and his girlfriend friend's house. So Drake tells her, Drake tells his mom, I think they set up something and Peck is, like he confronts Peck over the phone on a recorded line. It is immediate how much it comes to light, right? Like Peck just confesses pretty much on there. And then that starts the dominoes of like, oh, this kid was abused. And again, the lawsuit that stems from that, this documentary is the first documentary that made it apparent that Drake Bell

was the one who suffered under all of that stuff. It was essentially a kid who was unnamed who was suffering over all of that. And the other side of it is like, oh, like during the documentary, which is, we'll get back to Schneider, is like, well, they asked, like, who was the most helpful during this time?

And Schneider was actually quite helpful to Bell during this time. Right. He was there. He was supportive of him. He was, he was there for him. He was he was there for him. He did everything he could to try to help him out. Now, that doesn't excuse all of Schneider's other problems. Right. But that's kind of what I'm trying to say is that. Well, he's, he's helpful with another abuser. He's not helpful with himself. I mean, he's, you know, he gets to act like the, the hero, you know, like I can't believe he would do that. I can't believe that's the, you know, which paints him in a very good light. But I don't want to, that's true. But I do think that there is there's, there's. And the documentary. I think one thing that is successful about the documentary is it does paint nuance here. And in the sense that, like, you can have a person who does feel insane sympathy towards Drake Bell and feels absolutely like this is horrific. Well, at the same time, ignoring his own abuses because they're not to this extent, right? If I can give you an example, that's not necessarily for the documentary. Like, for example, my father's an alcoholic.

And growing up, I was like, oh, my God, you see these images of an alcoholic on TV. they're beating their wives and they're horrible and da-da-da-da-da. And every time when I would bring up like, this is an abusive situation, it would be like, well, it's not like that. They're not throwing broken beer bottles at me. They're just driving in the car with a bottle of wine under their front seat. That's not insane, but it is insane. And you have to understand that, like, the biggest criticism this documentary makes is about power structures.

And the fact that Schneider is in a position of power, he starts, he does head of the class, he builds up all that. There are plenty of people who have experiences with Snyder at Nickelodeon that are incredible. He made their career. He was super helpful for them. But there are equally as many people, if not more, who had horrendous experiences with him, who were abused. And it's important to remember that because it means that anybody is a target of this. you everybody can be a target of bad behavior and if you are not aware of it if you have like a friend who's just like oh he's cool with me and somebody else says like dude like he beat me up in a parking

lot because i said not like just weird shit you need to at least entertain the idea that that could be possible to hold them accountable for it now it doesn't mean a hundred percent it happened but it does mean that you have to entertain the idea and the thing is multiple people gave the opportunity for them, the entertainment of the idea that, hey, maybe Dan is not altogether there when it comes to being a good boss and somebody conducive of a work environment that is appropriate for children and for other people working in this environment. And even when that was brought up, it was silenced. It was shuffled another right or there being a problem. Part of that is Nickelodeon. Part of that is also the environment in the early 2000s and the way

we treated allegations of workplace misconduct. There was a huge issue with that for a long time, which came to light in the Me Too movement. But this is something that does happen. So Schneider is, I think Schneider is being honest because Drake Bell still holds that, even in interviews that he did after the documentary drop, that, hey, Schneider was very, very helpful to him. But he can't speak to other things that happen with other people. That is probably true. And I think that's important.

Also, a big part of it, is that when Drake Bell does go to the lawsuit with Peckver and then the accuser there, he's the accuser. With Peck there, there are like 40 to 50 actors on Peck's side who have written letters to the judge attesting for Peck's character, which obviously is fucking devastating to an abuse victim who's like, hey, I'm saying I'm being abused and there are all these famous actors in the industry including will fridayell including uh you know alan thick right including uh you know i think was mad morrence but like a bunch of actors who are super well known you know um supporting peck and i think james marsden um and you know like the the biggest conversation that's going on right now around that is that like well were the actors aware of how

horrific what was going on to Bell was. Were they in denial of it? Were they just trying to protect Peck for many problems? There is, there is discrepancy on a few of those. A few of those, those actors are catching a lot of backlash, specifically James Morrison is catching a lot of backlash. Wilfredel, who was the voice of Terry McGinnis in Bad and Beyond, and also the brother on Boy Meets World,

has said that he too was in a way abused or, manipulated by Peck. Peck kind of said to a lot of people like, oh, there was just a guy who I was really into when he's underage. And again, in the early 2000s, there was a lot of those kind of like weird media things going on. There were like a lot of movies made about like, oh, well, you're like seven. Like, so he portrayed it in this like innocent situation when it was a horrific abusive situation. Either way it's not okay. Right. Because either way it's a grooming situation. But, you know, there's a, you know, there's a. There's a lot of discrepancy going on, like, specifically in the internet and chatter about that, although a lot of people are disgusted. But yeah, I mean, a lot of this is the power structure that is in there was not conducive to helping kids. Also, in the aftermath of this, like, FYI, just to keep on the Neer-Snyder thing, and to go back to it. On Schneider sets, there were two other instances of kids being abused. and getting into that position right you know which to be fair schneider did not immediately know about schneider didn't know like nobody like it was found out through the police and everything like that but the environment was created so that there wasn't enough checks and balances for those kids to be protected from this kind of behavior right and um you know as time went on schneider became more and more controlling more and more abusive more and more people started to step out

have to be like, hey, Schneider, you're being kind of an asshole, right? The salmon cat thing was later on in his, in his Nickelodeon career. Eventually, Nickelodeon fires Schneider after, I think somebody fired a complains of during the Me Too movement. They fire Snyder after an investigation. Schneider makes it out like, oh, well, I'm going off to do other big things. No, you wouldn't be dismissed as the golden boy, right? And then for years after, people start to reexamine some of the skits and some of the things there and realize that there are more and more issues that have come out over time of his abuse of behavior.

Now, there's an apology he released online, which I'm sorry, I'm giving you like a giant bonnologue essentially. No, it's great. It's trust me. I'm more than happy to sit here and just go, right. Uh-huh. Yeah. This is the easiest. This is why I love this job.

It's the easiest job in the world. I just have to sit here and listen to the store. You know what I'm saying? Just. What? Yeah. That's crazy. And you know, it's funny.

I mean, there were times I wanted to break in, but you are on a role. Like I was thinking about the, um, Ashton Coucher and, uh, his wife, um, going to, um, is it Danny Masterson's sentencing where they wrote a letter for him, you know, such a good person. He's such a good, you know, and people, you know, so it's like you're, you're a victim of this guy and you've got these big time actors saying, no, he's a good person. He's, you remember that? And they hit, they, I absolutely remember that. And I, it's something I covered to him on my show. And I think like, dude, it's such a weird thing because like 100% like, it's not a good. There are so many places in society where we just fail people, right? And absolutely,

you have, you have, you ever right to be like, man, why the fuck are you protecting Danny Masters and right but i think the way you heal that situation again maybe that's just like my male brain thinking of like oh well you can empathize but how do you fix this so it doesn't happen again right um like and i say that because you know people you're supposed to empathize first right uh i'm being an idiot about it so but i'm trying to say like the way you fix the situation is you have to understand that this is a deeper systemic problem that people are caught up and these are all pawns in a systemic problem the predator in the situation danny masters should never been put under the positions he was put into, right?

Okay. But predators are common. They are very good at weaving themselves into situations where people feel uncomfortable and scared and you don't know, right? That doesn't mean you shouldn't be, you should be terrified all the time, but you should be aware that, you know, if somebody brings to you a concern, you should at least look into the concern even a little bit, even if it seems absurd. just look into it right and if you do the due diligence and you find something there hey that's

fucked up i will say also in the kutcher and kuna situation i think it's a little bit different from peck um because the difference is kutjer and kuna's new uh pack a new new master sin was uh what had done horrific things right possibly right and was found guilty of them they were trying to get a a more lenient like thing about custody with his daughter specifically, right? Because he had a daughter at the time and they didn't want to fracture that relationship,

which I think is a little bit different from like trying to, like if I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. But that's what I remember about that, about that story specifically, right? Um, which I think is a little bit different from these people trying to say that, oh, actually let pack off for what he did to, Oh, okay.

They're trying to mitigate his situation. Yeah, both of them are done trying to mitigate a sentence. I think when somebody writes, I think whenever somebody is found guilty of a crime, right? Like, if it's, especially when you're in the public eye that much, right? Like, let's say we're being cynical and saying that celebrities are all vain assholes

who like always want to protect their own brand, right? from any specific PR standpoint, you're going to protect your brand, you're not going to write a letter, right? You'd be specific and selfish and assholeish. If you view celebrities as flawed people who are put in a crazy position who can be vain and assholeish

but are just genuinely just normal people who are also scared as fuck like all of us, right? It makes more sense somebody trying to write a letter to, because this is all I know of this relationship, I want to try to help them. Still not great because this person abused all of these people, right?

But then you start to get to the heart of why this kind of abuse perpetuates so much is because we only see the people we know as the people we know, not the other kinds of people they can be, right? And I think that, you know, even people like, like, you're past, we're not all perfect human beings. We've done things that are bad. And I think a big part about existing in society that we existed in 2024 is understanding that you have to look at your past actions.

more critical lens because we were living in a society that didn't take that shit seriously. And when you make adjustments to that in order to make sure that the people around you and the people that you are working with or who are working for you are protected, you know, then you get to a place where that kind of behavior is called out immediately. Those kind of people aren't hurt. Those kind of letters aren't written. But that doesn't happen until you can assess and diagnose the problem, which is the fact that we are all very biased in our interpretation of what abuse is, and we have to be better at calling it out. And so when you're talking about somebody like Schneider or Peck or the two people that were found out, right,

there are multiple, like I said, multiple checks. For example, Peck invited a bunch of kids and their parents over to his house for dinner one time because, like, they were cast. And one of the cast members remember, remembers B. being in Peck's house and going to this one weird room where you had this picture of a clown and they looked on the back and it was like a self-portrait of John Wayne Gacy, which John Wayne Gacy had sent to Peck as a personal pen pal or friend. And that's fucking weird, man. Like, you know, like, an odd pen pal to have. Very odd pen pal to have. Especially since there was like, was there 25 or 26 box?

found under John Wayne Casey's house young boys young boys not just anybody young boys bro there's that and then like but again like I when watching this thing I really want to make it clear like I'm not trying to absolve Hollywood they're absolutely guilty in this regard but like just in terms of pop culture general

do you remember by any chance when like it was years after the Manson family murders right but around like the early 2000s the late 90s there was this weird, like fascination with, like, gothic people with, like, Charles Manson, where they were like, oh, it's kind of cool and kitsy to have, like, to talk about Charles Manson and how crazy he was, like, because he wasn't a drag of society. And, like, that's, like, I think, like, this guy's, like, like, fucking thought process. But that's not normal, man. Like, it's not normal to normalize a person who found 27 days. bodies under his house. Like it's fucking weird. And like people wearing Che Guevara shirts.

Well, I mean, like, I, yeah. I mean, no offense. If you really look into it, you know, he murdered, you know, tons of people. He was a vicious human being. But I mean, there's tons of different, like, I mean, you're good, but I think there's tons of different people

in history or just in general where they're idolized years after, whether positively or negative. right who like there are there are signs where you're like okay this is this is there's a lot more complexity to this right and i think specifically with john win gase's situation and and bry and bry peck um when when when the person uh when when this this cast number comes up and sees the drawing everybody in the room is like okay well like that's kind of wild but this guy's decent so like it's just probably crazy you just probably this is this is a

But this is an ironic thing. That one little thing. Everybody's got one little thing. That's the problem. It's like, you know, not everything is the red flag, but you should be like, that's kind of weird. It's okay to clock that is kind of weird. Yeah. You know, you can still think Peck is like, oh, you're cool, man, but you're kind of weird, right?

Not shake it away, you know, because that little patina of something, right, when you start to notice his behavior around Drake and other people, that metastasizes and you can very easily at least confront him about it. Like, like, I'm just surprised that there was no confrontation in any way, shape, or form with some of these abusers, except for like the parents, like Drake, Drake's dad, which should have been caught, you know? And then also there's a lot of backlash towards Drake's mom, because Drake's mom sent him on those rides, right? To Peck's house. I do think that parents, in that situation. I don't think that his mom is not included in the documentary. She doesn't show her face. I don't think that she's happy with what happened. I think she probably blames herself. I think she feels

horrific about it. You know? My fee, like I, as somebody else with a YouTube show, I always try to look at the nuance of something because that's the best way you diagnose the problem, right? Instead of, like, panicking over it or shoving it away. And, you know, yeah, like, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've said it a few times already. It's power structures. I should also say that Schneider issued an apology. That's what I was talking about before, where he has a cast member from Mike Carly come on

and, like, talk to him for like 20 minutes about all the allegations, the documentary. And it starts out seemingly like, oh, he's going to admit to things and say, sorry. But it's so fucking scripted. And, like, it's just like, hi. I was a cast. member on i carlo dan we're going to talk today dan what you did in the writer's room was not cool and he's like yeah it was horrible da da da yeah i'm so disappointed in you dan oh boy like so aftery scripted it feels scripted right it feels like a puff piece where he has to admit a little bit

and then they push like they push back there's even a point where he goes like now i'm going to push back on this like oh look at me i'm doing my due diligence but it gives very much that um you don't you remember when woody allen where there was this there was this piece about woody allen um it was it was a few years back where it was about suingie and about woody allen's like relationship with her and it was it was published in a in a pretty big paper and um it's supposed to be this like let's look into this and see if it's really as bad as people say it is and then within like two paragraphs like the author gives a way that he's like friends Allen and I'm like well then why the fuck are you the one doing the piece?

You're not you're not going to be critical you know you need somebody critical to do this investor or to confront Schneider because honestly if Schneider was confronted by somebody it's not to give the exact same answers and he was confronted by somebody very critical of him and was like yo like you know but you you've done all of these kind of things right and even if he's stuck with guns I would respect that I'm going to have problems with but I would respect that at least a little bit more than him getting his friend over with a three fucking camera setup because you know he had to get a three camera set up

and had to hire an editor for his fucking apology video. Like, that seems absurd to me. And also, like, there's other allegations where he just completely shifts the blame. When talking about his jokes that were inappropriate, he says, like, oh, well, if they were around now, cut it if somebody's not happy with the jokes,

well, multiple people weren't happy with the jokes. You're not being accused of being noseblind or like, oh, I just didn't know this is happening. You're being accused of not knowing this happening, being told this happening, and the denying that it happened, right? If you were not, and that's why he looks like he knows what's going on.

I believe that Schneider was a little bit with tunnel vision in my, and unknowing of how fucking abusive, he was in a bubble. He was in his own bubble, like I control everything, blah, blah, right? And that is a dangerous place to be in because you can abuse a lot of people. I believe that.

What I don't agree with, and I think is fucked up, is that when told, when somebody is peering into his bubble and being like, hey, man, look at all the shit you're doing. He was like, no, no, no, close it up, close up, close up, close up. I just want to live here. You know, that's the problem. And until he can admit that, that's an issue. And I think that there are so many people with allegations against him that he has to take some accountability. I will say this also in the week since the documentary has dropped. There have been some notes from people who were involved in it who feel a little bit uneasy.

Mark Summers, for example, one of the hosts who was in the first part of one episode, he hosted double dare and stuff like that. He was talking a little bit about Nickelodeon wasn't happy that he was included in this documentary because he didn't know what it was about. but yes, he didn't know what it was about. They just called him in to do an interview, and they ambushed him with a clip of Schneider's kind of weird shit on air. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he was like, what the fuck is going on here, right? He asked to remove from the documentary. He left. They used his footage anyway, and so he's now pretty upset. That broke a couple days ago. But even with that, right? You know, like, there is just a substantial amount of evidence and things that have come out over time that don't look,

well for Schneider in in general right like let's let's if we take the documentary at his word it's he's clearly not okay with the stuff pected and that kind of abuse but he does not create an environment that treats kids in a way where they can grow up he doesn't treat kids he doesn't put kids who he works in a safe environment where they can grow up and feel like fully formed adults or okay, right? You have to go through therapy after Dan Schneider. Dan Schneider, like, some people will have to go through therapy after a Dan Schneider show. And the fact that, like, you know, you're never, like, if you're, if you're a boss

and stuff like that, you're never going to be able to, like, help, like, you do your best to help everybody. That's clearly not as best at making sure safety is the number one priority. If that was the number one priority, I'm sure the shows would still have been dope. There's no reason you've got to have people abused in order to get that entertainment, right? We have plenty of shows that have come out since with people who have had amazing. Like, you listen to anybody from Parks and Rec or any of those, those are sets where everybody fucking is having a blast. There's no issues on those sets, right?

And whatever issues there are are resolved and the cast stays in touch and everybody like that, right? the fact that those can exist and your sets exist and your sets are abusive there's a problem you know and it's not and that's not that it's not the creative material well i was going to say what what was the deal with wasn't there like a the voice coach guy the guy i forget you said his name um Brian pack yeah i mean he he was found guilty of um yeah wasn't he found guilty and didn't he like he left and then didn't he go to like disney or something yeah he got hired he got hired soon after, you know? Again, like, this is one of those, it's one of those things where, like, you have to understand, like, again, like, you know, it's one of those things where you, and I say this because, like, the, the big idea is that, you know, oh, Hollywood will hire, like, any predator for any reason.

Okay, let's say you take that out. Let's say, okay, we're, we're making sure we're being, yeah, absolutely inappropriate. We're doing due diligence on every predator that comes in here and we're taking them out, right? Well, the reason Peck was hired probably because he was a friend to somebody. That's why, right? And so now you're looking at, okay, well, where you're being due diligence on predators, but people who are friends and nepotistic can get it. And that's another way a predator can get it, right?

You have to close the doors on the mechanisms these people used to manipulate other people. You're not looking for only flaws in the system. you're looking in flaws in the system that people perpetrate, right? So, yeah, he was hired on the sweet life of Zach and Cody very soon after, which was absolutely fucked, absolutely fucked. And again, this is at a time when people were not taking allegations seriously. There are still people who pine for that time who were like, why are all of these people coming out of the woodworks and talking about this?

I will say there is, we do have a culture which is very, which is very, much so like living off of like hey let me get the tea on somebody and what horrible thing they've done they're all waiting for something right that is that is terrifying and that is a problem because things can get conflated that being said at least we believe people like drake bell now because in 2000s the reason he didn't come out is because who would have believed him even if he's a major star do you know what those headlines would be those headlines would have been like all Drake Bell accusing somebody. He just wants attention.

He wants to just up his career. And because actors did do that. There were people who came out and who said things happened to them. And they were said to have been trying to juice their career. What is it? Courtney Love, who has our own set of problems, right? Said at one point, like she made a joke about how Harvey Weinstein was not somebody you wanted to fuck with and wanted to be around because he's a fucking terrible person. And he's abused so many people.

you made a joke on a red carpet about it. And people explain it away because they are bad at her about Kirk Cobain and a lot of problems that she's had, rightfully so. But she was correct in that instance because dozens of women came out afterwards. And it was like, Harvey Weinstein is a terrible fucking monster and has destroyed this industry and metastasized a problem that needs to go away that's going to take multiple years. We're still dealing with it. You know?

So, again, not to defend Hollywood. These are structures that need to be. examine and this exists everywhere if hollywood needs to change everywhere needs to change your job my like everywhere we all have to be aware i'm sure you have a staff i have a staff we are but you work with other people right i work alone i i have colby i have colby right right but you have co you guys both work together right and in that relationship there needs to be mutual respect and things and boundaries put into place i have i have i hope has no respect for me. Kobe has no respect for me. So I don't know what you're saying. I think you need to

You clearly have never watched the show. Well, you know what? I'm glad to know about it now. So, but I'm saying like, I'm saying like, like, you know, I have editors, right? Who like, like, when I have editors I work with, I've been in positions where I have to hire people and stuff like that, you know. And every single time, you have to put in boundaries in place to where. even for me like I know I have like flaws I can't I don't want to overstep those boundaries and make those people feel like shit because they won't say anything because they want the fucking job right

so you know Schneider should have done that and Schneider should have been really aware of the people he was putting into contact with one another especially when you're on a Nickelodeon show and you're one of the fucking biggest with great power comes great responsibility fucking Spider-Man

yeah made that even more popular than 2003 you couldn't fucking look up from your bullshit for like 10 seconds and make sure that was that was happening. I love that all your references are from like the early 2000s. And to you that seems like a long way way like this way back in the 2000s. I mean, it's 20 years at this point, bro. Like it's, it's been 20 years. I, my early 2000, first off, I am in my 30s.

So like I like that was when I was like a teenager and stuff like that. So, you know. I was born in 1969. How are you still? Are you an ent? Are you like one of those things from Lord of the Rings? Like who? You've seen all the creation.

And you're like, it was so bad in the 2000s. It takes you out of 2000s. We're about the 80s and 90s, bro. I'm not going to lie. 80s and 90s weren't great. But I think that the reason I say that is because like a lot of people, you know it. Like the rosy memory of an era is always like 10 to 20. years after it today and then people are like but was it what was it like everyone's like i remember

growing up i was like oh man i miss the 90s i miss 90s were like the best 90s like there were no problems there were nothing and then like like five years they're like hey do you remember the la riots like did you forget that that happened you know did you forget coat of obama did you forget the golf like we we tend to forget like major things that happened that were big things that slipped through our lines right Yeah, I was just thinking, um, listen, I remember they didn't have seat belts, bro. I remember driving.

Oh, my God. You could ride in the back of a pickup truck. We, my dad had a Lincoln and the, you know, the back seat. They must have been, whatever, two, two and a half feet on the back where the window went down at an angle and you could lay down back there. So I would lay down back there and my dad would, I would, you know, A little kid, five years old, climb up there and lay across it and fall asleep. And my dad would hit the brakes and I'd fly forward and fall in the backseat. And he would laugh and laugh.

Alcoholic with the cigarette. Oh, my God. Yeah. You'd blow the smoke in my face and make me cough. I mean, things that now people would be like, my God, take that child away from him where to me, it was, eh, that's, you know. My dad When I was 16 Wrecked his car

Came and got my car And said like You know wait for the tow truck Have him take my car I was like yes or yes sir Took my car And wrecked my car He wrecked both our cars

In the same day That sounds like Again I had also an alcoholic dad That sounds par for the course Where they're like listen I'm responsible This is a mistake I'm responsible

watch me fuck up again. Right. You have to be like, oh, that's just two. It's a coincidence, right? And then like, you know, I had a friend in high school. He got this great, he got a Mustang, like an old like 60s Mustang, right? Beautiful car. No seatbelts.

Looked like a fucking like a, like a just just a giant shard of metal on the road, right? So a couple months in Him and a friend of mine don't show up to school They got in a car crash And it fucked them up It was horrible Because there's no seatbelts There's no things

And those old cars Will liquefy you In a car crash There's no crumple zone Yeah so like bro He was in the hospital The girl with him was okay But she lost her like equilibrium

She couldn't like walk straight for a little bit because her ear. It was it was fucking bad. And yeah, man, like, there's no doubt that there's like, that there are insane decisions that and things are much. I mean, like, you're not going to, yeah, seatbelts are definitely one thing. There's also airbags. There's also other collision things that are better now, you know, than they were in like 70. You have a much better chance of surviving an accident now than you did in the 70s. Oh, my God.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember getting a new car and being afraid of, like, you know, every, like, okay, is it safe and everything like that? And they have, they have now have, like, crashed. You can watch the crash. And like, like, pretty much every new car is like, this is fairly safe, you know. But, you know, it's within, like, one or two percent safety of each other versus, you know, like a 1979 or 1960s Mustang, which, you know, you'll, you'll turn into air as soon as you get it. Yeah. But now, man, that's the, that's the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the, and the world that they lived in. And you cover this. Yeah, I mean, I covered, I covered this. I do, I do a show called Freestyle the News where I, like, I wrap the news every week, and then I do a breakdown and everything like that. And then I have another show where I break down certain subjects. And this was something that, like, I remember me and my girlfriend watching the documentary and being like, just this is fucking crazy. And then, like, the next day, Dan Schneider is. a response and it was so absurd to me. I was just like, I gotta fucking talk about how ridiculous this is.

You know, and I don't like to like, I don't like to make videos about that, because I don't like to monetize videos that are, that are about that stuff just to make it cheap. I would like to add something to the conversation in a way that makes sense, in a way that's conducive and that helps people.

And the thing that I wanted to add is like, this is a power structure problem. Because I worry about this shit happening. I do worry about this shit happening everywhere. In addition to Dan Schneider's abusive kids, there was also abusive his staff. His staff was very, very upset. They were putting in environments they weren't great at. I've worked in an abusive environment before in a really shitty space where, you know,

the bosses are asleep at the wheel and other people in that environment abuse other people. And that is not okay. Like, I hate that shit. That shit needs to be dead it. like 100%. And a lot of times those people all float, it was like, oh, it's not as bad as here. It's not as bad as here. No, it is as bad as that. It is, you're doing the action that is directly harming your co-workers in a way that makes work here terrible, that makes their lives terrible, and the money is not worth it and the drive's not worth it. So, I just, I felt like that was

important to point out, especially in this situation where it can very easily be shuffled the way into like, oh, Hollywood is crazy. Sure. Hollywood has a lot of problems. and is also very crazy. Also, the place you work at is probably also very crazy. It needs to do better. Everybody needs to be better. Where are you located? I'm in California.

I'm in, uh, yeah, I'm in North Hollywood, which isn't Hollywood. Hollywood is like West Hollywood. Like when you talk about like Hollywood and like the glitz and glamour, that's like Sunset Boulevard, Culver City, like all of that. I live in like Van Nuo area, which is like a lot of food trucks. and a lot of family-owned shops and everything like that. But, yeah, I'm originally from Orange County. So, you know, that Drake Bell stuff hit me hard because I was just like,

oh, man, I don't know people who Orange County would drive up. And I went to school with a kid who was on all that while Schneider was fucking in charge, you know. And, like, I haven't hit him up about it because he's probably going through a lot right now. okay um yeah i was in uh la about two weeks ago oh right yeah where you located Tampa Florida oh man well next time you're in LA hit me up we'll grab lunch or something yeah yeah um all right yeah well this was interesting yeah do you only do the YouTube you have YouTube and

Instagram. I have YouTube. I have Instagram. I have TikTok. You can follow me on

YouTube at Z-A-D-T-A-B-A-N-I and I. Just search freestyle the news. On all platforms it's Z-T-M-S-T-Music. And I also do

music for video games every so often. So if you play Mortal Kombat and you finish the game, you're like, oh, who's that? That's me. I'm the one rapping at the end of there.

All right. Okay. Yeah, I'll mention it at the end. I'll mention it that we'll put the links in the description. Oh, for sure. Okay, gotcha, got it, got it, got it, yeah, yeah. Okay, anything else? What do you think?

No. You did go an hour, by the way. You're 56, 56, 57, 58, 509, 51, 1 hour. Yeah. Well, no, man, I'm appreciative for you having me on. I just hope people, hope I, hope I did all right, and I hope people just take away from this. just to just to examine their their surroundings and everything like that i think we

i think there needs just to be a lot more self-reflection in the world so hopefully this helps people self-reflect and uh hopefully they'll buy cars with seatbelts that won't liquefine and crashes i hope that's also another thing that they take away from this yeah those were yeah good times um listen that car was massive massive you could probably put five bodies in the trunk was an SUV no my

he had like a it was like a Lincoln town car or something you don't they don't these things were they were

huge huge um I remember one time my sister tied my dog our dog we had a weaner dog

to the bumper of the car like she was walking what what childhood did you live what is this and my dad

got in the car backed out and drove down the street dragging the car. Droving the car. About two blocks, but a neighbor jumped in his car and chased him down and stopped him. The dog was all skinned up and fucked.

I mean, listen, it had tiny little legs. It could barely walk that began with. You know what a weir dog looks like. Oh, exactly. It didn't make it 10 feet before it was just dragging. Oh, my God. Is it? It did it live?

It lives. It takes a while to get through the hair. It only went two blocks. He's fine. Poor dog, man. Oh, man. I don't drag a dog on a car? This is weird.

But there was, listen, there was, there was a movie called Vacation with Chevy Chase drags the dog to where it's nothing left but the leash. Oh, God. So it wasn't that bad. But there were some,

there was some good times. I just want, I just want to say, if you're comparing what happened to your dog to what happened in a movie with Chevy Chase where he's drag, like, I don't think that's a great, that's a great place to start.

Oh, good times for my dad. Yeah, man. I remember I left my, you remember big wheels? Yeah. I left my big wheel out in the yard one day and someone stole it. And I came back. I was like, dad, you know, someone stole my big wheel. And he goes, huh, teach you a lesson.

I was like, well, can I get another big wheel? No. He's like, if you can find your old one, maybe you can get it back. I don't know, what do you want me to tell you? My dad had a lot of, my dad had a lot of, um, my dad had a lot of a lot of proclivities like that where he would like

he would do things that were that were he would he would never be like oh that's going to teach you a lesson he would you got to puff out of his chest and be like oh I'm gonna get it back and then you'd never go to back but like uh you know he was a he would always try to do like extra so he would do

he would do wild shit like you know like there was a point where he drove on the wrong side of the road that was fucking crazy and scary right But then there's also times where he would just like, you know, on my, on my birthday one day, you know, just freaking like he's taking me to school. And he said, I forgot something back at home, drives me back home. And it's like, oh, like, hey, we're actually skipping school today. And we're just kind of hanging out and everything like that, which is good.

You know, parents can have vices and be tough, but they can be, they love you. So it's a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. Good time. I could have skipped some of it. But, yeah. First off, first of us, both of us could have skipped some of them.

Yeah. I think we're both on the same page there. You know what circus world is? Like circus, circus, circus? No, like circus world. There was a place called Circus World, which was in Orlando, kind of close to Disney. Remember my dad got drunk one time. Did you grow up in Florida?

Yeah. I, speaking of, not to interrupt, speaking of Nick, I wanted to go to Florida so bad when I was watching Nick as a kid. because like I know the studios were in Orlando and I was like oh my I gotta I gotta go to Orlando never went to Florida never went to Orlando um you know like but like that was like the I I felt like that was like the emerald city from freaking blizzard of Oz or something like that look at me sorry no I was just thinking that's funny because that's very much like that that just that's what I felt like when like said my dad was drunk threw me in the car one day

said, we're going to go to circus world. We drove to circus world, but he was drunk. So, you know, after an hour long drive, he starts to sober up. So we get a motel across some circus world. So I'm sitting at the window. And as I remember talking about, I'm like six years old, seven years old. I can see the, I can see the big fierce wheels and the rides. So you can sit there and stare at it.

I stare at it all night, go to sleep, wake up the next morning, ready to go. He's sobered up now. realizes i just took this kid his mother's going nuts oh he goes throws me in the car and we'll go next week we never win no dude bro as a seven-year-old did your dad drive so did your dad drive slow like did your dad when he was drunk drive slow on the freeway no no he drove you know he was a he'd weave in and out of the oh my my father drove so fucking slow and i never knew why i was like you're just an old man probably right and like he like I remember getting driving instructor and the driving instructor like she had to drive my dad's like no no no that's too that's too close

you have to drive and I had just left like 15 car lights in front of me when I was like like 20 or something like driving and eventually when he had gone where you had and I had to talk with him I was like why do you drive so fucking slow he's like because usually on the road I was drunk so I just didn't want to like hit anybody so I would right so much space and I I'm like, that's, I mean, that's conscientious of you, but also terrible in so many ways. You're a conscientious drunk. You're a conscientious, awful person. Not much of a, not much of a saving grace there.

You know, he used to, like, he used to go to, like, he would try to, when he was really depressed, he would drive to work, not go to work, go to the liquor store. he took like seven or eight shots of those little like cheap drinks and then you'd get on the freeway and drive back like 45 minutes home that's insane to me that's insane to me like i had no idea how bad it was until like later on in life i ended up having to have him to rehab and they were like this is bad like this is really bad i'm like no it's 11 out of 10 my guy it's bad like you need to understand to that. And I was like, oh, okay, all right. You know, and that's what I was like, okay, this is like horrible and I have to re-examine a lot of shit, you know. Did he sober up? No, he died from it. Oh, really?

Last year, yeah. I mean, from alcohol, like, what, what, like a cirrhosis of the liver or something? No, you mean, like, he had a fatty liver. He died of a heart attack, but like everything in his system kind of said it was like the alcohol that led to him, you know, because. Well, alcohol, overall, it's just bad. It's fucking horrible. And like, and the thing is that like, here's the thing that was scary about that specific addiction.

When you have other addictions that people can get drugs in their way, but like when you have, if my dad had a cocaine addiction, right, there's still that barrier of like, this is illegal. You have to find this person. You have to go to it. Alcohol is available everywhere. And there are advertisements for it and there's everything. And the please didn't drink responsibly doesn't hit an alcoholic's ear the same way. Yeah.

And because all of the examples on television, my dad, was grew up born in 1949 his example of when an alcoholic is the guy who like hiccups all the time and all that kind of shit which eventually he did start having hiccups where he couldn't breathe

for half a second and shit but like before that he'd be like that's what a drunk looks like but a drunk is is just somebody who his eye droops a little lower you know there are there are other signs that you can see that a drunk has

and so it was very hard for him to reconcile that he was he was like this and this was painful eventually like i had to cut off contact with him for a long time and you know he the last time i talked to him before i cut off contact was he had threatened me right and he moved to Vegas with a cousin of mine who i'm not a fucking fan of he was asshole enabled a lot of shit um but like he just was blitzed out of his mind. He got three DUI's in a month, which is a fucking felony, right? Yeah, you have two of them

rising end up in prison for that. Very close to ending up in prison. He had to go to the judge, ask for forgiveness. He's a 16-year-old man. And so, you know, he ended up being okay, but like, you know,

he would go through periods or he'd have to go. There was, when he died, we found out the story where he had gone to a rehab, right? And they had a break in the rehab. On the break,

he went, went to go buy drinks and came back to the rehab drunk to the point they were like, he can't come back here. Like that's insane to me. And so eventually, you know, like he had, yeah, like he would just like when we were just, it was bad. And like, yeah, he drank himself to death, unfortunately. You know, and that's the thing also like, you know, you're talking about your dad.

Like, you know, like driving to circus world and made slamming a bat and start. I think what makes specifically, you know, especially why I approached into nuances, because my dad was like two different people. He was abusive and he did some shit that was really fucked up. But he was also very kind at times and very, very outgoing to be like, hey, he taught me a lot of good things. He also taught me a lot of bad things. If they were like even being critical of it, like, it's hard to reconcile, you know, hey, the reason I can talk to you and do music and all that kind of stuff is because of my dad.

And the reason I have all this fucked up shit that prevented me from doing it a little bit is also because of my dad. And having to deal with that is the biggest issue I think of having like an alcoholic father like that. Because it was all bad, fucking easy to be like, yo, fuck this person. I know my direction in life. The fact that it was sometimes genuinely very, very, very kind and very, very helpful and genuinely very, very scary and very detrimental to my life experience and dangerous, that makes it very, very tough to reconcile. what in your life is a positive lesson, and one in your life is a negative lesson. And it takes a lot of time to unpack all of that.

Yeah, I was going to say that my father, when he was sober, was an amazing individual. Yeah. You know, but when he was a drunk, and he was a binge drinker. He would go on a two-week bender. You know what I'm saying? He would already be a month.

Then he sober up for three months. Sometimes it'd be two years. You know, he'd go to rehab. They'd take him out. And what's so funny is he worked for state farm insurance. And he was such a good insurance manager. And he made so much money that they would put him through the rehabs. And they'd put him through a 30 day one, then a 60 day one, a 90 day one.

I mean, they're expensive. Those rehabs are expensive. Some rehabs are pretty. He lives there. They live there. You know what I'm saying? Like he didn't go to a shitty one. It's state farm insurance.

It's a nice place. Yeah. Yeah, they're super expensive. Bro, I think what's interesting to me, too, is like, that's a hard lesson to learn, especially as a kid when you grow up. But that is that you can't, you're not in charge of your parent. So learning that is like the most difficult thing because you got to tell yourself like, also like you don't have a father, like a traditional father figure, right?

Most of you're growing up, you're saying you're born out of 59 or where? 69, yeah, 69. In 1969, you've grown up through media seeing traditional father figures on television, you know, all these kind of things. Even me, I saw traditional father figures on television and you don't have that in your life. You have this weird amalgamation of two different people who are not necessarily fitting that mold. And especially with rehab, like, it's one of those things where they'll take money from a patient and not doing it. because a lot of it is up to the patient to, like, actually make the change. Like, you can't force somebody to not drink, you know?

And also, like, in my case, I had, you know, my father's family, you know, old Pakistani family. Some of his sisters were very, like, you know, one of his sisters was a big enabler who was just like, oh, it's just not a big, like, they don't want to embarrass me. We would tell his family, like, yeah, he has a problem. And then they'd be like, oh, we'll take it seriously. And then a month later, they're like, oh, Salim's family is being a problem, you know, because they don't want to have any embarrassment come to their family, you know? And like, you know, we're on decent terms, like, whatever turns now with those guys. But like, it's one of those things where every, if you're an alcoholic, everything in the world is geared against you to just getting better. Like, it's actively trying to push you towards some, some problems and everything like that. And I mean, like, I will say I have a, I have a, I have a. I have a. pretty decent like I'm very wary of the relationships I form with any not only like substances but like food with like you know activities and everything like that because I'm like oh man if I if I go overboard I don't want to be you know that's a little bit of a problem too because I got to be like

more like relax a little bit sometimes um but uh yeah man it's not a it is not an easy thing to go through rehab and it's not a system that's set up very well to actually get people to help they need, especially when every other billboard they drive is like a Dosecchi's billboard. If there's a liquor store at the corner or something else can happen and, you know, the like bartenders will cut you off, but people who are in liquor stores will be like, I'll give you an extra, you know? So. Yeah. Good times. All right. It was decent talking. I had a good time. I think so much for having me on. Hey, I appreciate you guys watching. If you like the video, do me a favor hit the subscribe hit the bell so you get notified of videos like this please share the

video and also zed's links are going to be in the description box so please click on those and check out his channel thank you very much for watching see you