Pints With Aquinas - How to Quit the Internet w/ Dave Rubin

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

In this episode, Dave Rubin and I have a chat before we go off the grid for the month of August. As two people whose careers are intertwined with the internet and social media, we’ve found that a month disconnected from the noise of the worldwide web creates a fresh perspective and a clear focus on what’s truly important in life. We also discuss: - How cell phones and the internet have become almost godlike over the last 20 years - Why a month offline creates more authentic, in-person interactions - Why you don’t need a grand plan when you go off the grid; it could be catching up with friends or reading the books piled on your nightstand - And many more reasons why a month off the grid benefits the mind and soul!   Sign up for my free course on St. Augustine's "Confessions"!   SPONSORS Hallow: http://hallow.app/mattfradd STRIVE: https://www.strive21.com/   GIVING Patreon or Directly: https://pintswithaquinas.com/support/  This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer co-producer of the show.   LINKS Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/matt-fradd FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/   SOCIAL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattfradd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd Gab: https://gab.com/mattfradd Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/pintswithaquinas   MY BOOKS Get my NEW book "How To Be Happy: Saint Thomas' Secret To A Good Life," out now! Does God Exist: https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist-Socratic-Dialogue-ebook/dp/B081ZGYJW3/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586377974&sr=8-9 Marian Consecration With Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Marian-Consecration-Aquinas-Growing-Closer-ebook/dp/B083XRQMTF/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586379026&sr=8-4 The Porn Myth: https://www.ignatius.com/The-Porn-Myth-P1985.aspx   CONTACT Book me to speak: https://www.mattfradd.com/speakerrequestform

G'day, g'day, and welcome to Pints with Aquinas. My name is Matt Fradd, and today I have on the show Dave Rubin from The Rubin Report. You can check him out at daverubin.com or just YouTube The Rubin Report. Today, however, we will not be speaking about politics or any of that sort of thing. We're going to be talking about taking the month of August off of the internet. This is something I started doing three years ago, and I find it hard to believe that I didn't know at the time that Dave also did this, but either way, Dave does the same thing. And so today we're going to be talking about this month coming up and what we're looking forward to, what we're afraid of. And it'll also, I think, be a help to you as you seek to regulate your life in terms of the internet. I think it's the

cause of much anxiety in our lives, and we're beginning to realize this more and more. So even if you're not fortunate enough to give up an entire month, maybe there's something that you can be doing. Dave, g'day, g'day. Matt, it's good to be with you. You know, I forgot that we started doing this totally independently of each other because this will be my fifth year going off the grid for August. So I'm one year ahead of you. But for some reason, I thought it was somehow connected, like you saw that I did it and started doing it. But I love the fact that you on your own having nothing to do with me also decided to do this, you know, in essence, 30 day digital detox, and then also happened to do it during August, which seems to me like the right month to do it. But man, we got what, like five, six days left,

and then disappear. Are you feeling a sort of anxiety? Because I am. days left and then disappear. Are you feeling a sort of anxiety? Cause I am. Um, I don't think I'm feeling anxiety, but I am feeling like this week is just pressure. Every minute that I have this week, starting this morning when I woke up and I was up real early this morning for some reason at like 5 30 AM. And I was just like, bam, I've got stuff to do. Um, yeah, between, between doing some extra shows, because we're going to put some content up in August because we don't want the shows, you know, we don't want the YouTube channel essence to go dark because that can really screw you long term in the algorithm. So I'd prefer not to put anything up, to be honest with you. I would rather everyone

take as much time off as possible, but we obviously have to play a little bit of the YouTube game. So we're pre-taping some stuff. Actually, I just taped an interview with Eckhart Tolle about going off the grid. So we're going to put that up next week. And then I've got a lot going on with local. So I'm just like, I'm in the groove this week. It's not anxiety. I don't even have time for anxiety right now. It's just like work, work, work. And that's why I do it because then I have that month sitting right there. So you said this is your fifth August, you're going to be taking offline. When you decided to do it five years ago, why did you decide to do it? And what was it like first time around? Yeah, well, you know, right before we started the live stream, you told me that my hair was

looking quite good today. And it partly is connected to my hair, actually, because, as you may know, I wrote about it in Don't Burn This Book, when I first started getting a lot of hate online, which I was not expecting to get. You know, I started saying, hey, you know, we lefties, I was a lefty at the time, we have to be more liberal, we have to defend free speech and enlightenment values. And I thought everybody was going to be very open to that message. And I started getting some love from, you know, the right side, let's say conservatives, but I didn't expect to get like an unending torrent of hate from people on the left. And that's what I was getting mostly related to Twitter, but also Instagram to some degree and Facebook and

YouTube comments and everything else. And I didn't realize that I wasn't dealing with my stress well, but I clearly wasn't because one day I was getting my hair cut and my girl, Jess, who's a friend of mine who cuts my hair, she showed me a mirror and she saw these big chunks of hair missing. And I developed something called alopecia areata, which is basically, it's your immune system just working against you. Your white blood cells start attacking your own hair follicles. I went for every blood test and every kind of medical you know, medical check out, check up that you could imagine and there was nothing physically wrong with me so they really can only chalk it up to stress.

And at one point in that, and this is around 2015 or so, it was the end of 2015 into most of 2016, I lost probably about 40% of my hair. I went on a really awful experimental medication that the side effects were actually worse than losing my hair. I was bloated and itchy and I was hot all the time. And even to talk about it, it's kind of depressing. But in essence, to answer your question, that really was the catalyst. Because what I realized was, is look, there's a lot of great things about being online and I love my life and I love doing

what I'm doing and communicating these ideas and talking to people like you and interviewing and all that stuff. But I wasn't managing the stress part, right? And it wasn't just because I was getting hate. It's from staring at this little black mirror all the time. You know, think how many people spend more than 12 hours and one second a day looking at this thing. In essence, we have become the batteries for the Matrix. That's what the original Matrix movie is about, right? Us, the organic creatures that are only the, we're the batteries, we're the flesh and blood and the energy for the digital world. And in many ways, that's what's happened already.

Maybe the ship has long since sailed on that one. So I quickly, I just put it together. I thought, you know what, I'm going to just try it. Let me try one month. You know, I tried a couple of weekends here and there, but I was like, let me try a full month. Not only no phone, but no news, no current events, no TV. And that can be tough because, you know, TVs are everywhere. You go to the gym, TVs are there. You go to get a burger, TVs are there. But really just disconnect and see what happens. And it's probably the best thing that I do. It really is. I find that I tell people, you know, I'll even leave my phone in the office for the weekend and then go home and just respond to 100

texts Monday morning. But I'll say to people, you know, maybe other people are just better at dealing with all this anxiety than I am. And that's why I have to put it away. And that's why I have to take a month off. Maybe I just can't handle it or control it. And they kind of nod sympathetically. And then I think, wait a minute. No, I don't think I'm terribly special. I think this is a problem for all of us. And maybe just most of us haven't realized it yet. So yeah. No, I think you're right about that. I don't think it makes us weak that we want to do something like this or that we actually do do something like this. If anything,'t think it makes us like weak that we want to do something like this or that we actually do do something like this. If anything, I think it shows that we're aware. So for example, anytime

in the last few weeks, now that we've gotten close to August, anytime I've been anywhere or had people over for dinner, I'm in any conversation or I do Q and A's on my show, everybody wants to ask about it. Why do I do it? What do I do? You know, am I going to read? Am I just going to lay on the beach? Am I going to do a little house projects? And some, all of those are actually part of the answer and a bunch of other stuff, but everyone's sort of fascinated by it, which I think is so interesting because look, I got my first cell phone. I think it was right before nine 11. Cause I remember I had a cell phone. I lived in New York City during 9-11. I remember I had a cell phone, but it wasn't even working. And I, you know, because of all the craziness that day, obviously. And, but I remember thinking like, I can't even

believe I have one of these things. Now that's basically, that's basically 20 years ago. And in 20 years, which I'm 45 years old, in 20 years, a little less than half of my life, this thing has become, you know, in many ways, it's become sort of godlike to people that this is the thing that is more important than anything else, how you will communicate, how you will ingest stuff, how you will present yourself to the world, and all that. And then when you factor in that, we know we're being manipulated by algorithms, we know that it's destroying attention spans. I'll tell you one thing for sure. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, too. You see, I just made the double white powers sign there. That was that was a complete mistake.

Now I know media matters is going to come after me today. Whatever. weeks, especially if I really focus on it, my attention, my calmness, my small interactions with, say, the girl at the cashier at the grocery store or something, they're better. They're more authentic. There's like a breath. And it's like everything's okay and going to be okay. So what I try to do is I try to use the month. It's not that I'm sitting in a meditation cave somewhere.

It's not that I have a major plan. I really don't. We are going away for a little bit. We'll do some beach time. You know, I am going to catch up on some reading because I didn't, you know, like everybody else, I didn't travel much in the last year. That's usually when I do my reading.

But I don't really have a grand plan beyond that. We're going to try to see some old friends and not talk about politics. But I think if you give yourself some space for that, you know this, when you come back, it's like, maybe I didn't miss that much. And maybe the world does go on without me. And maybe I'm not the center of the world.

I mean, we all know these things and yet we're obsessed. We're obsessed with this freaking device. Yeah, one thing I've realized is that YouTube needs to make it just as addictive for creators as it does for those who consume the content. And so I'll find myself like itching to do a live stream in the same way I used to feel as I was checking Twitter. I actually have somebody else manage my social media now. So I've been able to get away from that. But yeah, yeah, it's definitely addictive. I was just having lunch with a friend just before we got on this live stream. And I was looking at a kid across from me just scrolling through TikTok videos. I'm like, we're idiots. We're all idiots.

Like, there's no way you can be an interesting person if you're indulging in that stuff, five, 10, 12 hours a day. Of course. And Matt, think about it this way. I mean, because of lockdowns and COVID and masks and everything else, we went from having a technology addiction and a sort of unspoken problem that we all knew was a problem, we went from having a technology addiction and a sort of unspoken problem that we all knew was a problem. We went from having that problem to exacerbating the problem in the last year and a half. I think you could probably argue maybe tenfold because now, because you have, you know, people are still wearing masks, six foot social distance, your regular human interactions are way less. They're often shorter.

There's less eye contact. I mean, one of the things I've noticed when you're, if you're on a plane or something and a stewardess, flight attendant comes up to you and asks you something, well, first off, you usually can't hear, right? Because she's muffled under a mask, you're in a mask, you know, there's background noise.

So you've got all these people that are, what, what, what'd you say, what? And then often they'll take their mask down to tell you something. And it's like, okay, oh, and I'll take my mask. And we all know that it's all sort of nonsense or whatever. But many of the basics of the way we communicate, the way we actually are social creatures, which we are, have been destroyed by social media. So in many ways, you could really call it anti-social media.

I mean, I am on Twitter myself, but I have my team run Facebook and Instagram. And it's like, for any of your audience watching this, is Facebook making you happier or sadder? Is it making you more joyous and purposeful? Or is it making you more frustrated and anxiety-filled and angry. And I think for most people, it's that. And by the way, that's not to say like you and me are so brilliant and so ahead of the curve on this. It's like we all have to look in the mirror about what we gave to these companies to then give back to us. Yeah. And I want to point out again how ironic it might seem that yourself and myself who make our livings on the Internet, you know are talking badly about it. But I actually think that those who are viewing us, their lives would be significantly better if they stopped listening to my show and did something perhaps more meaningful. Well, it's funny.

Well, look, there are more podcasts than people at this point, I'm pretty sure. Like everybody and their brother has a podcast and now people have two podcasts and three podcasts. It's like, look, I wouldn't go as far to say that people would be happier if we didn't do our shows because I think we do provide value in different ways, you and I, right? We do provide value,

but I make a point of saying on my show almost every day, I don't want you to be addicted. I don't want you to be outraged. I don't want you to be angry. I am actually trying to do the reverse. You know, the nicest thing that people say to me, I was just at Freedom Fest in South Dakota. it's a big libertarian convention i met tons and tons of people and the nicest thing that people ever say to me is dave you've helped keep me sane

in the last year and a half and it's like so so it's not about that we don't provide value or that we're just a time suck for people and it's not even actually that ironic that it would be guys like you and i that want to do this because we're in the belly of the beast, right? We're in the belly of the beast as creators, but that doesn't mean that that has to consume us entirely. So, you know, one of the things I find, for example, when I go off the grid about two weeks in, I'm hearing old songs in my head that I kind of forgot about, like full on lyrics and like, like the whole thing's going, like you give your brain some space that humans had, humans had for thousands and thousands of years before the last 20 years. Yeah. So I want to ask you about your rules. You know, I don't know about you, but I'm an all or nothing guy. I can't kind of dabble and I got to be committed.

And so I have certain rules for my month. What are your rules? Yeah. So, you know, last year, actually, it was very easy to be off the grid because I'm in Los Angeles. Obviously, we're still in the COVID situation and everything was pretty much locked down. So there was nowhere to go. So I was pretty much in my house. We had put my phone and my iPad and my computer in a safe and I didn't even have the combo to the safe. Truth be told, we do have an emergency list of things that we can be reached out to. So, you know, if somebody in my family had died or there was a medical emergency, there was a way that someone could get in touch with my assistant and then that was going to get to me. So I think you have to do that. If you're going off the grid, you know, you're not doing it at the expense of what your entire life is and your family and all that. So I had a very

short list of like, if there were true, really, it was all family, medical or health type emergencies on that front. Beyond that, the rules, there's not much. Like for example, you said no TV, no newspapers. That's different to what I do. For me, the primary reason I want to get away is so that I can't be contacted. That's what I find so stressful. For me, I'm looking forward. I'm even going all retro, buying a record player for one of our rooms. My idea is to drink coffee, listen to records, read books,

spend time with my children, but to not be connected, not to have to be responding to people. I too am recording shows in advance for the month. So they will be releasing, my team's releasing the clips on our clip channel and things like that. But I'm not as like committed to not watching television. For example, if my kids want to watch a show, I don't actually love television. So it's not much of a addiction for me. But for me, the main thing is just that it's the internet. So, and like you said, with your putting it in a safe, like I don't I don't trust myself. So I'm actually going to be giving my stuff away. I'm giving my phone away to a friend.

Don't give this to me until the 1st of August, because I know I'm weak. That has disaster. First of September, I should say. Yeah. Don't give him your password. But otherwise, otherwise. Yeah. Well, look, the television thing. Yeah, I'll probably watch a couple movies. Like it's not about it's not about seeing nothing electronic. I mean, these things are ubiquitous in our lives. For example, you know, I use I use Spotify for music in my house. So I will we have a like a panel on the wall that controls Spotify like I will. It's not going to be armed with anything else. It allows me to, you know, turn on the air conditioning and play music. I will touch that thing. We'll probably

watch, we'll probably watch a couple movies. And then, you know, my car has GPS built in. So if I get in my car, I'm going to see that. So that even shows you though, unless you're really willing to say, okay, I'm going off the grid and I'm going to the rainforest for a month, or I'm going, you know, to the prairie or to the desert for a month, you're going to have some involvement, but you know, on the TV side, I don't watch too much TV either. I watch, I watch old episodes of Seinfeld and the Simpsons. Basically I watch the same things that I watched in 1989 pretty much. Um, but, but the purpose of going off the grid is not to avoid all simple pleasures. You know what I mean? Like to me, those things avoid all simple pleasures. You know what I mean?

Like to me, those things are like simple pleasures. I wouldn't, I can tell you this. I won't watch anything that's like highly political or highly anxiety inducing. Probably I'm not going to watch documentaries, maybe some like animal documentaries, but not like, you know, murder and political stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's the difference between you and me.

I don't really spend my time in the political world. So I think it's really cool that you not just unplug from technology, but unplug from politics. Because I know at the end of every August, you usually now do a sit down with somebody. I think it was maybe Michael Knowles last September. It was Knowles last year. Yeah. And he fills you in on what took place that month. And I'm wondering, you know, is it true that you don't hear about these things or is some of that just for show where you have to pretend that you're super shocked by it, even though you heard it in passing? No, I've done a pretty darn good job of fully staying off the grid when I say I'm off the grid. You know, look, the first year I learned these little things, sort of like I said before, like if I went to the gym, you know, there's 20 TVs up there. So then I was, by the second time I went, I wore a low hat so that I couldn't really look up and I was kind of doing cardio like this. You know, it's funny also because people know who I am.

So I swear to you, I had people at the gym that would be like, Dave, come on, you have your phone in your pocket, don't you? And I'd be pulling my pockets like, I got nothing. I don't have that. I don't have here, you know, earbuds in. I don't have anything here. You know, there's all sorts of ways to avoid things. Look, if you stay out of crowds for the most part, you know, I'll walk my dog. We're going to be on the beach for a little bit, that sort of thing. I'm trying to think if anything really was was blown for me in any of the years. Not not real. Nothing's really coming to mind. I mean, last year, we knew that the big news was going to be that Biden was going to select a VP.

We knew that that would happen in August. I had a suspicion it was going to be Kamala, which I said right before I went off the grid, and that ended up being what's going to happen. But no, no one's reaching out to me. So if I avoid people, I'm pretty good. And in your experience of these five years, does your resolve begin to wane in the middle or towards the end of the month?

Or do you find that you're pretty strong throughout? That's a good question because I'm sure you know this too. The first couple of days, there's a little bit of weirdness. No matter how many times you do it, there's this just strange like, where's my phone? Phantom buzzing in my pocket. but what if something happened today? Like what, you know, like, man, the big thing is it could happen today. There's a little bit of that. And then I would say by day five or so I kind of hit my stride. And then I'd say those middle two weeks are just pure, absolute joy. Then by like week three, there's a little flicker of like, oh man,

I do have to go back. You know, it's like, this has been great, but I do have to go back. And then I can sort of ride that into, well, you know, enjoy that last week as much as possible. But yeah, Knowles brought me back last year. Ben Shapiro has done it twice. Glenn Beck did it once this year. It's going to be Adam Carolla on September 1st. And I'm going to do it at his studio. And we're going to do everything possible to make sure that I don't hear anything in advance. That's awesome. One thing I'm learning is that there's obviously a big difference between leisure and dissociating. And leisure or rest takes effort. Dissociating doesn't. Scrolling through my newsfeed while I'm, as you say, watching The

Simpsons on another tab while I'm texting somebody. I finished this activity and I'm more exhausted than I began. And it didn't take any effort. But to actually carve out time for leisure, you know, it's ironic. It takes effort. You've got to even just to read a book in silence and not to continually distract yourself to death. It does take some work. When I put down the phone on Friday night and went home, I was just on my way to the elevator and I was like, oh, I got this idea. I need to text somebody, you know, and just having to give that up, you get in the car, some, you know, people need to hear this brilliant thought I just had. That'll be fine. Just so as you're kind of getting over that, those initial few days of that impulse

to reach for your phone is, it's scary at first, but it does die down, like you say. Matt, no matter how brilliant and insightful we might be, people are going to be okay without us. That really is, you know, like everyone's going to be just fine. You know, the other part of this is that over the course of the couple of years that I've done this, I've had a few people like random, you know, fans and viewers that have tried a similar thing. Not everyone can do the month. And, you know, I still have two businesses to operate. So my team is able to make sure that, you know, the wheels don't fly off all of our operations here. But partly what I also do is I we did my team meeting with my guys. We do it every Monday morning. I did it this morning. And one of the things that I want to be very clear to my team is,

hey, we have certain duties that you have to do. You have a job still throughout this month, but I don't care when you do it or how you do it. If you're able to figure out, like for my YouTube channel, if my editor and uploader and all that, if they're able to do all of that on August 1st, and then they get a month to themselves, and as long as nothing explodes, it's like, that's great too. The purpose is that I want to be fully refreshed. You know,

ironically, I'm feeling pretty good right now. I sense you are too. I can just sort of read it on you. And it's been, you know, one of the things the last year and a half, I think we've seen a real split in people because of COVID and lockdowns. I think we've seen a lot of people really seeing their world shaken, often for good reasons, possibly because of health or family stuff, and then for bad reasons, partly because of paranoia and government overreach and whatever it might be. But I think there's been a real shift sort of, or a split, I should say, where it's like a lot of people are really struggling right now, and I'm seeing a lot of people that are really thriving right now. And that's what I'm interested in. I'm interested in

going down that road. And, you know, the old world is never coming back. You know, the world of January 2020, it ain't coming back. So what I'm interested in doing is going down that path where people will thrive, not because they believe everything I believe or wanna live exactly how I live, but because you can figure it out for yourself. The person watching this can figure it out for yourself. But if you're in the rat race all day, if you never give yourself a moment to think,

when I chatted with Eckhart Tolle, as I mentioned before, one of the things we talk about is just a little bit of space. We are now, we are now blasting ourselves with so much information all the time, which is often just nonsensical information. You know, we're hit with other people's thoughts all day long. That's why it seems like we're so angry at each other because all day long, if you're on Twitter, it's just someone's thought, someone's thought, someone's thought, someone's thought. You realize that you hate a lot of people you used to like. You like some people you used to hate.

I mean, there's all sorts of weird stuff happening. But how often is it? Remember the old days? How old are you, Matt? I'm 38. 38. I know people think I'm 58, but I am 38. No, all right.

So we're ballpark. You're a young buck, but we're ballpark same age. But see, I'm from Australia. So the internet came in much later in Australia. So we probably ballpark same age. But see, I'm from Australia, so the internet came in much later in Australia. So we probably had a similar experience. Exactly. And you have much bigger spiders over there and snakes and things. But remember in the old days, say 15, 20 years ago, when you'd go to a bar to meet a friend, and if your friend wasn't there, what would you have to do? You'd say, we're meeting at eight o'clock at the bar you'd have to stand on the corner or outside the door and just

wait and then if they weren't there after 20 minutes and you started wondering what would you do you'd have to walk to a pay phone and try to call them and most likely they weren't home because they were you know en route but the point is that you would sometimes just stand somewhere and i i you know i spent most of my formative years in New York City, which it's so depressing now what's happened to New York City. It's become such a disaster. But like those moments of New York City, when you're just standing on a corner watching people, I mean, that's like as good as it gets. But we don't give ourselves any. When is the last time you just had a moment where you just put your hands in your pocket and just kind of looked around, just looked around for a while? So last year, no, last year we were home because of lockdowns,

but when we did it two years ago, we had a really nice beach, really pristine, beautiful waters, fish, scuba diving, snorkeling, the whole thing. And I'm looking around at the beach and almost everybody is just taking pictures of the beach almost everybody is face timing or tick talking about the experience on the beach walking into the water with the phones all that stuff and you know when you're two three weeks off the grid at that point you're basically looking at these people like they just escaped a mental institution yeah no I hear you yeah man i like as a as a teenager if you wanted to get a hold of me there were only three ways that i can think of you would call the phone that was bolted to my kitchen wall could do that you could send me a letter in the post or you could or you could come to my house

and if i wasn't there you could go up to the shops and look for me um so yeah and then you contrast that today how many ways and avenues do people try to get a hold of you? I just can't keep up with it. Here's an analogy I had recently that really helped me kind of better articulate this. I was home visiting Australia. We live in a very small country town where nothing much happens. But this one day I was there, there was a police raid taking place across the road and it was surrounded by police officers who were shouting into the house and this is very exciting for Port Pirie, South Australia and so my mum and my dad and my brother and my sister were all kind of

standing at the door looking through wondering what's going to happen. I went out to get some lunch or something and I come back, same thing's happening, right? And this lasted all day and at the end nothing, I don't think much happened. Maybe he got arrested, but it was quite quietly and off he went. And I think like that door into that exciting reality is like this phone. It's like, I can spend my whole day just standing at the door, as it were, looking into something exciting that's not actually satisfying or meaningful. That's a great analogy because we're spending so much time on this thing. And in most cases, we're not exactly sure why we're doing it. You know, you open up Twitter, let's say, or you go on YouTube. And it's one thing if you're like, I'm opening up YouTube because I've been

thinking about this thing and I want to see a how-to video on how to grow a garden or there's some problem I want to solve, or I really want to see this debate between two great thinkers or whatever it is that you like, right? Like you're a video gamer and you want to watch somebody play a level that you haven't been able to complete, whatever it is. I'm not saying all of this is bad, but your point is right. It seems as if there's this incredible, exciting thing happening all the time. And actually, that's not quite true. You know, in the four summers now, the four August that I've done this, yes, some things have happened while I've been gone. You know, Kamala got announced as VP the year before John McCain passed away. There was a big hurricane and disaster, I think, in the Houston area one year.

You know, there's always little political stories. Last year, that song, W disaster, I think, in the Houston area one year. You know, there's always little political stories. Last year, that song WAP, you know about this song? That was the big song of the year. WAP came out, people were freaking out. And even if, you know, this year, I've been thinking, man, the world feels kind of nuts. It's like Joe Biden's brain could explode this month. Like, would it surprise me if I came back 30 days from now and they said, you know, Joe Biden's eye actually popped out of his head while he was doing a CNN town hall? Or if they said, you know, basically Kamala's president, or if they said it's not the Delta variant anymore, it's the super Delta variant. And they're, you know, like there's so many things that could

happen. But the simple truth is that even though I provide some level of sanity for my audience and I love what I do, as I said, it's like I'll come back and it'll still be here and it'll still be wacky. And sometimes it'll be good and fun and sometimes it'll be depressing and horrible. But if I give myself the opportunity to like really restore myself, really come back clean, you know, I think I think, you know this. When I came back, I believe it was the second year that I went off the grid, I said, I'm no longer an atheist. I mean, that's pretty powerful. And I don't think I would have given myself the room to do that had I not, or I wouldn't have had the room to do it. It's not about giving myself the room. I wouldn't have had the room to go where I went and to think about the things that I was thinking about and to read some of the things that I was reading and talk to some of the people I talked to had I not decided to go off the grid. So speaking of atheism, one of the things I'm going to be doing in August is

instead of carrying my phone in my pocket, I have a little copy of the New Testament. And so if I'm stuck in line somewhere or in an elevator, I can just pull that out and read a few verses. I love that. I love that. What happened was I was sitting on a beach and we had been there for about a week. And I actually I'm one of those people. And I think it's partly because of what I do for a living. Like I can really just if I get out to that beach at 10 a.m., I can sit there till 6 p.m. And I'm fine. I don't need a book. I don't need an iPad.

I do like to read, you know, obviously. And because of COVID, as I said, the lack of travel, like I'm looking forward to catching up on some reading. But I really am the type of person that I can just get on a beach. I'll nap. I'll wake up. I'll have lunch. I'll jump in the water. I don't need to be constantly stimulated, let's say. And it was in the course of that, that I just, I had already started, I think, struggling with some of the, the atheism stuff. And I, I found myself, um, I found myself believing almost against my, my personal intellect or something. I just felt that there is something beyond me that is going on here that has been

going on here, that, that all of the freedoms we have were won by people who believe that there was something greater than them, that they could build great things and all of those things. And when I came back on the grid, that's all I said. I just said, hey, I don't want to be referred to as an atheist anymore. I didn't say I have. I figured out the meaning of life or, you know, I like, you know, went on an ayahuasca trip and met Jesus or any of that kind of stuff.'s all i said and ironically i did get a lot of hate then again from the lefties who were like oh see you see what happens now now he's not an atheist anymore he's not one of us and he's not an atheist they're so tolerant you know um but i would say on the on the spiritual side um i have a you know i'm fortunate enough now to to know of not a lot of extremely influential people, religious leaders and political leaders and

things like that. And I've had a lot of really interesting conversations in the last couple years on the show about that sort of stuff. I've read quite a bit. You know, I'm Jewish, so I've definitely reconnected, especially on the tradition side of that. So I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I've reread the Old Testament yet, but I actually do love, I do love your idea there of like a pocket New Testament. I think that's just spectacular. But I really am re-engaging in some of the traditions and the holidays and that sort of thing. You know, so I think whatever level you can do something that adds order to your life, you know, to loosely quote my friend Jordan Peterson, whatever that is. And it just became obvious to me that, you know, from my tradition, let's say from the Jewish perspective, I come from

a people with a pretty brutal 5,000 plus year history, but there's something that kept us going this entire time. There's something that my father believed, that his father believed, that his father believed, and maybe they didn't all believe it exactly the same or behave the exact same way within that. But, you know you if you sit down at a Passover table, you're telling the same story that your ancestors 400 years ago told. And by the way, that's the same story that 1000 years before that your ancestors were telling. And that connection to me has become very powerful. Yeah, very neat. Very neat. You talked about wanting to catch up on some reading. Is there

any particular books you have in mind? So I'm not going to do any political reading. I'm not doing any nonfiction. I actually asked my locals community to send me some fiction books. We have a list, basically, of a bunch of sci-fi books. And I'm going to just dive into a couple of those and go that route. What about you? Are you going to do any reading? of those and go that route. Yeah. What about you? Are you going to, are you going to, what are you going to do? Any reading or? Yeah. Beyond the

pocket. New Testament. Yeah. Yeah. Lord of the Rings. I've just, Fellowship of the Ring in June. I did the two towers this month and then it'll be Return of the King in August. Just a beautiful book. And yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's the only plan. It's, it's, as you say, because I mean, the temptation could be, well, I need to fill my time with as many things as possible. And even kind of to fall into sort of, I need to be productive. And it's like, no, the whole point of this is to kind of not be productive, you know? Yeah. Are you going to do anything on the diet or exercise side of things?

Because I have sort of been. I need to. Yeah. We all need to, like, you know. I probably, I don't know if i will or not that's not the plan if it happens it'll happen by accident yeah that's fine that's fine well you know as i said before i don't have a major plan throughout all of this um but i have gotten in the last couple months on a really good i start my day usually with about an hour of cardio

and and just get it get a good sweat in. I'm really going to work on that. Not that I really need to, but I would just, everyone could drop five pounds. I'd love to just drop five pounds, a little tighter in the tummy area, and focus on eating right. But not only purely because of health or sort of wanting to look better. It's not really because of that. It's actually, I really do love good food. And we're going away for basically the first two weeks. And we're going to eat good food. I'm going to eat a lot of fish and a lot of vegetables.

And I fully enjoy that. And I'll drink some good wine, hopefully not be too burdened with hangovers in the morning. Well, just like you don't want to consume media mindlessly. You don't want to kind of consume food mindlessly. So I think there's one thing like, I'm going out tonight and I'm going to have the best dessert they have.

And I'm definitely going to have a couple of margaritas, like making that conscious choice as opposed to just drifting into it. Right, because that's what most of us are doing all the time. And again, I think there's a direct, I think there's a direct connection between lockdowns

and sort of like a general breakdown of, of purpose. You know, a lot of people, and it's not their fault, really. A lot of people are feeling very, uh, purposeless at the moment. They're feeling like, what is the future? I mean, you guys have a really crazy situation going on with lockdowns in Australia. It. In Australia, it's mad. I mean, I'm in Los Angeles where we're not locked down anymore, but they still want vaccinated people to wear masks and a bunch of nonsense. I see what's going on in Australia. We covered some of it last week, some of your news reports that are just nuts. There was the woman, forgive me, I don't remember what channel it was on,

but an Australian reporter. So there was one where an Australian reporter last week, she was talking about 80,000 new cases, I think in, it might've been in Sydney. And she said, there's 80,000 new cases. No, no, sorry. 80,000 tests were taken. 111 positives came back. One person died and he was in his eights. And that's why they were going under lockdown again. I forget if it was Sydney or elsewhere. But my point is, I know you guys are going through it. Now, imagine if you're just like a 22 year old who's just starting life and now you watch the world just crash down on your head, much less if you're a 38 year old or a 45 year old or

a 65 year old. You just watch the future, what you think is the future, what you think is reality come crashing down. You could see why people are purposeless, why they're more drug addicted. We know rates of depression are through the roof. I know you talk quite a bit about porn addiction. We know that, you know, if you're just trapped at home, like people have sexual urges, like all of the stuff, it seems like it's all gotten worse in the last year and a half. Yeah. Well, as we wrap up here, Dave, it'd be good if we could give some people some maybe practical tips or advice

or suggestions on what they might do, because I often have a lot of people say, well, yes, good, lucky for you. You can take a bloody month off. I can't do that. And they're right. I am very blessed that I get to do that. As I've said, like yourself,

I'm working myself to the bone these last few weeks to get everything in place. But for those who are watching and like, well, I can't take a month off, you know, any practical suggestions you might suggest to them as far as distancing themselves? Yeah, there's a couple of things you can do. Like at the very minimal level, like just don't be on social media on the weekends. And if you think taking that 48 hours is tough, pick a day. If your holy day is Saturday, pick it Saturday. If your holy day is Sunday, pick it Sunday. Reverse it, whatever you want to do. But just really try a day first without social media.

You don't even have to go without your phone. If you want your phone for text purposes or for phone calls or to check the weather, okay, so be it. but just one day a week without posting. How about that? Try it for, try it on one Saturday without posting. And then, yeah. And then maybe the next Saturday you try it without responding. I mean, there's, you know, do whatever you think roughly makes sense to you. I get, not everybody can do the month. Not everybody can do the week, but you know, another way, if you need something like a little more tangible than just like a random Saturday, I mean, just pick an important day, Christmas. I'm not going to do it on Christmas. I just don't need to show everybody what the Christmas table looks like on that given day or on Easter or on Passover, whatever it is. Like if there's some day that's valuable to you, you know, I think that

really is like the sort of most simple version. And then of course, it's exactly what happened to me. It's like, then check in with yourself. How do you feel at the end? You know, 24 hours passed by, you haven't been on that thing. I have yet to find anyone that says it was a bad experience. You know what I mean? Every single person without exception. Oh man, that was great. I need to do it more. I don't know why I didn't do it, et cetera. Yeah. These bloody things now on your text message, unless you turn it off, it will alert the person who texted you whether or not you've read their message, which just puts you in this constant state of anxiety. Like you have to reply to people who live maybe in another country as if they were in the same room as you. So you

can turn that off. That might be a good idea. Another thing I just learned you could do here too is, you know, just like you can make your phone reply if you're in the car, it'll be an automated reply. You can actually edit that. And so I'm actually looking into it right now, if that's possible for me to be like, I'm taking the month of August off, I'll get back to you in September. I'm not sure if that's possible yet. Have you found a workaround there? You know, I don't know for the text messages exactly, but I do put my out of office up on, you know, I have a couple email accounts. I put it up on there and I just direct people to, to my assistant in most cases.

And it's like, cause, cause look, you know, business things and opportunities are going to come in. I don't, I don't want those opportunities that the purpose is not to destroy all my businesses while I'm gone. It's to make them better. As I said, right. The point is to strengthen myself. So my, my, uh, all of the things that I care about are stronger when I come back in the fall. And that's been the case so far. So, yeah, some out of offices. But I think more than anything else, just like at the very sort of blue sky level, it's just know that all of the stuff going on in the world is going to keep going on whether or not you're in on it 24 seven. And oh, so I'll give you one other one. That's just like a good like sort of granular one,

which is just don't bring your phone into your bedroom. I think that's a really great one. You don't need to stare at your phone right before you put your head on that pillow and you don't need to start your day before you get up to pee or have water by seeing who mentioned you on Twitter. If you literally just put it, just put it outside the door. While you're peeing and waking up. Yeah. Oh God, another random anime avatar on Twitter

thinks I'm a Nazi. Not how you should start your day. But you know, like, I think some people are just better at self-control than I am. And so, as you said, it's one thing to leave it, you know, in another room as you go to sleep.

But for me, that's what I've been doing on the weekends is leaving it in my office, turning it off and just getting any distance from the bloody thing. I think that's great, man. I love that you're doing this too. And I hope, do you challenge any of your audience to actually do it with you? Do you know if anyone's actually going to try to join you for the full period? It's a good question. If you're watching today right now and you want to make a plan for August, let us know in the comment section below. I don't actually often challenge people because I know that it's a rare thing to be able to sit like working on YouTube, posting things ahead of time and then taking the month off. So I just

suspected that a lot of people may not have been able to take it off, but certainly something, surely you can do something. And again, maybe you don't want to, and maybe you don't have to, and that's great. Good for you. But I think this is a lot of us who are feeling, you know, as you say, the pressure, the anxieties of, of walking around with the world in my pocket.

And another analogy I thought of is, you know, those rotating fans that you can put on three and they go super fast and they spin like this. Suppose you were to, at the height of its speed, yank the cord out of the wall. It wouldn't stop right away

it would just slowly die and i thought and not die i suppose but still become still that that's what happens to my brain that's what happens to my brain over the course of a week it immediately i'm just like thinking of all these things i could tweet all these people i need to text this new work idea i have and then just slowly days get longer sort of like when i was a kid during summer like it really is that cool and i think it's hassle. Matt, what you just said there is not an exaggeration because when you get over that part of all the stuff you might be missing, that's where to get to what we were talking about a few minutes ago, that's where the space then just shows up. And now you have some space to think about things a little bit differently, give you a little perspective.

I honestly really believe that one of the reasons I didn't go crazy in this last year and a half, and I've watched so many people who I used to respect in the political space, which I know makes everybody sort of nuts. I've watched a lot of people just become very different versions of themselves and not necessarily in the best possible ways. And I think the reason that I can still do this with a smile on my face usually, and with some degree of sense of humor and an ability to connect with people in an honest way is because I make that space but I'll tell you one other thing just on the technical side you know if you remember the internet 10 years ago web pages used to end remember that you could actually go to a web page it's hard to remember now but you would go to a web page you'd get to the bottom of it and then

it would be over and then there was click to the top and then it would take you all the way to the top. Basically all web pages don't end anymore. They have infinite scroll, which the guy I'm blanking on his name right now, but the guy who invented infinite scroll has sort of admitted that he now regrets it because he kept people in this perpetual, yes, you could be seeing things that you love all the time, but you might be seeing things you hate all the time. And even if there's things that you love, should you see them in perpetuity all the time? I mean, so the internet has also structurally changed in the course of these last 10 years. So why not take a little bit of that power back to yourself? Dave Rubin, thank you so much for being on the show. I mean, most people know who you are,

of course, who are watching this, but in case they're not, where can they learn more about you and what's your stuff? RubinReport.Locals.com. That is my main hub these days. And Matt, I wish you an incredible month, man. I know this week is going to be bananas, but enjoy it. Thank you. And then just have a great freaking month, and I look forward to connecting with you in the fall. All right.

Thanks, Dave. God bless. Appreciate it. Thanks. Kanskje vi kan ta en kvart på en av de tre. សូវាប់ពីបានប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្� Thank you. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពី Bye.