Shaun Newman Podcast - #288 - Nick Von Dubs

Episode Date: July 13, 2022

Nick Von Wackerbarth a.k.a. Von Dubs hosts the VonDubCast and is an amateur stand up comedian. We get into a world where people go viral overnight, understanding a thing that is un-understandable, the UFC & censorship. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Support here:⁠ https://www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast⁠

This is Brian Pekford. This is Julie Penessi. This is Zubi. Hi, it's James Scha. This is Cabey Richards. Hey, everybody. This is Paul Brandt, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks.

Happy Wednesday, hump day. Hope everybody's week is cruising along. We got a good one on tap for you here. I've been on Nick's podcast multiple times here over the last couple of years, and it was overdue. It's overdue to have them on this side of things. So before we get to me and Nick sitting down having a chat, Let's get on to today's episode sponsors.

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Now let's get on to that tale of the tape brought to you by Hancock Petroleum. For the past 80 years, they've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants, methanol, and chemicals delivering to your farm commercial or oil field locations. For more information, visit them at Hancockpatroleum.com. He's host of the Vaughn Dubcast and now amateur stand-up comedian. I'm talking about Nick Von Walker-Barth. So buckle up. Here we go. This is Nick Von Walker-Barth and you're listening to Sean Newman podcast.

Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Nick Vaughn Walker-Barth. I hope I said that right. You nailed it. Hey, I'm a little better than the guys who open for you at the comedy show. You sure are. You sure. It's a low bar, but...

Hey, well, welcome to Micasa. Well, I've been looking forward to this all week. This is just the highlight of my week here, you know. I get to come on the Big Dog Show in the studio like this. It's beautiful, man. This is awesome. Well, I appreciate you making the trip this way. You were out with Kenny getting beat up in the old fight farm.

And I loved every second of it. Yeah, no, they run an awesome little show down there. I loved it. Now, is that something you mention you miss it? Is that something you do all the time? Like, jiu-jitsu, sorry? So I've always, I love MMA. I've just, since I was a kid, love watching it.

parents you know my mom cannot even physically be in a room when it's on she hates it so i kind of had to watch it under the under the table you know and i watch it when i could and then when i graduated university i just got really far into it and i always you know listen to a lot of podcasts and so many people in the podcast world are kind of tied to that jihitsu world just through joe rogan and that whole kind of arm and then i always wanted to try it but i was a chicken shit and i always had excuse this excuse that so right before covid hit i tried it went for a couple classes and then I went on a trip and came back and then COVID hit and I never went back. So then October this year when I went full time with the podcast, that was one of the things I'm saying,

well, if I have the time now, there's no excuses that I went in, kind of went dove into it full hog and Grand Prairie and absolutely loved it. It was one of the funest things I've ever done. The workout is unbelievable. The exercise you get from it, like I'd run 10 kilometers every day. I'm in half decent shape. I eat like an animal. So it balances out a little bit.

But, you know, I thought I was in pretty good cardio shape. And then I go there for, you know, you do a five minute roll with a guy. And you are soaked in sweat, out of breath. And it was so great. I loved it. And so I did that for months and months. And then when I moved back to Emmington, I haven't been able to find.

I haven't really tried that many gyms, but just haven't found the same feeling camaraderie that we had. I think it was such a high bar with that champion gym in Grand Prix. They run such a good operation that I never really found it again. I struggling to find that love, but just going in there today, it was exactly what I was looking for. And it was exactly what I missed.

And it's the, you know, cracking jokes and everybody there for a good time. Nobody going too hard. nobody you know but still you get a good workout and you get you know some good roles and it was awesome it was exactly what i was missing yeah jiu jutsu is uh i've only ever you know i i did it at fight firm they all sent a message back to you that i probably should say off the air yeah i think you can imagine what they had to say that's fine that's fine um i think i did it for probably i don't know now i'm curious what are they a big pussy or why no they just like you know come back what are you doing. Come on. You're great when you're there.

Yeah. Maybe a few of those P-words were thrown around, I would imagine. My memory gets a little foggy after a few beers, but we'll see. Yeah, I enjoyed it. It's funny. When I was, I was talking to Garrett there, I forget what that was, two, three months ago. Anyways, it was like, it was like literally when I first started talking to the podcast. So the podcast had been going three years.

Literally in the first episode, Ken and me are talking about Jiu-Jitsu because we just started going. And it's funny, I, I, uh, I probably put too many excuses in front of it, too, you know. But I remember we were going at like 6 a.m. I think before work. Yeah. It just, it just got too much. I was up too late, up too early, trying to do too many things. And then, you know, you start to burn. Well, you start to burn out. And I don't know about you, but the burnout thing at times, like,

I don't know how, I don't know, you're full-time podcasting, full-time podcasting. And I'm like, right now I'm like, how did I get back to like almost burning out? I'm like, how the hell is that even possible? I had like a little lapse where it was kind of nice, and you kind of put your feet up on the table, and it was like, ooh, kind of enjoy this. And then after a week of two of that, I was like, okay, Sean, you're getting complacent.

We better start pushing the old envelope. And then you start pushing the envelope, and then you start pushing the envelope and you're like, Jesus, I'm right back to where I was working full time and doing this full time. And another big difference to that too is when you're working full time, you're doing this, this is the outlet, this is the release. You get, it's not the job. It's the fun time.

And when that becomes the job, it's up to you to keep it as something you enjoy, but you risk burning out on it, right? And that's a much different way of looking at it, right? Like that's what I found too. Now that this is the main thing, it used to always be the escape where you go work at 12 hour a day, just get kicked around, but then you hop on a podcast and it all falls away and you're just enjoying it. You're in a conversation.

You're locked in and I loved it. And then now that's the job. And everything, all the tedious day-to-day stuff and planning is all goes into this thing that you love. And it's now your responsibility to keep it in that right cupboard where it's not slipping into, you know, feeling like a job and feeling that burnout. And that's a different thing that I was a little bit unprepared for. I'd be curious to hear your take on.

Have you felt that at all? Well, I get asked all the time, oh, how's retirement? I'm like, fuck right off, you know? And I know it's sometimes it's just the tease. Sometimes I think people are just, you know, it's their easiest way of saying congratulations or whatever. But usually I get asked, you know, like, how much fun is it? And I'm like, and I get tongue tied.

I'm like, ah, I got to think about it because there's a lot of stress now that comes with the one thing that used to give you, like you say, in an outlet. It's been different. It's a ton of fun. Don't get me, don't get me wrong. Do I love doing this? Yes. Like, that hasn't changed. There's just more components to it now.

You know, when you bring up an outlet and doing it for fun and things, one of the things about the UFC, you know, you listen and watch a ton of UFC. Tons. Did they ever ask that question to the fighters? About Bernal? about how they have something because lots of those guys think Tanner Bowers are working full time and training on the side

and then he wins a couple fights and all of a sudden he's doing it full time did they ever ask him that? Like how do you keep this fun? Because now like all the pressure is on you to win and if you don't win you're going back to your old job. Yeah and the amazing thing about MMA and the media that's around it

is that everything gets asked. There's the thing about becoming a fan of MMA like I have and being such a big sports fan you know I love the NHL, I love the NFL. I love all that stuff. You get so spoiled with MMA and the type of media they have. And someone explained this to me the other day and it made a lot of sense. It's also a lot different because it's not a team dynamic.

It's you and you're trying to tell your own story and it's up to you how much you want to give or not give. But the media is very tied into that. So you definitely hear that, Sean. You hear it all the time of there'll be guys where you'll notice their performance, draws for it and they maybe lose a couple fights. And then they really turn it around. They asked him, I said, I just got burnt out. I lost the love of it.

I had to go away for a while and had to find that love of it again. Some guys need to change gyms. Sometimes you need to go back to their team that they started with. There's so much that goes into it, but that is a huge, huge piece of their success is whether or not they are enjoying it and they have that passion and that love because you can see when that goes away, the performance goes right with it.

And that is a huge component. And so many of these guys now bring on mental coaches and psychologists to work with that and to make sure that their mindset is in the right place because your mind's not right. And you go into a hockey game. You got 81 more games, right, regular season. You go in for a fight where you might get two fights. a year to make all your money.

And if your mind's not in the right spot, now you lost half your cash from that night, and now you don't get another opportunity to go make money for your family for two, three, six months. Some guys sit on the shelf for a year, right? Like that is a very, very different dynamic than most sports. Well, and most people love a game, don't love the terrain, right?

I don't know. Maybe I'm the odd one on there. I assume I would rather play 82 hockey games, even though 82 is a lot, and not have, you know, 365 of practice. us, right, to get prepped for two games, you know? So that's another interesting thing about UFC fighters, right? Like to keep yourself motivated to train, train, train, even though you know you need to, that in itself. You know, it's a very good interesting point because

I think for myself, I hit a point, I had Jason Greger on, was it before or after I came on your show? It was right in that time frame. And it kind of reminded me when COVID was going on. I wasn't talking about COVID no I bring this up lots like I wasn't the guy who was sounding the alarm bells remember was I was the guy that didn't talk about it and talk about it and finally it just was like a damn broke and I wouldn't stop talking about it but in doing that I kind of forgot about what you know different parts of this that make you make a ton of fun oilers are in the playoffs I want to talk some oilers yeah so I think it was after minding your conversation I'm like fuck it I'm gonna email jason greger I'm gonna email Darren dragger uh Jason greger uh Jason Greger

And Darren Dregger. Yeah. I know who you meant. Tongue tight here. And just doing those simple little things and reminding yourself that, like, oh, we can have a little bit of fun here. It doesn't have to all be about exploding your brain on information. And when you start doing those little side projects, man, that's, that'll, that'll

stoke the fire. I'm sure you can agree with that. That Oilers podcast that me and my best friend started has been one of the most fun things we've ever done, right? like the guy's fucking hard to wrangle. He's like a cat, right? He's so busy in the summaries. He's running the golf course, right?

He's so hard to get sit down. And that is a little bit hard on the head. But when we sit down and me and him start going, it is the most pure fun, like just enjoying it, making fun of each other, laughing. Like, it is just, it's exactly what I envision the podcast becoming once I reach that level of comfortability where I can have that with anybody, right? But it's my best friend and we just have such camarader and so much inside stories that

it's just from day one. And it's just gotten better and better. right and like it's not going gangbusters it's not like you know a thousand people an episode or listen to it or 10,000 but i have such confidence in that it's such good quality like if if anybody stumbled upon it there's no way they wouldn't enjoy it and that is a really fun feeling and not only is it fun to do in the moment but also just like the the release you get out like i just i can't even put to words how much enjoyment that has brought me right and not and i and that is saying something given the level of just podcasting in general and the enjoyment I get

out of that, which is already like the, I've never enjoyed anything as much as I enjoy this whole podcasting gig. And then to see a whole other level to that, right, was really exciting. And to know that going forward as I get more comfortable, there's, there's going to be more and more. And we're going to be breaking through levels. I'm sure you've had this moment when you've maybe had a certain guess you've been really trying to have on or maybe not even the guess. I think it's more had a conversation you've been really excited to have because, you know, you can have a really great guess with a big name and you can have a mediocre conversation or you can have just someone that you thought might be interesting and they can blow you out of the water and I find at least for myself and I'd be curious to get your take on this that the name of the guest almost doesn't matter it's the conversation that's what I feel after and I know oh this one might not get the downloads because they don't have the big name beside them but if so the people that do stumble hunts they're really going to get something out of this one and that fills my cup like nothing else I think it's a balance um I've I've I've I've I I've been fortunate enough to have a lot of big names.

And you busted ass for those big names too. Yeah. And some of them live up to like, holy man. Some of them are just the big name. But in general, it's very cool to sit down with all of them. For sure. You know, it's kind of like taking the legend out of them and just bringing them down to your level a little bit.

You know, the latest one was Paul Brand. And Paul Brandt was phenomenal. Like, it's such a cool guy. I can't even, like, he blew him. me out of the water how it's just like how it just chilly was and how opening ones to talk about things how recent was that has someone released yet i don't know if i listened to that one yet well we're we're not breaking timelines here but okay okay it's coming out here shortly awesome so by the time people listen to this it'll be it'll be beautiful yeah can i ask you questions about it because

i mean people i guess it'll be out at this point like what do we even start because like paul brown is such an interesting guy to me and i'm just as soon as i hear you say that i'm thinking what what I asked him about. I know, did it, did he at any point come up, something I know he's very passionate about like child trafficking and stuff? We talked about not in my city for probably the last half. Yeah. Because that's why I wanted him on.

Is that way? I stumbled on that and I was like, well, actually, it came from Theo Fleury. I interviewed Theo Fleury. And he brings up, you know, Theo can be pretty brash and say some pretty spectacular things. That's a good way to put it. But he says he's talking about child trafficking. And how it happened, you know, are politicians?

And he goes off on my... And I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? And he goes, you got to go listen to me and Paul Brand. And I'm like, what? And so I went and listened to him, Paul Brandt. And I was kind of like dumbfounded, right? Like, how the hell and I know about this, right? It's not like not in my city.

It was two years ago. It's been here five years now in Calgary. And so, yeah, that was the main reason. But, like, I don't know. Like, that was part of it. It was just like how chilly was. Yeah. Like, here's Paul Brand.

And I know Paul Brand isn't, I was just having this conversation, Paul Brandt isn't as, and I mean, of course, she's a woman, but he isn't as sexy as like Shania Twain, you know what I mean? Yeah. And I mean that as like flamboyant. And I don't even mean Shanae Twain's that flamboyant, but she does have that aspect. Paul Brand is Paul Brand. He's a good old country kid who, you know, one of the things I got talking about was at 25. He, you know, pretty much walks away from his label. He doesn't want. want to be that Nashville country pop star and you're like I really respect that yeah I can't even get over how much I respect that so that's what you get in the end room yeah like here's this guy who's I don't know kind of larger than life a little bit for sure at least you know especially

in Alberta he you know probably tough for him to walk down the street you know maybe go walk down the street Nashville and it's a different story but you know if you walk down the streets to Lloyd Minster's slave, like, you can tell he's not your regular job. Well, I showed out to, I don't know if Mike and Jim will listen to this, but the couple that watch our kids, Day Home, they heard that he was coming on. And they're like, well, you better come in and sit down and have a coffee after his son. Yeah, oh, sure. Yeah, and they were just like tickled pink.

And I mean that literally, right, that you would, how was he? It was fantastic, right? And to me, that's pretty cool because that's what he's endeared himself to Albertan, Saskatch. one. For sure. Western Canada, probably Canada for matter of fact. For sure. For sure. And you talk about that decision to walk away from the label and the freedom that it gets it and that comes through in his music and interviews like you did like it comes through in all these different ways. But a way it came through at least for specifically for me was in 2011 when Slave Lake had the big fire and every you know half the town burnt down. He was one of those guys that stuck his hand up

right away did a benefit concert in the city and then came home like humble he was the same way. Exactly. And that's that freedom that it by the time. I mean, to know, you know, still makes my hair stand up. Yeah. That's weird. Me too, right? And just even before you think that, I was just thinking of like what he means and what he means to the communities.

And he might have not thought about it in that moment when he was making that decision to walk away of what that was going to give him. But like at some level, he must have realized, you know, where his value system lies and what that was going to make him able to do in the future. And to take all that risk at that point so that he could pay it forward in those ways like Humbold, like after the fire and that. And for him to be that guy. just add so many more layers to the impressiveness of that decision to have that type of foresight to be the person he wants to be and you see so many of these

amazing artists have this amazing success and they really struggle because They had to sell out their value system to take on a label. Well actually you know it's funny I feel like that's why I got along so well with Paul. It's like one of those interviews where you come out of it, you're like, oh, man. I mean, I come out of every interview like that, but this was like a little bit on steroids. I could just imagine if it had been in person. And hopefully, uh, that's what it leads to. Me and him have already talked about it, right?

Like, uh, I think at some point there will be a second one and I think the second one will be in person. Awesome. But let's not fast forward too far. Yeah, I mean, knock on wood. Knock on wood. That's right. But part of the interview, we talk about a book. that changed his life or, you know, really guided him.

And it was halftime by Bob Buford, I think, is what it is. I'm reading it right now, actually. And it's all about exactly defining the principles in which you guide every choice by, right? And he gets talking about, you know, like, we put it through this kind of like decision-making matrix. Framework, yeah. I'm paraphrasing. Paul does a way better job explaining it. But essentially, yeah, it's going to make us a million dollars, but it doesn't fit into what we believe or what our life is.

We don't do it. Or it does do it. And then you carry on. And for me, that's how I've operated this podcast, right? I have a different decision-making matrix than Paul, but very much that really aligns with my brain. Like, that's exactly where I'm at, right? And you watch young, I remember them talking about, uh, and, uh, and, uh, and, I don't know if this is exactly true.

I should dig deeper into this, but who's the guy from Breaking Bad, the old guy? Oh, Brian Cranston? Brian Cranston, they said, I heard this story now. Maybe it's not true, but I think the underlying message makes a lot of sense. They talk about Brian Cranston getting famous at an older age and being able to handle it. And he just kept his life out of the limelight. And so many young pop stars, movie stars, get famous at a really young age, don't know how to handle it. Heck, we see it in the NHL with hockey.

eight players. And then they, they just kind of go a little bit off the deep end and don't know how to handle all the pressure that comes with the limelight. And, uh, when you look at like, well, and I can bring it back to Paul Brand, right? It's pretty cool to see young guys be able to do that. That's a special quality. For sure. And I think evolutionarily, we were never built for that type of thing. You know, we were just, you know, supposed to be in these small tribes of people where you only know so many. And your notoriety can only grow so far unless you're a gig is, Ganga's Khan or an Alexander the Great, which are very specific people that have so many, there's so many accountability systems built in just because the world is so hard.

If you want to achieve things, you can have to really work for them. And life has constantly changed that. And the advent of the internet makes it so different where you can go viral overnight, where now you can have success that isn't tied to, it's always going to be tied to hard work. Success is, oh, it's inseparable from hard work. But that relationship has changed where it used to be there was almost no way you will ever get something undeservedly where now we live in a world where almost by default you get things undeservedly which is amazing and that's just society and that's moving forward right it's weird but it is

weird and we have like our we still have the same bodies and the same minds that evolutionarily we're not built for that we're still catch we're playing catch up right and you see that it takes the very there's very few people that can take that and handle undeserved it not undeserved it's maybe a tough word to use that, but, you know, I don't know, because you can literally get 10 million views on a YouTube and be like Insta Famous, kind of, but not really, because what are you really doing? And then what happens from that? What do you do with it? And what, you know, this is something they talk about in comedy all the time. And I'm a huge comedy guy. You know, if I'm, the biggest thing I'm a nerd in is MMA, you know, the only thing that might be more than that is stand up. But they

always talk about this, all these guys, all the famous guys, you know, all have like a moment, right? you pick Bill Burr. He had that Philadelphia set where, you know, they're all heckling him. He just goes off from Philadelphia and that kind of blew him up. You have Joe Rogan, the whole Carlos Mencia thing. You pick, you know, everybody kind of has their moment. And what people don't talk about is all the work they put in before that and all the content they had. So now people here, Bill Burr, go on this round.

They go, who's this Bill Burr guy? And he has this huge back catalog of work for people to go to. And then you have these people that have some viral moment. That's what we're doing right now. I think it's, I think it's sports. Elliot Friedman. he's not this giant hockey he isn't uh kevin baxa right who played in the nchel and then walks on yeah he's a guy if you look at his track record he worked for it yeah and now he's one of the

he's a smart guy but it wasn't overnight success although people who just tune in might think that but it's not even remotely true no tell that to him when he's shooting pucks for hours at seven years old probably right like like and you never know how far back goes but the interesting thing i love about looking at this from the comedy's viewpoint point is you're right it is you can have 10,000 or 10 million views overnight and you have that overnight success and you see that happen to people where they have you know one of their one of their bits or they have some crazy bit of crowd work that kind of catches fire and it really tears through instagram or reels or tick talk whatever it is and okay well where's my success now it didn't

come me what i thought that was the form i just had to go viral but they don't see that everything they've done until that point was to try and go viral and that catalog they built up was with that as their operating ethos and you have guys like bill bird that just wanted to be the best community and just so happened to have something from that culmination and your your your your your your why is so important right like i feel like i haven't talked about this a lot on my podcast lately but i feel like the first 50 to 100 episodes every guest i had we'd always talk about the why and why are you doing things and how important that is i have i don't know why i just maybe move pot move past that as a as a concept so why are you doing the podcast where do i start like there's there's the why of

I've never enjoyed anything this much. Like I've never gotten, I've never felt something like this. From the moment I first did the first one, it was, oh, you know, I enjoy a lot of things in life.

I'm, you know, a very multifaceted guy. I have my nerd stuff. I have my, you know, athletic stuff. I get a lot of enjoyment.

I've never enjoyed something like that first moment. I knew from the second that, that I hit stop in that recording, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. That is probably the biggest why. And what operates is just the pure enjoyment I get out of it. And then just like curiosity. And I've always been that curious guy.

I've always wanted to know more and more and more. You know, that's probably why I struggled so much in school because, you know, I was never the guy just to sit back and take the other. Well, why? Why is that? You know, and I'd go head to head with a lot of teachers and, you know, created a lot of, you know, maybe things that weren't so easy for them to handle at that time. But what better way to soothe that curiosity than a podcast? There almost isn't one, you know?

Like to be able to build a platform one day, where people that mean something to you and that you see value in and to be able to help them, that is a huge why to me, right? So many times I'll ask someone if they want to come on the podcast and say, well, what do I have to show? And it's like, well, I see something in you and I want to bring that to the world. And you'd be doing me a favor by allowing me to show what I see because sometimes they don't even see it.

And that means a lot to me as well. You know, like they might not have the huge name or the thing behind them, but they have something that the world needs. And sometimes that's just kindness. Like I've had a few of my buddy, like my buddy Fraser all over, one of my best friends in the world. You know, I have them in the pocket. What do you want me on? And like, we're good buds and we're just going to have a fun time.

It's going to be funny and it's going to be enjoying. But like, if I can show the world just a small piece of just what a genuine human is, like, that just would give the shirt off his back, would do anything for anyone, is always there for a shoulder or whatever you need. That's hard to quantify. but with a podcast for if you have long enough in front of something you can bring a little bit of piece of that and to show that with the world perfect example i probably should use Kenny Rutherford you know like trying to explain to people what makes Kenny special is tough because it's it's so much and it's you could probably boil it down to one or two things but it's so multifaceted and it's just it's a big combination of you know intelligence and compassion

and all these different things it's really hard to kind of you know like if you ask them you know I know you struggled to get him on the podcast for the first while he didn't want to come on, right? And his, but you probably saw in him and knew you could do a job to bring that to the world, right? And that really orientes me a lot of the time and trying to keep that as the forefront, like not concentrated on views or downloads or anything of just, am I bringing things that are important to me out to the world, out to my little tiny,

incey slice of the world that I've captured and I'm trying to grow, I'm making it worth it. to them. Am I making, am I making people better off by the things that I'm bringing to the world? I'm making the world a better place, which sounds so cheesy and like so ridiculous, but it's not at the end of the day and it's, you know, it's only cheesy if you think it's cheesy. If it actually means something, it's genuine, it's not cheesy at all, right? What do you think? What can I flip the, flip the question back on you? Why do you do this podcast? Oh, I loved playing hockey. There was nothing quite like strapping up the skates.

The rush, the nerves, everything. that came with it. Even playing a little old senior in Hillmont, Saskatch, when there was, once you hit playoffs and everything else, it meant just as much as what's going on in the Stanley Cup playoffs, you know. And I never thought I'd find that feeling again, honestly. And then probably in the first 10 podcasts, I got nerves before them all. And then certainly when I had Corey Cross, I think, come to the studio for the first time. I think he was my first like, and I love Corey. So Corey, if you're listening to this, I mean this in no detriment to you. But of the people I've had on, Corey Cross isn't Wayne Grexky, right? He's, he's Corey Cross. He played an NHL career,

but now he's a, he's a beauty of a human being, is what he is, right? With some really cool stories and he's really open about it. But I remember him not knowing who the hell I was. And like the nerves that came from like trying to convince him, I was okay. And And the fun of doing that, and by the end, he's like, I can't wait for the next one, right? That was a lot of fun. Okay, right? Like, we're on to something here, right? I've only ever had two older men in the archives not enjoy themselves thoroughly to where they're like, I'm doing this again.

Yeah. This was a ton of fun. It's, it's, it's, anyways, I'm, I'm off track here. So that feeling I get walking in here tonight. I'm like, hmm, I know what this is going to go, you know? Like, I have no idea. It's an adventure every single time. I have a little bit of an idea.

But until you get in, you have no idea. So one is that feeling. That feeling is special. For me, it comes from doing this. But it also came from playing hockey. I got the same feeling. Like, I never thought I would feel the same thing. It is identical.

And so right away, that is, like, I live for that. That gives meaning to life. And then, you know, some of the things I've done over the last certainly year have been in one side life-saving and on the opposite side so controversial and you're fucking crazy and whatever else right lost listeners friends yeah I shouldn't say even friends I've lost a lot of like you can see the audience change right um but that gave a lot of hope and a tough time and I never thought this would ever be that ever like i i just i really wanted to pass along messages of like this is what it means to achieve

your dreams you have to work hard you have to be a good human being you have to go after it you have to you know whatever time you have attack like you're trying to save the world right like that's what i won't that's what i wanted to spread and i did achieve some of that right like we did the the live stream and raised a bunch of money yeah and from that it brought in uh mikey dubbs and he came and ran for 12 hours and broke like a personal record of his, ran 12K in 12 hours, and we raised $325,000, I think, that year. And from that, Sam Saeed, who he was a guy who works for the city here in Lloyd. And this is kind of what I was saying to you.

You want people to come after it, do things that matter. And what did Sam do? He joined the world's longest hockey game in Emmington. And he'd never done anything like that. I'm paraphrasing for you, Sammy, if you're listening, but he went and did that. And then I had him on the podcast to talk about it. And he talked about how he got inspired by what he was seeing happen.

And I never thought this would turn in that. So somehow me and Mike got working together because of what we done there. Sam does what he does. And then I created bike for breakfast, and we biked to Tuffalo. That all came from, like, feeding off of each other. And all of a sudden you got this good, like, feeling wheel going, of everybody, like, seeing everybody trying to one up each other. in a very good way for your community and who benefits the community.

I was like, this is really cool. So those are a lot of different reasons of why this is so special. And that's kind of what the, at least for myself and where my jumping in point on podcasts were, that was kind of that, that ethos, that animating, whatever it is, that kind of was everything that podcasts were at that point was everyone trying to want up each other in a really good way and spread positivity and help people out and want to do one better and everyone else, right? And that's really what drew.

me to it as well. And something you were saying there that probably is all those whys I gave, it might be even better than that, or it might be even higher on the, on the totem pole of where I ranked them is why I do it. A big piece of it is the messages you get from people. They listen to an episode and they reach out and they say the nicest things. I was right a little paragraph. Like, hey, that really meant something to me and that. Like, you know, I've always felt that and I've never felt confident to ever talk to anybody about it and to hear you be. so open and, you know, talking about depression or, or anxiety or imposter syndrome, you really help people. And it's not like you're, that's not something that is, you know, every, I know I'm going to

release this podcast and I'm going to get a message. Right. Like, it's so, it's, it's like that lottery where you can't predict it. You can't predict it. You never know what it's coming. You can go go a couple months where you don't hear nothing from knowing. It feels like you're just speaking out and to avoid because, you know, it's not like a live show where you get the feedback from your action. You put a podcast out and you see like the downloads go up, but you don't really know much about how people receiving and then every once in a while and as funny as it is and you can label this whatever you want but at times it's exactly when you need it when you're ever second guessing yourself or you're down or you you know like every once in all i just find myself and maybe you found it differently but

right when i need that message somebody comes across and just says the nicest thing to me in the moment that so what is that what is that Sean I have i have all kinds of things i you know that that that that i would call that but you know like it gets so what are you coming to get us down some rabbit holes, you know. So what do you call that? For 220-some episodes, I chased that answer. Yeah. Quietly.

Quietly, right? And I mean, the last episode you did on my podcast, we got into this, you know, we went down this rabbit hole pretty good. And right? And I, I have a lot of words for it. And to me, they all mean the same thing. And I usually have this wheel of like, quivers in front of me, whoever I'm talking to, I'm going to pull the word.

that I think they're going to go with. Because you say God to some people and their eyes glaze over or they turn their back and they don't want to hear about it. You say spirit to some of it that'll do the same thing. And it's all the same,

all is this exact same concept, all the same, you know, the universe, right? Like you can, I have a, I have probably 10 to 15 different names I use for exactly what you're trying

to get me to put a label on and it just depends who's in front of me because to me, I like watching the squirm. The labels don't matter to me, right? Like it all means the same thing and I know what it means,

right? It's true to you. And it's going to be, everyone else is going to have their own word for it and when you describe it good enough people pick up on it and they know what that and you can ask people what's your word for that right like it's maybe one of the most interesting Glenn Sather they're pretty much put a nail in it for me if you people go back to episode 200 at Glenn Sather on right and he's talking about how he met his wife he's driving on a freeway in New York New York City somewhere in there and there's this woman stranded on on the side of the highway fixing him flat tire or whatever. So he pulls over to help. Now, I assume she was good looking because it's Glenn freaking say there, but does it really matter?

No. He's still married to this woman. And I go, what is that, Glenn? He goes, what do you mean? I'm like, I mean, of all the things, right? Like, of all the bars you walk into, right? You walk into mine. Like, you're driving on the highway, and you see a girl and you pull over and help,

and that becomes your wife. Like, what are the odds? Yeah. And he's like, some things you just, I just don't need to understand. And I'm like, hmm, that's an interesting, you know? Because I always tell the story, and I think I probably told it then. I'll tell it quickly now.

When I went to college and met my wife, I didn't want to go there. And I was leaving, and I got caught in a snowstorm. And the snowstorm, and I was like, nah, I can make it. So I literally had to fuel up with gas. And as I'm fueling up with gas, two ambulances go screaming down, you know, like, just put yourself in a terrible snowstorm on single lane highway for an hour straight, maybe an hour and 10 minutes straight. And I was heading back to my old roommates place in Duluth, Minnesota,

and two Amplands go like, well, I'm like, ah, maybe I should stay. And then I went and had a great night. Never met her that night, but I went and had a great night, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it pulled me to Northland. And in the first day, who's the first person I see but her? Now, once again, it wasn't love at its first sight.

That's not what I mean, but it's just like, that was a really pivotal. pivotal moment. I could have got on the road an hour sooner and there was no snowstorm and you're gone. You never come back. Instead, you know, timing and whatever and you just, and the thing is, so many people have those stories. Brian Burke's another one. Reason he falls in love with the game of hockey is he gets trapped in a snowstorm and I want to say Minnesota, I think is where it was. And somehow it just leads him to the game of hockey. Well, look at the fucking career that man's head, right? And you go, like here it is over and over and over again. If you just look at it, it's simple to see for everyone. And you're right.

Everybody has their word for it. Yeah. And another reason I always hesitate to put a word on it is my concept of it is that it is the thing that is nameless. It is the, it's the thing beyond our understanding. As humans, we're amazing at understanding things more and more. We use the scientific method, but there's always a way. And the funniest thing that I love is, you know, my favorite podcaster of all time,

Lex Friedman, you know, he has on all these absolute top of the heap peak physicists and every, every scientific venture you could, he brings on the top of the heat. And you would think that'd be a place where exactly we're talking about this, whatever you want to call it, whatever you want to name it, is very far from it because these are the men of science. That's what people kind of understand. I think a lot of people that don't fully understand science, see this as two completely separate boxes that do not bump up against each other. And then you see people that understand the world in at least their domain as best as you probably could the most of any human that has ever lived they understand it the most and they almost to a T have their own

word for it and see that thing that is ununderstandable it's ineffable right and that is god or the universe or the spiritual or that weird thing that connects us all right they see it more clearly than almost everybody else and i find that so funny that so much of the world these days has kind of written off that whole thing as a constant and just know we are science we follow science and stuff like well talk to the people that are the cutting edge of science and ask them what they think of that because you might be surprised but what you hear and being hesitant to put a word on it because you're doing a disservice to the thing itself by trying to put a word up because you're

just limiting it it's this limitless thing that will never be able to find a word for them we're just trying our best to slap labels on which is what humans do right that's you know our that's what's got us this far but there's a certain point where we just we know we know never have and for my money I don't think we ever will and I think that's kind of the point there's always got to be something that animates us that's beyond us and that's what keeps us pushing forward that's what keeps us searching if we tomorrow you know the certain super collider finds some you know finds god god's just you know they send the right particles around and just poof a guy with the beard sitting there oh shit how did you how did you do you know I'm here and I can

answer all the questions we had it all figured out now there's no more what would we do you know if we had it all figured out there'd be no drive we wouldn't be shooting shit into space who we'd be there. Okay, we solved it. And that's why I think we never will, because there always has to be something that animates us and pushes us forward as a species, as humanity. And there's always that thing.

And yeah, it's really hard to put a name on it, but that's really what's animating us all. You know, and that's a very religious thing to say, but you can come at that from, you can get to that place of understanding without even coming anywhere close to religion, which is fascinating to me and what really took me a long time to understand

because I hated religion growing up. I hated not being able to ask questions and I got so in this place of pushing it away that I never even wanted to look at it. And then I went all the way full circle and got back to these very religious understandings without going through that door of religion once and being like, oh, I get what these people were talking.

It all kind of makes sense to me now, the things that we're trying to teach us at the most basic level of those stories of what they're passing on. That is what they're saying. And you don't need to go down like, yeah, for thousands of years without science and without all these things,

that was their best way of getting to it was these stories that were passed on. and they served a purpose. And now we have better, more scientific stories, but they all get to the same place. And, you know, you can read the Quran. You can read the Bible. You can read whatever else you want.

And if you really boil it down to the baseline of what the messes they're trying to say, it's all the same thing, which fascinates me to no end and exhilarates me. You know, that's exciting. And I feel like for people that are like me a couple years ago that are so closed off that that they won't even entertain the concept they're blocked off to some

almost the biggest beauty in the whole world like the most amazing thing they're completely closed off to it and it could be right in front of them but they'll just refuse to see it I don't know something I think about a lot what do you I think it was Judy Reeves who stumbled upon it and I don't even know if I knew what I was doing but she said it was very prophetic she was staring at me and here's this woman who survived the perfect storm back in the night 90s, right? Come very close to death and being out in the middle of 100 foot waves and everything else.

She looked at me, she said, what are you looking for? I was like, I don't know, I just want to talk to some interesting people. She said, no, you're looking for something. And I hadn't really acknowledged it, right? And now I think about it a lot, right? I was looking for a little bit of the universe part of it. Like, what is that? Like, what is that?

That is interesting to me. That so many different stories, you bring up the Bible and the Quran, and different things, but just in people's stories, these little beautiful, beautiful aspects stick out over and on. It's hard. Every time I'm hearing, I'm like, I got to ask. Like, what do you think that is? Because it's very interesting.

And so she really pointed out to me what the direction of the podcast was without me really understanding, but kind of understanding. I guess where I'm going with this is the Von Dubcast. What is your, like, sure, it's to have people listen. and to grow it into something that you can do full time. And to me, those seem very surface level answers. What is your drive? And where do you want to be besides success?

Yeah, like, exactly where I am right now. Like, the success would be nice and that would be icing on top. But the base of what I always wanted to do was just to be able to do what I enjoy the most in life. Like, you only get so long in the world. And what do I love more than anything else in the world? Podcast. I listen to them all the time. I'm obsessed.

I'm a full blown addict. I listen to probably more podcasts than 99.9.999 repeating percent of people. I'm probably, you know, top 100 in the world of people that listen to them on two-time speed to three-time speed and all week. Any free time I'm listening to them. And it brings me so much joy, right? And if I could make that where the thing that brings me the most joy, I get to also do. And I just had a feeling. I didn't know if I would, maybe I just really.

enjoy listening to them. Maybe I didn't. You know what one of my goals is? What's that? To create content where you want to listen to it at about 1.2. Yeah? Because Jordan Peterson does that to me all the time where I'm listening to it at, you know, two or one point. And you get the point. Yeah. I'm listening to it fast because I'm, as you listen to more podcasts, I think this has become a very common thing. Listen, I don't got four hours. Exactly. If I just speed it up, just smidge, all of a sudden, it's almost like taking all the ums and pauses out. Yeah. And you get a nice, and you can start to, it's like, it's like, you're retraining your brain. But Jordan Peterson does it to me over and over again,

and I'm throwing that name out there again, universe. I would really like him this year. Anyways, where I have to slow him down because I'm like, I really, really, really need to understand what he's saying right there or that thought. It's not a full podcast where you do that, but there are times where I'm like, what did he just say? And you got to rewind, and then you're like, screw it.

I got to throw that down. I got to really take that in. Throw it down into first and really dig into that. That's what I want to. I want to, I want to, you know, Joe Rogan can't do that, right? Like, lots of Joe isn't... Lots of what we do,

there's like one or two thoughts in an entire podcast that is the gold. The rest is just kind of... Get into it. Get into it. And all of a sudden, the line comes and goes, and you're like, did I hear that right? And you go back and like, wow, that is a thought.

That's a really cool thought. If you could pull that out for longer, so Yahoo's like me and you are like, I'm going to go back to the early days where I listen to everything on one speed. You know, like those were fun days too. Yeah. And that's, I think, speaks to what is so special about just long-form content, right?

Podcasts are, you know, maybe the king and the most easily relatable thing like this. But I've given people the time and the freedom to let down their walls and to talk in a certain way so those things can come out because you're never that goal that you talk about in a three-hour podcast and there might be 10, 15, you know, if you ever go to me, there's half hour of that really good stuff like you're talking about. If you're doing a 20-minute interview with, with- It doesn't come on. With Paul Brandt, you're never, you're never going to get there, right? And that's what it is.

And it's not like you only enjoy the 20 minutes of a three-hour podcast. You enjoy the whole thing. But it's all linked together. If you just, so now, here's another way I'd look at it. If now you listen to this three-hour podcast with Dr. Peterson. And there's,

you know, 20 minutes of it that just speaks to you in that certain way. And, and, you know, almost stops you in your tracks. I like to say, you know, rings you like a gong where the whole body vibrates.

I've had that, you know, that's what was so special to me. with when I listen to podcasts and I want to do that for others. And I thought, I want to be that guy, right? In a very similar way, just different words to say almost what you just said. If you took that 20 minutes and made that a clip, right? Like everybody does with their podcast, right?

Like I kick in my ass self in the ass that I haven't been better at getting on this already, right? Because that's what really helps with growth. But you take that 20 minutes that really hit you like a gong and you just cut that out and you put that out and you listen to that. It won't be the same way because that 20 minutes lives within that three hours. So that that quote right there, I put it out on, line because I actually like clipped it out of the episode. I can't find a freaking episode. It's like people ask me all the time what episode is that? I'm like I'm literally trying to go back through 1900. I feel like it's in the 900s but I can't seem to find the damn thing. But I can't

remember why I even listen to that episode because it wasn't a good, I'm telling you it was not a good episode. Joe hadn't read the book. The woman has given him a hard time for not reading the book. I'm like, this is really uncomfortable. That's why I felt. And she kind of, the way that, episode became good, she started asking Joe questions. Yeah. Which normally I don't like. I don't like Joe to talk too much. I like it the other way. It was not my typical episode. Yeah. And that has been out of anything Joe's done, the most impactful thing that ever happened to me. That quote. And I've never seen it clipped ever on the internet. Nobody's ever clipped it. I guess I have now, I guess. I guess I'd be the one. And I know exactly what you mean. Because for everyone, like for a 20 year old, That wouldn't have, he probably wouldn't even know what the hell he was talking about. Instead, I was 33 years old, 33 and a half, I knew exactly what he was talking about.

And I'm like, I got you. Yeah. I'm saving this. I'm earmarketing. I'm, I couldn't figure out how to rip the entire episode off of YouTube. Yeah. So I literally put my mic, turned it on full, and that's how I pulled it. Like, I'm just such a, like, a moron, right?

There must have been a simple way. But at the time, I was like, I got an Acer computer and I'm just like, Stone, you know, Stone Age technology. So I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. And that's special as well, right? And that's where it's tough to ask that of people of, hey, come give me a few hours, right? Like I just had my first UFC fighter on the podcast, which was huge.

I haven't released it yet, but, you know, a guy out of Calgary. I'm a really big fan of him and I knew him. And I reached out to him and he was great enough to say, yeah, come on the podcast. I'd love to, right? like and we found a time we're going to hop on zoom and and do it and we go into it knowing we haven't discussed time limit i always with every guest i've ever had i always say you know i really enjoy doing long ones but i value your time whatever you can give me i'll be fine with and i'll give you the 10 minutes i'll give you the best 10 minute interview you've ever had right and that's

my mindset and i want to be able to do go the gambit with a preference for longer so i knew probably going in i'll be maybe i'll get an hour with him and he says i'm going to do half hour right sure right don't get sour about it don't get another i'm about to rock your tits off for half an hour here right like i am about to give you and sure as shit i was so prepared and i knew his story and and i and i put so much research in that you could see it on his face that he's laughing and he's like holy shit i've been asked like i've never done any where i've gotten this type of questions asked about my specific style of fighting where that comes from and the mentality of fighters and all that and you could tell he's enjoying it he's enjoying this right and that's another one you know like

Same with Paul Brandt, you know, next step is, hey, let's get in persons, have a few beers, right? Because that crosses that barrier. And that's that tough thing of like, that concept of the, the, the, the, the, the nuggets living within the whole. And the more you give me, like, we're going to have, within that half hour, there's also some really good stuff, but it lives within that. And when you expand that out over three hours, it's just even better.

But to explain that concept to someone that you're asking their time of, it's really hard. At least I struggle with it of like, give me as much as you can and you won't regret it. And it's really hard to explain to you why, but I'm just promising you, and if you trust me, give me what you can. I would say that takes time. The UFC thing for you, because I'm, you know, for the listener,

I didn't, normally, Nick, I let you explain who the hell you are, right? And somehow we just started and here we are, 47 minutes, and we're going. But you were the first Alberta podcast. that I stumbled upon other than myself, you know, way back way. And that's exactly what you were to me, yeah. Right. And so when it comes to UFC fighters, you're building your resume, your calling card.

And so by getting the first guy on him enjoying it, chances are there's going to be other fighters from specifically Alberta that know exactly who that guy is. And it's just going to start to cascade because, you know, one of the things that happened to me when I got Corey Cross and then Wade Redden and then, and Paul Bissanette fell on my lap. I gotta be completely honest. You know,

then Kelly Rudy and it just started, and then guys see that. They're like, if they're going on, it can't be that bad. Yeah, exactly. He can't be that bad. And then what happens is they come on

and they enjoy it and they go, oh, I'm impressed because you think they're taking a real gamble. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Give you something.

There's nothing more precious than time. That's right. And so when it comes to the UFC and watching, I go like, to me, I just watch him like, man. At some point, he's going to be like, if you're a UFC Canadian, you're going to be talking to this guy at some point, right? But it takes time and it takes building that material. I was also going to say, I won't take anything under half an hour anymore. I, the worst thing you can do as a host, or maybe a guest to the host, is say, I only got 45 minutes for you.

Because you know where my brain? I want full-undivided attention. Full-undivided attention. Full undivided attention is the best. And I mean that from the host, right? Because the guest ain't looking at. How many times you checked your watch tonight? Zero. No. Right?

And I haven't checked my watch. I'm not really worried about it, right? But I have so many interviews where, you know, Peter McCullough, you had him on, right? He's going to go, I got about an hour. And you're like, well, I'm going to give me an hour, right? Yeah. But what I start doing is, is about 27 minutes. I'm like, okay, I got, okay, how many questions you got, I got, I got to be careful.

And I'm no longer thinking about what he's saying. I'm thinking about the fucking time. Yeah. And I don't know how many times this happens. me where I'm like, shit, right? And I go back to Keith Morrison. I give you half an hour. I'm like, well, I'm going to take it.

I'm going to take it. Yeah. Because I want you real bad is taking a real long time to get you. Yeah. But I wish you would just say, let's roll. Yeah. And if it sucks, you just say I got to go, right? Because Theo Fleurred, the first time I had Theo Fleury on, he said,

I'll give you 45 minutes. And I chuckled. I'm like, I know, I bet you got a meeting. He said something like, I'll give you 45 minutes. I got a meeting after. And I'm like, yeah, you got a meeting after. Yeah. Yeah.

Fuck. I know. I know how this game is played. And at 45 minutes, he started talking about Justin Trudeau. And I just let him go. Yeah. And then I was like, well, we're past time. And he's like, oh, no, I got all the time in the world.

Because now you're talking what I want to talk about. Let's roll. I'm not talking about hockey stories. We're talking about a guy of freaking hating his room in the country. I'm like, all right. Let's go. So let's go. And he talked for like two hours that time.

Yeah. Sometimes that's what it is. I've had that a ton of times. People build in this kind of like this trap door, so to speak. Defense mechanism. Of like, I'll give you half an hour. I'm really busy. Okay.

I got what you're saying. Let's go. Yeah. And I've found that so many times, right? There's a great guy who you should definitely have on. His name's George Kellam. He's out of a slave lake. He lived in outrageously crazy life.

He grew up in Rhodesia in Africa. George, what? George Kellum. I'll send you his book after. He wrote a book and it's true. I've known this guy since I've grown up. You know, he's always been around. He's that weird, you know, weird guy.

I know he's a pretty normal guy, but he had a weird accent, right? you're a kid you always know him but always talk about to me always larger in life but i had no idea what he'd been through right and then he wrote this book and you hear about his is growing up in africa and just you know leaving home at a young age and living in london and coming over to and experience america for the first time and and always had this dream of being a helicopter pilot and then eventually coming to alberta you know without a without a visa and working and getting his pilot's license and then getting kicked back once you got caught and and having to go through all this stuff and building up a helicopter company in Slave Lake and getting just fucked over.

Time after time after time with the business, that's just kind of how the oil field worked back in the day, right? Everyone was out to screw everybody. He just got, man, and never gave up and ended up building a hugely successful company, right? And I knew that and I knew him and we're going into an interview and he said, and I knew he was nervous about it, right?

Like he was more of his kids saying, you got to go on this podcast. His kids listen, right? They're awesome. And he was a bit nervous about it, right? Older guy, he doesn't really know what a podcast is. And he said, yeah, same thing.

I got a meeting, give you an hour. Start getting close and he's really enjoying himself, which you know going into it. You're going to enjoy yourself, but you can't prove that to someone. You just kind of got, trust me, you're going to enjoy this. And okay, we're getting close to an hour and he gives me the signal, you know, let's keep going, let's keep going. Yeah, we just did more and more.

And it's because you're having a great time. Nobody doesn't like talking about themselves. Exactly, exactly. But nobody ever wants to admit that about themselves. That's something. Because one of the best qualities is I don't want to, I don't want to act like I'm bragging. Yeah.

Well, I agree, but all you're doing is telling your story. Exactly. I'm the one who wants to hear it. It's people who want to hear it. So that isn't bragging. That's me asking you questions. And that genuine curiosity is what opens people up to take those barriers down of not wanting to brag of that genuine.

Like, I'm just interested, right? Like, I want to know. And I think that's like when I take it back to that U.S. fighter, Chad and Hellinger, who had on, I was so clearly just on the edge of my seat to ask all these questions to know all these weird little intricacies of it that that opened him up to talk about because, oh, Clearly this guy is, there's nothing more exciting in his day this. I can clearly see this on this kid's face.

He's, you know, on cloud nine right now. That's going to open me up to talk with those things. And being prepared. And being prepared, right? Yeah, I sat much every fight he had that morning. But being excited is one thing. Being prepared. For sure.

There's professionals on the radio that aren't that prepared. And you hear it in them every morning. How the hell are you the top of wherever? Like, it makes zero sense to me. Again, that goes back, that exact, I know exactly why Sean, and it goes back to exactly what we're talking about. It's that deserved success. For you and me to get to a point where we'd have the audience where someone would have with a radio station or being in front of it just by means of being there and having it broadcast out and people can just pick it up wherever, they may have worked really hard to get there. Chances are they did.

But there's no accountability system to make sure for us to get to the point, like say either one of us was to get to the point where we're going to, the amount of listeners, you might even be already surpass this of like what the average well-to-do radio stations get enough, you know, Joe Blow radio jockey that that's doing it. You had to climb through some shit and you had to do everything yourself and you were going to have to build that brick by brick with nobody else's help but you. That is a very different scenario than that radio picture I just put like the the accountability to your success is so much higher and you look at that all over the place. That's my big issue with politics and you know me and you have talked a decent a bit of politics and you know I'm I'm always the the dark cloud on but the biggest thing I

see is there's absolutely zero accountability systems within the whole thing and nothing really matter and what you see the consequences of human nature unchecked when you don't have accountability in a system right and you see that all over and and that politics is just a very easy case to point that out on but you see it everywhere and that's kind of now that I've as soon as I have that understanding where you see that you see it everywhere right like oh look at the accountability systems right look at broadcasting for n-h-h- getting a little bit stale kind of sucked a little bit and then chicklets comes in kicks the door down and now everyone's like holy shit it's got way bigger views and downloads than anything the nchl can put

together so now they see that they go we want a piece of that let's bring this paul bizinette onto tn tn t and now tn t has the best ratings of anything nchall it's it's like by factors him and him and rick talking at it yeah exactly and wayne gretsky like and true and but the biggest thing is that they kind of step back and let them do their thing because they said we've got to be close to you We can't go full chicklets or we're swearing and being as wild. You know, Biz Nassie's doing his best, you know, Gluckuck 9,000 rendition every second episode it seems these days.

But like that would be way too wild for TV. You just can't do it. But they took a step towards it and look at what happened, right? You see this amazing because now that force, chicklets forced accountability to the NHL. We're going to get left behind. If we don't, we, now we're, but for years, there was no accountability. They can put whatever product they wanted out.

And they're trying to do their best they can, but there's just nothing. You need something to push against to grow, right? And if there's nothing to push against, they can just put out whatever. They obviously want to put the best content they can out. But it just got old and formulaic because there's nothing to push against.

And once you see a little bit of pressure, you see this amazing growth and you see the response. What do you think of golf right now? I love it. I've been dying to talk about this. I'm going to say this. You know, you bugging me all the time about UFC. I'm not this giant avid golf follower.

But it's hard to not ignore this story. It is. This is, you got some of the best golfers in the world. Head it over and saying, pay me the money. Yeah. And another aspect, I mean, I love it just because, you know, I'm a decent fan of golf, but Chase, my best friend, he's a golf pro. That's what he does.

He loves golf. He eats golf, drinks golf, sleeps golf, right? Like, that's the air he breeze. And just by osmosis or whatever, it kind of sucks me into this golf world. So over the last two, three years, you know, I watch all the majors. I'm watching, you know, the bigger tournaments. I've got my favorites. I can probably name half the guys on tour now.

If you asked me six years ago, couldn't even, I'd know Tiger, I'd know Phil Mickelson, but I was not big into golf. It kind of sucked me in and showed me what there is to enjoy about it. Right?

So I got into it. And then I see this live golf thing. It's coming out, and it's this Saudi back league that they're going to pay a bunch of money, change the format a bit. You know, less golf,

you only play three rounds instead of four. Everybody makes a ton of money, even if you, you know, don't finish high. It kind of takes it and puts a lot of the power back in the players' hands. The only knock on it is that it's backed by the Saudis.

Pretty evil people, pretty backwards. I have a lot of issues with them. But the pearl clutching that I see around the world when you don't realize that, everything you enjoy, all this freedom, this democracy you enjoy, is because America has tied themselves to Saudi Arabia to keep things in order to keep everyone on the petro dollar.

Everything you enjoy, you are such a hypocrite to get mad. at these golfers are going to get money when every single thing you enjoy is based on that and you are just as tied to the Saudis as Phil Mickelson and if you can stand on a pulpit and give Phil Mickleson ship because he wants to go get money for his family over it I agree and I wish you wouldn't have to I wish the PGA would just pay for them but like well the PGA's already come out and they're trying to up the purses and they're trying to do yeah they're scrambling but that's forced accountability you go back to spit and chicklets in the NHL and what the I mean it's a little

different but it's similar and you you look at what's going on They're going to pay how much, no? Yeah. Oh, they're going, what did he come on? I think was it the golf commissioner came on and said, I can't remember who said it. Just like, you know, if, you know, they'll bankrupt. If they're willing to just lose money and golf, fine, whatever.

But the buzz it's created in the golf world is kind of like happy Gilmore. Yeah. Coming in, swearing and hitting the long drive. All of a sudden, everybody's, I'm paying it down. This is some wild shit. And all it is is a rival league. Where the money's coming from, yeah, Saudi.

well I don't know there's there's a thousand reasons to you know not like the Saudis and some of their you know values and everything but I mean shit Canada's still buying Saudi oil right like I mean so even if you're not the the the way they have structured the entire system they rely on everything and keeping them happy for everything else to all the dominoes that fall from not having the relationship is the only reason they still put up with it and the why they can still operate how they do in this day and age where everything seems to be changing except that, right?

Yeah, I don't know. I was very upset to see the dragging that Phil Mickelson took over that because he said, and here's where I see it a little bit different. It's because it's not just the money. That's what everybody sees. That's the most flashy. That's the flashing lights at the top. But the bigger thing is it's how they're treated.

And it rings so many bells and rings so close to this MMA world right now because there's a huge push in the MMA world where the UFC is this, it's not a monopoly. There's other places you can go. but it is so it's a juggerna it is a juggernaut it's so far ahead like there's no you know the nchl's got the khl they're not comparable at all they're not comparable at all but you look at ufc compared to the second closest one would be probably like a bellator one one championship the money's there right like you can you can make decent money but all the other things that come

with it the the the accolades the fame right like that's not even close you can't even compare them plus the money at the top end is outrageously different you're talking completely different worlds And it's starting to catch up. But the biggest thing they have issues with is they, from the UFC's eyes, everyone that fights in the UFC, they're all contractors. They're not employees of the U.C. They're just private contractors. And they get to have all the benefits of that.

They don't have to pay them health care. They don't have to give them a pension. They don't have to. What else do they get out of that? All sorts of things. They can write these contracts that are absolutely absurd in the UFC's benefit, right? And the fighters have pretty much no say because they're contractors. And they can't wear, they can't bring their own sponsors on.

They have to wear, you know, the outfits the UFC give them. The UFC gets all the benefits of treating them as if they're their employees, but all the benefits also treating them like their contractor. The UFC is the NHL from the 1970s. Yes. And now. Maybe it's 1960s when they have the players' union form. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. And there's no fighters union, right? And then you look at golf and you have these PGA stars saying almost verbatim, the exact argument I've been hearing for years out of these. MMA guys and watching them take a shit kicking and they say when I heard I can't remember who it was one of these PGA guys say you know the PGA really has all the benefits of calling us contracts and we get on legally we're contractors but they treat us like we're employees and we don't get any of the

benefits of that I was like man does that ring some bells you know and like I think it's very unfortunate how it's all getting framed around the money when what the players really want is a lot more than just the money the money is going to be the biggest thing it always is it always kind of hangs on over top of everything there's intangibles there that they that they would like and for these people that maybe maybe a lot of the guys that jump ship the film michelson's the world the money is the biggest thing that brought them but there's a lot of guys that had some real things that should have been put on the table and should have been discussed but that all just got completely washed away in this

money talk and where the money's coming from and that and it's like really what they want is progress and this is a way that progress is going to be forced right it's that it's that force to battle against and you already see the PJ moving on the money But that and that's the same thing that the UFC is going to do is they're going to push on. Oh yeah, we'll pay you a bit more because what they really don't want to give up is the control because they make way more money based on like that dynamic they keep of contractor versus employees than they would ever lose and having to pay them a bit more. And I think the PGA is very similar to that. And the players wanted to update. They want to be more exciting. You know, they have one tournament a year where it's exciting. You know, the waste management open in Phoenix. Where everyone has the best time and it's a party. And they want more of that. They want to bring it in the future. They want to bring kids in. Look at how freaking hard it was to fight to Lelda on the World Hood. on tour. I just watched the U.S. Open and I think it was Roy McElroy's wearing a hoodie on Sunday of the U.S. Open. You rewind the clock six years, seven years. That would have been blasphemy. Everyone would have been just clutching their pearls so hard their knuckles would break, right? Because the sanctity of golf. And none of them want that, but it's held there. And they have no say in the matter because they're just

contractors. They don't get any say in it. Right. Like there's so many bigger issues and I think it's unfortunate. Everything just gets focused on the money when there's a lot more to the story than just that. Like, and you can't discount the money aspect. Of course. I get that, but, man, there's more of this conversation, at least from my eyes. Anytime you have no pressure on the top dog, they stop, like, innovating and making things, I don't know, better. They get a little bit complacent, let's say. For sure. Right?

Yeah. And that's how new things are formed, I would say, right? Now, I say that. Do you see a second MLB coming? No, probably not. A second NHL? No, probably not. golf

golf although I was surprised it was going on when you think about it you're like it shouldn't surprise anyone no it was right for that it was ripe for the picking

so was the UFC honestly right it is like it's really right for the picking it just needs somebody with deep pockets understands what the fighters want and create it

and move on and then it but I mean like you talk about this live golf like Phil Nicholson Dustin Johnson uh Ricky Fowler Brooks Kepka

Brooks DeChamble right like there are some names like they aren't taking the bottom feeders over it they're taking some big hitters and you know i'm i'm i'm struggling in my brain and and and like i go back to the w h a days world hockey association when they got gorty how to go and they got a couple names like that to go that must have been similar yeah like honestly but like in today's world we don't have anything like this do we Not really.

You know, like a secondary major hockey league? Well, just in sports. Like soccer, when the, what was it, the galaxy got, what's his, what's his, what's his, Beckham? But he was, he was at the end of his career anyways. Right. So it wasn't the same. No.

Like, you don't see all these European stars coming over to America to play. So everybody knows we're soccer. We are the secondary league. It's still a good league. I'm not knocking it. But like. The closest one I can think of in. sports is actually back in the NBA world where there's this organization called

pfl the professional fighters league and they tried to take it was that the one on new year's eve what was the sure what was the one where they could win wasn't like a million bucks or whatever so yeah it did and maybe the final so yeah they what they do it is they took tried to take the biggest names that they could convince over and then you have two fights in the regular season they're calling it right where within your weight class you get like a certain amount of points if you get a finish in the first round you get six points if you get a finish in the first round you get six points if you get to finish any other other finish in the second round it's five points

finishing the third round it's four points if you have a decision it's three points and then you have two fights whoever the top four guys out of each weight class that they did has the most points at the end of season they go into the playoffs so they're trying to make it like a sports aspect to fighting which is tough to do in it a little bit you know for an mhm a family it's a bit tough to take but I appreciate that what they're trying to do

and then you fight one semi-final fight, which is just, you know, winner moves on, the two semifinal fights, winners fight, and if you win, you make a million bucks, which in MMA, if you want to make a million bucks, not only do you have to be the top of the heap, like the best guy, but you also have to promote yourself

and you have to, there's so many things that have to go right. And I think, and I think they had the greatest thing in that league. I'm almost like, somebody will correct us on this. But I'm like 90% sure. The final fights were on New Year's Eve. I think so. And it was like, that sounds right.

And to me, I'm like, what better night to have fights. Yeah. Everybody gets together. You don't need to take a special Saturday. Yeah. You're like, you build. Anyway, finish your thought on that because I have a thought on a brand owning a day. Yeah.

And that's essentially what their idea is, is that they have this million dollar prize that isn't tied to how well you promote yourself. You could do zero promotion. You could do none of the bells. and whistles that you're going to have to do. If you want to make a million bucks in the UFC, even the cream of the crop, you are going to have to not only win against the biggest killers of the world, the best of the best,

no slip-ups, you can't mess up once to get to the top and win the belt. Even if you win the belt, that doesn't mean you're making a million bucks. There's guys with the belts in the UFC right now that don't make a million bucks, not even close, right? And to know that there's something out there that is just pure meritocracy.

You win your fights. Like, it's set criteria. It doesn't matter how likable you are, unlikable the financial success is tied completely to your ability within the cage for those 15 minutes at a time which is a dynamic change that is completely foreign to mma and should be quite game changing it's caught on a little bit they've done i think this is maybe their third year and each year they've had bigger names that have come over because if you're one of those guys maybe you're in the ufc and you're kind of in the mix for a belt and and if you win your next two fights you're

probably going to fight for it and you lose one of those fights and you think man now It's going to be four or five fights. I'm probably going to be out of my prime. I don't think I ever lost my shot. Or I can go over to the PFL and have a really decent shot at winning a million bucks. It's pulling people over. It's not like it's changing the game and the UFC's shaken in their boots by any means. It's really a drop in the bucket.

It hasn't really affected them at all. But for the fans and more purely for the athletes, it is a big change. And that, if anything, that's my hope for what this live golf thing does is even if it's, you know, the money just continues to be the big story. foments meaningful change that impact the athlete that's what I want because in those leagues that don't have an NHLPA don't have an whatever the players in in every other sport you need something outside to force that accountability right and sure it'd be great if we had a fighters you know players a fighters association but they've tried

a million times it's two individual they they they won't the UFC stands in the way of it every time and they you know maybe not as openly as this but really make the message hey you go there there's it's not going to be fun for you and that just creates they don't want they they wouldn't want that and they and they make that pretty clear without without saying it they say it right like that's and it's pretty clear to everybody and there's been a couple times or a bunch of back in the back in the day the NHL owners wouldn't have wanted the players in you're kidding me of course like who who wants to tell you what you know the owners even now the bill except now it's you know like you don't go to like Connor McDavid swings a big stick

Kail McCar swings a big fucking stick right yeah but going back to the the fighting for a second I've always thought New Year's Eve there should always be big big tilts like if the UFC was going to own one day of the year New Year's Eve should be hit you always get together with friends we're family, it doesn't matter but people are always together. And if you, it became like, you know, religiously, what are you doing tonight? Oh, we're right in the fights, man.

50 bucks, you throw it on, we're going to see whoever the, like to me, why they've never done that? And maybe I'm wrong in this. They have. It's not consistently every year. But it's not consistently every year, and that's what you need. Because I don't, right now I'm thinking, what do I expect to see on New Year's Eve?

World Junior's game, I think, would be the one that sticks at the most. Right? that's probably the one I'm always thinking that's crazy to me you would think how is it that like minor hockey or you know what I mean right

is is is the biggest event yeah I mean we're Canadian so and I think it's part of it I would imagine some of it's financial and their thoughts of yes if we like say you're the UFC and I think they usually they used to at least put an event on but it wouldn't be a pay-per-view even it'd be like they make a really good fight night for it so it's free to watch and they take advantage of that because i think when you dump when they put on these pay-per-views a lot more

money goes into it and they have to shell out because you're you're paying the fighters there's also a different level of pay so on the pay-per-views there's going to be champions fighting and for the most part all the champions get pay-per-view points so they get a little bit of percentage of it right so so you are tied to the performance of the event way more than you are and this has changed because they did that deal with the espn specifically talking the ufcc It completely changed the dynamic when they were really at the behest of the, you know, to make their money they had really had to deliver on these pay-per-views.

Now they don't really, because they get their money from ESPN. I don't know what the deal was, $400 million a year or something they get from. They just have to put on a certain amount of events. You can try and slice this anyway and try and convince me otherwise. But if, let's say the Stanley Cup final game, for some reason, ended on New Year's Eve, it was always going to be game seven. Somehow you could just make that work. Yeah.

The Super Bowl. Let's do the Super Bowl. It's easier. It's always going to be on New Year's Eve. Yeah. You can have good and bad Super Bowls. Like it happens every year, but you own New Year's Eve. For sure.

And the UFC pay-per-view on a New Year's Eve, good or bad, I go. It's going to do numbers. 100%. And I, here's, so I'm just trying to wrap my head around the reasons why they wouldn't. And this is just me guessing. But I think they know we have such success, it doesn't matter. We're so big and we have such a rapid fan base. That was a tough one.

that we can put it on any weekend and we don't have to compete with anybody now we do new years and there's so many parties and stuff going on that we might actually end up losing out because we can do it any other Saturday and have amazing success and everybody that wants to watch these fights are going to watch these fights we're going to draw those eyeballs but we might lose some of those guys that if it was any other night they'd be watching it but because they're out you know trying to chase after some girls or whatever you're doing and watching the ball drop on new years you might miss it I think that's probably what their their thought process and I think they do it differently they always so coming up at the end of the month is a huge pay-per-view you have c2s whatever the number is

and it's right around uh 4th of july they do it every year they used to do what they call it international fight week they would do and they would have it every time they used to do i think three cards they would have the finale of ultimate fighter i think on thursday they'd have a fight night card friday that's for free and then have a big pay-per-view on saturday they'd do three back-to-back nights and that was kind of every year new was coming and they would stack that thing that's when they'd always throw the brock lesnar out there and the anderson sova it would always be on those international fight week cards and they kind of tried to do the same thing and to own that that week right like your idea i think they probably just said instead of doing on new years where we're

competing out this let's just take this thing where you know fourth of july is a big weekend and there's always parties but that's usually daytime barbecue and more stuff and then at night we're going to own that night so they kind of took your idea but just put it to a different day a different right and maybe aren't as explicit about it whereas if you just picked like you like you could do if it was always the 31st right that's a little bit of different you know you're always picking the weekend or the Saturday around the 4th of July. So it's never the same day, right? It's always around the same time of year, right?

Whereas you're, and I think that might be a bit of semantics, but I think that matters. Where if you pick one day a year and you could pull off what you're talking about pulling off, I think in the long run, once it caught on, it would be huge and it would be successful. But I think they just at that point don't need to take that risk because they're so successful. They're almost a victim of their own success sometimes. That's what holds them back from making big moves like that is we're doing so good already. why would we risk changing this formula? Because they could own a day.

They could literally own New Year's Eve. I'm with you. I think the idea is great. I'm trying to put myself in their shoes of, you know, why? Because Dana, this is the thing. For my money, this is, I don't know if I've ever said this publicly before, but for my money, the most influential non-athlete to sports to any sport ever is Dana White. And I think he is, and this is the thing.

I can sit here and speak for hours and hours about the unfairness. in MMA and how these fighters are really, you know, getting shafted in certain ways. And it all, and it sounds like I'm really anti-UOC and I'm not. I love what they do and I love what they've built. And when you look at their incentive structure and why they do what they do and why they wouldn't do what they do or why they wouldn't do other things, it all makes sense. And it's all to make money. And why would they go pay people more if they're not forced to, right?

And that's where you need fighter unions. You need competition. you need things to force them to make these changes because why would you if you're dana white and you you go oh yeah i agree with the public sentiment that these fighters that are coming in the uc we need to bump up our minimum you know paying guys eight eight and eight is too cheap for uh what these guys are putting on the line we're going to raise it so every fighter no matter if they've had zero fights if they come in the ufc they're going to make 15 and 15 you know 15 grand to show 15 grand if they win just out of the goodness of his heart they're owned by a huge corporation

they go okay dana white you got saw See you later. That's what capitalism does. Dana White's now out of a job, but somebody else comes in and he doesn't make that call. It is so not his fault and people. And I feel like that is what

is the biggest thing holding back from change is everyone has their guns pointed at the wrong guy. You know, you can yell and scream at Dana White all you want. It's really not his decision at the end of day. You just don't understand capitalism at that large of a scale. And people just waste so much time

screaming and yelling at this guy that can, even if he wanted to make that change, he couldn't. he'd be out of a job right and it's like that frustrates me at times because you see all these people that have so much passion for this subject absolutely screaming into a pillow in my in my estimation you know they're accomplishing nothing with it i'm still focused on uh owning a day no no uh Dana white being the most influential non-athlete who would you throw who would you throw out there well the guy but i didn't know that's what i'm looking at is vince McMahon okay i

I would agree with you if you consider pro wrestling sports, then I would say yes. And I'm not here to argue whether it is or isn't, right? Like I think that's it. It's entertainment. It's entertainment for sure, right? But like, and so is fighting. Fighting is the biggest thing of entertainment, but it's also a sport.

Do I'll say this. Do all the sports leagues steal bits and pieces from what Vince McMahon has done? million percent then it doesn't matter he is an influential one of okay behind Vince McMahon I'll give you that one I agree with you on that I think he is it just for me for my money I probably wouldn't I just don't think of him when I think of sports well because he's not one of the big the big five or big four whatever it is MLB NHL NFL NBA and over the pandemic what's the next couple we go it's it's NFL's NFL NFL MBA MLB NHL those are the big four and that's the order

For a certain, but you know who's in fifth now? UFC. UFC? And you know who's hot on the heels of the M of the NHL? UFC. They're almost, they're almost tied for that, for that spot at this point. And that was over the pandemic when everyone else shut down Dana White. And they found a way to keep going.

Yeah. Piss off. We're doing events like, this is craziness. You can't shut us down and went out. And they just the popularity skyrocketed. They did the same thing that the NFL did. Yeah. And they're a little bit, there, it worked.

out to their favor because they're a little bit brash and they're a little bit like we don't give a shit what you say and their season runs all year long yeah which is another big difference right like the NFL had the whole COVID thing kicked off in September maybe the NFL would have been that one that was saying booster but they got so the NFL got to have say April may June July August September they got roughly six months of watching UFC go watch not the USC watching Dana White, go out and just take slings and arrows for six months, being the scumbag of the world, killing everyone's grandma and just not giving a fuck and absolutely raking it in for it, making all the money in the world, you know, just, and like doubling, show after show of just getting more

numbers and more numbers and building stars out of it. Like there's so many people that came out of this because it was their only show in town. Me as an MMA fan was so much fun to watch because people I know that would never, I didn't even know they ever watch it, but there's nothing else to watch on Saturday. They'd be texting me, who is this guy? who's and I'm just sitting there like a kid in a candy store like let me tell you who this guy is like here's his back story who's the from this is his mom's name you know because I'm a goddamn nerd but like then the NFL got to watch that see them lay the groundwork for exactly what

could be done if you're bold enough and then all the things and arrows and it's a different story six months and then they go be you know they're they go back and do empty stadium shows whatever they did I don't know I kind of lost touch of the NFL the last couple years don't watch it as much but really yeah I don't know what it is I think honestly no what I think it is is just the further I fall into this MMA rabbit hole and I love it so much it takes so much to kind of spread around to my other auxiliary sports which is everything and I think golf ending into that too. Exiliary sports now that's a what auxiliary sports that's a great term I love that yeah no and then I get to watch when the Oilers go deep on the playoffs so it's not like I really

missed any Oilers game but I was so in the mindset of the Oilers for this whole playoff run right and doing podcasts and everything for it that I found myself miss out on MMA I was missing cards which I never miss a card right I just wouldn't get caught up with it and you see you see who's at the top of the game by where your attention goes right that's the big thing that's Jordan Peterson's biggest thing right attention is everything right of what what your eye and what your mind draws you to like that's essentially what everything else is built upon because that's what we had first then we built everything off after that I think I lost you there just let a look on your face I was trying to remember who always

about attention and I'm drawing a blank on it. Sorry, it could be Jordan Peterson. Not Jordan Peterson. Actually, somebody of me were just literally talking about. Was it Jordan Peterson and somebody else? Because I just listened to a podcast where he really laid that concept out just like yesterday or the day before.

Yeah. It was one of those more recent ones. Yeah. And maybe that's what it is. Sorry, that's where you caught me thinking in my head. I know I've heard this literally not that long ago. And that's probably where it's from.

Do you, would you say like, of like the podcast you listen to. You know, I'm always curious with people that do podcasts, like what, what their favorite podcasts are.

And we've talked differently over the years. I think the, I don't know if it's the first or the second time we talked. We were talking about it. And you were talking about Joe Rogan going to Spotify and how that kind of you fell off and weren't listened to it at all. And then now,

you know, I say that. And Spotify is what happened to me. I got removed from YouTube. So I actually have come to really enjoy, I listen to more things on Spotify than Apple now. I've almost complete. And I,

if I could go back and slap that, Sean, I probably would because it's just like things have changed. Can we not to change directions on this, but you just hit me with those moments that, you know, I didn't even think about talking about this with you going in, but it's something that we probably should have a conversation about is getting removed from YouTube. And like you said, earlier in this conversation, you talked about that switch you made when you went from not really talking about the COVID stuff and really going all in with it and diving in. And for myself, it was different because I was talking about, like episode, you go back to episode one of the Von Dubcast. That was one of the first things I was talking about it. And it was when the pandemic was still. And I was highlighting all the stuff and like, this is fishy to me.

This is fishy to me. Like how, you know, like these people that are calling all these shots are all funded by China. Like none of this makes sense and this is really scary to me. Like, and we didn't even get. I had no idea what I was in for. But I was talking about this at every point. I never stopped. Because that's just who I was.

And that's what interests me. And I never took a second thought to really think about what I'm going to put out. And over the course of that. I put out some episodes and I got a couple strikes on my YouTube page and I'm sitting at two right now. One more. I'm in the same situation as you. My YouTube page is gone and those hundreds of hours of work that went into building it and not to mention I'm not really good with the money. So I had to pay thousands of dollars to people to get those videos uploaded.

You know, could have been not lazy and done it myself or figured it out. So now I did the episode with you the other day and we talk about your experience at the trucker convoy and there's not an ounce of anything. even remotely questionable in it for my money right like I don't think we really talked to when I think that taboo and then I get message from the guy that helps me to the podcast and he goes are you sure you want to put the Sean new one up on YouTube you have two strikes you know what's going to happen and since then or last week I've just been absolutely torn I don't know what to do because it you know like the like you say thousands of dollars and so much effort in that YouTube page that I've tried to build up

and put my morals say fuck that I want to put that this up and I'll take my arrows and I'll go down and I've flip flopped on it probably 15 times and I don't know what to do and then I have the Peter McCullough episode that just got released in the video my YouTube page is backed up to your episode because I don't want to put them up out of order but I don't know what decision to make on that because I know for a fact exactly what's going to happen if it's not your episode will be dr. McCullough's and I'll be that'll be my third strike and the YouTube page is gone so I suppose when I want to ask to you if someone that's already been down that road and taking that hit can you maybe walk me

through what that felt like when it happened to you and now with a couple months in between it do you regret the decision how do you feel about it and can you maybe give me any sort of pointers to help me walk down this path there's no regret um I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt because it took it took probably close to three years to get to where it actually had traction what I mean by traction for the listener is you know like you if You would have went back and looked at my, did Ron McLean. It got like, I'm kidding here. It didn't get five views, but I'm not shitting you when it's like 72 views.

Yeah. And you had. YouTube is a hard nut to crack. Yes, it is. And so I had a lot of that, you know, 72 here, 20 over here, 30 over here, 14 over there. And this goes on and on and on. And then all of a sudden you start to see 200. And you're like, oh, that's kind of cool.

Yeah. I'm not sitting here like race into the, you know, because my mainstay of people listening is Spotify, Apple. I think Apple is still king last time I tracked. Yeah, mine's over 50% of the Apple. But you can see that Spotify's slowly catching traction. You can watch it too. And you can watch it now, yeah. And except for this episode because I didn't turn the cameras on, folks.

I'm sorry. Sorry, I meant you can watch as a podcaster and you can like I can too. As Spotify has become more of a main player, you watch like it used to be 70% of the downloads that would be through Apple. And now it's maybe 60. and every percentage point that Apple dropped is Spotify picking up and you can watch it in real time become more of that means. And on mine,

80% of the episodes, there's video with it now. So you can actually watch. Through Spotify. Yeah. Really? I didn't even know that was an option for non-Joe Rogans.

They emailed me saying I could do it. And I was like, holy shit. This is pretty fucking cool. Yeah. No way. Yeah, that's fucking cool. Anyways. Yeah.

Oh, shit. probably I found these mic arms that this little connection here just give it a little pitch yeah um that's strange that's it fix it no oh no it's right here there it's very back me two podcasts you're sitting here trying to figure out my headphones went out um so the youtube thing it's like do you regret it no not not for a second honestly it's cemented certain things about uh COVID about censorship the only way you can fully like understand how close to home it is is when it happens to you. So like things happen to Joe Rogan, there's almost like, yeah, yeah, like that's crazy. Brett Weinstein and like, oh man, that's crazy.

But I'm like, I never happened to me. It's kind of like COVID, you know, the kids in Calgary, oh, it won't never happen in Lloyd. They'll never have, you know, and then all of a sudden it starts happening. Like, the hell am I doing? And so like, so going back to it. So for the listener, I'm talking about, you know, 100 views here, 100 views there. On the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal. Actually, it was a huge time commitment to put it up on YouTube.

But YouTube is a lovely platform. I haven't found anything that's remotely like it. Spotify actually is a close second, to be honest, in my opinion. At least for podcast specifically. Yes, specifically. But by the end of it, I was getting anywhere from 1,000 to 50,000 downloads on YouTube. Wow. So like you can imagine my eyes were starting to pop out of my head as I was like this is like this is what you kind of are doing right? You're like you're waiting for this like

holy din. And you're busting ass for it too. Yes you are waiting. You're busting ass for it. And I know I get to see behind the scenes and I know because I do a similar thing of how hard it is to get those guests and to organize and to schedule like there's so much it goes into it that you weren't waiting for it to get there. You were busting your ass to get there and you earned it. So I get All that. Yeah. And I've had on, you know, like, yeah, I've had on some controversial people. But overall, I don't think the conversation was go kill people or, you know, racist comments or whatever, right?

Like, I even have to justify myself at this point. But I interview everybody knows this. Like, I think by now most people know, I interview Chris Barber. And I sit down and I interview Chris, and it's this, of all the fucking interviews I've done, it was fucking harmless. thing that wasn't harmless to what happened was how big the freedom convoy got and how big of anything associated to Chris Barber. You know, it's funny. I never thought I would be where it would be contemplated, you know, and the first guy to say

that to me was Vance Crow. And I've been on his podcast multiple times, right? And he said the last time, you know, like something about me being radioactive. I still take offense to it. I'm like, what are you taught? Like, man, I haven't done anything. All I've done is talk to people. people and my views are not that extreme they're just like ask questions treat

each other you know love your community and your family and your people anyways and so like I don't know is there any regrets no did it hurt yeah because I just started to see this like light of holy dinah yeah like this is super cool I just you know I didn't pay any money on YouTube right I didn't I'm sure there's ways to get your subscribers up and there's some entrepreneur listening to me going, you should have just done this and this and this and you would have 50,000 followers right off the start, right? In order to get paid on YouTube, you have to have content watched.

And for a podcast, that's easy. You have to have so many hours. Hours watched. Yeah, like that's easy. You get three people to listen to four podcasts. And you're over this thing. And like the thing is, I had hundreds upon, well, thousands upon thousands of hours watched. Like, it was ridiculous.

But then you have to have a thousand subscribers. And that, to me, was a tough nut to crack. Because, like, in the beginning, I wasn't, I didn't really promote it. I just put it out because some people like video. I don't love video for a podcast. I want to listen. And I hit over a thousand subscribers. I was just, you could see where this was going.

I was like, wow, this is cool. So it hurt. It really hurt. Where I sit right now is, like, I'm like, do I go back in under, like, Sean Newman podcast 2.0? or something and start, you know, building it again. I'm like, I don't know. It's this conundrum we're in.

Do you want to talk about the things you want to talk about? Well, for me, it's not even like, to me, I'm like, that's a dumb question, yes. So I haven't given any thought. Like, I wouldn't do anything any different. YouTube just sent me an email saying you've been removed. Your channel is gone. It sucked. Did you ever try and talk to them or, uh,

I emailed them several times and never nothing back. Like, I don't think it's just Sean Newman did this. It's just the algorithm going, he is associated with this. He's had this many strikes and boom, you're gone. And so, like, I don't know. I feel like, honestly, if there's any advice, it's like, well, if you're going to keep going down this path, it's inevitable. Yeah.

And that's where I'm at too. And it's like, I know regardless of what I put it up or whether I have. a YouTube page or not, I'm still going to talk about the same things, right? And yet, who's the British actor? Um, shit. What the hell is his name? Yeah, forgetting Sarah Marshall. You know what I'm talking about? No, I don't. Oh, Russell Brand. Russell Bratt. He's found a way It's amazing that he, you know, he doesn't say, you know, we're not allowed to talk about the shot or, you know, he never uses a certain key. Yeah. And he works the algorithm a different. different way it's very brilliant it's amazing so like and also but I think even he does it's a

combination of that and him already being uh Joe Rogan talks about um escaping the net right there's a certain way where you get big enough where you're outside of their control where russell brand is that where if they okay so they unfairly kibosh your youtube channel they get ready and Sean Newman no long has a podcast does that crack the news does that make cbc no not even remotely close that to Russell brand there's a whole different shitstorm coming for them. So they know, so they,

it's, it's definitely him being smart. And I love how he goes about it. And he does it an amazing way. And everyone would be benefited by going to check out his YouTube channel right now. Like, you know, as much as I never want to tell anyone to turn the podcast,

I'm go to go check it out. But like, just go to it. Well, don't turn it off. Pause. Yeah, pause,

go subscribe. And then, and then come back. Exactly. But I think that YouTube knows that's a much different animal. And they can, it almost makes it more like they got to get the guys

they can get because there's already guys that got out of the net and aren't going to be doing it and that adds another layer of importance Joe Rogan leaving him hurt yeah I mean they're way too big of a monster to feel any hurt to feel that

yeah but Joe Rogan getting ahead of it was brilliant it was and if you you always have to you never know how much you're you're taking at face value for what he's saying he always could have you know more that he's not letting on but the way if to hear him tell it it was almost coincidence you know like he could see the writing on the wall and like this the the censorship starting to come on youtube and stuff but i think in his

head he kind of thought i'm you know if there's going to be a shit storm if they kibosh russell brand there will be a full shit hurricane you get rid of joe wrote like he has he's the has the most rabid fan base in the world for anything more than any sports team more than anything like you they wouldn't even know and i think they know and i think he knew that so he kind of thought yeah i don't agree with what they're doing and i don't really want to be a part of it but i don't think it ever worries me right and he so then they pulled donald trump from twitter so to me i go and he has maybe the most rabid fan base not only to his country yeah and so i go uh it isn't coincidence Joe is way smarter than he lets on at times,

which is brilliant. I really enjoy it, right? He knew. The writing was on the wall. Whether, like, the things he would have been dealing with between YouTube in the background must have been wild. Because honestly, like Sean Newman getting pulled out, like there's, I'm just another minion in the cog of things

that just got wiped out from YouTube. And, you know, like Jeremy McKenzie, raging dissident, is a guy who's been removed from, you know, he's kind of like the Canadian Alex Jones, and he's fighting some serious fights right now with the Canadian government. And, like, he's got a wild story. And he just, you know, but he's still small enough. He can go back on his raging dissident two or whatever and have a YouTube channel again. That's why I bring it up.

It's like, well, do you just bite the bullet and go back? Because the platform is so smooth to use. Exactly. And everybody uses YouTube. I must say hate YouTube. It's kind of like Amazon. You're like, I want to support the local guy,

but I need this thing and it can be here tomorrow and I don't have to, you know, I'm busy with whatever you do. Okay, it's there, done. And it's such a sound, smooth operation. You're like, fuck, I hate you, but, you know,

sometimes you just got to do what you got to do. And I wonder, you know, if you know the algorithms, if you try and like re-upload your catalog, you can get the same strikes for the same episodes more than likely on the algorithm or maybe they'll pick some other episodes and give you strikes where they didn't an idea that just occurred to me as you were talking was if you go in and every time you have an episode that you know is going to get strikes you just put it in

because i was thinking i wonder if people would notice you know if just every once in a while you had the numbers skipped like oh they went from 149 right to 151 where's 150 and they would put together oh it can't be on youtube i'll go find it otherwise but just to put it up You know, like if I decide that with your episode where it's, okay, I'm going to hit episode. You know, I just listen to 149. I'm going to go to 150. And they pull it up and it's just me saying,

hey, I would love for you to hear this episode on YouTube. But unfortunately, there's nothing in this episode that deserves the ire that it's going to bring on to me, but I can't put it up here. If you want to find it, go look at Spotify, Apple.

You can find it in those places. And hopefully one day YouTube comes their senses and we can put it up here and we can all enjoy this conversation together. And just have that as them. You know, like, that's just me troubleshooting a ways. to, you know, Russell Brown your way into gaming the system and having, getting what you can up there and taking advantage of that amazing platform without compromising.

Yeah. But even that is compromising, right? Yeah, it's, it's tough. You know, I was just, you know, this learn about COVID, like, thing that gets put on all your episodes. I'm sure you know all about it. Like, I'm just looking back, like, I hear exactly what you're saying. You know, so some of the episodes I got Yangford was Roger Hockinson.

He's a doctor. They're very, very well respected. But very like blunt. So I'm like, okay, I understand. I understand why they don't like them. Then it was, God damn, what was his name? He worked on the border.

He was Border Patrol. I'm forgetting his name right now. Okay, I think I listened that one. I know Hugh to talk about him. And he was a bit extreme. He was just a wild man. Hell, he pulled his shirt off in the middle of it. He was an interesting sit down, right?

And I'm like, okay, actually at the start, I'm like, okay, I kind of get it. I'm like, okay, Sean, you know, all right. You're riding. A little bit, maybe, yeah. The third one was a marine biologist. But he was a part of, God, Sean's brain isn't working right now. How many episodes ago was that?

Let me pull it up here. Because he was a marine biologist, Todd Kenyon, a marine biology and mechanical engineer and a financial analyst, but he's a part of panda, pandemic, analytic, and data. And he told me as soon as I put it on YouTube and it got pulled, he's like, they don't like us.

And I'm like, oh, really? And it was, you know, like it doesn't even get on Spotify. It doesn't even get to learn about COVID hashtag. It has nothing. Right? Like, yeah. And you think about that.

You're like, that's what, they were pulling back then was anything to do with COVID anything anything invention ivermectin anything yeah that was my third strike there and my final and everything gets removed was Chris barber and that had nothing to do with COVID well I mean it had everything to do with COVID but right it was talking about the freedom convoy and we saw what that blew up to be yeah like I don't know it's um it's tough I think we were we're we're a very precarious time yeah you know like um I I had the flight boys Greg Hill and Matt Sattler on free to fly. And they're at, you know, first question, you know, once you build rapport, as we

both know with guests who've been on once or twice before. You know, first thing they're like, how's full-time podcasting? Yeah. I'm like, ah. And I was so tongue-tied again, you know? And they're like, oh. And I'm like, we got, you got, yeah. And I kind of catch you myself on my.

I'm like, we got to understand, like, they're attacking free speech right now, and that now is attacking my profession. Exactly. Like, and I don't think I'm that extreme, but I do like having open dialogue being able to and being able to talk to anybody I want. And trusting my audience is smart enough to get guests as, I don't, I don't have every guest on and all of a sudden, I'm just like, they are so smart. Yeah.

And I'm like, you know, like, Bill C-11 and let's the other one, Bill. C-10, C-15, or whatever. There's a whole bunch. There's a whole bunch. They're trying to like, they're trying to like... Give themselves as much control as they can to say what can and can't be said. Even on Spotify. On social media, everywhere.

On the internet in general. Right. Which is a very scary power to give anybody. Whether you trust them to use it well or not, the next guy might not use it. So I don't know if I've given you any help on the YouTube thing. Yeah. I'm just... It does help to hear exactly how you lay it out. to see your experience with it, it does help.

It hasn't answered the question for me on what I want to do, but, you know, like, well, I respect you any way you want, which create, what you know what's honestly crazy to me? What's that? Is that you interviewing me may get you removed on YouTube. You know how fucking crazy that is? You want to, anyone who knows me, I'm just like, I'm not, am I, have I become that extreme guy?

Yeah. Like, I'm, like, I'm, like, what am I doing that's so fucking extreme? Like, that that's the conversation that gets around. Except you're not the first got to say it. So one of my strikes, Sean, was one of my solo episodes of just me, talking to myself when they first mandated the big Alberta changes for the vaccines and what was mandated, what you couldn't, couldn't do with or without a vaccine. And that came out.

I just sat, I read through them, you know, didn't, you know, physically, but just like was absolutely kicked in the teeth with seeing this of just not even knowing, the experience for myself of what I was about to go through and what rights I had just lost in a moment of them putting that in because I am, you know, never got vaccinated and still haven't been. And, you know, and just sat there, read through it and asked questions. This doesn't really make sense to me. Why is this like if the vaccine doesn't help prevent spread? Like, what is the difference between going into a concert or doing this and just ask questions. And just ask questions. Like, what is going into a concert or doing this. And just ask questions. And just asked questions. Like, I would love for someone from Alberta health or do. And just ask, ask, questions at it and just said, like, I would love for someone from Alberta Health to come. and educate me on this. Maybe I have this completely wrong. It didn't, you know, just gave my opinion, just asked questions, ask questions, just that this doesn't make sense to me. This is, can someone explain this to me?

And I got a strike for that, misinformation. I didn't even say anything. I just asked questions about what was put forth. And I got a strike. And you go through the exact same thing you just said. Am I blind? Have I changed? Am I completely out to lunch?

Am I some, you know, pick any of the words that Justin Trudeau got in up in front of the country and labeled everyone that thinks differently as? Like, am I that person? because I don't feel like it and I don't think like it. And I have a lot of friends that are on the other side that we still get along with and I can still have conversations with. And frankly, they have some of the same questions I do that I just laid out here. But yet, due to the algorithms, due to that, you get the strike either way.

And it's unappealable. There's nothing to say about it. You just get it. Well, and I don't have the lawyers to go, you know, right? Exactly. Exactly. This isn't just happening to, the thing is, it graduated from just happening. happening to the one side, right?

And I put me and you on a side, like, whatever. But like, even to the side that, I remember reading the story about the side that was pro vaccines, they started getting strikes. For sure. Just for talking about the words in it, yeah. And everyone's like, what the hell is going on? Like, everybody's thinking it. It's like, this is insanity right now.

Like, literally, like, everybody stares at the, you know, if you follow Joe Rogan, you're like, well, he had Alex Jones on. and he said some pretty crazy stuff about Sandy Hook and things like that and it's like, yeah, it's already been removed. And I mean, you... I didn't say anything about Sandy Hook

on his podcast. He had a guy on who had previously talked about that and then they dispelled and ignored and set the record straight on it. It's because Alex Jones is Alex Jones. He has a show that is, sure, hits on some things, but at times it is like...

Misses. Oh, big misses too. They take swings. They take swings. swings. And so but that's what's happening right now. Is so if you you know like would I have Alex Jones on

tomorrow? I would. I think that would be a wild conversation. It would. And that would likely get you removed from just about fucking everything. Yeah, be lucky they don't come in the studio and steal your mics from me at that point. Yeah, this you are unable. Well that's what Justin Trudeau.

We've taken, we've confiscated all. Sean Newman Sean Newman's podcast, Mike's, because he just can't be responsible enough to have the right people on. Alex Jones is not to be trusted. It's like, well, I trust my audience. The audience is smarter than me.

Exactly. And like you look at these conversations. That's exactly what the other conversations and are questions that should be asked. The infantilization that that, the precedent of infantilization that sets that you are not smart enough to judge for yourself when we need to completely,

nerve every edge and and you know put things through these filters so that you can be okay and you can't be responsible enough as an adult to make these decisions for yourself we have to for the for the greater good which any time you see people say that or their reasoning after one or two steps get down to oh it's for it's for your own good or it's for the greater good read some history books and see when that rationalization has ever worked and look at where some of the biggest atrocities have ever happened in the world and look at exactly what the rationale was. It's exactly that. And that's not a red flag. You know, like, just to know that, I would never use the greater good as a rationale just because I've read history and I know what that, what that echoes.

And for you to be that out of touch to use that rationale just shows like that you don't even, either you're just so inept and so ignorant that you don't realize it or you've just never read history before, which might be true with some of the people in power, you don't know, Or you're just so, you're so out of touch that you don't realize that or you don't care. Like, and I don't know which one's worse. Neither of those are good. But I don't even know which one's worse to me. I think not caring is a dangerous, I don't know, but you're right.

But also to be in that position of power to not be aware of that. Like, I know you've read some books. Like you've read like Gulag Archipelago, I know, and we've had some discussions on that, right? Like, like, that should, to reach a certain level of power, you should almost have to read certain books like that or in that certain vein of things to recognize. Well, me and Daniel Smith had this conversation the last time she was on, not about books in particular, just about what should a politician, what should be the co-offications to go into politics?

Yeah. Is you have to run a business? Is it, is that, or is it that you have to go to school for something? I don't have the answer. I actually don't have the answer. You're just posing the question. Pose of the question. Like, what is it?

Like, is it just you care about the being good and your value? Like, I have no idea. And how do you prove that? And how do you prove it? right like I don't know the answer I just know that I want if I could be something if I could take a bunch of hockey players and put them in politics I that's what I would do and I'm pro hockey obviously but I love a lot of the team dynamics that some of the you know you look at the NHL the amount of pressure they're put under like they can handle some shit yeah and our politicians can't handle shit Well, we need right now in the world. Nobody wants to get into politics. Why?

Because people will eat you alive. No matter which side of the fence you stand on, even if you stand right on the middle, people are going to eat you alive. So right away, you need to have thick skin and still stand for your beliefs. And what politician did that? Rhonda Santis,

the lady from South Dakota, right? Those two come to mind. There's probably a couple others. Yeah. Tulsa Gabbard. And you add on to that. If you do choose to be that rare politician that escapes the net that keeps their values like me and you have had this conversation. I feel very strongly that it is one in a million for you to be able to get through all the things that are set in place to impede you.

If you are someone that has strong values and that believes them is going to stand by them, they are going to weed you out. Right. So then you see a Tulsi Gabbard. She gets through that net because she was. you know, served in the army, did all these things as an amazing human, like, and then starts speaking out about, against both the left and right, about the corruption and things that she's seeing. They labeled her a Russian, Hillary Clinton was out there saying that she was a Russian asset

and all this stuff. Like, she served in the U.S. military, like, just like the most outrageous, heinous things. Like she's a puppet of Putin and stuff, like unsubstantiated, nothing. But you see that nothing scares them more, right? the left isn't scared of the right it's the same people they go have barbecues with them that night right they're all fun they all go to the same people for money they'll go to the same people the only thing that scares them is someone that will highlight the corruption in both sides right like a telsie gabber like that thing we talked about on my pocket the unity project with brett weinson

was trying to steal back the power of this two-party system in the states and try and put it into the people to actually have the people's interest at heart they rallied the troops of tech politicians to absolutely crush that thing and everybody came together both the left and the right to crush that doubt because there's nothing that scares them more. So let's stick to Alberta then. Okay. I love bringing up Alberta politics right now because I keep saying, and whether I'm right or wrong, don't matter.

It's my look at this. I think the next premier of Alberta is Jay Woodcroft. And I mean that is that like literally his track record of how he gets his deal. So Jay Woodcroft, obviously you know this, but for the listener, right, is the new head coach of the Emmington Oilers. But if you rewind the clock, he gets brought in, what is it? Like two and a half months, three months before the end of the season. They're out of a playoff spot, six or seven points.

Really, you should figure out if it was six or seven. But you get the point. They weren't doing good. In comes Jay Woodcroft. What an opportunity. Has the second best record in the NHL as a head coach in that duration. Put them in the playoffs. Wins his first round.

And it wasn't easy. as we all know. Ben meets his provincial rival, destroys him. Sorry, Calgary fans. I'm not sorry. And then loses the Colorado, and we all know how that goes.

Anyways, what it ends up having? He gets a three-year deal. And I'm like, hmm, the next premier of Alberta is Jay Woodcroft. They're going to win this leadership race.

And they're going to have a short runway to do something impactful, I think. Maybe I'm wrong on this. I don't quite understand politics. But I look at it and I go, they have this small opportunity where they're like, they could literally get in, do whatever they want,

because right now the conservative party has been a bit of a hot mess. It's a bit in jambles, yeah. So they have a real short window, and then they have to run for election again. Yeah. And to me, I'm like, they're J. Woodcar. They have this, like, crazy opportunity. When does this happen when you vote your leader, which it has happened before, just not, you know, this isn't every second year.

This happens. This is rare. So they get to come in, they get to do something, they got to win another election, and they got to move on. I agree with all that. But I think you already know where I'm going with this. None of it, none of it matters. You don't think Daniel Smith can get in and shake it up. You don't think Todd Lowen, who spoke out early on.

You don't think any of them, if they got elected, they could make meaningful changes to move Alberta to somewhere we are. all want to hang her hat to be the Florida of Canada or the Texas of Canada or whatever you want to call it South Dakota I think they can try their damnedest I do and to be completely fair my expertise is way more in American politics than Canadian politics to me isn't that a wild state isn't that wild hey and I that's our that's a Canadian problem we focus on American politics over our own and our own is what governs us like if fuck isn't sure for sure it is but also I think we are government a lot more by U.S. politics than we think.

And we are just, we take whatever the hot button, the whatever the hot topic is in the U.S., we take it through our, you know, it's kind of this left right divide pushing against each other. It goes through this Canadian lens with the hot button topic. And it gets completely shifted about six steps left because we don't even have a right in Canada. We're at our core, just leftist.

That's what we are. We're the polite, nice people. And we get the most jacked up, you know, left-wing American politics. on steroids is our standard, right? Like that's what the bill, you know, C-10, C-17, like, that's exactly what that is. And that's why I put more focus on them because I think that has more of an impact directly than whoever the fuck sits in the seats in Canada.

Then on top of that is the point I was going to make is, yes, there's opportunity for actual valued brave patriotic Canadians to weasel the way into that system and make change. And if they do, they will put everything in front of them from both the left and the right to stop them from going any further because that is the threat. That's the biggest threat they have to them. Like I said, it's not, they paint everything to be in this view that they want everyone to think it's left versus right. Right.

And that's what they, that's what gives them powers. Everybody being in this concept where they, at left versus right when it's all a sham and what it really is is establishment versus anti-establishment right and nobody can see that but it's it's these people that want the same it doesn't matter if if if the if the republicans win or the democrats win right it's almost better off to be you know paid opposition right you still keep your job you still go fight against them but now you don't have the pressure you don't have to take as many slings and arrows for the next four years and then maybe you win you get a little bit more power but it really doesn't matter the people

that are paying them all and the lobbies that are paying them all they're paying both sides the ones that are really making the shots, the corporations that have so much more power than any, you know, like, you think Jeff Bezos has less power that name any politician within Canada or America.

Well, one of the things people, I didn't know this until I interviewed Paul Shue, my professor of history back, how long ago I interviewed him. Anyways, he talked about how the donation limit was scrap for institutions. So, like Jeff Bezos

Can donate as much as you want Yeah, the Koch brothers The corporations can donate as much as they want Raytheon, right? And to me, I'm like, That's fucking wild. Yeah, and it seems wild, but here's the thing. It's not even that wild

Because that's just the dog and pony show There was never anything stopping them from. Yeah, it made it a little bit easier where they had to put it through shell companies or they had to put it through this. But there was never anything holding them back. If they wanted to put money, it was so easy for them. And it always has been.

You know, you rag on, not you, just in general. Probably be too. We rag on politics. But like, what would you do different? Like, I mean, you got the two-party system, relative. I mean, in Canada, we got 18 parties. But, I mean, it's literally conservative liberal is, for the most part. I mean, Alberta, conservative MDP, you get the point.

I have some pretty wild ideas of how to change it. Would they ever happen? Not a chance, right? But that's me, and that's, I'm a solution guy, right? I hate sitting there. I would never talk about these things if I didn't have some wild, crazy ideas in my head of what would fix it. I don't know if I have a wild crazy idea, so I'm interested.

Fire away. All right. So I think you need to completely not just take out rules of what you can or can't pay for, and this is going to be a huge barrier. And the reason why this wouldn't work is because free speech and something I'm so passionate about in free speech is everything to me. But that's, especially in America, right? the free speech would impinge on this,

but you take away any money in politics. You have a set amount that comes in. It's in the tax bill. Both sides get $100 million to run their campaign. You can't take any other money for any people. Both sides get it. And now you put that money towards kind of what you want, but we're going to take the bulk of what's going to happen

is going to be long-form conversation. That's not made. It's not debate-style. It's going to be mediated where it's like this. It's a podcast where through it out while you're running, you have to actually defend your ideas in the long form and there's actually be accountability forced back into it. It's not this dog and pony show.

The debates are so useless. You get zero information out of them. They don't do anything. And I know that's something close to your heart. I'm not sure you're going to want to jump in on all this because it's very similar to the ideas you have to fix it, right? And that's the thing. We're not far off on what our D is to fix it are,

but I think you need to go further. And even then it doesn't fix the problem. But what it's going to do is highlight the problem that everyone's so blinded from of that. All they're doing right now is giving you, saying whatever they have to say to get through it so that they can get back in power and they can keep doing the bidding of corporations, whoever's paying them. And them pretending to care about what the people think is all just dog and pony show, right? And that's what those debates are. They're set up so we can make it look like we're actually addressing these issues when we're actually not doing anything.

Maybe we have a bigger problem. Hit me. Nobody gives a shit. Nobody gives, that is a huge problem. Do you think that's a huge problem or do you think that's a symptom? Because I think I don't know the answer to that question either. I'm just trying to think about it in real time here. But for sure that's an issue.

But now is that a symptom of it's so corrupt? Because that's me. What amplifies my not giving a fuck is knowing how useless it and how corrupt it all is. But even if it like the corruption and everything. Right. That comes about because nobody gives a shit. So that's been going on for a long time. Right?

The nobody giving a shit just didn't happen. Nobody giving a shit You go through a stage of your life Where you don't give a fuck People talk about having kids And all of a sudden you like This means something now And I for me that makes a lot of sense

Yeah A lot of people talk Especially on the conservative side That when government starts to infiltrate your life They take notice Because for conservatives I think Government you're not supposed to notice them

That's general consensus right Like Yeah they're supposed to be to do the people's bidding and businesses don't want to know they're there let us do what we do and we'll pay you whatever you need and we'll just carry on kind of you know that's simplistic but that's the general idea somehow and this is probably cyclical in democracy specifically somehow it's gotten to a point where you know like i forget what i'd love to know what the numbers are I should bring on the numbers guy to like break it down of like how many people actually

vote yeah it's wild to me it's it's low it's always shocking every year it's shockingly low right and you go sub 40% why is that and then you just break that down so one of the things you know I'm a solutions guy as well like I love complaining about things just like anyone yeah but I actually pose the question because I'm like well if you got some great idea well I'm on the firm belief we're only one leader away from it being enacted. Honestly, I'm that hopeful, and it's probably ill-advised, but I don't know how else to live life. I can't go down this road of like-denialism of it.

That's right. Yeah. So I look at it and I go for Alberta here, what I'm trying to pull off is certainly not an official debate because I don't think the conservative party is going to look at me and go, oh, Sean Newman's the guy we want. but I would love to have prospective leadership candidates come to a debate. Yeah. Relative podcast style.

It'll be still on stage. Yeah. But it'll be like what I did in Lloyd with the different people. And I think, like, I've watched the debates from the federal. I never would have done that 10 years ago. I'm watching, I'm like, this is, this is bad. But I, like, you kind of get a feel for people, but you don't. And I watched the federal debate the last time.

And I was like, like, I want to hear Trudeau speak. I really want him to be pushed. Have you ever heard him speak? I have. No, I, I, but, but I, do you know what I'm saying? I understand what you're saying. I feel like I've never heard that guy ever told. So, social media, what I find interesting about social media is, um, they love to make him

look like a buffoon. Now, that's easy at times. Obviously, he gives a lot of ammo for that. But I've watched him on some talk shows, and he's better than people think. But, in saying that he doesn't have ever a host that pushes back and i'm not going to be a moderator who is just like you know but you have to have a style where where whoever the conservative leader gets to push him on things and we don't have a style right now that allows for a debate to actually

happen maxine bernier i don't know if you know like the the strategic placements of things so that it doesn't happen is very interesting to me maxine bernier had enough of the popular vote back when the federal election has happened to be on that stage. He certainly, in my opinion, whether you love Maxim or not, would have been way better than the guy from Quebec. He's literally on stage on our federal fucking debate saying, I don't care about the rest of Canada. I'm not running for the leader anyways, so you don't want to ask me. Me, Minion of Kenya goes, get that guy off stage.

Put somebody at least wants the Green Party, she's like, well, we only care about these. these issues, it's like, get her off the stage. If it needs to be a two or three person debate, I'm fine with that. If Maxine Bernier is going to go on and stir crap up, like, to me, I'm like, let's make it a debate. And one thing that's lovely about a podcast is you get to have the back and forth. Yeah. So I'm hoping, you know, whether it's a solution, maybe it crashes and burns.

Things will crash and burn. For sure. I'm hoping that I get an opportunity with the leaders of, that are running for it. and I hope I get to put them on a stage and do something that is unusual to what the status quo is. And I've had this thought, you know, similar, but I just started smaller in my head

of what I wanted to do was the next mayoral race in Slave Lake of trying to do, not even on a stage, just pull them into it and just do a proof of concept of it, of just saying, okay. But that'll be fantastic. I think it would be unbelievable, and I think people would actually care,

And I think people would actually get an idea of who these people are and what they stand for and what they want to do and what kind of capability they have. If it's over two hours plus, you will get a real sense of who those people are. You can't, somewhere there's maybe Jeffrey Dahmer's the wrong guy. I'm trying to think of like some like, but something always comes off weird.

When somebody doesn't sit right, I don't know what it is. Just feels wrong. We all have that ability. In a five minute clip, you can't quite feel it. Two hours, you get it every time. Yeah.

Like, you can put on a show over 20 minutes. If you have to do half an hour, you might be able to. Once you get even close to an hour, yeah, that mass starts to slip, right? And we've seen it. There's been a million times where these people have gone on, you know, Rogan's, the top of the heat for long form conversations, right? Where you've seen him have people on who have been able to skate that skate and dance their way through these things.

But then a certain way when he starts to push and this is one of the things I love Rogan for is when he smells blood in the water and he's got someone skating where they're, you know, they're crumbling in front of them and he sees it come out and their true self and he's going to push on that and he's noticed the crack in the armor and their facade start to fall off. He pushes and he pushes. I think it might have even been, ooh, I don't want to throw this out there because I might be wrong. I might be conflating two different episodes, but it might have been Jordan Peterson's daughter

who went on. And I can't remember. I think it was Michaela. And again, I hate to say this in case I'm wrong, and it was a different guess than I'm complaining, but it might have been her. It wasn't a great episode. I think that was one of those ones where he could see that she was not fully prepared on some of the subject.

She's an amazingly intelligent person has amazing, but there were certain things where she was not willing. Does Michaela get on, but let me put it to you this way in the way for your finish point. Does Michaela get on there if she isn't Jordan Peterson's daughter? No. No. But I think as someone who has struggled my whole life of having,

you know, within the small bubble of slavery. like of having to fight under the shadow of a of a a great father right like i i am hesitant to lay blame at her feet for that and to limit to limit what she or to have that limiting belief of what she could achieve because of that right like maybe she got that opportunity because of that maybe she got she got that opportunity way too soon you listen to her now i think she'd be way more prepared right and and that's what opportunity way too soon and joe rogan jumped on her for it yeah and and and made that you know that opportunity way more prepared yeah and and and and

that very proven and I think that again we kind of went a little bit circled around it but that's making this point of if it's too early beyond Joe Rogan it's going to come out right if she wasn't ready for it it came out right and and in fairness to Michaela and in fairness to Joe you're talking about something extremely extreme we're going to go all meat yeah like if you've been doing that for 15 years now you have some at the time she'd been doing it for like um I don't know. This is where I'll butcher it. A year, six months.

No idea. No idea. But not long. Not 15 years, we'll say. Not 15 years. Okay. And so, like, and she just got exposed for being a young woman. Yeah.

And not fully. Listen, if Sean Newman goes on there three years ago, heck, maybe even right now, I might get exposed over and over and over again. It just depends where the conversation goes. I don't have an extra. I don't have that. of an extreme idea on something as Michaela Peterson does. On diet. On diet.

Right. Okay. I see that. Okay, this is going to sound like we're taking a real left turn here, but I want to rewind a little bit to what we're talking about about what I posed to you about the giving a shit being a symptom or the cause of the issue. Sure. Because I didn't really think about that.

It just kind of came out of my mouth when I said it. But ever since then, it's been bouncing around my head. And the reason I think it's more of a symptom is because when you look back, Civics used to be taught in school. And you would learn about these things in politics and the system and that's kind of gone away. And you also see this moment, I think it was 1972. Could be wrong on this, but there was a time around the 70s, early 70s, where America went off the gold standard. I know this is going to sound like how am I going to tie all this together.

And this might be completely unrelated. That happened, whenever that year was that they went off the gold standard, you can watch all these metrics. I think it was 72. and you watch all these metrics after 72, like GDP growth. 1971. After 1971, you watch all these different metrics. And things just aren't going good. Like the GDP growth, we had all this technology that was kind of hiding the stagnancy

that was actually happening in our economy. And there's some way smarter people than me that have really said this good and I'm doing a terrible job of parroting it. But a big piece of that was that was kind of the moment for me and for a lot of people where, they gave up the pretense of we're here for you right because that move took power away from like these markets and this capitalism that we all stood for and gave them to power we're going to decide when we print money when we don't we're not going to back it now we make all the calls

and that facade of them actually caring kind of fell away and I think since then it's been less and less of people giving a shit because it's become more and more clear that the system is rigged And every year that goes by, system is rigged and the give a shit. So the understanding of the system's rig who gives the fuck goes out and then the give a shit goes down. Goes down. Or yeah, how much shits people give goes down in tandem with that. And you get to see that over the years, those two things separating out. And nobody gave a shit.

And it probably hit peak not giving his shit around like the Obama times. And then when did people start giving a shit again? Donald Trump. Donald Trump. And what did Donald Trump? I mean. this is going to be a tough you know like not a question i'm going to ask him it's leading but what was his main thing that he if you take away all the crap of people saying of what is

even less like what he was campaigning on was exactly what i was saying which is what kills me to my court because i feel like everyone when i make this case of it all being rigged oh you kind of sound like trump's like oh well he just saw that that was the feeling bubbling under and he don't care what he was going to run he just wanted to run on what was going to make him win he saw that that was there played that card and kind of jumped in it out an obvious elephant in the room that everybody was talking of that both sides are corrupt this is absolutely exactly kind of what i'm saying he just said it on a very big stage with a very big microphone and was willing to go to fight go to battle with everybody from the right and the left like i said as soon as someone comes up and

and and says hey the emperor has no clothes this game's all rigged doesn't matter who you vote for it's all going to be the same shit they're funded by the same people as soon as you say that everybody comes after you it's tough if you say you know all the democrats are fuck you're going to have one side coming after you say all the republicans are fucked you know you're going to have one side come after You say, no, this whole thing is rigged and this all doesn't matter. This is all dog and pony show to give money to, you know, all these giant corporations, which the politicians all have their money invested in. So they make money on it too and it's all completely rigged.

That's when really people come after you. And you got to see that. And that's when people started to give up. And then they absolutely. Then since then it's just been a war between those two factions, right? And you see there's probably still that has waned a little bit, but there's way more give a shit out there just in general. Now since you know a couple years removed from Trump but that's still the echoes of that that kind of brought that in

We haven't seen that in a long time and that's kind of Seeing I always bring it back to To Canada, right? Right, so bring it back to Canada as much as I love to think that everything like obviously The United States being one of the biggest superpowers in the world does it affect can? Absolutely big time. Yeah Nobody can discount that but we're still Canada. I don't care what anybody says on that Yeah, and everybody says started paying attention when Justin Trudeau got into government. I don't, everyone I taught is like, oh, and then when he got reelected, everybody really started

paying attention. And to me, you go back to the symptom or, you know, like this. Chicken the egg. Yeah, it's, it's for really, really long time, it just hasn't mattered. And every old timer talks about it hasn't mattered since Pierre Trudeau. Yeah, like father like son. When he was in, it was bad. And when they finally cared.

And everyone cared. And when he got out, I'm sure it just slowly over time. Got complacent. Just like everybody else does. It takes Saskatchewan. When they had the NDP government in, people cared. And not everybody. I don't mean to say that the entire population of Saskatchewan cared.

But enough people with enough moving and shaking. That it was noticeably different. Yes. And what happened? Sass party gets elected. And in Saskatchewan, I would probably argue that people slowly, you know, stop caring again because things are good. That is the cycle of going on, right? Yeah.

And then things, you know, the think about COVID that is so wild, it's an entire fucking world. I interviewed a lady from San Diego, L.A. I think she was in Florida. That was Allison Royal. And then that Chantel Baker from New Zealand. and I'm waiting on another from UK and you just start to understand how worldwide what we went through is

and you go everybody stop caring now there's going to be parts of the world that certainly care I'm sure there are you know you think North Koreans are celebrating what their leader is doing no

and they're in a completely different spot not to make light of North Koreans like a Jesus I think that's anyways it's just the give a shit or the the symptom or it's like to me it feels like a little bit of cycles for sure I agree with you how the hell did we get it to where the entire world all at once cares cares yeah and that's a world stage event of COVID and not to be the broken record that keeps bringing things back to this but that unity project that Brett wines was putting together was the first time that because that's what

it was highlighting. It was if it could have had, I'm going to even say like 40% more success before they threw the kibosh on it and got it shut down. All it was doing like it was not going to change the world, but what it was doing by getting the traction was highlighting these issues and getting people in order to care, you have to realize the problem. But I think that's the big thing. And by keeping everyone, if you're focused on this left right problem and it's a fight between them, you are so blinded to the real problem and the real thing that needs to be addressed that you can never just you can never you can't rally the troops to go fight against it when nobody knows it's there and there's trillions of dollars from both sides and

it doesn't really matter they're making it seem like they're fighting against each other but all they're really fighting is to keep you invested in this fight and not realizing that it's actually the rich getting richer and then the people losing rights and getting fucked and inflation we're all losing money and there's people that are making a ton of money off the backs of us and they don't want people to wake up to that which is a story as old as time you want to go back you know even to the feudal times that was you know The kings of the kings of ancient Europe.

Am I naive to say, I feel like in Canada, we just, we're close to there. Maybe we're there already. But we're a young enough country, we're a small enough country, and we're like a big enough country. Like we're so spread out of Amos. That I feel like we're not where the states are.

Like we're close. We're closing in. We're trying. It's almost trying to mimic what they're doing. It's trying to be, you know, the blue versus the red. But we're not there. Like, I don't even put us in the realm of what's going on in the United States. Canada is a different beast altogether.

But it has symptoms that are similar to the United States because we focus on the United States so bloody much. Right. I think you might be misunderstanding my point just a little bit that's prevent you from seeing it. little bit clear and maybe I can say like it's not you're saying the conservatives whether it's O'Toole Pierre Poliath whoever becomes the leader now versus Trudeau no matter who egg meets thing it doesn't matter whoever wins the real change is never going to come where all of a sudden Canada is exporting all its own oil and not taking things from Saudi Arabia because there's too much of a

machine behind there's too many corporations that have that have say like there's so many people that have seats, they're trying to paint it as a picture as other people have seats at this table and they're picking. Well, then I'll try and rephrase my thought. Okay. I think Canada's young enough, small enough that true change can still truly happen. I would agree with that. When I look at the United States, I go, no way you're changing that monster.

For sure. So what happens to Brett Weinstein, I'm like, in the Unity Project, I'm like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'm not saying Canada won't try and stop that. But there's not the forces at play. there's forces. But not the same magnitude of force. I think.

I could be wrong on that. Yeah. I would really agree with you on that. But where, and maybe this is just my cynical side, which usually I'm the big optimist, the thing love's going to change everything, and you know,

everyone's going to be all kumbayaa. That was, that was Ottawa though. That was. And I have so many questions that I want to ask you about that still, even after we really covered it pretty well on my podcast, you know,

I still, even after just more questions, keep optimistic in my head. But I would agree that. Canada is a much better position to see that change. than America is by factors of magnitude I don't even think that is even close to the same story What I think is another wrinkle to this that we haven't discussed yet is just

Because that would be so dangerous for the forces like yeah the magnitude of forces that are up playing Canada versus America aren't the same But that would be so dangerous for America if Canada starts to wake up for that and starts to make these changes and really move forward That would be very dangerous for the establishment in the US and I think those U.S. forces would start to infiltrate and have something to say about it, just like they do all the time with our environmental stuff. Like when you look at the anti-oil field, anti-pipeline, anti-oilands, and you follow the money for who sources it, I think something like upwards of 90% that comes from America.

And there's something like the camera is like $2 billion a day flows from Canada to America due to that. and because we can't sell our own oil, right? Like, there's so many forces that you want to look at it as if they're totally separate. But if you have financial interests or even, not even financial, but like, what would the word be like power interest? If you have things at stake, it doesn't matter if it's happening in your backyard or someone else's backyard. If it affects you, you're going to have something to say about it. And in today's day and age, you're never going to see it because they can put money towards it.

Let's go back to 19. 69. No. Damn. Imagine if it was, I would have nailed that. 1984. Okay. Trigger rights and freedoms.

11 years before I was born. I had Brian Peckford on. Gotcha. And they talked about, you know, I mean, obviously the charter of rights and freedoms has been stomped upon in the last two years. Yeah. Shredded. But if you were, like I've heard different people write about

our Charter of Rights and Freedoms being something that attracts them to Canada, right? And I go, I hear all the, like, I understand what you're saying. Like, I get it. So in my head, I go, okay, so what was the last time government did something that surprised, not only Canadians, maybe even the world. 1982 is a good year. Charter of Rights and Freedoms, when you listen to Brian Pafford, talk. It came within inches of not happening and then it does happen. And that was under Pierre

Elliott, Elliot Trudeau even, right? And so you go, okay, let's try and look at it somehow glass half full. Yes, politicians, government is a big machine. There's a lot of money there. I mean, there's a lot of money there. It's a lot of power there. But when was the last time they did something that surprised us? Jason Kenney's stepping down. Surprised me. Like, he won. He whether he was it doesn't matter if you think he he cheated whatever it doesn't matter he had 51% whether that's a fictitious number or not I mean to the public he had 51% and he steps down That to me surprised you surprised well didn't it surprise you I honestly it'll happen and I had no idea well he wins with 51%

He had the right he had the right whether people want to admit or not to just be like well I'm I'm a leader I want it I'm gonna carry on and we're gonna see how this falls off I'm Instead he doesn't. So it can't be all this crazy where they're sitting there and they're like, it's me or the highway and Alberta is going to run through. Anyways. Right. Which I think looks at it from the individual perspective and I love to go to the glass half full.

So you go back to 1982, you get charter of rights and freedoms. So I go, change can happen. For sure. And change is inevitable. Change will happen. I'm just, okay, maybe here's a way I can go at it that will paint. my view of the glass, have full look at it, which I think is what you're always trying to pull me towards

because I get so cynical. As soon as it goes into the political around me, you're always trying to pull me to where it's this. And I do have it. What makes, what fills me with excitement is that I, I, before I found podcasts, I didn't know all this stuff.

I didn't, you know, and it sounds like I'm a little bit jaded with it, and I probably am, but like I was not aware of how corrupt the system was and how broken it was until I found podcasts. And through Joe Rogan, and the Weinstein brothers and Lex Friedman and Dr. Peterson and all these people through different ways has really highlighted this picture for me.

And all that lives on the internet. That is there for everybody to find. And everyone over time has the ability to go and go through the same process I have to find the same information I did and to realize that. And that is the first step. If enough people wake up to that, real change can happen and will be much more well-armed. And I feel like what gets me and why I always get kind of, me and you get stuck on opposite side of it is you're so

raring to make the change and to make the change today. And what I'm saying is the change is going to happen when more people realize the change that needs to be made. But so many people because they do such a good job and there's so much power in keeping people from realizing what the real change that needs to be made, which is

complete overhaul to the system and complete accountability change that needs to be added into this system again. It will never change and we're kind of banging our head against the wall of trying to, you know, we're we're solving the wrong problem and what we need to be. And yet, you have the spit and

chicklets, you have the live. Take the sporting world. Things shake the foundation and they have to adjust. Yeah. Politics is no different. Yeah. Think of this is a far fetched idea, but let's just say, I get to host

a podcast style, and I call it that because right now it's a working title, but anyways, debate. And let's say CTV does one, and let's say CBC does one, and let's say Western Standard does one. Let's just say a whole bunch of people do. But the Sean's way gets a million views.

Let's just go something crazy. And the other two only get 3,000 views. It will change the foundation moving forward. And I look at that and I go, now, I look at that and I go, that is positive. and I think when you take the glass half full as I am just like naive to do all the time, I think that's how we move this thing.

It isn't denying, there isn't bad things going on. But it's a way that maybe we can change things without disrupting everything back to the ground level and having to build it right back up. I agree with you completely, Sean. And I think that is, I think you're doing exactly what I just said with that, of that is a adding accountability back into the system which is the complete reason like all all

these other things are are symptoms of this issue of all accountability has been taking out that is adding accountability back in a b that would wake people up to the actual problems at hand and that would help pull like just exactly that thing i just described of waking people up to the real issue we need to to be pushing against you're doing exactly that right like i'm with you on that i think that is things we can do right now that will affect change. And it might not be the silver bullet that fixes everything. But it's a, it's a step in the right direction, right?

And I love that. And I'm all on board for that. I just have a tough time getting, I think I am a little bit jaded, but I have a tough time. Like that shit excites the hell out of me, right? And that's right on my level. And I think that is awesome.

That's a step we should be doing right now. And I wish more people would be pushing towards that. And more people instead of what frustrates me is to listen to people that have blame everything else in the world. on the opposite tie. You know what I mean? Like throughout COVID, listening to every single one of my friends

from university blaming everything on Jason Kenny. And this is all Jason Kenny's fault and all this stuff and I'm like just sitting there rolling my eyes. And then every single one of my friends from Slave Lake and all my other friends that were university friends, all blaming everything on Trudeau. And it's like, none of this helps anything. This doesn't move it forward.

Your idea moves us forward, moves us close. as close to it that is actually enacting change but so many people are stuck in this idea where it's it's lazy thinking of just oh this is all the other team's fault and that's exactly what they want you to think because that stops the change you're trying to make from happening it stops accountability from being added in because accountability would be accountability for both sides they don't want that right right or left you know red or blue neither one of them want to account why would you just like Dana White he doesn't want to count you know if he

doesn't have to why would he pay his fighter more like you're shooting yourself in the foot for your own personal interest yeah it might be what's best for the country or what's best for your fighters right but that's not you're it's you know on paper you know with the big wink wink that's supposedly what you're best that's what you're supposed to be doing but we we all know that's not what they're doing but what you're doing or what your idea is and what you want to be doing that actually is and that excites me and if we can do more of that that's what's going to move us closer and move us to a point where we're actually enacting this change and seeing things actually move a step towards where the

people actually have power again and what we want is actually what happens, you know, and that excites a shit out of me. I'm not as half full as you think I might be. I just have no time for people that are trying to do things so the traditional way that they've completely missed the mark on what we're actually up against. Does that make any sense to you? Yeah, it does. I like, I ran a different, a bunch of different, like, but.

fundraisers, not charities, fundraisers, events, that type of thing. Yeah. And I got told this line when I was younger, and I used it a lot on people. Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions. You want to bitch about something, get involved. And to me, I look at politics, I look at sports, I look at all these different things, and that's all I can ever think is like, listen, I sit on here a lot and rag on Trudeau is a perfect example. because he's said some of the most heinous things I've ever heard a leader say.

And he's rightfully earned my outrage. But overall, in Alberta, I look at it and, you know, this is where I currently reside. And I go, here's an opportunity for something special to happen, whether it does or not, isn't up to Sean. But the opportunity is there. But the opportunity is there to at least try out an idea. You know, when I do the SMP Presents and Lloyd, I don't know if that moved the dial at all. But for me, it moved my dial, right? because it was a proof of concept of like,

wonder how this is going to go. Like, this could completely suck ass. And it just wasn't that. People enjoyed it. Yeah. I enjoyed it. Yeah.

Like, my only downfall is, and for all the listeners who were wondering if it was going to come on on the podcast, the recorder didn't record. You're like, oh, shit, right?

We'll make sure that if a leadership debate happens, it's recorded. Yeah, yeah. I might even live stream the son of a bitch. That way it can happen in real time for people to watch along with and everything else. Because, like, to me, as a, as a, as a citizen, you write in a sense of like,

how do you engage people to want to watch four people on a stage, five people on stage, fine for leadership. You have to find a way to, A, let them know they matter, what they think matters, and you have to pull out of the leaders something more than what they've been doing. because what they've been doing sucks. It's grandstanding and talking about other things.

It's like, this is fucking stupid. Reading pre-prepared speeches. Yeah, like if I'm true to all, I just want to talk about something else. So it just gets people turn the channel off, right? Because this is a waste of my time. Because business people, entrepreneurs, people who value their time, they see it. It's like this. This sucks.

I don't want to be here. I almost wonder if that isn't like the goal. Music to Trudeau's ears, maybe to all of their ears, for all that. Yeah, I completely agree. Again, like I want to do, taking another left turn here, of just something I wanted to say earlier of, we talked about the aspect of not getting enough time with a guest and how it distracts you, you're always thinking about, you know, time.

Time. And it takes you out of that conversation. We had a little conversation before we started about having someone to run. Yeah. The boards were right. And I just... It's why I didn't do video tonight. Because I have to run.

everything back and forth back and forth exactly it's another thing that takes my focus away and that is the biggest thing I've just recently got someone that comes in not every time but when he can he comes in and he just I sit down he runs the mics the video everything and I just concentrate I can't even explain to you the difference even if it's just so much as double-checking every once or while getting out of conversation I told you I interviewed the lady from true movement that talks about like taking maintenance on athletes like joints and whatever and taking the pain away

Does it improve them? Like, does it turn one kid into Connor McDavid overnight? No. It's ridiculous. Yeah. But does it improve them? Yes, it does. What you're talking about, does it improve you?

Yes, it does. Because it allows your brain to focus on what actually matters in the entire thing. The interview, the guest, the person that's talking across from you. And just what I can say of, you know, I looked to you because you did it first of the whole, you know, I mean, did it first. It wasn't really your call, but losing your YouTube channel to see what it was like of, I knew it would be. a step in the right direction to get, I couldn't believe how much it was in the exact same vein of having enough time so you're not thinking about it.

I think if you do get someone and maybe just, maybe this just moves it up two slots because you got a list, you know, down to your knees of to-dos for the podcast. I know everybody that has a podcast has that list. I would move getting someone in here to help run this shit for you while you're doing a conversation up a couple spots on it because I couldn't believe how much of an increase

to your capacity to have a conversation is. And I'm feeling it now because coming in here as a guest and not having to worry about I don't have to watch any Zoom recorders or checking any cameras on. I just get to sit here and enjoy and think about what I'm going to say. It is hugely helpful. Even if it's a, you know, and maybe I can put it out here into the universe right now. If there's any, you know, 16, 17, old, 18 year old kids sitting around Lloyd that has a passion, maybe like listening to podcasts, maybe like tech or maybe want to go into radio broadcasting

and you want something that looks good on your resume. You told Sean, you just got to, he'll show you how to run the shit and you just got to work with this schedule and come in and watch it. Maybe it doesn't work for every time you're still going to have to run the boards for your own for some, but maybe it works because it's awesome, Sean. I got to tell you, you need yourself a little young Jamie.

Google some shit for you, help you out. I won't disagree with what you just said. I tell you what, here's where we're going to finish. We're going to finish on the Final 5 brought to you by Crude Master. Shout out to Heath and Tracy McDonald. It's a deep question or a light question, whenever you prefer.

Heath said, if you're going to stand behind a cause that you think is right, then stand behind it. absolutely. What's one thing that Nick stands behind? There's so many things. There's so many things. Just because it's in the vein of the conversation that we already had and it already came up once, I listened to a podcast on child trafficking from Sam Harris that changed

my life. I've never been the same sense. You know what's a problem, but you never know how bad it is and how, yeah, fully understand how it's happening everywhere. how prevalent it is and how many kids are suffering with it and how there's these amazing organizations like Project Underground Railroad, Project Freedom, Underground, there's a whole bunch. And yeah, ever since I read that, you know,

I've struggled to find ways that I can help, but just any time it comes up, I just, oftentimes I just push people to go listen to that Sam Harris episode with, can't remember the guy's name now, but like to understand how big of an issue that is, And just to get involved with it is something everybody should do. You know, it's such a dark subject. And it's so even for myself, I don't even want to think about it.

And half the day, you know, just ignore it because you don't want to think about it. But it's pretty scary. And then I guess another one on the same vein is that the Innocence Project where they find wrongfully accused people sitting on death row and help work through the court cases and just highlighting the corruption within our justice system. I say our, but Canada, America, pretty much every justice is around the world. we're doing the best we can, but it is so flawed, and there's so many people that are just absolutely under the gun,

and they do such a good job of highlighting that and protecting those people and offering them whatever solace or help they can. And I think that is just amazing and just the best people in the world and they need all the support they can get. And the biggest thing you can do to support for both those causes is just understand that that's an issue because I'd say 90% of the population doesn't even realize there's an issue there, or doesn't realize the magnitude of those issues.

When you get down the rabbit, hole of child trafficking. Some of the things going on, the, the Uighurs, the, you know, the organs by demand, sorry, I don't know why I couldn't spit out the work. You hear some of those issues, you go, COVID could be serious or not. That is beyond serious. Beyond. Like, that should be shut down immediately.

Yeah. And you hear those issues and you go, man, the fact that we, that isn't on the evening news every second night making people aware is rather shocking. And you know why? Because it's the darkest shit that nobody wants to talk about. It ruins your whole thing. Yeah, but what did Paul Brand say? Something along the lines of.

And I can't remember if I said it to him because I'd heard him say it before. But essentially, you know, darkness exists if we don't shine a light on it. Once you shine a light on it, it doesn't exist anymore. And I'm like, it's 100% right. Like, I don't want to talk about kids getting sold and all. all the darkness that comes in. But if we don't talk about it, it's allowed to happen. Exactly.

And what's worse? Hearing about it and making it uncomfortable or allowing it to exist because you, you know, you don't want to go into those dark places. Well, it's like, well, I think we can all agree. Let's talk about the shit. Let's get some kids held. Well, I mean, kids or women or, you know. Anybody.

It's growing on boys now. Like, like, it's some nasty. Yeah, it's dark. Very. Yeah. Well, Nick, thank you, sir. for coming in. I know.

No, thank you, Sean. Yeah. Well, I appreciate this. This is a lot of fun. I appreciate it. And I guess I just got to say my little piece. You know, it was awesome the first time when I just stumbled upon you. One of those algorithms put you in front of me and I reached out to you that day

and to see someone that was doing the same thing as me trying to make this podcast thing and go in Alberta, it meant the world to me and to build this relationship and the people that you've introduced me to, like the Kenny Rutherford's of the world that just had an amazing couple hours with that means the world to me and to come. on your show finally and be a guest feels so cool and to you know sit in this studio that I've seen on social media for two and a half years probably now just you know this studio studio has only been here for a year now okay well seeing you seeing you see in you with the jerseys and stuff and the logo it just it feels really cool and I'm and it means a lot to me and I'm very

thankful that you'd have me on yeah well no well well I'm sure we will do it again yeah the people would be clamoring for it yeah well thanks again oh thanks for it Thank you.