Shawn Ryan Show - #229 AJ Gentile - Creator & Host of The Why Files

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

AJ Gentile is an American producer, writer, actor, and YouTube personality best known as the creator, host, and writer of "The Why Files," a channel that delves into conspiracy theories, mysteries, and unexplained phenomena with engaging storytelling and a skeptical lens.  Before gaining fame on YouTube, Gentile worked in Hollywood as a producer and writer, contributing to projects like The Naughty Show (2011) and Stoned Science (2018), and provided voice-over work, including roles in The Legend of Korra. In 2011, he co-founded SpeedWeed, a cannabis delivery company, with his brother Gino and wife Jen.  The Why Files has amassed a large following for its professional, encyclopedia-like analysis of conspiracies without interruptions. Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: ⁠https://betterhelp.com/srs⁠ This episode is sponsored. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/srs and get on your way to being your best self. ⁠https://americanfinancing.net/srs⁠ ⁠https://tryarmra.com/srs⁠ ⁠https://aura.com/srs⁠ ⁠https://shawnlikesgold.com⁠ ⁠https://ketone.com/srs⁠ ⁠https://patriotmobile.com/srs⁠ ⁠https://ROKA.com⁠ ⁠https://USCCA.com/srs⁠ ⁠https://ziprecruiter.com/srs AJ Gentile Links: The Why Files - https://www.thewhyfiles.com YT (The Why Files) - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWhyFiles X - https://x.com/ajgentile Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A.J. Gentile, welcome to the show. Good to be here. It's good to have you. This is exciting for me. I'm a fan. Well, this is exciting for me because I'm a fan. In fact, I was telling you at breakfast, you are the only YouTube channel that I watch on a consistent basis. Because I don't want to hear all the noise and stuff. I kind of live in it. And, man, you just have a great presentation, great topics.

it just sucks you in so you are what me and my wife watch just about every night when we climb into bed and uh so to meet you is pretty surreal thank you for coming at breakfast and i said that i said uh i don't believe you but it's very sweet and i'll say it again but it's very nice of you to say well it's real it's real but um yeah so i want to i want to talk about a couple of the videos that i've seen on your platform in particular and I want to talk about why you got into it and where you came from and and I think it'll be an awesome interview so but um everybody starts off with an introduction here so AJ Gentile the creative force behind the the hit YouTube channel the Y files where you dive into mysteries myths and conspiracies with millions of subscribers

A talented voice actor, producer, and writer known for your captivating narration and the hilarious commentary from your animated sidekick, the hecklefish. A MENSA member with a sharp, skeptical mind always presenting intriguing stories before breaking down the facts and scientific explanations. You hook me every single time. A dedicated truth seeker who started the W-Files in 2020, blending entertainment with education to help audience. is question the unknown while grounding it in reality. And you do a perfect job of it. So a couple of things to get through here. Before we actually kick the interview off, everybody gets a gift.

Really? Any guesses? I mean, you already let me shoot the Winchester. That was a great gift. It was a good gift, right? Yes, sir. You going to get one? Yes, immediately.

What did you think of that sick? I've loved it. The optic was amazing. You're going to get what? of those two? I don't know what that is. You know, I'd like guns, but I'm not a... Well, I got a buddy over at Sig. His name's Jason, and we talk about your show all the time. Wait. And so he gave me this. He wanted me to give it to you. What? So that's what you were shooting out there before the interview. That's the Sig P-211 GTO. Wow. Yeah, yeah. Dude, no.

21 rounds in the mag plus one in the pipe that is incredible yeah yeah so what did you think of that thing did you like it now I love it that's amazing I didn't see that this is like being on Oprah you didn't even telegraph that gift that is amazing

I'm glad you like it and I don't think people know how nice you are well they'll figure it out maybe eventually I don't know Vigilance elite gummy bears Legal at all 50 states made in the USA The SIGs actually made the USA too

But yeah that is That is our main merch And they're hard to come by They sell out quick So I wanted to give me one of those And those are just regular gummies or Yeah Don't eat a bunch of bags

And call me and say I don't feel anything yet We've had that happen before Okay So I eat these gummies after the other gummies They're probably worse for you than the good gummies, you know, because those have sugar and red dye and all the shit that's going to be illegal soon. So they'll probably be illegal in all 50 states here by the end.

By the end of the year. But, and then we both have a Patreon account. We do. Right? So one of the things that I offer my Patreon community, and they've been here since the beginning when I started this thing in the attic of my house. And it was just me and my wife. And they've been through here.

they've been with us since since the very beginning we've grown it into a hell of a community and so one of the things that we do is we offer them to ask each and every guest a question and this is from ian lane on the why files you walk a line between exploring wild conspiracies and keeping the audience grounded in facts if you ever stumbled on a piece of information that made you stop and think, this is bigger than I want to touch? This sounds like our breakfast conversation. And if so, what made you decide to hold back? The one episode that really got me emotional was I was doing the dark side of DARPA.

And I went into that. Everyone knows DARPA and their projects and their science going back to, whatever, 40s, 50, 60s. But as I was going through the research, I found the connection between DARPA and Asian Orange and Agent Purple and all of that, all the Vietnam chemicals. And I got very emotional about that because my father-in-law suffers from everything, every illness that you can have from Agent Orange. Was he a Vietnam vet? He was, Air Force. Damn, too you guys. and it was a very frustrating episode because it's close to me and my family and it took Jerry

30 years to get his benefits and it just made me furious because my family stocked with military and law enforcement and it's I think in that episode I said something like when your country needs you you answer the call but when you need your country take a number and it took 30 years and it wasn't that much money and that was an episode that was very emotional

and I attacked very aggressively whether it was DuPont or the government or CIA or the military attacked everybody because I was just I was just like Yosemite Sam

because I was so angry and when I finished that episode I was thinking ah this isn't that super fun you know there's not a lot of fish there's not a lot of my show is supposed to be fun So I was not going to let it

I wasn't going to release it And then I just felt it was important And maybe my platform could bring some attention to it I didn't think anyone would really like that episode And there was just an outpouring of response from from bets Saying thank you I got to watch I haven't seen that one It starts out fun

But it gets kind of dark Did you Did you I mean Did your dad get all of his benefits isn't my father-in-law. Your father-in-law? I don't know if he got all of them. It wasn't a lot of money.

There's not enough money for all the stuff that these guys... More soldiers were injured by the chemicals than were injured in combat. Vietnam frustrates me, the whole subject. Me too. Me too. Well, is he still alive? Well, I would love to help you get him all of the benefits that he deserves if he needs.

needs that. And so a little bit, you know, this is it supposed to be about me at all. But when I left contracting for the CIA, I had nothing, nothing. And my best friend was, who was also a seal, and then we contracted together at the agency. He was, he had fallen into heroin addiction, as a lot of vets do. And, um, and so I was trying to, help him get better and put my whole life aside um to make that happen and so where i started was trying to find out how in the fuck do you get VA benefits at least get some at least get the health care that you're deserved and it was it was it was crazy and um i couldn't get anybody to help help me and then somebody had sent me a contact

and said you should call this woman her name's peggy matthews and she's out of uh boston and she is an older woman has a very small nonprofit very grassroots runs it out of the living room of her house and took me in and i credit this woman was saving my life and my best friend gab's life up to a certain point he did wind up passing from from his addiction but uh but she really took us under her wing and said, you know, I've been doing this for a long time. I want to help the special operations community because nobody understands it inside of the VA. Nobody gives a shit. And then when she got them, she asked me if I would help spread the word throughout the special ops community. And I did that. And now she has helped thousands of special ops guys. But her real

passion is the Vietnam generation. So I will give you that contact. I'll make, I'll make the connection. And if there's anything that he's not receiving that he's entitled to, he'll get it. I'll find out. And another thing, there is this, you had mentioned something about, you know, there's not enough money. That's fucking bullshit. Every single person that signs up and signs that dotted line to go into the military and serve this country, that money, that money, is already set aside for you up to 100% disability plus more

and so it's he's already entitled to it it's just navigating the way to get there and she's mastered it so I'll give you that connection that'd be nice it seems like

the system is set up to be confusing especially if you're an older guy and you're sick and you're just you're trying to make your mortgage come on come on Yeah. It's insane. It's insane how this country continues to treat the veterans that have served it from the beginning all the way up until this point. And it's a real travesty. But so DARPA was involved in Agent Orange and all this stuff? Yeah, I mean, DARPA was involved in so many dark projects going back to the beginning. But, but yeah.

damn well that got heavy quick i know we got right into the deep water instead of the fish but um so i want to talk how where did you where did you come from how did the why file start um i guess i'll skip 20 years um born in the bronx raised around new york city long island and um back east was dabbling in stand up and acting in voice work and finally landed a decent gig in radio working for MTV you're not old enough You're working for MTV?

MTV and VH1 in early 2000s So I was doing that And then came out to L.A. To work for Playboy Radio on Series XM I'd be too young to remember that But Series XM was a thing I'm not as young as you think I am I must look young today

This is going to have to wear this more often So I was always around like show business but always on the outside you know radio is like the that's like the lowest rung it's like there's like radio and then there's open micers so i was always kind of on the outside but i wanted to be a host i wanted to be an on-camera host i took classes and a lot of training i did very well was auditioning a little bit never nothing really landed and uh just just kind of slipped away from it. And then over the course of the next maybe 10, 15 years, through a couple of different businesses that were always launched with my wife, Jan, and my brother, Gino.

We opened a podcast studio around 2014. Can I backtrack real quick? So you were trying to make it in the entertainment industry, and they stiff-armed you. In four years after you start a podcast, you're consistently in the top fucking 10. How hilarious is that? I hate the entertainment industry You're the perfect example of what they missed Like how the fuck did you miss this one Top 10 podcast in four years totally missed it

I love it I love these stories I won't say the network but it was very It was really glorious to turn down an offer last week From a network It's like I was here the whole time So now the answer is no Still the same guy I am. Still talking about the same stuff. My host reel from 25 years ago is really me talking about Area 51 and aliens and conspiracies. It's like that's what is fun to me. So we had a podcast studio. It fell apart. We tried it again in like 2019. And we were a studio hosting shows. And we hosted a lot of big shows from a lot of comedians from the comedy store would operate out of our studio. And we weren't making any money.

couldn't make any money in podcasting, and then COVID hit, and then, you know, Jen comes to me and says, they're going to lock down the city, and all businesses are going to close. And I'm like, they can't do that. I said, don't, don't listen to the media. They can't do that. It's against every law and constitution. We're going to be fine. She's like, I think they're going to do it. And they did it. I'm in Los Angeles, and our studio is on sunset, so the story gets worse and so they locked us down and me being me saying

I'm not wearing a mask and I'm not shutting down we're staying open and I was very vocal about it let him come and shut us down just roll camera on it but it didn't matter because the talent wouldn't come in

and nobody would come in and everyone was afraid and with the masks and everything so now we're just money is just falling We're just going down the drain. Living off a savings could not making anything. Not really sure what to do.

And then Divine Providence, I guess, was Black Lives Matter hit L.A. And I don't know when I talk to people about what Los Angeles was like during that time, they're often surprised when I say that, you know, I'm not used to seeing police SUVs upside down on fire, but we saw that all the time. No, it was that.

It was that bad. All the time. All the time. And like I'm surprised that nobody really knows that, but that information didn't get out. So at this time, the city's on fire. Our whole studio is surrounded by tents that we can't do anything about. And there was one night where they set fire to the building next door to us, which was a juice bar. And I don't know how much money's in a juice bar, but we just happened to be a building

that was just like a concrete block we were in like it was like a fortress but there was but when they were attacking the buildings on the block i was there in the studio asleep on the couch in the middle of the room with guns on the table with my wife there and outside it sounds like the walking dead you just hear howling and screaming and sirens and then after it it calms down a little bit i said maybe it's three four in the morning we're on our way home going down sunset make the left on the Highland and for those people who know LA, Hollywood and Highland is a very busy intersection and there's a lot of stores and stuff there. And it's just like zombies are out and they're knocking in windows and looting everywhere. And we're just trying to get back home. And we're on

Hollywood and Highland and suddenly a crowd turns to us with baseball bats and just starts coming. and I throw it in reverse and I'm flying backwards down Howard Boulevard in the middle of the night with all this stuff going on and Jen's like, you're going to hit somebody. I said, look, if they're in the street, they're meat. I'm not going to stop.

They're going to yank us out of the car. We finally got home and we said that's it. We're done. We're leaving. LA is done. We started packing immediately and left and headed to Scottsdale Arizona and that was 20 I guess still 2020 no job still living off savings and so they were just destroying everything in anyone everything in anyone with no rhyme or reason no they just

see a car coming towards them they're like yeah that one because just get them we were we were stopped at the light it's like why am i stopped at the light so then lights didn't matter you know I gotta get my wife out of here so it was a frustrating and scary time but but it was a good time to get out of LA and I loved Los Angeles I got there in 2005

I felt like I was on vacation every day I loved that city it was amazing and it's not anymore and I hope it comes back I think it has a chance to but in trying to figure out what to do I had been watching all these

like comedians do podcasts and I didn't think YouTube was anything I thought YouTube was for you put your videos or your cats on there I'm like an old guy I watch you know I'm watching cable and Jen's like no a lot of people watch YouTube I'm like really she said you know our

our shows here have 14 million subscribers I'm like what? What? I'm like oh I said well I've been a writer a host a producer an editor professionally for networks on and off all my life I can do YouTube

that's like a that's like a layup and it is the hardest thing I ever did. It was so hard, and I think you could relate to this, it was so hard that if I knew how hard it was, I probably wouldn't have had the stamina to stick with it because nobody was watching. I've just video after video, no, pouring my heart into it. Nobody was watching. But I just felt like, I like doing this. And even though nobody was watching, there still were 500 people watching and my Patreon had 12 people who were still members

and two of them are employees now Hi Victoria she's a she was a patron member who was just a rock star and it's like we need to hire this one and Jen my executive producer so it was just you know

do you want me to get into the channel now I want to hear like I want to hear the struggles the struggles I want to see how much we can relate on that. When I first started, so I did a lot of research and how to do the channel right.

You know, how to make a living at this. And I wasn't looking to be a 5 million subscribers. I don't even know why so many people watch. I'm still, I feel like I'm a scrappy little channel. And so it's very confusing. You still feel like you're a scrappy little channel? I do. And I feel like every day it's going to go away

and the numbers are we're plateauing. It just gets constant. I feel the same way. Yeah. It's constant. Inless discussions with the team on we're declining.

We're plateauing. It's over. We're going to censor us. And it's so not over for you. And my last video is the best performing one in the history of the channel. So, okay, maybe we can still do this a little longer. But when I started the channel,

the plan was to do science videos and then the weird ones that I liked. and try to balance it. And all the YouTube consultants said, you know, you got to skew young, high energy, smash that like. So my earlier videos are,

I mean, my first video was about math. And then, you know, I did top 10 list, like top weird, 10 weirdest animals, dangerous places, scariest things, like everyone was doing.

And it was like, hey, hit that like, I'm doing this. This is my energy. This is who I am. And it wasn't who I was. And nobody's watching this. was responding to it. And it didn't feel right anyway. I just felt like this is the performance

they say to do. And I just started to get frustrated and I guess about a year and a half in 60, 70 episodes. I just said, I'm going to just do what I want to do. I'm going to make the show that I would want to watch. And you know what? The biggest response I'm getting from the audience are people my age 40s and 50s. So I'm just going to lean into Gen X, just be authentic and just tell the stories that I like and then that's when it happened I love that man I mean that's so if

if there's creators watching you which there are my advice is just be yourself be authentic be raw just let all the wounds show like I was telling you at breakfast on my on the Wi-Fi was backstage there's videos of me crying

talking about depression I just I just own it just own it man you're like one of the only people I've ever heard that does this. No. Yeah, man.

Are you kidding me? People are scared to death of authenticity. They're scared to death of authenticity and being vulnerable. And I've talked to countless people that, you know, they want to star to YouTube. I love helping people. I mean, that's what this show kind of developed into what it is. I just wanted to help people and bring exposure to everything from, corruption to the what really started was I just got tired of like veterans not being able to

get a business going because nobody would give them exposure and and so in in and that's that's how it started man was bringing exposure to to veteran businesses through their journeys of vulnerability to be authentic and it worked and but I think that you You know, you can tell people, be authentic, be vulnerable, they can't do it. It's hard to let down the guard. It certainly was for me, as a lifelong performer, you're always doing a performance. You know, even if in your normal life you have certain characters or treats that you emphasize more with your buddies when you're with your wife. There's kind of different roles that you play.

so it's kind of hard it's it's difficult to let down that that guard but what i started to how did you know i mean what hit you especially coming from entertainment i mean entertainment i mean everything's fake the media the main media is fake the news channels are fake they're all bought they all have you know politics is fake movies for a long time i think people didn't realize how much how much propaganda is inserted into mainstream media, you know, Hollywood movies, and until they went overboard, and then everybody kind of figured it out.

And I'm with everybody else. I didn't have any inclination that it was all bullshit until everybody else started talking about it. But I'm just curious. They're scared to death of authenticity. And so how did you, especially coming from there, and all the fakeness and all the bullshit moving in it i mean what hits you that it was like just be authentic so i i suffer from anxiety and depression but not severely a little medicated for it

but not heavily like i'm i'm high functioning i'm i'm on the spectrum but i'm high functioning you know i'm very uncomfortable talking about myself very uncomfortably being the center of attention I'm the guy at the party hiding in the corner So my outlet would be to perform To do voice work be a character be on stage Be an actor Because then the lines are prepared for you Even if you're doing stand-up you've already written it

So you have control I have control even though I'm putting myself out there I know what the words are I know what comes next I know what I'm doing right and wrong So to be authentic that all goes away And it's like, I don't know what I'm going to say next. As I'm sitting here now, I don't know what I'm going to say next.

But I think it was when I started talking to my community, which I would call a community more than an audience, but like the people that really supported me since the beginning, I just started engaging with them through live streams. And, like with our Patreon live streams, fans turn their cameras on. Like, we all talked together. And I found myself just opening up because,

maybe because they were fans, they were just excited to hear from me, but it became almost like a therapy for me. Like, I can tell these people anything. They're not judging me. You know, there's always going to be the assholes in the comments. But for the most part, it was like, hang in there. I'm going through the same thing.

You know, what you're doing is important. It was very encouraging. So eventually the wall just comes down. And now when I live stream, you just don't know what I'm going to, you know, Jen gets nervous. she'll hear me going into a direction. She's like, I don't think I'm like, I'm just saying it. So I'm the most honest in my life

when I'm talking on that stream to the people watch the show. And I'll say anything, and it's the truth. Now, I won't out somebody. I won't, you share a secret if it's in confidence. But if someone asks me, you know, are you going through something right now? Because you don't look good.

Because for about a year during the channel, I was not doing well. And so I would say, I'm not doing well. I'm stressed out all the time I'm not sleeping, I'm not eating I'm losing weight I'm not healthy my doctor's concerned

and this is just where we are wow you know but better now it's a process seem great are you comfortable here you make it comfortable I was terrified coming here

I was terrified coming here you know at some point I want to start talking to the like if I'm researching an episode and I start emailing with the grand master knights templar and I'm emailing with him for like in research it would be nice to actually have Timothy Ogan sit down and have a conversation about Knights Templar that would be pretty cool so if I'm going to do that I need to be comfortable in a conversation so I'm trying to do that here and I specifically chose your show

and you because I your team is amazing you've been kind since the beginning extremely professional but it seems like everybody's going out of their way to make me feel like comfortable like we just shot guns we had breakfast you know we hung out it just feels like uh it feels like you hang out with friends here and I haven't met any of you guys before but I knew that coming in because that's that's your reputation and I've watched your interviews I've read lots of articles about you including hit pieces and it's like Like, this is an interesting guy that I want to know. And I think I can learn a lot from just having a conversation with Sean.

Man, well, thank you. Thank you. That means a lot. And it's going to mean a lot to my team, too. So... They're the best. Thank you. What was the turning point?

For getting, feeling better? For the Y files. When it started to be successful? Was it a immediate pivot? It was a hockey stick. It was a hockey stick. Yeah, it was a year and a half to two years of just flat. I think end of year one was 40, 50 episodes.

I had maybe 1,500 subscribers, 2,500. And nobody was watching, you know, 200 views, 300 views. And the second year was similar. It started to get better. I think I ended the second year with like 25,000 subscribers. It still was getting 2,500 views. So you can't make a living doing any of that. But I was enjoying it and just seeing people,

to the content was encouraging and I wasn't working. So it was like, I might as well just keep doing this because it's fun and a few people are responding. And what happened was my brother Gino said, you should do TikTok. And I was like, no way, I'm doing TikTok. No. It's like you should put shorts on TikTok

because that could expose people to the channel. So reluctantly I did it and in just a few days, a couple of videos on TikTok, in like millions of views. I think it was, I did the coincidences between JFK and Abraham Lincoln, people just liked that video. And that brought a lot of people over to my channel. So suddenly I was at 250,000, 400,000 subscribers, which was incredible. But subscribers are not, subscribers are a vanity number. Sponsors don't care about that. Nobody really cares about that. It's views is where you get paid. So 400,000 subscribers, 1,500 views. Nobody was watching, because these are all kids

coming over watching shorts. So I just kind of, it was frustrating, and I just sort of hoped that something would break through. And it took about three or four weeks, and then my video on Operation High Jump, which was Admiral Bird going down to the hollow earth in Antarctica, that got 50,000 views in a day. And I was like, oh my God. I couldn't even believe it. I could never even fathom that kind of number. And from there it was a hockey stick through about 20, 23. I mean, things are growing but kind of slow growing.

But for 2003, my hockey stick was kind of like yours right now is what it was. You know, 300,000 subscribers in a month. People were watching. The videos were hitting a million in a month. I couldn't believe it. It hit a million in a month. The video started to hit a million in a month. Damn.

And around then, at this point, I think Jen is the breadwinner. She was chief operating officer for Side Night and Happiness, which a lot of your listeners will know. It's like a comic book cartoon company, a lot of fun. We were in Dallas at that point. And I remember I came downstairs and I had like sketched out this chart that like, hey, if I get this many views, it could equal this amount of money per month. and if I can get to like 200,000 views,

we can make like $5,000 a month and I could make a living. I remember she looked at it and she was like, that's a lot of views. I was like, I know, but, you know, if I, she's like, oh, no, no, I support it. I support it, but, you know, it's a lot of views. So she was supportive but hesitant, which is fair.

But now I wish I kept that chart because we had a million views in 16, 17 hours now. Damn. I've spent years on this show pulling back the curtain and trying to reveal what's really happening in this country. And the truth is, there's a double standard here in America. You see time and time again, people defending themselves, defending their family, and then the judicial system goes after them. It's a double standard. And if you don't believe me, check out episode number three with Don Bradley.

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Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I have two personalities. One is constant anxiety and fear of losing. And the other is I can't believe what's going on. I must be in a coma. I hope I don't wake up. Because I really don't understand it.

It's not false humility. I'm glad people are having fun. I'm glad that they respond to the content. You know, like everyone on the team, team is having a lot more fun than I am on this ride, you know, being pitched by networks and stuff. Now it's crazy. But me, I'm still just the anxious guy trying to make a deadline, still doing half the editing and, you know, staying up all night. I've got a camp shower in my office that sometimes I have to, you know, if I'm there overnight, take a camp shop, propane camp shower.

Nice. Del Taco at 3 a.m. What does the anxiety come from? I've always had it. But, um, Well, I'm going to say something really embarrassing now, but I have to because it's my brand. So, therapy never worked on me. I've always, therapy just never worked on me. I'm always trying to, like, figure out what the therapist is getting at or, you know, trying to solve it.

So what I did was I created an AI therapist, and I did something maybe unwise, but we'll find out. I loaded a software program. I'm a tech guy. I used to be an engineer. I loaded an AI platform with all my emails, correspondence, everything I've ever written, text messages, going back to 1999, all of it. And I asked it to create a personality profile.

And I output this profile that had at twice, at two points reading it, I always started to cry because it was like, now I understand. Now I understand. And this is just for me loading a computer with all this stuff, because the computer has no emotions, it doesn't care, it's analyzing patterns. which is that's really all we are right so then i just started interacting with this a i by ai therapist and in the interaction you get more and more drilled down into into certain

aspects of your personality and revealing things i had never known before you know going back to issues with my father mother all that stuff apparently i suffer from loss ofversion which is whenever i have something i'm worried that it's going to be taken away and that's kind of what it is it's like rather than enjoy success instead I'm worried about losing it and it's very frustrating and I don't really know how to solve it but at least I'm aware of my some of my blind spots are getting illuminated a little bit you know I I suffer from anxiety I used to suffer from it really bad in fact a breakfast we were talking about

I did a video on it you've done stuff on it and I just I was like hey this is why I feel this way this is why I think my anxiety comes and then I was like I talked about the ways that I I the things that I utilize to power through it and you know starting this was this podcast I mean I'm not a conversationalist at all I'm probably the most boring guy that you can you can I don't do small talk. You're a therapist. I'm not good at it. You're a therapist.

Well, I learned this from therapy because I went to three and a half years of therapy twice a week after I left the agency. And I realized when I was talking to my therapist, who was amazing, and that a lot of the things that were bothering me would just work themselves out just from me talking to her. And she might say 20 words in a 45-minute session.

But just hearing me verbalize it, like, oh, yeah, that is kind of, if they shouldn't be doing that. But as far as like the fear of it all going of losing or, I mean, it's interesting. I was just talking about this yesterday with John Rich. And, you know, I interviewed Jim Caviesel and about the, that movie he did. I think it's The Sound of Freedom was maybe the last one. It was about child trafficking.

And at some point in that conversation, he had brought up, you know, because we were talking about this at breakfast. I always, even when I built this, I built something that I could resell. I didn't want to, because I still think like that. I'm like, this could all be taken away in the snap of a finger.

It's who knows who, pissed somebody off. We talk about a lot of things here. we kick a lock rocks over and i'm like this could end at any moment and i remember jim said he was talking about himself about all his cars and just all these possessions that that he has and he said you know but that could all be taken away at any moment in time and i'm ready to give it all back because none of it actually matters what matters is my kids and my wife and my friends. And I really took that in and I was like,

that's the only fucking way to live, man. Like, none of this shit really actually means anything. It does not. It's just shit. It doesn't mean anything. And so I think if you, for me, you know, when I adapted that mindset, it by anxiety went, it's like, and I didn't even really have that much, you know,

but, but that's just the way I think now. You know, it's, it's, this is all, we got some cool things i got some great artifacts in here got some cool toys but you know what i mean and there is an aspect too i mean when i think back to when things were much simpler and i wasn't running a business and yeah now now the money's there and and and fame which i hate has come with it and all these things but but it's just you know when you think back it's like man remember when I was a seal and the only thing I had to worry about was going on an op and everything else was handled and those were simpler times for me and this what I live in now is the most complicated life I've ever the most complicated time in my life that I've ever lived I mean and so you know I think all right well if it does all end then I go back to that and maybe I buy a skidster and start a land clearing company or something like that and just live as simple as possible.

There's something attractive about that. And when you think about that, you know, it's not the end. It's just a different chapter if it does go away. And I think, I don't know, for me, I've prepared myself psychologically that when this, when, because it will eventually, it will fizzle out. People will get bored. They'll hate me. I don't know what, you know, I'll get canceled. Who knows?

But it's just moving into a new season of life. And who knows, man? Maybe that season will even be better than this one, you know? And that really puts me at ease. Just talking about it, puts me at ease. We could probably cut this out if you don't want to talk about it. But you mentioned that you were starting a network. Mm-hmm.

That's more than how. hedging a bed, I mean, that's helping others, that's creating a legacy, that's creating a business in a situation that if your show did take a hit, which I don't anticipate it will, you're absolutely on fire. I think you're aware of that. But by building a network, then you have this infrastructure where you're helping other people succeed, and then maybe this isn't that important. Yeah, yep. I mean, I, I, we don't know, I'm not going to cut any of this. I mean, I think about that all the time. But one thing that I don't really have many regrets,

but maybe one, I don't know if it's a regret because I've helped so many people, personal stuff, you know what I mean? Like I said, when I started this, it wasn't even about me. It still isn't about me. But, you know, now I have a team that relies on the business. And anyways, where was I going with this? We're just talking about things that could end. end at any minute. Yeah. Where was I going with this? Damn it. Too many, been blown up too many times.

What were we going after? We were talking about anxiety, you know, and how you're managing it. Yeah. You know, I was always a little upset with myself because I didn't build something that I could sell, meaning this isn't something that can get passed down to my kids. This isn't something that my wife can take over this isn't something that if i get sick or die or get you know i can't move around tragedy happens this isn't something that i can hand to my team and say run this you know and that that always bothered me is man there there isn't a way out of this there isn't i didn't build a legacy thing that i can pass down to to future generations of my family or my team or whoever and but rather than sit there and whining bitch about it all the time i we were talking about this at

breakfast i mean now now i'm building companies you know and uh i'm building companies that i'm going to advertise here that i'm going to sell or i'm going to pass it down you know to to my son and my daughter my wife and so have you tried to sash nicotine it's really really good you want to have a sash i have it but um so yeah so i started You know, instead of whining and complaining about it, and I didn't have any time, you know, to start something because of the show and all the stuff that goes under this, we both know plenty about that. You know, I started focusing my energy on building new companies.

And instead of having to rely on advertisers all the time, I'll build my own companies, advertise those companies. And so now we're in the process. By the end of this year, we'll have launched three new companies plus a network. so I guess technically four companies and and and I just I think people put limitations on themselves and yeah there's limitations for sports and all these things but when you find what you're good at there are no limitations there are nothing nothing can get in my way if you love it you know if you find the thing if you love it and and you're good at it you know the difference

between a career and a vocation was always kind of confusing to me until I started doing this and realized that vocation, that word comes from, vocal is a calling. It's not a job, it's not a career. So even before the channel was very successful,

I felt like I'm meant to do this. Connecting with people, entertaining people, having fun, and somehow it became a sort of a family show. I don't know, I don't know why seven-year-olds are learning about Agent Orange, but they are.

I have a nine-year-old sending me videos about audit the Fed and taxes or theft, which is glorious. But those are the things that give me a lot of fuel because what I'm doing is not really that important, but I'm bending the universe a little bit in my direction. I think what you're doing is very important, and here's why. because I think that not only the U.S., but the world as a whole, has lost the ability to critical think. And when, with your episodes, I mean, you bring in all the information, all the conspiracies, all the points of views, and it forces people to think critically. And then at the end, you save your opinion or how you think until the end.

And I think it's very important because it's a, in a way, it's a critical thinking exercise. It is. In a world where nobody does that anymore. Everybody is told how to think through mainstream media, through social media, through Hollywood, through all of that. They are, they have, it's, it's, I actually just did a documentary on this. It's called cognitive warfare, you know, and they inject, they inject and project what they want you. to see how they want you to think and you have started around on that that's on your documentary that sounds interesting um i try not to inject my opinion too much in it i tried to say here's

here's all the stuff i found out if there are things that are definitely debunked i will say so like this didn't happen but this i couldn't really i can't really debunk this part you decide i'm not here to convince anybody i'm not a pundit um I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I enjoy the stories. And that's why the format is the first two-thirds of the episode. I just tell it like it's true. Just so you can have the experience of,

like, I know this channel, I know eventually he's going to say, but is it true? But this one looks like it could, this one could be real. And that's what I'm trying to capture is, you know, I get people that are angry at me for debunking their favorite stories. And it's like, oh, I'm did, don't you want to know, what really? I was angry when I watched the moon. The moon landing when I was like, what? He thinks

we landed on the moon? The moon I go back and forth with. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if men walked on the moon. I think we probably landed on the moon, but I'm not sure men walked on the moon. But it's, that's a tough one. Yeah. We're going to dive into that a minute. I want to go into, I mean, you had mentioned, we were talking about anxiety still, and you had mentioned maybe a new show segment or something, bringing the people that you utilize for your research on the topics that you discuss in, and we're talking about being a conversationalist. And, you know, what I think is interesting is, I mean, you're a commentator. Are you talking to a camera or is somebody behind that camera?

No, I'm talking to a teleprompter. I'm reading. I can't do that stuff. I cannot talk to a camera. We've tried to get me to do some commentary stuff. I just, I can't do it. It's talking to, I used to put paper targets. I used to do this series called Hard Truth.

And one of the guys that have been with me the longest would drive in and I'd make him sit across from me just to talk to him. just so I'm talking to somebody, and if he couldn't make it, then I would set a paper target in the chair, and I would talk to the paper target, because I cannot look at a camera and just go. And, you know, I was starting the podcast of like I, just like I mentioned, I'm not a, I'm not a conversationalist. I definitely wasn't at the time. And so that's where I just where I just took my therapy and I was like just listen just don't interject don't try to relate don't do any of that stuff just be a sponge to whatever's coming out of the person across from you and maybe guide the conversation and and what I learned is if you if you can be comfortable

in silence most people cannot be comfortable in silence They will fill the room. They will fill the room because they feel awkward and you won't have to. And that's actually, that's, that's actually one of the things, one of the first things that I loved about my wife is that we could just sit there and not talk and be totally comfortable. And I was, I was like, man, I was like, there's like nobody I can do this with. everybody has to talk all the time so you know and i think you'll find that when you start doing your interviews is is they'll fill the silence you won't have to i could feel it sitting here when when we get a little quiet like i feel like maybe i talk now but i'm but we

had breakfast so i know you know that technique and i'm trying to to learn these things it was something that I just filed away is you said, don't try to be relatable. That's a really interesting point, is don't try to be relatable because it's, you know, trying to relate to the guest, you're just trying to have a conversation. You don't have to know anything about it, whether I'm talking to a physicist or a ghost hunter. Who cares? Just tell me what you feel. And you're already interested in the topic. And so I think, you know, here we go. Now I'm going to relate to you after I just said, don't relate to anybody. But, you know, I only, I only tell, take interviews where I'm interested in the subject matter.

And so it's a genuine curiosity. And we've, you know, we've turned down a lot of big, big names. I get scared, I get intimidated to interview athletes because I'm not into sports, you know, but I try it because I want to challenge myself, but we'll get big, big names that want to come on the show. and I'm like, man, I just, I don't know what to talk about with this person. I'm not, I'm not interested. I know this would be great for the channel. I know it would be great for the show.

It would probably be huge numbers, but I'm just going to be sitting there because I'm not interested in anything this person has ever done. So, we're going to pass. Wow. You know, and, and it's, it's, it's served me well, you know, and, and, and, um, and, and, um, and, it's, it's, it's served me well, you know, and, and, and, and, um, and, and, and, and, and, um, and, and, um, and, and, In a lot of the, all of the biggest interviews I've ever done, it's not, it's not Trump, it's not Gavin Newsom, it's not these ginormous names that everybody knows. The biggest stories are the, are the ones of everyday people who are doing extraordinary things who never get recognition or had, or, or military, special ops, conventional. guys that have done the unfathomable, and those are the stories that my audience really resonate with the most.

I mean, the biggest interview ever did was Ryan Montgomery. He was a hacker who now tracks down pedophiles, and he was the most, he probably suffered from the most, he had the most anxiety about coming on the show of anybody. ever and made him comfortable this the biggest interview we've ever done it said like almost 10 million views and when they get all the clips and shorts and all that stuff it's hundreds of millions of views why was he nervous he's a tech guy you know one one one thing about tech guys is we like I like to be in a in a small space alone with a machine yep my comfort zone very unsure of himself doesn't like being around people

smacked it out of the park and um and so i don't know i hope that i hope maybe that helps you a little bit it does gives you some confidence in that and the questions will come naturally when you're when you're just feeding your only your your your curiosity i think that's the key um like when you just just a couple of days ago you had that that that CEO of the asteroid mining company i watched all of that because you don't see him anywhere But that was a fascinating. I'm interested in all of those things. I look at the chapters.

I'm like, oh, I guess I have to watch all of this because I like all that stuff. But you don't see him anywhere. So that kind of stuff. You know, those are the sorts of people that I would, that I reach out to for my show. So that doesn't matter if he's famous or not. I know that's going to be an interesting dude to talk to.

I hope you do it. The studio's all done. We're just waiting for me to have the balls. You've got them. just do it man just do it and then the other thing that we both know is you know the audience loves to watch the progression of a channel you know and and so you're introducing something new and you're going to have to develop it and you're taking your audience on the journey with you they're they're going to they're going to coach you they're going to critique you and they're

going to wish the best for you you know and take that in you know that's interesting that you say that because um starting the channel is watching some consultant say you just got to start doesn't matter don't worry about your gear your lighting get your phone and just start doing episodes you're going to hate your first 20 episodes and remember going i'm not going to hate my I'm going to be fine and now my i just cringe it every like episode one through 70 it's like this how did anyone watch this is terrible um but the audience does respond to that they go back and watch that old stuff saying, you've come a long way, brother. Yeah, man.

I take it as a compliment. And that's why I don't delete any of those old episodes. And so I'd love to delete a few of them. But it feels dishonest. Like, a whole episode where I'm just completely out of focus. It's just, the focus is just on the bulletin border, so you can't even see me. But I'm just leaving it up there. Do you feel, do you feel, I mean, you're a truth teller.

And so I'm curious, do you feel a responsibility that a, that a, a responsibility comes with troop telling? I think I'm more of a storyteller and maybe that's maybe that's a way for me to rationalize it because I don't want to have I don't want to have the responsibility I don't want any power I don't want to

I don't want to be a leader I don't want to be any of that stuff I just want to entertain people with fun stories and just get them thinking differently or just cheer them up if to have it a bad day my only responsibility I feel is if I do find a piece of a story that's not that well known and even if I cover something that's been covered a lot I don't stop researching until I'm

pretty convinced I can bring something new like episodes like crop circles or even the moon landing it's like people keep asking me to do these episodes it's been these have been done since the 60s but they want it so I'll do it but I won't stop researching until I find those nuggets that entertain me and go, oh, I didn't know that, so I know the audience won't. So I think that's, I feel responsibility there. I gotta find something new that for a story that's maybe known.

And I don't hold back if I find something ugly, I just say it, like this is, I'm reminded of the Montauk project episode, which is, the Montauk project is, this is like a time travel urban legend about Stranger Things is based on it. Out in Long Island, these experiments done out in Camp Hero. You'd sit in the chair and you'd focus your psychic energy

and travel through time, all this stuff. It's a military project, of course. And it is all based on a book and a series of books by Preston Nichols. So I'm researching and I'm doing the episode and I'm loving it because I read Preston Nichols books when they came out after hearing about them on Art Bell. I'm doing the episode, it's coming along fine,

And then I find out that Preston Nichols was maybe inappropriate with a lot of young men. So at some point in the episode, it got kind of, it started to get a little dark. And I actually stopped in the episode. And I said, look, I know you have families watching. If you have kids watching, sign the send them away. And I said, seriously, because I'm going to tell you the truth about this story. And then I told the truth about what I learned about Preston Nichols. um it's all alleged but i said here's what i found and it's ugly and kind of ruins the story

it certainly ruined the magic for me but i felt a responsibility i don't know it's good you did that i i think it is it felt like the right thing to do at the time but um i don't know if if that's what the audience wanted it's hard to tell but i had to i had to i had to i had to i had to say what was going on. And this was someone that I really respected. It's too bad. Where did the hecklefish come from? I wanted a sidekick.

I needed a sidekick. Because hecklefish is... Those are available in the Wild POS tour, by the way. I'm not here to plug. I think we're sold out anyways. I needed a side of. Sidekick because I knew that when I would talk about the weird topics and the conspiracy topics, you kind of need a foil. I need someone to lighten the mood when it gets dark. He'll just come in with, he'll just start singing a song or something and just like a ruin my train of thought. But it just lets the audience go, it's just we're not taking it too seriously. All right. Yeah, we're talking about the CIA is throwing people out of the window. That's that's the story. All right? it happened

for sure but we can have a little fun along the way but also he serves as the voice of the audience so if I'm saying something totally outrageous I know that people watching

are going to be going what are you talking about so if I'm like if I'm talking about quantum mechanics or quantum theory he will hop in and call me poindexter and a nerd you know a nerd or whatever and say you know

some of us actually went to our prom we didn't stay home and write programs so can you explain please what the double-slid experiment is, he serves as the stand-in for the audience and a pressure release valve. Genius. It was Jen's idea.

I said, I need a sidekick to just sit there, and she said, why don't you have a goldfish in a bowl? I was like, that's a good idea. Damn. When in the journey did he come? Was he born? Day won. They won.

And he's come a long way, too. He's definitely had some facework done over the years. I guess the success he's got a good Botox guy because he was a janky and his voice changed a little bit

over time we kind of settled into our rhythm very cool I hope people don't get sick of it because you know

in rewatching my episodes to just refresh myself to come in here it's so hard to do I'm watching I'm like

I've been doing the same thing for like four years the same format the same so I hope it continues to

resonate it works though I try to let us it involved in small ways production value and music and sound and all of that but it's still basically the same format you know i think um i'm with you i've i'm always looking for ways to improve the show bring it to the next level and i got to the point where we're just chasing our tails it was well let's redo the thumbnails let's let's do this let's change the intro let's do

let's take this out let's put this in and it just got to the point where i was like man, these are small, minute moves. And, I mean, we did just upgrade to the new studio, third guest here. But this is bananas, by the way. Thank you. You should do a backstage tour of this facility. I probably will eventually. It's pretty crazy.

But what I did, you know, is when I realized, all right, we're chasing our tail here, the show is great. It's got great visuals. And I set it up that way from the very beginning. And so what I did is I started refocusing that energy into building new things. Because, I mean, I think we're, I'm definitely a creative. You seem like a creative as well. And so I just took the, I didn't know where to put my creativity.

And so I started focusing on these businesses, you know, that we're going to launch before the end of the year. and that those have become my new creative outlet because it just got to the point I was like I don't know how to improve what I have and I love what I have but it's it's it's not feeding that creative outlet that I that I need and crave and so I refocus that into these other businesses and in and the design of the studio and the shooting range and all everything that we have here it was that was my creative outlet for about a year building this and making the best experience for the guests for myself for my team and then once that was designed then I started moving into the business stuff and that's my new creative outlet you think that focusing on the minutia like you did because I've gone through that do you think that was trying to assuage its anxiety at the time probably because it is for me we myself my team we run a thousand miles an hour All the time.

Everyone here is amazing and really friendly, but it's, I was talking about this with Jeremy, who's incredible, what to find. It's a tight ship here. Like, you're hitting your marks and go take the photo and do all this stuff. There's a system in place. As family-oriented and as fun as it is, I mean, it's super fun. Shooting a Winchester is a highlight of my month. But you're very organized here.

I people compliment me on my studio when they come by like I've never seen anything like this and I I'm in here like oh my goodness I'm doing everything wrong I've got so much more to do dude you are doing everything right if you saw my studio be like yeah grab a clipboard we got some work you know I can help me with my grip you can help me with my lighting as well right on right on but well let's let's move in I want to talk about the moon landing that was That was the first, so my editor, who you met, Darren, knows all about this stuff. And he's the one that got me interested in it. And so I started looking things up on the Internet and came across you.

And I was like, this is by far the best explanation I've ever heard. It's all in there. At least I think it's all in there. And so I want to dive in there. What got you interested in the moon landing? That was an episode that people just demanded. I didn't want to do it because everyone's done the moon landing. And are you talking about the Stanley Kubrick one?

Because I've done a few moon videos. I think I have a whole compilation. I probably watched all of them, but I know the Stanley Kubrick thing was in there, how the shadows don't align, but let's go into it. I want to hear all of it. So I debunked a lot of that moon landing stuff. A lot of that episode is based on Bart Sobrell's. Bart Zabrell, it had a documentary quite a while ago, maybe 20 years.

A funny thing happened on the way to the moon, I think is the name of it. And if you're into the moon stuff, that's the documentary to watch. And Bart's someone who I trade email with who I told him, as soon as I'm ready, I've got to have you in here. Because he knows everything about it. But I debunked a lot of his stuff in the documentary. But I couldn't debunk all of it. there were some weird things about, you know, when you see the astronauts and it looks like there's wires, you know, reflections off the wires. It's hard to explain that. I tried to. I said,

you know, the way that piece of equipment is, it could be this, but I agree it looks weird. And the way the astronauts fall doesn't look natural, but it's one-sixth gravity. It could be weird. You know, I try to be open-minded to all of it. It's an episode that still confounds me. I go back and forth, depending on who I talk to about whether it really happened. And I think the percentage of Americans who don't believe that we went to the moon

is just rising every year. I hope I have nothing to do with that. I'm sure you have something to do with that. But, you know, they lost the tapes, all the original tapes of the moon landing. What you watch when Neil Armstrong climbs off the lemm, one small step for man, that's not a direct feed from anything that was projected on a wall in NASA, and the networks put, aim their camera at the wall to get, like, this projection. And the networks are like, hey, can we just get the direct feed?

Because that would be a lot better. They're like, no, no, this is, we're going to do it this way. And then they lost all those tapes. They lost the telemetry. And when asked, why don't we go back, NASA said, well, we can't replicate that technology. It's too difficult. Yeah, isn't there like some, I don't know what you call it? We can't get past a certain point, supposedly.

They said they, I think it was your episode, they're like, we lost the technology. It's like you lost the technology. to get us to the moon. You just happened to lose it? Nobody wrote. Where did it go? They just lost it. You might be talking about

the Van Allen radiation belt. That's it. Right, which is high velocity particles and it's this energetic field that surrounds the earth and is very dangerous. And if you're aware of something called the South Atlantic anomaly,

it's this part of our geometric geomagnetic field that is just, it's burning a hole through it. If you look at it on like an electromagnetic map, it's just a big hole. It's getting bigger,

and now it's starting to branch off into a second one, and nobody knows why that's happening. And geomagnetism and the pole shifts and all that, I can go down that rabbit hole, too, because all that stuff terrifies me. Do it. Solar radiation and the grid going down. All that stuff terrifies me.

So the Van Allen radiation belts that you have NASA astronaut saying, oh, we think we found a way now that we can get out of, you know, high Earth orbit, that we can finally get past the Van Allen radiation belts. Like, we already did that, man, didn't we? Didn't we do that? 17 times or whatever?

But they forgot. They lost it. We can't replicate it. Unbelievable. I don't buy it. I don't buy it either. So just let us know what's going on. On top of that, there was a space race or a race to the moon

between us and Russia during the Cold War, right? There was, and Russia was first to everything. We were behind on everything. Russia has first Sputnik goes up, Sputnik 2 goes, so first man-made satellite in orbit, first man in orbit, first animal in orbit, first woman in orbit, first spacewalk, first geostationary satellites.

All first, first, first, first, first. And we're falling behind, and you can hear JFK giving speeches, you know, and they're pressing them on it. and like the Saturn program's not going well and the rockets are blowing up on the launch pads and he's saying like

no matter how much money we throw at it we're going to be second, we're going to be second you can hear him talking about it and then suddenly 1969 we're there we surpass all of it we surpass all of the Soviets accomplishments and we go and we land on the moon

okay okay it seemed like we took a great leap forward there but there's really no explanation for it. Did we? Yeah. Well, where do you stand on it? I'm like you.

I go back and forth. I mean, I wonder what I would think have we not been through COVID and all these other things, Epstein, and all these other things that keep coming out that destroy any trust in any government institution there is. every COVID conspiracy that I talked about just came true but you know to me it was always obvious and the big problem with that is

and you were vocal as well and I was very nervous about my opinions on COVID but I hope that I didn't just get lucky you know those of us that were doubting and those that thought it was just kind of a power grab I hope we didn't just get lucky because when the next pandemic comes

and they want to do lockdowns, Americans are not going to do it. Even, you know, even like the middle of the road people are going to be like, I can't do that again. I can't put my kids on Zoom again. I'm not doing it.

And if it's a real pandemic, like the Spanish flu or something, we're going to be in trouble. Or Ebola. Or Ebola. Something serious. Man. So that's chickens coming home to roost

when you're so secret, when there's such a lack of transparency, when it's so corrupt. You know, I understand that there needs to be some secrecy. Yeah, I attack FBI, I, CIA, and NSA all the time. But I still want them there.

I still want them to have the tools that they need to do their jobs. I want America to be the most powerful country on the planet. I want us to have the best military in the world. I just don't want us to use it that often. But overall, I want transparency in what we're doing. And we don't have any of that. Not one bit.

So then there's going to be no trust. Now, if those things hadn't have happened, you know, it's interesting because I didn't, don't i don't know how much that affected my my psyche you know what i mean and and now now it's like anything it gets to the point where it's like anything that has put out it's like you know that's a distraction that's bullshit that didn't happen there's no way that definitely happened and you're saying it didn't epstein you know and and and you know and and then and then the i mean shit half of Trump's it appeared to me there was a lot of chatter about releasing the Epstein files and all this other shit and then we get in there and it's like everybody's beating the same damn drum oh no to look over here oh Russiagate and it's like yes right right because we're we're diving into Russiagate when the entire American population both the right and the left are screaming release the Epstein files but let's let's let's kind of

Concentrate on this. I'm rushing it. Let's concentrate on this, right? And when we're not, for two years I've been saying this, and I get a lot of heat from it. We're not going to get the list. There's no list. We're not going to get it. It's everyone wants to talk about that it's some sex trafficking ring.

That's part of it. It's a blackmail operation. It's a money washing operation for the intelligence community. To connect the dots doesn't take any effort at all. I never talk about Mossad of my show. because I'm not stupid, but you can connect all these agencies to all this. Just follow the money.

Somehow, Epstein is connected to Iron Contra. You know, just follow the money. How's he connected to Iron Contra? When he was, I think he was an advisor for Adnan Khashoggi back in the 80s who was like, it's like an arms dealer slash asset, you know, wealthy family slash could move a lot of weapons around and a lot of cash around.

And I'm going to get a lot of things wrong. today. So my job is not to get everything right. My job is to get you thinking and go find out. So they needed to get cash and weapons. We need to get weapons to Iran, which is illegal. Congress told them no, no, no. They passed law, law, and they just did it anyway. And we got to get cash to the Congress. And we have to do it without Congress knowing, which isn't an ideal way to run a democracy but so you need middlemen and koshoggi is known as a middleman for for the iC and epstein seems to be and it's not like i'm the first to talk about this i you know i've heard people who've met him you know people like eric weinstein who i who i like

tells his story about meeting epstein and walked out of their feeling like he he's i don't think he's ever said it publicly that he felt like epstein was part of the iC but he He said he felt like he was a manufactured personality. And he kind of hinted at there was someone kind of pulling his strings, kind of creating this facade. Interesting. Because he was a guy who had no, I don't think he had a college degree, and he ends up teaching math at age 20 at a wealthy school

and just suddenly skyrockets through the finance game. It doesn't add up. So we're not going to learn because it would wreck all kinds of things. No matter, they botched this so bad. They had all the, you know, influencer types up at the White House at the very beginning, holding up the binders. Oh, we got it. I don't know whose idea that was, but that was such a disservice. What were they thinking?

I mean, and then, you know, and then the distractions and diversions that have come up since, it's like, you guys have botched this so bad no matter what comes out, Unless it is aligned with the wildest conspiracy you've ever heard of, nobody's going to believe it. Not going to believe it. Nobody's going to believe it. There was no tape, but then there was a tape, or then there was a tape, but only Bill Barr saw the tape. Bill Barr's father, of course, is involved with Epstein and Galane. Oh, go figure. Go figure.

But now there is a tape, but there's some minutes missing, which is a story we hear over and over, right? There's always minutes missing. Always the minutes are missing. So I don't know So now we're at the point where we don't trust anybody And I don't follow it close enough Like I talk about political issues a lot But I'm not ideological

So Just a quick side track So I get attacked quite a bit for being far left And far right And for being ideological And I keep saying I'm political But I'm not ideological political. Politics to me is governments and how they interact with society. That's what I'm interested in. So I did this experiment. The three major AI platforms, so Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, and Open AI Chat GPT. I sent the same question in. Analyze all the Wi-Files episodes, everything that A.J. Gentile has ever said publicly on every podcast, everything he's ever written that's been published. Analyze all that. And tell me, is he coming at these issues from the left or the right? All the AI platforms, and if you're listening to this, you do it yourself.

says there is no left or right bias in anything that I'm saying. I'm focused on truth, facts, research. I'm clearly anti-government, pro-transparency, anti-corruption, and that is where I come from. So when I talk about Epstein, I'm going to get attacked from different sides. I don't know where, is it a left-right issue? To me, it's not. It's a transparency-corruption issue.

You shouldn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican, which are fake now anyway. So I don't know. I could be saying controversial things today to one side or the other. I just don't know which side until I get home. Summer's here, and if you're anything like me, you didn't spend the winter just sitting around. You stayed sharp and kept moving. And now it's time your gear caught up. And that's why I want to introduce you to Roka.

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I'm very middle of the road. And so I had to work. my way out of that and we're doing it but but yeah you know America's just become so tribalized man and it goes back to critical thinking nobody seems to have the the fortitude to critical think anymore and so it's if you say anything against one party or another no matter whether it's if it's true I mean in it in everything that we do which we try to you know our best to bring truth and it's like man like you're not listening you're not listening like this is a fault

of this specific party and you have wrapped your entire identity up into this shit and you're not fucking listening that's the problem is when you when your identity is your ideology now you have a problem now you've created a bubble and you've got to protect that so you can't you can't hear anything goes against your identity. Your identity is the party. That's a bad situation. I say to my audience, if you're on the left and you think the right is the problem, or you're on the right and you think the left is a problem, you're the problem because that is all theater. This is just to keep us spinning our wheels. Instead of worrying about party politics because the establishment on the Republicans and the establishment of Democrats want the same thing anyway. You know, they want big government

war and all that stuff, but most of us don't want that stuff. Most of us are kind of in the middle of things. I don't identify with either party. You know, I'm pro-trups, pro-military, but anti-war. You know, I'm pro-cop, very pro-law enforcement, but I think we need reform. So I don't think, I'm that unusual. I don't think those are controversial things.

Pro-choice, pro-life, that's between you and God. not involved in that. You know, I'm very libertarian in all those things. And I think we need to get away from the tribalism and start to look at individual issues and individual people and call out the corruption when we see it. I don't know how many politicians you've interviewed, but in, you know, my career, I worked as a contractor in the engineering side in politics for almost 20 years, from local villages all the way up to having clients in Congress and met All these politicians, famous ones, I've named brand clients. These are just people.

They're flawed. They're ambitious. Can't really be trusted, but they're all the same. And we worked with both parties. And you'd have these meetings with Republicans and Democrats. It's just the same person. They just want to get reelected. They're going to say whatever they've got to say to the base, get reelected.

And I just feel like it's a smokescreen. WWE wrestling That's what it is What it is What it is And our system It's such a shame Because our system

Does not encourage The best and brightest To get involved I'd never run for office You said They were tried They tried to recruit you Mm-hmm

No You got a wife and kids I think that's how they control you I think that's also Why we're seeing A lot of young weak people Get into office

Is because They're propped up and they know they're going to be very easy to control. Yes. That's what I think. And it's just through doing this, I see how easy it could be to fall into certain traps, take a favor from somebody that seems like,

oh, I just want to help you. Like, what are you, my fucking parent? No. No. I know what this is. You're going to do this. And then six months later, you're going to ask me,

you're going to start asking me for favors and dangle that shit in front of my face. No, not doing it. Right. And if you don't do it, we'll just primer you or smear you. Or nowadays, we'll just lock you up. We'll just raid your wife's underwear drawer. We'll just turn the FBI on you.

Yep. Yep. Well, let's talk about, I want to talk about the hollow moon. Okay. Is the moon hollow? I have not dug into this. I had a side conversation with Randall Carlson once, and he's the one that brought it up. I have not seen this episode of yours.

It's a fun one. That was a, Gino, my brother said, you got to do this one. It's like, hollow moon. That is nonsense. And then I'm researching the episode, and I just start to realize that there's a lot of weird stuff about the moon. By the time I was done with the episode, I was convinced that it was hollow. But there's a lot of weird things that have happened with the moon. Like, first of all, the moon is too big to be here.

It's just too big. We've never found another system in our solar system. system or any other that has this giant moon right next to us like this this is a totally unique we haven't found a moon that has such a perfect orbit like this that also it same side faces us all the way we're a snowflake with this totally unique so that's strange no shit i didn't realize that no we haven't found it anywhere we have the only moon that we know of that doesn't rotate no there are a few moons that are tidily locked like that. Okay.

But it's rare. But when you stack up all these coincidences, it starts to paint a picture like the moon is weird. You know, a lot of people will point to the fact that the moon during the eclipse is like

the perfect size to black out the sun because it's like a 400 to one ratio. That's fair, but the moon at one point was a lot closer to the earth and it's drifting away. So at some point it's not going to be perfect anymore. but the moon um the far side is the crust is different older and much thicker and fewer impacts are on the far side that are on the near side when you think it would be the opposite

because that's kind of like should be grabbing things as they come in but instead there's not as many impacts on that side when um during one of the Apollo missions as a test the seismic test, they crashed one of the rockets into the moon just to take readings, seismic graph readings, to see, you know, what was going on there. And the phrases, the moon rang like a bell for over an hour. So if you set off like seismic charges here to measure sound waves that go through the earth, as they go through the earth, they slow down, as they go through all this dense matter and then through the mantle and the cord, like it just slows down.

The moon, they don't do that. the sound waves sped up and started to bounce all around in there and started to like reverberate for a long time and no one could really explain that now the prevailing theory the mainstream theory is that the moon is a lot less dense than the earth because it was created from the earth's crust and the upper mantle which is less dense which is why the moon is less dense so the interior has maybe some hollow spaces or it's just a less it's not quite as dense that's why

okay but the sound waves bounced around for a long time there was a long time this is true this is true what what hit it again it was they dropped one of the rocket boosters they just crashed in there but they did seismograph

readings in subsequent missions there you know where they actually drop in like explosives you know control explosives and they just take the readings and see what happens to the sound waves. You know, it's a normal scientific thing to do. I think they were just surprised. There's been a couple of NASA scientists

who've even said it would make a lot more sense that the moon wasn't here than the fact that it is because there's so many strange things about it. And we see light on the moon all the time. They're called transient lunar phenomena. We just see these like just light flashes on the moon all the time.

If you have binoculars, you can even see this. In one of the moon craters, I think, is the aristarchist crater. There's this blue glowing light that just appears from time to time and then goes away, and then it appears again. They call it the blue gem. What? And you can see it. So what's causing the light up there?

Well, mainstream scientists will say, well, you're seeing flashes because the moon is a lot like glass. It's very glassy and reflective, so you're seeing that. But we'll see light just like go across. You'll just see light zip across. And then what's the blue light in that same crater that we've been seeing since 17th century? It's Aristarchus or Aristarchus crater, I think is how you say it.

Blue light, what is that? And now they're seeing, just very recently, like this year, these swirls of light and gas is happening on the moon, different places. They don't understand it. There was one point where the moon doesn't really have an atmosphere. It has a tiny one. It doesn't really have one.

But for a little while it did. There was just all this water vapor in the air. on the moon that came from somewhere and then just disappeared. So I don't know what that is. And then you've had people who have seen pictures, like I've talked about Carl Wolf, who was U.S. Air Force, and he was like a technician. Basically, the level is a copy repairman,

and he's called in to fix some imaging equipment at NASA or Air Force wherever. And he walks in there, and he's like an airman. And he sees another young guy, and he's like, oh, Carl, you got to see this. And Carl looks, it's like, what am I looking at? It's like, this is the back side of the moon. There's like cities there and stuff. There's mushroom-shaped things and towers and highways and all this stuff. Carl's like, this is amazing.

I can't believe it. And Carl said he went home. He told his wife, and he said, he was watching the news waiting for this to show up on the news, but it never did. And you could see those photos allegedly, and I used them in one of my episodes. And it looks like a civilization on the far side. side of the moon. Carl unfortunately was met with an untimely death.

He got hit by a car when he was riding his bike. So we don't know much more from Carl. But he was part of the 2000 so much. That's crazy. So much. When I did the Killer Patents episode, I ended it with all the

free energy inventors. Like the hydrogen car guy? He said he was poisoned. And he said to his, he's having, like, lunch with investors to, like, finally take his, his car ran on water. This is Stanley Meyer. And he's not feeling well and he runs outside. He's, like, throwing up in the street. And his brother was his partner.

And his brother's, what's going on? He's like, I was poisoned. And then he dies. And that was the end of it. No more water car. Then we just have this kid who created plastylene. He, like, took plastic and created fuel out of it. And then he disappeared for a little while.

I think he's back. So it could be a conspiracy, but I'm going to look into him. But a lot of these inventors, my favorite one is Sparky Sweet, who's worth looking into. Because he has video of all this stuff, like in his workshop, and you see he's got volt meters and stuff, and all this energy's created.

And he takes his camera around. He's like, look, nothing is plugged in. Nothing is plugged in. And it caught the attention of someone in military somewhere who said, I want to be your partner and we'll take this wide. or whatever. And he worked with this guy for a while.

And then at some point, black van shows up. A couple of guys' suits have a conversation with sparking his wife. They go away. And then he has a heart attack. And that's really the end of it. Now, all his research was taken,

everything was seized. And that's how it works. But that's what happened with Nikola Tesla too, right? Did they say seized all of, like 80 boxes of research? Yes. So when he died, when he died, it wasn't the, FBI at the time, although the FBI was there. It was like the office of alien property or something, whatever agency's in charge of foreigners. He died and within hours, they were in his

room. This is at the New Yorker Hotel. And they seized 80 boxes of his research, all kind of research plans. And because it's, you know, it's national security. And they held onto it for months and months and they finally returned his property to his nephew but 20 boxes were missing so in those boxes allegedly and this is this falls under project nick is Tesla's research into direct energy weapons to DWs which was very hot with military at the time with DARPA and all of that we still don't know what's happened to those boxes but we do know that they were researching things based on Tesla's research and the formula

the sort of the architecture for the Hart project up in Alaska a lot of that comes from Tesla's research and it took me quite a while to connect the dots but you will find Tesla's missing work suddenly shows up in patents from this from this guy somewhere in Alaska

I forget his name and out of the blue he lands a contract with the DOD for a lot of money and they build a facility in uh in Fairbanks Alaska and it's it's it's just an array of antennas in a small building and it cost a fortune like where'd the money how where'd the money go cost a fortune and what it does is it it ionizes and creates plasma in the atmosphere and they say we use this to test the atmosphere but it could also be used for all kinds of processes. What Tesla wanted to do is create free energy by exciting the ionosphere.

That was what he was doing with Warren Cliff Tower. But he needed funding to do that, and he couldn't get any funding. J.P. Morgan was his patron, and he told J.P. Morgan, do you see it in his letter? I need a sum of money. He needed like $200,000 to get this project going. And J.P. Morgan said, well, you're building wireless communication. What do you need all this money for? And Tesla's like, no, no, no. Wireless communication, I got that. We're going to do wireless energy. We're going to do wireless free energy for everyone on the planet can just tap into this and just get free electricity. And J.P. Morgan says, well, how do you put a meter on that? J.P. Morgan owned copper mines that made copper wire. He owned rubber farms all over the world that made insulation for the wire.

He owned a lumber mills and forests that created poles for wire. He owned coal factories. He owned machine shops that created generators for electricity. And he owned railroads that brought all this stuff around the country. Free energy shuts that whole business. Dad, we don't need any of that. Carnegie, we don't need any of that. The Mellon family, we don't need you guys anymore.

It's just free. Imagine what the world would be like if energy was just free. That's the golden age. we're not going to live to see it Nope Nope Wow Wow

What do you I think I went off on a few tangents But Have you ever looked into the flat earth stuff I have I'm not a flat earther Me neither You know I don't even want to do an episode on it

Because to me it's so ridiculous But people do request it And me calling it ridiculous I'm going to get a lot of hate for it But But I can handle the hate from the flat earthers That's fine but I do like the theory

like on YouTube you're not going to find much flat earth stuff that's that is suppressed but if you go land on Rumble and search flat earth why do you think they suppress it uh there's there's some stuff we'd have to talk about off air

but there are there are subjects that YouTube will just not allow you to to discuss um so I you know I can't say specifically because I made a promise to to someone to not tell but if you look at a couple of my

demonetized videos you'll see that they're kind of soft softball like why is this demonetized go look at those those are no no topics that I didn't know until it was too long I was like why it's demonetized like I can't talk about that

I'm like everything's true in here I debunk most of it I can't even talk about it at all true or not so flat earth they don't like that one but if you go and rumble and spend like two three four hours just watching those videos, you walk away like, it could be. There's some compelling

stuff. It's good stuff. There is some compelling arguments. Yeah. I will say that. I will say that. He's got a point. Damn, damn. What do you think, so back to Nicola Tesla, what do you think about the pyramids? What were they? So, guns in my head, I think they were used to generate energy. I think

there's a lot of evidence for it. You know, for people interested in it, they can look into Christopher Dunn's work. He's done, he's done the research, the definitive research on the pyramid power plant theory. Tesla was fascinated by the pyramids, not so much for energy, but for how they were constructed, how they're constructed to True North or all of that. He was fascinated by the engineering of it. But his free energy device, a lot of that engineering can be seen in the pyramid. So Wardencliff Tower was his facility on Long Island, which is just a big tower. It looks like a water tower, but it's built over

an aquifer and what tesla was trying to do was use the water creates this deep resonant sound that resonates with the earth's natural frequency everything has a resonant frequency with the earth this chair our bodies everything does and if you can come into harmony with that frequency it will expand it will amplify and there's been research that certain wavelengths broadcast of the Great Pyramid will amplify that electromagnetic energy. It's around 200 meters, I think. So Tesla is fascinated with that engineering, but the pyramid power plant theory is a lot like Tesla's technology. The Giza Plateau, there is an aquifer under there. There's a lot of water under there. And that water would create this resonant frequency, and they found copper rods

that go