The Commercial Break - The Season Of Swivel!

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

TCB Starts Season 7 in the same swivel chairs as season 6! Talk of the long, and long needed, December vacation, Venezuela and the future of TCB. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's it. If you don't quit, you might make it. And if you quit, you definitely want. And honestly, I think after all the years I've seen people make it and not make it, the only common denominator is that. on this episode of the commercial break. Well, you knew it wouldn't take but one second before we would mess something up on this season seven of the commercial break. And man, did we?

I forgot to press record on my actual, like, the board that brings all the microphones in that makes it sound so smooth and sexy. Like you're hearing my voice right now. So since I forgot to press record on the very first episode that we record for season number seven, we're going to sound a little tinty and shallowy on this particular episode. I would rather put it out than not put it out, so I'm going to do that. But just bear with the audio quality. It's not terrible, but it just sounds like you're watching us in a tin can. Or we're in a tin can.

Or you're in a tin can. We're all in fucking tin cans. It's 2026. I don't know what to tell you. It's all going to hell in a hand basket. But we're so excited that season number seven is here. It's upon us. We're bringing new episodes.

We're recording live on YouTube.com. Slice the commercial break Tuesdays and Thursdays. And we've now decided that we will do between two and four episodes a week, depending on which week it is and depending on how we're feeling. We're not limiting ourselves. It's cap off kids. All gas. No breaks.

You know how we like to do it. We promise one thing. We deliver another. Stay tuned. It's going to be a very exciting season of TCB. Okay. Here it is. Episode officially number 884 but unofficially number 890.

Season number seven starts now. The next episode of the commercial break starts now. Well, yeah, cats and kittens. Welcome back to the commercial break. I'm Brian Green. This is my dear friend and the co-host of this show. Chris and Joy Haudley, best to you, Chris. Best to you, Brian.

Best to you out there in the podcast and streaming universe, season number seven starts now. Woo! Crazy. I can't believe. This is insane. Six years, seven. We say that every year. Yeah, we said it season one too.

I know. And happy New Year. And happy New Year's. We will not be saying that until October. No. I was laughing because Chrissy was like, hey, we've been out of touch for like, not out of touch, but we haven't talked on the. Yeah, it's on the phone for two weeks, three weeks. And so she said, hey, call me.

Let's talk before we talk. I said, okay. Why not? And I was laughing because when I called her, I wanted to say happy new year. And I was recalling that in 2023, season number five, for the first 10 months of the year. Yeah, that was our tagline. Happy New Year. We were wondering just how long we could get away with it.

And I think we took the joke too far. So we won't be doing that again. But, you know, it's still the sixth. Yeah, we're the early stage. There's a bubble. There's a little shine there for the first week or two. of the new year. You can get away with it.

I'm still saying happy new year. I said happy new year to the kids at the Starbucks today. I said happy new year to everybody here at the house. Yes. Well, that's appropriate because you haven't seen them in New York. Yeah, I think the rule is if you haven't seen someone in a new year and it's still January. You can say happy new year. Yeah, if it's February, you just sound like a shith.

It just sound like you don't know what you're talking about. So welcome back. Season number seven, Chrissy and I are excited to kick down the day. door and get back to life here in the studio. We have taken an immense amount of time. Yes, we have. Yeah, between sicknesses and travel. I mean, I was laughing to myself, too, thinking about last year. I mean, I think we recorded like every single day in December. We did. Yeah. I think we even recorded on Christmas Eve, if I'm not mistaken. We did. And this year we took it all of December all. And it felt good. It did. It did. We recorded very little between Thanksgiving and.

And today, really, I think we recorded like, I don't know, maybe seven days total. And it felt very good. So thanks for hanging with us. Thanks for listening to the TCB classics and some of the interviews that we had sitting in the can. We did do a lot of interviews. I remember that. We did a ton of that 12 days of TCB, I think we did seven interviews or something like that. And then like the seven hours of TCB or whatever.

It was all a lot. And that's okay. We were excited to do it. And we're excited now just to be refreshed. Be refreshed. Recharge. Refocus. Get our shit together.

Feel good about coming into the studio a couple times a week. And hopefully you feel the same. We're excited. Season number seven. So no more talk about that. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Christy and I will be here live on YouTube.com slash the commercial break or restream.

Dot I.O. slash the commercial break. You can go watch us. Sometime between 1 and 3 p.m. We'll go live. I don't want to say exactly when. We'll just mess it up every time. Yeah, I'm not going to pin anything on there. And then we will be putting out two or three new episodes every single week on the RSS feed.

So stay tuned. And maybe we'll run some, I thought about this. There's a lot of people who texted in, they have their thoughts and their opinions about the new schedule. Most of them very supportive, extremely positive. I don't think I had one like super negative comment about all of, which indicates to me that we're probably doing the right thing. Like if we were slimming down and people were like, no, don't do that. I'd love four fucking hours of the commercial break every single week. Then I think we would hear it, but we didn't hear it. A couple people, but most people were by and large supportive. But there were a lot of people who said, I just jumped in season five. I jumped in, you know, season six, whatever.

So what I might do, what I might do is on Fridays, I might rerun TCB classic episodes. I'll pick ones that I think are notable for some reason, maybe interviews that we liked or whatever. We'll rerun them on Friday. You can choose whether or not you want to listen to it. and then, you know, maybe we'll have still have four episodes a week just in a different way. So we'll figure it all out. Stay tuned. Everything is flexible. We're bending to the will of the podcast gods right now. Yeah, I mean, this industry is still the Wild West. Very much. It's growing and changing. It's growing. And we're having to change with it. Yeah, we're changing with it.

And one of the things that we have always wanted to do is be more interactive with the listenership, be engaged with them. So by doing these live on YouTube.com slash the commercial break, you can chime in via chat or soon we'll have the ability to, I mean, we have it now, but we're not doing it today. We can have the ability to bring people in on video. So you can kind of do a FaceTime call with us. And we'll do that in the future. So chime in.

We'll be ready. And then maybe on Instagram. You don't know. We don't know. We don't know. The world is our oyster. The world is our oyster. We're starting afresh.

I feel like we have a brand new commercial break. and Astrid's ready to change the curtains. So that's how I know it was time for a change. Oh, we're going to change out the... Yeah, we're going to change out the curtains. That's coming. Yeah, the furniture and the curtains is coming. She has a big bug in her boo about this.

She thinks, I love these chairs. She does a great job. She does. I love these chairs personally. But she says it's time to freshen it up. And I was like, we just got these last year. Why do we have to change it up? And she's like, that's the time when you change it up.

You do it for a year and then you change it up. The fuck am I supposed to know? I'm just a man. I'm just a guy. Just trying to feel my way through all my feels and testosterone. These chairs are nice. They spin and they're comfortable. I told Astrid, no non-spinny chairs.

You get non-spinny chairs. I'm going to feel stuck. I'm going to, my ADHD isn't going to play well with non-spinny chairs. Spinny chairs only. That's the world. Change these things to fucking bright, you know, turquoise if you want to. But do not take my spinning chairs away. I only want spinny chairs.

That's right. And leave me a place for this big, ugly board that she says is ruining the mood. It's ruining the mood. It runs the whole show. What do you want me to do? It's got pretty lights on it. It does have pretty lights on it. Speaking of pretty lights, you spent Christmas down in Naples, Florida. I did. Yes. I love Naples, Florida. God bless America. It was so nice and relaxing. We're so fortunate. We really are. Jeff's mom has a place down there. And so we went down there for Christmas. We've done that before in the past.

Not every Christmas, but we've done it quite a few years since we've been together. And this time, we had all of the brothers. their families came too. So it was a big reunion. It was so much fun. We did big dinners and all went to the beach and did the pool. I mean, it's just so nice when that's the biggest decision you make every day is, are we going to the pool or the beach? Yeah. Or both, but in one order. And, you know, I went on nice walks. It was 75. Fuck you. Can you be happy for me? You know, I can't. No. No. I'm not going to be happy for you. That's asking too much. that's asking too much. Now, of course, I'm happy for somebody. No, I know. And I know you'd love Naples.

I got it. I'd love the beach. That's what I love. I love the beach. And we also had a chance to go to the beach. And they experienced historic cold temperature. Yeah, there was a weird cold front that came through. It just blew on through the five days we were at the beach for Astrid's birthday.

But, you know, hey, listen, I'm going to say this. I said it before. I'll say it again. I would take a cold, rainy day at the beach over a warm, sunny day. at work every day of the week. I mean, it's just the truth. There is something magical about the beach. There really is. And I know that people that live there, I've talked to them and they're like, yeah, there's a beach there. And it's like, how can you get used to the beach? I understand

if I lived there, I would probably get, you know, used to the beach. A little bit used to the beach. But there's a reason they live there. That's right. They like the beach. They didn't move there. Unless you're born there. You didn't move there for shits and giggles. You moved there because you wanted to be close to the beach in the warm weather. That's the way that it is. Florida is a paradise in that sense in most, you know, most places, most of those beaches are just beautiful. They really are. Especially in the Gulf and down at Naples. Just beautiful. You know, Florida itself, eh, you know, I don't, I don't know. I live. Listen, I had, I was fortunate enough for a period of time to have a vacation place there, condo there, but, you know, I sold it because

I got taxed to death. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, they may not have income. but they find a way to get that out of you. That's for sure. It usually happens to real estate, which is why all those, that beach property is expensive. But we did, actually, we went down to Alabama's where we went.

Yes, Orange Beach. I love that area too. We went again down to Orange Beach. Second time there, we went first time. You know, you're growing up as a Georgian, as a person in Atlanta. Amelia Island,

Naples, Florida, Panama City, Destin, Florida. You'd never heard about anybody going to Gulf Shores, Alabama, or Pensacola, like in between Pensacola and Gulf Shorts, never. Orange Beach, I didn't even know what that was until like 10 years ago. And all of the sudden this place has exploded out of the ground.

Yeah. And it is really a nice place. It is. I do have to say, listen, it's a, you know, there's big buildings all up and down the strip. That's all it is, these huge condo buildings. But I do have to say that I like the vibe. I think it's cool. I'm all about Orange Beach.

I'm telling you. It's a easy drive over there. Yeah. And it's very nice. Amelia Island is still my jam, but it's so fucking expensive to go down to Amelia Island. So fucking expensive. And it's tiny and it's crowded and all the stuff that everybody else complains about. But at least we had a chance to go, we saw Gutavo get married.

Yes. Congratulations. Gustavo. Guadavo. We saw him get married. We saw him graduate. All the things. Yes, all the things. It was a day to rejoice.

Happy, happy. What a wonderful time. Okay, so you had the graduation, because that's really kind of like the last time I saw you was right before the graduation, because you went out of town for week. Then I went out of town for week. And that was like December. I know. 12th or mid-13. Yeah. And then there was New Year's.

And I'm thinking about, okay, so Gustav's graduation, his marriage, Astrid's family is here. Astrid's family comes in town. There was the in-laws were in town, too, on Gustavo's wife's side. And then you roll into Christmas New Year and then Astrid's birthday. And then that's her birthday. And then the whole fucking crew goes down to Orange Beach, two houses right across the street from each other. What a big celebration time. Yeah. It was great. It was great. It was one of my favorite holidays in memory. The last holiday that I think that would like top this holiday season. First of all, we had a lot of time off. It allowed me to recharge. Yeah. Second of all, we spent all of it with family, which made me feel good. I felt cozy and comfortable. It does recharge your battery. It does. Right. And you know, there's a lot of stuff going on with the business and stuff. But I was able to kind of like mitigate the stress with a lot of. you know, FaceTime with family and kids and all that other stuff.

But then also, you know, we, the travel. It was, I don't like the actual travel part getting from two to, you know, from A to B. But once I get there, I love it. Oh, yeah. I loved it. We went to Houston. Houston is a town. Houston is a town.

Yeah. Not my favorite city in America. I'll be real straightforward about that. But the people there are lovely and we've had some great food in Houston. and, you know, then we go down to Orange Beach and that's great. And then we were here in Atlanta for the actual holiday for Christmas and New Year's. I mean, for Christmas, it was just, you know, it was a great time. This is a great time.

This is a great time. It is. And, you know, then my wife's birthday, January 2nd, I, the kids, the kids were up past midnight four days in a row. The day before New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve, we put them down for a nap, and then we let them stay up to see the ball drop. First time we've ever let them do that. They were so fucking excited. I have video of my son just screaming his full head off, dancing, his little shaking his butt.

Was it the New York one? It was a new ball. Oh, okay. Well, we watched the New York one, because of where we were, that was an hour before we actually celebrated it. So we celebrated the Chicago one. Well, you know, they do that, the Ryan Sechrest's bullshit. Yeah. But we were with a bunch of Venezuelans anyway.

we weren't really watching that. But anyway, my son would shaking his butt. He loved it. The girls were dancing with everybody. You know, there's 20 people. We're all having a great time. And then January 1st on New Year's Day, everybody stays up late, hanging out, having fun, talking, playing games. And then January 2nd, my wife's birthday, everyone stays up late, talking, having fun. The kids, we managed to put them to bed before midnight on January 2nd. But I went to bed. About 1 o'clock local time. So that's 2 a.m. East Coast time. Miami. time. Yeah, you were up late. I was up late. And I went to bed because one of the kids got up, so I went and I laid them with them in the bed. And then 30, 40 minutes later, the door

popped right open and Astrid came running in. And she said the following words. They are bombing Caracas. And I popped right out of bed. I knew exactly what she meant. Anybody's paying attention knows exactly what was going out. They're waiting for this moment to happen, waiting for kind of hell to break loose because Trump and the administration have been threatening for a long time action down in Venezuela. They've been blowing up boats, which I do not agree with. I want to be clear about that. I don't believe in blowing people off the face of the earth because you think something might be going on. But Venezuela is a complicated situation. Right. And I know a lot of Venezuelans. So I understand their point of view. And I have come around to their point of view, where I might have been

very much a pacifist and, you know, I'm not wanting any kind of war, bombing, you know, any of this stuff. I have come to see the light on this one. And yeah, I want to share that with everybody. But let's do this. Let's take a break. We've got to take a break. We always have to take a break.

Always have to take a break. We've got to pay some bills. What do you think? We do this for fun? And we do this just for money. That's not true. No. But now I forgot where I put all the things on my board,

on the big, ugly board that Astrid wants to get rid of. Here it is. It's a mini board, too. Yeah, that's the mini board. That's not even the big, ugly board. That's just the mini board. But, you know, you know, how history does. She gets like that.

Okay, let's do this. Let's take a short break. And when we get back, I will talk all about Venezuela. Some of you have had questions that you have dialed in. You know that I am married to a Venezuelan. And so you've been very kind and thoughtful, most of you. And you have questions. And I would love to answer them to the best of my ability, just being someone who's observed

Venezuela and Venezuelans. But I think I probably know a little bit about this situation. Not claiming to know everything, but I think I know enough to be dangerous. So let's do that after we return. Okay, you're probably wondering why I, Rachel, have taken over the voice duties at TCV.

It's pretty simple. Astrid asked me to shut Brian up, even for a minute. Well, lovely, Astrid, your wish is my command. Do you want to help Astrid too? You know you do. Leave a message for her, or me or Chrissy at 212-4333-3-T-CB. That's 212-433-3822. You can be on the show too. Mm-hmm. Just call and say something.

Anything. Or text us and we'll text you're right back. Promise. Then head over to TCB Podcast.com and get your free sticker. It's your constitutional right to a sticker and we must abide. You get the point. Follow us on Instagram at the commercial break and watch all the episodes on video at YouTube.com break. That's to you. And Astrid, especially Astrid. I was just watching the weirdest video where a guy was sucking on a natural gas can. What? Is that a thing? Do we do that now? Are we doing that? Okay, just making sure. Don't do that. Okay. I'm making sure if the kids are into something, I want to try, give it one try. That's the old, yeah, give me the old college try. At my age, yeah, my age, glass of milk and some calcium pills.

Good night. Night, night. night. Yeah, as sort of Venezuela, and you listen to the show, you know that. You know that we have long talked about Venezuela on the show and traditions and cultures and situations. I have not too much delved into the political situation down in Venezuela, except to say that clearly I have not agreed with it. But so let's have a more nuanced conversation about this. I understand the point of view of an American, especially ones who don't disagree with the Trump administration. on almost every single topic. And as someone who also disagrees with the Trump administration on almost every single topic, it's a hard pill to swallow that what Donald Trump has done and his administration have done

are in fact a step in the right direction for Venezuela and Venezuela. So we can argue you the how and we can argue the what and we can argue the who. But the why and if they're done, Nicholas Maduro has been torturing the people of Venezuela for his entire reign. He was way worse than Chavez, way worse than Chavez.

He took it to 11. Chavez took it to five. He took it to 11. Chavez, at least you could still eat and do business and have dollars and all that stuff. Maduro painted Venezuela in a very difficult corner, and then he got into bed with some of the worst and the worst around the world. There is a geopolitical larger picture here, which I won't get into too much here. But just to say that China, Cuba, and Russia have been puppeting Maduro for a long time.

And that is no bueno for the United States of America. So there is a larger picture, but the smaller picture is, and the one that really matters is that Venezuelans, native Venezuelans, people who lived under the Maduro regime or have family that did or friends. They know that this is one bad ombri. He is a bad dude and he is a criminal and he has a criminal regime and they have been doing bad things to the Venezuelan population for a long time up into and including murder. And so taking him out was absolutely the right move and they did it with him alive and facing justice. So there you go. And you go. And you Venezuelan that you talk to will agree with me.

99% of them. He needed to go. There are, of course, people that support Nicholas Maduro down in Venezuela. They support Nicholas and Maduro mainly because, number one, they are part of the regime, or number two, they are benefiting directly from the regime. And this includes people who are not, who are very desperate, and they take food or small amounts of money to do the bidding of the regime. That is a complicated situation, and it makes a situation down there right now very complicated. So people, I'm just going to tackle some of the questions, right?

What gives us the right to go into a sovereign nation and take out the president of another nation? Sovereignty only exists if there is a legitimate government in place. And what I mean by that is that no country, no democracy, country in the world recognizes the Maduro regime as the legitimate leadership of Venezuela. As a matter of fact, in 2024, there was an election. Someone else was voted in office by some say 90% of the vote. This vote was watched by international cadre of people who do this type of thing, and they called it a free and fair election and overwhelming support for the opposition, overwhelming support. But Nicholas Maduro called it a fake election, and he did not

release the grip of power. He has been playing games for a long time on the world stage and... Because how long has he been in power? Is it 13 years? Okay. Yeah, 13, 14 years. Chavez died and he handpicked Maduro to take his place. So, yes, we should not be going into sovereign nations and taking out the leadership.

But this is not a legitimate leadership. This is a criminal organization. And that is what happens when you spend 13 years being a criminal. And, you know, someone had to do something because they had elections. They tried coups. They tried everything. They protested in the streets. If the Venezuelan people could have done this themselves, they would have long ago done this.

They needed help. And help came. And as I said in a video on Instagram, if you got thrown over, bored, with a brick tied to your ankle, you would not be picky about who threw you the lifeline. You would not. You would grab at the first hand that came down in the water.

And that's how most Venezuelans feel. Almost all of them that I know. Actually, all of them that I know. That's it. That's the bottom line. Okay. Number two, all we did is go in there for the oil. The United States of America

set up the oil business in the first place down in Venezuela. The Venezuelans themselves asked for the help. they teamed up with the United States and United States oil companies to make sure that they could get to the oil, number one, and number two, so that they could refine the type of oil that they have. I am not one to believe that, you know, they owe the United States oil. It's their resources. But oil is not the only thing they have. They have gold. They have minerals. They have stuff that that is useful. It's resources that are worth money to the Venezuelan community at large. They need help. They need help getting it out of the ground and refining it. It's not easy to do. And some say the Americans are the only ones who have the type of technology that can do this. Okay. So Donald Trump ain't doing anything for free. We already know this about Donald Trump. He ain't doing anything for free. But if you ask some

Venezuelans, most Venezuelans, they will say that Russia, China, and Cuba have been taking the oil for themselves this entire time for the last 13 years. So if someone's going to take the oil, let it be the people who know how to do something with it. And maybe, maybe, if this is played correctly, fairly and with accountability, maybe the Venezuelan people at large can benefit from it. I hope so. There can be jobs. There can be dollars.

There can be, you know, something can spread out to the community at large. Let's keep our eyes on the prize. Let's hope that happens. Okay. Number three. Well, they just left the same regime in power. Correct. They did.

But I have a question for you. And I want you to think about this in a new. nuanced way. We did this in Iraq and we did this in Afghanistan. And it didn't go well. It didn't go well. Yeah. We went in and we took out everybody. We took out everybody we thought might be associated with the current administration that we thought was no good. And they had oil. And we, you know, and I get it. I understand. We're once bitten twice shy about all of this stuff. But, but if you simply just take everybody out and leave the country or take everybody out and hope that you can get the oil fields. There are also other interests at play, mainly the Cubans, the Russians, the

Chinese, the collectivos, which are armed gangs that are down there, the FARC, which is a, you know, narco-terrorism group down in Colombia and in Venezuela. There are people who will come in and fill that vacuum that are armed to the teeth and ready and waiting to pounce on the opportunity to get a hold of all the money that those oil fields represent and other stuff and other stuff. And not to mention just power, power over 30 million people.

Right? So let's not be so naive to believe that we can just go down there, take everybody out, and then put somebody in place and everything's going to happen. Yeah.

Hey, happy days. You know, the next day, you know. Yeah, it's going to be a process. There's going to be a Starbucks in the middle of Caracas. That's not going to happen. Right? That's not going to happen.

It's a process. And things are dangerous right now. It's very, precarious. And so my opinion is, you know, in for a penny, in for a pound. Now we have to help the Venezuelans get through this transition period. And then we have to discuss very quickly how we have a free and fair election or install the rightful president of Venezuela. Okay. Oil is part of the equation. It always was, it always will be. We're not doing anything for free. Let's just say it like we mean it. And I don't necessarily agree with all the

the greed. I don't. But sometimes the ends do justify the means. Not everything is black and white. Actually, nothing in life is black and white. Nothing in life is black and white. Okay. So here we are. Let's support the Venezuelans. Let's support their voices. Let's support their objectives. And let's help them get to a place where they're in a better place. That's it. Okay. Number four, all these people who are protesting, some people even going so far as to say that Nicholas Maduro needs to be freed. Huh. Where? Here? No, there are people here that are saying that, right? And there are lots of people in Venezuela. Lots of the regime is saying that in Venezuela. The Nicholas Maduro is still the president. He needs to be returned. He's the leader. Be careful about who you listen to. because first of all, you know, when I turn on the stations that I normally listen to,

when I turn on the TV that I normally watch, I'm hearing a lot of kind of dumb talk, right? Dumb talk that they're just angry at Trump and so am I, but they're angry at Trump for doing anything that included using the military. I don't disagree, but this is complicated. And we can't just be so blind as to just hate Trump and then disagree with every everything he does so he has to undo it immediately because that would be suffering a worse fate than anything the United States could impose right now. Let's be careful about who we listen to because also there are lots of people around the world, including foreign governments,

that want to influence this outcome. And we have to be careful. There are videos going around right now if you watch them on Instagram of people who are protesting this whole thing, right? protesting Trump and protesting Nicholas Maduro's arrest. And people are asking these people who are protesting, what do you know about Nicholas Maduro? Why do you support him, right? Or why do you want him back? And they can't answer a single question. And then the question is asked, are you Venezuelan? And the answer is no, almost every time. Now, this could be selective editing. This could be just people walking up to random people and they just pick the answers that they choose. I'm not so dumb is to believe also that people who agree with me are not also, you know, doing some propaganda here, right?

But at the end of the day, I think this is largely a coordinated effort to discredit Trump or to support the regime, right? We have to be really careful about who we listen to right now. Number five, I thought that you were against Trump and why would you support this, right? It was one of the questions. when Biden was in office, he put a $25 million bounty on Maduro's head. $25 million is a lot of money for any Venezuelan

who's been picking out of a garbage can and you think that's a joke it's not. Picking out of a garbage can to survive day to day. $25 million. They knew exactly what they were doing when they did that, when the State Department did that. They were hoping to affect change

down in Venezuela, but they didn't do the job. They just left it up to other. other people to go in there and do it, right? Biden said when he was running for office in 2019 for the 2020 election, he said he was going to take care of this. He said he was going to take action. He said he was going to install the rightful president of Venezuela. He did none of that. He did none of it. He just put a bounty on Maduro's head and further constrained the situation down there by putting more sanctions. And then he took sanctions off once Russia invaded Ukraine.

But that's complicated. But the Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, have been yelling and screaming for anybody to do anything about Venezuela for years and years and years until it happened under Trump. And now all of a sudden they've changed their tune, right? They are scoring political points. This is playing politics with people's lives. Is this going to work out great? I don't know. Is it dangerous?

Of course it is. Is it leading to chaos? Yes, it is. but, you know, it's one small little beam of light in a very dark room for the last 13 years. And I just, I'm listening to the people around me. I'm listening to the people around me. Have been for 30 years, right? I have come around to their way of thinking.

This is a dangerous man who needed to be put in his place. And his place is probably a cell. That's where he needs to be. And his wife should not be called his wife. She should be called by her name because she is, just as bad as he is, just as bad as he is. So these two people are now in jail. Let's let them have a trial.

Yeah. Let's see what happens. I guarantee they're not going to be found innocent of the charges. No, no, no, no. They aren't. Now, the Trump administration has some problems with the way they did this. They have some problems with, you know, not talking to Congress about this, not informing the gang of eight and some other things.

But, okay, but you can't put the cap back in the bag now. And that certainly doesn't mean returning Nicholas Materiel. I was going to say there's no way that that's going to happen. No, it's not going to happen. If tomorrow elections were held in the United States of America and the most liberal of liberals won the presidency, they would be read in. And once they were read in, I can guarantee you,

they would have the same exact stance. Nicholas Maduro will serve time in jail. He will be put in front of a judge and we will figure this out. because you can't just be that naive. You can't. And so it makes me a little bit sad when I see all of these Instagram accounts and all these people that I usually like love their content, follow them and agree with them. It makes me a little bit sad that they kind of have like uninformed voices or maybe like very skewed opinions of what's going on. But I think that's, I also have to understand that if I didn't know any Venezuela... Well, I was going to say not everybody has the same insight into firsthand knowledge that you have of, you know, people. actually living there. Well, how do you feel about this? And how do people that you know feel about this? I mean, it just happened, really, you know, so I, you know, I was shocked, but yeah, I see that he had to go. And I mean, I've known enough through you and through Astrid and

meeting Astrid's family that, yeah, something had to change. Something had to change. Now, how it was all done, like you said, maybe every box was it ticked. But again, yeah, we're such a, you know, the one side hates the other side so much. Yeah. Anything that anybody does is prickly, right? Yeah. Yeah. And listen, I know.

I mean, my dad was born in Venezuela and, you know, was part of that. The oil, his family was part of that. His dad was a geologist and was down there finding the minerals and the oils and the stuff. And that was in the 60s, 70s. So I've always kind of, you know, had a love for Venezuela. like my dad. There you go.

So, yeah, I've been a little familiar with it. It sounds like things have just gotten awful there. Yeah, it's terrible. And the larger dyspora, 8 million, 9 million people have fled that country. Spain, Colombia, and the United States of America are holding the majority of those people. And things have just gotten terrible, terrible for the everyday Venezuelan. And, you know, they wanted this. They wanted this.

They begged for this. They screamed into the void for years and years and years. And the world would pay attention for a minute and then they'd move on. And then they'd pay attention for another minute and then they'd move on. And nothing ever came of it. No real support in any meaningful way to affect change. Yeah, best case scenario to me is that now the whole administration is able to put pressure on, you know, Even though it's the same regime, they're able to at least put enough pressure on them to make changes.

It's going to be a process. And it is going to happen overnight. No. But yeah. And they're going to play games and they're going to say things that sound anti-Trump and anti-American and Nicholas Maduro and all this. They're going to play games. But they have to right now. They have to keep things in line.

They want to keep the trains running on time, so to speak, because they know if they're smart, they know that total civil breakdown is not what's needed right now, right? So at first when Trump came out and said, you know, we're supporting the president or we're talking to the vice president, who's now the president, I thought to myself, holy shit, what is he doing? But given 24 hours and really thinking it through. And I think we're going to learn more, too, over the next week. Yeah, I think we're going to learn a lot more. I think that the next couple of weeks, things are going to move fast and furious. and we're just going to have to, you know, see how it plays out.

I'm not a, I can't tell the future. I don't know. All I know is one thing happened that was really good for the everyday Venezuelan. And that's a Nicholas Maduro is far away from the ability to do anything else to the Venezuelan people. Now, there's a lot of people there that could still do stuff to the Venezuelan people and probably will. But maybe over time, as Chrissy mentioned, maybe over time the pressure campaign can mount, Listen, now they know that if you screw around. Yeah, we're going to come in there.

Someone's going to come in. Right. And a jerk or not in your tail or worse. I think Nicholas Maduro was lucky to get out alive if I'm being honest. I was watching a video where Nicholas Maduro was being walked into a DEA office in New York. You know, they did this whole perp walk with him. I saw that. They flew him up to New York.

Yeah. Took him out of the plane. They walked him around. They took pictures with him, you know, like he was some doll or something. But I guess that's what you do when these situations happen. But they walked him into the DEA office. and Nicholas Maduro's walking in there. He's like, hey, everybody, happy New Year.

Hey, everybody, happy New Year. Not for you. Not for you. But I'm sorry. You know, that really pissed a lot of people off because it's like, this guy thinks this is all a fucking joke. Well, he's been thinking that for a long time. And he found out, right? I'm not going to say it because I don't want to sound like Pete Heggseth, but he messed around and he found out.

Yeah. So, okay, all right, let's take a short break and then we'll talk more. You want to talk more? Let's do it. We'll talk more. We'll be back. Hey, it's Rachel, your new voice of God here on TCB. And just like you, I'm wondering just how much longer this podcast can continue.

Let's all rejoice that another episode has made it to your ears, and I'll rejoice that my check is in the mail. Speaking of mail, get your free TCB sticker in the mail by going to TCB Podcast.com and visiting the contact us page. You can also find the entire commercial break library, audio and video, just in case you want to look at Chrissy, at TCB Podcasts.com. Want your voice to be on an episode of the show?

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Yeah. Really strange commercial for a natural gas. I don't know. Hey, listen. It's all happening, Chrissy. It's all happening. Wee. Happy New Year. Yeah. Also, okay, also, a lot of people have commented. I don't to say a lot of people, like six or seven people have comments. I'd follow you on Instagram what's going on. Yeah. So my Instagram, my personal Instagram, page, Brian W. Green. You can follow it if you want to. I do talk a lot about Venezuelan, Venezuelan things and, you know, being married to a Latina and all that other stuff. So that's what's going on. It's, yeah, it's gone gangbusters. It has. Yeah. Well, even Mike Pesco from the gist reached out to me. Me and Mike talk a lot, but he reached out to me on the day after all of this happened on Saturday. First of all, on Friday night, we were up all night. I mean, we were watching the news, WhatsApp groups, all over the stuff.

I was thinking about you guys. Yeah, then we go to sleep. And like 40 minutes later, I get up to go to the bathroom and I check my text. And it's like, Maduro's been captured. And everybody's up again. We're all like, ah. I know. I can only.

We're trying to get some sleep. But Mike Pesco was like, hey, man, you know, what's your take on the Venezuelan situation? And I'm like, you are so much. He's like a geopolitical expert, Mike Peska. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, dude, you know much more than he. He's like, no, no, you're a resource. And I'm like, oh, you are.

Yeah. You got firsthand knowledge. Yeah, I do, but I mean, you know, I'm not an expert in anything. I just sound like an expert. You've got a pulse on the people. I do have a pulse on the people. She's right in my house and I follow her around and go, does this sound right? Is this the right word?

Right. She's so annoyed. She's so annoyed. Because there's like these, you know, I liken this. I liken this to not knowing, like, not, imagine you've never seen water. before, right? But then someone goes, you're the, congratulations, you're the best swimmer in the world. And you're like,

what is water? Yeah, what is water? Right? Because all these, like, people who are well known in Venezuela are like following and commenting and messaging me. And I'm like, oh. I love that. Yeah, and other people are freaking out. And I'm like, I don't know. I'm picturing, like, you getting off

a plane in Venezuela at some point and, like, people being like, Brian, Green, go. Greengo. Green go. Green go. It's funny because on Instagram, I do these, you know, I script a lot of this stuff out. I sound much different on Instagram than I do here because this is all improv. I have no script.

But there, I scripted out some of it out to make sure that I'm saying it correctly, right? I don't want to make a misstep on this. No, you can't. Now that eyes are on you. Yeah, now that we have, there's a lot of eyes on me. I can't. Like, I just want to make sure that I'm not, you know, miss speaking in any way, shape, or form. Plus, you have two minutes.

there essentially two minutes to get people's attention here I'm talking for days on end right I can say whatever I want so I can correct it I can go back and you know ums and people just know not to yeah yeah don't don't pay attention to what he says there so when I when I do it I put closed captions on it that they can be translated into Spanish well when I say gringo which I say a lot in my videos when I say gringo Instagram thinks I'm saying green go and so I I was like, oh, after a while it was like, it keeps on doing it. The closed captions, I'm like, oh, that's interesting. I could be Brian Greene Go.

Like Gringo, you know? And Astor was like, yeah. Astor goes, don't be stupid. Yeah, she goes, you're so old. I was like, oh, it's a catchy name. She's like, it's not a catchy name actually. Pretty fucking lame. Don't be that.

But I see what you're going with her. It's a green. Yeah, green go. Yeah. Green go. Yeah. Yeah, but it was funny because I went to Houston. I don't know if I told you this story,

but I go to Houston and my brother-in-law's sister-in-law, we went to their house for a party, okay? We're there at the house, and there's some chatter going on over in the corner, like excited chatter going on, like what we call it obla-data. So people like talking fast and at each other and all this. but I don't understand what they're saying, but I understand they're talking about me. But there's a lot going on,

but I'm like, I don't know. And you're used to that. Yeah. I'm very used to people talking about me behind my back. That's right. It's been going on forever. It's been going on since I was a baby.

No, but I mean, the Venezuelan people talking about you behind her back. 30 years. This has been going out. Yeah. I'm the green go. Pellonez. So then somebody comes over and says,

oh, a lot of people are excited. that you're here, they want to come over and meet you. And I said, what? And they go, well, you know, someone mentioned that you were here and everybody follows you on Instagram and they like your videos. And so they wanted to come over and they want to come over and meet you. They're here locals. Gather around. Yeah. And I'm like, what? Yeah. Gather around, my little Venezuelans. Let me tell you a story about an Irishman and a podcast. It's so stupid. First of all, I'm like, no. An Irishman in the podcast.

The Irishman in the podcast, a tale is old as time. An Irishman in a podcast about Venezuela, a Latin American country, where there are two shades darker. Don't speak the same language. But you, my friend, have the keys to the kingdom. Let us all meet at a house in Houston. I was floored. I was like, oh, that's weird.

Nah, I don't know. I mean, yeah, sure, it's nice. You know, you feel like, oh, that's cool. But then I was thinking about it at night, and I had to talk to Astrid. I was like, did he really? What were they? And she goes, yeah, they wanted to come over and meet you. And I'm like, oh, God.

You're famous. No, I don't think fame is the word. I think people appreciate. Yes. Yeah, they, I think. You speaking out and having some knowledge. I think my love for the Venezuelans in my life. has translated into me understanding and being empathetic of some of the cultural things.

But let me be clear about this. 90% of the time I have to check with Astrid to make sure that I'm getting it right. She is my executive producer, my script writer, my director. Like she, I am, there is none of this content happens without Astrid. Number one. Number two is that I am no expert. And even some of the things that I talk about, like I was talking about. like I was talking about New Year's Eve and I was saying like, you know, hey, you know, turn off Ryan Seacrest.

Did you all do your grapes? We did do our grapes. But Yastert and I were like, we're not doing 12 grapes. Okay. First of all, the grapes is you were huge. Second of all, no one can do that. No one. I mean, I sure people do with tiny grapes, but the tradition is 12 seconds before midnight.

You eat a grape every second. Yeah, that's hard. Making a wish for every month of the new year. Well, first of all, I can't do anything that fast. And second of all, you know, like I said in one of my videos, you know, be chewing to death or choking to death, one of the two. I know, I was surprised to hear that it was 12 seconds. 12 seconds, or I thought it was more like 12 minutes.

No, no, no, no, no. I mean, some people do have their variation of it, but I think gastro and nine and three or four grapes, you know, it's like, okay, you got to die, you're going to die. But they have a lot of superstitions and traditions to go along with this. And so, you know, I was, you know, I was saying on this video, well, stop going, you know, watching Ryan Seacrest and going to bed at one. am, you know, you're partying with Venezuelans. You'll be up, but the truth is, for me, sometimes I do go to bed at 1 a.m. Even though I'm with Venezuelans, I'm still a gringo.

Like, I still do gringo things, right? I'm not like a hundred percent encased in Venezuelan culture. So it's authentic to what I know, but I never try and claim that like, I'm the expert. I do all of these things. No, I doesn't think like that. No. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's observational content is one of this. But I, the, But the love for Venezuela and the love for their culture and their understanding of who they are as a people, at least my understanding of them, is authentic. That's all authentic. But I've just enjoyed sharing with other people what I know about Venezuela. It's been a lot of fun.

And Astrid, as I mentioned earlier today, is super supportive and absolutely annoyed. Yeah, absolutely annoyed. She's absolutely annoyed. But I would be too. Let's just be honest. I would be too. I mean, if this was at the shoe was on the other foot, and Astrid was all of a sudden had, you know,

25,000 people following her because she's talking about, you know, how we love the Kardashians. I think I would be like, fuck you. Because we watch E. Entertainment for Four Red Carpets. Yeah, that's, you know, it is one of those things. So, all right, well, season, there you go. Season number seven in full effect.

Yeah, we're doing a little bit of, a short show today because we had one of our last interviews earlier today. You'll hear that next week with Jeff Hiller. That was great. Oh, he's so good. Oh, man, it was a lot of fun. I had a lot more fun than I expected to have with Jeff. Yeah, he's great. But he is great and he will be on next week. You'll hear that episode next week. Chrissy and I will be back on Thursday around 1 p.m. for another live streaming episode. Then you'll hear that on Friday. So, you know, stay tuned. It's all flexible. Yeah. And so we might do. That's our New Year's resolution is to be flexible. Our New Year's resolution is this. We will do between two and four episodes a week. Depending on how we feel. Between noon and four. Between noon and four.

Yeah. Between Tuesday and Saturday. So stay tuned. Watch the bouncing ball. Watch this space. That's my good friend, Rachel Maddell would say. I couldn't watch Rachel Maddow last night because I knew what she was going to talk about. I didn't want it to make me mad. So I left it alone. Did you watch her? No, I was over on CNN and I was looking at Fox News too because I like to be, I like to see what the other side saying. Well, they had Maria Machado on and so I watched her interview. She didn't say much of substance except to kind of kiss the rosy bum of Donald Trump. But I know that's the game she's got to play right now.

There is. There's a whole game going on. Yeah. But you know, you can follow me on Instagram or you can, there's lots of good resources. One of them being Joanna Hausman, you can watch her. You know who said some smart stuff? Michelle Wolf who we just interviewed. And she had some really wise things to say about the whole situation down in Venezuela.

So, you know, there's lots of resources out there. I am not the only one. So follow me, don't follow me, whatever. Figure me. But follow the commercial break at Instagram so that you can learn when we go live. You can see clips of the show. You can watch all of our episodes on YouTube.com slash the commercial break. Every single episode.

You can also go to our website, TCBPodcast.com. every single episode audio and video it's all there you can also get your free sticker yes we still have free stickers we still give them away go to the website tcbpodcast.com go to the contact us button drop down menu says i want my free sticker give us your physical address and we will send one away i think we still have some merch stickers available i've got some merch too i've got some extra merch so if you want extra merch email us at the same place with the free stickers email us and we'll figure out how to figure it out. We'll figure out how to figure it. Yeah, we'll get it to you. We'll give it to you. We'll airmail it to you. You pay the postage. I don't know. We'll figure

that. Okay, Chrissy. I do suppose that's all I can do for today. I think so. Okay, but I'll tell you that I love you. I love you. I'll say best to you. Best to you. Best to you out there in the podcast and streaming audience until Thursday. We will say. We do say and we must say. Goodbye.