The Eric Metaxas Show - Zuby

Episode Date: July 13, 2022

Zuby, world traveler and rapper, shares his personal history and reveals how his upbringing in various countries helped form his interesting worldview; Zuby also delivers a healthy dose of "sugar-shaming."

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mataxis show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metaxus. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy pm investments.com. That's legacy pm investments.com. A Texas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Ladies and gentlemen, it's happened again. I'm excited. Why? Because right now I get to talk to somebody. I've not spoken to him on this program before. His name is Mark Skousen. I think it's Scusen.

He'll tell me if I'm wrong. And he is, yes, it's Scousen. I already know that that was wrong. Mark Skousen, who is the producer of something called Freedom Fest. Many of you listening to this program, you don't know anything about Freedom Fest. That's the point. We wanted to have Mark Skousen on to talk to you about Freedom Fest. I know about Freedom Fest because I'm going to be at Freedom Fest this year.

but I want you to know about it from the man behind it. He is a university professor. He's a financial economist, but who isn't, right? And here he is, Mark Scouse, and welcome to the program. Thank you, Eric. It's just a real pleasure, and I am so excited about you coming to Freedom Fest for the first time. And I know you're doing a debate on your book on atheism, is atheism dead, which is a great play on the old Time magazine cover, is God dead.

So we were very excited to find out what has happened in the last 40 years that you can now switch that title. That's going to be a really great topic, a great debate at Freedom Fest. I have to tell you, I never debate just because I'm scared of debating. I think like, what is that going to be? But to me, it is an exciting opportunity to share ideas because I do think that my book, obviously, I mean, this is not like original material. for me. But to discover this stuff and to share it and to realize that, yes, the evidence from science, think of the irony, from science for God, is overwhelming. It's astonishing. Most people are unaware of it. Many, some people might not like it, but I think it's important to talk about it.

But yes, you have honored me with an invitation to be at Freedom Fest this year. Now, for folks, many of whom are listening right now who don't know anything about Freedom Fest, please tell us, What is it? So it's an annual event. Our idea is that we all are like chasing cats. It's really hard to take some time out of our busy schedules. But once a year, the idea is everybody who's a part of the freedom movement, broadly defined, comes together once a year to learn from each other, to celebrate liberty, to network. And the whole idea is that we bring in all the freedom organizations, the think tanks, the Catoes, the reasons, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for prosperity, students for liberty.

We have over 150 people coming together for that. And then we have 300 and some speakers. We have breakout sessions, over 200 breakout sessions. We have over 2,000 people coming together to learn from each. other and to celebrate liberty or what's left of it and to be and to focus on the issues that are at hand. So Steve Forbes is our ambassador to Freedom Fest. We have Kennedy from Fox Business as our MC. When we have lots of these debates, and like you say, Eric, we're interested in civil debates. We're interested in learning from each other and not just winning a debate.

We have a mock trial every year. This year we're putting drug legalization on trial. that's been becoming more popular. Is that a good thing or not? So it really is an exciting event. The dates are July 13th through the 16th. We are in Las Vegas this year. We were shut down last year and went to South Dakota instead.

We had a record crowd. But we're back in Vegas and we're at the Mirage. And if people go to FreedomFest.com, they can get all the information about it. But it's going to be a rip-roaring event. And as Steve Forbes says, this is wall-to-wall excitement. Nobody's ever bored at this conference because there's 10 different things to do at once. And slot machines. Just kidding.

Although technically, I suppose, yes, there are slot machines. Well, listen, one of the reasons that I'm excited about being there at Freedom Fest is because I think I'm going to get to interview John Cleese. I have been a fan of his work for decades. And I can't believe that John Cleese is going to be there. Who cares about Eric Matakis? John Cleese is going to be there, for goodness sakes. Why is John Cleese involved in Freedom Fest? Well, he has recently spoken out against the cancel culture. And as a comedian, as you know, comedians have had a very difficult time on campuses and so forth.

Everybody is being canceled. And he's speaking out against that. But we have always believed in thinking outside the box and not doing conferences with the same old, same old people, show up, but we bring in new people. We've had William Shatner, we've had George Foreman, we've had Kevin O'Leary of Shark Tank, we've had George Will, and we're having you come and speak for the first time. So John Cleese is an extremely important spokesperson for free speech, and so we have him there, and a number of people are going to be interviewing him, so Nick Gillespie at Reason, he's going to interview him yourself and others. He's excited about coming,

across the pond for this big event, and we hope people will respond very positive to his message. And I just want to be clear, it's not really a pond, folks. Don't be fooled. The British have been getting it wrong for decades and decades. I respect them, but I'm not going to agree with the idea that it's a pond. It's an ocean. All right. Let's be clear. It's saline. It's huge. Separated by two languages. We're interested in the fact. So Mark Skousen, financial economist, university professor, how did you become the Freedom Fest founder? The guy deciding to do it.

I mean, where did you get this idea? When did you, what is your story? Where did you grow up? And how did you come to like this idea called freedom? Well, I grew up in Portland, Oregon. My parents, my father was an FBI agent who worked with Jagger Hoover. I have always had a fondness for liberty, and I'm a financial economist. But basically, I became the president of fee, the foundation for economic education in the year 2001.

And I said, you know, what can we do to reinvigorate the freedom movement? Because we've been losing our freedom, slowly but surely, either more mandates or more prohibitions, our freedom is being squeezed and squeezed. And we need to reverse the tide. In fact, that's our theme for this year, Turning of the Tide. So I started this in the year 2000, and we are a for-profit event. And so we focus on the customer and not our donors. And it makes for a very successful conference.

But basically, that's the theme. I was fearing we're losing our freedom, despite all the efforts that we have with alternative media and what you're doing and others. I think we are winning certain battles. We are turning the tide, but it is an upward battle. I mean, do you realize that 50% of GDP now goes to government spending? Government spending represents half of our GDP. So we are half three and half slave, as Abe Lincoln said. So we need to reverse that trend. And that is something that I'm passionate about. And it's really fun to get together at Freedom Fest and meet all these like-minded individuals who leave Freedom Fest and say, oh my gosh, we have a chance that we can

make a difference. I mean, it's amazing to me that you're getting, you know, 2,000 people. This is really impressive. How did, you know, it must have been, it must have taken some time for this to catch on, but talk about catching on. This is just fantastic. Yeah, we started out with 750 people at our first conference, and it's just been growing and growing last year in South Dakota at Mount Rushmore. We had the biggest turnout ever. And, of course, one thing that's important to people understand, we're not just a political organization that hears politicians.

We talk philosophy, we talk religion, we talk economics, politics, healthy living. We have John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, who's a big believer in healthy living. When we've gone through this pandemic, you know, when are we going to focus on healthy living? That's the kind of thing we want to get back. I was going to say there's all kinds of stuff going on. You got John Cleese in the past, of course, William Shatner, George Foreman, and now the logical third, Eric Metaxus. It's such a joy finally to meet you, Mark. Scows, congratulations.

Folks, check out Freedom Fest. I am really excited. Thank you, Mark. We'll see you there. In case you have the black for the poor and the beaten down. Living in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner. In case you haven't been paying attention,

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All I know about him is he's an independent rapper, an author, a podcast host, a public speaker, and a creative entrepreneur with over a million followers on social media, and a very interesting background. Zubi, welcome the program. Hey, Eric, how's going? It's going all right.

You have, you're very eclectic. I'm also eclectic, so I like eclectic. I think, I want people to kind of just to get to know you and your story. What kind of a name is Zubi? There's a good question. Do you just, do you have a last name or do you, you know, you just go by Zubi? Well, my full name is Unzubei Chuko Uli, Sebucau Kou Desway. Because they right.

Zubi is a short-in-for. Wait a minute. That was amazing. Say that again. That really was beautiful. That was beautiful. Say that again. That was amazing.

My full name is Unzubechuku, Olisebuka, Udeswe. Wow. That is from the Igbo tribe of Nigeria, which is where my parents are originally from. I was born in the UK, raised in Saudi Arabia, went to an American school until I was 11 years old, and then went into the British school system, studied computer science, at Oxford University and graduated from there, which is also where I started my music career. And now I am known for a lot of different things from my music to my commentary, to my fitness work and writing. And so, yeah, different people know me for different things.

Yeah, you, I mean, you're all over the place in a good way. And I was going to say, you are, you've literally been all over the place. And I always find it interesting because from what I know about you, you have tremendous common sense. And I think that the more you travel or if you have the opportunity to be in places that are dramatically different from the United States, you get a perspective that many people in the States don't have and it would be good if they got it because you begin to appreciate what it is that we have here if you've been all over the world. So if you don't mind telling me, how is it that you were raised in Saudi Arabia? That's kind of amazing. Yeah, sure thing. So my dad is actually a medical doctor.

And when I was a baby, he got the opportunity to work out there for one of the big oil companies, actually the biggest in the world. And so myself and my four siblings and my parents, our family of seven, we all moved out to Saudi Arabia. And that's where all my earliest memories begin. I lived there from before the age of one and didn't leave. I mean, I went to boarding school when I was 11, but I was back and forth between Saudi Arabia and. the UK multiple times per year during that time and didn't move to the UK sort of permanently until 2008. And now I'm a nomad. I travel around a lot. I've been spending a lot of time in the USA recently, but I've been to a lot of different countries. I think it's approaching 40 now. So I've been

exposed to a lot of different countries, a lot of different cultures. And I think a lot of my perspectives and views and the fact that people find them interesting are largely based on that just having that range of perspective, which is quite different from a lot of people. I always talk about the fact I was raised in the United States, but my parents are from other parts of the world. And so they brought a perspective to me that I realized most of the kids that I grew up with didn't have that perspective and didn't understand how bad things can be in other parts of the world or how good things can be in America despite our problems.

and it's really a radical thing to have that perspective when you're surrounded by people who don't have that. So when you went to school in England, at that point, how do you think of yourself as an English person, as somebody from Saudi Arabia, as a Nigerian, and how do you think of yourself today? I primarily would, I normally describe myself as being from the UK or being British.

I'm also Nigerian as well. I'm a dual citizen. So my ethnic background and my national background is, you know, my DNA is certainly from Nigeria, but I was born in the UK, spent a lot of time there as well. But having grown up in Saudi Arabia, that's also home in a way. I would never describe myself as being from Saudi Arabia because I'm not. But, you know, I lived there for about 20 years. So I've got that side of things as well.

So you're a fitness expert. a life coach, you focus on mindset, exercise, nutrition. I love this because I can't get enough of this stuff, and I need more. But what brought you to the path that you're on right now? And talk a little bit about your faith. I mean, you identify publicly as a Christian. How do you, you know, what part of you,

how are you public with that? Yeah, sure thing. I mean, wow, there's quite a lot of questions there. So, I mean, I was raised a Christian. I'm from a Christian family, my parents, my siblings, my wider family. I'm from a very large extensive family and we're a heavily Christian-leaning family. So I've always had that faith. I'm not someone who's ever really straight from it. As all intelligent and thinking and rational people do, of course, you have certain questions or challenges.

And as you grow up, there's things you struggle with and so on. But it's always been an anchor for me throughout my life and through everything that I do. In fact, the full version of my name, my first name, Choubuy, which Zubi is short for. It actually means God's decision, and I take that quite seriously. Unzubei Chuku. That was a good effort. Unzubei. Unzubei, wow.

What does it mean? Say it again? It means God's decision. God's decision. That's beautiful. Yeah, so. Yeah. We're speaking at something together in D.C.

I realize that there's some young Americans for Freedom thing in Washington, D.C. at the end of July. and I was excited to see that maybe I get to meet you in person there. But you are politically influential. You've got a lot of people following on social media. How did you come to be who you are? Because, you know, when you talk about being raised, your father's doctor, then you go to Oxford and you study, what did you study? Computer science.

Computer science. So how did you go from studying computer science to music and life coaching and fitness and politics? and I mean, it's just a lot. It really started with the music. So I started rapping back in 2005-2006, released my first album in 2006 while I was still in university. And that really set off this spark. I've been self-employed since 2011.

That's when I became a full-time musician. So for more than the past decade, I've been really grinding through my music, primarily in the UK, putting out multiple releases, doing live performance tours and so on. And then come around 2019, I just started sharing more of my thoughts and views about the world, primarily through Twitter. I used to be quiet about politics and sociocultural things outside of my music, but I just

started sharing more of my thoughts and ideas. And people really started latching onto it and got amplified into all these different circles, which is how I've even built such a large following now in the USA, because I used to really only be known in the UK. And then I wrote and released my first book, had multiple. posts go viral and some videos go viral. And that just led to a snowball of opportunities and interviews and appearances. And for the past three and a half years, things have just been growing at a faster and faster rate. So as I say, people discover me through a lot of different channels,

but as long as they like and appreciate and find some value and inspiration in what I do, then to me, that's all a positive. So at the event that I'm going to be speaking at in Washington DC at the end of July, are you going to be speaking, rapping, rapping, speaking, coaching? What are you going to be doing at that event? That one, I'm going to be speaking. I'll be speaking. I spoke at their event last year, the National Student Conference last year, and that went really well.

And they've invited me back to do it again this year. So it's an exciting opportunity. Fantastic. So I want to talk to you about you have a bookout. That's how we came to book you for the program. here, a children's book. Talk for a few minutes about the idea behind these books. Yeah, sure thing.

So in 2019, I wrote a fitness book called Strong Advice Zubi's Guide to Fitness for everybody. So that one was aimed at adults, both men and women, teaching people how to build and improve their mindset, find their motivation, and then teaching the basics of what people really need to know around nutrition and training. So whether someone's trying to build muscle, burn fat, get stronger, lose weight, whatever their fitness and physique goal is, it'll help them to achieve that. I'm someone who's been going to the gym for about 20 years at this point. I really got into it in my

mid-teens. And then my new book is called The Candy Calamity. So the Candy Calamity is a children's book, which is about the importance of taking care of your body, living a healthy lifestyle, and having self-control. So it's a fun story. I made the whole thing rhyme as a rapper. I had to make sure that my children's book was a, was a rhyming one. So it's a fun story. It's completely a political. It's not a political book at all. I wanted it to be something that can be loved and appreciated by everybody, regardless of their viewpoints on that. Every single one of us has a body. It has to last you all the way from your infancy up until your adulthood. And when your body stops working, then that's when we stop working and we pass into the past into another life. And

And so I think that in our society, we talk about health. There's a weird relationship with the way society talks about health, especially in the Western world, especially in the USA, in the UK. I mean, for the past two and a half years, supposedly, you know, we were dealing with a situation around health. But there was very little conversation, actually, about what you can do to keep yourself healthy. Lucky for you, Zubi, we're going to a break. We'll be right back. Actually, we're going to talk all about this, about fitness and about the book when we come back. We'll be right back.

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And that right there, approaching from four, different angles may be why so many people find such wonderful relief. So if you've got back pain, shoulder, neck, hip, knee, or foot pain from exercise or just getting older, you should order the three-week quick start discounted to only 1995 to see if it will work for you. It works for me. It has for about 70% of the half a million people who've tried it and have ordered more. Go to relieffactor.com or call 800 for relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Folks, welcome back. I continue my conversation with Zubi, and I say Zubi, just because I cannot remember how to say the full Nigerian beautiful name. Will you bless us with that name one more time? That's really just a great

name. It's a, really, you have a beautiful name. Yeah, sure. My full name is Unzu Bechuku, Oli Sebucau Dezwe. That's the full version. Unzubechuku. It's just like, sounds like, that's my first name. Sounds like music. Unzubichu. Well, So we were just talking about health. Okay, so health is important to you. And you've written a children's book called The Candy Calamity. So, but let's talk about health for a second. When you, I mean, the idea that you wanted to write a book for kids on health,

how is it that we talk about health in this country? There's this new thing now where if somebody's really heavy, you're not even supposed to say, oh, that's not good. You know, they say, oh, your body shaming me. And I'm thinking, what are you talking about? If I see somebody who's like really pale or really this or that, you just say like, you don't look healthy. And, you know, you could say it in a mean way or you could say it in a loving way. But like somehow there's this thing out there now where they're putting, you know, pictures of really heavy people on the covers of magazine like, this is aspirational.

I'm thinking, I don't know if that's aspirational. That strikes me as like maybe a bad message. But what do you say? I agree with you completely. If anything, I think you've sugarcoded it a little. I think it's an absolute catastrophe. I think it's a complete inversion of reality. And I think on many levels, we're living in a time and in an age where emotionality has taken over reality.

Everything is about political correctness and being so PC that you never step on any toes or potentially hurt the feelings of the most fragile egos and people out there. And this leads to a denial or even an inverse. of reality. Obesity is not healthy. It's really bad to be obese. It shortens your lifespan, puts you at risk of many, many diseases from various types of cancer to heart attacks, to strokes, to diabetes and so on. That's a huge statement.

Now, I know it's true, but I mean, I haven't heard this recently. Being overweight puts you at risk for a list you've just given us a litany of gruesome diseases. This is a fact. This is not your opinion. Yes. I'm not here talking about aesthetics. I'm not saying, you know, oh, you should look like this or you should look like that. That's a side factor. But if you are talking about health and objective, I mean, for the past two and a half years, I mean, besides age, what's the greatest risk factor for COVID-19, right? It's obesity. And it's astonishing for the past two and a half years, that fact was just ignored, apparently, to protect. people's feelings. It was just, you know, put this thing on your face, stick this in your, stick this in your body and stand away from people. No conversation about improving your immune system. No conversation about getting to a healthy body weight and maintaining a healthy body weight.

No conversation about getting outside, doing some exercise, and so on. And this protection, this sort of safetyism around wanting to protect people's feelings at all costs actually has quite, I'm not going to sugarcoat it at all. It has lethal consequences. If you can convince people, if you can convince a generation of people that being obese is healthy or that you can be healthy at any size and these are some of the claims that such people are making, then these are really dangerous notions to be putting out there. I mean, I don't think most people genuinely believe it deep down, far from it. But there's this notion where anything, everything is shaming and attacking and so on and so forth. And that's not the truth. If you love someone and you care about someone, then you want them to be, you want them to be to be healthy or at least to strive to be.

And there are many things in this world that we can't control. So for the things that we do have some control of, let's take some responsibility and take accountability and take control of that. So that's really the essence of both of the books I've put out there. The Candy Calamity, of course, it's a, you know, it's a kid's book. It's aimed really at kids maybe between the ages of about five and ten primarily. So it's fun. But the message is, look, it's important to take care of your body, to exercise moderation, not to eat nothing, not to eat too much.

It's important to exercise. And that's really the moral of the story. And the reason why I wanted to cover this topic is because, like I said, it's a big problem. You know, the obesity rate used to be in children. Used to be near zero, if you go back a few decades ago. And now it's, I think off the top of my head, I want to say it's over 20% and rising. And in adults, it's well over 30% and rising. It might even be as high as approaching 40%.

And that is not good. That's not a positive trend. Now, there are all sorts of reasons why that lead into this. But it's something that people do have control of. There's, you know, people can lose weight. People do lose weight. There's people out there who lose 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 pounds if they even get up to a level where that's possible. So I want to put out that message because actually it's empowering.

It's important and also it's empowering because that's something that no one else can do for you. You can only eat for yourself. You can only exercise for yourself. So it's important for people to have that knowledge and to have that encouragement and to have that message being put out there rather than tiptoeing it around it all the time and being so politically correct that we are we never. state basic truths anymore. And this is happening in a range of topics, but this is one. And I think actually it's a fundamental, I think it's actually one of the root of one of the biggest problems that we're facing in society is this denial of truth and also the denial of personal responsibility. So I want to put out that message of personal responsibility and accountability to young people

and older people alike. Can you even imagine that saying stuff this unbelievably basic could be controversial. That's if you want to know if the world has gone insane. Folks, yes, that's insanity. We'll be right back with more sanity. I'm talking to Zubi and the book is the candy calamities. Hey there, folks. Eric Metax is here. As you know, our friend, and he's a real friend, Mike Lindell, has a passion to help everyone get the best sleep of their life. But he didn't stop by simply creating the best pillow. Now, Mike has done it again by introducing his my slippers. My, slippers. They're unbelievable. I know all about them. But I got to tell you, for a limited time, you will save $90 on each pair of my slippers. They're expensive. You can save $90.

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Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Zubi, Z-U-B-Y. He is an independent rapper, an author, a podcast host, a public speaker, creative entrepreneur, among other things, fitness expert, life coach. We're talking about his book, The Candy Calamity, and we're talking about the madness that has infected, certainly American culture when it comes to speaking truth, when it comes to that balance between how do I speak truth without, you know, offending people or how, maybe I'll offend people, but when is it okay to offend people? It really has just become crazy. And I think the pushback, Zubi, the biggest pushback has come from comedians that you don't think of as politically conservative. but they're just thinking, this is insane.

I've had it with this. I mean, even Jerry Seinfeld 10 years ago or something like that said, I won't perform in colleges because they have become so sensitive and nuts that if I crack a certain kind of joke, they can't handle it. And you feel like that's emotional unhealth. That's, you know, that's another kind of unhealth. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think another interesting thing that we're doing in modern society

is completely disconnecting mental health from physical health when they are correlated, right? Your brain, your mind, your nervous system are part of your integrated body. Your mental health and your physical health are connected. And we speak about them as if they're two completely different categories with two completely different approaches necessary. Whereas if someone is actually having mental health issues, I think the first place to start is with the physical side. It's still look at their exercise, look at their sleep, look at how much water they're drinking. Look at what their diet is looking like. What substances are they putting into their body?

And then look at other lifestyle factors. And then if there's still a long-term problem, then you can look into other methods of things. But people, again, don't want to have this conversation. There's just constant denial of everything that's objective. You have people outright denying that objective reality exists. Now, where do you think that comes from? I've got my answers. But where do you think that comes from this idea of denying objective reality?

That's a pretty big thing to deny. Yeah, well, I mean, if you want to go really deep, a lot of it stems from academia. You'd have to go back and look into the Frankfurt School. If you've never heard of the Frankfurt School, go Google that and learn about postmodernism and some of the ideas that were put out there. But over the past decade in particular, these ideas have really blossomed up. And I think they've been accompanied by what I refer to as cowardice culture. We're living in this age of self-censorship.

Now, some of this self-censorship is understandable. I can understand why people self-censure to the degree that they do, but it's a great concern where if people are living in what are supposed to be the freest nations in the world, if people are in the USA, if millions and millions of Americans are terrified to state objective truths or to terrified to put across their opinions, then how does that bode for the rest of the world? This is the place where freedom of speech actually is protected. There's many places in the world where you can be thrown in prison or viciously punished for saying certain things.

And this is a country where that's not even possible under the law. Yet people are unwilling to say very basic things or they're feeling compelled to say things that they know are not true. And I don't think that that is, it's not sustainable. You can deny reality for a while, but you can't deny the consequences of denying reality. individually nor collectively. So I'm very much, you know, I often say that I don't want to tell people what to think, but I do want to tell people to think. I do want to encourage people to think and to be a bit more courageous in their speech and to,

and, you know, it might take a little bit of courage, but courage is a habit in the same way that cowardice is a habit. You don't need to put out everything out there. But if you can just be 10%, 20% more bold, more vocal, more willing to, put across your thoughts, whether it's in the workplace or at home or online or so on and to stand by it and to stand by the truth or at least the effort to seek the truth, then I think we could actually fix a lot of the social problems that we have. You can't fix a problem if you're not even allowed to talk about it. If we're not allowed to acknowledge the fact that obesity levels are rising and this is a problem because obesity is an issue and it's a health issue and

it has consequences, both in the short and in the long term for people that affect the quality of their life and their potential lifespan, if we're not allowed to talk about that, how can we even, how can we even fix the issue? You can't if you're not even allowed to do the diagnosis. So I see this happening. And that's one reason why I've been so much more vocal over the past few years. I mean, I've been in the public, I to some degree, particularly in the UK, for over a decade through my music, but it's just recently. It's really in the past, I want to say seven to eight years where on a very noticeable level and people across the spectrum have noticed this, things have become unhinged and unmoored from reality. I mean, you know, 10 years ago nobody was debating the

definition of a man or the definition of a woman or questioning how many genders exist or whether men can get pregnant and bear children. None of this was a conversation. So people have noticed this change. So I haven't so much changed in my views. I feel like I've generally stood fairly still and the things have shifted around me. And that, to answer something you brought up earlier,

is what can make some of the things I say now seem controversial or edgy or brave or something like that. I find it funny. I was at some event and Governor Rick Dosantis maybe a year ago was talking saying, the most basic things. And people were cheering, including me. And I thought, what the heck are we cheering?

It's like he said, one plus one equals two. Yes, speak the truth. I was just astonished. He said, like, in this state, we're going to stand up for the idea that young women should only be competing in high school against other young women in sports. And people like cheering and cheering. And I thought, this is bad. The fact that we're cheering, you know, it's like saying a rooster cannot. Not laying egg.

Yes. Yes. Like, wow, it's the emperor's new clothes. And it's shown aside of, at least in America, the kind of the idea that I want to get along. I want to get along. Well, at what price do you want to get along? Because, you know, you don't know me, but I've written about Nazi Germany. And I talk about this kind of stuff all the time.

People just say, well, I don't want to fight that battle. It's like, well, if you don't want to fight that battle at all, that battle is going to bite you. You're going to really suffer. If you're not willing to stand up for truth now a little bit, you're going to let other people stick their neck out and do that. Then you're definitely part of the problem if you're keeping your mouth shut at all times. And so we are living in crazy times. So it's refreshing to have voices out there like yours, speaking some truth,

speaking the truth, telling people to think. When we come back final segment, I'm talking to Zubi, Z-U-B-Y. Don't go away. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Zubi. We're talking about everything. We're talking about truth. And there's really not much more, is there? There's truth and reality. And then everything that kind of comes from that. So let's talk about truth and reality when it comes to health. What do you say, because you're your fitness coach, life coach, you care about this. What do you say to people about general health? Because during the lunacy of this COVID era, it seems like greedy, evil people said, we want to make money. And we don't want to. want people to talk about practical stuff. We just want them to take this shot or to do this or to do that, whatever like that. We don't want to have like an honest conversation like we actually care about people. And that was so horrifying to me that sometimes I just get too upset. I can't even talk about it. But so what are basic things that people need to be doing in terms of their health

that everybody should be doing? Yeah. I think the first thing is to recognize, as I said before, that you only have one body. And we live in this strange and superficial materialistic age where people often treat their material possessions better than they treat their own bodies. So I think the first point is just that acceptance of reality and the taking of responsibility and accountability. The truth is that if you are an adult, most people generally, even if you're not a fitness expert, most people generally know what is good for them and what's bad for them when it

comes to exercise and nutrition and general lifestyle habits, but whether or not people do it or how consistently they do it is what changes. So one thing I recommend in my book, strong advice, is for people to find their why, to really have a think about why you want to make a change and why it's important to do that. Say you're someone who wants to lose 50 pounds. Think deeply about why that is. It could be because you want to have more energy and more confidence. You want to look more attractive to your husband or to your wife, you want to live longer for your children, you want to reduce the risk of you getting serious complications or diseases, which would take you away from those people. Find at a deep level what it is that motivates you because then you'll be able to be

far more consistent. And then once you've got that, it's about finding a plan that works and having discipline and consistency. Don't try to go on one of these crash diets to lose 10 pounds in seven days or something like that. yourself a good amount of time and don't even think of it as simply going on a diet. Think of it as making a lifestyle change, just like the way you brush your teeth and shower, hopefully, just integrate it into part of your lifestyle, create a habit around it, and then motivation will get you started, and habit will keep you going. Once it's become an integrated habit and just part of your life, you'll continue with it. You'll get to the point also where you start to really enjoy it,

and you'll start to question how you even lived without eating well and doing your exercise. And it's not an on-off switch. It's something that you keep going with. If you have one bad day, that doesn't mean that you should have another 10 bad days following it. Just keep on going. Stay consistent. And it's not as complicated as people think it does require willpower. It does require discipline.

It does require taking responsibility. But as an adult, you are probably already applying those things in many other parts of your life. so it's simply taking those same skills and ideas and applying it to how you treat your own body. Now, the book you've written for adults is Zubi's Guide to Fitness for Everybody. And so obviously anybody who's an adult can find out what you think in that. And in the book for kids, we're running out of time, but the candy calamity really made me think about the fact that I know that there are kids out there that are addicted to sugar. And their parents have allowed this. And you talk about a health disaster.

Like this is just horrifying for kids. Have you bumped into that where you see that there are kids that are addicted to candy? They're getting away with this somehow, that they're able to eat this stuff? Yeah, kids and adults as well. And oftentimes it's kids whose parents are also addicted to sugar. And we don't often talk about how addictive sugar actually is, right? I'm not someone who I'm personally not in the camp that all sugar needs to 100, percent be cut out from one's diet. But moderation is really important. If you're eating 100

we're speaking of moderation, we're out of time. Folks, my guest has been Zubi, Zubi. Great to meet you. God bless you. And thanks for your time. Thank you, Eric. And candy calamity.com is where you can get the book. Thank you.