The Joe Rogan Experience - #1380 - Pete Dominick

Episode Date: November 8, 2019

Pete Dominick is a stand up comic, speaker, news commentator, host, and moderator. Look for his podcast called "StandUP! with Pete Dominick" available on Spotify.

Three, two, uh, uh, hello Pete Domic, how are you buddy? Hey Joe Rogan. Good to see you man. Good to see you. Psyched to be here. Psyched to be in California. Psyched to be sitting across from you. Psyched to have you.

You're a free man now. You've escaped yourself from the shackles of satellite radio. The shackles of corporate media. Yeah man. See that's the thing about dedicating so much time to a company like that. They can just get rid of you and then you don't have a connection to all those fans. You have to reestablish a connection. It's been an amazing experience in the last, what, four weeks since it happened to try to...

First of all, I watched my funeral play out publicly because I had a huge community of listeners for 12 years that I created. But I was trying to respond to all of them, and you can't say... I still can't share certain like, certain details, right? How much time did they give you before the show was ended? The show, basically, they told me after the show that it was the last show. And then they let me have, like, a, they said I could do a last show. But instead, I was like, let me just record a message. I don't want to go.

So, you didn't know until the day of. I had a pretty good idea. i had a pretty good idea i had a pretty good idea do they have ratings like i don't think so if they did i think i'd probably be in pretty good shape i mean like it's a long story but the show i was doing was pretty special like it was really helping people and we were enlightening is kind of like what you do here i mean that's why i love what you do here. People learn, they get enlightened, they get entertained. You make people better people through this show. The contribution that you make, that's what I was doing. We were three hours every day talking about issues, talking about struggles that people are having, and it was rewarding and challenging and satisfying, and i had total editorial control

so you know i can't i really can't complain 12 years is pretty know though how many people are listening to any given show not that i ever know not that i ever know that it was ever shown to me and that is a weird thing that's the thing that you have with netflix as well you know like if you do a special with netflix and they, we really like it. It's great. But they don't share it with you. Yeah, and you go, well, how are the ratings? They go, we're really happy. What does that mean?

We're really, really happy. That's like when you first started doing comedy and you came off stage and your friends were like, you looked confident. No, it's worse than that because business decisions can be made based on what kind of downloads you're getting. Business decisions can be made based on what kind of downloads you're getting. If Netflix says, hey, 4 million people downloaded your comedy special. They really loved it. We're really happy. Let's do another one. It doesn't make any sense for the company to have the information and the host not to have the information.

Why wouldn't you share it so that everybody has – Because they don't want you to bargain with them. They don't want you to negotiate. I mean, the best thing about being fired is you don't have to worry about being fired yes and so you can do your own thing and increasingly i think people are taking advantage of that like you if you're a network you have to have a million people listening or watching to keep the ratings up to sell advertising you're only making just so much money if you launch your own thing the way you have and so many other people have you're gambling with everything which is what i'm doing now with with podcasting which is really an original thing to do and a

very difficult way to make money but if you do if you're good then you control it all yeah you can do it it's like if you've done a serious show and you developed an audience and that's something you definitely did do three hours live every day you can you can definitely do the same thing on a podcast you just have to be right no you can it's like my family's 100 well you have comedy too yeah but it's you absolutely can do it and it's just one of those things where i see people doing the corporate route and i'm like man I get how you needed to do that 15 years ago you don't need to do that now that's that's a bad decision now where it was a good decision like hey you got a serious gig 15 years ago like wow that's awesome I think

you're absolutely right it's just it's terrifying you know it's always there's always pros and cons you work for a company no matter what you do you're working for somebody you have a place to go they control all of the in our case in media's case the the promotion the marketing the legal they hire producers to work for you and so on and so there's a certain level of comfort there but at the same time you got to answer to these people you got to deal with these people and frankly you know you're more talented than a lot of the people that you're working with and you have all these ideas and these inspirations and you know they're either going to say yes or no to them and when you're on your own you just put the wheels on them and go yeah well i remember last time i went to serious offices went to the you know the studios i was upstairs and i was like there's too much money here this is this

costs too much money like there's too many people here this you see these fucking people wearing suits like what does that guy do i guarantee you he doesn't do fuck all that guy doesn't have anything to do with whether or not this shows any good and all you have to do is press a button and get it out there so there's all these people making decisions about well we got marketing and this and that i'm gonna make sure we hit the right demographic i feel like that's the way i've worked at cnn i worked at msnbc i worked at fox I feel like that's Corporate media Or corporate America Where you have to wonder How much work

And how much value Each person is bringing To whatever their job is I always want to know But it's They're goofy Sirius is very goofy They offered me a great deal

Zero money Really? Zero I feel like you might have Told me that before Zero Zero money It's the most hilarious deal ever

We'll put your show on the air and we'll give you zero. Like, oh, that sounds good. I don't even know. I don't even. When was that? I mean, at that point. Fucking recently. Really?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They're hilarious. How did you, what did you do? I didn't do anything. I don't talk to anybody. I mean, it's all done through managers and agents.

Right, right, right. And I say no to everything. So I was like, it was easy to say no to everything. I always did everything directly myself. Wow, that's a terrible idea. I could never allow somebody, I never felt like anybody could sell me the way I could sell myself. Oh, dude, then you have to think about selling yourself. It takes any, this is, I mean, for

people listening to this podcast regularly, I'm sorry, I apologize for repeating myself. But the way I look at everything, and this is something i've done over the last really cultivated over the last 10 years but really specifically focused on over the last couple is i look at thinking as bandwidth i only have say if you have a hundred units of thinking whatever the fuck you have to what you're involved in to have this negotiation or sell yourself to this and sell yourself to that and talk about this and, you know, and pitch your ideas to this person,

that person that's taking away time that you could be working on your other shit. Creating. Yeah. I don't have any time for that. I have zero time. I allocate zero bandwidth for selling myself, zero bandwidth for doing other.

But have you always, have you always done that? Did you, were you that way at the start? Because I mean, you always have you always done that did you were you that way at the start because i mean you're you're so big now i can anybody can understand that you can do that i never sold myself i always had an agent and a manager really i've had the same manager since i was an open micer really yeah who jeff sussman oh wow i know jeff sussman yeah wow huh that's awesome that's you're a loyal guy Huh, that's awesome. You're a loyal guy, too. Well, he's awesome. He's family.

We've been together since 1990. Yeah, I feel that way about my agent, too. But I just, like, Conan Smith, he's one of the few guys I met in this business that I really always liked. And he didn't seem like he's part of this business. But he'd always be like, what's next? And I'd always say tomorrow's show because every three hour live show, we talked about everything from tax policy to depression to environmentalism to anything, politics, parenting. And so it was really challenging to do that and to prepare for all these interviews with these smart people.

And then I wanted to go home and be with my girls. Like I had an amazing work life balance and I feel like so most people never find that they never understand it I found it and I kept it for a really long time which is what's scary to not have that I've been working my ass off since the day I left Sirius XM went right into a meeting and have been on the phone ever since reached out to you and everybody I know I said hey you know what what can I do but it's not it's not balance you know I haven't seen my girls i haven't seen my garden so i'm excited to hopefully get back to that to some semblance of that but most people don't have that and i think i think finding because you get you get so ambitious

especially as a guy i feel like if you're a breadwinner especially it's just work work work support your family if you've got a family there's ego there's money and you just keep going but then you realize there's got to be there's got to be enough you have to in my opinion you have to have an idea of enough and i got there and that's when i you know i i just would work and then i would shut that down i would still doing as much comedy as i could but that that definitely fell by the wayside because the show it was up at 4 3030 in the morning I was you know Done by 2 And then it was I turned it off

Well the good thing is You can do your show If you do a podcast You can do it from wherever you live Right You can do it close by You can either rent an office space Or you can do it in your fucking garage

You can do it anywhere Especially when Your kids are at school You can do it You can do it On your terms You know you can bank a couple of them Do 2 or 3 in a day

Yeah And then take days off. But the most important thing, I think, is that you stay independent. We were just talking about that out there. Because there's going to be a bunch of bozos that want you to join their network. Oh, they're calling. Yeah, they take a big chunk. I don't know what the offers are.

I don't know what the deals are. But it's like, why? I just started doing this podcast. You've already been through what that is. I've got a great community of listeners who are like family to me. They've all been so supportive. You're like, let me just try to test that out. Definitely test that out.

How active are you on social media? I try to be as active as I can. I'm not great at it. I don't love it. Well, that's important, though, that you have some sort of engagement so you can tell people where you're going. Yeah, definitely doing that. I mean, you don't want to be too wrapped up in it because again bandwidth it's going to suck up a lot of your time and right you know for a lot of people it's a giant distraction yeah i don't i

don't that's why i when i say i'm not that good at it it's because i feel like it's a distraction it seems like a very as a creative person it's interesting it's an interesting outlet and there's a lot of creative people who are great on twitter but i don't think in terms of what's a great tweet or i should tweet right now or put this up on facebook you know comics artists do this because they love to create they love to perform they don't love to promote what they're doing nobody really likes that some people do and some people are great at it but it's usually not why you get into it at the same time if you don't do it i mean there's a lot of great comics who don't promote themselves mean there's a lot of great comics who don't promote themselves and there's a lot of bad comics if we're talking about comedians about any

performer who are great at promoting themselves right and i fall somewhere in between yeah yeah people that are really good at promoting usually are not that good because they spend so much time promoting and they're trying to get famous and trying to get successful as opposed to doing the work writing the jokes super conscious of how they appear to people you know they're super conscious and and like they're they're trying to cultivate an image they're trying very hard i can't be bothered with that it's not good for you i mean i know it works but i can't to go back to like what your deal was it's serious like when you were there like so they don't they don't give you any indication of what kind of numbers you're pulling in not really any indication of how many people are listening to your show.

It was hard to know. You see the phone volume. You see the phones lock up. You see, you know, social media is not really a good measurement because the vast majority. Were you getting people to follow you? Were you saying on the show, hey, follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram? Yeah, but what's interesting, I don't want to disparage sirius xm not because they gave me a good you know exit deal i guess but because it almost seems um inauthentic because

they they gave me five contracts which created an amazing life an amazing community like i'm so grateful to what i had there but yes certainly uh the the problem i suppose is you're you're behind this firewall like this morning one of my best friends lives in australia and he's like yeah i listen to joe rogan i listen to rachel maddow's podcast like they don't have msnbc there they can't get sirius xm necessarily you can't i guess online the point is if you're behind that you're you're mostly in the car and i think what i'm trying to say is it's skewed to like 50, 60-year-old affluent men who are in cars, which I was psyched to have every one of them. But I would love to have a lot of young people. I'm staying out here with my cousin, and his son is 18, and he found out I was doing the Joe Rogan show, and he's flipping out.

But he didn't know what I did at SiriusXM. and he's flipping out but he didn't know what i did at sirius xm i hate to say this because i'm thankful that sirius put on howard and opie and anthony and all these comics they had on over the years but you're better off without it it's not it's not where the future is the future is not in satellite radio it's just not it sucks you go under tunnels it cuts out it cuts i mean it's just it's dumb it's a fucking dumb way i mean you can download an entire three hour show in seconds yep if you have a podcast and you want you get it on spotify or whatever you download the whole fucking thing right before a plane ride in the airport you're in the airport and you can go oh hey there's a new arty lang podcast download it you while you're fucking

waiting for your your gate to be called, you have the podcast. You get on the three-hour flight. You listen to the whole goddamn thing. It's easy. What's interesting is going, I'm really curious to see what you think, but going from live radio and constant interaction with callers,

which I love. You can do that. To podcasting and just being there alone with the mic. No, you can do that. I'm told I mic. And, you know, a guest. No, you can do that. You can have live calls. I'm told I can. I'm told I can go live.

I haven't figured it out yet. No, you can definitely. I got a great group of people that are working with me. Amazing people have come out of the crowd. The greatest thing has been how people have shown up. Like people from my life, like 15 years ago, 20 years ago, phone just ringing, text just coming in, no, I haven't taught you,

and saying kind of just what you're saying. You better off you're you know one door closes but more importantly just people talking about how you change their life and how they can't wait to see what you do next is an amazing amazing feeling like if you if you do that with one person your cup is full to have an audience of people doing that for 12 years it's overwhelming joy and satisfaction to be able to look at my daughters and be like no matter what happens next what i what i got to do there and what i did do there on so many tough issues and and helped so many people that's it man i could die i could i could die right now well don't be happy don't die it would be good for me to do it on the show though nice you have a nice past is wonderful. But the thing about scary things and the thing about this is that it's an opportunity for growth.

It's an opportunity to do something. It's an opportunity to stretch your wings, to really take a chance. And that's how you grow. And I appreciate you saying that, and I'm on that same wavelength. And I'm a guy who thrives in these situations. Like I've taken advantage of every room I've been in. I've never been the best comic, the best. I've never been the best at anything, but I've always been gritty.

I've always worked as hard, if not harder than anybody. And now it's interesting because I've never been in this type of situation with a family. You know, that's different when you're single and you're young. But I was working that hard and making no excuses and back then doing no drugs not drinking everything it was just about my career and being a good person i thought if i was a good person that mattered and to come to find out being a good person was the best form of currency everybody competing and trying to kill other people in our business or in any other business to me i have no interest in that and no attraction of those people all i want to do is help people

not think just for purposes of altruism not to be virtuous just because same reason you are being kind is is the way to be not putting a knife in someone's back and when the show ended it was amazing because people started tweeting things that i had done that i never was thought would become public they were private things they weren't for and it was just like days and days of people you know i did i used to do a segment every week called stand up with a veteran for veterans and like this veterans community came out strong they're like what they let you go you did so much for us. And I was like.

I think it's a dying company. I don't think you should dwell on all this. I mean, it's just a dying company. And now you have an opportunity. I mean, it's great that you did all these good things. It's great. I don't mean to sound negative. I don't mean to sound like I'm dwelling on it. I mean to say it was an amazing experience that was afforded to me.

I leveraged it. I took advantage of it. I'm really excited. Every day I wake up now just ideas ideas ideas hammering while the show while you were doing the show were you under any sort of exclusive thing where you couldn't do anything on the internet right you were yeah i mean yeah pretty much you couldn't do a podcast it was direct no that was dread competition yeah because uh do you remember when anthony from opiate anthony anthony kumia had live from the compound

of course he was doing was that overlapping with serious oh yeah oh that's why i started my Do you remember when Anthony From Opie and Anthony Anthony Cumia Had live from the compound Of course He was doing this thing Was that overlapping with Sirius? Oh yeah Oh That's why I started my podcast Because 100%

Because Because he had a studio in his basement Where he's doing karaoke Holding a machine gun And he was drunk And I was like What? Was it loaded?

You could do that Oh I don't know It's Anthony I'm sure it was loaded Yeah He's fucking crazy I know I always had a great relationship with him, though.

I love that guy. Yeah, he's one of the funniest guys. He liked me because we agreed on nothing, but we got along. But he's a genius. I mean, he really is like- He's a pretty smart dude. The way he thinks and talks about things, agree with him or don't agree with him, he's a very entertaining guy.

I love doing radio with him. And he had this basement setup where he had a green screen and he yes i remember that like a real production table and real production mics and he spent all this money on like really high-end stuff and he and i had a conversation i'm like what are you doing he's like i'm just fucking around i'm having fun and i was like wow i'm ever thinking about it going i need to do something like that and uh when me and my friend red band when we started it we just used a laptop but i remember thinking about what what he had set up so we were just doing like answering questions talking to people on you know like i

forget what it was i guess it was twitter 2009 it'll be 10 years next month. That's awesome, man. Look at you. But the inspiration was Obie and Anthony first because their show was like just a hang. There was no structure to it. It was just having conversations with people. But then when I saw Anthony have that set up in his basement, I was like, oh, I could do something like this. And by the way, having a studio, and I always thought that was weird

because he was all the way out in Long Island. I was like, is that going to work? How's he going to get people out there? It was hard when he got fired. And I'm in the burbs, too. When he got fired, it was hard to get people out there. Yeah, I'd imagine. But like him, I had a vast network,

and technology has gotten so much better in terms of getting guests. But I mean, you've got to wonder how it's all going to work, and if you're going to go live, there's just so many things it seems to be thinking about how it's going to, what's going to work. Like, what works? Well, do you know anybody that has a studio? Yeah, yeah. They all want you to come do it.

Yeah. As long as you don't have to sign. But I was going to say the commute. That's what, the commute, the fact that he has a studio. When I got a studio in my house, SiriusXM had me do it early, like 6 or 9 a.m. slot for two years. And I was like. You did it in your house? Yeah, I negotiated it.

I was like, you want me to do 6 or 9 a.m.? You got to build me a nice studio. And they did. And that was the richest I could ever be. A friend of mine's wife works at a college and walks five minutes. That's her commute. I think a commute is almost a definition of your wealth. My body turned to mush when I had to drive into the city an hour each way. Everything about a long commute made me feel weaker and less than.

And the idea that you can have a studio in your house or work from home, no matter what your job is, is a pretty sweet deal, I think. Yeah, the commute can definitely grind on you. But it also is an opportunity to listen to books on tape. For sure. You do whatever you can to be productive and be positive, yeah. And you can go two hours early and get an hour workout in before you get there. I did that.

There's a lot of good stuff that can come from everything if you look at things correctly. I agree. I share your outlook. I think that one of the things, I've been listening to your podcast for years, but not every episode, not religiously, but since I lost my job, I was like, let me just start listening to Rogan.

And what's really interesting about you, in my opinion, is you are the perfect example of somebody that everybody wants to put into a box, and you can't. It's what's wrong with everything in our country in our conversation it's whatever people think that you are they're everybody that i tell that i'm doing this show they say they have an opinion of you and then i listen to your show and here's the main takeaway i get from your conversations is that you try to find the

positivity in everything. You're like the most positive guy. Whatever you think about any issue or any idea, any opinion you have, you're always being so positive and so helpful. And it has been, honestly, in this like trying time, the other thing, my dad just had, I get fired. My dad had a heart attack. And then a week later, he's on blood thinners And he faints

And bounces his face Off a counter Rips his eye open Goes into surgery Now he can't see Out of his eye And he's a ski instructor And a cyclist

And he's a race car Driving instructor And so I'm dealing with that Dealing with my job Dealing with my family Listening to you And a handful of other people Just bringing as much positivity to every

scenario and situation and that's my nature too but it's some days it doesn't matter who you are you got to peel yourself off the ground but you know you can't i can't let my daughter see me sweat either yeah well let them see me vulnerable but they're not going to see me sweat well you don't have to sweat you You just have to grind. You just have to hustle. I'm grinding. Listen, you're a respected guy. You're a very good host of a show.

You just have to find a new venue. That's all it is. This is a good opportunity. You're healthy. You don't have anything wrong with you. Mentally and physically, I've always thought mentally that I was the happiest, healthiest guy. So it's been a weird thing to not be able to espouse that on people. And physically, I'm back, too. I'm back to thing to not be able to espouse that on people. And physically,

I'm back too. I'm back to training. Well, that's, all that's good shit, man. It's like, you just need to find a place. The thing about doing it in the city,

and I know you don't want to live in the city, but doing it in the city, you can get guests in studio. For sure. And that is so much better. It's so much better. Why do you think,

like, why do you think that? Because the way we're talking right now, I agree, but you can't look on a camera at somebody. There's a weird delay. Like when I was doing it with Snowden, there's a weird delay. Oh, yeah, but he wasn't even in Russia or something like that?

Yeah, but it doesn't matter. It was real time. I mean, the actual lag was very minimal. What do we think the lag was? The Russians. FaceTime. Nothing, right? Still, but yeah.

Nothing. But even FaceTime Like when I'm on the road And I'm FaceTiming my family It's weird Like what did you say Huh Okay

Right You know so there's a weird thing I agree with you I always preferred Having people in the studio For sure It's 50% better I feel like

It might be more I just made up that number I feel like 50% One cool opportunity Is to travel to different places And find the most interesting Articulate people

And do gigs there Do stand up at night Spend a couple days places and find the most interesting articulate people and do gigs there do stand up at night spend a couple days there interviewing the most interesting people in whatever town that you're in oh 100 and so that's kind of what i'm the thing about that is you're gonna need someone to film if you want to do a video element of it here's the thing about a video element of it when you when you talk about um some people don't listen to this podcast they don't watch it right it's a lot of people right when we first did it the video aspect of it was just an aside we just we we did it with a webcam and then we started putting it on uh itunes and the itunes was way more popular than the video which was on ustream, which was, it's not, I mean, I don't even know if it exists anymore.

Does Ustream exist? It does? Now it's YouTube. Now it's YouTube. More, you have a, it's a built-in platform, right? So there's millions and millions of people are on it just looking for shit to watch. Yeah, I definitely want to do that. I definitely want to do that.

But I'm thinking you're making obviously a lot of good points about where it can be done and what, you know, the best ways to do it. And I've been talking to so many smart people, obviously, every day. I mean, my network is, I'm lucky to have this network of amazing people that are just so kind and generous to give me this advice and honest, too, you know, they tell you, don't be an idiot. Don't fucking, no, don't do that. You know, it's a, as a comic, you, I think, think that's that's the way that you think you want people to be as brutal as they can be with criticism you don't take it personally just like okay yep i'll take that advice i'll apply that and change that and tweet that yeah well there's nothing wrong with getting some constructive or even destructive criticism like you just you have to you know you have to have feedback i mean it's not always it's not always accurate or correct but feedback is important and that's one of the good things about having like one of those uh talk shows where people call in you know that's one of the good things they get to give you some feedback i love that one of the bad things is

they get to give you some feedback fine one of the bad things yeah so it's always entertaining like if you if they shit on me, it was always very entertaining. As a comic, like, I love heckles. I love anybody yelling out. I live for it. Those are my favorite moments. What I like best is one-on-one conversations with people. That's what I like best.

Me too. And that's what I like best to listen to as well. Yeah. And, you know, like, when, you know, I would listen to Stern, and then when someone would call in, I was like, why are they letting somebody call in? And some guy would yell out, Baba Boo, you're talking about sniffing Robin's farts or something like that.

Or they would just be boring, and you don't want to be rude, but you have to be. Like, I can't. I'm doing a show here, man. You're babbling. But it's just odd that he would just go to callers in the middle of a conversation, you know, with some lady who's an actress or something.

It's just, I mean, but that's the chaos that he sort of cultivated well i think that that's what's the great the great thing about this show is the people that you get and the interaction the conversation that you have and i was trying to do the same thing for you know at serious uh well you were doing it you just were doing it in this walled garden with a bunch of assholes that are running the ship and doing it for like 20-25 minutes a piece i'm always amazed that you and you know a handful of assholes that are running the ship. And doing it for like 20-25 minutes a piece. I'm always amazed that you and a handful of other people can sustain like a

two hour conversation. I love that. Anybody can. You can do it too. I think I can but that was never allowed to. Those rules were always like Cut to commercial. Yeah. You had hard breaks. I'm doing a podcast the other day and I'm like thanks for tuning in. We're almost out of time. I'm like you didn't tune in

and we're not almost out of time I can do whatever the hell I want whatever I want no such thing as out of time I can just keep talking we can just keep talking well the worst thing is presidential debates

they're horrible you're literally picking the person who's going to run the free world and you have to stop because there's a Paul Malove commercial

is Paul Malove even a thing or I'm such an old man I'm pulling out fucking Paul Malove references I think they're usually pharmaceutical companies at this point pfizer yeah but it's a boner pill the irony of them talking about the pharmaceutical companies and then they advertise during the break but you're absolutely yeah it's not real but i mean the presidential debates are so not real and all those networks i mean my friends produce those things

and it's just like it's a show it's it's like uh when you get bernie like when i had bernie sanders in here and you get to talk to him like a real human yes you go oh you're a you're a human being who cares about people and you have a different perspective on what these people are saying your your idea of democratic socialism is not this wacky socialism yeah and it's not this thing where people think you're just going to steal money from hardworking folks and give it to lazy people. That's the worst case stereotype. It's none of that. No, it's not.

We're not going to privatize shoe stores and gyms. He's a very thoughtful person. Yeah, I was talking to his, because as I told you, I'm thinking very seriously now about also running for Congress. And I was talking to his, I think deputy chief of staff, a guy named Ari Rabenhoff, great guy. And I was telling him I was doing your show.

And he told me that after Bernie Sanders did your show, everybody was recognizing him. I'm like, really? Like, he reached a whole different demographic talking to you than he ever had before because he's mostly on those cable news shows he's mostly on terrestrial or you know radio but when you do these i don't know what do you even call this now non-traditional alternative media might as well be mainstream but the point is when you have a long conversation with bernie sanders and he's not like up there you know what we have to do you know all that shit yeah is is annoying you've heard it before He sits down and has a real conversation with you, and everybody's like, oh, man, that guy's making a lot of good points.

Yeah. Well, you've got to think of, like, what is annoying to people. And one of the things that's annoying to people is that fucking rapid-fire, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, the cadence. And health care and Medicare and education shall be free. Blah, blah, blah. And, like, people are like, hey, hey, hey hey hey fuck face i just got off work okay

why are you yelling this guy's annoying and he wants to take my money fuck him and you just press stop right and that's you have to be able to change your cadence your diction and your commentary and you have to be able to get questions that are more thoughtful and human that's the thing about all these cable news interviewers and network like they always want to get some headline and that's the other thing you know about corporate media too they want you so i've been in that belly of that beast joe for the last 15 years corporate you know political media and it's so manufactured i can tell you so many stories they call you up and they say you know how do you feel about anything we want to make sure that you're completely the opposite of the other panelists and so

that you have a really robust argument. And it's like, not everything is binary. Most things aren't. There's a ton of nuance, a ton of gradation. We don't have to hate each other. That's how they get ratings. That's how they sell advertising. I blame most of the problems in our country on corporate media, terrestrial radio, just doing that format all day.

It works really well for conservatives, not as well for liberals, but it still works. And they sell ads, and a few people make a lot of money, but the country suffers. The idea that we're so divided is such bullshit. I talk to people from all over the country, travel all over the place. I understand the issues really intimately. And I don't care what you think about anything. There's something you have to offer me. There's something you have to make my life to enrich me.

I don't care what you believe on abortion or guns or certain things. Because if you could teach me how to fix this engine, I'm into it. I want to learn how to do it. If you could teach me how to exercise better, but you don't like our trade policies, i don't give a shit what you think about our trade policies let's just not even talk about it let's talk about the things and it's

trying to get to the bot the the root of somebody's soul is what we should all be trying to do every day we should what what happened to you that made you think this way what is the experience what is your journey to me that's the fascinating shit about human beings well one of the things about something like cable talk shows or you know news shows or any of these political arenas is that there's a lack of real interaction with the general public in terms of like real real conversations with people you have a host who's wearing makeup who's got spotlights on him and there's a microphone in front of him and he's talking to his other people and his cameras pointed at them and no one really feels

like this is this is not a play but it's not a normal way of people talking no nobody talks like that and rarely you see someone sit down and they like, every now and then they have those shows where it's a one-on-one, like Trump will sit across from fucking, what's his name? What's that dude's name? Which network? It's a Fox guy. Hannity? No, the other one. Dobbs. Dobbs, that guy.

Yeah. Who's hilarious. It's funny watching the two of them together. I mean, Dobbs has lost his mind. He's just kicking that ass and going like this. He is digging way digging way in but it works he's making i used to know i used to be on with a guy the most pleasant guy in the world but what he's doing he is it's so much it's a north korean situation lou dobbs it's like state media every night it doesn't matter you know he shall not be questioned kind of guy worship the president's like what are you doing that's not even but but that's the it's i once got into this long drawn-out argument with chris cuomo who i like a lot

but i was talking to him about you know listen man the difference between tv and radio it's simple it's on radio and you can have a long form you can have a 20 minute to two hour conversation and it's real and you get a lot done on tv you can have a five minute conversation i go there's so many guests that you have on your show that i have on my show they're way more they have the ability to be thoughtful and nuanced yeah and make points they can't do that on cable and now you know he's doing a radio show so good for him well that's what i was getting at is that this separation between the people and then the just unnatural environment that they're in no one can relate to it what they can relate to is two people just talking to each other they can't relate to it joe but they also think because they're conditioned to that if it's on a network this person must be

an authority right and must be intelligent but i'm here to tell everybody i was talking about credit default swaps in the financial industry I have an associates degree and came up in the New York City comedy clubs like I really didn't have any business talking about that but the thing is I could sound really smart

for three and a half minutes on anything get me to minute five I can't go that deep on certain issues and I shouldn't be an authority on it but just because I'm on cable news with a jacket and a shirt and I'm this guy people like oh okay well i'll believe this guy now it's not real no it's not real that's a dying medium too i don't think 20 30 years from now that's going to

exist in the same shorter than that yeah and then the whole also the interjection of commercials every seven minutes the things that they're doing debates, it's the same thing they're doing on these other cable talk shows where they're trying to encapsulate these things into these very quick five-minute sound bites. Have you ever heard of Intelligence Squared debates? Yes. My friend John Donovan is the moderator.

He should be moderating the presidential debates. He's the greatest guy. They have these really well-informed panelists. They have emotion, and they do like two hours and you can come in thinking so often one idea about the issue uh and you leave thinking something completely different because you have these very smart people debating with an excellent moderator doesn't let any bullshit and you really learn a lot no commercial breaks and you can you know listen to even three people is too many people. Probably.

Yeah, it is. It's like, if you want to get to know someone, it's a one-on-one. Because even with three people, there's moments where you have something to say, and then someone interjects something else, and then you lose your point, and then you don't express it. And then the other person's talking, and you don't know when to talk, and then you find yourself being

a little bit more assertive in the way you're talking, because you're trying to get your point across. You feel like I'm not talking enough. And then if there's four people, you're fucked. The most ridiculous thing they ever do is when they have those seven-people panels, and one person just starts fucking chiming in and screaming out loud, and they talk over people. But they're also talking about, because I had one foot in cable news for a long time, still do, I mean I still go on, and then I had my long form radio show where I would talk to policy experts. It was very, like right now when they're talking about the polls for the presidential race, is anybody that's paying attention to that is wasting their time.

It's a complete waste of time to talk about who's leading in what poll a year away. It's a year away. You could have a terrorist attack. You could have the economy crash. People like it for a game. It's not a game. Okay, but it is a game. If you're watching basketball, do you not pay attention to the first minute of the game?

Because it doesn't really matter. What's really important is how many points are scored over the four quarters. Is there four quarters? Of a basketball game? I think there might be two halves. College or pro. But the point is, this is a weird game going on like kamala harris was ahead now she's fucked like this is fun it's fun for people this is half of what it is i don't i know it's serious

i know it's significant i know there's grave consequences to picking the wrong leader but this is a game right but it's a bullshit game because as you said earlier the reason why kamala harris or anybody else takes a step backwards is because one stupid moment and how are we possibly picking somebody on one harris there's a bunch of different issues sure yeah but but often i mean howard dean come on i mean have you have you listened to that it never gets old never gets never ever but it is weird that it is weird that this day and age that that crashed him. Well. Given everything that all these other candidates have done and said. Yeah, but honestly, there's probably something else.

It's how he responded to that as well. It's like he showed a lack of humility or understanding of what it was. Like, yeah, I sounded stupid. That's not what's important, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, I screamed out. Like, when you got a microphone on me and i get excited i go yeah i mean you can also talk just about the ego of the people who are running for these offices and they don't seem to have an understanding of the idea of ego and what it means and how they should try to separate from it while using it like once you get into

politics much less entertainment and you get really well known and famous you start believing things about yourself that aren't even remotely true they're not at the root some of that right huh there's certainly some of that a lot i feel like they all have protecting yourself right you're you have an image you're protecting yourself yeah it's it's a delicate dance that i uh i'm completely turned off by i mean that's why it's hard to think about like i'm i was seriously considering running for congress because you were or are i it's hard right now because i learned some crazy shit what'd you learn first of all drum roll please

the the corruption i live in New York State wait a minute New York State's not corrupt the New York State stop the fucking stop this show all of you know politics there's levels of corruption but in the New York State Democratic Party there's always been all kinds of issues so

I met with a whole bunch of really smart people about running for New York 17 which is the district that I live in like the day after I lost of issues. So I met with a whole bunch of really smart people about running for New York 17, which is the district that I live in. Like the day after I lost my gig at Sirius, the woman had been representing that district for 33 years announced that she was retiring. And I was like, well, I got, I got nothing going on. And I've always thought about running for office. And let me, you know, seriously consider it. I reached out to a whole bunch of people from all different walks of life, congressmen that were in office, that had been out of office, campaign coordinators. I talked to Chris Cuomo. I talked to a whole bunch of people. regardless of your party affiliation, you have to, there's a certain special interest group

that you had to promise you wouldn't interfere with and make sure they got an envelope of cash. And I'm like, well, I'm not doing that. I will tell everybody and everywhere I go about that. What is it? I can't because I don't have a second source, so I wouldn't say it. But I'm trying to get one to prove that it's true.

What does it rhyme with? The special interest group won't do it because everybody will know. Everybody will know. And it's dangerous. But the point is, the point is...

What's the opposite of that special interest group? Maybe the private sector? Right, but what would be like... What would be like... I can't... What would be the thing what would be i will tell you if i would be the thing that they're opposed to what would it be that they're opposed to you interfering with you interfering with the way that they run their show right right right but i'm saying like

what what group that we know would be opposed well yeah i could i could tell you it could be a religious group uh a private sector a union union, or a company, a corporate interest. It could be any one of those. ACLU? No. The point is that all of those types of organizations pressure that you have to – I'm an honest guy. I can't lie. I've never said anything into a microphone that I don't believe, and that's been both to my detriment and to my benefit, I think.

I'm authentic. So when I was talking about running for office, my brother's like, you can't lie. You can't be dishonest to people. How are you going to do that? You'll have to sell out at least a little bit. That was the other thing. And then I realized, I'm not sure that this district

or the country is ready for someone like me. I'm a comic. I've said a billion things on TV and to a microphone and on tv into a microphone and on stage and we're in a humorless country right now number one i smoke pot like are they ready for for the are we there yet i don't think we're humorless i disagree i think there's a lot of criticism going on but that's because there's a lot of policies do you think i agree with you overall but i mean for politicians for me to run for office and you see some stand-up bit I did and then my opponent's playing that out of context.

Dude, I got five words for you. Grab them by the pussy. That guy's the president. I think he is an aberration. I do. I don't think there's anything else that can get away with that kind of stuff. I think you're probably right. He's definitely an aberration.

Al Franken won as a senator, as a comedian, but he was a writer. There wasn't a ton, and he got in trouble when there was a photo of him. Well, it's more than a photo. There was actually... All the allegations, but the photo,

politics is perception, and whatever people see, it's different than what they hear and what they believe. And so that's the point. That photo was harmless, but it looked bad. Just like like any joke i said or anything that i've said out of context so i just feel like and then i thought that you know i they could destroy me and any future earning potential that i could have i just the second episode of my podcast i interviewed tim ryan you know he is he was running for president. Because I was asking, what does it take?

And it's, first of all, you got to raise a million dollars from people and individuals you don't like. You don't want to be affiliated with, but you have to. You got to make them promises that the whole system is so filled and corrupted with money in almost every district and every state, regardless of the office. And how does a person i'm a fairly affluent guy i'm a white straight guy whatever but i couldn't i don't know how i can afford to apply for a job for a year and pay my mortgage so i want to do it if it looks feasible uh and if i don't have to take care of my family, my parents, not to mention pay my bills, but you have to be an independently wealthy person,

which sucks because it makes it much harder for regular people, there's plenty of exceptions, to run for office. Now, when you say that you had to give them an envelope and that you had to, what did you have to do? Did you have to support them? Through intermediaries. You have to say basically, you have to basically say I'm not going to interfere with your business. We'll just look the other way. You had to say that.

That's what I'm told. That was what I was told by a guy. How are you told this? Are you told this like, hey, if you ever want to be congressman, you have to do this. You don't have to congressman yep you have to do this you don't have to but if you but if you don't want to win it's you're far more likely to win if you if you pay off likely it's not impossible but they'll they'll try to destroy you if you don't really yeah and i can't it's like joe they'll just go after you can destroy if it's just me can you say

who this is because only because i don't know if it's positively true. I need another source. I try to act like a journalist. And someone who's the intermediary. What kind of person is this? He manages campaigns in that district. He knows everything about the politics of and the special interests in that district. So it could potentially be that he's hoeing you out.

Absolutely. Which is why I won't tell you. Because he's saying that so that he's sort of playing both sides. No, he wanted me to run and he wants... Sure, I'm sure he did. But he might also want to maintain his relationship with whatever group this is. So he says, hey, I've got an assurance. Knowing this guy, I don't think he's affiliated with that group,

but it's possible. And so I try to have journalistic ethics before I would say something i'll tell you off the mic okay but i but i can't wait for the show to be over but i wouldn't say without having a second source like that's what's irresponsible about so much of our media right like when when trump or anybody says fake news it's like listen it's not it you can't if you have to have two sources you go to your editor with those two sources, and then you can print it. You can't make them up. If you make up a source, you're like Mencia.

That's it. You're done. That's like stealing a joke. You can't make up a source. You'll never work again. It would be a stupid thing to do. It's even worse when you make up a joke. I mean, if you make up a source, you literally can't work.

Mencia is still working. Fair enough. People do work after they steal journalism and comedians are a lot different but i mean it's the worst if you if someone finds out you're making up a source yet nobody does it in in the few in the few instances where someone did make up a source or even plagiarize that which are the two worst things you can do as a journalist they never work again or they don't work for a very long time you know johan harry he's been on your show he's been on my show he was accused of uh of some like i think you can do as a journalist, they never work again. Or they don't work for a very long time. You know, Johan Hari.

He's been on your show. He's been on my show. He was accused of some, I think it was plagiarism. And it took him a really long time to win his integrity back. Yeah, I didn't find that out, actually, until after he'd been on the show the second time. But what was... Great guy. He's a great guy. But what was he accused of?

I don't remember. It was, I feel like it might have been plagiarism, though. And that kind of thing, the point is, that kind of thing ruins you. And so I wouldn't come here and do that, even though I don't, I wouldn't call myself a journalist. But I would want, because of what you're saying, because you're smart. I'm very skeptical, too, of people and their source and what their interests are. And a lot of people really want me to run for Congress for a lot of different reasons. But mainly because they think I can tap my network of wealthy people and you know they

can make money love trump or hate trump that is precisely what he was talking about when he said drain the swamp now this is the swamp this sort of this sort of convoluted world of influence well yes and no the swamp yeah but it's also money and all the other things that he didn't drain and he actually brought in people that were he made the swamp swampier way it's filled with malaria and crocodiles like like i always we don't even define things unfortunately we don't have the same baseline unfortunately in this country of what what words mean but i've always thought what that meant was government corruption, that the private sector is influencing government, and the way that they obviously do it, the system that we have,

is you have to get money from wealthy people and wealthy interests, and then you have to advocate for them. Whatever the interest is, you have to, or they won't give you more money. And so that's what's beautiful about Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. They are not allowing any donations from any uh super PACs from any uh wealthy individuals it's it's grassroots and that's he's doing that as well yeah a handful of more of the whole democratic party mostly committed to it i don't think biden's doing it uh but if biden was doing it i don't think he

remembers i totally agree with that by the way he's out i well listen I don't think he remembers. I totally agree with that, by the way. Dude's out. Well, listen, I don't think you should be running for president if you're 75. I think the same about Trump and Bernie and Biden. All three of them are old. My dad- Some people are 75 and they're very lucid. My dad is in the best shape of any man I know. Dude just had a heart attack. Bernie Sanders just had a heart attack.

When you get older, especially as a man, shit breaks down. Yeah, but it's like, who has the energy? Plus, I just think younger people, like, just have more of an actual interest and understanding of what's happening. That's why Andrew Yang is so attractive. Yes. Yeah. No, I agree with that. But I think that there's, I mean, it depends entirely on the individual.

There are 75-year-olds that are healthy and there are 75-year-olds that are not. I disagree. There are 75-year-olds that are healthy and there are 75-year-olds that are not. I disagree because you could be the healthiest 75-year-old in the world, did everything right, and then shit can just shut down because you're 75. Your body is just old. It's possible. It's far more – the actuary possibilities are just far higher. But you're balancing things out, right? You also have wisdom and experience and education and an understanding of the life.

So go consult a younger person. Maybe. I mean, Bernie Sanders is one of my heroes, but I want him to just endorse Elizabeth Warren and get it over with. Well, first of all, being a president is a ridiculous proposition, period. And it's an antiquated idea. I agree. To have one alpha that runs this whole fucking show. Yes.

It's a great idea when there's 50 people in a trial. Yes, have a chief yeah but not a president of 330 million people that is an outsized influence and a bully pulpit yeah and then and then has this we have this reverence for them and this defense of them or this attacking of their their every move their every character and it's just such an easy thing to dunk on them and it's just tiresome to me yeah it's unhealthy for the country too it's unhealthy for all of us it's unhealthy for our souls every single day especially like like the thing that you miss about pre-trump whoever it was republican or democrat like i remember when you used to have weekends like you could relax no politics that's internet though you're right there's a lot of that

have you seen Trump's religious advisor yes how wonderful is that she the woman who says if you if you don't

support Trump you're going against God yes yes can we play any of that it's it I mean I don't think so

it's not that video I don't think we can play too bad I can do it I think if you don't support president trump then you are going against god and it's like i'm not going against god those people those people are so effective as like i think comics can really relate to them they They're so good at performing. Yeah. And so convincing. Yeah. And if you- No, Kinison was one of those.

Right, right. He was a preacher. Right. He's one of the, yeah, who turned into a comic. He had that skill set. Trump is the same way. The way he stalks the stage and works the audience. I mean, it's very, very effective.

But it's also, to say that if you don't support a certain politician, to me, that stuff is so very boring. Come on. This binary bullshit. But she's a horseshit artist no matter what. That's what she does. She's trying to get low-frequency people. She catches these nine-volt brains. Paula White, Donald Trump's new advisor, ratchatchets of rhetoric denounces demonic networks opposing

president's calling demonic she's wonderful i bet that lady does coke and i bet she likes it right in the booty i think that every time you see parties every time you see one of these people i just have a knee-jerk reaction when i see a catholic priest i'm like oh yeah when i see one of these people i'm like they're completely contradicting. You know, these gay conversion people that have come out. Pray the gay away. Yeah. They're banging guys.

Oh, hell, all the time. All the time. You remember Ted Haggard? Do I? I massaged him. Yeah. I'll bet you did. Well paid.

With meth or no? Smooth skin. Yeah, of course. I would never massage Ted Haggard without meth. Really? Blocked me on Twitter. He's, uh. That's quite an accolade. See? Blocked me on Twitter. He said... That's quite an accolade.

See, he said... I forget what he said. He said something like, you know, after Sunday service, you know, what should we do? And I said, how about meth and blowjobs? And that was it. Boom.

That's actually what they do. It's a joke, but it's also probably what... He seemed like such a nice guy, too. But it's so sad, too. Not really, though. Did you ever see the thing with him and Dawkins? When he got really nasty with Dawkins? Yeah, well...

Yeah. Yeah, that was before he actually got in trouble, too. That was when he was running a whole arena filled with... Back to ego. Yeah. When you think so much of you and your ideas and you come up in that case ted haggard versus richard dawkins is like mike tyson versus a baby uh something lower yeah something much lower that's a fetus and there's no match and so you're gonna lose

your shit you know i love those debates on super frustrated but it's also he's frustrated that you know dawkins had dawkins has an arrogance about him you know this yeah scientists tend to yeah but he does specifically particularly well i had him in here recently when he was talking about life after death that he thinks the lights just go out and i'm like well maybe but we don't know we don't know i don't think i don't have any experience with what happens when you die i really have no idea it would be very interesting if there was some sort of dimensional travel thing that happens to the spirit or the soul or whatever this concept of

consciousness is how much have do you think about your mortality sure on a regular i try not to it doesn't do any good right but when it comes in what do you do you know i'm trying to be nice to the people i know try to try to be kind to the people that i care about try to that's an interesting answer when i said do you think when you think about your own death what do you do i just try to be a good person i love that there's nothing you can do when you while i'm here i want as little bad feelings as possible. It's impossible to have no bad feelings. So whatever I can do to mitigate that, I try.

How have you worked on your anger and had that dissipate? Like what's the best thing? Exercise. For you? Exercise is the big one. Yeah, because I think a lot of my anger is just caveman genetics so and then a fucked up childhood too so growing up in a violent household and being around a lot of violence like i also had to deal with um i grew up essentially all throughout high school until i was 22 fighting so i was always involved as an outlet for your emotions yeah well it was also developed

my human potential it was martial arts it was competition but but it's also there's a downside of that that i grew up like being praised for explosive violence that's wrong yeah i mean it was in competition but It was agreed upon. I was doing it with other trained killers, but it's still, that's a weird thing to get past. Yeah, I have an example of, I mean, I'm sure you have a billion of them. I didn't mean to cut you off, but when my daughter was like three years old,

we're visiting family, and people I don't really know in my wife's family, and his five-year-old son goes over. My daughter's just looking up at the TV, this little three-year-old girl, and he comes over and he just clocks her, knocks her over. And we're all like, oh my God, what?

And the dad comes over and just starts beating the shit out of his five-year-old. And I just start screaming. I'm like, that's why he did it. That's why he did it. You learn what you live. Oh my God. And children learn what they live.

And so when you're – but what you're saying, when you train, when you exercise, are there feelings, are there emotions coming out? Or is it energy that you're just expending? You're not thinking about when you're – No, no, I'm not like angry at my child or anything when I'm hitting the bag. No, I'm just exercising. And when I'm running or doing yoga or anything I i'm hitting the bag no i'm just exercising when i'm running or doing yoga or anything i'm doing it's strenuous i just had this conversation with ben westhoff who's on here before you and the way i described it is i think that a human body has a certain

amount of physical requirements i think there's right your body's a system and this system is designed through nature natural selection and hundreds of thousands of years of being human beings to have issues that come up and to be physically prepared to deal with those issues, whether it's a neighboring tribe invades you or an animal is trying to attack you or you're just trying to hunt and gather food. All those things are built into our system, and it takes tens of thousands of years for that DNA to shift and change and become something different. So we have a certain amount of physical requirements that we're just born with. And it's different with every person. Some people have less. Some people have more.

I tend to be on the high side. And I'm a different person when I exercise. I'm a different person when I get time to sleep correctly and eat correctly and exercise. I'm different. And I like that person better. That's'm different. And I like that person better. That's a nicer person. I like that guy better. So I try to be that guy as much as I can.

But I have a million different people living inside my brain all the time, bouncing around, fighting for dominance. Really? Yeah. It's like there's a director that try to keep them all in order, which is like the consciousness. Is that a struggle? Every day? Everybody has it. There's always things.

Like you're a better person when you're well rested, life is going well. For sure. You had great interactions with your family, great interactions with your friends, and then you run into someone on the street versus you just got fired from your job, you walked in and your wife's sucking the plumber off.

You have all these things go wrong. All that happened to me just now, by the way. All those things can happen. I lose my job, I go home, there's my's sucking the plumber off. You have all these things go wrong. All that happened to me just now, by the way. All those things can happen. I lose my job. I go home. There's my wife with the plumber. You are a different person. No, I-

Dependent upon what you encounter in your life. I completely agree with that, but it's a practice. I like that word. Yes. And you have to practice it every day. And you have to find out- Yeah, you ain't fixing it. You're not going to fix it.

Right. Right. You can't stop it right you're not just gonna get better you're just gonna get better at forming the good habits what about therapy i don't do that never did no but i do get in an isolation tank what i've done a lot of psychedelics i was gonna ask you about that i'm thinking about trying that you should i feel like that's gonna do it right now part of your life what do you want to do yeah right now mushrooms have you ever done mushrooms no but i can't you can't i mean i i would like to if i do it i want to do? Yeah, right now. Are you going to do mushrooms? No. Have you ever done mushrooms? No, but I can't. You can't?

I mean, I would like to. If I do it, I want to do it with you for sure. Okay. But I got a long night ahead of me, I think. Oh, what are you doing tonight? I have like family. Oh. I haven't seen in a long time.

Yeah, you don't want to be tripping balls. I probably don't want to. Oh, microdose. Microdose is not a bad way to get through a day. Can you drive with it? Oh, I wouldn't recommend it. Yeah. And I don't know where i

am i got a rental car yeah i really want to do it i'm ready for it but i feel like i need huh you've done nothing no i mean weed every day yeah that's been my saving grace yeah you got any of those kevin smiths no i don't i don't want to uh smoke we can smoke a little weed on uh on the show because i feel like it makes me verbose well you're already verbose you talk for a living something wrong with that uh but it makes me even worse and i don't want to well what happened it got crusty and broken don't worry about it we can do it or towards the end whatever i'd love yeah but for me that i didn't my brother was in rehab when i was 16 he was 18 i love that you're scanning the room where's those Kevin Smith joints we had on the table oh okay

so what's that right there that little tube right there Jamie that's hilarious there's just stuff everywhere what's that

oh there's one what is this this ashtray filled with treasures but I didn't touch any alcohol or drugs

until I was like 25 my brother was in rehab we had to do an intervention it was nuts and I was like 25. My brother was in rehab. We had to do an intervention. It was nuts. And I was like, I knew I wanted to be a comic. And I thought that if I did anything, it would affect me.

It would distract me. Make you a loser. No, no. It would just make me pursue that and not my dreams. This is the other thing. If I take a hit off this and I still want to run for Congress, like, it shouldn't matter. This is how I deal.

Well, it's legal. It's no different than having a drink. Yeah, of course. It's preposterous to judge, but people do. Yeah, but I think the generation that's coming up will judge less. The generation after them will judge less. And it's just, we're living with the echoes of reefer madness right we're living with harry ann slinger and william randolph's first work in the 1930s look them up everybody affecting people look them up yeah no doubt but i think that

you say they're the echoes and i think they're pretty loud certainly pretty loud in uh certain parts of the country. Yeah. And it's hard to measure. Well, the good thing about being a congressman is you're representing a district, right? One of the guys I've become really good friends with, he was a Republican congressman. His name is Trey Radel. That's a good name. He got, from Florida, he got kicked. Trey Radel.

I like it. He got kicked out of Congress for buying cocaine from a Fed. Do you remember that? No, I don't. It was like three years ago i don't pay that much attention to politics i think politics is like baseball like uh some people just watch the world series and some people watch college and look at fucking first round draft picks and oh i'm addicted to it yeah i was that's another nice thing and not

having to be live every day and not having to know every single step of everything going on. Because you realize that you're a very small minority of people. When you found out that thing. When you were told that thing by that guy. Let me just make sure this doesn't go to waste, Jimmy. It won't. There's plenty of it. When you were told that thing about the guy who was the congressman job.

You know, that you were going to have to play ball. Was that, did you feel like let down yeah like almost like okay i've been promoting a rigged game because no i know how well i know intimately how rigged the game is it's just that you don't always know where and who the players are now i mean i've done enough enough. Right, but isn't it, you're an honest person. You're not a bullshit artist. I hope everybody thinks that. I do.

So if you're a part of a bullshit system, right, it's almost like you can't, to be who you are, you almost can't be a congressperson. You just nailed it. It's a system. What you just said almost made me want to cry. Don't cry. Because, well, I get very emotional when someone pings a truth. person you just nailed the system what you just said almost made me want to cry don't cry because

well i get very emotional when i when someone pings a truth that's what happens to me i'm like jesus i can't believe he just said that my brother who's my moral compass my older brother is just radical like ridiculous radically different person he's like i said just what you said right before i came over here because the problem with you running is that do you really buy in to this corrupt system and i think because i'm such an optimist and such a positive thinking person i've convinced myself and that i do know a lot of people in congress know them personally and intimately and i know a lot of people that work in government that i really admire but the system it's not the people as much as the system but i also think that the way i don't want to talk about it in a way that that uh exonerates the public like we have to not be apathetic that's what my show has always been about it wasn't

always a confusing title stand up because, because I'm a comic. But it meant stand up for something. It meant care about something. You don't have to be a full-time activist, but don't be apathetic. The United States of apathy. We can't sit here and blame the systems that we are complicit and watch. You watch this fucking every weekend in Hong Kong. Every weekend they stand up for their democracy. They've been doing it for months. complicit and watch you watch these you watch this fucking every weekend in hong kong every

weekend they stand up for their democracy and doing it for months right that's the biggest story it'll be the biggest story of the of 2019 and maybe the decade because they are fighting off china it's unbelievable meanwhile i just feel like we're just so we're just so comfortable and hong kong used to be a part of great britain right yeah and until like what 90 something when they had to give it back after like it was a 100 year agreement or something like that which is so crazy but china deal with china's like listen we're not gonna bother you you could keep doing what you're doing and then they started bothering them. And they said, no, we're going to, you're ours now.

Now behave. Because they had so much more power and leverage. And then human beings stood up. Now they're doing it in Chile. And now they're doing it in Iraq. People are protesting and they're getting shot. The greatest thing that I was ever a part of in media was probably, well, there was a lot of good things. But CNN and SiriusXM's coverage of the Egyptian revolution. that i was ever a part of in media was probably well there was a lot of good things but uh cnn

and sirius xm's coverage of the egyptian revolution it was a fucking amazing and that was something that was organized by social media essentially exactly same thing in iran and the green revolution of 2009 and what's interesting to me about this whole hong kong thing is that they they're being introduced to the government of china over the last few decades, that this was something they were separated from. And then all of a sudden they become property of China again, essentially, right? And so then you're seeing this thing where they become accustomed to the British way of things and the original Hong Kong way of doing doing things and then things shift over it's a really unique moment of protest because it's very rare

that you see the the actual government of a country shift the way it has in hong kong right i mean correct me if i'm wrong well i don't i don't profess to be an expert in revolution but this is what the conversation is about right now it's watching people in other parts of the world going out in the streets risking their lives literally and meanwhile in america why don't we what is it that will get us unified and and out in the streets what is that issue and? Things get us unified, particularly disasters. Yeah, of course. 9-11.

I was in New York. What I'm saying about the, yeah, that was a big one, right? I have a billion stories. A billion stories. What I'm saying, though, is we've never seen, in our time, we've never seen a government shift over. right you've never seen that kind of a shift where a free democratic sort of western way of running things all of a sudden shifts over and because of that i think the the resistance to it is very unique i think if you studied the british colonization of the world there would be a lot of that sure i think that's what we're talking about literally because it was britain

yeah and then i can't speak to the specifics of the history of that but it's what you're bringing up is a fascinating question i'd love to get to the bottom of and there's probably a billion people who would be so good on it well even with so important people stand up for something and care yeah i think even with our limited understanding of the history of it this is one thing we know for sure they're they used to be under britain and now they're not and now they're under china and we're watching this resistance and we're seeing these people hundreds and hundreds of thousands of them in the streets yeah and you know what my favorite part of it all was there was one time where an ambulance had to get through and all the people from hong kong just stood on left and the

right and they let the ambulance go through and i I'm like, whoa, good luck with that in Boston. It's fucking not going to happen, bro. Look at this. Look at this video, man. I mean, this is incredible. Look at them. This is what my brother and a lot of people who I respect and admire, but maybe I'm not courageous enough to challenge our system or want to see here for something. But what's it for?

Well, right now. And why can't it be climate? Well, the hustle is the right versus left, right? That's the hustle. That's the hustle. And the real hustle is the fact that people get ideologically driven and they pick a side. And they go, you know, the problem is these fucking liberals, these fucking pussy liberals. And then, you know, the problem is these fucking liberals, these fucking pussy liberals. And then, you know, the problem is these racists, these white racist assholes.

I love your liberal person. That's how it goes, man. I'm from Berkeley, man. More, more. I want that. This is a character that should definitely break out. I should, man. I should bring him out every now and then, man.

It's like fucking heteronormative bullshit, right? But these characters, but the problem is these are patterns of behavior that people slide into and that's why you know we were talking about putting people in boxes people love to be able to put you in that pattern i want to find out who you are who are you are you a liberal are you a libertarian are you a mean person are you a nice person or who are you my trick for my mom when she would be telling whoever what her son does well he hosts a radio he's a comedian and he hosts a radio show oh what's his radio show about oh he talks about all kinds of news and issues and politics oh is he a liberal

or conservative they immediately want to know that and that's what it's a shit racist or a cuck what cuck please but is a fucking but my mom the answer it really is it's it's really underappreciated i hope they keep it i hope no it doesn't become racist or something you know it's one of those words where it's like i hope it doesn't slip away from us like we have it right now we can enjoy it like you can silence a lot of nonsense by calling somebody a cuck. You really can. It's like, woo. And it's been overused for sure, but it's because it's the- Not in text messaging.

It's recent and so effective. It's just got such a pop to it when someone calls someone a cuck, especially if there's a ring of truth to it. You know what I'm saying? I like it most used when you say something endearing. I'll text my brother. He's the kind of person that will use it. Maybe to me. Stop being such a cuck. I'll be like brother. He's the kind of person that will use it, maybe to me.

Stop being such a cuck. I'll be like, I love you, bro. You're saving me. My brother's like my hero. He's always there for me. He wrote my first stand-up material in high school

when I was hosting a talent show. And he was getting kicked out of the house and I had no material. And I was doing Dana Carvey's impressions hosting a talent show and I had no material and I walked out

and I see a whole script that my brother had written. Wow. Didn't let me down. That's awesome. Even though he's high and drunk, didn't let me down. Those are the guys that are best writing for you. I'll say something endearing to him, like that loving, and then you get back, cock. Like that kind of response, like when you don't.

Yeah. Perfect. I don't even know if he's actually using that or if I'm just high. I'm sure he used it. It's a when you don't. Yeah, no. Perfect. I'm not even, actually now I don't even know if he is actually using that or if I'm just high. I'm sure he used it. It's a good word. He's a smart guy. But back to revolution, like, why can't it, and what you're saying, the hustle. I love that discussion because everything is about defining.

So the answer my mom would give, excuse me, getting back to that was, well, he talks about issues. So, you know, that's what he talks about. But they want to pin you into something so they can know how to feel about you to like or to hate you.

Are you on my team? Are you not? And that is so destructive. It is. And the other thing is the resistance to what you're saying. The resistance is toxic too

because people think, no, it's important that you take a side. It's important that we de-platform Nazis. They say things like that, and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Who's all fucking Nazis? Stop. Look, they're real Nazis.

And the problem is you start calling everybody a Nazi, and then one day you meet a real one, and you ran out of words. You fucking cried wolf. These aren't Nazis. And when people feel like you're treating them unfairly or talking shit about them, and this is a problem we have both on the right and the left, they fucking double down. They dig their heels in and they go, fuck that other group. It's team red all the way.

Fuck you. It's team blue. It is so destructive. Yes. And watching it is so sad. And being a part of it when we are is the problem. And trying to have the answer to that, the solution to that, is to try to listen to each other and to try to understand. Because I completely agree with you that if they don't feel respected, you've lost them completely.

People enjoy it like a team. Like when the Celtics win, people get pumped. When the Republicans win win people get pumped when the republicans win people get pumped you know it's like when the democrats win people get pumped it's their team i had a friend of mine it's a comic who said you know we got to win the house because if we win the house we win the white house i'm like what are you talking about what is we what is we are we in this are you running for something that i don't know about? Like, they have to. I feel that way about sports, by the way. Bro, I think.

When we say we, you're not on the team. It's the Giants. You're not a Giant. You're out here not exercising. And it's the same thinking. It's the same thinking. People attach themselves. I remember when I was a kid, I was a big fan of this guy named Donald Curry.

He was this badass boxer. This world champion, welterweight champion he was a fucking beast and then one day he got knocked out and by this guy mike mccallum the body snatcher he was a he was another world champion a bad motherfucker and he hit him with a left hook to the body and a left hook to the head knocked him out cold flat on his back i couldn't believe it he was my favorite boxer and he just got knocked out and i felt so bad. I couldn't take it. I put my running shoes on and I ran out of the house and I ran for like a fucking mile and I was just so worked up. I was probably like 17, I think somewhere around then 16, 17. I don't remember. Um, maybe a little later, 18 at the latest. I turned around and went

walked home. I ran like a mile and a half, a mile, latest, I turned around and walked home. I ran like a mile and a half, a mile, whatever. I turned around. I just walked home. I am never going to get upset about someone I don't even know losing like that. But that was a team thing. I was on Team Curry. And people really literally do that with fighters. I feel like I have a litmus test, though.

I feel like I fall victim to the criticism that you're laying out on the planet, on environmental stuff. I feel so panicky and so anxious about that. And I care so much about it. And for me, it is religious. It's a spiritual connection to nature that it brings me so much joy to be in it and around it and professing it. And to see us destroy it by the way we're living. I'm one of those people that

feels guilty about, I rail against single-use plastic, which is why I want to advocate for you guys to get a big tank and everybody has thermoses. We've talked about that before. If you do that today, if you made that choice, just get a big thing and a glass or mugs and sell them and raise money thermoses. We've talked about that before. Because if you do that today, if you made that choice, just get a big thing and a glass or mugs and sell them and raise money or something.

And Ari would come by and dose the bucket. You can't have a big open bottle of water around with Ari. Ari Shafir gave out like a plate of pot cookies years ago at Stan Comedy Club. My wife does not. Did she know it was a pot cookie? Didn't know. Went to take it. Took a sniff of it. And she know it was a pot cookie? Didn't know. Went to take it.

Took a sniff of it. And she's like, oh, no. And Ari's like, oh, sorry. Oh, boy. She almost took it? She is no good with the weed, the edibles especially. Well, edibles are rough on you. She once had like a whole Kit Kat because she was hungry.

And went to the sink and was washing her hands and just said this water is so wet I go oh shit something's wrong put some headphones on yeah this water's so wet when you look at that Hong Kong thing right yeah you know I don't think we need a revolution I think we need a resolution like I think we need to like. Like, I think we need to, like, relax and come to this understanding, like, most of the stuff we fight about is because we're tricked into this tribal way of thinking. I don't mean tricked by some overlords. I mean tricked by your own biology. We have a natural inclination to form teams. And we have a natural, because there's only two real ones.

I mean, you could be one of them fucking dudes who's only into independent music and you always vote Green Party. But for the most part, there's two parties, right, when it comes to national politics. And when we think about whoever the fuck's going to win, whether we think about what the real important thing is the economy or protecting our borders, or you think the real important thing is the environment and stopping global warming we've got to do something to engineer like biodegradable plastics and make them mandatory and whatever whatever thing becomes your side and you know you can make arguments for both sides the problem is people then subscribe to whatever ideas are in that party you know like you could almost pick to a person if you're pro life you're probably pro war but when you said you know we a person. If you're pro-life, you're probably pro-war.

But when you said, you know, we're doing well, you know, relax, we're doing well, I react to that with working with and advocating for all these anti-poverty organizations. What do you mean relax, we're doing well? I felt like you were saying, like, when everybody is getting fired up, maybe I misunderstood you. It was like, I don't think we need a revolution but i think instead of thinking about it like a competition between two teams agreed we should think about it as a resolution we should resolve our issues and what are our issues being tribal absolutely agree that's the entire problem and i'll do anything to work with you or anybody else on furthering that conversation because that's all bullshit theatrical manufactured shit that you're divided by your neighbor because of any number of stupid and that we're not talking

because of that i believe that our species can do a lot better but it's normal that's the thing it's like normal to not like people that you know you look at somebody's conservative it's normal if you're a liberal to not like them if you're a conservative it's normal to think these fucking silly liberals they're going to ruin everything don't put them in that box what kind of a man is he what kind of a father that's that's how i evaluate men or women what kind of a partner what kind of a parent I just watch them behave with their kids I don't think about what they think

about guns if I find that stuff out later then we talk about it but what kind of a role model are you for your children is how I evaluate another man I don't know if that's a good measure that's what I do I don't think about what show he watches or what kind of car he drives or what his job is.

What kind of a man is he? What kind of a father, a role model, a contributor to society? Does he care about other people and other things? What is his morality? Perfect. I don't know, but that's not that. Why is that abnormal? Isn't that how we all should be?

Isn't that how we all are to some extent? I think this resonates with a lot of people that are listening. There's a lot of people that try very hard to do that. There's a lot of people that also escape the grips of tribal thinking as they get older and wiser. Sure. I think I'm one of those, and I think a lot of people are one of those. I am too, I hope. And I think one of the ways that you help it is by having these conversations.

So people listen, and then it resonates with them them and maybe it only resonates to a certain degree and maybe it's they slip away from it a week later when they're drinking and hanging out with their friends or or they're they're not exposed to the ideas you know uh very often and when they do it's it's not as effective as it would be if they're around people that were like-minded but that's just having these conversations you know you're affecting like right now we're affecting a lot of different people's thinking right they're listening to this and they go a lot of interactions could have been different on both sides depending upon what you did like sometimes you run into someone and they're douchey but if you just turn around a little bit so it's all right brother you know i'm just yes and then they relax and they go oh he's

okay but if you ramped it up and they ramped it up more you can go that guy's a piece of shit well yeah he acted like a piece of shit but maybe part of the way he acted like a piece of shit was the way you dealt with his initial weirdness because sometimes people are just fucking weird and sometimes people come off douchey people are complex people are so complex and so rooted in I mean, I just go straight to interviewing. I've interviewed murderers and rapists. Who have you interviewed that's a murderer? Senghor, I think his last name is.

Shakti Senghor. He wrote a book. He changed my life. He killed a guy when he was 18, went to prison, served 19 years, and got out and wrote a book. Oh. And redemption. How did he get there to to murdering somebody and how did he become the man that he was that's the way to measure a man and so he did the worst thing so when you say you have this idea

about any number of issues from race to energy issues to guns to abortion to feminism to all the stuff. It's like, well, where did he start? Who were his role models? You know, there's so much data about the zip code that you're born into in this country determines where you will be when you're 18. And it's so accurate. It's so hard to get out of certain places. I heard you and someone talking about that. It was Dakota Meyer, who is amazing.

I loved that whole interview. It was fascinating. Really interesting guy. And nothing but respect for that guy. But talking about America as this place where it's the greatest place to get ahead, it's not. It's so hard to get ahead here. In some spots. In some spots, it's very hard to get ahead.

In way too many spots. For so many reasons. I'm with you if you're talking about impoverished neighborhoods that have a history of crime and violence, because they don't fix that, and it doesn't change, and it's really hard to get ahead. change and it's really hard to get ahead if you're not well i'm but in other places if you're doing what if you're in a nice city and you're in a nice neighborhood it is difficult but it's compared to the rest of the world it's i'm just talking about social mobility in what sense in terms of being able to move up a rung in the ladder okay i feel like that's only true in impoverished areas that are riddled with crime and drugs but that's not not how it's measured. But I'm thinking if you're talking about places where things are doing well, right? Yeah.

And you're comparing them to the rest of the world. This is one of the easiest places to get ahead ever that's ever existed because there's... Only if you start in a certain spot. If you start at the bottom in America, it's almost impossible, which is why the media loves to focus, and Americans love to focus on even themselves. So many people say, you know, listen, I started with nothing, and now I'm a major success. And so they don't then have sympathy for somebody else. I'm like, that's your story to tell. What were your opportunities?

Who were your role models? What did you have? Did you have healthcare? Did you have universal pre-k that's like that's the bottom line if you have universal pre-k all over this country this whole country would be so much more intelligent that's what all the education data says that's what every other country does we don't have it but what we do have is just so many fucked up budget priorities the The budget is a moral document. It means where your values lie and you spend what on healthcare, what on defense, what on anti-poverty,

what on nutrition, what on education. Yes. That's how I determined, by the way, in a thoughtful conversation. Not only are you a liberal, not are you a liberal or conservative, pro-or anti-government. How do you think we should spend our tax money? Where should we spend it around the world and domestically and in terms of it's like we have this huge defense budget with

these weapons that will never be used and russia beat us with facebook and north korea hacked into sony it's like that's where the threat is right let me ask you this when it comes to defense because that's always an interesting subject there's two arguments right there's this pro-military argument that is you have to have a certain amount of military might all over the world we have to be the world's policeman because if we're not someone else will and we are protecting america by doing this and we fight them over there so that we can be free over here right that's the pro argument the anti-argument would be you could do everything that you need to do to protect us with less money. And you could take that money and inject it into these inner cities that are impoverished and crime-ridden. And you could, in my words, that's why I always like to say, if you want to make America greater, what's the best way to do that?

Well, have less losers. Have less people that are losing the game because they got a shitty roll of the dice. Of course. Give people opportunity. And the bad hand of cards when they're young. Give people healthcare and education. Give them an opportunity to succeed. It's not that hard.

Most of us got it. But the pro-military argument would be, okay, that is not going to work. We will get fucked over by another country. And then no one will have an advantage. Like, we have to maintain a certain amount of power worldwide. This is not my argument. Okay? I'm just saying. Oh, no, but I would reject the binary on its face because it's a thoughtful binary and I'd love to answer it.

But it's so much more geopolitical and filled with history and then technology. And so now I think if I am going to answer the question, it's like the threat the threats that were fake the threat matrix is a way to look at it like what are the you know existential threats nuclear war uh and any kind of geopolitical what kind of conventional war it's everything's online in terms of the the way that we countries are fighting it's so it's all going online it's all transparent well i don't know if it's transparent it is in some ways but the point i would like to say like how is the department of defense not only focused on saving the planet that's it that's it just do that everybody wins i think it's complicated man

well i think it's way more complicated than we would ever understand i think to be a military leader in 2019 to be making decisions one way or another when that you attack people whoo good luck with all that good luck with trying to figure out how to kill terrorists and do it live on television while the president's watching from the fucking oval office or whatever really happened i think he was golfing i think he was golfing. I think he was golfing. Yeah, that was a whole weird situation. How was the picture afterwards? Like, I know what a posed picture looks like. Dude, every single one of those pictures,

it does look bad when every one of those pictures that comes out of the Oval Office is a bunch of white dudes. Well, God wants you to wear makeup, and God wants you to sit right there. That's right. God wants that. Right. People don't talk enough, man. There's too many of us. That's a lot of what all this shit is. I wants that. Right. People don't talk enough, man.

There's too many of us. That's a lot of what all this shit is. I think you're leading. I think one of the reasons why you're doing so well is because you're leading the conversation about how the conversation should be. I hope that's evidence from what we're saying. Well, I hope so, too. I'm just happy if people enjoy it. But the conversations that we're not having, we're not having enough of is face-to-face one-on-one like this everyone's distracted you can't get to know people over

sound bites you definitely can't get to know them through text messages or little tiny snippets of a conversation that they're going to have before they get to commercial to get to know a person is very easy you just look at their internet history you find out what kind of porn they like oh my god whether or not they like muscle cars like greatest bit i mean it's the idea that you know facebook and your social media is what you want people think you don't here's my family in the bahamas but like if you had a video of me melting down just smoking weed and feeling my heart thumping and sweating because i'm having a panic attack it's like that's your internet history. Like you're looking up every lump that you find.

Right. And you go down weird rabbit holes. You find out about strange diseases. Yeah, very unhealthy. All day today about parasites. Mind-fuckings. I saw your tweet about that. I was like, no, don't put it out there.

Don't put it out there. It's interesting as hell. But it's terrifying because the idea, like I always get so worried, especially that one, because it's like trail running is my favorite way to run. I love it, too. That's why I posted it.

Some lady got eyeball worms, man. But kids are terrified to go outside. There's this amazing organization, Children in Nature Network. Everybody should discover and support and look up the work of Richard Louv, who's just written a new book about relationships. You'll love it with animals and humans and he wrote a book called Last Child in Woods that is my bible changed my life and

kids are afraid to go outside because there's ticks, there's Lyme disease there's parents are afraid that there's kidnapping no there isn't there's definitely Lyme disease well yeah but you just be vigilant yeah but Lyme disease is really significant it's horrible.

I grew up in- I have several people who I'm close with. I live in Rockland County. Me too. Horrible. Don't get me wrong, but we can't not send our kids outside. No, I agree. Cut your lawn and check your kids for ticks.

Good night. Yeah, you got to be vigilant. But the kids have to stay out. They have to be outside to appreciate getting out to ride. Yeah, no, I agree. The connection to nature, that's what it's all about. Yeah, no, I agree. The connection to nature, that's what it's all about. It all works together.

The idea that we're drinking out of bottles that are made of petroleum. That's what plastic is. This is going to be here for 700 years. Unless we melt it and make cool shit out of it.

Let's take some ideas. Let's go to the calls. Do you know who Boyan Slat is? He's that guy that- Oh, yeah, the guy collecting the plastic? Yeah. Dutch kid? Yeah, he's got a video. Let's go to the cult. Do you know who Boyan Slat is? He's that guy. Oh, yeah. The guy collecting the plastic. Dutch kid. Yeah. He makes everybody else look unaccomplished.

He's like 18. He's like, I am 18 and I'm going to take all of the plastic out of the ocean. Like, what was I doing? I was bashing mailboxes. The first one didn't work. And everybody's like, see? He didn't know shit. He's like, yeah, that one is a prototype.

We're trying to make it work. Look, the next one works. He's still only 20. Let's cheer for shit. He's like, yeah, that one is a prototype. We're trying to make it work. Look, the next one works. He's still only 20. Let's cheer for him. I know. People are hating on him. Why are we tribal on getting plastic, getting rid of this horrible single-use plastic? Because it's connected to ego.

Because someone who's 19 years old figured out how to do some shit that you've never figured out how to do. He's a better person than you. Fine. No, it's a game. It's a game. I'm rooting for him. No, you're not. That's why you're

happy when his machine breaks like haha never that's that i don't know that mentality i don't understand that mentality that that but you understand it i understand it but i would i don't feel it i'm not rooting for your pain good if i don't like your opinions i don't want you to get sick i don't want you to even get your finger crunched in the garage door. I don't want you to have pain. I think it's the same sort of feeling. Because of your beliefs. It's the same thing that leads people to be tribal.

It also leads people to be jealous. It's the same kind of thing. It's like a pattern of thinking that's easy to slide into. It's like a well-oiled chute. You just slide right in there. You can name that and acknowledge it for your kids. That's what you're doing. That's what I'm doing, hopefully.

That's what that is. Don't fall into those veins. People, I think, by the way, are mostly good all day. Yes. All day. Most of my interactions, I'm walking out the door with this lady out of the bank, and we both walk out at the same time. We're both like, oh, sorry.

Both are faults. Have a good one. Little smiles. That's most interactions that i have at least but yes i'm very attractive you're a handsome man i agree with you though i think that's that is the case and and also it has to do with how you interact with those people and we've all been guilty of being loaded up in one way or another interacting with someone and it doesn't go as well as it could have gone if you were in a better place when you met that person. It's all about reactions. That's the second time you mentioned that, and that's the most important thing I've learned in therapy and with my wife. It's if you choose how to react to a situation or a comment, and everything rides in that

reaction, potentially your life. I forget which book it is, whether it's one of those ancient philosophy books, but I never forgot this term. Nothing has any meaning other than the meaning that you give it. Yeah, it's whatever it is, tragedy or positive thing. Look, for sure it's a tragedy. It's very difficult to not have an automatic. It's not what we see, it's how we see it.

Yes, but talk regular moments in your life. Like the worst case scenario for a person is approaching any moment in their life and being like, woe is me. God damn it, why does it always happen to me? Why? Instead of having a perspective like, look how lucky I am that my real concern is someone keyed my car. The reason, and I look at that and I say, why is that person always saying, woe is me? Why?

It's a pattern. Yeah, but why? Where does it come from? It's a natural pattern. It's like- It's a role modeling. That's why you have to give people an opportunity to break out of that. We are so evolved.

We are so far, probably too evolved that we've created plastic bottles and we're killing ourselves. We're killing ourselves with plastic bottles? Seven billion people or it's just too many people that's a lot do you buy into the argument that the more westernized or the more advanced society gets the population actually starts to decrease because uh there there's certain cities that they point to where that's on the trend i think japan i think tokyo one of them. But the idea is that as people, as a civilization advances, people decide to pursue careers

before having children and less and less people have children. And that there's some sort of a direct correlation with the amount of children people have versus the amount of technological advancement is around them and the amount of education and the level of the city and yeah the the level of

the city like if you're in around a place like new york it's generally education yes yeah education education based because it's too i think affluence has something to do with it as well affluence usually comes with education sometimes usually you could be any nut you could have examples of people who came from absolutely nothing and had a general heart defect and overcame it to become you know a ceo of a mcdonald's and then have to step down because they had an affair their own businesses and shit you know yeah i mean a lot of it and nothing but certainly i have nothing but i look at someone who's started a business and ran a business from a a dry cleaning store to a whatever they're doing my My dad owned an insurance agency in Syracuse, New York. That's what my dad did.

And my mom was a public school teacher. And it's like, so I saw the public and private sector. That was my role model. That's a good combination, too, to grow up with. And I had health care and I had nursery school. My mom was an early childhood. She had an associate's degree. My dad didn't go to college.

Shout out to my pop, by the way. He just had a heart attack and ruined his eye. How bad is his eye? Can't see out of it. It's not surgery number three. Dude just wrapped up

44 years as a ski instructor. Ugh. And he's a competitive cyclist. He's ripped off, broke every bone in his body. He's fucking man of steel. What is the damage to the eye that doesn't allow him to see? I can't explain it, but he's a fucking man of steel what is the damage to the eye that doesn't allow him to see

I can't explain it but it's a laceration he was on his you know blood centers he fainted and bounced his face

off the table lacerated his eye and that probably has a big impact on whether or not he heals quick right oh yeah

and he's all filled with blood so he can't see out of it and my dad is like my dad is a very physically healthy guy. So it's aging, man. It's tough. I mean, that's my situation with my mom and dad.

Married 48 years. But that's... I look at my dad, and he's a great story in America. He didn't go to college. He started his own insurance agency. He did well, supported us. We lived in the suburbs, Marcellus, New York. You know what's crazy about America?

It's only 300 years old, and the idea of a new America is out of the fucking question. Right? The idea of someone coming along, the millions of years of life on this planet, and the hundreds of thousands of years of being humans, and the 300 whatever almost years of the united states if someone said we're going to start a new country now and we found a new spot in new zealand or greenland or something be like fuck you you can't do that you can't do that today we'll see do you think i think everything's changing everything's changing but if first of all anyone who people

would be super suspicious. Well, yeah. If you were going to start a new country, they'd go, oh, that guy's just going to fuck all the women. Ah, well, there's a lot of that. I mean, that's a lot of the world right now. Yeah, well, that's a lot of why you would start your own country. That's why it has almost probably always been the reason. That's religion.

There would have to be some leader, right? There would have to be someone who says, listen, this is how we're going to do this. We're going to have like an open-ended constitution we could amend it whenever we see fit instead of having a president we'll have a council i'm all for i'm all for a blown up system and redoing it to make it more equitable however you describe that we're gonna need nukes okay because the north koreans aren't fucking around the russians are always shifting those chinese man they're plotting things i I think they're going to try to cancel our internet.

The fact that we haven't canceled our internet, it sounds like they're the cable company. Cut the cord. The fact that we haven't had an accident. Who is it?

Schlosser. Eric Schlosser wrote this book and documentary. It's fascinating. History of accidents and close calls is nuts. And we got to get rid

of all nukes yeah like all thinking people believe that it's so crazy that was a horrible statement what i just said by the way that's wrong that's by the way a great example of a condescending thing for a person to say into a microphone well thinking people think blank stop it but it's also one of those things where it doesn't help to say it even if it is true it is true all thinking people think blank stop it but it's also one of those things where it doesn't help to say it even if it is true all thinking people agree with me no one is going to go wow i didn't uh i don't want to be considered a non-thinking person exactly no that's why pete yeah that's why i nailed it it's like but it's like people yelling into a microphone what is wrong with you you must be a non-thinking person like what i don't want to be yelled at i dated this girl

once when i was 21 and she'd get upset about shit she was older than me she she was smarter than me too but uh she would she got upset once and i said will you just please just please relax she goes no one who's upset ever wants to hear you saying relax it doesn't work and i thought about that i was like damn she's right like that doesn't work someone says relax relax doesn's right. That doesn't work. Someone says relax. Relax doesn't work. It just doesn't work. You don't go, oh, thank you. I mean, sometimes you do.

But you have to be not very wound up and you have to really love the person who's telling you to relax. No, it's an absolute condescension. Yeah, it's relax. I've done that a hundred times to my wife. She nails me every time. Every time. I remember thinking as a 21-year-old savage going, oh, okay. She's, okay, she's right. That makes sense.

Yeah, I don't want to hear that either. That's very, but that's called being open-minded and being vulnerable. Being able to check you're in with yourself as opposed to being this kind of authoritarian beast of, don't you tell me this is my castle. Like, I don't understand that kind of, whatever you want to call it uh i don't i don't want to even name it it's just an attitude that we have to our generation of men is so much more vulnerable i think yeah yeah yeah for sure than our parents and so much more open mind and sensitive and it has nothing to do necessarily with sexuality it has to do with human growth and evolution and realizing this you're actually weak

to pretend that you're strong absolutely the idea that yeah they uh that somehow you don't feel addressing your ptsd as a combat veteran is somehow seen as weak it's like no that's if you're taking on your worst nightmares that's strength and by the way how do we measure strength i mean it's always about what you can lift, not the pain you can endure, which is why I think if you're measuring strength by gender, women can endure more pain. So that's one measure of strength. But more importantly, that's whatever you overcame in life. That's the measurement of strength, not how you can force yourself. I mean, I'm a small guy, so that's a small guy mentality.

not how you can force yourself. I mean, I'm a small guy, so that's a small guy mentality. I talk my way out of every, you know, my dad's like, just when you walk into that class, you make friends with the biggest kid in the class, and I've done that my whole life. So I just talk my way out. Well, whatever works.

But not in an authoritarian way, in a way that you're saying, in a way that you think about maybe. But I'm just saying when you say any thinking person agrees with that, that is a version of saying relax. Oh, yes. It's the same thing. Oh, for sure. It's a perfect... We both agree.

No, it's a perfect analogy. Absolutely. We could do a whole long story about condescending remarks, especially in marriages or any relationship. In this conversation, if I put you down in the way that you're thinking, it's like the whole conversation then changes. It's't respect my yeah my intellect my experience and it's like the

conversation gets gross yeah and yeah and effectual and damaging well that's the easy way that's how you sell ads that's how you create ratings so crazy this show does pretty good we don't do that you you don't have to do it exactly but the the thing about like online conversations is that you don't have this interaction like we're having like this is probably more intimate than a regular conversation because we're in each other's ears right we're wearing i prefer headphones yeah i wish all of life was this way i don't want this to stop right now all the time it's too it's too narrow focus but it's good for don't tell me what i want i will stay here and put anybody in those headphones. Calm down.

You need to relax. Any thinking person would agree with me. Relax. Calm down, Joe. Will you calm down, Joe Rogan? That's my favorite thing to say when someone's not worked up. You're working with a young person in a corporate. Yeah.

You know, it's serious. It's CNN. And they're not at all worked up. They're like, hey, do you want me to send that over? Calm down, okay? Like, I was, what are you talking, I was totally normal. What percentage of people that you worked with run Adderall? Oh my God, I wish I know.

I thought everybody around me was on something. What do you think the number would be? Antidepressants, I thought. Would you think it would be a high number? Adderall, I don't know. I don't know anything about Adderall. I know a lot about, and I hear a lot about Xanax And antidepressants And anti-anxieties Yep

None of which I've ever put in my body Those are spooky I think some people need them I think for some people They have a bad chemical makeup I mean this is just a fact Just like some people have thyroid cancer Right

Some people have There's a missing link There's something wrong With the way their brain's firing And this is just a biological issue because we're you know we're not just you don't situational depression sure and johan harry writes about that in his new book and there's been a lot of really great work written about it academic research on and the academic research on neuropsychology my

understanding is that it's like we know so little about the brain we're very early in trying to understand if so these medications like right now dealing with like career like my career transition right and think about running for congress dealing with my dad that to me is not a reason to take an antidepressant that's that's no you work now you just hit it hard and you do what you do and you don't make excuses and you just you just work my friend jordan peterson um had an issue where his wife was uh she had developed liver cancer it was very serious yeah very scary i did not know that about him i know of him and his work but i did not know that that's she was very very sick and um he you know they've been together

since high school he loves her dearly and he started freaking out so he got on something what was it called colonopin is that what oh yeah yeah i'm familiar with it and i've heard of it no she had a miraculous recovery everybody's happy about that but then he had a really really yeah that's amazing she had surgery oh wow but he had a't know. Oh. But he had a really difficult issue with the Klonopin, really bad. Oh, he used it to deal with that situation? Yes. And what was the issue? Well, he was going through severe withdrawals, and he had to check himself into a rehab center.

Oh, yeah. I hear that's a very... I have a family member who did everything, including heroin. And it's so great to hear Artie on the show. Because I called up Artie when he was doing heroin to ask him how serious it was. He goes, let me ask you two questions. I go, all right. And he goes, does he have a good life, a job, or kids or anything?

I was like, no. He's just a single guy. And he goes, is he shooting it or snorting it he's shooting it he goes yeah i can't help you like that was the worst that's true i have so many arty stories yeah on the road with him for so long but it's so nice to see him doing well yeah yeah he's doing great i mean he really is he certainly seems so already calling me he's one of my closest friends. My wife and I spend a lot of time with him, and I love him to death.

And his story is one of the most remarkable stories in comedy. He's one of the funniest. He's one of the kings of comedy. And he's a close brother of mine for a long time. So watching him with you, I can't wait to see him. Yeah. I got 17 numbers for him. I'll give you the real one if

he lets me no greater storyteller alive he's up there he's no no greater yogi barrow was good his fucking stories are incredible it's pretty good he's got his fingers too like we already tells you stories he does a lot of like movement with his fingers like he's like he's got a little show he's doing there's a lot happening he is a performer. He's got a little show he's doing. There's a lot happening. He is a performer. He gets it. He gets it all. Oh, yeah.

I was waiting in the wings. He's going out. I open for him. I come back. They play The Who, which song that he came out to. And he just, at his heaviest, just falls back into me. And I had a brace. I'm a tiny muscular guy and I like

push him back up and literally push him on stage he's like zoning off like falling asleep out there that's hilarious I mean there's just so much to see him in his recovery should give everybody hope it should give everybody hope and it's interesting too cuz I don't know he's ever been funnier. But back to the drugs. Yeah. Yeah. Artie is at the top of his game and I'm really excited to see him and one of the funniest guys

and one of the most generous guys, man. Yeah. He helped everybody. It was too much. I would tell him, like, you can't, he was,

dude, that guy supported so many comics in ways that were, like, beyond generous. The way that you do, by the way. By the way that you do. I want to see his stand-up-up i want to see it i want to know where he's at because i know he's doing only gigs around the new york area but i'm thinking about if i have to go to the east coast

i'm thinking about taking a trip i just want to see you there yeah because like see him now it's like all the years that i've known him, he was always fucked up. Yeah, I was on the road with him a lot of that time. I witnessed a lot of stuff. We would just be hanging out. He'd be gone all day. Like, where were you? He was like, I'm the hooker all day.

We were in Vegas by the pool at his cabana, and he wasn't with us. Like, where's the king, man? Is he ever going to come down? Did you see the hooker? Maybe. Yeah, I wouldn't have hung out with us either. Don't get me wrong. But it was a nice day.

We wanted to hang out with him. He's got through on the other side. I just hope he can stay on this side. Yeah, but the point is, Artie is not... He's an aberration. He is an exception for any number of reasons. He happens to be one of the most talented, funny people that he just can't fail

because everybody wants to be around him and be with him but and see him perform but drugs in this country whether they be antidepressants or the opiates like that's something we should come together around as well and I think so and we're medicating you know I think

far too much I love for you to talk to my friend Dr. Aaron Carroll who's written so many writes for the New York Times. He's got an amazing YouTube channel. Beg you to have him on the show because he talks, he's a research expert. And there's so much to talk with him about in terms of all this stuff, supplements, fasting, and nutrition. And you absolutely love him.

I want everybody to know about his work. Is he a doctor? Yeah, he's a pediatrician at Indiana University School of Medicine. He contributes to the New York Times. He's got this YouTube channel. It's called Healthcare Triage. He's a really smart guy. He's really great at explaining research.

Is his thought that people are over-medicating? I'm not sure. I don't want to speak for him. Yeah, that's a tricky one, right? I think it's those words. No, I mean, people get very resentful about that. Number one, don't tell me I'm a bad parent or a bad person. to speak for him. Yeah, that's a tricky one, right? I think it's those words. No, I mean, people get very resentful about that. Number one, don't tell me I'm a bad parent or a bad person. This works for me.

Yeah, no, I mean, we've got to be careful. We've got to be very easy on the judgment with all that. I kind of feel whatever gets you through the day. Well, I don't know how your brain works. I don't take it. To pretend that your brain works like my brain and that I know for sure that if I was inside your head, I would be thinking the way I think out here. It's impossible. Amen.

I don't know what it feels like. Like, I know I have a baseline, right? When I'm healthy. I know who I am. I'm that guy. Right? But could you imagine being someone else other than what you know and what you're comfortable with? You can't.

Imagine the chemical makeup of a're comfortable with you can't imagine the chemical makeup of a different person you can't know what anybody's going through in their day imagine if you were a woman and you were on your period

I have often I've thought about that I've thought about it all I never thought about it until just now don't you have daughters yes

but I never thought about myself having a period or having premenstrual syndrome yeah that's a that sounds like very little fun PMS sounds like a real bummer Once a month you're going to become a cunt The whole situation

Let everybody know in advance I'm going to take calcium tablets I'm going to do my best But when the storm comes Imagine I try to just be aware of that But my wife and I are usually at the same baseline Regardless of what's going on

it doesn't affect everyone i don't know if it does maybe it does but it's something to be sensitive about because it's something that we don't have to deal with you know what i hate dude is i got a vasectomy and this idea that any guy would ever not do that is bizarre to me it's the greatest thing i highly recommend it population control and no more condoms. And your wife should never have to put a drug in her body or, you know, tire tubes. That's horrific. Unless, I guess, she's just given birth, maybe. But I'm very pro-vasectomy. Do you think that we're going to come a time, there's going to come a time in America where there's too many people?

When we have, like, a Delhi, India type situation? I think that is the case in too many communities right now, in impoverished communities. That there's too many people for the resources. That's how you measure it. It's not, I mean, is the case in too many communities right now, in impoverished communities, that there's too many people for the resources. That's how you measure it. It's not, I mean, how do you measure too many people? Congestion, overabundance of traffic. Like, right now in L.A., when I come home from the 405, get home from the airport, I'm driving home on the 405. I'm like, why is this 10 o'clock?

Yeah, this is my first experience on it. It's 10 o'clockclock and it's bumper to bumper that's rough for miles and miles and miles like where is everybody going i just that's another way to define poverty well unless you're listening to a great conversation like ours but even then it's not worth it how dare you it's not worth it being stuck in that if you will see one thing's being stuck in it the other thing's being stuck in it every day. I mean, it's horrible for your body. It's horrible for your body to sit there. Dude, when I stopped commuting, I had this driving neck pain every day, 43.

And like a knife every day. I stopped commuting, gone, gone. Gone. Absolutely. Sitting in a car, you got to try to offset that if that's something something you have to deal with because it's really hard but it's a that's i i think that having right now in america in many communities there are not enough resources for the people that are living there in terms of healthy food and access to education and health care that's joe that's how I define morality of a society, how we take care of each other. Sure.

And we all don't have the same access in this country. I urge people to study poverty and not get caught up in the tribalism of the argument of why people are in poverty. No, there's a long, really interesting and important field of study, and there's a whole bunch of anti-poverty people that i love talking to and and what do you mean by anti-poverty people like just working to you know decrease poverty on with using private public any number of different resources you know solving the problem yeah that's one thing that i think morally we we fucked up with with not having health care available to everybody readily, easily. If you're going to pay for things, we're going to decide that we're a community, right?

We're basically a community of 300 and whatever million people. We've got two things. You've got to educate people, and you've got to take care of the sick. And you should have food figured out, right? But we don't have two of those things and one of them is terrible the education system in inner cities is often terrible right the the food thing is a fucking mess food stamps is a mess right education system and rule uh you know in tribal communities we nobody ever talks about tribal communities i've done a lot of work with them and and i keep saying that by the

way i'm no noble like just like advocating for you for the type of stuff that I know that you do. And just trying to understand what they do and advocate for the solutions. And tribal communities and impoverished communities are all over this country in rural areas and obviously in urban areas. We have a lot of it. And we can solve those problems. But being divided the way we are on not understanding the root of poverty. Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow takes on racial injustice and mass incarceration. those problems but being divided the way we are on not understanding the root of poverty michelle alexander's the new jim crow takes on racial injustice and mass incarceration you just read

that book you'll be a completely different person understanding history well the things that we need to have in order to establish yeah drug war for sure i mean that's when is that gonna end where are we well our generation has an agreement about that end that end? Things we need to have in order. Where are we? Well, look what's going on. Our generation has an agreement about that. End that. End that shit. Legalize all of it. All of it. Legalize it. Regulate it.

Anything anybody wants to do. What we have been doing, what's going on in Mexico right now is nuts. It's crazy. And that's because of our demand for it. We're directly connected to their problems. That's just basic economics and commerce. Legalize it. It's not going to solve. It's not going to end the drug cartels. They're always going to their problems. That's just basic economics and commerce. Legalize it. It's not going to solve, it's not going to end the drug cartels. They're always

going to be there. But don't simplify this problem and don't demonize it. Name it and solve it. There's just been so much loss and pain. It's got to end. And whoever gets elected as president has to stop with this punitive justice bullshit where you punish people for

their behavior. I just heard about this kid who got caught with weed in his car in high school and his principal threw him off the golf team and his dad was like why would you do that why would you not let him do the thing that he loves that's not that you're not just gonna get sit around all day he's doing a great thing don't this idea of punishment is changing your behavior like we can get beyond that i think we can get beyond with that we certainly can especially weed for a kid no but anything for kids like consequences for kids like spanking your kids is prehistoric it's prehistoric but i mean what you're talking about when it comes to this kid with weed is it's completely absurd do you think he would have got kicked off he he got caught having a shot at Jack Daniels?

Would he have gotten kicked off a team for life If something happened at a party And he wound up having a shot of vodka with his friends? Well, he also, I should say He had a bucket of grenades in the passenger seat as well, Joe And a bag of cash What kind of grenades? Love grenades? No, that's what it was

You're absolutely right That's all it was Stupid, whoever made that decision is an asshole Well, yes, of course Well, hold on their judgment is clearly wrong yes but minimizing them as an asshole it is an asshole it's an asshole movie but you're taking a kid and you're ruining his life whether or not you want to be an asshole or not try to understand why that person made that decision in administration why the system has that kind of punitive component to it i mean that's our whole incarceration,

the capital punishment only in America, of all the civilized, that's so horrific and stupid and expensive. And now even, you know, most conservatives now agree that that is the case, and hopefully we're drumming it out. Well, what about the death penalty for mass murderers? Crazy.

What do you do for someone like Ed Gein? It doesn't matter what they did, Joe, because you can't prove. One percent, the numbers are like four percent of people who are killed were innocent. That percentage, everybody agrees, is way too high. Some people are like, if it was only one percent in the community that debates these issues. But as long as it's four percent of people are innocent you can't have that system for that reason regardless of the penalty a and b no one's thinking when they're murdering someone about what the penalty for murder is going to be that's not

why they're doing it doesn't it does not work as a deterrent there's a ton of research on that it's silly it's silly that you think well if i'm i'm not going to murder this person because i'm going to go to jail for like that's not why you don't murder somebody. Nobody wants to murder another person. But what do you do with that person? Do you just put them in a cage for the rest of their life? No, you rehabilitate them. You rehabilitate John Wayne Gacy?

Yes. Or you take a guy who fucks kids and kills them and digs a hole in his basement and leaves the kids there. If you can't rehabilitate him, you put him in a humane place cage you don't kill him that's what i mean but you're killing him you're just killing him real slow with life you're separating him from freedom and you you're locking him up in a cage you have to separate him from freedom if he's raping kids i agree with that right yeah but if you know but you can rehabilitate people but hold on you're killing him either way you're either killing him with nature and time or you're going to kill him.

So if you're going to leave him in this cage and he's innocent, that's almost worse than killing him. If you kill him, it's quick. If you're going to leave him in that cage and he's actually one of the 4% that's innocent. I'm for letting him kill himself. Okay. You're not going to let him kill himself. Yeah, give him a rope him just Just feel like listen Here's a rope

Here's a rope You can make a rope swing And I'll give you a swing And you can swing on it If you want That's what I give to him I mean I don't The problem is

You're trying to find A binary answer To a messy question No I don't think It's a messy question My answer is no I don't I don't believe

In the state by the way If your kid The state That's the state Executing people Yeah By John Wayne Gacy Yeah And they found your your kid was killed by John Wayne Gacy and they found your kid in the basement of John Wayne Gacy's

house, you wouldn't want him dead? I can't deal with that hypothetical. I can't either. But I'll think for someone else and I'll say yes. John Wayne Gacy definitely killed a bunch of his kids. This is worst case scenario. We're playing a thought experiment.

Yeah, absolutely. It's a thought experiment. It's a thought experiment. It's a hypothetical. And I just wouldn't, if someone was in that situation, if they're a parent in Newtown, I think a lot of those parents, I mean, this guy who was killed in the Charleston church shooting, I don't say these maniacs names into microphones, but the Charleston, the white supremacist one start the Civil War shut all those black people Obama went down there and sang

Amazing Grace it's lovely remember that when we were to recover from horrible disasters with the president singing Amazing Grace yeah well you remember 9-11 but those people forgave that shooter they forgave him for killing all those black people forgave that white man and were, you know, the greatest role models of actual, you know, Christians behaving Christian, by the way. And I think that you can forgive. I think that that doesn't have to be a religious tenant. I think that you can forgive and you can rehabilitate. But I won't buy, you know, the hypothetical situation.

Obviously, I would, by the way, I would defend defend my i would kill anybody who ever threatened my family i would have no problem with that i'm not morally against that yeah it's a different thing yeah i mean someone that you've got detained when deciding that their their life is over yeah i don't think i don't think the state should be responsible for that and the idea that we would give the state the trust the most horrific shit is when you find out that the da withheld information that would lead to the exoneration of someone or that they're unjustly incarcerated then one of the happens all the time that's one of the most horrific injustices in this country and obviously it's got a racial component to it and it's horrible yeah and the justice system is obviously

that's a really interesting thing to talk about in constitutional law is a fascinating thing for people studying this idea that we argue about the Second Amendment. Like, let's let constitutional lawyers, I think, discuss a lot of those things. And we should all understand that and be curious about it. But I would, our constitution is also silly. Like, let's remake everything. Like, let's have that conversation. It's so much better that we can do. Have a serious conversation

about what kind of guns and bullets people can have. Not that they can have them or that they can't have them. Like, that's the conversation. That's where we should be right now. Everything gets regulated. Everything.

There are trade-offs in healthcare. There are trade-offs in everything. But Americans now are so divided, they want everything that they want, that compromise is something that we don't do as Americans, much less in government. That's preposterous. The Democrats that demand purity or anybody that is doing that, you don't agree with me. You're wrong. Hold on.

That's not – you don't have any relationships with people in your real life like that. my wife and i don't agree on a lot of stuff but i love her is my i adore her well it's what we talked about before they're on teams and you want your team to win so you state why why do you want your team to win it's a natural thing with human beings all right i agree what i'm saying about the gun thing the most fucked up part about the messiness of the gun thing is that even if you made guns illegal, even if you said you can't have any bullets, you'll all go to jail. There's so many guns. You're not getting them all. It's not possible.

There's more guns than there are people, which means there's more than 330 million guns in this country alone? It's absolutely the most important point in the discussion. That's a nutty number, man. You really stop and think about that number. You're like, what? Is that real? But you don't really stop the behavior by necessarily creating certain laws about why someone might behave a certain way and shoot people. That's not going to necessarily change. What you do is you do limit the access to certain types of weapons and rounds of ammunition, right?

The real question is why would someone do that, right? That's the number one question. It's a harder question to answer. The easier question to answer is make them less accessible. Yes. The people who have problems that we can't figure out or solve. If you could make them less accessible. But the president will blame like, I don't mean to get political, but like there's no data on the video game argument.

That there's no data on that. Well, the video game argument is interesting because I've had soldiers bring it up to me, including Dakota Meyer. Yeah, I heard that conversation. I'm willing to have it. soldiers bring it up to me including dakota meyer yeah i heard that conversation i'm willing to have it i mean i don't i don't think it necessarily makes sense that people would act out in a certain way that's horrific because of video game but if they were already inclined to violence to begin with maybe they already had a fucking short circuit and then they get desensitized to violence in movies and violence in video games does does that have an impact on them?

I'm not the guy to answer that question. Whether or not it has an impact on them is... But it's a variable. It is. But it's a variable that I think merits discussion. I don't know if it's true or not. Here's why I don't think it is. Because...

You don't think it merits discussion? Well, let me make this point, and then you decide if you think it merits discussion. Okay. The violent video games are played at far higher rates in japan and they don't have the gun violence we have it's a good point they have a very different culture though the way they don't have access to guns that's true that's it that they don't also have a lot of they've had a few mass it's the access i dude i I've shot guns. I shoot guns. I get the – I have nothing but respect for hunters.

I grew up in a hunting community. But, I mean, I don't know. I don't think that there's much past the conversation about accessibility to guns that can fire that many rounds that quickly, killing that many people. I don't think – we have to get rid of those somehow. But I agree. How do you do it? Yeah, that's the question you're that's the most important point there's already 330 there's more guns than there are people so what do you do so by the way i think you buy as many as you can back for sure you spend a whole bunch of taxpayer money just help by the

way there's a ton of people in a bind right now that have a rifle like oh my god i'm not gonna be able to afford my insulin let me get rid of this uh ak-47 to live another month you buy some guns back it's a good expenditure of money and then melt them down and turn them into furniture for uh people so if you wanted to do that without changing the second amendment like you just have a buyback where you just offer people the opportunity to make some money by giving their guns up well the second amendment has been interpreted wrong by the supreme court in my opinion i mean it doesn't say that people should have until 2008 it didn't say that nobody thought that that people should have a personal

right to guns till the heller case but so i don't think you even need to talk about the second amendment i think just people just need to agree that these guns shouldn't be sold the ammunition to talk about the Second Amendment. I mean, it's a big conversation in this country. No, because people can have guns. You can have guns. The British have the right to have guns. You just can't have these guns anymore.

No more of those ones. You can have all these guns. There's regional restrictions anywhere, right? And they work. Like in New York City, you can't have a handgun. Yeah, they work. I don't think you can have a switchblade in New York City. Yeah, Cyrus Vance, the DA there,

is like terrified that they're changing, the federal government is changing the law because he knows that those gun laws in New York work really well. And by the way, people always make the argument, well, they have those gun laws in Chicago and there's a ton of violence. That's because Chicago is on the border of Indiana. It doesn't have them.

Guns go across the border just fine. The gun laws work. They work work well chicago is also in the middle of a bitter drug war well yeah i mean that's where the violence is coming from but we should people should have less accessibility to those types of guns like every other civil society in the world come on this is like but it goes back to what you were talking about before like that drugs if they were legal you wouldn't have that sort of a drug war right Right, for sure it's the root of most of the violence in the inner cities and obviously in Mexico. Yeah, it's black markets, it's the illicit drug. Yeah, they're making tons of money on that.

What is the Second Amendment exactly as it's written? The right to bear arms shall not be infringed. So how do you think that the Supreme Court misinterpreted that? That in the 2008 case, everybody should just, I would plug the work of Eric Siegel. The well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Yeah, those commas get argued by constitutional scholars. For days.

But the Supreme Court didn't decide until 2008 that Americans had a right to have their own weapon. That's such a crazy statement. Like when you read it, it's so interesting because we're going back in time, trying to figure out how people in 1776 thought about guns and whether or not that applies to us. Because if it doesn't apply to us, we have to think on 1789. If it doesn't apply to us, we have to think, well, then who gets to decide? Like one of the reasons why- We get to decide as a society on any of these things.

One of the reasons why it's so interesting- Is what I want to believe. One of the reasons why it's so interesting to read these things is like we have, for whatever reason, when things get written into stone or carved into a stone or written onto a document, like the First Amendment, like the freedom of expression, we have it. So we all agree on it. Freedom of speech. We don't want to change it. Yeah, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, whatever. We want to hold on to that. We want to on it. Freedom of speech. We don't want to change it. Yeah, freedom of speech. Freedom of expression, whatever. We want to hold on to that. We want to keep that.

Sure. This is our law. All humans do. In the Second Amendment, the right to have a gun. That's our law. We got it written down. Look, look, look. It's written there.

So they'll study these ancient words, like scrolls, like they'll go over these scrolls and look at the commas and look at the words. Yeah. Shall not be infringed upon. What did they mean? That's fascinating to me. It is fascinating, but I think that they didn't mean this, Joe. I think that...

How could they? They didn't know what this is. They didn't. And the whole gun thing is a racket to make money. That's what that is. It's a way you self-fear. Like, I mean, home invasion is any family's worst fear, but it doesn't happen very much, nor does kidnapping, nor do a lot of these crimes that all my helicopter, our generation of parents is helicopter parents terrified of everything.

That's true. Not letting their kids go outside. You're right. Come on. Thinking that your kid's going to get kidnapped. You don't know anybody who had their kid kidnapped. But you're generalizing because home invasions do happen sometimes right but that's not how we should make laws but we don't have to exist like everybody's going to kidnap your kid or everyone's

going to break into your home but i'm saying those kind of balance is that sometimes it's real that's why people want to be able to have guns because sometimes someone can break in your house and people have defended their house and their property with guns. Sure, but is it a realistic threat or is it something that the gun industry creates these amazing ads and scares the shit out of people? Oh, come on, man. Crime is real. Whether they make ads or not, crime is still real. I think the clear point is the reason why we have so many guns in America is because there's so much money to be made off of them.

I think we could absolutely limit them and regulate them and have a thoughtful conversation. I think that's where most people are at, although I hate that generalization. There's something to that, but there's also something to the reason why we have so many cars. People like them. I'll have that conversation. but there's also something to the reason why we have so many cars. People like them. I'll have that conversation. We should get rid of all the cars. Okay.

Well, I mean, we're not. Don't get me wrong. That seems ridiculous. Why should we get rid of all the cars? Do you not like freedom or do you have

a better solution? Are you going to transport places? I don't have a better solution, but there should be one or I think that we are killing ourselves with all the cars.

The pollution is... Okay, but you can get an electric car. Yeah, then that's fine. I think that would be fine. I have a Chevy Volt since 2012. I have solar panels. I'm trying to be the change I want to see in the world.

If I'm coming off as... I'm a complete hypocrite in all of it. I eat meat and I do all kinds of things. I think having a thoughtful conversation about guns and why they're a huge part of our culture and not another culture, the way that other cultures and countries regulate their weapons that the problems that they have our problem sure we should talk about mental health but the problem with that conversation

that people don't want to have is everything costs money that's why you have to pay taxes paying taxes is the price of civilization what does that have to do with mental health you have to pay for people to help people you can't advocate in government republican or democrat for the this is what unfortunately trump and republicans have advocated let's get mental health solutions to the violence let's do that and everybody's behind that except they cut the obamacare programs that funded mental health it's just you can't do you have to spend the money providing mental health it is a problem it should be addressed but it's not the main issue is definitely the guns and the bullets in them well the main

issue is the person that's capable of shooting people with the guns and the bullets no it's the guns and the bullets the bullet are inanimate objects without a person pulling the trigger we're talking nonsense here. They're not going to just shoot themselves. The main problem is someone who's willing to grab the gun and shoot people, right? We both agree there's problems with having guns. But don't you think the main problem is the person who actually shoots people? I think that in every other country in the world, they don't have this problem because they don't have the gun.

That's where I start and end on the argument. Okay. Why is that wrong? They might. They might. That might be the case that they don't have the guns. But there are places that do have guns

and they don't have a lot of mass shootings. Canada's one of them, right? No, they don't have the type of guns we have up there. They have a lot of guns. They do, but they don't have AK-47s with unlimited rounds. They don't have... That's crazy. It's crazy. Well, do you think they have more or less limitations? By the way, I've lot of guns. They do, but they don't have AK-47s with unlimited rounds. They don't have that. That's crazy.

It's crazy. Well, do you think they have more or less limitations? By the way, I've shot those guns. They're awesome. I get it. Do you think they have more or less limitations to what firearms they're allowed to have in Canada? I believe the Canadian gun laws are far stronger, more regulated. They just tried passing something.

Some really recently, Trudeau announced something that was going to severely limit, this is very recent, severely limit the type of firearms you could have, including things that can have multiple rounds and chambers and certain types of guns that are used right now as hunting rifles. And so there was a big pushback about that. This was really recently. There's always- See if you can find that? The conversation about, like, the freedom, like the Second Amendment to me is... It's just your interpretation. Fine.

Whatever your interpretation is, is fine. Well, that's what's interesting about it. But there's a human impact. It's a healthcare issue. And they... It's so extreme. It's really... If you want to know the answer to healthcare issues,

you should talk to public health experts. They have those answers. They have the research, but- But wait, hold on. What research? On what?

On mass murders? Well, they don't have enough research on gun violence, unfortunately. What are you talking about then? I'm talking about if you want to know the solutions for what is impacting and creating death, by any measure,

accidental death. Right, but we're talking about gun violence, right? Right. What healthcare professionals have the solutions to gun violence? I think a lot of healthcare professionals have the solutions to gun violence? I think a lot of healthcare solutions, I think certainly surgeons have argued for why certain

ammunition is destroying the inside of the body and unsurvivable. I think public health officials have argued, certainly pediatricians all argue this idea that you can't ask a parent if they have a gun in the house because the gun lobby is against that because they're building this conspiracy that the government is going to track your gun that's terrible your pediatrician has to ask you do you have a pool where do you keep the poison where are the guns because god forbid you're not responsible enough or educated enough to know that that kid might accidentally get that gun and it happens all the time there's a rule against that yeah public health officials and doctors and physicians are pretty much on the same case with this issue these guns and mental health i think experts too i i don't know maybe there's a large disagreement and if there is i'm happy to

be wrong about this or any dumb shit i've said what you're saying is that these public health officials would be able to make these guns less lethal by banning certain types of ammunition because it's destroying people and checking to see if the parents know if they have a gun or where the gun is or how it's treated, how it's locked up. Like, they should, I mean, how do you feel like public officials, public health officials, could have any impact on that? Well, public health experts are, you know, their entire responsibility is to keep people safe from sickness and death. If you have any bullets at all, they're lethal, right?

So do you want to have bullets that are less lethal? I think that could be a law, for sure. Less lethal. Yeah, to human bodies? Yeah, we shouldn't be killing each other with bullets all the time. A bullet will stop anybody a blunt or but whatever it is i don't understand the arguments about ammunition but the point about but you brought it up that's why i brought it up fine public health experts will look at what is creating

sickness and death okay car accidents what i'm saying to you is that i think it's disingenuous to say that public health officials have an answer to why we're having so much mass violence i don't think anybody has an answer i think we're terrified and i think we could say it's disingenuous to say that public health officials have an answer to why we're having so much mass violence. I don't think anybody has an answer. I think we're terrified. And I think we could say if they didn't have guns, they wouldn't be able to do it. And you're right. And I could say if these people weren't mentally handicapped or filled with, I shouldn't say handicapped, mentally compromised, filled with all sorts of demons. All kinds of demons.

All sorts of different medications that are fucking with their judgment. Maybe, yeah. Abuse. All sorts of different medications that are fucking with their judgment. Maybe, yeah. Abuse, all sorts of trauma they experienced in childhood. There's a lot of factors. Sure. No one has any idea why someone who is abused and who's fucked up is capable of making that leap. We have some thoughts on it. That's all.

We have some thoughts on it, and we talk about it endlessly. And you're right. If no one had a gun, there would be no issue with that. You wouldn't be able to mass shoot people. But would we still have fucked up people that are lashing out trying to hurt people? I think we would. Of course we always will, but we have to fund mental health. We have to fund research.

No one's arguing with you. Yeah, a lot of people are. No, I'm not. I think you should. I think we should. Not only should we completely change the way we think about mental health, it should be a top priority. I think we should think about having four-hour workdays being mandatory.

I think we should help people. I think they just did an experiment, Microsoft did in Japan, in fact, and they found that a four-day workweek, rather, increased productivity by 40%. I think a lot of people, don't know maybe this is their culture or maybe this is a specific instance the type of people that would get a job at microsoft but you know what what you're dealing with for most people is uh beating down shells that are tired tie all that together go back to the gun argument argue for the four-hour work week and any other type of benefits that civilized nations around the world especially in scandinavia have studying that culture is really interesting and what they do yeah and and you

realize that there's any number of things that you can do to help people and how do you you have to be able to fund those solutions and people don't want to do it right people don't want to pay more taxes but they also have a distrust in the way the government spends their money so it becomes a catch-22 i'm sorry even if they wanted things to be better they don't trust the government to spend their money like if you work hard and you make x amount of dollars the government it's always a fair argument but there's not a bet necessarily a better way fine i give you that argument but there we have to come together as a society agree this is how we're going to spend money on a fire department on schools and so on.

Yeah, well, no one's arguing. Yeah, but the rest of the world, why is so many other places in Scandinavia happier than us? One of the reasons is we have to worry about getting shot. We should not have to worry about that. We have to worry about health insurance. We should not have to worry about that. We have to worry about getting paid for our education. Those are things that other people in other countries don't have to be as concerned about. They're happier.

They're more relaxed. Well, they're also way smaller. It's like Idaho versus the entire United States of America. And you're right. But that's not how you study, you know, socioeconomics says something different about the size of the country. It's a huge factor.

It's a factor in the way people behave. I mean, they've done studies where they've taken cameras and they put them on opposite ends of the street And they can tell by how fast people walk And they can tell by how many syllables they say in a minute Exactly the number of people that are in that city There's a direct correlation between large groups of people And hostile behavior Fast thinking

Moving quickly Talking quickly Being impatient All those things contribute to a less healthy society sure when you deal with a small country that has less people you have less of that but it but it's it still doesn't change the idea even if we disagreed on that that looking at how other nations societies neighborhoods by the way forget about that not don't make it about america what's this city over here doing what What's this community doing over here?

Mayors are working together really effectively to solve problems in cities. They have these unions all the time. These comings together. And they're doing a lot of good work. Communities can copy other communities. But if you look, we so often talk about our national system,

and that's generally what we're talking about with many of these issues here. You look at Scandinavia, people are happier there. Why? I don't know if that's true. Why is that true? There's so much research in here. You look at Scandinavia, people are happier there. Why? I don't know if that's true. Why is that true? There's so much research in it.

But why is it true that they're happier? What does that mean? Because if you don't have to worry- It's a big, giant generalization. There's got to be some depressed people in Scandinavia. There are. Of course there are. Don't get me wrong, dude.

They're horrible. They're suicidal. They have all kinds of problems. There's places in the United States that are happier than other places in the United States. Yeah, it's access to education and healthcare. You can't be- It's also environment. It's also the beauty of their surroundings.

Absolutely. It's also whether or not it's a small town or a large city. Yep. Yeah, I mean, there's places like Boulder, Colorado, super healthy, happy places. Yeah. But there's only 100,000 people there. Right. That's how we-

And it's gorgeous. I think we have to radically change the way that we live in our communities and i think there's so much interesting conversation we had about sharing everything you know the car the car comes pick you up whenever you need it and all that you can still have your own car whatever but just the idea of ride sharing home sharing communities home sharing like share your house with somebody you could have you could through technology you could just have no you're not going to share your house with somebody? You could have, through technology, you could just have, no, you're not going to share your house with somebody, but in a community. Like a kibbutz of the future, surrounded by, there's a place called Serenbe down south.

It's got biophilic design and everything is like renewable. The way they live, everybody is just how you described. It's like a small town. Everybody's always on foot, walking, communicating, surrounded by nature, exercising. It's definitely better when you can get that. If you can get that. It's just hard to sustain large groups. There's no getting away from the number of people

we have here. Also, the smaller the group, the less minds you have that you interact with. You were talking with somebody that's a scientist who lives in the van. It was a fascinating conversation. And I feel like you made the point about he's great. It was great.

I was sealing my parents' basement listening to that show. And he talked about or you did maybe, Moore's Law? I think he talked about it as well. That was pretty interesting. I never heard anything like that. But about, you have to have a certain amount of people before kind of chaos? Or corruption?

What is it? That um dunbar's number dunbar's number is 150 people moore's law is the law that pertains to technological technological uh improvement yeah yeah the um dunbar's number rate of improvement of how technology and that's going straight up and that's fascinating and andrew yang understands that and joe biden doesn't that's a huge issue dunbar's number is the amount of people that you can keep semi-intimate relationships with and it seems to have a direct correlation between ancient tribal structures i'm fascinated about that they think it's about 150 people and more or less i'm sure people vary like they vary in everything else intelligence height people vary in everything but they this number seems to be fairly consistent. That you can't really have more than 150 people in your life.

Don't you think Thanos was right? Instead of being away with them. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's the problem with that movie. Thanos had a point. Right. Yeah. I mean, he's a piece of shit, but he had a point.

The way he went about it was wrong. Yeah, he was a dickhead. He killed a lot of people. He snapped and everybody died. And then he wanted to live on his own island like an asshole he has a whole planet where he lives on it and his son would always sit on his face yeah fuck and james brolin oh i was glad when thor fucked him up spoiler alert uh my daughter got to interview the co-directors as part of my old show my favorite josh brolin by the way what did i say james they're both handsome they are but yeah

thanos and but the idea that's the idea of balance do you think about that like all this stuff that we use and we consume and the way that we live i'm always i think about that a lot yeah um i do and i'm happy when someone like boyan slot comes around that has like a real legitimate solution that could be implemented at large scale and could eventually be a gigantic solution not only that but a source of resources so what about just this plastic and this plastic instead of being a detriment can be used to work at certain things maybe the money could be used from the sale of that plastic and it would go to charitable causes maybe it could actually be a positive net benefit to the earth. If someone comes along with some technology, they could do that.

Why do we have in this country an argument about the future of energy and the way that we live and how to create a better renewable future? Like, I have no idea why we're arguing everybody wins. We're going to make a shitload of money. The argument is that if you invest in a Green New Deal, that that is a socialist idea. That's a bad idea in any way. No, everybody will get rich or we're all going to die. I don't think that's what the problem is. What do you think of that binary?

Well, I don't think we're going to die either. I think fear mongering is not helping anybody either. I think they're right about that. Things are going to get shittier. I mean, I think that's probably why Trump wanted to buy Greenland. He's like, I got an idea. Let's get up there. Such a move. It would have been amazing if he pulled it off. Things are going to get shittier. I mean, I think that's probably why Trump wanted to buy Greenland. He's like, I got an idea. That was. Let's get up there.

Such a move. It would have been amazing if he pulled it off. However much time got spent. He would have turned a corner. It was brilliant because. He came out of nowhere too. Well, because he really knows how to play the media. He's like having a bad day.

He's like, I'll buy Greenland. How does that sound? Okay. Sounds pretty good. And then we talk about it all day on the radio and on TV. And it's like, well, we just lost everything that you and I just discussed, all these really important issues. Not really. I think people are going to solve a lot of the problems.

It's going to be thoughtful people that are geniuses that are going to figure out a lot of our problems. They're going to solve them. It doesn't mean we should give up. I think there's going to be a way that they're going to be able to extract carbon from the atmosphere. They have many different prototypes and many different theories that they're working on right now. Yeah, yeah. I don't mean to sound negative. I'm on board with solving the problem.

I just don't want to argue. I don't want to argue about the problem. I want to have really thoughtful discussions about the solutions and how we can do it. But, you know, fossil fuels have to go rapidly. The problem is also that… I don't know how you do that, but they have to go rapidly. It's hard. The problem is also that the conversation has become ideologically driven.

Yeah. Right? If you're on the left, you think climate change is of the utmost importance. If you're on the right, you're supposed to at least slightly dismiss it as hyperbole. I think that's a bizarre binary course. It's the most important thing. But it's what we do with everything. What we do with abortion, what we do with murder, what we do with everything.

Yeah, but the planet, it's the we do with everything. What we do with abortion, what we do with murder. Yeah, but the planet, it's the planet. I understand. That's how I always put it. Like, people will be sensitive about sexism or racism. Oh, easy for you to say, white guy. No, I'm not dismissing what's most important directly to you. I'm looking at it in the aggregate of our species. It's the planet.

The emergency bells are ringing. We have to stop burning fossil fuels. We have to. Dude, it burns here every couple months. Like, crazy burns. It's horrific. It's like what we think of a hellscape should look like on film. You guys are living through it.

Dude, I've been here for 20-plus years. 25, I think. 25 years. It's never been like this. Where every four or five months, a fire erupts. And there's a feeling that you have when a fire erupts that's real weird man explain it because i think it's important i've been evacuated three different times and um there's a feeling that comes over you like first of all there's uh

in my case i can only speak for myself there's a releasing of any um like you don't no importance is attached to anything other than your kids and your wife and your and you know just get the fuck out of there the dog whatever you got to do get the fuck out of there and realize look you're a human who's doing well living in the united states of america you already got four aces just get get the fuck out of there. Stay alive. Don't worry about your house. Don't worry about your car. Just get out. Go. That's number one.

And two is the intense fury of nature. And when I saw the last ones when I got evacuated last year, our fucking neighbors, three of the houses burnt down right across the street from my house. So here's my house. This house, this house, this house are are gone and there's hundreds of houses all throughout malibu there was like 600 houses burnt to the ground man and it's a fucking terrifying scene there was a woman we played a video there's a woman who was trying to drive to go get her horses and she was driving through driving through a fire, screaming and filming it at the same time.

And the fucking embers are flying. What's she doing filming it? I think she had one of those dash cam things on. Uh-oh. Well, I mean, you're talking about a community, one community out here, and you're talking about really affluent people, so they should care.

They're hauling this to their property. No, man, it's everybody, dude. Yeah, but I'm talking about Katrina. It's hurricanes, it's wildfires, and the impoverished nations are suffering the most because they're burning the most fossil fuels and they have the least resources and we meanwhile are having everything we want and i think that that's like also kind of just a holistic spirit we should have we should use less it's a philosophical

debate for sure but we should have it we can use less and be happier even in so many different ways i'm not sure i don't think that's going to stop the fires though i don't know what you're saying the fires are coming because it's getting warmer look no it's climate change is the issue i'm talking about and it's and it's people living it's like maybe yeah but sustainability or reusing i mean the problem is gigantic The problem needs to be addressed on a global scale. Green New Deal. The whole thing. It's not addressed on a global scale.

China and India and all these other countries that are still polluting at a fucking rapid rate, they're not contributing to this concept. Every one of those countries is in the Paris climate. Every one of them. Only we aren't. Yeah. And we just made it official. And it's a dagger to the planet but

do not give up and fight every day to create solutions and care about it that's what we should be in the streets for read bill mckibben read oh i don't know if we need to be in the streets for this but i think you're right you don't think that we should be out in the streets do you think that's really going to stop people from burning coal do you think that's going to stop people yeah i think it's working i think the divestment movement has worked really really effectively 350.org is a very effective organization to get the you're talking like i'm arguing with you i'm sorry i mean i'm not dude i mean i think we're all on this together joe that's my tone i'm sorry no it's okay but it's like whenever i say something you're you talk like i'm What we're talking about here is there's a bunch of different solutions.

But no one's arguing with you saying don't do that one or don't do this one. What I'm saying is we got a real gigantic problem globally. And to just do less is not going to stop these fires. We're already in it. It's already happening. We have to figure out a way to protect ourselves. You're absolutely right. That's actually probably the smartest thing that either of us has said in this conversation.

It's my issue, obviously. Yeah, we have to adapt. We have to find solutions to adapt and ways to live. And that's what I'm talking about in terms of sustainability and biophilic design and architecture and just infrastructure in general. Like, we have to do that. I feel like that's a responsibility our kids we have to be mobile you know one of the things that always freaks me out nomads i study well i study a lot of ancient history and i'm really interested in these civilizations that they find

like when you know like uh they for some reason like a storm takes away some water and moves to a different place they find some structure underneath the water they didn't know existed before. And you realize like, oh, Jesus, there was a city here at one point in time. That's happened several times throughout history. Yeah, I mean, that's a good one. That's a volcano one.

But there's a bunch of these places that used to be like during the time of the Bering Land Bridge, right? There was the water was much lower. And that was only like, what was that? I don't know. 12,000 years ago, I think. When the only like what was that i don't know thousand years ago i think there was a continent north country like people don't know that that was a goddamn country there was a country that that the way we describe it today wait there's a nation living no they called it the bering land bridge was a place called barinja like i didn't even

know this i was i'm listening to this book on tape by my friend steve ranella about um it's called the american buff i think it's called american buffalo sounds awesome it's an amazing book but it's about the history of um wildlife and native americans and what changed and like that these people who migrated here from siberia how long it took them to do it and that it wasn't even migration. We think of it as migration, but it wasn't. They were just following food. And it was a slow process over thousands of years. But we think of it as like they're going across a bridge.

It wasn't a bridge, man. It was a fucking country. Well, that's what's happening. There was so little. Look how big it was. There was so little water because of the Ice Age that you could walk through this Beringia area. It was fucking thousands of miles wide. It was huge.

One of the issues in Central America is just what you're describing. It's climate change. Right now in Central America, the coffee growers can't grow their coffee. They can't grow drugs, by the way. And they can't grow their coffee. So what are they doing? What you just described, they're walking up through Mexico and they're being demonized. The only thing they're guilty of is they can't grow their crop.

Well, we have this thing that we're doing now. But that's because of climate change. Forgive me. That's because the soil down there is drying up. That's what's going to happen. And it's forced migration. And talking about adaption, to me, that's the most interesting thing about what your point was about how do we adapt to people migrating away from these areas that are and how do we live in america on the coasts and in california like that's really you're gonna have to move all those assholes that have houses

upstate new york baby in those those pokey things that stick into the ground distilts the giant yeah hilarious yeah what is who's buying that house those houses are like 10 million bucks i feel that way by to some extent by even going up on a sky rise at Sirius XM or 1037th floor. I'm like, this is a silliness. Silliness. Why am I all the way up in the sky? I don't want to work. That brought me a sense of unhappiness.

I don't want to work or live in the sky. These people live way up. I don't like that. It's a great view, though. That view is sick. Yeah, but- It can really give you a little brain tingle and make you excited about writing. Like, look at all those people.

Like, ah, I'm so high up here. Ants everywhere. There's ideas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like any time you get some sort of surge of ideas, it can be translated into some sort of a push of creativity. Always. Yeah, and sometimes.

It's lovely when it happens. A great view is a kicker. It kicks you in the balls and gets you going. I think, like, what's your best one? Views? I'm a mountain person. I'm a mountain person. I love mountains.

I fucking love it, man. Fuck paintings. Paintings can suck a dick. Oh, is that right? I like looking at mountains. Is that right? You won't? I mean, paintings are cool.

I like paintings. This place is filled with artwork. What I'm saying is that, to me, there's no comparison. Like, a mountain view with a lake in the background that to me is like whatever it is about my dna that to me just just where's the where's the place you were in nature that you felt the most just happy connected i've felt it a lot of different great answer first of all a big fan of uh colorado's mountains i'm a big fan of Colorado's mountains. I'm a big fan of the mountains of Utah. I love mountains.

That park in Vancouver was for me. Park in Vancouver? Have you ever been to that big park? It's like Park City. Shane, could you look up that? I'm so embarrassed. So it's bigger than Central Park? Yeah, I think it's bigger.

I think the same guy might have designed it. But it's got beach, mountains, lakes. That's one of the best moves about New York City. They've got a giant park in the middle of it. That was brilliant. The guy who designed it is a fascinating guy. That's so smart. It changes everything.

When you're in that park, you're like, I know this is bullshit. It's not really nature. I found myself. It's like nature trapped. But it's good enough. It's good enough. By the way, that was so well described. Nature trapped.

I feel that way. It's not I feel in resorts. that was so well described. Nature traps. I feel that way. It's not. By the way, I feel in resorts. When I go to resorts, I'm like, this isn't it. This is not Turks and Caicos right here where I'm at. Nature is only nature when it's connected to bears and shit. Like, if you just keep going in the woods, something can eat you. If it's not, then it's nonsense.

Yeah. And what you're in the... Well, there's one thing, though. They do have coyotes now in Central Park, which is really amazing. What is the concern about them? We've got coyotes. Yeah, but what are they doing? They're little wolves.

And people are like, we get like coyote alerts. They'll bite your kids. Where they really, forgive my ignorance, folks, if you just lost your dog to a coyote. Now I feel like a douche. Well, people's kids do get bitten. Yeah. Well. And, I mean, they will take people out upon occasion.

A woman who was 19 years old in Vancouver, in fact, was killed by a pack of coyotes. Shit happens. I know, but that's why you worry about them in your city. You don't want them eating your kids. Fair enough. You actually answered my question. Look at that fucking park, man. It's beautiful.

That park is where I had an experience. I mean, I agree with you. The mountains and the Rockies in general. Colorado has got to be for me. Yeah, parks are close. That's close because it's kind of like attached to the water. You know, the ocean's there and you've got all the trees and shit. Oh, man.

What a beautiful place. For me, though, is like when you're out in real wilderness and you run into real wild animals. No human creations is my, I want to see nothing that's created by a human. That's my full heaven. Yeah. That's where I'm most at peace. There's something about like a campfire and, you know, you're staring up at the night sky and you're cooking dinner with your friends and just no one around for miles, man.

It's just peace. Rolling down the Allagash in a rolling Thurlow canvas kayak. Fly fishing away, not catching anything. You just see stars. Yeah. I wish you didn't want to catch anything. No, that's what happened to me. Oh. The place that I went in Maine that we're describing way out,

and we went on a fly fishing trip where I learned how to fly fish and caught zero. Maine's tricky. There's a reason why Stephen King's from Maine and every one of his books is horrific. What is it? It's horror. What what is it i got this scar in maine i split my finger there there's no people man there's no people right like a bunch of comedians me included had a joke we would do bits about how you drive from boston and there's this one stretch before you get to um bangor where stephen king lived where did a gig there husson college yeah no radio there was no radio yeah you would hit the scan button and you would never find a signal you're like what and there was a full hour i think it was 60 miles or so 55 miles or so where there was no gas stations so you get gas and then you're on your fucking own

for an hour of driving love it and it was weird man but there was something gas stations. So you'd get gas, and then you're on your fucking own for an hour of driving. Love it. And it was weird, man. But there was something about the people that you would run into along the way. It was disturbing. They didn't have enough contact with people. You know how people get rickets,

and they get scurvy when they don't get vitamin C? Well, people get some weird shit when they don't meet enough people. When you're just out there in the woods with your uncle and your cousin, and that's it for your whole life, and then all of a sudden you're 24 listen to me that ain't a good combination either that's that is a really great idea for a bit i mean that guy his social problems when he comes into fifth avenue he's got some weird interactive or lack of social yeah but he didn't get the right diet. But that being said, now the measurement isn't can you get a radio connection?

Does your phone still work? And I think everybody should. I mean, it's very dangerous, so not everybody should. But if you can go with a guide, like that's real. To me, that's real human connection. That's where we're supposed to be. And you should have that experience. We're so connected to our screens.

I feel like that's got to be bad, but the research is not. That we're connected to be And you should have that experience We're so connected to our screens I feel like that's got to be bad But the research is not That we're connected to our screens It's got to be bad It's an interesting conversation No, the research is pretty solid You've read Jonathan Haidt's work about it? The Coddling of the American Mind

You should read it It's really interesting It shows the consequences of these young kids That are getting involved in these screens. You think that's any different with us as adults to be indoctrinated into this world of social media and constantly on our screens? They're showing a direct correlation, particularly with young girls. They're very vulnerable because of the pressures of social media and people talking shit about each other. I've seen it.

I've got a 14- and 12-year-old. Isolation, bullying, and you're seeing a big uptick in self-harm, big uptick in suicide. These are measurable statistics. I think the data is pretty good on it. I'm not quite sure.

You mentioned Jonathan Haidt. The data is better than climate change. It's as good as it gets. The data shows a clear line. I don't know about that. I think it's a different type. Dude, it shows a clear line

from the invention of the iPhone to massive- But that could just be a correlation or something else. What a coincidence that smartphones who every fucking kid who's 11 years old and up now has a smartphone- I wouldn't- And every kid that you're looking at from before had a giant decrease in suicide- It may be. A giant decrease-

It's pretty fucking strong. It's pretty fucking strong. I would push back on that it's stronger than climate science. It's pretty fucking strong. Okay, yeah. I think you're probably right. I certainly want to do something about it, and i think it's a really important issue that's why the you know connecting to nature is the answer to that and i mean my kids have their

phones in their faces all the time i think it's terrible for so many different reasons but i'm just not sure exactly number one our generation of parents really struggling with how to solve that? I mean, what do you do? Well, now we're admitting it's real, okay? So admitting it's a problem. So there is real data. I completely admit it's a problem, and I do think there's a lot of data. I'm just not sure about it.

I don't know if going to the woods is going to help it. It's going to make you feel a little bit better while you're in the woods. But I don't think it's going to overall. You're right. There's a problem with having these goddamn devices where you're constantly addicted and checking it, and you're getting these little dopamine hits. Yep, yep.

Jonathan Haidt wrote that with, I think, or he wrote a book about that with Lenore Skenazy, who also advocated that this is the problem with parents being worried about their kids too much. Sure, helicopter parenting. Yeah, Jonathan Haidt talks about that too, letting kids, you know, he's talked about his own fear of letting his own kid walk his way home

Yeah it's real His kid was really young and he got lost And it was terrifying for a short amount of time for them But he built a life skill probably He didn't die It's all an interesting conversation About who we are now versus who we used to be And is it better

I don't know I do think that our generation Like our kids We have more of a disconnection to what their experience is than any generation before us that's my argument i don't know if that's true but like what did our parents have tvs what do we have upgraded tvs more channels you know microwaves but you know it nothing it was a gradual change telecommunications gradually changed from beepers to phones. But then, bam, back to Moore's Law, and it's just, and how do we react to all this? How do we parent in this? How do we live in this? People are dying looking at their phones and their cars.

A lot of really serious consequences about them. I kind of wish we didn't have them in a way. I don't know. But there's no going back. Moore's Law specifically deals with processors, honestly, I think. I don't think it specifically deals with Technology No no no But the argument is that

Technology is a wrap I think it only connects to processors Because I don't think they could really They could really measure innovation that well Because things come along like splitting the atom Like you know There's things that come along That just fucking throw a monkey wrench

That's a great point I don't I just I don't know if there's a benefit That we're not quite aware of because i think one of the things happening is people are way more aware of virtually everything we can complain all day that we have less freedom in terms of our ability to joke around about things and people are more restrictive with language and all these things are true but isn't it interesting that this is something that's happening right so there's a there's a pushback so we're feeling this uh rejection of certain

types of words that we always like to use we're feeling this rejection with certain behaviors that a lot of specifically men took advantage of we're seeing this this giant change well why are we seeing this thing this giant shift is because of social media and these technologies that we're talking about that create problems. So the question is, will this ship right itself? Like, are these corrections eventually going to lead to a better society? Are we going to be more understanding of each other once we get over these initial growing pains, which is what we're going through right now as a culture, as a society? Yeah. growing pains which is what we're going through right now as a culture as a society yeah getting accustomed to these devices and these devices and the connectivity that they have are we going to

get more responsible with them are we going to be nicer to each other through it we're going to recognize as we get older that hey you know being shitty to someone on social media is just like being shitty to someone in person and we shouldn't support either thing and then anymore and then we develop this sort of ethic yeah it's a really important set of questions you just asked about social media's effect on us i would pinpoint one just for people to watch this intelligent square debate that you would love because given your conversation that you have with people is i think it was the most was is twitter specifically good for democracy or does it create democracy? And I was on the side of, yeah, it does.

And I would cite examples like Egypt and even China and different places where people in Iran where people use Twitter to rise up. Why travels so fast, so rapidly, and it's so believable that it creates more damage about things that didn't happen and conspiracy theory than it also, you know, it's a little of both, obviously, in terms of it creating democracy. You would think more speech on Twitter, it's equal, creates more democracy. How could you argue with that until you hear the other argument, which is fascinating about how much disinformation travels and how effective it is well my answer i think would be the same as my answer about technology that i'm not necessarily sure it's all bad and i think we're going through some growing pains but i think we go through some growing pains with virtually every new changing thing that's the argument that economists make um um i don't you're talking about how it affects us but the economic argument is interesting in terms of, is it

Andrew Yang's argument? Is the rapid technological transformation in the planet going to lead to a jobless society? A jobless society. And economists always argue what you're saying. Did the cotton gin put the farmer out? Did the horse put

the car, all that? But the new argument that I hear from a lot of people who are a billion times, I'm not smart. All these people are experts. They study this stuff. Is mostly, yeah, this is way different. The rapid change in its absolutely automation is going to kill economies around the world. Well, the numbers are crazy.

Now, stop and think about you, right? You're a smart guy who's gotten had a successful radio show you do stand this is gonna hurt in the end no you now are in this position where you have to adjust because you've been released from your job yeah right yeah but you have options now imagine you're a truck driver and imagine that's all you've ever been and you're 60 years old and all of a sudden they come along and say hey man we have these self-driving luxury trucks that never crashed into anything we don't need you anymore. And you don't have any skills.

You don't have any other way to make a living. The angst that you feel right now, imagine that squared. I could not agree more with you. My perspective is mine alone. We see things as we are, not as they are. And thinking about, and I always talk to this about my daughter. Yeah, my wife painted that. It's a good expression.

Put it up on our wall. And so my experience, it's only relative to me, but you have to widen your perspective to understand some people are struggling to just get toilet paper

and understanding that. And your point, though, about the truck driver, his skill set is narrow. And maybe his education, his grit, maybe he doesn't know how to network.

He doesn't know how to use the internet. But he did a valuable job. And if he's going to lose his job at 63, I don't want to live in a society that worked hard. Guy worked hard his whole life. And by the way, he's paying more as a percentage of his taxes as a truck driver than most of these guys in the financial industry, which is a complete injustice. Right.

You know, tax on your work. How much work are you doing? But this guy should not have to go struggle and learn a new job. He's 63. Let him ride into the sunset. Give him a life right now. I'd pay for that. If you get screwed out of your job with technology, create a system

government where we take care of those people. It sounds romantic. It sounds wonderful. But here's the problem with that. It doesn't make people feel good to just get a check. People feel like shit. You want to get depressed? By seeing you saying, ride off into the sunset, that's a euphemism for

death. You're going to die. die i mean you're being cute for me it's like the end of on golden pond but it's not that guy's gonna shit himself and die no no let him go screaming and hunt that's great but he's not gonna be able to do that he's gonna be scratching and clawing to get through life if you're getting a thousand dollars a month that's not enough to exist. How do you feel about it, by the way? How do you feel about getting – I like it. I like the idea. Do you think it's realistic?

I'm open-minded. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. But I think we should have all possible options on the table because what's happened in our lifetime from 1994 with give or take a few years, which is the invention of the commercial version of the internet right with all those the aol and all those things that people used it basically all started sort of blossoming around 1994 with mass use hands but we here we are in 2019 so that's not that long that's 25

fucking years and the world is a unrecognizable place people have devices in their pockets all the time you're recording everything think about all the shit that snowden figured out that they're recording every goddamn phone call you make every photo you take every email you send everything's being recorded on a database to use against you someday in the future we have no idea what 25 years from now it's going to look like great we really believe that we don't need universal income and then it turns out we do we fucked up oh no we have i think we have to do we don't need universal income, and then it turns out we do, we fucked up. Oh, no. I think we have to do it.

I think we should look at all options on the table. I don't know if it's the right option. And I think humanists, people that understand human nature. They need a sense of purpose. People need something. Great argument. I completely agree. Well made.

And by the way, when you say, you know, I'm open-minded about it, like, that's the conversation. That has to keep being the conversation. You and I have gotten into a couple of like arguments about little things and that's it was awesome i learned like your point of view that's the conversation and the idea that somehow you know there's got to be a beat down and one person has to win and it has to be a competition yeah it's i mean it's entertaining but that that's the problem. But it collects and likes and it's valuable. But what do you think about the idea that automation is the main driving force putting people out of work, not this idea of immigration? I think some of it is true. And some of that mindless work is also soul-sucking. So you're saving someone from some assembly line job that makes them want to fucking shoot themselves i think both those things are true yeah i mean i think we're looking

again for a binary answer here when it's a very nuanced issue filled with complexities and a lot of issues and people like to have something to do but the problem is sometimes people get beaten down by life and again they're 60 x whatever it is years old and they don't know what to do and then they can't live the same lifestyle that they had when they had a job, because when they had a job, they were making $1,000 a week. Yeah. They were making $50,000 a year, and now all of a sudden they're making $1,000 a month. So you can kind of live, but how do you live? That's why I've got to plug my podcast.

What? You mean that you've got to get to work? To keep from riding off into the sunset? Yeah. I mean, so I can work. You want to work got to get to work? To keep from riding off into the sunset? Yeah. I mean, like, so I can work. You know, you want to work. You want to do work. I completely agree with that argument.

Listen, I don't have three jobs because it's healthy. I have three jobs because I'm crazy and because I need to stay busy and also because I don't trust any one of these things to stick around. Do you really not? No, never have. Never have, never will. Now? Come on, that's irrational.

Never have, never will. Come on. No, never have, never will. What do you need? That's irrational. Never have, never will. Come on. No. Never have, never will. What do you need? I don't need anything. I don't think that way. I think now I'm doing it. While I can do it, do it.

Do it and do the best you can. It's going to vary. Some days I suck. Some days I'm better. It's going to vary. But do the best I can. Keep doing it. But don't think it's going to last forever.

And don't think it's going to go away either. Don't think about it at all. But it could go away. What are you doing? The internet could go away. Everything could go away. people get pulled off of youtube all the time you get banned from things right things happen weird shifts take place some of them are illogical you know people get banned for saying the most ridiculous things what weird shifts are that are illogical i'm not following you what talking about internet internet banning sure i don't know well do you know who Megan, what is her name? Megan Murphy? She's a woman who's a TERF.

I've talked about her too many times this week. Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. Don't know anything about it. She doesn't think that trans women are women and they should, I hope I'm not paraphrasing here. She doesn't think that they should vote and speak on women's issues and that real that women are women who are biologically women and then you have a trans woman who dominates women's issues she thinks it's fucked up and her her this is her

perspective she wrote on twitter a man is never a woman they told her you have to take it down so she took a photo twitter did they told her she has to take it down so she took a photo twitter did they told her she has to take it down so she took a photo of it and reposted that photo she took a screenshot repost the screenshot then they banned her for life so that to me i have no patience for that and i had not heard about it but that's crazy that's crazy that's not no how's that pretty thought talk about it progressive nonsense ideology well you can label it i mean that's what it is that's what it is it's ideology yeah but I think everybody has these, I don't want to hear that. I want to shut down speech.

I don't like things. Right, but only- There are some people that are really consistent about it. I like to think I am. But only social media companies have the power to decide whether or not a person gets to express themselves to an unlimited amount of people like that. Well, it's an interesting-

And if you tell them that based on your ideology, which most people don't agree with, based on your ideology, they have said enough that something that merits you taking away their ability to express themselves, then I think you open up a real discussion, much like the Second Amendment discussion about the First Amendment,

to what are we doing here? What is this and what is free speech and is this a town hall? And Jack Dorsey from Twitter believes it's a town hall. He thinks everyone should have the ability to express themselves but that like everything well it's fucking complicated and messed it certainly is nadine strawson who i think used to be something at the aclu wrote a book about speech and about how in germany you're not allowed to fly the swastika and they have censorship on speech yeah and that it's not effective for any of the outcomes

that it's intended for they also make a lot of shit porn is that right germany the germans do they like that could you is there anyone in the plug or um i don't think i know any names but for whatever reason a lot of shit that's a thing shit porn it's not a thing i uh i try to be very open-minded but i don't i don't understand i'm not gonna you don't have to understand it you know i don't somebody but you allow people to do it, right? I would never allow people to think about, of course. Yeah.

That's a weird one, right? A weird. Yeah, people want to shit in people's mouths and smother themselves in shit and have sex with each other. My instant reaction is, what went on? What's that about? Oh, hell yeah. Where's that?

I want that story. I want that script. How do you get to that? That sounds very abusive and it sounds sure like sure it's it's a tough thing but no uh the idea of censoring speech it backfires it's just not healthy but i think people should be generally sensitive and not assholes at the same time but it's also the thing about someone saying something in print that you read on twitter it's like you can't even say anything back to them you make that you can make your own comment but you're

like fuck this is such a shitty way to talk it's poison yeah it's a shitty way to communicate yeah i don't engage in it anymore i'll post things up that i think are interesting how did you evolve on it just decided it's not these arguments are not they make you riled up they're not healthy they're not they don't they're not i told my daughter hold on i'm arguing with someone on twitter said it out loud and i was like oh i'm the shittiest that's the shittiest thing that i could be doing i just think right now it's also it's unmanageable when you get to a certain number of followers you just can't there's no way can. And it's also people are just like, they're fucking in their cubicle. They're just trying to get a rise out of people.

They're angry. They're shit. They're bored. You can't expect that everybody's existing in the same vibration that you are. I woke up to a tweet that said, you're a pitiful person. I was like, oh.

Don't read that. Good morning. Bro, you're not. That guy's a liar. No, no. He doesn't even know you. That's the thing. It doesn't faze me at all. It shouldn't. doesn't it's it is fascinating that someone would write such a thing

it is but i'll click on him and be like i wonder what his deal is clearly he's projecting and i'm worried about i wonder what happened to that guy and then you look at their well you look at their picture and then you decide everything about their life do you ever look like this is another thing reason i can't run for congress i think, I want to keep doing stand-up and I want to talk about things like you ever look at a guy, like the guy I ran into in the car from yesterday at LAX, I thought about how much he jerks off for a little while.

I never think about that. I will sometimes look at a guy and be like, I bet that guy is in good for him and whatever. But that kind of I don't know why I brought that up. I'll think about that now every person shitting in the mouth but dude i watched a video once this lady no don't describe it was uh really into he's gonna do it guys shitting in her mouth and she uh she was speaking in german and they

was translating it to english and she was talking about all of her experiences and when the first time a guy did it and what what kind of diet she likes a guy to follow when he shits in her mouth. And I'm like, okay, this is not pleasant. I'm not enjoying this. But honestly, and this is like, it's kind of a dumb thing to talk about, right? But here's why it's not. Human psychology? Yeah, that's a person.

That was a baby. Yes. You have daughters. I have daughters. Yes. That was a baby. You try not to fuck them up. All of a sudden, this baby is 50, and she likes guys shitting in her mouth, and she wears

lingerie. The bar for parenting should be somewhere around no shitting on other people. Then you know you've succeeded. By the way- But what if you get a lot of money for it? Like Robert, what was that dude's name? Robert Redford, Indecent Proposal, Demi Moore. Oh, a million dollars?

Yeah. I want to put myself out there right now. Yeah, shit on your chest for a million bucks. Please tweet me. It's not that long. How long can a guy

shit on you? I've got a number. What's your number? What is your number? Would you rather get shit on slowly every day as a clerk at Dunkin' Donuts or one giant load

on your chest that is like a really rough afternoon? Not even an afternoon. It's like an hour. Hit me with a giant load. You shower up That is like a really rough afternoon. Not even an afternoon. It's like an hour. Hit me with a giant load. You shower up. I think everybody says hit me.

You go to the bar. Rounds on me, boys. I just became a millionaire. Got your shit on your chest. You're impending, Eric. It's like saying that it's solid. What if it was like a diarrhea? You do whatever you gotta do.

Hot. A lot of variables. Whatever. Let them shit all over you. All that salt water. As long as you have goggles on and you get to close your mouth. There's a lot of things. Whatever, let them shit all over you. Splatter. As long as you have goggles on and you get to close your mouth. There's a lot of things. Stain.

When those thought experiments come up, I'm always like, you wouldn't kiss a guy? Never. I told my dad this. For how much money? I was like, dad, a million bucks. What if your dad? He goes, no. I go, dad, that's preposterous.

That's ridiculous. You got a problem. And then he goes, no. I go, dad, that's preposterous. That's ridiculous. You got a problem. And then he goes, no, I wouldn't do it. He calls back and he goes, he tells me who, he names a guy, an old Italian. He goes, Paul Sorvino. Okay, that's my answer. Million bucks. He'd make out with Paul Sorvino?

Everybody would. Because what would you do with that money? You could save other people's lives You gotta do it Or you could just buy a fur coat and start balling Either way It's a million bucks Yeah

No matter what that thought experience Fly in private jets until the money runs out Just go everywhere Party I don't know if I'd do that Well I wouldn't either But I also wouldn't make out with Paul Sorvino We're living in this fantasy world

Why does everything have to be ethical and moral? Just have a good goddamn time White fur Like snow leopard or some shit. Something exotic. When you say that, what do you mean, why does everything have to be ethical and moral? You have your moral code. Yeah, man, but I'm talking about making out with Paul Sorvino for a million bucks.

That's free money. Oh, yeah, don't get me wrong. Oh, yeah. You don't have to do good with that. Right? Everybody should. You do whatever you want. Whoever you want, of course.

But if Paul says, listen, you want to make a three-year-old shit right on your head just take a big meaty meatball shit that's exactly how you imagine it would be pasta mazzu right on your

fucking head bang extra two three million bucks you had a bad memory of making out with Paul Cervino and him shit on your head

but at the end of the day the guy kept his promise and now you're rich dude you put me in the best mood I've been in in four weeks, man. That's good. Let's end it with this, then.

When are you going to start your podcast? Where are people going to be able to see it? What do you think is going to happen? Podcast is up. It's up now. Yeah, I can't say it's great. I hope you give me a chance. I'm just figuring it out.

I put up one with that guest, Dr. Aaron Carroll, and I talked to Congressman Tim Ryan about running for Congress. How many have you done so far? I'm going to have a third one, hopefully, in the can tomorrow. Excellent. I'm going to have a third one, hopefully in the can tomorrow. Excellent. With Emily Atkin, who writes the heated newsletter about climate change.

Excellent. But I'm taping a special, if I'm going to plug anything, in my hometown. I'm taping a very special stand-up special. A very special stand-up special? Very special. I'm going to do a very special thing.

What's it going to be for? Do you have a buyer for it? Are you doing it yourself? No, no. I learned on this show what Andrew Schultz did and I thought it was brilliant. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's nailed it. He nailed it. Schultz is the master. I texted him and I was like, dude. I learned on this show what Andrew Schultz did, and I thought it was brilliant. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's nailed it. He's nailed it. Schultz is the master. I texted him, and I was like, dude. He's the master. I admire what you did. We don't agree on political, but that's the kind of thing. I'm like, dude.

He knows we don't agree. I'm like, I love. That's brilliant. Good job. What do you not agree with? I don't know. But I mean, he was on the show, and we just argued. About politics?

I don't even remember. Do you argue with everybody? Yeah. You're a little argumentative yeah it's not a good quality i'm so did i did i was i agitating no no you didn't agitate me i like you but you definitely were like you're you you have an argument mode that you fall into it's bad it's like it's my uh flaw i hate it you can get out of that i'm working on it yeah i think that you could see the change surmountable today but but i mean it you can get out of that i'm working on it yeah i think that you could see the change surmountable today but but i mean it goes back it goes back and forth i you know i don't want to

defend it i don't want to be defensive but i feel really i guess i'm very sensitive about a lot of things and so i get passionate and i get that tone and it's the worst thing in a relationship oh yeah i mean like it's not you don't want to be annoying it's like what i said about podcasts you know that's a thing like people hearing your voice it's not you don't want to be annoying it's like what I said about podcasts you know that's a thing like people hearing your voice it's not just your thoughts right right

you're the way you express your thoughts yeah it it changes if you express them well in a nice way it changes how people

absorb those it sounds so simplistic but it's true I think when you talk about how to communicate on your podcast it's often one of the best things you do I've learned a lot from it I've I think when you talk about how to communicate on your podcast it's often one of the best things you do.

I've learned a lot from it. I've been listening to you talk about trying to understand people and listen to people you don't disagree with and I'm just sitting there beating myself up. I'm like,

I gotta be better at that. And the idea that I would get, you know, that I was too argumentative today, it's like, oh man, I'm sorry. I don't want to,

I never want to communicate that way. I don't think it's effective. I completely agree with your thoughts on it. It's completely ineffective. Well, we get better at it. I wonder how the pot affected way. I don't think it's effective. I completely agree with your thoughts on it. It's completely ineffective. Well, we get better at it. I wonder how the pot affected me. Probably got you a little jabber jaw.

What do you think? That's when things changed, right? Got a little jabber jaw and when the pot came out. I started getting verbose. Yeah. I knew I shouldn't have touched it. Yeah. You maybe shouldn't have the second hit.

That was, I only had one. I knew. I knew. This one, you got to stay on the surfboard. Good role modeling. No modeling No dude it's fine It's all good It's like But I think that

If I've learned anything From doing this podcast It's how to be better At talking to people I've learned From listening to this podcast How to be better Yeah

It's like There's an art to it There's a dance I completely agree with you It's like dancing with someone You're dancing with someone In a conversation They do condition you

To be argumentative In live radio All the people who think they know Oh the producers and shit Oh the program directors I'm lucky I never had a job Yeah but I mean

It's toxic And I don't You know I agree It's a toxic way to communicate It's not effective If you're trying to convince someone Don't do it like that

No I imagine I mean imagine trying to go from being a cable news broadcaster on fox tv like shepherd smith and then have him try to do a podcast he's in that fake voice no matter what that fake voice is coming out i mean they're all doing it it's like this is the this is the you're absolutely right you're very right about that and that's why i think your podcast by the way, is very, I think it's not the sexiest thing to talk about, but it's a huge part of why this discussion is so popular

because people like a thoughtful, open-minded discussion. I mean, whether you agree. Well, people like to think. Some people pretend they don't, but it's really because they're bored with what they have to do all day, so they don't want to think. But if you have some time and you're a curious person

you like to hear other people thinking too and you like to hear someone who's thinking either in a way like oh i would i would think about that too or in a way like you hadn't considered like oh this guy's making me think or this woman's got an idea that i never considered or this guy's got i think a solution that i never thought was possible. Yeah. I try to measure, I think measuring intelligence is, one great definition I've heard is by how good the questions are. Like, are you curious? I've tried to instill and engender in my daughters a sense of curiosity about everything rather than saying, you're going to do it because I'm your father and I said so.

I'm going to explain to you why that's and try to you know create critical thinking skills and that's how i measure intelligence how good are your questions you're really curious you really i mean that's why the art of the interview learning something which is what i'm definitely trying to that's what i did for 12 years in series exam that's what i want to do with the podcast getting people who are a billion times smarter than me i don't know anything but anything i think it's definitely going to help you to be free of people's influence. Some production people and executives. I work with some talented people that contribute to good things.

Also wondering when the day is going to come like it did where they dropped the fucking hatchet on you. Don't need that ever again. Always worried about that. Have it over your head. Done. So what's the name of your podcast? Stand Up with Pete Dominick

oh it's the same as your show you fucking animal it's my brand do you own that yeah they let me have it Sirius can't sue you they were you get it in writing

very gracious you're talking a lot of shit about them you get it in writing I did not talk any shit I've talked a lot of shit about them I did not

I think what they did for me was really great but I think corporate media in general is the conversation they're all kind of in the same system. I've worked and made money out of all of them. I'm excited to be independent,

but I can't deny that they created a platform for a really thoughtful conversation for 12 years. I can't, it's- You don't have to. Yeah, so I'm in that, you know, it was a good life for me. Beautiful. And now it's on to, you know, the next thing.

Now it's on like Donkey Kong. The Syracuse Funny Bone, November 29th and 30th. Oh shit, PeteDominic.com Right? PeteDominic.com Stand up with PeteDominic.com Twitter, Instagram Joe Rogan, I love you. I love you too, buddy. Good luck. I really admire you and what you've done here.

Jamie, thank you. You guys are awesome. Bye, everybody. Woo! Shouldn't have taken a second hit. No, it was good, man. You sure? What's the matter, Jamie? Bye everybody.