The MeidasTouch Podcast - Bonus: The Meiselas Brothers Exclusive Interview on Burning Bridges with Uncle Sam

Episode Date: April 25, 2021

We are excited to bring you some exclusive bonus content this weekend from a podcast we absolutely love. Listen to our interview on Burning Bridges with Uncle Sam, hosted by iconoclastic former political reporter Sam Youngman, before it's released on their podcast feed. Let's face it: it would be weird and difficult for us to interview ourselves, so we let Sam ask the questions. So what can you expect on this show?  Uncle Sam is tapping a keg of tough love and napalm for his former profession this week as he takes aim at the political press in the age of Trumpism. Then Ruby and Sam are joined by the Meiselas bros to talk about what happens when the left learns to fight like the right, what’s next for them and who the smartest Meiselas brother is. Subscribe & Listen for more Burning Bridges with Uncle Sam: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3lnCWL4 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5NltHmwyPhjiT17QPRHZQu Follow Burning Bridges with Uncle Sam for Updates: Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/UncleSamPod Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BurningBridgesPod/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Hey there, Midas Mighty. Nah, this isn't Jordy with a country accent. This is Sam Youngman, and I'm taking over Midas Touch's podcast feed today. And I've got a special treat for you, an interview with the Mycelis Brothers themselves. You want to hear more?

Subscribe to my podcast, Burning Bridges with Uncle Sam. Find the link in the show notes. This is Burning Bridges with Uncle Sam Youngman, and I want you to hit me with a damn tranquilizer dart right in the forehead. And that's a big target these days because my propitious seems to have stopped working. Well, that's not fair. I'm sure it's working very hard. It's just losing. But I'm madder than a hornet, and I clearly need to be sedated. I wrote the outline for today's show when I was spitting nails, and I probably shouldn't do that. In fact, I know better, or I should know better. So what's got me so worked up that I would accidentally bring up the shame

of my thinning hairline? Well, the club, of course. That goddamn Washington club. That small group of folks on the right, on the left, and in the media, inside the beltway, who care a whole lot about themselves and their ambitions, and also kind of sort of America too, but only if there's time or they need to seem like they give a shit for the rubes back home. But I know what Republicans are, and my contempt for them feels normal and okay. I also know about my disdain for weak Democrats.

But again, this ain't my first day here, so I've learned to mostly live with that. But the press, the press, what I dedicated a lot of my life to, my former colleagues, well, I stay mad at the press. And for a lefty, especially a relatively new lefty like myself, an unlikely lefty, an unpure lefty, hating on the press is an uncomfortable place to be in the age of Trump and his enemy of the people shtick. Of course, when Trump first said that, the New York Times' Peter Baker dismissed it as, quote, just theater. Oof. Tell you the truth, I've got a lot of nerve even talking about the failings of the press.

For one thing, I'm sitting on the sidelines these days. I was never quite as tough as I wish they were now. So it's pretty easy for me to do this from the chief seats, and I'll own that. And worse, I used to go on Fox quite a bit. I played this game for years. I used to celebrate when my stories were picked up by the Drudge Report. I was a part of the very problem I am now cussing about. You know, I don't really look at the Drudge Report these days much anymore. But Fox, well, Fox is just straight up burning crosses these days. And yeah, I know they always have, but they used to say it was for light or warmth or some shit.

Now they just say it's for the Klan rally. They're not even hiding it. My whole political journalism career, Republicans and Fox News went to great pains to let everyone know they weren't as racist as they sounded. And they gave themselves just enough cover that ambitious, privileged, white, mainstream media reporters like myself just went with it. But now they've taken the mask off or put the white hood on. And I know a lot of people saw it long before I did. And I'm embarrassed about that. But a whole lot of Washington is still acting like they can't see it. Why? Well, because the truth of the matter is the rest of them aren't that far removed from what Fox is doing. I know you remember the year of breathless coverage we got about Hillary's fucking emails,

a critical story that we all had to know about that became way less important when we found out that Jared and Ivanka were doing the same shit from the White House. What about right before the election when the New York Times told us that there were no links between Trump and Russia? Or what about when Bill Barr sanitized the Mueller report and that same newspaper happily carried his water for him. Or NBC's Peter Alexander asking Jen Psaki if Biden will give Trump credit for the vaccines he somehow helped create from the goddamn golf course. Peter even wrote the remarks he thought Biden should give. Dude, what were you thinking? And don't even get me started on the major network Sunday shows. Meet the Press and Face the Nation used to be the gold standards of political journalism.

Now they're a weekly celebration of its failure. A place where Lindsey Graham goes to look and feel tough. Fox News is dangerous. MSM reporters mainstreaming that craziness because they want everyone to know how fair and balanced they are? Well, that's even more dangerous. You ever wonder why Republicans act the way they do? Why they lie so egregiously? they want everyone to know how fair and balanced they are, well, that's even more dangerous. Do you ever wonder why Republicans act the way they do? Why they lie so egregiously? Why they're such hypocrites? Well, why the hell not? You think Chuck Todd is going to call them out on it? Yeah, right after he wins an NBA championship. They lie because they can, because they have

learned that for millions of Americans, they can actually reshape reality and the press corps will let them do it. Hell, sometimes they help them do it because they fear being accused of having a liberal bias the way most people fear cancer. They need scoops that will lead to clicks and to get the scoops, they need access and to get the access. Well, they do a lot of shit that isn't always exactly in the American people's best interest. How many times did you

only know of Trump's lie in the last five years because a mainstream media reporter delivered it to you? So why is it like this? I mean, the simple answer is there are too many white people whose parents had a little money writing and talking about this shit with limited perspective and privilege obscuring their view. I know I was one of them. Again, let me emphasize this isn't everybody. I know some great, great reporters who worked their asses off to get to Washington and they worked their asses off every day to try and get us the truth. There's just not enough of them. Did you see last week, before the Derek Chauvin verdict, how many super objective reporters felt comfortable editorializing about what Maxine Waters said? If you don't know, Maxine Waters is a congresswoman from California.

She called for more confrontation if that murderer was acquitted. She's also an 82-year-old black woman. Think about what her eyes have seen. Think about how many George Floyds she has seen. How much bloodshed. And she feared, at least she said she did, just like every black person I know, she feared that the murderer would walk.

You know why? Because they usually do. And so she called for more protest if he did. And Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell and a hundred and some other assholes who spent the first part of this year trying to throw out the votes of millions of black Americans, decided that that was not okay, and they got their friends in the press to agree with them. And that became a story. Just days after some House Republicans had tried to start a fucking white power caucus. Yeah, if you don't know what I'm talking about,

I'm talking about the America First Caucus, what Marjorie Taylor Greene and her band of merry dumb fucks were putting together to celebrate, and I'm not even kidding you, our Anglo-Saxon heritage. After years of Trump threatening federal judges, federal witnesses, and at least one jury forewoman, half of D.C. suddenly decided that it was foul play when a black woman had something to say about the way this country treats black people. Did it seriously never occur to them to consider her frustration, her pain, or was it just too goddamn easy to take the Republican prompt and condemn the black woman? Last summer, when every faceless corporation was telling us on Twitter that they were going to do better, news organizations

were saying the same shit. And then they started handing out free passes to white insurrectionists and the sick assholes who sent them to our Capitol. Well, gosh, Uncle Sam, maybe this isn't about race. Bullshit. This is America. It's always about race. You may not want to see that.

You may not want to believe that, but it's fucking true. And I'm not sitting here accusing the Washington press corps of racism. There are times like that seems like a fair accusation to lob. And it seems safe to say that the fourth estate, like any other institution in our nation, has white supremacy in its blueprint, in its foundation, because that's who we are. I mean, that's what we are as a country. What I am saying is that that beltway does bad things to some good people. Too many of them are completely out of touch, self-absorbed. Their priorities are totally fucked. I mean, how else do you spend weeks bitching and moaning about not having a presidential press conference and then not a single reporter ask about the deadly pandemic that has killed more than half a million Americans. Sam, they're not all like that. No, no, they are not. Like I said, there are so many hardworking,

honest journalists. They actually know what they're there for and they work hard under shitty circumstances to hold people accountable. And they're under attack right now, which makes this feel like an even shittier thing to do. People like April Ryan and Jim Acosta and Abby Phillip and others who stood there and took the heat when Americans needed their watchdogs to bark and bite. I mean, even liberals choose a morning show that is hosted by a former Republican congressman who was happy to kiss Trump's ass until he turned on him and Mika. I have to confess, I am a miserable dickhead about this stuff. I'm painfully aware of it. I wrote a magazine piece when I left Washington about just how disgusted I was,

telling so many of my former colleagues to go kiss their own asses. In the days after that piece ran, my inbox filled up with Americans thanking me for saying it, while the Washington Post wrote four, yeah, four separate responses telling me how wrong I was. I hope there was nothing important going on that week. I just recently started tweeting again, but over the Trump years, I sent a lot of DMs to former colleagues. I've lost a lot of friends and the respect of people I used to admire. Of course, they've lost mine, too. I'm sure they're devastated. Look, while I'm clearly a psychopath about this shit, I'm obviously not firing off racist or misogynistic tweets like some of the Twitter scumbags out there. Though I suppose you could make the argument that just by lecturing or admonishing a woman reporter, I am adding to

the pile and that's no better than the other sleaze. And you'd be making a good point. And that makes me feel like one of those scumbags. I guess I figured it was okay because I was generally harder on the men and didn't exclude my friends. But that's probably bullshit too. I'm sure every asshole trolling Twitter's got some fucking rationalization for why he acts the way he does. I'm blocked by Fox's Brett Baer and the New York Times' Maggie Haberman, and I haven't tweeted about either of them publicly. But I maybe definitely slid into their DMs to question them and their choices. I might have even asked Brett if he remembered when he was a newsman and not quote some bootlick who traffics in idiotic conspiracy theories.

And I might have even followed that up with me neither. I have debated reading some of those DM exchanges on this here podcast. I think maybe we should ask an actor to join us for some dramatic readings. I guess I'm still trying to decide just how hot I want these bridges to burn. And it sure doesn't seem like I'm trending towards restraint or maturity. Hmm.

You know, something to think about. Thing is, I don't really feel very good about most of them. I see a weak-ass story that never should have been written or a pathetic soft line of questioning or a Republican framing of an important story and I fire off a note. Sometimes I'm polite. Sometimes I am less than polite. Then a few hours later, I smoke a joint, become a better person,

start feeling guilty as hell. A lot of times I apologize. Many times I do not. Sometimes I even send compliments. But those are the exception and not the rule. It's a shitty thing to feel like a hypocrite, to be a hypocrite. I did so much of the same shit for so long. I was a proud member of that club. And now I attack people for doing just as I did. I guess I just figured when fascism got here and a few thousand people started dying a day and the U.S. Capitol was ransacked by goat horn terrorists, that there was a switch that would flip and defending democracy would take a front seat over ambition or fear. Sometimes I remember they didn't invent this game, that they're playing it just as I did.

And then I remember it's not a goddamn game. There was one reporter I was especially close with. He's an older guy. He's a big deal. He's got his portrait on the wall at the Palm and everything. When I got out of rehab, he helped me learn to walk in Washington again, meeting me at the golf course before sunrise a couple times a week, helping me feel like a human again. When my brother came to town, this man took us all out to dinner and picked up the hefty tab. When my mom was sick, he sent a copy of his favorite book. We had lunch early during the Trump administration, and he boasted to me that he could still get Trump to, quote, make news. He does that every morning while he's taking a shit, I thought, do we really need you there for that? Still, it was a friendship I valued. It had begun to fade, you know, as friendships do when you move away and your buddy gets a new wife. But that friendship ended in the

last year of the administration. I shouldn't use the passive voice there. I ended that friendship. Like a few others, I watched this now infamously insane mother of krakens, Sidney Powell, pushed wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of absolute horseshit into the courtroom to try and free the traitor Mike Flynn. All that stupid, crazy shit that everybody saw her doing in the run-up to the January 6th attack? Yeah, she was doing similar bat crap insanity for Flynn.

But it wasn't as prominent or obviously stupid. So it didn't generate the outrage or the mockery. In fact, it even won over some reporters. And I watched horrified as my buddy's network was one of the worst about helping to push those wheelbarrows of horse shit. So I sent him an email. I said, what the fuck are y'all doing? And he told me that Mike Flynn was not the hill to die on. Calling the case, quote, weak sauce, sounded more like Sidney Powell than I ever could have expected. Let's be very clear about something. Mike Flynn was and is a traitor. He lied to the FBI. He took money from foreign countries. And a few months after my buddy's email,

Mike Flynn stood in the Oval Office and called for martial law as he quite literally attempted a coup against the United States of America. And that's just the shit we know about. It seems like a reasonable hill to die on to me. God knows others have. So I responded to my friend by saying something very nasty and very personal. And I suspect we'll never speak again.

I don't feel great about that. Of course I don't. I feel like an asshole for what I said. It's true. But I'm not beating myself up over it the way I probably should be. How could I ever ask forgiveness from someone who helped Sidney Powell push her anti-American poison, or someone who might actually subscribe to a Trumpian view of the universe? I'm not a reporter anymore. I don't

have to pretend like all Washington reporters know what they're doing or great at their jobs. If you sell out my country, whether it's for ratings or some misguided sense of fairness or just out of plain goddamn ignorance, well, that's a fucking deal breaker for me. I can make new friends. I can't make a new nation. Though Samistan has a nice ring to it. Sami Arabia? Yeah, we'll work on that. Of course, I would also never threaten that guy with violence

or show up at his house. And I suppose that's one reason it's easier to boss up on the left than it is the right. You know they probably won't bomb your family. I don't know about you, but I'd certainly be wary of people who might. And I also know I was a reporter who was more sympathetic to complaints from the right than I was to the left. Why? Because I wanted to be known as a fair reporter, and the label of liberal bias would render that impossible. Now, that's not to

say that the entire Washington press corps cowers before the right. It is shockingly prevalent. But no, I think the truth is, in the Trump era, Washington reporters have largely fallen into three categories. I'm not including the Fox right-wing nutjobs in this because, you know, they're their own category. In the first category, you've got a lot of people who are doing their best under shitty circumstances. There were definitely times I felt handcuffed or silenced by my editors, and I can't imagine how frustrating that must have been these past few years. I know a few White House reporters who never got rich or famous, but they worked that beat like a motherfucker. And believe me when I tell you that you want them there.

I like to think the majority of Washington reporters fall in this category, and I think that's especially true of policy reporters like health care reporters who are damn important. And I hate that these people get swept up when I'm making these broad condemnations of the media, because there are people there that we need who are really working hard for us. The second category are the afraid. There was one reporter who I won't name who got a detail on his story wrong in the early days of the Trump administration. They said they accepted his apology, but then they tried to destroy him. It seemed kind of obvious he wasn't bringing the fire after that. I remember attending a rally for a Tea Party candidate I'd written some tough shit about.

And as I walked in, I felt the eyes on me and I heard someone say, there's that Sam Youngman. It was just a moment, not even really that unusual. I've been hated by lots of people for a long time, but it was the moment I realized just how unprotected and vulnerable I was. I don't have a fraction of the courage a lot of reporters do, especially women reporters to go through stuff like that and so much worse. The third category are the ones I stay angry at. And frankly, the left needs to learn to be more pissed off about this shit.

This is the category that was enjoying the ride. This was the category that made a bargain and did yeoman's work to normalize some truly abnormal and heinous shit. There were prizes and book deals and fame, and all you had to do was play the game. And when the left complained, fuck them. They just don't understand how it works. You know a lot of the names in this category. You see them on TV a lot. They're probably what I would have been if not for all the, you know, self-destruction and shit. Look, this is unpleasant for me to talk about. I am a traitor to close friends of mine, but I think I'm doing it for the right reasons. I don't want this to be a

podcast where I just criticize the political press every week. There are other podcasts doing that and doing a better job of it. It's more academic. I know there are good reporters working their asses off for this country. I have moments when I want to burn these bridges and that town to the ground and then piss on the ashes. And then I have moments when I want to say just enough that I can send some birthday balloons to some old friends. One woman who I was friendly with back in the day called me out on Twitter recently. She said, is this what you're doing for Twitter clicks? Attacking your friends? I thought about it for a minute. And no, it's not getting me a lot of clicks.

And also, isn't that the whole damn problem? Why in the hell is any of this about friendship? It's not saved by the bell. It's supposed to be about truth, about holding Washington accountable. It's about a functioning fucking democracy. And it's about the people of the United States. Friendship? The hell does friendship have to do with any of it? All too often, that Washington club is about relationships and not about why they are there.

Sure, that guy is a lying hypocrite who supports white supremacists, but he's great for a quote, and his press team always gets back to me promptly, and I went to undergrad with his chief of staff, and oh my God. That's why when a U.S. Senator retires, you hear reporters singing their praises instead of calling out their actual records. It's about their relationship. This person was nice to me. It's not about what he or she did for their country or their state. And just when your middle fingers start to cramp and you've thrown your last TV out of your last unbroken window and you're screaming into a microphone like a complete lunatic and you've thrown your last TV out of your last unbroken window and you're screaming into a microphone like a complete lunatic and you just want them all to go to hell,

you once again remember the worst part. You need those assholes, or at least you need assholes like them. Because the inevitable conclusion of any discussion about the endless failings of the political press always includes the obvious recognition that we desperately need them doing their jobs. Maybe we just need them doing them better, especially when the stakes are as high as they are now. They're not the gatekeepers they once were. Social media has leveled the playing field in good and bad ways,

and it's a new day. There are a lot of people who are clearly threatened by that. So root for the press, especially the local press, but root for them to get better. Hold them to account just like they're supposed to be holding our elected officials to account. Just try not to be a total dickhead about it like I am. Otherwise, you risk turning into what you hate, a trumper, or worse, a stoned asshole podcast host hiding out in la ruby you got a tranquilizer dart handy put me down a little bit yeah you need a couple of those yeah i uh we're trying to make new friends and here i am getting all unhinged but you're so passionate about this

which is amazing and i i spent the last four years championing the press as a lot of sort of neophyte political people no i think that's the right thing yeah thating the press as a lot of sort of neophyte political people. No, I think that's the right thing. Yeah, that's the right instinct. Against sort of the fake news rhetoric. And I definitely did not hold, I obviously knew that we were making Trump into a sensational clown that people couldn't get enough of in the age of social media. I mean, that's how he got elected.

I think it comes down to like a total cultural shift where we're not glued, especially in the last year. We've been glued to our TVs just watching a train wreck happening. But it's happening to us. And I think people have to fucking remember that. No, I think you're right. I mean, look, I think the instinct to root for the press is root for the press is the right one. I'm rooting for the press, even though I've constantly, constantly complained about them.

We need them. It's just that when you have the right wing, you know, ecosystem over here, you know, the right wing media sphere over here, and it's so bad and so dangerous, then you basically accept everything else,

right? Like every, as long as everybody else is trying, then that's enough, right? That's what I mean. Like, so we have the,

my zealous brothers on today. Yeah. Oh man. It's so exciting. Yeah. And I kept thinking about them as you else is trying, then that's enough, right? That's what I mean. Like, so we have the Mizellus brothers on today. Yeah. Oh, man, it's so exciting. And I kept thinking about them as you were talking about sort of the storm of the of the press. I was like, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we know them and they're going to be on and they're going to talk to us. I feel like their goal eventually is to sort of create like a media conglomerate to go against something like Fox News. But I mean, is it OK that their media conglomerate will be so partisan, will be so left, or will they just get rhetoric from the right that's that's saying like, oh, you know,

that's fake news, that's fake news? Or do we need like, do I need to get my news from them? Or is MSNBC doing enough kind of thing? No, I mean, I think these are all great questions and I think we're going to find out over the coming years. I mean, you know, I still make an argument. The reason I beat the shit out of legacy media is because I think legacy media is crucial. I think, you know, there's a reputation there. There's an authority there. There's institutional knowledge there that you can't get anywhere else.

It's why I want to hold them to such a high standard. As for them being replaced, I'd say it's damn possible. I mean, you know, you look, the gatekeepers aren't protecting what they thought they were anymore. They're just standing out in the middle of a field. There's nothing behind them. You know, people have been able to do an end run. It's, you know, you hear me say this all the time.

People are feeling their power. And they're saying, you know what? I don't need the New York Times anymore. I'll be my own New York Times. And I love seeing that shit. It makes me nervous, but it excites me. And that's usually my recipe for a good time. Look how much the Mizellus brothers have done in a year, in a year, just knowing how to communicate to the American people. And they're just three guys. Well, what does it, what does it tell you that they were able to do what they've been able to do in such a short amount of time? It tells you there was a huge need for it. It tells you there was a huge gaping need for what they're doing. Yeah. And they are, I mean,

they're so left. They are so partisan. But they're not actually, they work, you know, they, I would not call them as leftists as, as I think you do. I They work, you know, they, I would not call them as leftists as I think you do. I see them, you know, to me, the new battle lines, are you for democracy or are you against democracy? Yes, that is. And I think that's where they are. You know, you don't see them wading into, you know, every policy

battle there is. They're, you know, they're battleground guys. They are. And they're doing a damn good job. They did a great fucking job in Georgia. But you're right. It's a fight for democracy versus, I don't know, total. A fight against it. Yeah.

January. I mean, those are the very real terms of where we are these days. I mean, you know, elections, the reason they're so high stress these days is because they're basically existential questions. Right. For death. Yeah. I mean, it really is for so many people. Yeah. You know, I read a story there today, NBC had this, and this is actually one of my favorite things is when I bashed the press and then immediately

used them as a source because, you know, that's what cranks like me do. But you know, there's a story in NBC the other day about how parents of trans kids are fleeing states where they're passing these cruel laws. It's in America. They're having to flee their homes in America because of these cruel laws that are being passed. Politics isn't just a debate over the fucking deficit anymore. That we could handle. We've moved past that. We're in the life and death phase now.

Is it like the land of the free anymore? I tell you when this really sunk in for me was when Stephen Miller came out. Remember him? The creepy rodent fucking? I really try to forget, but yes, I do. I know, he's haunting all of our nightmares. But you remember when he said, they were talking about the Emma Lazarus poem at the Statue of Liberty. And he said, well, it wasn't really a part of the original statue.

And I thought, oh my God, they're really just kind of trying to erase the whole, you know, melting pot nature of America. And they're not really hiding it. It comes down to what you said. It comes down to race. Yeah. And I didn't realize that until later in life. And I think that is how lucky am I as a white privileged person that racism is not just something you read about. It's not something that happened years ago.

It is here. It is fervent. And Trump made It's not something that happened years ago. It is here. It is fervent. And Trump made it. Come on in. Come on. Come join the party. Well, that's I mean, that's what it hasn't had before. It hasn't had the presidential stamp of approval. Yeah. And man, you know, right now it's a wildfire and it's spreading faster. And I think we're putting it out. And Fox News is a big damn reason for that. Every night they're just out there with a big hose of gasoline, spreading that fire as wild as they can. Even the competitors, MSNBC, what are you going to do, watch Morning Joe? No, that's, you got me on instead of like, I used to get my

news from CNN. I would go on CNN. Now I follow- And actually CNN has some of my favorite journalists. Like some of the best, like I don't particularly get along with Jake Tapper, but I really like Jake Tapper. He's a very good journalist. Breonna Keillor is a fantastic journalist. Jim Acosta. I mean, God, everybody knows Jim did an amazing job. Abby Phillip is one of my favorites.

She, I knew Abby at the White House and you could tell even like when she just got there, I was like, okay, there's somebody that's gonna be better at this than all of us. And sure enough, she's really been amazing this last four years, especially with just the endless shit

they had to put up with. Yeah, I can imagine. You know, I don't envy that. I really don't. And it's very easy for me to sit here in this studio in West Hollywood with a lid joint in my hand talking about, you know, how weak these people are. I understand all of it.

I really do. Yeah. But I still don't think I'm wrong. No, I don't think you're wrong. But you're aware of your privilege and that's really all we can ask. Yeah. I mean, it's hard not to be. I mean, if you don't see it, I'm guessing it's because you just don't want to.

No. And I think a lot of people feel threatened by that idea, though. There's this idea that if you confess to white privilege, you know, giving you an advantage of any kind, then you're somehow saying you don't work hard or you didn't accomplish anything. And that's not true. You know, it can be both things. You know, I've known a lot of hardworking white people who've accomplished a lot of cool shit by working hard. But it'd be crazy to say they didn't have some natural advantages, you know, in a country

that has, Jesus, racism in its bones. I think we're depressing the shit out of everybody. My God. Honestly, we're firing people up whether you know it or not. And if you're not fired up after the Midas interview, then yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No, those guys, man, they are a blast, but they are just, they are focused and they are working and I am glad

they're on our side. Yeah. That's why we need people who are willing to stand up kind of like today's guests, three brothers, Jordy, Ben and Brett, who created the Midas Touch Activist Group,

and they are fucking rock stars. They are amazing. Next week, folks, we're doing a very sweet Mother's Day episode, so come back. We're not completely fucking nuts all the time.

And I will burn it to the ground. Or should we bring them in? And so please give it up for our guest, the mighty Mycelis Brothers. Welcome, guys. Thanks for having us. How are you doing, Sam? Man, I'm so glad y'all joined us. So I've got to ask right off the bat, are you guys having a good time?

Because you sure as hell sound like you are. We're having the best time ever. I mean, we're a little over a year into this. We could have never imagined that we would be where we are with such incredible followers and such amazing support from all different types of communities. And it's just, it's been wild. It's been crazy. You know, the thing that I love about you guys is I've really been pushing this theme of Americans are really starting to feel their power. You guys don't have a background in politics. You said we're going to make our own lane. And that's what you've done. We've inspired other people to do the same. I think what's

resonated to the public about Midas Touch is that we're not political people. We don't speak like robots. You know, we're speaking from the heart about how we feel. The anger, the passion, the compassion is all just, we're just sharing with you the experiences now. It's almost in a sense, a reality TV show of the brothers and what we're experienced in our search and our quest for truth and away from fascism and despotism and incompetence that was embodied in the Trump administration towards competence and towards democracy and compassion and integrity in the in the Biden administration. I'd watch that.

Netflix, you know where to find us. It's happening in front of me. So, Brett, you mentioned it's been a year. Do you mind to tell our listeners a little bit about how you guys got started? What what the impetus was, you know, other than creeping authoritarianism? Yeah, no, it was far more than creeping at that point. But it was around March 25th. It was actually the date that we registered MidasTouch.com.

And at that point, for the previous few weeks, it was me, Jordy and Ben just texting each other in a group chat being like, guys, are you seeing the news? Like, what the hell is going on here? I mean, we always knew Trump was bad and knew he was an existential threat to the country. But then COVID hit, and we're seeing just other countries be ravaged and devastated by this virus. We're seeing China get destroyed. We're seeing Italy get destroyed.

And then we're seeing this madman go on TV and say, oh, it's not going to come here. And we see just all these clips and these press briefings. And ultimately, I think it was just us looking at each other and being like, is everybody, are we just going to like die? Like, what is it like? What is happening? Like, it really became like this existential threat. Like we have to do something like, or who else, like who else is going to do something? And so originally that started with just us kind of talking in our group chat, doing tweets. That turned into us saying, hey, maybe we could write articles like a Huffington Post-style blog and at least get our thoughts out there as to what's going on.

And then we were making videos. And the first video that really connected was the video that we did called Are You Better Off? And it contrasted those words with the reality of what was going on in America at the time. And that video really connected and took off. And we kind of started to realize immediately then, okay, this right here is where we could have a voice. This is where we could have our impact. And so we made more videos and made more videos. And then just each one after the next started connecting until May 15th was the actual date where we finally established Midas Touch as a political action committee. And Midas Touch was born. And obviously, from there,

I could never have imagined that we'd have TV ads in every single state, radio ads, billboards, a canvassing program in Georgia, a half a million dollar mailing program in Georgia and all the various things that we've been able to do. So it's been very cool. I want to talk about Georgia a little bit more in a minute. I saw a tweet once that said that joining the Democratic Party is like going to a concert and being told to keep it down. That's hilarious. And I think there's a lot of truth to that. And, you know, I think especially for young activists, there's a lot of frustration in being a Democrat.

And then you guys came along and you said, Hey, we're going to tell it like it is. We're not going to pull any punches. We're going to get in the fight. Do you think that's what so many people responded to? Just the no bullshit approach to politics? Absolutely. I mean, I think that's what really resonates with folks is that, you know, we are here just, we're not, you know, we don't have this political background and we're going to speak our minds and we're going to speak it the way Americans speak. And one of the big programs that we actually have now, in addition to Midas Touch is establishing a university chapter, which to your point, it's interesting, right? Because I've been speaking with all these college kids and they all join these democratic groups or whatnot. But what I keep finding out is like,

they have no say in what gets posted on these channels. They really don't have a voice outside of like, when they meet up. And even then it's just like very limited. And so really what we're hoping to do is expand our range and get that next generation of activists and just, you know, pro-democracy folks out there and give them a platform to speak, especially with the university

program. And the thing that's important to note is that the policies we stand for have bipartisan support of the people. If you just polled people about the policies. Hey, do you want infrastructure? Do you want health care? Do you want free education? Those are issues that our 75, 80 percent people support. But Democrats take for granted because our policies are aligned with the people. Democrats say, well, we got those votes. We got that locked up. So six months, nine months before an election, Democrats start reaching out and find out that these people who should be aligned with them don't trust them. And of course they don't trust you because you haven't been talking to them. And then on the other end, you get the Ponzi scheme kind of fraudsters and the Trumpists who kind of move in

for their agendas to do the exact opposite of what they say they're going to do. But they're talking to the people. They're out there in Ohio. They're out there in Texas. They're out there in Pennsylvania. And Democrats are nowhere to be seen. And so what we're doing in building these communities, both digital and in physical spaces, is basically promoting these policies every day and treating every day like we're on, like we're running in 2024 right now, like we're running for 2030 right now. And I think that's been missing from democratic politics, which is something that we brought to the table. It just sounds so obvious. It's just, it's, it's amazing how many holes people miss. It just

sounds so, you make it sound so easy. Well funny thing is too, James Carville was like, you know, you want to go into a democratic, you know, consultant's office. All they have is conference call, conference call, conference call. And it's like enough of the conference calls, like just go out there and do it. And that's what Midas Touch did. Like we saw something on TV because of Brett's background in digital editing in daytime TV, where he had to cut videos within an hour to get it, you know, on live, you know, on live TV, he basically employed that strategy and boom, Trump would say something, boom, rapid response video. We've done our more evolved videos, but we would hold them accountable every day. And now we're out there having these

conversations with people and we're finding, guess what? More people agree with the truth and the craziness and more people look at Marjorie Taylor Greene's and people who mock the survivors of school shootings. They look at those people like crazy. And our challenge to them is you really want to hang out with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Bob Erkt and that's your crew? I mean, you guys are really doing an end run around that traditional consultant, you know, that consultant club around the traditional beltway media that, you know, the people who still think

they're gatekeepers, even though there's no gate behind them anymore. Do you think they see you as a threat? Yeah, I mean, I think there's no doubt that there were people that viewed us as a threat. I mean, I think one of the funny things was in the very beginning, there was a ton

of people who would reach out to us and try to convince us not to go ahead with starting our own organization. And instead they would try to say, hey, why don't you guys just make videos for our group or this group or that group? And they would say, oh, you know what? It's going to take you guys at least two to three presidential cycles before anybody even recognizes your name. It's not even worth it to try. You don't want to deal with the legal. You don't want to deal with all the other things that come with it. Just come, do it for us, do it with us. And we just had to keep turning down people like that and say, no, if we do this, we want to do it our way, because the thing that made us special from the beginning is we weren't poll testing everything

we did for two weeks before we released everything. We weren't running it up the chain of, uh, of executives and consultants and things before we, so we could get their opinions to make sure it was nuanced the way they wanted it to be. We were doing it based on the way that we felt that we were impacting people. And I thought that was what made us special. And so, you know, as we've done that, we've amassed a huge support of the people who, you know, are finally saying, yes, finally, a democratic group who speaks our language, who's fighting, who's out there. And in fact, a lot of people in the beginning thought we were Republicans because we were producing hard hitting ads. And I'm like, what does that say about the party that just because we're producing hard hitting ads, people think we're Republicans have has this not been done before? How, like you said, Ruby before, like, it sounds so easy. It sounds so simple. Like the ideas are not crazy ideas. So the whole time,

we would often say to each other, like, how are like the three of us, like three random, like dudes are just like, like it's us. And even like down to like, when we went to Georgia and we were in these deep suburban areas and things, oftentimes 90 plus percent of the time when our canvassers would go to doors, they would say, oh my gosh, you guys are the first canvassers that we've seen all election cycle. And we're like, how is that possible? How is it possible that the Mycelis brothers, that the three of us are the ones out there in Georgia on the ground? Where is every other group out there? And, you know, obviously there were a ton of other democratic activists and groups who played an amazing role in Georgia. And we won

because of the accumulation of all of them. But I was just shocked by how big our presence was felt down there, being that it's the three of us and we're outsiders who have never done this before. In Georgia, what our strategy was is let's speak to Trump voters, like so-called Trump voters, you know, and that's what, that's what differentiated the approach. And actually from the Biden cycle to the runoff cycle, there was a two to 3% bump in those Trump areas when you actually engage and have the conversations. And so we stayed out of kind of the urban, you know, areas that were, you know, that were well canvassed. And our focus was, let's just have conversations like these people are being lied to with these QAnon conspiracy theorists, and they're being convinced by con artists to do things against their own interest. They want health. They want a living wage. They're not getting the living wage. It really matters to them. So have these conversations with them. And look, some of it was tough work in the sense that a lot of it was tough work. But, you know, some of our canvassers would get had their lives threatened when they when they

did it. And and it was very difficult. But by and large, these conversations worked when you actually have direct interactions with people. And Brett, going back really quickly to the first part of your answer there, when we first started, one of the funniest pieces of advice that we got was two, actually. One, you guys should change your name. Midas Touch. I don't understand it, which always makes me laugh. And then two, um, someone told us our ads were too hard hitting for Democrats. Yeah. And we're like, what do you, what do you, that's the, that's, that's the point. Well, that's, I mean, that's the thing, right? I mean, Lincoln project came on the scene and all of a sudden there was this recognition that Democrats

don't do this shit. And then when they want to do it, they've got to outsource it to disgruntled Republicans. And then it was basically like, okay, well, they've got to outsource it to disgruntled Republicans. And then it was basically like, okay, well, is anybody going to pick up this torch? Because when you're supporting Lincoln, and I know you guys did some good work with Lincoln, and I don't want to shit on what they did last year because we needed them. But when you're supporting Republicans, you're basically helping build a cannon that's going to be turned against you at some point. Whereas you guys built something that, you know, I don't lose sleep at night thinking it's going to turn on me because I know what you guys stand for. I think the best way to tell that you are viewed as a threat is when people start coming after you. And you guys have

recently had to deal with some bullshit from a, from a once great magazine that has just embarrassed itself. Yeah. It was a very, very strange and odd experience. First off, the magazine is Rolling Stone, which I think is no longer even a magazine. Maybe they release it like quarterly at this point. When they want to. Right, Ruby. But growing up, you know, when 30 years ago, like to have Rolling Stones write an article about me, you know, when I'm in my mid thirties, I would have thought I was going to be a rock star, not the target of a hit piece. Dude, Led Zeppelin thought the same thing, and they got shit on like crazy. No doubt about it. We had this interview with this Rolling Stone writer back on December 9th who wanted to talk to us about the success of Midas Touch.

Even if it wasn't about the success, we still would have met with him and talked with him. We spent an hour on the phone with him the very next day, answered every questions. He disappeared totally, kind of reemerged a few weeks ago with quote unquote findings that he's doing a story on Midas touch in Georgia and in the generals, which it's like, why wouldn't you reach out to us after Georgia? Because the information just changes after Georgia, too, if you really wanted to learn about what we were doing. And his findings were just basically wrong. You didn't split contributions with Biden.

And when we said you go to ActBlue and people make direct contributions, you can literally see the direct contributions made. We don't make those contributions. He said that the expenditures for our highly successful canvassing efforts in Georgia, he said, were gross overcharging. And he compared this year's canvassing efforts in Georgia to pre-pandemic efforts in Wisconsin in 2017, where we took like 10 bids to get the cheapest rate possible and $5 a door is cheap. We pay our canvassers a living wage and we won as opposed to like the democratic efforts in Wisconsin when there was a loss and we provided full PPE. He said that he thought that our ads were not effective. And it was like, who are you to basically say that? And then he had a ton of criticism on something that I was most proud about, which is that the entire overhead budget of Midas Touch for the 500 plus videos that we made

for about five to 10 employees, depending on the time, entire overhead is $385,000 to run the operation. I take $0 from the operation. I work for free specifically because I wanted to sacrifice for the organization. And if you break it down, it's like pennies on the dollar for each video. If we hired a video consultant to do 500 videos, who was a Emmy award winning editor, be like 15, $20 million to produce that, what we produced. And so it was such a strange group of criticism, but it was actually a very empowering experience, because kind of under attack, and the relationships that we built with the communities that knew the work that was done, They knew it was a BS piece. That Rolling Stones was inundated by an overwhelming campaign to boycott Rolling Stone.

The lens was turned on Rolling Stone, and it became clear that their parent company took $200 million from the Saudi Arabian government. At the same time, they killed American journalist Khashoggi. And it's like, you're making this criticism when you are engaged with foreign powers running American media. And so it showed to me, actually, the platform that we built, the transparent, productive, efficient 2021 platform is really the new Rolling Stone. And Rolling Stones is the Trump, you know, is the Trump dumpster fire. And that's been really empowering because we need to build other content creators now to create spaces where true authentic voices shine and where the Rolling Stones and all that, all that media of yesteryear kind of fades away. That's what brought

us Donald Trump. Yeah. Well, I gotta say, I watched the whole saga play out and the two things that really blew me away and you, you touched on both were the way you stood up for yourselves and the way the people who are with you stood up beside you. It was, it was really something to behold. I think, you know, the way it used to work when these traditional gatekeepers were still holding all the juice was you just took whatever shit they were going to throw at you. And, you know, I think sure Twitter can bring us Donald Trump, but it also gives you a place to stand up for yourself. And I, I was really blown away by that. And, you know, that kind of loyalty that, that wins elections. If their thesis was Midas touches ineffective, they certainly couldn't run that the day after. Boycott Rolling Stone was trending number one.

And Forbes wrote an article about their Saudi connections. And it was just all over the Internet that about their funding and and all the skeletons in their closets. So, I mean, exactly as much as it was a hit piece against us, it was a hit piece against the community, the folks that have rallied with us, you know, from the get-go. So they got frustrated, rightfully so. You know, they're being told that what they've invested so much time in isn't effective. And they know firsthand that it is. They know that by the power of these videos, by the power of introducing folks to Midas Touch, that they were able to swing voters themselves. So when they see just this BS stuff come out,

it's not just an indictment on us. It's an indictment on the Midas Mighty who we just totally love. But it's also kind of funny when you think about it. Like here we were in March. Like we have no political background. We created this thing. I worked for free for this thing for a year.

I have like all my clients in the world who are pissed at me because I'm doing interviews and doing Midas Touch stuff. And some Rolling Stones writer comes out a year later to write some hit piece on something that we were talking about on a text chain. Like in some ways, like you take a step back and you kind of just crack up. Well, it's also like, I hope the next Midas touch out there. I hope the next person who wants to get activated and wants to do canvassing and stuff, I hope they're not discouraged in that, oh man, maybe if I put my face out there and try to stand up for my beliefs, I hope Rolling Stone doesn't write a piece saying how horrible I am for canvassing and for trying to do everything I can to save the country. Because, you know, I mean, you just got to ignore the noise at the end of the day.

And like Ben said, you know, you could have valid criticisms. Everybody should have valid criticisms. And journalism is incredibly important. But when you go from questions to threats of saying we are going to publish this information, these findings about you, and those quote unquote findings about you are like QAnon level conspiracy theories. Yeah, we're going to speak out and we're going to say, OK, if you post that, like, first off, we're going to answer the questions before you try to post this.

And we're going to answer them truthfully and be transparent with everybody and be my guest and post it. And you'll probably have a lawsuit coming your way because this is the most kookiest, craziest, and I'm sure you've heard offline some of the really crazy stuff that they were pitching, but oh my gosh. Other than Rolling Stone, what do people get wrong about y'all? What would surprise people to know? I think that the operation is genuinely run by us three. We have consultants that we have to have to do the ad by. I'm not calling ABC and like, hey, I need you to do that. I need someone to do that piece of it. And then how we structured the organization, I have to rely on someone to do it right. But on a day to day basis, it's us three in a in a chat room, you know, coming up with the videos coming up with the concepts, you know, and, you know, and, and just, and just posting it. So I think some people think that it may be this bigger organization and it's really, it really is. Just three brothers in a group chat.

That's what's so foreign, I think, to the Washington consultant class. It's like, why do something with three people when you can do it with 15? And I think people also often miss, I think people sometimes think, oh yeah, they're the guys who do the internet videos. They do internet videos and they don't step back and see, oh, they're doing internet videos. They're doing paid advertising on digital. They're doing TV ads. They're doing billboards. They're doing door-to-door canvassing efforts. They're doing radio hits. They're doing podcasts. They're doing a university program across the country with youth and a high school program. They don't realize the full scope of the thing. So they try to pigeonhole you as, oh, they just do this one thing. And I think going back to Rolling Stone, not to belabor the point there, but I think they missed that, that it's a cohesive, it's a much broader scope of how did this one ad affect this voter? It's really about the sphere of influence of every single effort that we do. And I think people often miss the forest from the trees in that respect.

And then when we decentralized though, so yes, the three brothers, we kind of created the spark and we do the videos, we do all of that. But then when you have the community that's out there and kind of that core Geordie reference that they call themselves the Midas Mighty, and there's probably somewhere between, these aren't official numbers, but it's my estimate, probably around 5,000 to kind of 10,000 people who identify in the day as being like, I'm sure every day they talk about Midas to their friends. That's so cool. being like, I'm sure every day they talk about Midas to their friends. And they go out there and they're the ones who are kind of also really creating these mini Midas kind of chapters in their communities, which all that really means is talking about why you should get vaccines and talking about, you know, infrastructure and things like that. And so you'll see from time to time, we'll put out a message like, what have you done today to help encourage others to get the vaccine?

And you'll see our community with tens of thousands of responses, the same way when we ask, what have you done to help people vote today? And you would get all these great responses. Now it's like, I helped 25 people sign up, you know, in my community. You know, I drove three elderly people on my block. And that's the secret sauce, I think, of what Midas Touch can become. Because frankly, the less it is about us eventually and the more it's about the people who are out there promoting the movement, that becomes better. And it's with those same folks that we were able to send 5 million text messages during the election. In four days. In four days.

In four days. Does having like a super PAC, this high school program, does running one of them make one of the other ones harder or easier? Or do they all sort of like filter in together? I see that like Rolling Stone's clearly focused on like the money aspect and where the money is going. I think they definitely play off of each other. It was with that Midas brand, the Midas Touch brand, that we were then able to establish our university program and talk to our supporters who have a student in college or in college themselves that wanted to get involved. And so once they saw that we were doing this Midas University, they were like, hey, how can I get

involved? I'm a student. I get emails all the time. Please, if you're listening right now, email me, university at Midas Touch. We're trying to open up 50 chapters. We have 22 right now, 50 chapters by the end of the year. We want to be nationwide and we're just going to keep building. So it's really with the Midas brand that we're then able to establish and build everything else. And I think one of the most important things that we've done is just in growing and in being able to manage all these various things is we find really the best people out there who could help run these sort of projects and stuff. So Geordie oversees the university program, but each university has a handful of representatives who are just like the best and brightest of their schools who operate these accounts independently

and really fuel the thing. And then it kind of becomes a self-sustaining community where they're making content and they're writing articles and they're sending it to us rather than like a top-down approach. And, you know, it's like, you know, us having Adam, our mutual friend, Adam Parkamenko work for us. He's like the best in the business at what he does. And so having him alleviates a lot of the stress of, you know, us going into the minutia of a lot of things, having our TV buyers, you know, that we have the best people who do that. And so I think that's really a lesson that you can learn for any business that you do is kind of hire the best people and put them to work and let them do what they're good at. And I've worked at so many places in the past that I've hired people and micromanaged every little thing, and it's been just a total disaster.

And so I err in the complete opposite direction of I'm going to be completely trusting of you until you give me a reason otherwise not to trust you. Well, I mean, I get the sense you guys aren't going anywhere. And if you've done this in a year or 13 months, what are you going to look like by the time the midterms roll around? What are you going to look like by the time 2024 rolls around? I hope more effective at the end of the day. I hope we could have the college chapters at every college and university. I hope that we could have community groups in towns and cities across the country. I hope that whereas this year we made

for the generals about four and a half million in expenditures, I hope that becomes 40 and a half million dollars in expenditures because I think we used it as effectively as you possibly possibly could. I mean, there are organizations where one executive could bill $300,000 to $400,000 just for their salary. That was the entire overhead for operating it for the full term. So again, that's why I was like, you're coming after us for that? Are you crazy? You must just be against the concept of currency generally, and the idea that human beings should not be paid generally. But by the way, the funny thing we found was that there was a past tweet from him mocking the living wage and mocking labor unions, a guy who wrote it when we looked into it. But I think that if we can do this,

and this is the model, if we can do this with four and a half million, imagine what we could do with 40 million. Imagine what we could do with 100 million. And I think you have such waste in these organizations as Cardinal set conference calls and this and that, and just all the BS that you don't need. And at the end of the day, when your overhead is 80% and 90% versus your spend being 80% or 90%, and that's what we were, our spend was 80%. Then you're in the field. Then you're doing the tour buses around. Imagine if in Georgia, when we had the one bus that went around Georgia and did the vote your raise tour, educating people about how voting for Warnock and Ossoff would give you a literal raise.

Imagine if we had 20 buses. We were in every town, every day. Like, that's what I would love to do. But these are building blocks. You know, we start with the videos. Then we do billboards. Then we build chapters. And so that's where the growth is. And hopefully one day we can be a

force that challenges Fox News and challenges the billion dollar disinfo hubs out there. But we're focused on day by day now and making the small, doing the small things now and hoping to build the big things later. Man, y'all are going to make all the right enemies. The great things about year two, three, four, five and beyond in year one, whereas we were sort of building the plane as it was flying, we have the machine already built. Now we know what we're we know what we're doing. We know how to activate. We're ready to go. So now it's just flipping the switch. So I know you guys asked Mary Trump who the dumbest Trump kid was. And so I'm going to turn that around on you and ask which of the brothers, who's the smartest? I would say we're unanimous and we'll give it to Ben.

But Ben's intelligence is very specific. Ben's intelligence is very intellectual. All of his attorney work, his writings, his response, very scholarly intelligence. Very specific. You break away from that and you're in a totally different playing field. You know, if you want to go into like technology and then, you know, video work and analysis in terms of that, you know, I think I would far exceed Ben because Ben sometimes can't even turn on his iPhone.

If you want to if you want to break down strategy of sports and play-by-play and strategy in terms of that respect, emotional intelligence, Geordie. So I think Ben has the most traditional sense of intelligence of, look, I got a JD as a lawyer. As an attorney, let me tell you my opinion there. But once you break out of the attorney mold a little bit and start getting to, you know, we have to start instituting a sound in our podcast, the Midas Touch podcast. Every time Ben says, well, as a lawyer, guys, we now do the law and order music. Hopefully we don't get sued, but a variation of the law and order music. I'll give you an example. I went to Home Depot the other day and I bought a table

and I hired someone and paid him $150. I asked him after he built the table, all these nuts and bolts. I said, how much is it? He goes, $150. And I told my girlfriend, I said, I would have paid like $1,000. That was the hardest thing I've ever seen any human ever do in my life. I said, $150. Because Ben, most people know how to build things like that. And I would have probably built that table. They may have built like the Eiffel Tower based on what I saw. I remember when Peyton Manning was in college and I read a story about him in Sports Illustrated and they said that, you know, here was this football genius, but he basically didn't know how to dress himself. So his girlfriend would take Polaroids of what, you know, which of his clothes look good together. And that's how he

knew to get dressed in the morning. So Ben, you're in good company, man. I know you're probably a courtroom ace who can't tie his shoes, but you know, that's the way it goes sometimes. Before the interview, I had like a yellow hat and then I went dog hat. Like it was a, it was a whole decision process. Yeah. I feel that I changed like a yellow hat and then I went dog hat. Like it was a, it was a whole decision process. Yeah. I feel that I changed closely a dozen times and all you can see is my face. And you can't change that. No, I've tried.

I've tried. Rubes, did you have anything else? I just want to know, like, what has been the coolest moment for you guys? Cause I know it started with George Conway sort of retweeting something. And I hope that that's not the coolest moment for you guys? Because I know it started with George Conway sort of retweeting something, and I hope that that's not the coolest moment for you guys. It must have been a whirlwind, right? It's like the sky seems to be the limit for you guys. What is next? What has just been overwhelming and amazing this entire time?

I'm going to take the easy answer. I'm jumping in here before Brent and Ben steal it. And then they could do their answers. My coolest moment personally has just been working with my brothers. We always wanted to figure out a way to do something together. We always wanted to figure out what that would be growing up. We made films, we made movies to some various level for school projects or whatnot, and just in our free time, just to have fun. And we're always just trying to figure out, hey, how can we figure this out? They went into LA, I moved to Pittsburgh. So we're like, well, geographically, this isn't going to make sense. And so the opportunity presented itself and here we are. Brett B, you want to go? That's really cool.

I'll answer it actually and not take the sentimental answer. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, I'm going to say winning the two elections was definitely a highlight because we had put in so much work and gotten so little sleep and we're working so hard day and night and just had really given it our all. We said before both elections, you know what, we're going to give it 150% because I don't want to wake up the day after the election, or in this case, two weeks, whenever they called it. I don't want to wake up the day after the election or in this case, two weeks or whenever they called it. I don't want to wake up and say, if only we did that ad in Pennsylvania, if only we focused more here, if only we did a canvassing program here.

And so I at least knew that I could feel good about myself regardless of the outcome if we did that. And so I was happy we did that. And learning that Joe Biden was elected president to me was one of the biggest reliefs on the planet. It was really just a historic moment for the country and just an incredible moment for Midas Touch and all of our work. And then winning Georgia, because I thought we really stuck our necks out there in a race that was so high profile and that there was so much attention on and it could have easily gone the other way. I mean, you know, you never knew, but, but hearing that we got those two Senate seats, I mean, it's, it's, it's hard, it's hard to beat. It's hard to beat that.

And then mine would just be cause that, cause Brett stole mine. But other than that, I would say is the, the, the truthfully, the, the conclusion of the Rolling Stone experience was to me, like, honestly, because it was such a personal attack. I felt on the sacrifice that we, that we had made for a year. I felt very personal. Like to me, it felt like they were attacking my brothers, like that they were attacking like me very personally. When you spend a year doing something totally for free and you have these great results and then someone's out there to get you and then they put it out there, but then you actually see the support of everybody, other progressive groups that you've helped. It's kind of like when there's like the reunion of everybody, other progressive groups that you've helped.

It's kind of like when there's like the reunion and then like all the groups and superheroes and different characters, minor and major, all kind of come in. And we kind of go, oh, shit, you're all here. Like, like you're you're all at the party. Like, awesome. Thank you for coming. It's like the end of Avengers. That kind of experience that like we all had each other. We all have each other's backs. And as we head into this next chapter, we know that what we've created is a force that could really take on any of the major outlets. And y'all's parents must be so proud or they

think you've lost your mind. I've got one more question. Oh yeah, keep them coming. Has there been someone that's like inspired you, either like Jon Stewart or someone, someone like funny that is now just one of your counterparts that's part of the Midas Mighty? I feel amazed that I'm like in this chat with you guys right now. First of all, I'll step back and say,

I think it's funny that anybody would just be like amazed or think any way of us because I've literally just been sitting in my room for the past year quarantine doing this. When you see Bretton, you can't, you can't tell if you're listening right now, it's literally like a six by six room. He's been in there for like 16, 17, probably 18 hours a day, just cutting videos. So it's just a very, like, I haven't really, you know, seen too much like, you know, outside of here. Um, occasionally I'll, you know, I'll go to the supermarket, go to Trader Joe's,

and wear a Midas touch shirt. And I'll inevitably get people who come over and be like, I love those guys. And I have my mask on and they don't know. And that's a pretty cool feeling. But it's just... You're like, me too. I'm like, yeah, they're great. Keep following them. But that's super cool. But I would say my influences as far as what's informed my politics a lot and my video style is definitely Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, Colbert Report. I mean, I grew up on those shows. Colbert once retweeted.

I can't say he's a member of the Midas Mighty, but he once retweeted one of our Lindsey Graham videos, which was a super cool thing for me. He retweeted it with a comment also, which was especially cool. It got a little Colbert flair in there. And one of the other people who just inspired me growing up was Judd Apatow. I've always been a huge Judd Apatow fan of all of his movies. And now he's somebody who regularly retweets our content and DMs with us and things like that. So I mean, that's super special and super cool. And a you know, a few years ago, I was trying to, you know,

find every way I could to get an assistant job with Judd Apatow. So it's pretty cool that he's retweeting Midas Touch content and supporting us in that way. And we got videos from Stevie Wonder. We did a collab with Stevie Wonder. We did a collaboration with Bette Midler. We did a collaboration with Nine Inch Nails.

We did a collaboration with Barbra Streisand. We did a collaboration, Geordie and Georgia. Patty Austin. Patty Austin, one of the best songs of the year. To do collaborations like that with living legends and help in the formulation of the songs. Like we're helping do a song with, uh, with that Midler. I mean, that's wild. I do a killer rendition of Bette Midler's the rose, but I like you guys. So I won't say it for you. I'm on the phone with nine inch nails.

You know, we're talking to them about, Hey, maybe we should do this and let's add this element that, you know what I mean? That's so wild. That's wild. It's crazy. Man, I just, I can't thank y'all enough. I really have enjoyed this and we hope to have y'all on again, hopefully sooner than later. That'd be great. Any time. Thanks so much for having us.

Thank you so much. Sam and Ruby, appreciate you guys. And where can we find you on socials just for people who aren't part of the Midas Mighty as of now? You can find us. See, this is also the problem with the brothers. They always love to talk over me

in like every interview and everything, but we did a good job today, guys. So thanks for not talking over me on this one. I gave you a beat and you didn't step in. So I thought I had to step in. You can find us at Midas Touch across all social media platforms. And we spell it, it's based on our last name.

So it's spelled a little differently than the traditional Midas. So it's M-E-I-D-A-S-T-O-U-C-H. And so at Midas Touch, and we're on everywhere. One of the things that I'm proudest of is we've been on everywhere from the beginning. So we're on everywhere from Twitter. We got a big TikTok presence. We're on Facebook, and I hate Facebook, but we're on Facebook. We're on Instagram. We're on YouTube. So find us wherever you are and come join the movement and help, you know, help fight for democracy and just make America normal again.

Hell yeah. Well, y'all keep kicking ass for America and we'll hopefully talk to y'all soon. You guys are the best. Appreciate you. Thanks so much. Thank you. Well, folks, that's all the time we've got for today's show, but I want to thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed this podcast, don't forget to subscribe. We'll be releasing all new episodes every Tuesday. This has been a Bunker Crew Media production. Hosted by Sam Youngman and me, Ruby Frankel.

Editing and sound design by Joy Ellett. Special thanks to Don Winning for the kick-ass show art. Homecoming for their cover of Man of Constant Sorrow and Gang of Beats. I love you, you sexy patriots. See you next week.