The Rich Roll Podcast - What Now?

Episode Date: November 17, 2016

I have endeavored to keep politics out of this podcast. A podcast proudly built on radical inclusivity that transcends political ideology and affiliation. That said, in the wake of last week, many have solicited my perspective on what I think we can all agree is a historic election — perhaps the most jolting and important political event of our lifetimes. So today, I officially go on record. I'm nervous. Because my truth may not be your truth. But know that I welcome our differences. I do this because I stand for fidelity to authenticity. And authenticity requires I give voice to my truth. I do this with eyes wide open. I understand and accept that I very well may be committing social media suicide. I do this because I am dismayed by the extent to which we are divided as a people. I do this because fear runs rampant. Because discord rules the conversation. Because facts have been rendered irrelevant. Because fundamental rights are being threatened. Because dignity is being trampled. Because science is under siege. And because precious environmental protections are imperiled. I do this to provide counsel for those suffering. I do this to build a bridge to those celebrating. I do this from a desire to better understand. I do this from a place of love. So let's have a conversation about it. About all of it. A real conversation. Today I convene with Julie Piatt and activist filmmaker Darly Wein for a raw and candid roundtable discourse on how to best process, move forward and come together in this most divisive, uncertain time. The answer to what ails us transcends politics. It lives beyond our respective idealogical bubbles. It's an answer that will only be found in the desire to better understand ourselves and each other. In the search for unity. In self-governance and taking responsibility for our actions, our words, and our behavior. Beyond the fear that blinds us, it will be discovered only when we learn to walk with integrity, stop fighting and listen — really listen — with compassion. With empathy. And love. Always love. I sincerely hope you find this conversation helpful. Should you choose to pass on this episode (I get it), regular programming will resume on Monday. Peace + Plants, Rich

Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. My name is Rich Roll and I am your host and today we're going to do something I was going to say a little bit different, but actually it's going to be quite a bit different. But first, we've got to take care of a little business. It's been eight days since the election, and I've been sort of collecting thoughts on what has transpired and what lays before us. And I thought I would take an opportunity to use this platform, use this podcast to share some thoughts and some insights with Julie Pyatt. Hello, Rich Roll.

And our good friend, Daryl Ween. What's up, Roll Dog? You've heard Daryl on the podcast twice before. He is the filmmaker along with his lovely, beautiful, and talented wife, Zoe Lister-Jones. They are the filmmaking dynamic duo behind Consumed. If you haven't seen that movie yet, please make a point of seeing it. It's on Netflix. It is.

It's on Netflix now. It's very exciting. And yeah, so we're going to talk about the election. We're going to talk about politics. We're going to talk about the Trump presidency. And politics is something that I have yet to speak about on the podcast. I've actually refrained from speaking about it really on social media altogether. And there's a lot of reasons for that. I think that I'm trying to put out a message of inclusivity, a message of non-judgment and acceptance, and trying to promote just a healthy message that's accessible to anyone

and everyone, irrespective of your political point of view. So venturing into the world of commenting publicly about politics makes me a little bit uneasy. and share Julie and Daryl's points of view on what has been going on, because I think that there are a lot of people out there that are confused right now, perhaps in pain. Some people are celebrating. I know that I have plenty of Trump supporters who listen to the podcast. Welcome, and thank you for listening. If you do not want to hear a conversation about politics in the election, just tune out right now. Don't listen to this podcast. It's totally fine. We'll be back this weekend, late Sunday night with our regular programming. But I did want to, you know, I did want to seize the opportunity to share some thoughts. People have reached out to me and have requested that I do this. People have reached out to me and have requested that I do this. I'm sure there are plenty of other people out there who don't want to hear what I think or, you know, sort of look to this podcast as a safe haven from political discourse. And I totally get that as well and responsibility to at least share my perspective and the perspective of the two people who are joining me here today. So hopefully you're still listening.

If not, again, tune out. You don't want to talk about politics or hear about politics. There's plenty of other places to hear that. So that's it. That's my big uh prefatory message welcome you guys and thank you for convening here today to talk about this very divisive hot button and uh heated uh situation that we find ourselves thank you for having us yeah thanks so much i think it's important that i i look i think doing a podcast like this is courageous and needed because i think it's important that i look i think doing a podcast like this is courageous

and needed because i think as a country i think we've always been very hesitant to talk about politics in social settings and also sex it's like those two topics when they come up most people get uncomfortable and want to quickly veer the conversation to different. Also religion and then food. That's true. We talk about food all the time here. You know what I mean? So, yeah, I guess I'm like nervous.

I'm usually not nervous doing a podcast at all, but I am a little bit nervous on some level. I'm going into this fully aware that perhaps I'm committing social media suicide. Everybody tells you not to talk about politics on social media. But here we are. And I feel, you know, I do feel a sense of urgency and responsibility. And I feel compelled to do this today. I mean, you know, if you don't mind me just interjecting here for a minute, I think it would be really wonderful for you to share your background and your connection to politics from the time you were a child, the fact that you were raised in Washington, D.C. And, you know, what has politics been to you in your life and how do you view it and how, you know, what does it mean

to you? What has it meant to you on a greater level? Because I actually think that you're, that you have a large part of your upbringing that has been really rooted in politics. And so share a little bit about how you feel and how, you know, how it was for you as a child. Yeah, that's a fair point. I mean, I grew up in Washington, D.C., very much inside the Beltway in Bethesda, Maryland, in my neighborhood. Right next door, our next-door neighbor was Senator Bob Packwood, the senator from Oregon, who, while he was our next-door neighbor, weathered a sexual harassment scandal, which was a big deal at the time. Around the corner lived the director of the FBI. My father was a government lawyer. He worked for the Federal Trade Commission. And when you live and

grow up in Washington, you're surrounded by politics. It's very much obviously a company town, similar and sort of analogous to what it's like to live in Los Angeles. Los Angeles being a company town with respect to entertainment. When you live in Los Angeles, Los Angeles being a company town with respect to entertainment. When you live in Los Angeles, people talk about the movies. They talk about the movie business and the music business. When you grew up in Washington, you talk about politics. That's all you talk about. And we were surrounded by Democrats and Republicans and, you know, White House staffers and political pundits. And so I grew up in this environment and this atmosphere where it was just natural to discourse on these subjects as a matter of course throughout your day.

And I would say that I was much more versed in the nuance of politics and what was happening when I was 18 years old than I am now living in Los Angeles. I've distanced myself from it somewhat. And part of that is by choice. But yeah, I grew up in that environment. And I will say, this was the 1980s. And I guess what I would say about it is that it was very civil. Whether you were Republican or whether you were Democrat, there was a lot of reaching across the aisle. I mean, you could have dinner or dinner parties with people that shared, uh, political differences and it was fine. You know, we could, we could sort of still communicate. And I feel like if, you know,

the last 10, maybe 20 years, 20 years says anything about the political climate that we're in, it's that that's sort of gone the way of the dodo, right? So, whether you're a Trump supporter or a Hillary Clinton supporter or a Bernie Sanders supporter or Jill Stein or, you know, whatever, I think it's fair to say that it's become a lot more difficult to communicate. And I think we can all agree that we're pretty divided as a country right now. And I think for me, in the wake of this election, the thing that has been the most difficult to process has less to do with the fact that Trump is president and a lot more to do with coming into an awareness that we are so divided, that there is a communication breakdown

and an inability for certain populations to be able to see eye to eye on certain things. And that's very disconcerting. It's very disorienting. And here we are here today. So. Yeah, thanks. I mean, I, you know, I agree with you. And I would just say that energetically from a purely sentient level from, you know, just being an empath, someone who can feel energy, and I'm sure, you know, many of you felt the same thing. I mean, we all felt it. It was a feeling after the election that was unlike anything I've ever experienced in my lifetime, in this current lifetime. And it was one of, you could feel the trauma that was in the field or the trauma that was in the collective. And I think that, you know, it's very, very important that we do face our pain, that we do admit that, that we do actually own that and actually feel the depth of that and really sort of face our fears or go into our fears as a meditation.

I think that's very, very important. However, I'm hoping what we get to during this conversation is the fact that we do have to communicate. We have to communicate with ourselves and we have to communicate with our community, our family, and we do have to find a way to communicate with all the people that live in this beautiful country, no matter which political party. Yeah, I think, you know, just to kind of create a foundation here for this discussion, you know, I was just to be unequivocal and clear, I was not a Trump supporter. I'm not a Trump

supporter. He is our president now. And we're going to talk about, you know, what we all make of that and kind of what we do now, where we go from here. On election day, I remember going into, I went into a meeting at 530 and I looked on Twitter. I was like, you know, on my phone looking at it and it looked like Hillary Clinton pretty much had it sewn up. I think they were saying she had a 75 or 80% chance of winning the election. And when I came out of this meeting, you know, an hour and a half later, everything had changed and suddenly, you know, Trump was president. And I remember feeling very, you know, disoriented at that news, um, relatively shocked. I don't think I ever really thought that that was possible, you know, irrespective of hearing what was coming out of Michael Moore's mouth and people like Bill Maher who were saying, listen, you know, this is not in the bag and everybody needs to be much more aware about where middle America sits, where, you know, working class people who are struggling, what their point of view is, what their perspective is. And I think we all underestimated that and the kind of undercurrent of dissatisfaction, disenfranchisement and. And and anger, really, that was going on, and that's really kind of what I want to get into, you know, and cultivating a

greater empathy for that point of view and that perspective that led us to this day that, you know, I think at least with the three of us, we didn't really believe whatever come to pass. I agree. I think that it was a shock. And I think, you know, for me, you know, I speak for myself that I am in the bubble, the liberal bubble, that is. I believe the pollsters, I believe Nate Silver in 538 saying that Hillary was going to be 75% chance she was going to win. And then that night saw it drop down to 40%. So what does that say about our media and our pollsters and those types of statisticians and in terms of going forward i think what julie you were just saying a second ago is one of the most important things that we need to do which is open up our hearts despite our differences,

whether we're a Trump supporter or a Hillary supporter or a supporter of whatever you want to believe in, and come to a place where we can see each other as human beings, that we're all in this together. And how do we help protect our environment and the rights of everyone. I really do believe in fierce egalitarianism, and I worry very much about a Trump presidency, really just because of the rhetoric with which he operated in the campaign with a lot of divisiveness, a lot of hate speak, a lot of xenophobia, a lot of sexism, a lot of racism at every turn. And, you know, I do think words matter. And that was a big question throughout this campaign is that you, you can say something or, and, and in terms of facts, you know,

facts are thrown out and people aren't sure who to trust anymore. You know, it was shared over a million times on Facebook that the pump, I mean, that the Pope, that Trump, Trump is the new, Trump and the Pope have become one. The Pope has had endorsed Donald Trump and it was shared over a million times and people were estimating that that had reached like almost over 10 million people through uh click impressions that kind of misinformation the same thing happened with tom brady i think right he said trump said that tom br Brady supported him but I I'm not sure that was true

when it but it's like once it he just moves he moves on you know and the new cycle moves on and there isn't enough time to by the time the fact checkers catch up to it it's on to the next thing already the the there was a recent report that said that 40 percent of what the right-wing media was being, the information that was on social media was actually false reporting. And on the Democratic side, 19%. I mean, those numbers are appalling that almost on one side of the coin,

half of information that people, and that's the way people are getting information they're looking on twitter they're looking on facebook you know jeff zucker who's the head of cnn came out and said we made a mistake we gave donald trump way too much airtime earlier in the election cycle without fact checking him they were literally just putting on full speeches of his and not coming in and combating some of the things that he said, like 89% of white people are being killed by black perpetrators. I mean, that is a gross exaggeration of the facts. And Bill O'Reilly of all people came out and told Donald Trump that that wasn't

true and that he needed to be held accountable as a president, a potential presidential candidate. Right. So here we are. We have a president-elect who is endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan and white nationalist groups. He wants to build a wall. He wants to repeal Obamacare. He wants to eliminate the nuclear deal with Iran. He wants to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. He's promised to create millions of jobs. I don't know how he's going to do that. I understand that he wants to do it sort of through manufacturing and industries like coal and the Rust Belt. sort of through manufacturing and industries like coal and the rust belt. He's petulant, he's reactive, he's impulsive, he's vengeful. He's told us who he is. And when somebody tells you who they are, you have to believe them. And now we're in the phase where he's making

his appointments for his cabinet. And it's pretty disconcerting to see some of the people that he is positioning into places of great, great power. One of the things that we talk about a lot on this podcast is sustainability and the environment. leading the charge in terms of revamping the EPA, has been dubbed the chief climate change denier. His second in command is a lobbyist who's worked with Dow and the Koch brothers. And that's very alarming and upsetting, you know, and it makes me feel like the work that I do and that you do, Daryl, through your filmmaking and julie through your advocacy everything that we kind of collectively stand for and try to put out in the world to catalyze positive change becomes tremendously undermined like the analogy i used the other day was like i feel like the podcast suddenly becomes this raindrop falling into a waterfall like moving in the wrong direction

and it's it's upsetting, right? Can we camp out on the environment for one second? You brought up Myron Ebel. I think it's a perfect moment to talk about him. So he's a climate change denier and goes against what people now know, 97% of scientists around the world have come to a consensus that climate change is real.

And he's now going to be put in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency. I mean, how about the irony in that? He opposes the Clean Power Plan and advocates for opening up more federal lands to logging, coal mining, and oil drilling. opening up more federal lands to logging, coal mining, and oil drilling. He's a director at the Fossil Fuel Funded Competitive Enterprise Institute and leads the Cooler Heads Coalition, which focus almost all of their energy on dispelling the myths of global warming. I mean, so in short, this guy wants to pretty much dismantle the EPA. He wants to reopen coal mining.

He wants to approve the Keystone pipeline, which is disastrous for our water sources and indigenous communities. He wants to reduce investment in clean energy. So all solar, wind, all of the alternative energy sources, which are so important for the future of our world and our environment, he basically wants to do away with. And he wants to pull us out of the paris climate accord agreement i mean this is something that trump believes in too and and the u.s is i just want everyone to know is the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases after china so we are hugely to blame for climate change the nations our nations pledged to the

paris climate agreement which aims to keep the global surface temperature you know increased to a maximum of i think it's two degrees celsius right yeah i think that's somewhere to avoid all of the worst possible impacts is to avoid we would have to avoid 22 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions between 2016 and 2030. So that amounts to about a fifth of the total of all nations that have signed the accord. And the problem with this is that there is no, it's not a binding treaty. So there's no punishment for nations who, that don't meet their carbon reduction target. And in May, when Trump outlined his energy policy and prepared speech in North Dakota, he castigated draconian

climate rules, pledged to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and withdraw funding for climate related United Nations programs. So, I mean, if he pulls us out of this, he might be able to get away with it. And what is that going to mean for our environment? Right. As sort of a backdrop to all of this, we've seen a progressive expansion of executive branch powers over the last 25 years. And what the president is now able to do without approvals or any kind of checks and balances is much greater than it used to be. And when you combine that with a House and a Senate that is Republican and an empty seat on the Supreme Court and probably another seat that will open up in the next four years, the cascading sort of domino effect that is now set up is, is, you know, alarming to say the least.

Not to mention the fact that the midterm elections, which come up in two years, are heavily favored towards his party, because I think the vast majority of candidates that are up for reelection are Democrat. I think eight Republican Senate seats are up for grabs in 2018, 25 Democratic seats are at stake and 13 of those Democratic seats are in Trump strongholds. Right. So the circumstances are set up for, uh, for far ranging, you know, a far ranging ability for his powers to, you know, be able to, you know, reach into areas without the kind of checks and balances that are more balanced, you know, bipartisan House and Senate would permit. So that's the other kind of climate that we're entering into politically. But I think it bears noticing that, you know, when we look at Trump and we see somebody who has lied repeatedly, almost as if it's second nature, somebody who has propagated misogynistic and racist epithets with alarming frequency.

epithets with alarming frequency. It's important to, like, I'm always trying to get into the head of the supporter. And for me, it's difficult, like, because I don't believe that most people are racist or misogynistic or bear ill will towards their fellow man. And, you know, perhaps there's a small percentage of loud people that do support that. But I think the vast majority of the people that they're willing to take a flyer on this guy because he is proposing and promising radical change, right? So, the undercurrent of malcontent that exists in America, I think, has been the driving force that put this guy in the White House. And that's something that we need to look at and redress. So how do we move forward? You know, how do, what do we, how, you know, where do we go from here?

How can we act? What can we do? How do we communicate with our fellow man? How do we build bridges rather than continue to blow them up? Well, you know, my whole approach and the whole way that I experience this event and that I choose to live my life is from a spiritual perspective. So I'm going to have a very different perspective than Daryl is as far as like how-to things, things that you can do. From my perspective, we have to understand that the political system in this country and in most countries on planet Earth is not a divinely clean system that is for the well-being of the people. And it doesn't really matter, if you want to look at any kind of aspect of this occurrence as maybe, maybe a silver lining is that, uh, people did speak for a revolution. They, they spoke for something that wasn't, uh, the status quo. Some, even though the person that they ended up electing, uh, you know, has all of the probably lowest expressed qualities of a human being,

kind of across the board. I mean, really throughout. This is not a being that is a leader, that is somebody to look up to. I can't imagine any parent, if they really separated themselves from the financial aspects or their fear of survival that you, this would be somebody that would be someone to aspire to. Um, so what I would say is, again, is it's like we, we have to understand where we're at and, uh, it's, it is a truth of an energetic state. Um, it doesn't matter who you voted for. Uh, there is trauma in the field and there is an impending feeling of revolution, of great change, great transformation is at hand. That is very scary and it is also very hopeful.

And it opens up possibilities of opportunity of transformation. opportunity of transformation. Myself, I'm not holding any of these transformational opportunities or benefits or evolution is going to come through Trump or anything that he's doing or not doing. But what this does to me is it catalyzes a call to devotion and a call to connect with a source that is greater than your personality, to start to expand the view and understand that we are only one system in a vast multiverse of life forms. And we have to really start to look intelligently as to what have been the events on planet earth and how have we been impacted by it and where have we put our heads in the sand or thrown a baby out with the bathwater or turned to consumerism or sex addiction or pornography or apathy to really not look at what's going on and to avoid taking responsibility for our life. I think that this is a call that has been given us. It is a moment where we have an opportunity

to seize this experience and transform what seems to be a very difficult, challenging, dire scenario into something of great beauty. So how do we make that transformation? Okay. So I mean, but sort of to condense what you're saying down to, you know, perhaps a very simplistic sentence or two, the president is not our higher power. It's a call to self-governance. It's, uh, to me, it reminds me of the serenity prayer. You know, God grant me the, how does it go? It's an AA thing. God grant me the serenity to change the things I can. The courage, the courage to change the things I can. The courage. The courage to change the things I can.

Now I'm sounding terrible. Like, how do I not know this? Yeah, like it's almost like- How many years have we been in AA? It's the wisdom to know the difference. To accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.

So what are the things we can't change? What are the things we can change? Yeah. And having the awareness of not trying to change the things that we're powerless to change. And I think beyond that, to extend that level of compassion to people of all walks of life, right? So, Daryl, you talked about being in the bubble. You know, I live in the bubble. You live in the bubble. It's about a call to action to expand that bubble, perhaps, and to find a way to bring other points of view and other perspectives into that bubble or to pop

the exterior of that bubble and to understand that at our core, we're all way more alike than we are different. We're human. So we want to focus on those differences, but everybody, you know, wants a good life. Everybody wants to be healthy. Everybody wants what's best for their children. What that looks like varies from person to person. And this election is a tribute to perhaps just how wide that divide is in terms of what that perspective is and what it means, but how to move forward, Daryl. Put it in my court. Yeah. With love. It's always about love. I think that I don't know that many right wing Republican Trump supporters. I don't think I know any, honestly, that are within my friends. You may not know. I think the election really told us one thing is that there was a lot of people that were kind of quietly or secretly harboring an allegiance to Trump.

And, you know, that we weren't aware of it because that's why all these polls were wrong. Yeah, and I would like to have an honest conversation with someone who has a different point of view than I do about politics. And it's increasingly difficult with the algorithms that we have on facebook and social media you know they they every ad and every friend that's recommended is really just

an extension of the people that already share a lot of your interests and beliefs right it entrenches the your whatever bubble you find yeah you you that bubble is almost, it's, it's half self-created, half kind of engineered at this point. And I think it's really up to each individual person to break through that bubble and get out of that echo chamber. And I think a lot of people are afraid to do that because it's easy to be comfortable in your patterns and in your routines and in the safety of the bubble. Well, it's also frightening, especially in kind of polite circles, because you don't want to end up in a conflict with somebody. And everybody is so easily inflamed on both sides of the aisle right now. So it becomes tricky and it's just easier to just not.

Yeah, exactly. And I've been told that that is a very American way. You know, like I had a French brother-in-law for a moment who's no longer a brother-in-law. But we got into, we would get into a lot of conversations about this. And he would say, you know, we always just say what we feel about politics. And there's almost like all those pleasantries and, you know, being so courteous and backing away. If you feel that sense of confrontation coming.

You know, it almost is like a European, I don't know if it's more a European thing. I've never lived in Europe, but I think there's a decent, respectful way to talk and debate with someone. And honestly, it's only going to make us stronger if we start to hear other people's points of view. You know, I heard about a great program recently, which is a pen pal program between Democrats and Republicans. I've seen actually a few pop up and it was something that I myself actually was thinking

about trying to do in the wake of this election, seeing how divided our country was, that you actually have to go out of your way and form a relationship with someone who lives in a completely different place than you, or maybe even in your city who just has a completely different point of view, whether it's over a beer or whether it's, you know, writing emails back and forth and just getting to know each other. Because in my heart, I really do believe if you come together with someone, even if you have wildly opposing views and you see them face to face and their humanity in front of you, that there will be a feeling of love that will supersede any kind of potential negative outcome. I mean, in a lot of ways, I think that the energetic connections, Julie, that you talk about all the time, I think is what's very needed right now that we do need to, we can't just stick in our circles

on both sides. Yeah, we need, we need communication. We definitely need very, very hand to hand, heart to heart contact with our community, with our loved ones, within our own families. We have families that are on different sides of the election as well. But what I need to, what I would like to point out right here is what we're talking about is not something that's so simple. This is a result of a structure, an energetic structure of what a belief system is. And if you look at the history of the planet, you can see that belief systems have been the catalyst and the reason for a lot of bloodshed, war, and tragedy on the planet. And I think anybody that is human can take a moment and feel inside themselves. And if they reflect on the quality of the opposite candidate that they

hated the most or abhorred the most, you can access a violence that is inside of your body. It is inside of your heart. It is inside of your heart. It is inside of your muscles. It's inside of the human being. And this is where we need to really understand that belief systems can create our own prison. They create separation. They are, in fact, I would classify belief systems as violent. This is one of the

reasons that Rich and I, through sharing our plant-based lifestyle, that we really have had an open door and open arms. And we have, you know, friends and people around us that are in all different levels of experiencing what it means to live a plant-based lifestyle or not eat animals or whatever that might be. But a belief system is an implant and you need to recognize what it is first so that you then can go take the actions to practice yoga, to identify it, to meditate and release this, maybe go out and run, you know, whatever it is that you need to do to release this energy from your body, but understanding that we are all part of the human collective and we have this violence within ourselves. So one of the hardest tasks of

being a truth seeker, of being somebody who wants to be an agent of love for the change and for transformation, is that you need to commit with eyes wide open to look inside the human condition and take responsibility for your part in any of these lower vibrating processes that have happened. Like for instance, I will just take Trump's identity of perpetrator against women, the comments that he has said, the things that he's been accused of, the women that have come forward. And, you know,

as a woman and as somebody in the human collective, the way that I can help heal this is by looking inside of myself and taking responsibility for and admitting anytime that I used sexuality to manipulate a man, anytime I played into that paradigm of princess prince, like I was a princess that needed to be rescued by a prince. So, you know, he said it out loud and it exists on our planet, like, like a fungus it's everywhere. And so, um, again, you know, grabbing onto belief systems takes a stance of really us and them, you know, I'm here and you're there. And I believe a really

powerful thing that we can do that we can do now within our own being is to take responsibility and really start to inquire within ourselves what part we have had in these imbalances that are running throughout our entire collective and society. To just say something about taking responsibility, which we saw in the campaign, Trump never really took any responsibility or apologized for some of the mistakes that he made. And I think that says a lot about his character and about the direction that he's trying to lead his party and the country into. I mean, to have that many women step forward and say that they were sexually assaulted by him in the ways that they did,

to have that tape come out about him saying that I grabbed women by the pussy, this is our now incoming president, to have so many women still vote for him after that what does that say about the psyche and and women's psyches around the country who who may be still living in a battered housewife syndrome type of frame of mind who might be afraid or feel subservient to the patriarchal system with, with that our world has been under. Totally. Or not even that. I mean, I just walking around as thinking you're a free woman. What I'm saying is that that is a paradigm that exists in our society. And we're only now, I mean,

this is an imbalance that has been implanted against women thousands of years ago. We are the ones with the, that kept the spiritual flame, that had the ability to know, that had the intuition, that had the capacity. And we've been objectified and we've been put into a condition of slavery really in many ways. And yeah, I'm with you 5,000%. And I guess what I'm saying is I did not vote for Trump, uh, and, and would never, uh, um, I, I, uh, what I'm saying is that in order to become empowered, I have to stop being a victim and I have to, uh, find the solution within myself in order that he does not, um, gain power over me, right? I agree. It's almost easier said than done when Steve Bannon,

who is now going to be one of his chief advisors. Chief strategist. Chief strategist runs one of the most conservative, all conservative right-wing media sources, which will now essentially be a right-hand arm media organization to the White House. It becomes adjunct to the White House.

Almost like an adjunct, agenda-driven, potentially propagandist media machine. Breitbart. Called Breitbart. It's hard. It's easier said than done when people like him are saying things like birth control makes women unattractive and crazy. That's a direct quote from his mouth. Other things that he has said is, would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?

I think that was a headline on Breitbart. I don't know if he wrote that article, but he's lording over Breitbart where articles such as this are getting published. Exactly. And that is a very scary thing to everyone who's listening to have a very almost white nationalist, white supremacist type of organization pushing out media in the way that they are, whether it's about women or whether it's about immigrants or whether... He also said that he didn't want his kids going to school with Jewish kids, something like that. Oh yeah. I mean, the anti-Semitism, I mean, has been rampant. And in the wake of Trump becoming elected, we've seen swastikas being spray painted all over.

I mean, hate crimes are up. I wrote down a little tidbit about that, that the Southern Poverty Law Center put up a form on its website just recently encouraging people to share details about potential hate crimes. And the next day, I just thought this was crazy. They had already received 250 reports in one day, more than they're used to seeing in six months. I mean, so obviously what we have here is again, going back to this undercurrent of anger and disaffectation that's happening that is at a fever pitch and far more pervasive than I think we all realize. But in order to heal that, address it, and move past it, we have to be able

to see it. And this election now allows us to see something that perhaps we didn't really fully, allows us to see something that perhaps we didn't really fully, weren't fully cognizant of just how large it is, like a giant pustule, right? That's been there, that's now popped to the surface. And now we have the opportunity to have conversations about it and to address it. And my hope is that we can somehow heal and move past it, which brings us back to what we were talking about earlier, communication, expanding the parameters of our respective bubbles and finding a new language to be able to communicate with people of different points of view. And I think, you know, in thinking about that, it requires, I think it requires a well developed sense of self and of personal boundaries and non-reactivity to be able to lead with love

and with compassion and to not go into these exchanges or these conversations with an agenda, but to really put yourself in a place where you can listen and be quiet and hear somebody and then extend empathy for that person's point of view as a means of building a bridge to at least being able to have a healthy, productive dialogue. I think that's great because i agree with something you said earlier which is i don't think all trump supporters are inherently racist sexist misogynist i think they were a lot of people who are low income working class are desperate they can't afford to pay for their their hospital bills The minimum wage is too low. The system has failed them, and the Democrats have failed them.

Right, and so in a lot of ways, I think the vote for Trump was really just a bomb on the system. It was a way to shake it all up, and I think they saw Hillary as politics as usual. She comes from this legacy that has in many ways failed them or they saw issues took issue with um and they're and you know what they're right there are there are elements uh i think that yes there there have obviously been missteps um within the clinton administration but I mean, I will

say definitively that I do still think that she would have been a stronger position, a stronger president for, for, for all people and more inclusive. Um, and we now, I think for all of the Trump supporters and democratic supporters that are listening need to really hold him accountable and and really pay attention i think more than anything what we all realized was you can't just sit it out anymore you have to engage you have to pay attention and not be passive if you want the world to be the way that that you want it be, if you want opportunity, if you want to have resources, whether it's beautiful nature as polar ice caps are melting and sea levels are rising, or whether it's, you know, an economic security and the minimum wage hopefully going up under a Trump presidency. Yeah, there's a certain strain of the media and in journalism at the moment that is normalizing a situation that is far from normal. I don't think that it is responsible to normalize what's happening. What's happening right now is unprecedented. I don't think we've seen anything like this since the days of Abraham Lincoln, like what's going on is really

historic in many, many ways. So what to make of it and what to do moving forward. And I think, you know, to kind of piggyback on something you just said, it's important to be supportive supportive of intelligent, grounded individuals who hopefully will be recruited into the Trump administration. So, for example, if somebody, we can't malign somebody for joining the Trump administration, like if they're a Democrat or somebody who is not part of the alt-right, because we need to have as many smart, independent thinking, grounded, intelligent human beings around that individual as humanly possible. Are there any that are being talked about? Well, I don't know. I mean, you know, it's too early to tell.

The people are, I mean, you have Newt Gingrich. Sure. There's a lot of ideologues, but then as we kind of move down into, you know, it's like, how many jobs need to be filled? Like thousands and thousands, right? So my hope is that some great people will end up in his administration and we need that. And we can't criticize those people if they end up making the decision to join ranks. I think that's what Obama did brilliantly. It was that he didn't lead with agenda.

He really did try and reach across the aisle. And I almost to a fault. And yeah, I know. I think it was to a fault, but I think it's, I just hope Trump will, will look towards some democratic Congress,

Congress men and women and work together. Yeah. I mean, the thing is, is that, again, this is a call to spiritual awakening. That's what it is at its core. Because no matter how long we talk or how many experts we discuss this with, your life is not going to be resolved in this political outcome. But what I am feeling, what I feel is true is that you will be brought to your knees in in reverence, in respect and in the trauma that is part of transformation coming into fruition. Of course, none of us like that. We always want it to be easy. We want it to be peaceful. But let's face it, all great change is usually born out of extreme hardship. And I

wish, you know, grace and ease on every being. But what I really am speaking to is that this is an opportunity for each being to understand that your source is your direct connection to the greater force from which you incarnated. You are not connected to this political party as, you know, the means to your energy source. So I think it is a call to really go inside, to develop a meditation practice, to really go inside, to develop a meditation practice, to start practicing yoga, and to really, really connect with what is residing in your heart. How were you created? Because each one of us was created in a perfect blueprint. We all have something unique to share.

There is a lot of action that will be required. It is a call to action right now. But what we need to be able to access is the neutrality and the zero point between positive and negative, between right and left, between Democrat and Republican. We need to anchor into this powerful Jedi warrior energy of neutrality. And we need to work swiftly and we need to work intelligently and responsibly. So I'm not advocating that you go sit down in your yoga room and, you know, just go, everything's going to be fine. But there is a way to be a warrior in action from a detached manner. And it's a true service to transforming, to creating a better way, and to rooting out some of these very imbalanced,

negative, predatory, traumatic paradigms that have been ruling our planet. So please take the call. We need you and be gentle and kind and loving to yourself and to others. Yeah, I think that particularly holds weight if you're experiencing anxiety right now or fear. Like, I'm a privileged white guy. know what i mean like a lot of these words coming out of my mouth are easier are are easier to say because i'm not an undocumented you know immigrant i'm not uh a member of of a racial minority uh i'm not feeling the level of persecution that i think a lot of people are feeling so because and cause then out of our privilege, we need, we need to be working the hardest. Yeah, I think that's true. And I think that,

but I think the meditation practice and all of these kinds of principles that Julie articulated can be very helpful for some, for all of us, of course, but for particular, in particular, for somebody who is experiencing that level of, you know, distraughtness. Is that a word? Distraughtness? Feelings of being distraught. out there, whether they be, you know, racial minorities or women or what have you, the people that are feeling the impact of this most heavily, that we're a means of support. I think that that's beautifully put. I think it's almost like a two-pronged approach. It's like taking care of yourself and not letting being overcome with negative energy or depression and sitting it out, sitting out in your life and not being living, really trying to find a way to live to

the best of your potential and meditate and eat healthy and sustainably and organically. And at the same time, being engaged and being active because right now so many vital things are in our world are under threat we are about to see a potential threat against reproductive rights which if a right-wing supreme court justice is put in, which it's looking like it will be, which will shape the court for decades, that could potentially mean the overturning of Roe v. Wade. I mean, women in this country may not be able to get an abortion. That is dead serious. That could happen in the next couple years. I mean, four years.

Who knows? We're looking at you brought up immigrants. How many millions of immigrants could potentially be deported out of this country and have their homes and family lives ripped apart? Kids right now who are afraid that their parents could be shipped back to Mexico or Syria. And, you know, we're seeing intense sexism, intense racism. Look at how many shootings we had this past year, Black Lives Matter, which have been happening, which has been happening for decades.

We just know about it because of social media. We need to deal with mass incarceration. We need to deal with being more tolerant of people of other races and seeing them for who they really are and stopping jailing them for petty, petty crimes and having a tiny bit of marijuana. It was great to see that marijuana legalization passed in a few different countries. There was a lot of state referendum victories. Yeah, many. And how about free and free speech and legitimate news sources coming under attack? I mean, Trump said on the campaign trail and continues to say, I don't know if he continues to say this, I hope he doesn't, that he was going to reopen up libel laws and potentially sue journalists that were essentially attacking him. and potentially sue journalists that were essentially attacking him.

First off, there's no libel law to even open. It doesn't exist. The First Amendment free speech is alive and well. Or is it? I don't know if it is. And right now what you can do is subscribe to the New York Times, subscribe to the Washington Post, read and subscribe to ProPublica, good sources of investigative journalism, good reporting, which are based in fact, not misinformation. I don't

have any ties to these people. I'm an artist, but I believe that we need to have, we need to return to a moral and ethical center that is true and just. And there's so many other organizations that people right now, if you're wondering what you can do, you know, that, cause that's, I think the biggest question, if we could talk for a minute about that. I think that, you know, it's, it's, it can feel right now in this moment with all the feelings that we're going through, this roller coaster ride that we've been on. What do I do? Who do I even look to, to tell me what I should, who should, who can I trust? Well, if you care about any of the organizations, or sorry, the causes that I just said, I can tell you a number of organizations that would be really amazing to help support like Planned Parenthood or the Center for Reproductive Rights. If you care about women's

issues and women's rights and abortion, you can report, you can help donate to the ACLU. You can help donate to the National Resources Defense Council who are working tirelessly to to the National Resources Defense Council, who are working tirelessly to help combat climate change. I did a PSA for them about the drought, which is still a very real thing in California. Hopefully we'll get some more rain this year. You can help donate to every town for gun safety and gun reform because we don't need to have people who haven't had extensive background checks with semi-automatic weapons, going into schools like Sandy Hook and killing 20 kids. There's a number of organizations out there, and I encourage everybody to take the little bit that you have. It can be $5, it could be $10, and if you have a little bit more, great.

Try and spend that, and you can start there, and then you can also, there's so many petitions out there that, that need to be signed. One of which is not allowing Myron Ebel to be in charge of the environmental protection agency. There's a petition going around right now about Steve Bannon, about Breitbart news and whether that's ethical, which people can sign onto. whether that's ethical, which people can sign on to. And there's also a number of state level democratic races that are really important. The North Carolina Attorney General

Roy Cooper, who is a pragmatic progressive, he needs help. He's only had by 1600 votes in the race for governor of North Carolina. And he's potentially, he's facing a very expensive recount. And he, right now he needs to raise a million dollars to ensure every vote counts. That's, that's a democratic race that you can support, or maybe it's standing rock. I don't know how many people who are listening even know that standing rock is going on because it hasn't been reported on in the mass media that they are finds its way into my uh social media feed in my bubble whatever algorithm it's definitely channeling that news to me but perhaps there's a lot of people out there that that don't know much about what's

going on there so maybe you could just articulate you know concisely what's happening there and the extent to which um the trump presidency is implicated in this through, I think he's got $500,000 invested in this pipeline. Yeah. I mean, I'm not an expert in what all of the ins and outs are of it, but in short, they are trying to put a pipeline in under indigenous ground. And similar to what i was saying before it's something that will potentially contaminate and not even potentially it will contaminate our aquifers and our water sources so people in the region won't have access to clean water and already don't have access to a lot of clean water they have been protesting it that look at how, what the way we've treated native Americans in the history of this country

is, is shameful at this point in time to, are we really dealing with this? Are they really doing that? Are they really doing that again? And yes, they are. There are thousands and thousands of people down in standing rock.

There was a, a protest very recently led by a activist celebrity shailene woodley you might know from the divergent movies trying to raise awareness about what's going on they are harassing protesters they are a man drove through the other day in a truck with a gun and fired it up into the air to get them out of the way these people need supplies they need help right now they're just trying to peacefully protest this pipeline from going in. So that's another organization. They actually shot a group of native children in their teens. Well, these are like rubber bullets. Aaron Schroed got shot. Aaron Schroed is a young

woman who ran for Congress this past year who I've been trying to get on the podcast. It's devastating. And they have an Amazon wishlist, which you can go to and help buy things like TP, you know, helping to put up a TP, helping to give them food and water and blankets. They have a defense fund. You can just easily Google this. This is an easy thing for someone to give five bucks. Right. And a lot of the resources that you've mentioned and websites, et cetera, were you and Zoe sent out an email the other day with all this information and with hyperlinks. So I'm going to put that in the show notes for people that are interested. So if they want to take action or feel compelled to do something, that there is an avenue and a channel for that activism and that voice. Yeah.

And also very, very obvious thing that you could do today. You could even do it tonight. You could do it at your next meal. You could adopt a plant-based diet and just eat plants on your plate. Just by doing that, you're saving an animal's life and you are saving thousands of gallons of water

and you are contributing in a very powerful way to healing and preserving our beautiful, beautiful environment of mother earth. Please do not underestimate the power of that act. We must vote with our dollars and please shop organic and as much with farmers as possible. This is a powerful, powerful act you can take. It will also start to bring you into resonance with your deeper hearts design. And you will start to feel more powerful, more energized, and more connected with who you really are. are. Right. To exercise self-governance over your consumer choices, to exercise greater responsibility with respect to your actions, aligning your actions with your values, and making sure that you're maintaining your own health.

You cannot be of service to other people unless you're first taking care of yourself, which is, you know, Daryl, you were talking about that a little bit earlier. We don't want to be reactive. We don't want to be, you know, sort of impulsively responding to situations and people. And in order to be able to be a vessel for change and for hope and for positive and for positivity, we have to be very conscious of our energy, right? We have to take care of ourselves and we have to understand the divining line, the distinction between judgment and discernment, of course.

Right. So those are two different things. How do we exercise those in the world? And it's easier said than done. It's tricky and it's different for all of us. But with respect to myself and what I take away from this and what I can commit to and put into action immediately is expanding my bubble is leading with love is extending, um, you know, my voice in a compassionate way to try to invite other voices in and understand

them and to make sure that those around me who do feel threatened, feel safe, at least when I'm around, or at least that I have their back. Make your voice heard. I think, uh, one of the best other ways that you can really make a difference. If you actually believe in a lot of the causes that we're talking about is to

also call your local Congressman, pick up the phone how easy is it takes two minutes takes two minutes out of your day i know it's uncomfortable to call what you think is a stranger but we're all in this together when i was trying to help lobby against monsanto and a lot of the big biotech corporations when we were making consumed at every turning point, I would pick up the phone when the dark act was trying to be passed. And I would call my representative and I would explain to them, I don't think that this is good for the environment. I don't think this is good for my health. I don't think that this is safe yet. Why are we passing this? Let's do more research.

And we can do the exact same thing right now. And I just want to point to what Emily Ellsworth of Salt Lake City, Utah said recently, she spent six years working for a congressman and she said to break through the filter bubble, one of the most effective things you can do is to pick up the phone and call your congressman because they have to legally talk to you. and call your congressman because they have to legally talk to you. And if their phones are jammed all day with people who care about an issue, then that is put higher up on the agenda for them to discuss. They don't want to have to be clogged all day with angry,riolic you know a mob of people about an issue they want people to they actually want to solve things and get things done so that

if you really care about reproductive rights or the environment any of the issues we talked about i really encourage you to look up who is your who is your senator who is your representative and call them and fight for what you believe in but you don't have to do that you don't have to be angry you can do it in compassion of course no do it in a do it in a that's of course that's what i mean keep your neutrality is to do it in a way that and that's the way i did it too i i literally led with my heart and it's not about it's not about shouting at the top of your lungs it's a, it's, it's honestly just about what you truly believe in is the right thing and the best thing for, for the world and the environment. And you, and you do that with, with compassion and with respect.

If you don't know who your local representative is, your Congressman, your Senator, or your state representatives, the easiest way to find that out is to go to whoismyrepresentative.com and you can find out all the information. They have a website for that. That's awesome. For people like me, that's great. Um, yeah, I think also that, you know, uh, knowledge is power, you know, and having your eyes wide open and being able to see what is transpiring in front of you is intelligent. And it gives you the information to steer your own life and the lives of your loved ones and the lives of your community in a positive direction. So by no means does having a spiritual perspective mean that you do not look at what is happening in the events.

It's more the mastery of our emotional state and how we come to an event and how we can shift things for a higher result, a higher vibrational experience and ultimate transformation. We must remember that all humans are brothers and sisters, no matter race, gender, religion, hair color, artistic flair, whatever it is. We are all one. We are not disconnected from the acts of the human collective. And we are also not separate from our animals and also from the planet that we are riding on. This requires for me a devotion, a reverence, a respect for the fact that we have been given the privilege of being in a body at all, of being in a life at all. And so the question for all of us at this very profound moment in history is, will you take the call? Are you ready to stand up and take

responsibility for your soul, for your heart, and for your life? You were created for a specific expression. And this is the moment now. We are the ones we've been waiting for. No one else is coming. There's no one that's going to float down from the sky and change things. It is up to us. And if you take personal responsibility, if you devote your life to a spiritual practice, to connecting with something beyond yourself. And you have the courage to look within your own self for any imbalanced energies that are running there. Jealousy, greed, predatory, sexual imbalance, addictions. You can understand this may be your own experience. It may be an ancestral program that you were born with. But in any case, these things can be cleared. They are not you. The

truth of who you are is a beautiful, powerful emanation of creation. And we need you to be more of who you are. So I wanted to offer that. Beautifully put. Thank you for that. Daryl, any last thoughts before we wrap this up? I think what Julie just said to sum it up is this was the biggest universal wake-up call I've ever experienced. And a lot of people in their lifetimes have ever experienced. It's a moment in time lifetimes have ever experienced.

It's a moment in time for people to make the decision, do you want to live or do you want to die? Do you want this environment to flourish or do you want it to be destroyed? Do we want to include other points of view in our lives and accept and embrace other? in our lives and accept and embrace other, or are we going to continue to separate ourselves and remain kind of, uh, a little bit more, I don't want to say selfish, but, you know, not be open to, uh, experiencing love. So I think the time is now. Don't sit back. Get active. Pay attention. And lead with love. We talk about divine moments a lot on the podcast. This is certainly one of those.

It is a divine moment. And we're all being called. And we're all being tested. And where we go from here, how we go from here, how we carry ourselves into the world, the decisions that we make, the interactions that we have, the products that we choose to purchase, the words that come out of our mouth, I think are all much more important than perhaps they were a couple of weeks ago. And so it's also a call to action to be diligent and conscious with how you expend that energy. And, uh, before we wrap, before we completely sign off here, I just wanted to note that, um, Daryl and Zoe opened up their home

the other night, uh, for friends and, um, and friends of friends to drop by so that we could all kind of sit together and share our thoughts and our feelings and, and, uh, our opinions and what's going on with us, uh, over the recent, uh, current events. And that was a really beautiful thing. It was very healing. And I got a lot of clarity and I got certain questions answered and a lot of insight about how to, how to move forward. And I think that, you that, first of all, thank you for doing that. That was really beautiful. Thank you.

Amazing. You're welcome. It's beautiful. But that's scalable and replicable, right? Anybody can do that. So if you're feeling alone, if you're feeling confused, if you're not sure about how to proceed, maybe host one of these events at your house, just a potluck, or it can be something super casual, invite some friends over and just, you know, orient an evening around having a free, open, nonjudgmental discussion about what's happening.

And I think you will find it to be a fantastic experience. Yeah, and share tools and processes for taking care of yourself, for recipes and also ways that you can get involved so that you can become a creator of your life. Absolutely. Humanity for Progress is another great organization to join into if you're looking for one to join, just, uh, to join just like Rich is saying, but create your own too. That's great. All right. Well, thank you both for being courageous enough to go on record here. Thank you. Thank you so much, Rich. Uh, I appreciate it. Uh, thank you

for listening and particularly thank you to any Trump supporters who have made it this far in the conversation. I applaud you. I welcome you to my show, and I encourage you to reach out to me. I'd love to talk to you in the spirit of expanding my bubble. I appreciate you guys, the audience out there, for allowing me to take a little bit of a new direction with the podcast this week. And like I said, we'll be back late Sunday night with our normal programming. And that's it. Peace. Plants. Namaste. Thank you.