Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 145: Island Time With Tom Sexton (w/ special guest Josh Olson)

Episode Date: May 7, 2020

Screenwriter Josh Olson (@joshuarolson, @TheMoviesMadeMe) stopped by the trillbilly quarantine zone to talk Hollywood, celebrity culture, and the notorious RBG. Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

you all cheer out your windows at 8 p.m in hollywood it's it's a thing what please please elaborate on this the uh i guess they're doing all over the country at different times but yeah we noticed it i heard it was happening and then early on uh my wife nancy noticed it first we're like what the hell's going on you open the window and you can hear all this noise they're sending off fireworks too and uh the first couple. Now they've stopped because the fireworks scare animals. But yeah, 8 o'clock every night. There's something about it. It's like everyone's just cheering and banging pots and pans.

And the other night, somebody – and it took a minute to realize that it was live, not the Hendrix recording. Somebody started playing the Star Spangled Banner on an electric guitar. I go, banner on an electric guitar. In Kentucky, we're just using, we've changed our porch light bulbs to green. I mean, I haven't, but my neighbors did. What's the significance? I don't know.

Yeah, what's happening? The governor says that it's the color of compassion and empathy. Perhaps he missed the memo on envy. So he's asking people, well, it started out just when there's a death, a COVID death, but basically there is every day now, at least one.

So now it's like they light up the governor's mansion green. Tom and Terrence are so unplugged from kentucky politics at this point absolutely i'm i'm more plugged into like ohio politics than i am kentucky politics not me i'm in the belly of the beast i just choose to you know what we're what they're doing down, and I live in a pretty nice neighborhood, is somebody's, like, been shooting off guns every night, and it freaks me out because I'm like, where exactly are you doing this? Like, I live eight steps from a Kroger.

You know what I mean? So I don't know. And the thing, I learned this many years ago, the thing a lot of people don't know this, when you fire a gun in the air, the bullet comes down. It goes somewhere. I've had one of these. It comes down fast. Pro tip.

So like in the old days before a car race, they would shoot the gun off. That would eventually come down and just nail somebody. Well, those they would use starter pistols. They're just blanks. Yeah, those were blanks. Okay, those were blanks. That clears up one source of my

anxiety at night. Oh, God. Speaking of which, I gotta tell y'all about my week in therapy. Oh. Yeah, let's hear it well i'm sorry tanya do you finally have a therapist uh i have two halves of a therapist and they kind of combined make one so just give you a little background josh so i started last or i guess two weeks ago with this guy and um i told you you know yeah i remember you told us this yeah i was telling i was telling the guy i was like dude yeah i was like you know i deal with like health anxiety and strangely i'm

in a pretty good place for this covet stuff but i could see it getting off the rails here at some juncture and he's like where where did that really start at and i said well the first time it really set in was when i was young and i heard magic johnson's announcement and i just knew that like me and everybody i love was going to get aids that was just the way it was so i'm like i thought like you know he had something you know really novel to say and he goes well you know magic johnson was on the download don't you like he had the intimate details what does he mean by that huh what does he mean by that like he was secretly sleeping with me yeah oh that's why obviously allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. Yeah. Well, so anyway.

Was that the big rumor at the time? Oh, yeah. I think like Carl Malone and some other people in the NBA were saying that. Like nobody wanted to play with him and all this shit. But I don't think it was like really widespread. Actually, I think that was the first time everybody thought, well, okay, this is like a heterosexual disease too, you know. Is that maybe why they called John stockton like the cia agent is it didn't they call john stockton the cia agent i don't think where am i getting this from i don't know i've never heard john stockton there's a lot of things i've heard john stockton be called and the CIA agent's not one of them. All right, don't listen to me. Are you talking about Carl Malone, the mailman?

No, I don't know why, for some reason, I had thought John Sockton was a CIA agent. I'm sorry. I'm blushing right now because I'm genuinely embarrassed. I used to listen when I'd drive to meetings. Now I listen when I walk my dogs. And this is me maybe a third to half the time listening to your show, and it just suddenly dawned on me. I get to do this right now.

I'm walking around going, who's John Stockton? Exactly. That's my line, Josh. Okay. John Stockton. It suddenly dawned on me. You are voices in my head, but I actually get to ask you these questions. This is how you have to do it. Now, for listeners

who might not know, let's just clarify who Stockton is. John Stockton is the NBA's all-time leader in assists and steals. Anyway, this is not about... But played with carl malone right yeah he was two

parts of the utah you know the other big part of the utah jazz teams of the 90s anyway well maybe i got maybe hold on maybe i just need to explain myself maybe i got lost in some conspiracy theory rabbit hole in the 90s and had come to the conclusion that john stockton was a spook as they call them so what's going to happen here is i'm going to come out. Anyway. Sorry, continue. So I get to session two last night, which the first red flag here was that he was supposed to schedule it at 9 a.m. and he scheduled it at 9 p.m.

And then showed up and I was like, he was like, man, is this time like, you know, like, do you really want to meet in the nighttime like this? I was like, no, is this time like, you know, like, do you really like want to meet in the nighttime like this? I was like, no, I think this is your doings, my friend. So anyway, he's sitting there talking and I'm talking more about coronavirus and stuff. And he goes, man, listen, my wife's a biologist. She works at this hospital in Cleveland. This ain't shit, man. He's like, there's more people dying of the flu and all this stuff.

And in my head, I'm thinking, I got to find a new guy. What? He went on this tangent. He goes, you're young. You got no comorbidities. You're going to be fine. I'm like, yeah, you're about three to four weeks behind on your information, my friend. Oh, my God.

I do like the tech, though. It's basically like if you don't have any words of solace or comfort, just be like, it's not that big a deal. Yeah. Don't worry about it. Like, literally, don't even think about it. Well, that's what he was encouraging me to do. And at this point, I feel like most people's biggest fears aren't even think of it well that's what he was encouraging me to do so and at this point i feel

like most people's biggest fears aren't even really that they are going to get the virus it's that someone they have to care for is going to get it society will collapse as a result yeah total total collapse they have they can't pay their rent there's like so many other anxieties stemming right now he's like ah shit, ah, shit, the flu is worse. The scariest shit was like hearing about asymptomatic young people having strokes because of it. That shit is fucked up. Yeah, having no idea and just going on about their business. Yeah, fucked up.

So anyway, that's not even the weirdest thing that happened to me in therapy this week. The weirdest thing is my landlord calls me. And she's like, you know, I hate to do this to you during quarantine, but I got to send these plumbers over. We got like old clay pipes underneath the house and they're like cracking and leaking and stuff. And we have to do something about it so it doesn't fuck the house up. So I'm like, God god damn i'm just gonna let three strange people come in my house and like breathe everywhere and it's just setting off all my hypochondria triggers so she's also a therapist and she was like called me like 2 30 on saturday

afternoon she's like you know i've was feeling bad about your concerns there and i just wanted to offer you some like a free therapy session and in my mind i'm like therapy session from a landlord i'm good but then i was like no this is content yeah i'll take you up on that that's that sounds great so i go in there i gotta turn my camera on for this. I got to show you all so you all know the technique because it's a visual thing. So she has me in the living room, and she makes me do the bird man hand sign, you know, the brrrr. Oh, my God. And she goes, put it up to your chest. She goes, close your eyes.

And she goes, now you're the director of your movie, your own movie. Remember this. And then she starts making me tap like this on either side with my eyes closed. And she goes, I want you to go find your traumas. It's you and your younger self. So it was like a scout team with me and like eight-year-old me, an old fat ass just going around trying to find my bad memories she goes every time when you find one of those bad memories stop doing the tapping

take a deep breath big exhale and then let your younger self take that memory wad it up and throw it in a pile and so i did this over the course of my life and really i wasn't thinking anything i was like this is so goddamn weird i didn't even find like i wasn't even thinking about my traumas or anything at the end she's like now you and your younger selves are on an island and there's like water fountains there and there's like the music that you like is playing over these speakers it's nice and everything you like is there now go burn the bridge to your old life and so i burned the bridge to my old life and i'm just stuck on an island with my eight-year-old self and my 14-year-old self and my dog that i lost in the divorce settlement

and that was that. She was like, do you feel better? I was like, what is... I need to know. Do you feel better? I had the worst panic attack of my life the next day. Absolutely. That's what I would have predicted.

I have so many questions. This woman is licensed, and she thought in one hour it was a good idea to send you into a room with every trauma you could remember with my eight-year-old in one fucking session one hour you know the beating on your own chest you know the picture i have with like the mushroom cut from when i'm like eight years old yeah so it was that guy and then the scrawny me that just, like, jacked off all the time. Like, going and finding, like, every bad thing that ever happened to me and putting it in a pile. Yeah, I'd say you did have the worst panic attack of your life after that. What a fucking coot.

I say all this to say. You better get rid of both of these people. I say all this to say, if somebody ever offers you something called art therapy, sounds really nice. I like art. It's not what you think it is. She said that 85% of the people that take the art therapy never have panic attacks again after the fifth session. And after session one, I had the worst one yet. Wow.

Jesus. Well, now, Trillbillies, we are back down to zero therapist sounds like you know that's interesting maybe like the specific sort of demographic that makes up her clientele just have no traumas at all so they just they they enter an empty room or an empty island really the island that they enter in their room or an empty island, really. The island that they enter in their minds is, they're probably all rich people, so it's probably the Jeffrey Epstein Island. So they're probably totally at home. They're totally comforted immediately. It's the only people that would suggest sending a 34-year-old person to an island with an

8-year-old and a 14-year-old. Oh, no. So you're saying they're like, she's sending like 40-year-olds to go spend time with their 30-year-old self who was traumatized by the time the maid was an hour late. That's right. Passive-aggressive emails. Exactly. elite that's that's right that guy passive aggressive emails exactly yeah like about how one time they had to mow the lawn or take the trash out they're like yeah oh shit man have you ever actually had to change your own flat tire man it's you know yes many times i'll fuck you up i'm

kidding many many times have y'all read this shit about like people that are having to actually do household chores for the first time and they're like really fucked up michelle and i read it and like these people's realization at how hard their nannies and housekeepers were working and teachers yeah oh certainly teachers even my sister is like what the fuck they're more mad about all the work that their kids are having to do at home but yeah it's i mean these people i mean and you know they have like huge maximum capacity dishwashers anyway they're not even really having to hand wash dishes no they're having to load the dishwasher for the first time yeah do cups go on the top i read one i read one who's who had bags of trash that were piled up because they didn't know where to take the trash

holy shit she said i still don't know i still don't know where the that was a business actually they had had to lay off all their staff or she was like a nurse she was she was a dentist or something and she had had to send all of her staff away. She's like, I still don't know where the trash goes. It's piled up in the back room. We, at a non-profit I worked at one time that shall not be named, we had an intern that shall not be named. And she was very wealthy. And she did not know you had to pay a power bill.

Not only did she not know how to pay it, she did not know you had to pay it. She didn't understand the concept of the power bill? No. No. Interesting. It was absolutely mind-blowing. And you're working at a place that literally takes care of coal miners who produce... I said it till not

be named. You just doxed it, bro. Well, that doesn't really narrow it down in Eastern Kentucky. That's true. I gotta say, in the defense of these these poor people i i you know um uh when i was starting out man i was just like i was i was broke on my ass i lived in a flop house for a long time where you just rented a room and and you know it worked and i was always terrible it was mostly because i never had any money so i was always late paying my bills but i never quite got into the habit of paying them regularly because it was just um it was such a

rare thing when i could and then when i finally and then when i finally started making money i just had no idea how to do it anyway so it was like i was still getting these notices going we're gonna cancel your thing and i'd be like how is this possible i have money like you actually have to write checks i agree with you josh i have to say man i i let all my bills i get i get i i pay my bills when i get one in the mail that's like outlined in red that's when i know it's time i have to you know what i mean there you go yeah but it's crazy like it's crazy that there's a level of wealth like once you get to it you hire people to manage it you know what i mean like you have to hire accountants and then like they manage your specific i mean big i mean like you know working class people use accountants but i mean like

people who manage wealth portfolios investments you know shit like that you hire someone to make you more money just by their knowledge they don't even do any work it just invest things yeah yeah let me call my yes you call up you go bye bye bye right yeah exactly and i bet rich people and like money managers are able to weasel out of late fees too. Because they're like, oh, you know, I had it. I just didn't give it to you at the right time. They're like, yeah, it's fine. I've tried to weasel out of so many late fees.

And I'm currently, I know I've talked on the podcast before about going toe to toe with the water company. Which I did just make a total ass of myself because I went in there and was like I'm not paying these late fees blah blah blah and it turned out the late fees were only $3 so that I just paid I will not be assessed the principal I will not pay these because it was like a $94 bill and then I was like give me

what I owe without the late fees and she was like $91 okay fuck alright I'll give you the whole thing but now as as you all know i was out of water josh you may not know this but i had no water for eight different days no you were the last one i was listening to is you were you had already filled up the bathtub in anticipation well i'm glad yeah i'm glad you bring that up because apparently i filled up my bathtub so many times i used 300 extra gallons of water last month, even though I didn't have water for eight days.

And they have upped, they've almost doubled my water bill. What the fuck? In a month, for a month that I didn't have water for eight days. Stay tuned for this, my friends, because this story's not over. I don't know what I'm going to do, but it's going to be drastic. Yeah, here's the thing is you've got to live like me. I don't pay the bills because I go out to the meter, and just when they cut me off, I just turn it back on, and they never come back and check it.

Well, Tom, please, come. I know you know how to hook this water back up. I'm going to need you to come hook me back up. Yours is tough because yours runs on electricity. Exactly. There's no way in goddamn hell we're paying an extra water bill when we went without water for eight days. Yeah. You come out of the goddamn mountains every once in a while.

You fucking hill jack. I do. I go to town once a week. I do. I go to town once a week. I'm just pathologically incapable of being on time to anything, paying any kind of bill, any of that shit. I don't know why.

I just can't. I just can't. Interesting. I've never noticed. That's why I'm such a great artist, though. Cannot mail a t-shirt. Tom has saved my grace. I've walked right into a bear trap here, it appears.

Josh, did you get your t-shirt? I actually did. I do support your Patreon, but I did not buy a t-shirt. Wow. What the fuck? You think you know a guy too oh well um i guess we should introduce our guest for this week uh we have screenwriter and podcaster josh olson um thank you you're doing all right josh i'm doing great man i'm so excited to be

here because i uh how tom how did we even i don't even know how we ended up probably through Twitter, right? Yeah, I think here's how we met. So Josh is perhaps most famous for being a non-reader of fucking scripts, and I asked him to read my fucking script, and then that was. That was right. That's what kicked him off. And the first thing he said to me was, you know what my thing is, don't you?

It's not even the Oscar nomination. What was Tom's script? I haven't even seen the script. Yeah, you have. What is the script? Oh, yes, the treatment. I don't even know what a treatment is. What is a treatment?

Is it like an abstract? Like an outline. Like an outline. Like an outline. I see. Like a pitch. A pitch. Just let me go ahead and say Josh is way more supportive than Terrence was. Tom actually just mailed him some scribbles on a bar napkin and asked for feedback.

He was like, yeah, man, this is great. Yeah, just keep plugging, buddy. It was good. It was good. I liked it. No, it's, but no, I feel like we connected over something else and then that came up very quickly. Seizing an opportunity.

I don't even remember. I feel like Tom and I aren't good editors for each other's work I feel like it's never really like I mean we always show each other each other's work but I don't feel like we ever really make any edits we're both just like looks good man I've seen Tom a lot of shit

that he's just said looks good man oh that's bad that's bad I got a couple writer friends we're all like you know we're all pros and and you don't want to hand your stuff out to a lot of people but you always want to get fresh eyes and i give like my friend dan waters who wrote heathers who's an amazing writer and i give him you know i'll give him a script or he'll give me one and bottom line is like i wouldn't be giving this to you if it was done i want to make it better so your job is to go in and and this is where it gets tricky is like

don't tell me what you do with it it's like what do you think i'm doing and i'm missing and it's like you got to be harsh and and there's a weird sensibility that actually enjoys having like tough notes thrown out i don't know it's like it's it's very masochistic but yeah you gotta be you gotta be tough you gotta be mean gotta be mean uh see that's the thing like i i don't really have a problem with like political analysis journalism like that stuff like the editing process is generally pretty easy but if i'm like writing some kind of fiction work i would be very sensitive to even the slightest bit of criticism or pushback because it's all you it's all it's not just you

reporting on something yeah it's like the way you said this actual factual thing it's all something you've created in your mind and right right more like a critique of you yeah i can see that here here this is my heart and my soul tell me what you think of it yeah it's too fucking long yeah that's right i sent terrence i wrote a i wrote a horse racing novel back around 2013 i sent it to terrence and i think he got through two pages of it i was like yes it was good man uh well you had the setting right it was set in new mexico because both me and tom had just read that there was like a big new york times expose on racehorse uh horse racing you remember that tom yeah um and like one some of the worst actors like some of the worst horse owners and racers. I don't know.

It was in New Mexico. Horseman. Horseman. And so I remember it being said in New Mexico, and I remember being like, wow, this is a nice little tradeoff. You got the setting right, at least. My friend Nick worked on a horse farm in New Mexico. It was the same farm that produced Mind That Bird, who won the Kentucky Derby, like, maybe seven or eight years ago or something like that.

So on this same farm, they did peanuts, which I didn't even know they did in New Mexico. But that's what Nick's job was. He didn't fool with the horses. He did the peanuts. And I guess Nick ended up fucking the guy's wife that, like, owned the whole shit. And I guess Nick ended up fucking the guy's wife that owned the whole shit. And one day he said, he came, picked me up in this big dually truck like we do every morning. He said, we were going out past where I guess they do the peanuts at.

He said, and we kept going and kept going. And I was like, damn, he's taking me to the end of the property. This is kind of strange. He said, he's being nice to him the whole time, all that stuff. He said, next thing I know, I turned around and looked at him. I had a shotgun stuck in my face. He said, get your shit or I'll blow your fucking brains out. And so he walked to an Arby's and called somebody to come get him.

I said, take him to the airport. Wow. Was that in the novel? You should at least try to transpose that into fictional form, Tom. Did you pay him for his story, Tom? No, I didn't, but I'm going to have to use that. But, you know, knowing Nick, I'm sure there's probably, he probably took a few liberties with that,

but you don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. Well, you know, I feel like now that you bring this up, novel writing would in some ways be easier than screenwriting or playwriting in some ways because I would be even more uncomfortable with people reading my lines, like the dialogue I wrote. Like I could see actors like acting it out and looking at each other like this is stupid why would this character say this or something do you ever get that kind of like nervousness is that a thing that exists to me that would tear me apart nope no you're that confident no no it's i don't know man there's there's uh there's uh uh i think a novel would be more personally revealing potentially. Interesting. But, yeah, no, there's nothing – look, when it's – yeah, when you get good actors doing your lines, it doesn't – even if they're taking them somewhere you had no intention of them going, it's just –

That makes sense. Yeah. I honestly – it's like the greatest thing in the world um yeah they are talented in their artists in their own way right that makes a lot that makes a lot of sense yeah i actually what we were talking on um um and all you guys tom has been on each of you needs to come on the the west wing show as well because because god damn it it's it's i do a podcast called The West Wing Thing where Dave Anthony and I

Deconstruct each episode Of The West Wing in order for To discuss its terrible politics And Oh the show Yeah You love the show? I've watched the show and I would love

To hear people you need to we we have been we've we've had so few did you love the show when it was on uh i love i finished it so i don't know you know like i watched the whole fucking thing at some point you gotta have tanya on oh no we absolutely have to go it's been a few years ago but we've been trying to find a woman who will come on no you have to come on anyway we're trying to find a woman to come on who loves the show because we want to ask like we want to get someone who's strong and smart and and like gets the show and we're like how do you cope with i mean the astonishing misogyny on that show it's like it's we even have a theme song now for we spend 15 minutes just talking about this week's misogyny.

It's so insanely in your face. It's not like the usual subtle kind of, you know, just sexist culture. It's like Aaron Sorkin hates women and it just comes out. I know all these women who love the show. You're like, how are you? How is this work for you? Makes no sense. Oh, but I was talking about this analogy.

We were talking about Obama because it always struck me that, like, you think about Obama and it's like, you know, wherever you come down on him. Well, he gave great speeches, right? I mean, he was a great speaker. He'd listen to a talk. He'd feel. But how come no one can think of a single line from an Obama speech? Like, what's your favorite? What's your, you know, I've been to the mountaintop or, you know, we are all Berliners now.

Well, that's what happens when Jon Favreau, when Pod Jon is your speech writer. Right. So my point was like, he's not very good. He's just got this great actor doing his lines. Because I've had that experience where you're on a set and you know maybe it's a scene that you know not everything hits 100 and maybe you know that it's not quite there but no one else has noticed and you're hoping no one notices and then some actor comes on and he's doing your stuff and i've had this a couple times in my life and it's an amazing feeling

and you're sitting there and you go this is great who wrote it and you're like oh shit this is my terrible monologue this guy just figured out how to make it good and then it wrote it and you're like oh shit this is my terrible monologue this guy just figured out how to make it good and then it hit me and i was like oh my god that's barack obama and john favreau because those speeches aren't good yeah that's true you can there's nothing you can remember about obama speeches with any remarkable accuracy yeah i just yeah i remember when he gave there was like the racism one and the this and the i don't remember a single phrase i do remember his very first um i do remember his inaugural his inauguration speech and the reason i remember it is because i was in high park crying your eyes

out well he had the like this the star turning speech at the dnc like in 2004 but nobody can remember a line from that shit yeah and honestly the only thing i remember from the inaugural speech i remember lying in bed watching it feeling like ah we've arrived and my phone rings and and it's it's a really good friend of mine who's a lesbian heavy metal rock star and the two of us went did a lot of door-to-doors for Obama back in the day, back when we thought that.

And I'm sitting there and I'm getting all misty-eyed. And remember, he's running through like, you know, this is an America for the black, the white, the this, the that, the other. Every group of men. And I'm just going, ah. And she just sends me this text. It's like, what about us? And like he did not mention the lgbtq

community in his in his inaugural speech of interesting inclusion yeah that's true because he didn't that was the first time i'm sorry i was like that was the first time somebody popped my obama balloon and it's been downhill ever since yeah day one yeah Where were you when you gave up on Barack Obama? Yeah. Did y'all see the video of him endorsing Biden? Did y'all watch that? No. No.

Tom and I talked about it on an episode, but I think it's a very fascinating thing. I mean's he's essentially saying because he talks a little bit about bernie too but he's essentially saying like bernie ran the campaign that i would have run um but like those days are long gone and essentially like we have to throw in for biden It was very it was a very bizarre thing. It was basically just sort of this tacit acknowledgement that the Democratic Party has lost all vision and imagination and even will to change anything. kind of ran on that idea at this specific time when um the american public was just fed up with the republicans and conservatives and reactionaries and um and it's just really it's just this totally cynical statement because it he's saying like change is possible but look uh it's it doesn't

even make sense to run on that anymore you You have to run on the Biden thing. We have to run on the return to status quo. It's a very, in my opinion, it's a very fascinating document. It'll be viewed by future historians in a very fascinating way, I think. Wow. Yeah, now I gotta go back and look.

That's really depressing. It's pretty depressing. It's pretty depressing, but, I mean, there's nothing coming out of the Democratic Party right now that's pretty depressing it's pretty depressing but I mean there's nothing coming out of the Democratic Party right now that's not depressing I mean like we go ahead Tonya

my favorite Biden update has been that he's probably just gonna appoint his wife VP is that a real Dr. Jill yeah Dr jill's gonna be vp well whoopie whoopie nominated her for a surgeon general even though she's not a medical doctor she's not a medical doctor yes oh whoopie you know it is really it's astonishing how much the American spirit has been broken right now. Like, we don't have sports anymore.

There can't be any real cultural products because, are they filming movies, Josh? No. Can you even film a movie? No. So, I mean, there's nothing that Americans have to look forward to. Nothing. Except politics. That's it.

That's the only podcast well podcast right but you know i mean like it's a great time for podcasting golden age yes but it is it is a shame in the sense that like the only game in town right now mass entertainment is politics and um i guess it is entertaining at least i guess we can say that i guess you know that probably that actually is a good point if i looked at the political situation right now as more a fiction as like entertainment it would it would actually i could survive it much better than i am right now instead of viewing it as such horror i just like it's like i ignore the news i feel like a lot of people are on this cycle i like i ignore the news for a few days i have a few good days and i like

build my build myself up with a couple walks in the woods a few long baths a couple good meals i like get myself in a real good headspace and then i just read a bunch of news because i think i'm ready for it and i just tank like a like literally the titanic thing i just literally i tank to the bottom of the ocean immediately and then i'm just like mass texting the guy boy the boys won't hear from me for three days because i'm out having a good time and then they get like mass messages from me of just falling apart area falling the fuck apart because i've read a bunch of numbers that i had been avoiding for days oh god or like i only listen to our governor's speeches every few days you know but like you know not to not to harp on this not to retread well-worn ground but it really is a shame that in this moment where we have been broken culturally and otherwise

that politics is the only thing left that bernie would get out now i mean it's like i can't imagine a better time than right now because we're all i mean i don't know it's it it's another one of those things that it'll be a great what if but it's so insane it's it's like i can't even i i've i've i'm over you know there's all this talk about tara reed and all these people like you just want to put bernie back in and every time someone says that i go oh shit is that an option? Because I'm pretty much over that. I don't see Bernie getting back in. I've learned

to let go of that. Oh yeah, that's not happening. But I find myself now in a place where I'm like, just how about someone who's not Joe Biden? This guy, this is insane. This is the most beatable fucking person we could possibly have run. Well, here's the thing. I've completely disconnected from it totally like it's it's

to the extent that like seeing people um argue about like well you have to protect the supreme court and all this i feel like an alien i just feel like i'm looking at it like that's that's interesting like because i have no interest in it whatsoever at all i mean i just assume because i'm really not even hearing anything about it i just assume they're just kind of the the national election feels to me maybe it's just because i put my head in the sand totally possible but it seems like they've just put the whole thing on hold because now it's like what is biden it's like again the dems just think they have it it's like because they're insane they're not they are not logical beings like as a whole they've

become this brain dead i mean they're a brain dead death cult and it's it's clear to me now that the the biden and the whole dem the democrats their current strategy to deal with Tara Reade is to dip and dodge. They are literally taking the 2002 Tom Sexton route here and dip and dodge in every accusation and lie they can come up with. They're just going to avoid it. Let's just put the caveat there that I've not been accused of the same thing. I just want to say that. No, no, not the same accusation. But that's what I'm saying. I just want to say that. No, no, not the same accusation. But that's what I'm saying.

I just want to make sure that's out there. They're taking Tom's method of avoiding, you know, gambling problems, and that's how they're handling a very serious sexual assault accusation. They're fools. So weird. Did you just use Tom as an example?

A stand-in for Joe Biden? Jeez. That's low. That's bad strategy. Your depravity knows no bounds. Have you guys considered, like, couples therapy like Metallica did? Yes. Did Metallica do?

We can't find a good therapist we got him here did you all get letters i got a personally signed letter from donald trump this week did y'all get yours oh yeah i did and it made me nervous because i was like fuck irs letter it automatically triggers heart palpitations in me and then i was like oh it's just trump doing a victory lap what was it was this the checks that he signed or well we are i'd already got my check direct deposit but weeks later i this week i get a let we get letters in the mail from the irs i immediately had already decided whatever was in that i was blaming it on tom whatever was in that, I was blaming it on Tom. Whatever was in that IRS letter.

Probably safe bet. But it was a letter personally signed by Donald Trump that was letting me know that he was personally responsible for that $1,200 check that I got. I had never

been so relieved to hear from Donald fucking Trump. Might be honest with you. Like, they saved all that money not having to print and mail checks by doing direct deposit, and then they just did it anyway. Yeah. Un-fucking-believable. How much money was spent

sending that stupid fucking letter? Did it come via the post office? Yeah. Yeah, and while at the same time, he's getting ready to privatize all that shit. I was like, that might be the way around to remind him that if he does that, they can't keep sending

you those letters telling you that he's responsible for all the good things in your life. Yeah, that's true. But, you know, there's that interesting, then there's that's true but you know is it's there's that interesting then there's that that covid factor you know who knows what the fuck's gonna happen in november these guys could all be dead by then that's true i mean presumably they're gonna have to go out and campaign some more that's what that's what's that gonna look like you know are they though do they go i mean do you get wasn't that the weirdest thing that like right

after bernie dropped out like all those democrats just immediately got up and got to work shitting all over the left yeah don't you want to like now you guys have to go to work like go knock doors make phone calls and they just stepped up their like anger at us which is so weird but i think it's because like none of them none of them are prepared for like what you have to do to you know you gotta you gotta call people up and you gotta make them excited about joe biden and i'm honestly i i'm i'm so fucking horrified by donald trump like if i if i had an answer to that i'd do it if i could come up with an argument i would write it i'm a good writer i would send it out to people like here's what you say to people

to get them excited about joe biden but what the fuck do you say to people there's not one see if hollywood can't even come up with a a legitimate uh a legitimate stance for joe biden nobody fucking can a good speech i know i know it's terrible well i mean you remember that hilarious article, we talked about it at one point on the show, about how after Super Tuesday, his team, you remember how he disappeared for a few days? Yeah.

And nobody knew where the fuck, I mean, he does this periodically, but the first time he really did it. Oh, when he was setting up his podcast? Yeah, yeah, well, I think he had just gone into quarantine, or this was at the very beginning. This was after Super Tuesday, and it was the week that they held the first pandemic primary, and he disappeared. And everybody was asking what happened.

Some people were speculating that he had just literally died. Some people like us. Some people like us. um other people thought people like us something like us um but it it turned out that what had actually happened was he his team was racking their brains like in a hot basement somewhere probably trying to figure out how to pivot from joe uh uncle the candidate to Uncle Joe the president. And it was just such a hard, like, spin. They had to literally recreate, you know, an entirely new character. Because, like, I mean, all through the primary,

Joe was running as this sort of, like, kooky, kind of, like, funny guy. You know what I mean? Like, he kind of had this, like, sort of like kooky kind of like funny guy. You know what I mean? Like he kind of had this like sort of meme brand where he would wear the sunglasses and stuff. Yeah, listen, fat. Like that stuff. But then like they had to make him presidential. Did y'all see this thing where trump's in the honeywell mask factory and they're playing guns and roses live and let die yes is that not the darkest like you couldn't

have written that and yeah he's not wearing a mask in a mask factory it's i'm sure that was one of the workers who has since been fired Gosh damn You know this motherfucker Made everybody go get tested Right before he came in without the mask You know what I'm saying He's not just going there raw dogging it Well Mike Pence did

In a COVID wing of a hospital Fucking idiot Is he still going West Point? Is he still going to go talk at West gonna go talk at west point is that happening i don't know about this trump like he just stated like a week or two ago they're like well west point wants me to come talk to them so i'm gonna go talk to

them and what's west point the the military academy and and he's gonna give their i think graduation speech or something and he's saying they want and it's like all all these cadets are being summoned back. They're going to have to be quarantined for two weeks before or after. So that's all.

I mean, it's an insane amount of shit they're going to be put through just to have this clown come talk to them. And a bunch of them were tweeting like, no, we don't want him. None of us asked him to come talk to us. So he just decided he was going to go give the speech at West point.

Amazing. They're making all of them quarantine for two weeks before graduation. Yeah. Just so they can meet Donald Trump. Oh, my God. That's incredible. Yeah. It's really weird.

It's kind of got this, like, monarchical vibe to it in the sense that it almost seems like because he's the president, he can't get it, and therefore you can be in his presence. It's like nobody else we would really afford that kind of... I mean, I guess we do with essential workers and stuff, but it's just a very weird idea. I don't know. It's true. It's true.

We should make a point of making sure that idea gets out there, that Donald Trump cannot get COVID by exposing himself to people who might have it. Make sure he knows that. It's a pretty dark week. The news has been pretty dark. But I watched this really bizarre thing on the New York Times website last night where they had...

Are y'all familiar with this woman, Amy Acton? Dr. Amy Acton. Have you seen any videos about her? I do not know Dr. Amy. She is... She's the part... I think she's the head of, like, the Ohio Department of Health.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. She's the one that first said that we're, like, drastically under-reporting the coronavirus numbers. And, like, she took some shit because she said, actually, Ohio probably has closer to 100,000 cases.

Like, in the earlier days of the quarantine. Yeah, yeah, that was her. That was the first, like, real headline. And she's, like, blown up. Since then, she's kind of like become the new fowl andy basheer of yeah yeah she's kind of like the andy basheer or

fowl or whatever of ohio and so she's become this like huge sort of celebrity and like i you know and and then this there was this new york times story they about it. It was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. It was like a nine-minute video where they were like, we watched 75 hours of Amy Acton delivering speeches to the public, and here's what we learned about her. And it was so bizarre. They were basically like, she says things. She uses pronouns like I and we.

I did not understand it at all it was the most it was like really like someone working from home bored as fuck like having no other news to report really um it was really bizarre but i don't know it was just another example of how um i guess we've like turned a lot of these sort of like politicians and leaders into our like parents because everybody likes her because she has like a mom vibe and the same people say the same thing about andy brashere he's like dad or whatever it's very fucking weird i don't know journalists are not well though let's just say that have you noticed well have you noticed this shit how do you like i i get to disappear for a few days and then i have to come back in and like

you know re you know just read a bunch of headlines they're having to write this shit down well it was in video form which was even weirder because they took hours to edit this thing it was fucking ridiculous it was can you imagine what a maniac that must turn you into they were like she prepares you for the bad news that's about to come they listed that as one of her good traits i was like everybody does that what the fuck like i don't have you guys noticed that that we now nobody wants good leaders have you noticed this everybody wants a good mother or father like it's this really bizarre thing it's like was it nichi that said if you don't have a good father you should really procure one it's less of me and tanya i guess he's or terrence for that man

but but really like i feel like in previous times i don't feel like people in the 20s were like yes we need daddy fdr they were like we need a strong leader to get us the fuck out of this situation. Now everybody's like, we need a good mom and a good dad to read to us and tell us everything is going to be okay. Get us a little kiss on the forehead in the evening time. Tuck us in a little. It's very sense to me that people are retreating into this uh like childlike state because we're all at home all the time we don't have we can't leave the house we really have no control over our lives anymore uh we are mostly confused we have no idea what the fuck's going on we're eating garbage out of a can again like i just feel like there are a lot of people just kind of

resorting back to their like childlike i don't know i mean i think this is this is gonna be um i mean it's certainly a mental health crisis that's an understatement but i just wonder at what how long is it gonna be before eight-year--old us is looking for this traumatic moment on an island in a fucking padded room? Well, I have noticed I've been eating an inordinate amount of treat and Vianney sausages. So I think there's something to your theory here. Yeah, Tom is in a perpetual state of orange ring around the mouth from Diet Sunkist. I'm eating way too many i'm eating way too many canned foods and freezer items right now i gotta tell you not good what are you guys you guys

finding because you all seem to be you know like dave anthony and i one of the things we bond over is we both tend to be kind of apocalyptic thinkers you know but since we this thing started i sleep like a fucking baby. Fascinating. It's like now the thing I've been terrified of my whole life is here. It's like, alright, this is what it looks like, I guess. Now I can sleep. I think that's what Tom's kind of having that reaction. Tom's, I mean, he's talking about how

he's just like always been this anxiety ridden hypochondriac. And I mean, he still is, I guess, but he's oddly calm these days. I am calm as a cucumber. I'm like, Josh, when this first kicked off, I remember it actually because it's the night we did the West Wing show. I went to bed and slept till like 11 o'clock the next day, and I'd never do that. Unless I'm like on Xanax or something.

Like, never. Wow. So it is. I'm having the worst dreams of my life. Really? I'm not sleeping at all. I'm having the worst dreams of my life Really? I'm not sleeping at all

Last night I had the worst dreams I've ever had That I can remember This morning I woke up And I was like please hold me I just can't even believe What's come out of what is in my head right now Michelle was just like Jeez

Were they personal or global? Both I'm not even gonna tell you anything about it but no you have to you can't tease us like that they were both like there were people in my bedroom that i was trying to like convince that the house was okay like they like it was a safe place to be it's like i'm trying to convince myself of this obviously um there was just crap is i mean it's like you know it's a typical dream where it's like nothing's linear and it's hard to even explain to anyone else and even in any succinct way what the fuck was going on but it was so many different scenes like there were multiple deaths and i and i was like having to console

people oh god it was fucking terrible i've heard a lot of people have been having really bad dreams it just seems like um i've seen a couple articles about it and stuff people have been having bad dreams their whole everybody's sleep patterns have changed yeah i'm worried it's this medicine this new medicine i'm taking you all told me that it's nothing. I'm basically taking a vitamin. Oh, it could be. I forgot you're on that medicine. It could be.

Because it's like just now I'm probably starting to actually get my system. It's been like a week. Yeah, my dreams changed when I first got on it, for sure. I'm going to have to start smoking more weed to just end the dreams. I'm going to have to start smoking more weed to just end the dreams. Zoloft and weed is like, that's the Terrence Ray special right there. I should know this. You guys, is it legal?

It's not legal there, is it? No. No. Very little of what we do is legal at this point, Josh. I don't know. But I want to add, so I'm interested that people, because like, you know, I live and work in a place where, you know, there's a lot of, you know, it's well-to-do people in positions of just enough high-profile thing that they conflate it with power, I guess. And you feel like you're in a place where, you know, you're in charge of something. in charge of something and it's been interesting the last couple years but especially now during this watching people who spent their whole lives being on top of everything and thinking they're in charge and in control grappling with the reality of the fact that they have no control

over fucking anything and and they're all losing their minds but but the celebrity culture thing has gotten so insane so yeah it seems to me like the next step is they all sing Imagine and they think that we're going to what? What was the response supposed to be to that? What do you think they thought? What is going through? I know, I'm going to get my friends, we're going to sing Imagine, here's what's going to happen. Like, what did they think that was going to

instigate? They thought it was going to be like when those actors took that selfie at the Oscars that one year. Oh, the Oscars. Remember that? Right. You remember that?

That was like 2014 or something. That was like the first tweet to get like a million retweets or some bullshit. They thought it was going to be like that. But they didn't realize that the world has just soured precipitously in the last five or six years. realize that the world has just soured precipitously in the last five or six years even the people that used to be like smarmy and shit they have they have now come over to the jaded disillusioned end of the pool i feel like but speaking of but that was yeah no go ahead that's also just the oscars so it's like entertainment it's like whatever. But in the middle of the pandemic, to do something like that, which seems so purposeful. Right.

And, you know, we're at the Oscars. It's fun. Let's all take a picture. That's funny. It's like, you know, that was noxious. But this, like, there seemed to be this sense that somehow they were addressing the problem. No, it was interesting because... You know, they've...

Go ahead. Yeah, they've started loading the dishwasher and taking out the trash themselves. They suddenly felt like they were feeling actual solidarity all of a sudden. Well, they were for once impacted by the same event that impacted the working class. You know what I mean? So, like, it actually tied them to the rest of the world for a brief moment. And then they thought, well, what do we do to fix this? Like, we can do something about this, right?

So, like, it was a very interesting impulse because it meant that they, for a brief moment, thought that they were actually helping. Well, it's that, it's that Pepsi politics, like that Pepsi new generation type shit where that, like we can just, uh,

you know, celebrity our way out of any problem or any of that kind of stuff. And I think the other part to it is it's kind of like boxing and how that, like, to me, there's not a, uh, uh,

sort of a, a dearth of like boxing and how that, like, to me, there's not a sort of a dearth of, like, exciting movie stars. You know what I mean? Like, the last generation of, like, you know, the Brad Pitts and those people like that, notwithstanding, like, the newer people. It's like, who is, like, who would you be starstruck by that has enough, like, cultural cachet that that's, like, would be meaningful in any kind of way right now you know what i mean like i i'm not tripping over james marsden mar what's his name marsden the guy that you know talking about like you know singing yeah hallelujah by jeff beckley or some shit you know what i mean like jeff beckley logan paul Logan Paul. It was Logan Paul. Jeff Beckley is Jeff Buckley from Beckley, West Virginia. Yeah.

West Virginia. Good West Virginia boy. Oh, Jeff Buckley is from Beckley, West Virginia? No. No. No. I'm trying to imagine a theoretical... I'm trying to imagine a theoretical singer who is like Jeff Buckley, but from Beckley, West Virginia.

And so he sings these really impassioned songs, but from a Beckley, West Virginia standpoint. Does that make sense? Oh, okay, okay, okay. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to step on the bit. I got to ask a question, because I feel like anyone who's listening to this is going like, you guys had sturgill simpson on it was a big you know like you have

these guests on or usually about something or they're they're notable and all this and people like well why is this clown on and i'm like literally just because i don't know why because we i had you on my podcast no but so my my entire agenda here is like i get to actually interact with people on my face so like another one of the things that i'm always wondering i'm like walking my dog and you guys start talking about jeff beckley and i'm like have you guys you guys talk so much about people you know in such detail has that ever come back to like kick in the ass? Do you ever get in trouble? Oh, absolutely. That just seems... I love it. It just seems so dangerous to me.

Well, Terrence... I got fired for it. Yeah. Terrence literally got fired over the podcast. What happened? How did I miss that? Yeah, it was a while back. It was in our earlier days.

At this point, we're veterans, I guess. I mean. We do the firing now. Now we do the firing, yeah. It's in the early mythos of the show now, though. You know what I mean? Like, this is what he had to sacrifice to make the show a success. Like, when they do a biopic of us in 20 or 30 years

there will be a montage of me be on the hall writing an essay yeah and i'll send tom the essay and be like hey man what do you think about this and he'll say looks good man having not read it no actually on that one i i remember distinctly saying man don't know. You kind of got to weigh that against what they might do. But usually any other time I did say, sounds good, man. Send it on in. It doesn't really matter. Whoever they hire to write this film will not care about that detail. It'll just be a plot point that is important this will be like it would be like um

you know uh what's the fucking boyhood right the link ladder film it'll be like that just like it'll be this weird cultural document of like us growing into middle age it'll be boring as hell is what it'll be yeah well yeah because you listen back to those first episodes like the first two years of the show honestly i listened to the other day i was just listened to an episode from like august and i was like this sucks it's just like it's crazy how fast this shit ages like you know i feel like with sn or whatever, shit from the 90s SNL was still funny when I was in high school, like the 2000s. And, well, for me, I'm saying for me and my generation. But, like, with podcasts, it's, you know, it ages in about two or three weeks.

Yeah. Especially when you do the news. I'm glad we've come back to current affairs because two things happened this week that were, one is Epstein, crossed me initially at least, as Epstein level, what the fuck, is that a scientist or doctor,

engineer person who was like working on a vaccine on a covid vaccine was murdered oh yeah i saw that i did not see this yeah i saw that so that was an epstein level like what the fuck the other the other thing that happened this week that i feel like i just like keep watching over and over again which is very different but it's still worth noting is that west virginia governor jim justice said in a live briefing that he's the word fuck he said you're not going back out he's like we're not opening businesses until you get with the fucking guidelines and then he came out and said not only did he not say that on that live broadcast but he has never ever said the word fuck in his whole life but but there's documentation of it happening he said it's a glitch but there's literally a woman

signing it who obviously is like she's like doing asl while he's speaking guys have made the world he is a fucking idiot he is extremely stupid we talked about him like like when this first started i remember the very first episode we did remotely was about him and this speech that he gave because he is so bizarre he just doesn't he's not there he's just not there he's an absolute maniac yeah for a man with not a few comorbidities you'd think he'd want to like kind of kind of slow this thing down a little bit which i guess i mean my friends in west virginia are like yeah he's actually not doing that bad of a job because he just like he just made a task force of all these actually really smart people and told them to handle it he's just doing whatever

they say so it's he's not it's's supposedly they think that things are going okay it's probably because their numbers are low because they're not testing but anyway that's beside the point but the fact that he said that he told people that not only did he not say the thing they heard him say live on tv but that he's never said the word fuck in his life never amazing and there are people who believe him now i bet you i don't know absolutely it's insane to double down on it i mean people most people were probably into it we're like yeah that's yeah who would be fucking who is he worried about offending? I don't know. I mean, this is a man who owns coal mines in half a dozen states. Where he's a tax deadbeat.

Yeah, where he owes fines and taxes up well over millions. Yeah, in the millions and millions of dollars to every single state even his own state that he's the governor of jesus christ what was the first like a man who cares about public production i stand by it i said it once i'll say it again we should have used him to plug the goddamn bp oil P.O. spill called it a day. What was the first news item you said there, Tanya, before the Jim Justice thing? Yeah, about a guy who, the headline I saw. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Was close to a vaccine breakthrough. That's what I saw, too. Sounds like we would have heard that before he got murdered. Maybe we should have already heard about that. So it seemed like a little like... Honestly, he's not... What is he like working alone in his apartment? There's nobody else there. It's like, oh shit, I'm gonna start all over

again. He's working it out in his second bathroom. Now we have to start from... Yeah, all my hands are... Like a doc from Back to the Future. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Whatever that guy's name is. Oh, fuck. So can I ask you guys a question about your regional shit there for a minute? Because I don't think you've talked about this much lately. But, you know, my only – I check in on amy mcgrath via my facebook friends every now and then and you know they're all these like well-to-do hollywood liberals who are like she's gonna win she's gonna win and i'm like you guys need to listen to my friend's podcast but what uh she's not gonna win is she definitely not is that because there's a lot of and what's the story now

the narrative that's coming out when you know because they pop up all the time looking for money is that she's closing in on him and they're neck and neck and she's going to kick his ass. And I got all these friends. But she's so great. I'm like, what is it? What is it? Great. What's great about her? Well, she's great.

She flew jets. Right. She's a fighter jet pilot. Well, the line that they're taking right now is very it's very funny um but it's also the line that the dems are going with i know it's not officially the line that the dems are going with but it's what all the liberals tell you when they're trying to scold you into voting for biden they're now using that for mcgrath too there it's about the supreme court specifically it's about ruth bader ginsburg which i've got to hand it to Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I really

have to give it up to Ruth Bader Ginsburg for A, not quitting when she should have, but B, then being able to coast the next eight years on being able to convince people to

vote for Democrats because, hey, I might die any minute now. That's some baller shit. I believe she's in the hospital right now, actually. She is. Today. Today. No. Today she is brilliant.

Perfect delivery. Yeah. She's been calling in to meetings today from her hospital bed. Yeah, she's been calling in to meetings today from her hospital bed. It's really brilliant because it makes everybody be like, no, please don't die. Please. It makes like over at least a couple million people say that. Right. Like that's how many people probably vote for Democrats, like a couple million or something.

Let me ask you. I'm sure there's all kinds of ways to get killed in your neck of the woods that are alien to me, but you want to get killed where I live? Start explaining why if Ruth Bader Ginsburg was so fucking smart, why didn't she get out at the beginning of Obama's second administration? And

people don't like to hear that. Well, what they've come up with now, I saw this the other day, what they've come up with now i saw this the other day um what they've come up with is that they she didn't drop out because she wanted hillary to appoint her well no sure but but you know statistically speaking the odds of you know yeah you want hillary it's all gonna blah blah blah but the odds of the next president being but but why not obama the next president being a democrat the odds are the next president after obama was not going to be a democrat and it's it's one thing for

you know me to put 50 bucks on a bet on that it's another for her to gamble with the entire supreme fucking court on the insane notion that history is not going to just do what it always does it's dope though people love her regardless they're like she's my queen that's my queen right there please my queen please my queen don't die please don't die please my queen you can't these are things you cannot say in los angeles even though even though we went bernie man bernie won this state but you cannot say that In Los Angeles. Even though we went Bernie, man.

Bernie won this state. But you cannot say that. I'm going to be killed. That's tight. I'm going to be killed for having said that. People hate all lawyers in Kentucky, so. That's it. I mean, she's just another lawyer. That's fair.

Another liar around here. They are a looked down upon class. That is one good thing about the south at least lawyers are looked down upon although it would be interesting because like tom when tom was on the west wing show we got while we were recording we got the notice that la was going to be officially locked down so it'd be interesting if coming on your show, RBG dies. While we're on? Yeah, while we're on. Doesn't seem to have happened.

I just checked. She's still... Dude, it's going to be... It's going to be very funny. It's going to be very funny. Just all of the reactions. Jesus Christ. It's so fucking...

I don't really look forward I'm gonna do a little bit of a contrarian take here actually I don't look forward to Henry Kissinger dying at all because because like it's gonna be the most insufferable people online just like

celebrating it and it's like any every day that asshole piece of shit lived over the age of 45 was a failure of the left so we have nothing to celebrate people like that should be dead it'll it'll be really funny to see the line that hillary clinton takes because i feel like even now she's kind of like um she's supposed to be a little more woke than she was in 2016 i guess like what is she gonna say about kissinger dying i wonder if she's gonna say he was a great man is his mother going to shatter her woke image if she says kissinger was a good man i don't know uh the The morning line favorite is Complicated Legacy.

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I gotta watch Rachel Maddow when that happens. She'll put it all into context for me. Oh, God. Yeah. Ruth Bader Ginsburg is such a freaking badass. Would you stop? She is such a freaking badass. Would you stop? She is such a freaking badass. Jesus Christ.

This is so sad. Alright. Should we put a cap on it? That seems like a good place to stop. I'm thoroughly depressed now. Welcome to True Villains. That means you've come on. Black pill True Villains. Come on.

Black Peel Nation, baby. Can I ask you all one question before I get out of here? Because there's a lot of fucking depression on ours. There's a lot of depression everywhere. Is there anything? And even the answer is no, say no. Is there anything that makes you go, well, that's something to look forward to? Outside of Ruth Bader Ginsburg dying.

That's not... We should say just the reaction is what we're... Yes, that's what... I don't know. I just started a garden. That's probably what Tanya's answer would have been, too. Seeing as how she just started a garden. No, probably what Tanya's answer would have been too. Seeing as how she just started a garden. No, I'm here.

We're growing food. I was trying to think though. I mean, we keep talking about getting a puppy. I think we're going to try to get a puppy soon. So I have that to look forward to. That's pretty tight. Well, we have a great dog and we had a cat but now our dog is an only child and it's just he's just not happy he's very sad being an only child and we need to remedy that

but yeah food growing in i'm trying to buy a four-wheeler so i have that to look forward to. I'm going to get to Red Run a little bit. I don't know. I'm looking forward to watching What We Do in the Shadows tonight. Absolutely. You should go watch that if you haven't. The show rules. But do you think there's any, I mean, like there's all these little things.

I've felt for four years now that there's still a version of events where Donald Trump makes everything better. Nope. Dead silence. You mean like in the multiverse? Like a reality out there in the multiverse? He's stripped the faces, the masks off of everybody.

We now see both sides for exactly who they are. It's impossible to avoid. He's destroying the fucking Republican Party. I mean, he's just demolished those people, some of them. You know, this, and then this virus comes along and they mishandle it, it becomes this epidemic. But it's bringing stuff out in people that today, I don't know, are people going to remember this

in six months, in a year? Are people like, I'm actually seeing people being nicer to each other when they're out in the world and in general conversation. That's good. But does that last or does this like end and we all just go back to being assholes to each other? they're out in the world and in general conversation. That's good. But does that last, or does this end and we all just go back to being assholes to each other? I don't know.

I mean, I... I'll make a... Go ahead, Josh. I'm sorry. No, no, go. I was just going to say, I make a solemn pledge not to be an asshole to anybody when this is all over with. I can't make that pledge. I'm going to hold you to that, Tom. But I don't know, isn't there something,

even though it's all kind of fatuous and performative, there's so much attention being given all of a sudden to like working people from people who normally don't pay any attention to them. You know, that's like, is that going to last? Are we just going to go back to like fucking over our waiter the instant we're in a restaurant again there have been heightened labor like there's been more strikes in the last two people are more supportive of them i don't know i gotta get look i'm getting up tomorrow anyway i just like thinking there's a

reason well if we're committed if we're committed to the assumption that the empire is falling i guess there's some that's something to look forward to it's pretty it's pretty clear that that's also just gonna be a rough it's gonna be rough on a lot of us not just uh the big boats i think that america is probably turning into some sort of like monarchy probably some sort of like uh you know something i mean it's very clear we don't live in a democracy anymore it seems like that is the mask that's sort of been stripped off of this year um i mean obviously we've all known it but just like everything else it required a very public sort of um dismantling of it we needed a very public uh example of how it actually

didn't work um or didn't exist and and who the fuck knows i mean uh trump might suspend the election in november and and then we'll probably get a monarchy or something and that and honestly but here's the thing josh i've made total peace with it in fact i kind of welcome it it's kind of just like this is this is just life there was a great during the cold war national lampoon did an article because it was like but before your time you goddamn kids but but but communist mania was just you know it was a part of our lives and they did this great article just said let's just capitulate to russia and it was just an article about what would change in america actually if we let the soviets take over the country and the upshot was like, yeah, pretty much nothing.

You'd still go to the store. You'd still have your dopey shows. You'd still, you know. So you feel that way about like Queen Ivanka and Prince Jared? Is that your... Yeah, Prince Baron. Prince Baron. You know, I kind of hope

this Balkanization thing happens. Yeah. It's not happening. Nah, it would be kind of cool though if we just, yeah. The United States needs those ports. It will turn into some sort of fascist monarchy or something before it allows a balkanization to occur. Just gaming it out. I mean, I i don't know that's my personal opinion maybe maybe you guys feel strongly about the topic of balkanization i just wonder who's going to emerge as the slow badon milosevic of the great lakes region

oh man Who's going to emerge as the Slobodan Milosevic of the Great Lakes region? Oh, man. On that note. Yeah. Well, the answer to your question is Jesse Ventura. Wait, did he just drop out, or is he actually? Is that not true? I hope to God he didn't. Yeah, I sit there every day and I go, i'm not crazy everyone around me is and then i go jesse ventura i can

get behind that and then i go maybe i'm crazy too but but but come on no he dropped out yeah i would that's such a cock tease i could have really got behind the body. God damn it. You'd have like two sexual predators and a guy who fought the predator. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. Having the campaign rights itself.

How the fuck does he drop out? How do we get him back in? Oh, I'm so sad. Okay, well that was depressing. I mean, I was looking forward yesterday to my walk outside but we no further got to the top of the hill to the top of the driveway and realized that a bear had attacked essentially tact essentially our garbage cans and this entire big wooden structure that was holding all these garbage cans was flipped over it took both of us to get it turned back and there was bags of trash drug into the woods that we had to go clean up so i can't i have so little to look forward to i can't even look forward to my walks in the woods anymore.

So I'm not the one to ask. Long way down, people. I can't even look forward to. Well, thanks for having me on, guys. Thanks for coming on, Josh. I hope you are staying safe and um you know staying safe at least tell everybody where they can find you josh and what you what you do who what where heard you had two pretty good looking guys on one of your shows this yeah oh well i do uh um uh oh well oh yeah yeah

sorry i'm like uh yeah you can you can uh i do I do a podcast with the great Joe Dante called The Movies That Made Me. And we had Terrence and Tom on. We're going to have Tanya on at some point, even if she must talk about steel magnolias. And then I do another podcast, which is a little a little more on the political tip, as they say, with Dave Anthony from the dollop called The West Wing Thing. a little more on the political tip, as they say, with Dave Anthony from the dollop called the West wing thing. And we are breaking down every single episode of the West wing in order and dissecting their terrible politics.

And, uh, we had Tom on a while ago. We're going to have you guys on. Uh, we just did the season finale for episode two. We had David Sirota on. It was great.

It turns out to be a big West wing hater. Uh, that was fun. And then, uh, you know, I write movies and shit, but this is the

in your spare time in my spare time in my spare time and and run a podcast studio that's the other thing but um but yeah check out those podcasts if you like if you like movies we tend not to get deeply political on that show um and then the west wing thing it's just me and dave anthony who are both working screenwriters uh committing career suicide by shitting all over one of Hollywood's most beloved and powerful screenwriters. Does he have one good movie, in your opinion? You know, I don't want to, we started it on the show

kind of going like we're going to do the politics, but we're not going to bag on the writing because he's such a great writer and everything else. We got into it. It's like, I don't know, he really and i i was underwhelmed with social network i know everybody loves that uh jobs i was gonna that's what i was asking you that's the only one that i would consider people like it i've been meaning to go back and give it

another shot because i'm that kind of guy who's like if i really if you're like some artist and i really start to fucking hate you i i want to find the thing that you did that confounds me. Like I want to like that movie. And we've got a lot of people on Twitter trying to get us to watch the American president. So we may go back and do an American president episode, but I can't, I've never seen that one.

Yeah. I can't think of an Aaron Sorkin thing that I love. Oh my God. He did money ball. That was fine. I didn't, it's like, it didn't, it didn't knock, but I money ball that was fine I didn't it's like it didn't

but I'm you know how'd you feel about studio 60 on the sunset strip starring Steven Weber from wings I have I have watched one episode and I could not believe what I was seeing that was because would they treat they treat putting together an

SNL type show with the same ponderousness that they treat like working in the white house. It was really bizarre. Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, but yeah,

but after you finish listening to all your trailblazers, if you still have time, come, come check out some of, uh, some of my, yeah, my audio content.

And I was really sad. I missed you guys. I blame Tom It's Tom's fault We also have the squad casting where we can only have four people At the same time so that's a pain But we will work it out But thank you guys

Gremlins is my favorite Christmas movie So I was really sad to miss Well you know they didn't know Joe was the host When they came on They didn't realize they'd be talking to him That's how Tom weaseled out of it Yeah was the host when they came on. They had no idea. Somehow they didn't realize they'd be talking to him. That's how Tom weaseled out of it. I was like, what the actual fuck, Tom?

They were great. Although I did want them to beat us up a little bit more. They were very polite. That's a Southern thing, you guys. You need to get over that. You think we're polite? We're only mean to each other. But to others, we're polite we're only mean to each other but to others we're nice family thing

but thank you guys so much I really am a giant fan of the show I've been listening for years I've been on your Patreon forever and it's just it's a thrill it's like half the time I was here I was like oh wait a minute I can say something to them they'll hear me this time which normally when I'm walking my dog and talking to you, there's no response.

I got two good therapists you can see about. Thank you guys. It was a thrill. Thanks so much, Josh. It was fun. Absolute thrill. Thank you. We'll talk to you soon. Bye. Take care.