TrueLife - J.V. Torres - Using the Tools of the Master to Tear Down his System

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/http://nkrtmedia.wordpress.com/http://theriseofkingasilas.com/Like many creative endeavors I’ve immersed myself into over the years, indie filmmaking has opened a universe of possibilities that makes my mind race with ideas. In some ways, it’s like the years I’ve spent being a musician both in the Miami and Baltimore music scene. You tend to meet people with tremendous talents. However, talent is never enough in show business, unless you are the best of the best and even then, nothing is guaranteed.I bring up music because I’ve played in several bands over the years. Some were incredible beyond words. Others I wish to forget. Anytime you work with a group of people, you inevitably run into conflicting points of view, personality combustions, and outright fights over creative direction. Indie Filmmaking is no different in many regards. You have to work with a team, and that teams has to be invested in the project (even if it’s merely monetary). But unlike being in a band, a film clearly has a director, and it is in that person that the success or failure of the production rests with.In the time I’ve spent around indie filmmakers, I have seen it all. From arrogant hot heads to flimsy wimps who can never make up their minds. I try to learn from all of them. And what I’ve learned so far is that the thing that matters most in a production is the story. There’s one question that absolutely needs to be answered: Is this a good story? If the answer is murky, then it doesn’t matter how pristine the production is, it doesn’t matter how great the actors are, or how much money was spent on it. The storytelling is what will ultimately win the day for any movie. It’s why people love watching old movies, even if the production isn’t as good as today’s films. It’s the story. The end.I’ve spent years writing, producing and acting in an audio drama. It was a compelling (some would say frightening) story from its inception. People from all over the world tune in when I post a new episode. The production is time consuming. I spend months over the summer writing the episodes of the season and spend countless hours mulling over audio recordings, sound effects, music, and all the booms of cinema. It’s been the most incredible creative endeavor of my life and winning awards for its production is one of the great honors I can stake claim to. It’s because of my experience in the audio drama world that I’ve come to make the transition into filmmaking somewhat a seamless one. It’s a much bigger mountain to climb, no doubt, but I’ve managed to hit the ground running. My very first film “The Beggar” has screened in a number of film festivals and even won “Best Indie Film” in the Multi Dimensional Film Festival in the U.K. Not bad for a newbie.Of course, I’ve only been working on short films as I pen these words, but everyone who knows me understands it is only a matter of time before I take a jab at a feature length film. I’ll eventually get there. Sooner rather than later, I imagine. It’s just how I am as a content creator. This is one evolution that doesn’t need a long time to come to fruition. Stay tuned. One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Hears through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles, the track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Serafini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast. I hope everybody's having a beautiful day. It's Monday. We've got a great guest for you today, an original thinker, an artist, a fighter, someone who is, we were talking for a moment backstage and I just had to stop because we were getting into too much cool stuff. So let me just introduce him for those who may not know, the one and only J.V. Torres.

He's a multi-disinciplinary digital creator who develops fiction podcast, YouTube videos, writes books, directs films, and edits commercial videos. He's made some award-winning indie films. He's got an incredible audio drama. He's a musician. He's written books on language. It's going to be an awesome conversation. J-V. How are are you today. I'm fine. Thank you for having me on your show. It's really looking forward to this. Yeah, man. It's a real pleasure. It's one of those things when you start looking into somebody and you're like, wow, I know a little bit about that. Oh, yeah, I saw that. You know, and sometimes I'm often mesmerized by the way in which you can judge a book by its cover. I know you're not supposed to do it. I know you're not supposed to do, but sometimes when you start to look at that first page, you read the back cover,

you go, this books for me. And that's what I want to look at your profile. man, you're doing so many cool things. How did you get your start? Maybe you can talk a little bit about what it is that you're involved in and what you're doing now or however you want to begin, man. Let me know your origin story a little bit. Okay, sure. So for me, I think at the core of everything, I'm a writer.

I've always been a writer. I think since I was a child. You know, I was that kid who was like tugging on my mom's shirt to buy me a, you know, notebook and pens because I wanted to write stuff. I was always my passion was writing. And as I got older, I went to college, I really had my heart set on being like a journalist or writing, you know, for the newspapers. And I did at some point write for periodicals.

It did write for newspapers. But that was that just wasn't going to cut it for me because I was always like wanting to create something. And when you're writing for a newspaper, there is no creation. You're just reporting. I mean, maybe nowadays they do creation. back then. Yeah, totally. Yeah, right?

But back then, you know, it was more straightforward. So I knew that I wasn't going to make a living doing that. I just got into too many arguments with editors and whatnot. So I just decided, you know what I'm going to probably teach until I figured out how to become a novelist or something like that. But that, again, was not something that I was, that was not in my destiny to be like a big novelist, like a Stephen King or anything like that. But that's all.

always where my heart has always been in writing. That's where it all began for me. Yeah, so, you know, it's interesting when we talk about writing because I think it was Samuel Clemens, who said that the written word is the carcass of the spoken word. And for those people who have somehow conquered the ability to stand in front of a group and say what it is they have to say and can decorate it in a way that seems flowery, For those of us who have found a way to use our words to influence people,

you know, it's an incredible power, the spoken word. And when we look back through history, we see that governments and societies alike fear the charismatic speaker. But there's something to be said for the written word as well. What's your take on the spoken word versus the written word? Well, I mean, I could speak to this a little bit because of my background in linguistics and language learning. and that there's a certain different, there's, there's a different mental process that happens when you're having, when you're actually verbalizing your thoughts versus writing down your thoughts.

There's a, that's why you can have a conversation with somebody who's illiterate, you know, and because the mental process is involved in, and having a conversation is, is less strain. It puts less strain on the brain, actually. So, you know, when you sit down and write, that's why people, you know, are frustrated when they have to write something. Yeah. It's a whole different set of process. By the way, that would think that was Mark Twain, right? Yes, yes.

Yeah, yeah. I know. I'd like to throw out the other names sometimes, right? Keep people thinking. I'm trying to get to write it like that. Anyway. No, going back to what we were saying about the whole process of writing is, it is you really have to be disciplined.

And that's hard. That's a hard thing for writers. to deal with because their thoughts are running like fast trains. You know, they're running like fast cars. And they can't seem to get their hands to write or type fast enough to how they're thinking. And so they start losing stuff. So that's why, for me, I always tell writers, you know, that's what they make voice

note recorders for, man. You hit the record button. You let your mind flow. You say all the ideas that you have. And later on, you restructure it. You structure how you want the story to go. or whatever it's you're working on. I forget what the original question was.

I'm sorry. No, that's it. We were just talking about the way in which writing is different from the spoken word and some tips and techniques, you know. But I, it's just a matter of how your thoughts flow, you know. And I'm one of those people that I can sit down. I can really write this.

I'm pretty disciplined now because I'm in my 50. So I think I've learned the methods by now. If I don't, I should just hang it up. But a lot of people need to really learn how to discipline themselves. It's not an easy thing. It's a very, very complicated thing. Depending on the individual, I mean, there's some people who just do this by nature. They just do it.

But there are other people that struggle with it. And they can be extremely talented. But if you're not disciplined, that talent's going to go to waste. Yeah, you would mention that in one of your writings I was reading, you had talked about, as you learned at an earlier age as a musician, that talent, while incredible, incredibly useful and powerful, it doesn't always translate into success because sometimes the most talented people can't make that jump. They can't have the discipline behind them or they just get burned out. Maybe you can unpack that quote a little bit.

Well, I could speak to that as far as musician. You know, you were talking about earlier about you're asking me about the whole writing aspect of it. Yeah. I did because I'm one of those people. I need to have satisfaction now. I just do. So music for me was that vehicle. Like I could write a song.

and I could go play in this little bar somewhere, you know, some of my open mic night and have people in the crowd, you know, mostly other musicians. But it doesn't matter who is out there, as long as there are bodies out there. And if you're performing, you're getting that instant gratification, right?

Yeah. So for me, like, that's the whole aspect of being able to get something at the moment that you want to. Like, some people can be real patient about it. You can write a book, Listen, I've been working on a novel for so long. I think I forgot how many years I've been working on it. But a song is something different.

You could literally write a song on the spot. I used to play in a band where we would improvise songs right on stage, you know. And so that was the part about the success, you know, where you can be, it doesn't matter. Like I was in a bar in some band somewhere in Maryland or in Miami and playing a song. and people just dancing and kid. I don't know where I've heard this song before. This is great. I'm like, I just made it up, you know.

I just made it up on the spot. I'm like, you know, blame me, you're drinking too much. But going back to that. So like for me, that is success. Like when you're in a place and you got the whole crowd, like literally just singing along with you and they're dancing and they're just feeling the energy and it's like raw.

It's like great. And I'm like just loving it. It's like, man, I wish I could go back sometimes. Anyway, writing is different. Writing is very different. Writing is where sometimes you're almost petrified that someone's going to read it. I mean, and I know, I'm sure you had to have written. Sure.

From life where they don't want you to read what they have. Like, why are you writing it if you don't want anybody to read it? I mean, just let me read what you got, you know? Let me see what's going on in that head of yours. And so you have to measure success a lot differently depending on the writer. I mean, there's some people that just put a lot of crap out there, believe me, and they don't care if you're telling them it's crap. They're just happy that it's on some platform.

And then you have people that really are diligent and they're really meticulous about every word. And it means a lot to them that, you know, when you read it, that it's in that form that they wrote it. So really, success is really up to the individual. It depends on what your expectations are. Yeah, that's really well put. And I know we're jumping around in mediums a little bit. it's funny that I bring up the word medium because there's a great book by um of course I'm going to blank on Marshall McLuhan who wrote the book the medium is the message and he talks about the

spoken word versus the written word he talks about hot mediums versus cold mediums and a hot medium would be something like film or a commercial or something on social media something that goes directly into your brain without you having to really critically think about it a colder medium would be like a book or maybe an audio program where you yourself take that information in and then you create the story on the lens of your mind and you get to make the story versus something that's already kind of pre-made for you like a prefab house a little bit. It's interesting to think about those two modalities while you're in the aspect of creation. And I'm curious, you know, how, as I'm just talking, I never really thought about that when I was writing and doing things. But now that I say,

about, I should be thinking about that. Like the way, like a chef thinks about the way in which the person is going to eat their food, so too should we as creators think about the way people are going to consume our products. Do you think about that when you're writing or making these things that you're doing? Sure. Sometimes it's a crapshoot because you think that they're going to react a certain way. You get a completely different reaction. You're like, well, okay, I didn't see that one coming.

But then you had something like this morning, like this morning. Like this morning, I made a really quick video for YouTube, and I knew that it was a hot button. It was titled the five most under the five most overrated music acts. So it's really general, and I knew that no matter who I put on this list that is going to get somebody riled up and say, well, why is this guy saying that? And, you know, I didn't expect their instant reaction. I really didn't. I figured, you know, well, you know, it might get some treading after a couple of days or maybe after a couple of weeks. you know, sometimes these videos take a while to get any kind of traction.

But no, this one got one right away. And I was kidding. Phone calls from my friends. I'm like, yeah, I saw that video. Well, you were spot on, but I don't agree with this. And it's like, really? I mean, you can, you can try to think about how people are going to consume the media that you produce. But at the end of the day, you're kind of at the mercy because you really don't know.

I mean, listen, I don't have the luxury of using algorithms. and having all this like social media, like these, these machines, these, these mechanisms that kind of drive reaction. I don't have that. I don't know if you do. I don't have. I don't have any of that. I can't dictate how someone will react to anything that I produce.

So on that, on that, on that way, I don't really think that much about how people, I do. don't get me wrong, but I'm less concerned with, because if I'm that concerned about it, I'm probably going to hold off. Yeah. You know, I mean, I'll wait on something. And I've been known to wait and sit on something for a very long time. And people are like, are you ever going to release XYZ? I'm like, yeah, I am.

I'm just, I'm not sure how people can react to this. Yeah, it's fascinating to me. I love to get to hear the way in which people that are doing things I admire think about the project they're creating, I think it's not only fun for me to listen to, but I think it provides a lot of value for anybody that's listening to what we have to say. It's a really cool insight when you get to see into the minds of a different creator. You know, one of the first things that I, when I first started looking at your stuff, was this audio drama that you're coming out. And I'm not sure people understand what an audio drama is. So maybe before you get into

the meat and potatoes of it, maybe you could explain maybe how it came to be and like what an audio an audio drama is. So an audio drama is essentially a movie for your mind with your ears. You don't really, you're not actually watching anything, but you're listening and your mind is active, just as if you were. Your mind is producing this film in your head. And so for me, when I put together the Rise of King of Silas, I wanted it to be a cinematic experience.

I wanted the listeners to feel like they were sitting in a movie theater and watching this dystopian story unfold and really the horrors of it because it is i've i've been told everything that it's a horror to the satire but you know you were you were mentioning something earlier i wanted to touch on but you were you were going on and you were talking and it was uh really uh just kind of going a little bit back about the whole reaction thing yeah um i don't necessarily right this is the one thing about this is the one thing about the audio drama that The Rise of King of Silas is at the end of the day, I kind of, I've kind of produced this show for myself. And I know it sounds very selfish, but I kind of do.

And one of the reasons is because I'm such a student of Shakespeare. I absolutely love Shakespeare. And I don't expect anyone else to, you know. I don't expect anyone. Most people study Shakespeare in high school, probably dread it. I don't know. But I absolutely love Shakespeare. I study him so much.

And I want to emulate what he does so much. that I actually try to create some of this in the audio drama. Like there are very Shakespearean in a lot of ways. Some of the characters and some of the things that take place, the wording that I use. It's just, I'm blessed, I guess, that people actually get it, that some people really like the characters. There are some characters that they like more than others.

I think there's a lot. I've created this story to be a completely gray area. on purpose. It wasn't like I just accidentally, oh, Goofy just decided to do this and just by chance. No, no. This was all well thought out, planned. And these characters behave and say the kinds of things that they say because they're all following into a certain pattern that I've designed from way before. It's it's it's I wanted to for this for the listener to experience the show in such a way that They're just they're just watching in their minds are just watching this thing unfold and they're seeing all this and they're and they're questioning you know just How far we can go as a as a human race how how deep down into the sewers can we really get and it's and if you can ask if you if at any point you ask that question in this series, then I've done exactly what I set out to do. Yeah, that's an amazing, it's an amazing pathway for people to, to see. And I love the idea of tying the past to the future and telling

it in a story form that, you know, in some ways when I think of, of King of Silas, there's a lot of, like, the hero's journey in there as well, you know, a lot of like, it seems like not only Shakespeare, but maybe you've tied some of the themes or some of the characters arc towards like a Joseph Campbell sort of a routine like that. Did you also incorporate some mythology in there? Well, I mean, that was, that was the, you know, I tried to keep the classic motifs as deeply obscure as possible,

but it's just unavoidable. Is there a hero's journey? I don't know. I think to me, Athalus is kind of the anti-hero and a lot of, and all his band of Mary Men are as well. And as you branch outward is where you really start to, when you fan out in the scope of characters in this show,

you start reaching for, you know, okay, is this person a good person? Is this guy a person? Is she a good person? It's like, where do we find the good people? And to me, that's more of a modern motif in that when we're looking at our own society and we're looking into our own homes or jobs,

jobs or wherever we are, how far out do we have to fan out to find the good people? Because sometimes we can look in the mirror and question whether or not. We know how good are we? I think for me, I'm Catholic, I'm Christian. So I'm constantly asking myself this question. Am I really a good person? Am I really? Am I really? And so I, you know, I have to incorporate that into the characters of the show. I just, you know, as a writer, you always do with the characters you create. I think we're all looking for redemption. The king in the story is looking for redemption. I think a lot of people, a lot of characters in the show are always looking for redemption. Then once in a while you come across a character that they're not into this for any redemption.

I think the further out you branch, the less they're going to find people, the more likely you're going to find people that aren't trying to redeem anything. They're just trying to live. the closer you are to the center of the evil, the more you're going to find people that want to redeem themselves, those that have any shred of goodness left in them. And further out, you go, people are just living their lives. They just want to pay their bills. They just want to go to work and go home and be with their kids and watch their shows.

And they don't want to be bothered with any of that stuff. Why would they? You know? So that to me is, you know, you're talking about motifs. I mean, I don't know how you would. In the classic sense, when you're talking about mythology, everything is compounded. Everything means more. Every move the hero makes has ripple effects.

That's not the case here. I mean, there is, in terms of the king, but the further away you get from the king, the less you're going to find that. And I think that's where the real people, where we are as individuals, as just regular people working and living. People that are not involved in government, people that are not involved in these big corporations. that's where that's where we are we're on the outside looking in yeah it's deep you know it makes me think that well I'm just trying to yeah yeah that's a good it's a good sign I'm trying to think of the right way to to phrase this question and it seems to me that when when you write a story or when you begin a project sometimes people have a storyboard sometimes people

have an understanding of how the story is going to end up. But there's a lot of stories where the person creating the vision, creating the pathway. They're unsure of what's going to happen in the future. They kind of create as they go. Did you have one, did you have, as one of those styles yours? Do you have, do you know where this is going to end up? Or is it just kind of, you're figuring it out as you go and you're kind of becoming that character? Well, okay. So this is writing 101 for me. As I tell you, the other writers, I don't start at the beginning. I start at the end and work my way back. Okay.

Because it's always easier to write when you already know how the story ends versus starting a story and not knowing where it ends. It can be end or you don't know where you'll end up. And I think a lot of writers get stuck in that where they start writing the story because they had this idea and, oh, this is a great idea. This guy finds this magic potion. And then he doesn't know where he's going or she's going with the story. And so they can be sitting in wrestling with this months later.

So I don't do that. I start with the ending. I already knew how this story of King and Sao was going to end before I even started writing it. Like I already knew where this was going to end. So it made it easier for me to find those points. You know, I already knew where Z was, so I just had to find A, B, C, and all the way down the line until I got there. Now, the only thing that came up was I wanted to end. I wanted to end the series a little earlier, right?

but I was enticed to keep it going to go a little longer and I'm like I'm going I wanted to end it on five and I'll tell you why five okay that's again not a coincidence because five is the penta you know is five is this number of the you know they were the pentagram you know so there's a lot of symbolism in this story there's a lot of demonic symbolism symbolism in fact and I don't think I've even mentioned I don't know why you People have asked me about the logo. Have you ever thought about that logo that I made, that symbol? I haven't given a whole lot of thought. People like it. People buy it on, put it on their t-shirts. They put it on their mugs. They have no idea what it is.

It is essentially three-sixes. That's what it is. If you look at the three spikes, it goes one way, then it goes a second way, and then it goes up there. It's three sixes. It's the sign of the beast with the crown in the middle. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so much about this story that I think people just goes right over their heads.

I mean, and why they're not thinking like that. And I don't expect them to, you know, unless somebody tells them or somebody points it out to them, they won't get it. Like, they'll just be like, oh, it's just, you know, this guy killing this guy. And then there's these bombs and there's all this war going on. And that's fascinating. And it's like, it's thrilling because it's like an action. It's like an action movie. It's like all this like action. This guy's trying to go, oh, that's the bad guy. He's got to get him. You know, he's going to shoot him. He's going to kill him. And so there's all that going on.

And you don't get the symbolism. And that's kind of how the world is. If you think about the Google logo, that also looks like the triple six. There's a number of symbols that could be referred to as demonic or Satanist or something like that. Just right in front of those, all of us. And we just look at, we just have to look at some of the logos for some of the corporations, some of the companies we buy stuff from.

Like an apple, right, with a bite out of the apple from the Garden of Eden? Yeah. I mean, there's some, these people at this, at this high level, that's how they think. And they put these symbols in their marketing campaigns. They put it on their products. They put it on their, you know, and they put it out. And people just like, oh, well, you know, they don't even think about it. Why would that?

So King of Sinus is no different. believe me. I load this thing with symbolism, not just in the logo and not just in these things visually, but there's things in the actual script. There are things in the words that are said. There are things that are the lines that are, the characters say these are

all, I've sat and thought about this for years. And so that's one of the things that I'm most proud of about this show. I mean, it's not like one of those giant, mega corporate push shows.

and I don't get millions and millions of people listening, but I do get a lot of people to listen to it. Yeah. It's like I'm not that concerned with the people that getting the millions of people to listen to it. If they listen to it, great. I'm more concerned with the people that are listening to it, actually get it. And the ones that actually get it, I've gotten some really weird, strange emails and DMs from people that think they got it.

And they're questioning me on this. Like, were you going about that? Were you talking about this? Did you mean that? And I'm like, really? No. But you're in the right neighborhood. Let's keep going. Yeah, it's, you know, it's, I think there was a, I forgot who came up with this quote, but it was something along the lines of, the person that creates the story gives life to a story of its own. And sometimes when you create something, people begin to embrace that story in a way in which you never thought possible. And we think, we think, Think about symbolism. You know, symbolism as a language is deep because how can you, your definition of a symbol may be completely different than the definition of my symbol, even though it's the same symbol. And that's going to lead to two completely different experiences. Yeah. Which is the beauty of a story because someone can see the anti-hero as, hey, that person is just like me, you know, and I can embrace it. Look at either a hero, you know, or even if you look at our culture, I'll give you an example of the way in which story.

and symbolism have been violently flipped on their head ever since I was a kid. When I was growing up, the cop was a good guy. When I was growing up, the guy in the white hat was a good guy. And as I kind of made it through my teenage years, all of a sudden, the cop became the bad guy. You know, and it's like, yeah. And like that was a product of the way in which symbols and stories were interpreted to people through film and music. And in my opinion, I think it was sort of a narrative push. Like I think that there was a sort of, you know, authentic sort of a push behind it to make that happen.

You know, whether it was to get movie ratings, whether it was to get people to say, oh, wow, look at this, or to be different. Whatever the reason was, you saw that happening. And so I just, it's fascinating to me to understand and begin to try and look at the world of symbology because some of these symbols have been around forever. Like if you look at the 666 or you look at the pyramid with the eye in there or you look at the ring of Saturn around, you know, it's the Toyota symbol, the Saturn symbol. That ring is around everything. But it comes back to Saturn worship, depending on who you ask. Those symbols are so powerful, right? Like,

and they're ingrained in us. If you believe that your parents knew something about it, your grandparents knew something about it, and now you know something about it. Like it's almost like a The whole Saturday. Crazy, right? It is wild. It's wild. You know, you're right. The symbolism is, it can be, but it can lead you down a rabbit hole.

And sometimes it's on purpose, like a wild goose chase. Yeah. But I think you mentioned earlier about kind of like you write things with a certain, like, symbolism. But sometimes I think I've written things. And accidentally, it came sort of true in the show. I'll give you the biggest example. Yeah, please. I would always write the episodes.

I always write them like in the summer, right? Okay. And so I would produce the show during the fall, et cetera. So, you know, when April rolls around or March rolls around, I mean, these shows have already been, they were written months ago and they were produced, you know, months ago, recorded months ago. recorded months ago, whatever. So when they finally come out, you know, if something just happens

to be lined up with whatever is going on, it's just a coincidence or, you know, you read whatever you want to and do it. The biggest one for me, I think, was when there was a pestilence that was happening. It was, yeah, there was disease, a plague that was supposed to hit the world as part of the tribulations, right. And that started, of all places in China. Yeah. Imagine that. And I think the, I even think that I mentioned the city, Wuhan. Yeah.

And this was before, this was before COVID. So you can imagine the people that were emailing me at that point. It's like, what did you, what insight did you? How did you know, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, listen, I did not know. Right. I am not part of the Illuminati. I'm not astude for these elitists.

I believe me, the whole point of the show is to destroy them. I don't think they would write a show or even produce or even promote a show that would be, you know, glorifying the destruction of them. So anyway, you know, it's fascinating. I don't really believe in coincidences, man. I think that there's something bigger that's guiding us. And sometimes when things, I once heard a great quote that said something. along the lines of a coincidence is what you get when you apply a bad theory.

And I think as us as humans, we just don't have the cognitive horsepower to thoroughly understand what's happening. We get really uncomfortable when we say, oh, we don't know what it is. So we try to make things up that makes sense. But the one thing that we seem to always get right throughout history is that we get it wrong.

The planets are not in glass cases. We're not the center of the universe. You know, like there's all these things that we always get wrong. And if you can look back at our history and go, wow, we get it wrong a lot, then it kind of brings up the question, why would we have it right now? Yeah, exactly. Will you wrong now? Probably a lot. Probably more than we can really think about.

We're probably wrong about everything, you know? Yeah, it's a great point. And so if that's the case, you know, why wouldn't some of the things that you write or any writer or creator that's really tapping into that flow state or that person that's really tapping. into something, that probably has as much truth to it as anything else, right? Like, if you're tapping into something that you believe in and it's flowing through you in this state, I mean, there's a good chance of some of that what you're putting out there could happen in the future or is true for you, right? You ever get that feeling? Sure. I think there was an argument made about Nostradamus, too, that, you know, for every quatrain he got right, he had a thousand

that were wrong. Totally. Yep. Well, I mean, you know, you know, you. You know, you. You know, you can, I don't quite have that many. You know, I do have, there's a number of them. I've had people call me or I've had people emailing me and say, you scared like, glibly daylight's out of me. I'm like, you're having nightmares because of me or you have a nightmare because of what I wrote is too close to the truth or it's too real. And because you're looking out in your window and you're like, you know what,

that could possibly happen. And I'm scared. I don't think you're scared because of something I wrote. I think you're scared about the reality that it could have. Okay, so well, this brings up a good point, J.V. A lot like, you know, I think there was a, there's a great book by, damn it, I can't think of the guy's name. It's, um.

It'll come back to you. Yeah, it'll come back to me. Well, Sammy Clevin's, I think. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm listening to you. I'm like you sticking you with that. Yeah, I know.

You have to. You have to. It's a, it is, um, gosh, damn. The book's called Prop. And in that book, in that book, they talk about, Edward Bernays. Edward Bernays wrote this book called up again. It is.

Your defense, it's a hard one to remember. You know the way I remember it is that I just go, oh yeah, his great grandson is like the CEO of Netflix. So, okay, do the Apple does it fall too far from the tree? You know what I mean? Well, the reason I bring up that book is that there's a lot of people, whether they're in authority or whether they're in a corporation or whether they're in your household that really try to control the narrative

because the words people speak and you know I think it was I think it was in the Nazi regime they talked about the bigger the lie the more people believe it and if you look at some of the propaganda that comes out of the television or propaganda that comes out of the radio it doesn't matter what country you're in the propaganda is everywhere oh yeah so there's people desperately trying to control the narrative and who do they turn to but the authors the film filmmakers, the people that can get people to believe things. And so when someone calls you when it's like, hey, JV, you're scared in the hell out of me. What, what like, first off,

that's great writing. If your words can do that for somebody, congratulations, that's, that's beautiful. That's how it should be. But it's, it's possible. If your words can begin to influence people where they believe things can happen and they're scared, well, that means you're someone who can control the narrative. And if enough people begin believing a narrative, it's not too far before that thing you write becomes the truth. It's like that self-fulfilling prophecy. What you write, what you speak into existence, what you write into existence can become true. And I think there's a lot of people pushing to keep stuff down that they don't want out there. But it's a beautiful process, man.

Well, yeah. And, you know, the more you really poke the bear, the more they're likely they're going to try to cancel you or short. It's very difficult for you. And unless you're really big like Tucker Carlson, you're not going to get another chance. So, I mean, a little small guy like me, I don't think they really care much about. I'm probably on their watch list anyway, but yeah, you know, I'm just nobody to them. Now, if I got to an elevated to another level, you know, to where like I'm doing like a Quentin Tarantino style film or something like that, then, you know, that it might, you know, become a little bit more of a nuisance.

But I'm really not that much of a, I'm not even a blip on the radar, to be honest with you. But that doesn't mean that, you know, 2,000 other JVs out there collectively writing stuff along the same line. or whether I influence other writers to do the same thing, and I think I have some degree. Yeah, that could be a problem for the powers that be because they want to control the narrative, as you say. They want to have people in this cage for their minds, you know, to quote the Matrix,

this idea that whatever comes out of that tube, that TV screen is the gospel. No, it isn't. And I think there's a lot of pushback right now. I think we're noticing and we're seeing it now, where people are just, they're just not, they're just not accepting it because, you know, you can put a bow on a turd, it's still a turd.

It can't even spray the room with perfume. It's still a plate of turd, and people are just going to see for what it is. And it doesn't matter how many talking heads you got on TV, all singing the same song in unison. You know, anybody with half a brain, and I think this is why they work on the youth so much, you know, because they can't get us older guys like that.

They just can't. We're not cut from the same, you know, assembly line that these young people are coming out of it. They're coming out of a different factory than you and I did. So they're pre-programmed, you know, they're already going to, they're going to come into this adulthood and go venture. And they're already going to be accepting all this stuff. And by the time you and I get too old and do anything about it, it's going to be too late. So, I mean, the only thing I could tell, you know, the younger generations is,

please for the love of God, could you please not take all this propaganda and call it gospel because it isn't. You need to start questioning everything. You need to question everything. I mean, listen, Shakespeare was able to pull it off where the guy could write a story, do a play where he's making fun of the queen, put on the show for the queen and have him a standing ovation. This is why I admire Shakespeare because he could do that. He was clever. He was clever. enough to do that. You just got to find clever people that can pull it off. That's all. I believe I'm one of them. I'm going to keep trying. That's why I do films because I'm going to, I'm going to poke the bear, but not in such a way where I want to turn around and try to whack the head

off my shoulders. And even if he does, you put up a big fight and everyone's going to come and watch. You know what I mean? Well, sure, but I want to keep poking him. I don't want that to be the last time I poke him. You know, I want to keep poking them. So. Right. I want to poke him at such a distance that he won't be able to swipe me and take my head off. So this brings up this other idea that I had. If we look at like generational stories, you know, there's a great book called The Fourth Turning. And in that book, they talk about the different generations and what each generation kind of went through and what they were brought up in. And as an exor, I look back at all of the propaganda and all of the ideas that were given to our generation.

You know, you had like Top Gun or you had this. Yeah. You're pain, aren't you? Yeah. Well, you know, we had a, we had a big push, I think, in the Jin X for, like, anti-authority. Like, we were pretty big on anti-authority. We were pretty big for stand-up for what you believe. And, like, I remember a movie called Stand and Deliver.

You know what I mean? And we were like, that was a great movie. But if you look back at, like, the Breakfast Club or, you know, there was all these movies where the individuals stood up and fought against odds that were ridiculous. Yeah. But that was, you know, the great American hero, like Knight Rider. Like everything we grew up on was about one person standing up and making a difference. Because, like, that was what the Xers were taught.

Like, this is what you do. You stand up and you fight. Yeah, you might get smack down, but you get up and you go again. You know, you look at maybe the boomer generation who, on some level, you know, they were, they had a, it seems to me that they had things pretty much given to them. Not all of them. I'm not saying all the boomers did. Don't get mad at me, boomers. But I'm saying that, you know, their parents gave them a lot.

And even if they failed, they could run back to their parents. And most boomers did. So it, but now you look at the boomer generation and they're beginning to die off in a way. And so too are their ideas. And so you have the Xers, people like you, people like me that are standing up and kind of fight in the system. And you have this next generation coming and it's kind of being taught different things. So if we just pan out a little bit and you look at the generations, the way, they were taught and you see it as a giant story.

That's what this book, The Fourth Turning kind of does. Look at this giant story. Look at the way it's unfolding. Look at this character arc. These guys are coming of age now and they're going to be anti-authority. Isn't it fascinating to think that we're coming up and being handed the torch right when the system is being taken down?

It's almost as if guys like us, girls like us, the X generation was specifically taught a certain set of skills to be where we are now, whether it's creating the King of Silas, whether it's making indie films, whether it's being a podcaster. But it seems like we were brought up for this, right? It does feel that way. I know that, you know, I was influenced by people in my life that were very rebellious. Yes.

Very, very rebellious to the point of violence, I think. I've never been a violent guy. But I can certainly appreciate the fascination that people have with violence. And that's the thing about King of Soutis is it is a very violent story. Yeah. If you listen to that show, it is a riddled with violence of all sorts, gruesome stuff. And I've never actually, I mean, I grew up around boxers. So, I mean, that's about the extent of violence that I have experienced personally as a boxer, you know, my younger years.

But inflecting that kind of pain on someone is something I don't think I can do. I don't have a hard to do it. Oh, I lost you there for a sec. Yeah, it's an interesting thing to think about when we come to the idea of violence. You know, I think about the way in which people in my generation were taught that, hey, sometimes you've got to fight. You know, I think of the Brady bunch. Remember Bobby had to go and defend Cindy at the world when we went to school and there was like a bully there

that was trying to like talk a lot of smack to Cindy? He went home and his dad taught him how to fight and he went to school and he beat that kid up. But it seems to me the younger generation, the idea of violence is being. violently stripped away from them. Like you cannot have any sort of violence. But if I look back at that particular motif that's put out on the papers, it's put out on television, it's put out on radio, this idea that there could be no violence,

it sounds like a sort of, you know, administration that's scared. It sounds like an authority that's like, hey, we've got to stop these people from being violent. Why? Because they might kill us. Like I think that there's a reason that we have for so long decided to take violence out of the class. We've decided to say violence is not okay by any means.

Like that is a narrative that's being pushed because the people in positions of authority do not want violence. It's not that they don't want your kid to get hurt. It's not that they don't want them to be fights at school. It's that they don't want your kids to grow up. These people are burning me. I'm going to go down to my local politician,

have a few words with that knucklehead. Hey, I'm going to go down to the center square and have a few words with these knuckleheads. I think that is the reason they're taking violence out of them. JV, I lost you there for a sec. Yeah, I don't know. what happened. My internet's fine. Poking the bear

too much. I think the CIA tricked off at me for things I'm sitting. Maybe you're bigger than you thought, man. Apparently, they're watching everything I'm doing. I was just telling the people, it seems like this, we were talking about propaganda and violence. And it seems to me that, you know, in the last 20 years, there's been a real big push for, hey, we don't want violence.

And that sounds like a narrative to me. That sounds like people in positions of authority, panicking, trying to make sure that the next generation of kids will not be violent. You know, what do you think about that as a narrative? These are things that are primal in us, man. They cannot be suppressed. They cannot. So, anyone who thinks that is a fool.

I mean, I'm sorry, but these government agencies who are trying to do these experiments, some people, they just keep falling flat on their face. Okay, they get, okay, so they get some really good, you know, data out of it. And, you know, they get right all this down for, you know, it's how they got Ultra.

It was that M.K. Ultra and all these other weird drug things that they've done to people. Okay. But you're still, you're not, so the objective was to have a more violent society or what? Because that's what we got. We got a much more violent society, I think,

than we've ever had. I mean, I wasn't around in the 60s. I mean, I could pick up a book and read about it or watch old reels about it. But I know it was. I know there were race wars back in the 60s. I know there were race wars in the 70s. Is it really, is that what we're talking about here?

I mean, what are we talking about here? I don't know. It seems to me like, what do they really want? I mean, I think it's, I think it's, that's a fair question to ask. What the heck does the government want from its people? They want them fighting. They want people fighting each other. so they don't pay attention to all their money being stolen.

Okay. Well, I think we all know just how big the national debt is. We know how much money has been stolen. Do we? Uh-oh. They're breaking down JV over there, man. They're shutting him down. I don't know.

When it comes to money, listen, people, they're breaking it down over here. So when it comes to money in the government, I don't know that we know how much is stolen. Does anybody really know how much a trillion dollars is? Can you know no one in here can tell me what a trillion dollars is like it sounds like a big number a billion is a big number But I I can't fathom a trillion I can't fathom a billion you know it's it just seems crazy That's twice JV

They're coming for you They're coming for me man they're coming for me I don't know why if you guys are worried about me you got big problems man Yeah I don't know man so we left off on the government knows how much money they're spending, but do they like, do they really know? Do they really care? I don't think, look, I don't think they know, okay? I think that they think they know and they're certainly convinced themselves that they know.

And this is quite evident in the fact that they keep failing and failing, failing. Anybody who's ever worked at a government agency or has works for the government, we know the government is very inefficient. machine, okay? They just are. Everything that they touch, everything that they do is inefficient. They're wasteful spending and they have incompetent people running the agencies or running whatever departments. They're just incompetence all up and down the chain. So I think we're putting a little bit too much credit there. And then somehow they, well, I'm sure they have some, some big brains in there somewhere, but they're also pretty greedy, you know, and they have some

kind of malfeasance in their blood where their end goal is always going to be to the detriment of its citizens. It just always seems to be. That's the reason why I don't trust the government. It's why I don't trust the government because they consistently have shown me as just a regular Joe citizen. They consistently show me that they don't care what happens to their people. They don't care because if they did, it would make the hard decisions that are necessary to preserve our way of life.

And it seems like at every turn, they just continuously change policies. They pass laws and they're only enriching their buddies and they're only making life more difficult for us out here. We're just trying to get to work and home and pay our bills. And it just there has to be some other motive. And this is why, you know, one of the things that about I'm going to just, jump back to the King of Silas. Yeah, man. Please.

Please. In the season one of the show, the king is trying to make an alliance with China, right? Because the king realizes that the only way he's going to rid America of these evil people that are doing all the things that you and are just not talking about, the only way to get rid of them is if he kills them. And the only way he kills them, he has to, he's going to need people from outside this country. country because they're not all here. They're all over the world. Okay. So he wants to make this alliance with China in the Middle East, right? And the Chinese president comes and visits the king at his castle. And I build the castle in the center of the country in Kansas, okay?

The center of Kansas, right? Because he's like, you know, if I want to be anywhere, I'm going to be right smack in the middle of the country where it's the hardest to get to me. Anyway, so the Chinese president goes and visits him there at the castle in Kansas. And it's at that meeting where, you know, the Chinese president is like, okay, well, you know, I've outlined all these things that I want you to do. And he's like, I'm the king. You don't tell me what to do. You'll tell me what to do.

I'm the king, you know. And he's like, no, I don't think you understand. You're going to do exactly what I tell you to do. And he goes, and the king is like, listen, if you really, thought you're going to come into my castle and tell me what to do, you're not going to walk out of here alive, right? And so the Chinese president says, listen, I got 15 nukes pointed right at this castle. If I don't walk out of here in 15 minutes, nobody's going to walk out of here alive, not you nor me or anybody else. Right? So at that point, the king realized, oh, okay,

he took his gun out, man. He pointed it right. at me, cocked it and pointed it right up between my eyes, right? And he says, okay, fine. You will line it out what you said, whatever does he want. He's like, good, that's much better. He goes, and I'm going to walk out of here now. And he goes, oh, I have no doubt. We will talk again soon, right? But this is the alliance that the king had to, the king of America had to make with China. He knew that it was a bad deal. but he had to make it in order to get to what he wants, which is to get rid of the elitist who refers to,

the Illuminati who refers to as the monster group, right? I figured I'd give him a simple name that was appropriate. Yeah, yeah. And if you look at American politics now, it's really not that different. I mean, literally, our secretary of state is over in China right now, as you and I are talking, and he's at people with President Xi,

And President, she is telling him, okay, this is what we're going to do. This is what we want to do. And this is what we want you to stay out of it. Tell us to America, man. Right? So how, you know, is it art imitating life or is it life imitating art? You tell me. Well, I think it's what Robert Plant would say the song remains the same, you know,

and it's just look at Shakespeare, look at the merchant of Venice, look at all of these particular stories that have happened forever. If you, you know, it seems to me that there's a line. There used to be, I don't know this, but I'm just saying it's, at least I thought this. I thought that there was a line between government and corporations. And if you look at what we see now is it's, I think it was John Dewey who said, government is the shadow cast upon people by business. And when you start looking at the world like a giant sort of corporate structure,

You know, you can even look at some of the Rockefeller's writings where they talk about, you know, let's find a way to, to make government subservient to business because we can run things better. You can hear Tim Cook talk about, hey, Apple is much more efficient than the government? But is he really saying that corporations should run the world? And the problem that I think some of these egomaniacs that are CEOs have a problem with is like, hey, dummy, when you get rid of the government, you become the government, dummy. So you're going to be the exact same thing. But people, I can't imagine. Okay, so that being said, I've made it very simple. I'm sure that there's tons of moving parts.

I am sure that the people struggling to control supply chains in Ukraine have contracts with every other pieces, other other players around the world to make sure that those economies keep being economies in first world countries. And if you lose that supply chain, your country goes to third world status. So they're willing to do whatever they need to do in order to keep the people from revoke. revolting, but the story gets so convoluted and gets so crazy that it doesn't even make sense. I think it's better off, you know, breaking down in some level. And I don't know if that's kind of a shotgun out the back door, but yeah, I don't see how our government or any other governments can continue to move down the path they're moving on without there being some sort of a revolution.

And if you look at France, if you look at the uprisings in the Middle East, if you look at all the cities in America that are uprising. Like, they can't keep a lid on it. It's coming, I think. Well, because, you know, if you, if you topple the government, you have to replace it with something. Sure. There's a song that I wrote.

Now, I'll share it with you later. Yeah. I'll love to hear. If you want, I could put the, I can put it on the chat in case. That'd be awesome. Give me a second. Let me put it on the chat right here. So on, there are, there is an EP that I released a while,

and there's a song on there that's called the New World Order, right? Okay. And there's a line in the song where I say, I'm not talking about some conspiracy, and I'm not saying the answer will set you free. Because that's kind of what you're saying. It's like, okay, even if you were to destroy, let's say, let's say we take over the government, okay?

Let's say, you and me and a whole mess of Yahoo's go up there to the White House and tear everything down, and now we're, you know, holding up the, you know, the flag and we took over. It's okay, now who's in charge? You know, and at what point, how long do you think it'll be before the fighting begins? Probably not very long. Right. And so, you know, it's going to be chaos.

And basically we're going to break into pieces where this, you know, everything's going to be warlords here, warlords there. And it's just going to be a mess. So on the one hand, okay, the government needs to be the one to keep stability. and on the other hand, they can't be the one to stoke the fires that are screwing everything up either. I mean, you're in power, dude. You're in power.

It's like you don't need us to be fighting with each other, get at each other on the street for you to stay in power. You are already in power, you know? They might need that, though. Like how what, like, look at the wedge of division that's placed between man, woman, gay, straight, black, white, like any kind of division you could think of, there's a wedge that's being shoved down,

because they don't want the gay guy to stand arm and arm. They don't want the gay guy to stand arm and arm with the redneck in his trailer. You know what? We don't like. You guys up here. And we both think that you guys are the problem. So the more they can divide people on small issues, it's the old strategy of divide and conquer. Sure.

And it's just being shoved out through the airways at a level that is, you know, threatening my ears. It's like it's so loud. It's obvious. It's so ridiculous. It's obvious. If people could just stop for a minute and go, oh, we're on the same team. Us, we're all getting screwed over here. Let's go figure this thing out.

Yeah, you're 100% right. But here's the thing. Okay. That's hard to navigate when you're a media creator. It's hard to navigate that. Yeah. You know, because on the one hand, I say, okay, I have my political views.

Of course I do. I don't always voice them publicly, only because it's none of your damn business. Number one. Number two, I know how the political divide is in this country. Okay? And so I really want to just, I just want to create media. I want to create films.

I want to create stories. And I think people will enjoy. I mean, it's not going to matter to anyone. Excuse me. It's not going to matter to anyone, you know, how I feel about XYZ politics. I mean, at the end of the day, I'm just some guy. Like, I don't make those decisions. Right.

I don't, I'm not the one influencing that. So when the hatred gets toward, it's pointed towards an individual, I think that's where you've committed a very bad atrocity to humanity. In the name of humanity, you know, that's the word, I use a lot in the show. It's a humanity. We're doing this for humanity.

You know, we need to kill 18 million people in this town. For humanity's sake. That's the absurdity of this king and this story. I absolutely love this character. I love the character for what he is. You know, he's an evil, crazed, insane individual. He's an insane individual. And I'm not saying I love this character because he goes around and kills millions of people.

I'm saying that I love this character because he's so absurd. Right. And people will continue to follow him in spite of his absurdity. Yeah. And that's really kind of the motif of what's going on in this world. And I think as an artist, whether you're a musician, whether you're a writer, whether you're a digital creator, YouTuber or whatever.

You know, there is a plethora of material to work with. I think that's why some YouTubers have made themselves rich because there's just so much to talk about. You can talk about anything and you'll have millions of people that are interested in that. You can talk

about anything and have, you know, on either side and you'll have a whole legion of people. But see, that stratification is not what's going to unify us. you know, it's quite the opposite. And that glory of saying, yeah, you know, you can make a right-wing channel or you can make a left-wing channel, and boom, we're going to make all this money.

Great for you, man, but you've just done a disservice to society. But, you know, who can blame them? I mean, you can call them a grifter if you want. Or you can call them an opportunist. You call them an entrepreneur. Call them whatever you want to call them. It's not their fault that the country. is the way that it is. I mean, maybe they have, they've kind of ride the wave, you know,

I sympathize with YouTubers, even if they're on opposite ends of the spectrum for me politically. Because at least they're doing, they're making an honest living. You know, they're out there, they're pushing their content, whatever it is, and people are watching it, people are buying their merchandise, people are doing all the superchats, people are doing all the, you know, the go fund mes, or they're doing the patrons. And by the way, I have a Patreon, too. You know, maybe people are interested in that. Yeah.

You're on for a King of Silas, man. It's expensive putting these products together, man. It is. You know? And so it's not, look, I make a pretty decent living. I don't need to make money from the King of Silas to pay any of my bills. That's not why I'm doing it. But I know that there are a lot of people that do, that they have their products.

They have their shows. And they're making their money off of that. And that's great for them, man. That's a blessing, really. But there is definitely a lot of material to work with. And the government makes it easy because they're, I mean, they keep pushing these ridiculous things. Yeah. Yeah, it's true.

Ridiculous policies. You have a, we have a president who has, he's riddled with all kinds of problems. I mean, anybody could see that. Whether you're, whether you're for him or against him, you can't deny that we have issues, you know. And so that's where we are. I don't, I don't think if someone tried to. write, you can make the argument for the last two presidents. I think that as an artist and as a writer, if you tried to write those two presidents in charge of the United States, people would have

laughed. I'm like, what is it? Some kind of crazy comedy? You can't have that guy as it, but I would never happen. But the reality is stranger than fiction, right? It's kind of fascinating to think about from that point of view. It used to me politics was entertainment. Yeah, yeah. That's why you had actors and reality show stars become presidents because of entertainment. I don't think that's the case anymore. I think, you know, over the last two election cycles, we've really stopped making this about entertainment. And it's really become something very ugly. And I'm really quite concerned.

But at the same time, it's, you know, I don't know. I'm just going to keep producing stuff. that's down the middle because that's just how I roll. You know, that's just the way I am. I've never been one to produce anything. I know people have accused me of stuff, but you can accuse me all you want until you give me, okay, I confess.

I'm not going to do that because I know how I think about this stuff, way too much. You're not going to get me. Go ahead and try. That's just how I am as a creator, because I'm careful like Shakespeare was. I don't think the times now are any different than they were for him in his time.

You know, he was somebody in spite of his fame, in spite of his talent, his genius. He didn't make any money, man. He was poor until the very end. It wasn't until the very end that he actually made something. The duration of his, of his time writing as a playwright, the dude could barely scrape by. you know i mean

relatively speaking but any you know that's the thing that i admire about Shakespeare i kind of see myself as a you know like i try to emulate him and even my life i think is a lot like him in that way and he was

kind of a he was kind of a he didn't go to any of the big schools that was one of the big swipes on him was that he didn't go to any one of the elite schools you know and so all the other playwrights at the time i said that's like saying well i went to harvard and i went to Stanford and I went to Yale.

Oh, where'd you go? What community college did you go to? Get him out of here. That's how it were to him. Because that's what it was. He was down here. And so he proved them all wrong. He was a genius, you know, and he wrote the best plays that ever were written. And some people

want to debate that, let them debate it. But I believe that it was hit. He wrote all that stuff. I believe that. Because the style, I mean, I know look, I analyzed everything, okay? Just like everyone, as part of my, you know, undergrad studies. But anyway, neither here nor there, it is what it is.

I find that there's a lot of parallel between modern times and his time. You know, if not me, maybe there's another Shakespeare out there. They will come about and be that next Shakespeare, you know. Yeah, I hope there's a, I hope that, that message of the message of

you know you don't have to go a lot of times the most influential people that come up with the greatest decisions were not people that went to a school the most creative and talented people were people that had lived experience and then translated that experience into something for society

and it seems counterproductive and almost obtuse to think that someone who went to school for 25 years could actually come out and never do anything because they're handicapped in a way. It's like they have failed to launch. They've sat in a classroom and listened to other people's opinions about how the world works instead of going out and beginning to understand for themselves how the world works, whether you're Shakespeare or whether you're J.V. Torres or George Monty or any number of

men or women who have got up and maybe weren't handed a silver spoon in their life. I think that the person who goes out there and tries to create something, if you work hard enough at it, there's no reason why you can't become at the very top of your field. There's no reason why you can't become the very best person in that field. And sometimes I just wish people would understand that maybe all given every, if you're given everything, you're kind of handicap, man. Do you think that's accurate?

I think it's very accurate. But here's another caveat is now you have AI enter of the arena. And you have writers that are using AI to enhance their work, or at least getting started. And I'm guilty of it, too. But I only use AI writing for, like, you know, business emails or something like that. Right. Emails, it's not going to, like, I don't think on that. I don't think like that.

And so I remember I did this email recently, and I said it to one of my co-workers, and did you write this or did you have AI writing? I'm like, I did AI write it. I did it. I said, yeah, I kind of figured. that doesn't sound like you at all. That's not how you are. I'm like, yeah, I know, it's not.

But, you know, when you're writing something that's supposed to be, you know, homogenized and bland and really error-free of anything that could be remotely taken out of context, I think AI is a good tool for that. But if you want to use AI to help you write stories or to help you in that realm, you're not a writer, dude. I'm sorry. You're not a writer. If you have to use AI to help you with that, you're not a writer.

I'm sorry. I mean, I would say, you know, maybe use AI for editing. You know, that's a game change. Yeah. I'm terrible. I make grammatical mistakes just like anyone else does. I spell things wrong all the time too. So, I mean, to have an AI do the editing, I think, is a very powerful and time-efficient type of tool, you know, because you can save yourself a lot of time.

and embarrassment. I remember the first run of my book that I published years ago, somebody found a typo, and I was like, what you mean? When I look on the page, I'm like, oh, my God, it is one there. God. I know how to go back and fix it,

and then I do a whole new run. A whole new match of them. So, you know, in that regard, I guess an AI would be good because you can catch things that you're just going to overlook them, no matter how meticulous you are. I mean, I'm pretty meticulous, but clearly it wasn't that meticulous because some of them got buying me. Yeah.

I'm kind of on the fence with like the chat GPT. On some levels, it just seems like Wikipedia to me. Like it's not really that much different. Like, yeah, you can look stuff up and you can get answers and it just kind of spits it back to you. And on some level, I think the people that are really freaking out about chat GPT or AI are the people whose jobs are not really that important. Like, you know, for a long time, we talked about, hey, man, they're going to have these self-driving trucks. Like people are going to be out of business. And all these, yeah, like all these truck drivers are, oh, no.

And now you have like, hey, AI is going to take away doctors. Hey, AI is going to take away this. And now those people are just having their moment. Like, oh, existential crisis. If you're going to have AI takeover Titi, man. Have at it. Okay. If you want to deal with those little guys, go right on the head.

Let them throw spitballs at you. The robots at her. Stop throwing spitballs at me. Not correct. This is not good behavior. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Do that. I'm sure because I'll have a field day with that robot. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. And I, on some level, I think it presents a lot of possibilities. Like, if we can have AI find ways in order to mechanize the workforce, like, if you look at Amazon right now, they have all of these, they have all of these sort of, you know, warehouses. They have robots that go and do the things.

of all these employees and there's all this talk about, hey, robots can take the jobs, everybody. Perfect. Why don't we just charge every robot at every corporation payroll tax? Now we don't have to do it anymore. And that payroll tax goes into, you know, like a freedom dividend. Because everybody built it. We all paid for that technology. So I think that that is also the push for AI, you know?

Like people are tripping out, like they don't want it. Yeah, what do you got? You ready? Yeah, let's hear it. What AI in politics? Let's do it. Yeah. Presenting the second district of

Yeah. Yeah. Program, you know, and have him how to spit out all the, all the right things to do and all the right things to say you can't corrupt him. He's a program. Yeah. You can't. Why don't we have AI lawyers and AI judges?

Everybody gets to. Yeah. Equal justice under the law for the first time ever. Imagine, imagine if AI was in charge and put in charge of the government. You wouldn't have to. worry about corruption because it's an AI program. It's not corruptible. But what about the people that are in charge of it? Wouldn't they be like, hey, politicians are in D.C. Let's replace them with AI. See how they like it. Yeah. That poses a completely different question. Like, can you trust

an AI to govern? If you can trust an AI to do an operation on a human body with your life, if you can trust an AI to drive your car, can you trust, can you trust? Can you trust? Can you trust an AI to govern? Yeah. Well, I think you could trust an AI to bring clarity. I think that you can uncover things. Like, everything can be out in the open. And when you do that, you take away the corruption, right?

If you have transparency, you don't have corruption. And if everyone can see the algorithm, then guess what? All those politicians go home. See, here's the thing, though, AI has to be self-sufficient. It cannot be connected to Apple or some other. big Microsoft company. You can't have Bill Gates get his dirty little hands on that AI. It has to be free of that corruption because the moment you let corporations tap into

that AI, it is now corrupted. Right. It has to be completely separate from everything. Yeah. Okay. This is going to be the self-sufficient, you know, as not sentient because I think that would be horrible. That's a horror story right there.

But if you had one that was self-sufficient, that could make decisions based on data, based on efficiency, based on what we have available to us in our coffers, whether at the state or national level, all the things that politics are supposed to do. And take all the rhetoric out. Take all the politics out of it,

take all the ideology out of it, and say, this is going to be how we're going to govern. This is a thing we've all elected that this is going to, we've elected this AI to govern. Could you do it? Would you be comfortable with that? I'm asking you.

Well, I think that's what's coming down the pipe. I think that's what's called a smart city. And I think that what you're seeing right now is people desperately struggling to be in charge of the AI. Because while the AI is uncorruptible, the person programming the AI is not. Like you said, is it a Microsoft AI or is it an Apple AI? If you look at some of the cities in China where you have your, you have your digital credit score, your digital passport, like those things are already here.

We already have them somewhat here in our country. It's just who's going to be in charge of the power, right? Sure. But here's the thing. I mean, the AI has to be able to make decisions and also learn from those. It has to constantly be evolving. And so if we're saying, look, okay, when you first began, this new administration.

When you first began your administration, these were the problems, but our problems have now, we now have different problems. You need to adjust to those problems. Okay. And we need to take these matters into consideration. And so it has to be able to be, it has to, it has to have some kind of part to it where the people vote on something. Like, let's say, okay, well, we want to build, we want to restructure this bridge. Okay. And we want to use public funds for XYZ. Well, that has to, there has to be a mechanism where the AI considers the public, the public desire. You know, and it has to have like, because there's no elections anymore, but it has to have like this free flowing of ideas where the public says, you know, we want XYZ. So you need to be able to allocate funds for these things. You need to be able to set out your robot construction people to do XYZ. And so. You know, because these may not matter at the national level, what they might matter at the municipal level, you know, at the city level.

Yeah, I think. And, you know, that's, and the sheriff in town is going to have to have to check with the AI about, you know, about funding for, you know, new equipment or a new armored car or something. Because this is how corruption happens. Yeah. This is how corruption happens because they, right now is all this greasing the palm. It's, you know, oh, we got big contract coming, boy. What happens in the back alleys

In the hills And it goes on up to hill It goes all the way up to Capitol Hill Yeah, when you say it like that I don't think AI will ever get rid of corruption Because it's the human component Like we're gonna code corruption right into those machines You know, and it's going to be

I think that If I could pan back and see what's happening on some level is this idea that our economic system has failed yet again. And they need a crisis. They need everything to fail. And they're going to come in with the promise of AI. Hey, look what AI is going to do. But really, they're just resetting everything so that the same people in charge

can continue to collect the same paycheck for doing absolutely nothing. And like if you go back to Shakespeare, if we go back to Robespier, you know, I think that there's a reckoning coming. You know what it does? It's common. I like that. That's a good one. So look, I think it's coming.

And I think the people up top are panicking because there's no way out. And that's why you see people, crime family is being put in charge of governments that aren't hiding stuff. Because the people that are in charge right now are expendable. And the real people pull in the strange, like, put that guy in charge. He's a dummy. I don't care if he dies. Right. You're seeing the positions being laid out.

But this has always been the case. Agreed. We go all the down the line, all the presidents before this one, the exception of one. I think that's probably why he's always under investigation or indictments because he's not part of that claim. But if he, but, you know, if he go further down the line, you know, the Bushes and the Clintons and all down the line, there was definitely a lot of people pulling the strings, man. And that's just the way it's always been. And that's that's the sad truth. It's unfortunate.

It's unfortunate because I think the country has as slow. gone down this path and now we're not able to get into reverse. We're not able to to make an adjustment without, you know, a massive backlash. And that's not the way it's always been. That's not the way I remember it. I'm pretty sure if you think back to when you were a much younger man, I don't remember it being this way, man. I don't. I mean, yeah, you had your people that like, yeah, Reagan, you know, senile. It was okay to say, Reagan was a senile old man, but it's not okay to say it now. Yeah.

That seems weird to me. Like, that seems weird to me. Like, why can't you say that? I think it's obvious. I mean, I mean, and maybe, you know what? Maybe what we're looking at, JV, maybe what we're looking at is progress. Maybe what we're looking at is transparency slowly being peeled back until people can no longer ignore it.

And it has to get worse before it gets better. And maybe what we're doing, maybe by the individuals dropping out of corporate structures and trying to create their own channels, create their own product, create their own brand, regardless of the monetary gain or loss. They had this thing called the Great Resignation. Here you and I are two guys that are, you know, having a great time, learning, teaching, trying to become the best version of ourselves. And in doing so, we're teaching our kids that. So maybe we're in the process of creating a better world right now. what it looks like. Maybe we're going to let that old shell of a government be stripped away like the chrysalis of a caterpillar. Maybe we're emerging as a new form right now.

Maybe. I hope so. I hope you're right. I mean, having a free flow of exchange of ideas is healthy. It's not a bad thing. It's healthy. Whether you agree with one person or another, I remember a long time ago, I mean, having people that I really did not agree with politically, but we were friends. And we could talk about these things. And we didn't get angry at each other. We just kind of laughed at all. It was like, yeah, well, you know, it is.

It's the way it is, you know. And then let's go get a beer. You know, and that's, yeah. But now, now, for whatever reasons, if you say something and somebody's like on the opposite end, it becomes a heated argument where it becomes mad, you know, becomes like something like infectious in your brain. And all of a sudden you want to tear that person apart

or that person wants to tear you apart. I can't explain it. I mean, I personally don't. I laugh. I have a friend I talked to recently. He got so, like, blustered and so, like, angry. I'm like, why are you angry, dude? Yeah.

Like, I'm not in charge of anything. It's not me. Yeah. I'm your friend. Why are you getting mad at me? So because you'd question someone just because you're like, I'm cynical, okay? Yeah. I'm pretty cynical.

I'm right you know I I look at the I look at the world I look at my country I look at my city and I'm just I kind of just chuckle it's like man what's wrong with you people you know can't you get it right once I mean yeah yeah right once just one right that's where we are and it's like no no man we just we have to constantly say and I and I don't mean that oh my I don't keep friends around me that are like that okay yeah My friends that are in my close circle are the coolest dudes you're ever going to meet. These guys hang with me and they're my brothers to the end. I love them no matter what they, because we know what the line is.

You know, we're talking about the beginning of this conversation, that line. Yeah, exactly. That line is. They respect that line and I respect theirs and we're brothers to the end because of that. And I think society needs that. society needs to come to that point where you respect people's lines like you don't cross it okay and just because there's a line there doesn't mean you get to throw something over the line crossing the line doesn't mean like necessarily or you just oh i didn't step over the line oh no you

did you just threw something at me that's crossing the line man you know i think that's where people get it twisted because you say something or because you know you make you this backhanded insult like somehow that's not crossing the line it absolutely is when you when you have a line it's like you just don't go there man you just don't go there don't ask me about it let's not talk about it let's go around it let's go somewhere else let's talk about something else because i like you you know so yeah people just were just more respectful in that regard i think we'd be better off but i don't know what it is why People just have a hard time with that. Like they have to know.

And then once they do know, they have to like change you. I'm like, you're not going to change me, man. Don't you get it? Don't you get it? You're not going to change me. Like I am who I am. You are who you are. And we're either going to jive or we're not.

Yeah. It seems like the idea that we can not. We can't have any sort of civil discourse. You know, it's such an interesting thing to me. It's such an ancient idea now. I know. Like, what's wrong? You know, sometimes I watch just some really good debates that, like, that I'll watch

sometimes. And I'm always like, wow, even though they may start off contentious, you know, they have a moderator and the people both get to put their sides out. And, you know, it's fascinating to me to kind of see that happening. What a great way to solve a problem is like, let's get the best people from both sides and have a debate and have a respectful debate and have one person bring up a point and have another counterpoint.

Like I think that the world in which we live is grown up enough, intelligent enough, and strong enough to have that. What a beautiful world it would be instead of having like Sunday, you know, I love sports, but I mean, what if we had a debate before the Super Bowl? Or what if we had a Super Bowl of debates

where we brought together these ideas? And in some ways, you can see the, this debate that Rogan, trying to orchestrate between like RFK and some scientist over here like imagine two people coming together and talking about their differences rather than

using ad hominem attacks to fight each other well because the doctor you're referring to I think is Dr. I want to say Holtz or something like that. Something like that yeah he's he look Joe Rogan is an absolute

pro and he's a beast and he knows what he's doing he knows that guy is not going to debate Robert F. Kennedy. Because Robert F. Kennedy, we can already look at his, his, what his point of view was. And we know that he was right on. Okay. And we can look at that guy Holtz or whatever his name is. And we know he was dead wrong. So how are you going to have this debate? And I know why Rogan wants to do it because he basically wants to grill this guy, you know, and I get it. And I know why he doesn't want to go on his program because he doesn't want to get grilled because he can't defend himself.

But he could already is wrong and it would be better. You know, but they won't even, like, no one will admit they're wrong. Like, that's so crazy to me. Yeah, I'm like, you're dude. Look, okay, I would, I would be of the mindset of this. Because Brogan didn't even put up money, I think, right? I think it's like, I think it's up to $1.5 million. Whatever charity you want, I'll put X amount of dollars.

And I think even went up until the millions, I think. Yeah. I'm not mistaken. And the guy still wouldn't do it. This is what I mean. Like you're so hell bent on not admitting you're wrong, that you're willing to, you're willing to sacrifice some real good that could come out of this.

Like, okay, just humble yourself for this one thing. Yes. Just humble yourself for this charitable cause. Let this charity get this in these people who need that help or whatever that's going to go to, that your humility will have contributed to that cause. and you take the L, man. Take the L, it's worth it.

Yeah. Yeah. We have a very selfish, we have selfish society. That's what we do. We're just selfish. How else can you put, how was, look, if I'm wrong about something and somebody said, you know, come on to your debate with us and we'll put up X, Y, Z to your charity. And I know I'm wrong and I know I'm going to get grilled, but hey, it's for a good cause.

I mean, people use the box for that. Yeah. And maybe you learn something. Maybe you go, well, you know what? I'm wrong, and here's why I thought this. I'm going to take it on the chin, but, you know, I'm going to get some much to do. And maybe at the end of the day, I'll be like, you know, I'll humble myself and say, and take the humility and be like, okay, you know, I learned something.

After all this said and done, I was, I could admit now that I was wrong. My mind has changed. And let's go forward, you know, and now the charity gets their money. I would do that because it's not about me at that point, but this guy makes it about himself. All about him and his little. goons and they're uh i don't know i i i for the life of me i just can't figure it out the opportunity to make over a million dollars for a cause that you get to choose and care about and on top of that potentially become a turning point for a sick in society when you say something

along the lines of now let's work together like if that could be a game changer for society And he's like, nope, I want to do it. Like, that's just a stubborn child who refuses to do anything. I'm not really a child. And I mean, I have no respect for this guy. I don't care if he has a DR in front of his name. Right. It's crazy.

Listen, I've had my run-ins with DRs in my life, and a lot of them are fools, okay? Just because you can open up somebody's body. Doesn't mean you're not prone to be a fool. I think we all make the mistake of just because you're good at one thing doesn't mean you're good at everything. Right. Right. Yeah. And, you know, that's an unfortunate turn of events with that particular situation because I think that person has been on Joe Rogan's show before.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So, I mean, he's had his platform and now he can be a chicken. Okay. Well, whatever. We'll move on. Yeah. JV.

I love our conversation right now. My baby girl is sick and she's got a stomach ache. And I got to go, I got to take care of priority number one, which is my family. Time flies, bro. I know. But I feel like we didn't even really get this. We didn't even really get to hit on so many. I got like four pages of notes here.

And I think we went through half of them, maybe. So we can have you come back. Yeah, please, please. But before I let you go, Jadie, where can people find you? What do you got coming up, man? What are you excited about? Okay. So I'm working on the first King of Silas feature film.

It's called Eviserate. We are not done filming yet We're going to be done filming over the summer My goal is to have it in the film I'm going to probably go straight to be I'm not going to do film festivals with this one The reason why I haven't released my other films Is because they're in film festivals

But once October rolls around They'll be free from that and I'm going to go on Tooby So I think this one's going to be one Once I complete this film I'm going to go straight to stream And then people can watch it Right on the streaming platform And then I'm going to move

move on to other projects. King of Silas, the actual series is coming to an end. The sixth season is the final season for the story. However, we are going to do a season seven because it's not a prequel. We're just going to chronicle the life of one of the characters and kind of go from the beginning of this like season one and then just go all the way to the end. So it'll be like an abbreviated timeline for her for that character. It's going to be based on the princess. And I don't know if we're going to do a season. We talked about maybe doing a season 8 down the road of doing that same thing for a different character. It depends.

You know, I'm going to try to finish the novel for this story. The novel is the prequels, what happens before he becomes king, which is really like a lot of acts. I really studied Tom Clancy for this one, you know, and I really wanted to do something that was action-packed and very like Patriot games type. So that's what you can expect from the King of Silas novel. I will probably have that one out later this year as well. But really right now, I would just want to hear people, you know, getting on the podcast and listen to King of Silas and sharing that because it's a fascinating story. And I think it needs to get more traction and get more people to listen to it because it's,

you're going to find those points like, oh, I see. he brought this up. I'm like, no, that was before that happened. It's just, you know, because the timeline is what it is. But it's, for me, that's, that's where a lot of my inspiration right now for the other projects come from. They're all coming from that source material. Yeah.

No, it's amazing. I would recommend everybody, get familiar with your work, man. I love what you're doing. And I got to get you back so we can talk more about all of the projects coming up. But yeah, go down everybody who's listening to this. Check out the show notes. Check out JV. Check out his projects.

I hope you got a little taste of who he is, why he does the things that he does. And I know for a fact. I didn't even get to talk about the miseducation project. There's other podcasts I do where I talk with other educators. We talk about the education system. And it gets really good, man. Like these people, because I'm like the resident guy in the middle. I'm the moderate in this, right?

And when you're a mom, You might as well be a right-wing extremist, right? Totally. That's the angle that I take in that program, and it gets fiery at times, man. I bet. They want to go this, I'm like, yeah, no, we're not doing that. I put them on their heels and, like, you've got to defend your position. So that podcast is a good one for me.

It's right up my alley. It's education. It's for the betterment of our youth. And I think everyone should check that out, the diseducation project. Yeah, that sounds like a fascinating one. I'm looking forward to digging it to myself, man. And so, well, JV, thank you so much for today.

I really appreciate your time. I'm really thankful to check out the final season of King Salat. I say it wrong. Thank you so much. My tongue's all jacked up. Always butcher it. It's okay. Yeah, yeah.

But I love that. Just put the A in front of it. Yeah. King Sinaius. Okay, perfect. Yeah. No, it's so funny. There's a director here, and we'll close it up after this.

He's a theater director here. Yeah. Right? And his name is Noah. And his last name is Silas. Right. And so I was poking fun of him, but he had no idea why. Right.

Well, if you say your name, I say, it's Noah Silas. And he's like, I don't get it. I'm like, so I sent him to the link of the show. Then he's like, oh. Yeah. Anyway. Again, no coincidences. See?

and now we're up back into the beginning of the conversation. Yeah. Anyway, this is a great conversation. I'm so glad you had me on. Yeah. You can have me back. I'll be more and delighted to come out in here.

I'm going to send you the audio for this that I took on my end so you can have a much crisper audio for me. Perfect. You're going to put this on your podcast, right? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right.

I'll upload it. I'm sorry. Say that part again. I lost you right there. And then when you do have that, send me the link. And then I'll send that out through all my social media. well. Perfect, my friend. So hang on one second. I'm talking real briefly afterwards, but I'm going to hang up with the audience here. So ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for hanging out with us today.

Great show, great guest. Check out everything he's got going. I promise you'll be stoked about it. And that's all we got for today. Hello.