Virtual Erections, & Existential Dread

[00:00:00] Eddie Eddie. I agree. Let’s get it fucking over with. We meet, we meet again. And we were talking about how we haven’t seen each other this often for a long time, for a very long time. Right now, if you hear the sounds of the screaming baby behind me, that is not my daughter, that is, uh, a soundtrack that I play in the background to toughen me emotionally and psychologically, like in the Special Forces trainings where they play baby crying as they like put them in water.

That’s like freezing cold water, like midnight. Are you the baby or are you the uh, yeah. What, what, who are you in this metaphor? Because I would, I’m gonna go, uh, close my door so my training sounds don’t leak into the fair enough. And those cries bring back.[00:01:00]

Thank you listeners for the, uh, there we go. Vacations. You got yourself a, you got yourself a Jack and Coke there. Yeah. This is, uh, a nice coffee. I remember when I used to be on virtual meetings and like virtual classrooms and stuff. Every time someone was about to get up, I remember thinking like, oh man, please be wearing pants.

Like, please don’t have like a giant erection. Yeah, that’s the first thing I thought. I never got scared when a woman sat up. Every time a guy stood up, I’m kinda like, oh, please tell if you’re, yeah, if you’re like rubbing one out, please remember that you don’t, that this is virtual. There’s a camera. This is not Okay.

Well that could be, unless he didn’t like the guy, maybe he would’ve been fired immediately. Because you stand up and it’s like, you know, boom. Oh, actually is my stomach. It’s on my crotch. There we go. So anyway. Terrifying. Anyway, anyway, absolutely terrifying. What is the topic for today? I haven’t, I haven’t, but I digress.

You know, there was a lot of topics we didn’t get to last week. Yeah, there were, we [00:02:00] can get to that, like the, like the economy, first of all, let’s see how we’re doing, uh, for those listeners who are listening and, uh, I have not had a chance to start the Twitter account or anything useful in terms of marketing.

I’m sorry, you’re, you’re the what account? I don’t know what Twitter is. Twitter. Ah, the X account, you know, we got oh x the social media platform. I hate to tell you this free speech and has a unbiased AI in that it is not woke. No, it’s not at all. And I’m very pleased with it. You know, I hate to tell you this, uh, Cal Brock is the one that said it was a right.

You’re, I’m Eddie. I, I’m, I’m Kelly. You’re Eddie. I hate to tell you this, Eddie, which is that we received 30, uh, listens in the past week, which is impressive actually. How many Stop and deceased. Um, stuck on our last episode alone. We received 18 listens. That’s a lot. And our episode [00:03:00] beforehand. Thanks mom.

Ai, girlfriends and immigration angst received 23. So actually we’re doing fairly well for a show that is just released. I would say. I don’t know if these are real. Maybe these are bots. If it’s a bot listening, hope you’re enjoying it. Yeah, you’re real. So tell us, yeah. You’re real. Steal killings in the streets of London.

If you’re a real person, let us know. Um, I know that’s, let us know by leaving us a review. It’s a lot to ask Apple Podcast. Take a moment to make people prove they’re real people. Yeah, it is. But you know, we’d love to know if we’re not, if we’re talking to real people and, and what do you, what do you like and what do you wanna hear more of?

That’s a bigger ask. Um, and I wanted you to just come on the show with us for the heck of it showing us. This will be, join the podcast before it gets too big. And before, that’d be kind of crazy. That’d be kind of awesome. Actually have like a random person. And it’s not like it’s live. There’d be no incentive [00:04:00] for this person to come on and be like, blah, blah, boo blah, boo.

Like, you know what I mean? Like Yeah. Can you imagine that? So this is interesting, right? So, uh, my wife is somewhat popular on social media. Mm-hmm. And my wife does tell us her name. She does like, live videos on like TikTok I think or something. Okay. Um, I stay out of her existence online. Jimmy, you know, she says she’s married and stuff online, but like, I’m not featured in there.

Mm. And she knows I really don’t wanna be like, in there also, like for me, it’s just like, well, that’s her hobby. It keeps her, it makes her happy. She doesn’t, it’s not her job. She doesn’t make money off, off of it really. I mean, not really. Um, pause you now, but I, I stay outta there ’cause I’m like, well I want it to be her thing.

Right? Like, she needs something that is just hers. ’cause it reinforces the fact that in our relationship we’re two independent people. When you start creating your partner as part of your identity, then I think you’re [00:05:00] down the road of like, codependence. You do need to be independent people who come together in the marriage to enjoy being in the marriage.

Right? So, so really it’s really big that she has her own independent stuff while balancing it out. I don’t really believe any of that anymore. I used to believe that stuff and now I don’t, I don’t really believe now you is completely melded together. Like, I don’t even believe in codependence. I think codependence is a word that single people made up to get themselves out.

I do believe this because unlike you, I am divorced. Um, so, and I’ve had a handful of fiances, uh, from a handful of countries. And so what that means, oh my God, is that I have learned a lot about myself. Okay. Which is. 80% of what a relationship is, because to me, if you stay in a relationship that’s not working for you mm-hmm.

That’s your fault. Um, you know, I’m leaving out the extreme cases. Well, you know what, I’ll just talk about myself. I think that’s a much safer [00:06:00] thing to do If I’m in a relationship that I don’t wanna be in and I have been in a few mm-hmm. I feel like it’s my fault. It feels like, oh, I’m trying to be a nice guy, or I’m too much of a coward.

Um, to, I have sometimes been a coward and I will probably sometimes be a coward. Mm-hmm. Uh, but I remember thinking that the key for me to be happy in a relationship, or I should amend that slightly, I think the key for me being happy in romance. Is to be able to know myself well enough to know when a relationship is not for me, and to be able to leave.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And have the kind of like self worth to say like, you know what? I’m actually gonna bounce and not in an acrimonious like, fuck you try to better than me kind of way. Um, in a very like, oh, okay. Like, this just isn’t aligned with my, like, what I think my life is, so mm-hmm. I’m gonna, I’m going to go do something else.

Right. And, and I, it took me a long time to get to a place [00:07:00] where I don’t feel responsible for other people, um, including my baby, like grow up. Um, so, but you know, good for you. You’re not responsible for how other people feel. You do take any of that. You have a lot, you do have a lot to do with it, obviously.

Yeah, exactly. It’s good. Uh, baby’s codependent. That’s right. Um, well anyway, so for me, I don’t know what people mean when they mean codependence. I always thought Codependence was that you’re. Um, your mental peace, happiness is completely dependent on someone else, not in a, not in a healthy way, in a way that not only reduces your ability to feel happy, but makes you obsessed with what you think the other person thinks and feels.

Yeah. Or what you imagine the other person is. Right. And so you, you lose the ability to regulate your own emotions and your own [00:08:00] piece, your own kind of mental serenity, and you then make the other person this focal point of why you can’t be happy when, if you were to make yourself the focal point of why you can’t be happy, you would actually find a solution.

If you make the other person the focal point of why you can’t be happy, um, then you have completely abstained from being part of the process of changing that situation. Yeah. Which. Makes some people very happy to true, to completely abstain from many responsibility. And if it’s someone else’s fault, how miserable you are.

Some people find that very reassuring and they love being miserable and they love having this other person that when they start, when that little story that the other person’s responsible for, how bad they feel. When that story starts to fall apart, then they can just poke the other person and then they, and then that person will remind them, oh yeah, like you’re, you know, whatever.

Yeah, you as a real piece of shit and I love you, or whatever it is. That’s what I’m talking about. I’m talking [00:09:00] about like bringing in another person into your like mental and spiritual, like peace. Um, in order to make sure you never are peaceful or serene and it’s all their faults. And this happens in a lot of different ways that I have seen.

I think I have seen it, but for me personally, it takes the form of. Um, oh wow. I’m with this person who’s amazing and I put them in a pedestal and my life is so amazing ’cause I’m with them and they meet, they, they make me feel so special. I think you can hear what’s wrong with that sentence. For a person when I say it, um, wow.

They make me so happy. Um, I don’t know what I would ever do if I lost them. Right, right. With a romantic partner, that becomes a setup, which is fine. I mean, that’s romantic love the way I understood it from Disney movies and Hollywood. But, uh, you know, that’s not how, that’s not a really healthy way, or not a way that I’m interested in being in a romantic [00:10:00] relationship.

So for me, it’s like, if the other person then breaks up with me, then my happiness, my illusions are completely shattered. And then I, I’m nothing. ’cause my, my identity was built around, around the relationship and my role in it. Right. And that happened to me. That happened to me some years back. And it was, uh.

It was a major shakeup, which was beautiful. ’cause as you know, when your ego is destroyed, um, then what is left is nothing. And then you have to live with that. And then that’s when you realize, oh, wait a second. That identity was, is completely destroyed. Where did it go? It’s not here anymore. But then I’m still here.

So what’s going on? It really makes you question your reality. This carefully constructed, uh, idea of what the world is and who you are and, and what your place in is. And so it was destroyed, which is, it’s uncomfortable. It’s not, you know, it’s not fun, not, you know, life isn’t always fun, [00:11:00] but it was, it changed my life, uh, in a, you know, in a very deep kind of spiritual, psychological way.

Made me completely question who I am and what I want in life. And it set me on a path. Where, um, I am now happier and more fulfilled than I used to be. I’m not always happy having kids and being married and having a mortgage, et cetera, you know, doesn’t always lead to like unbridled laughter and joy. Uh, but I feel very engaged with life.

I feel alive a lot. Like, I just feel like damn, like life is happening right now. And it feels like oof. It’s like a thrill. Um, when my wife is angry at me, ’cause I did something stupid, like today I tried to convince our son to go down a, a slide on a hobby horse and he got hurt, obviously, which is such a, i I do feel like it’s a dad move, but okay, fine.

Um, not all dads are like that. I get it. But I am a little bit, uh, and so. [00:12:00] That wasn’t very fun to see him get hurt. He didn’t get hurt that badly, thank goodness. But like, I didn’t feel very good about that, and I don’t feel very good that I even attempted to do that. Yeah, I mean that’s the, uh, life as a parent is guilt and then more guilt and then lots of other guilt.

And that’s the other thing that, like in a romantic partner, I don’t think it’s healthy for me to feel like, well, I, I can’t live without you. Um, I, after this school shooting within in the cathedral and I saw a picture, I don’t know, man, I, there school shootings happen often in the United States. I know a lot of people try to minimize it by quoting the statistics, right?

Like, well, actually, if you look at it, more people die from motorcycle accidents in Hanoi than children do in the United States in school. But like, well, you could come to peace a little bit more with a, someone died in an accident, which you knew was gonna, you know, was, it was a possibility I think than you could psychologically come to peace with some crazy person coen in and shooting.

A family member. I mean, that’s, [00:13:00] I I could definitely feel like I would, I could, I could part, you know, basically like I had a, uh, a woman I rented a room from years ago, and her son died in a car accident. He said, okay, well that, that can happen. That, but what would made it really painful for her was that he was hunted down by gang members that I guess he had bought some drugs off of them or something like that.

I mean, the level of depression and lack of ability to cope that you could see in her for the rest of her life, and that was probably 40 years afterwards, was so heavy. You could feel it in the room when you, when she ever talked about, when she talked about that. So I do think that there, there are certain versions of It’s different.

Yeah. So like with, I’ve learned, right? Like I’ve kind of thought, oh, my life is about not depending on anyone emotionally or spiritually. Like you can engage with people who uplift you. And without losing sight of the fact that, well, what’s happening is that you are getting access to this amazing love and [00:14:00] light through another person.

And to mistake that person for the actual source of the love and the light that you feel. It is how you start to lose yourself a little bit. Uh, but I, I just haven’t figured it out with kids, man. I just really haven’t, I saw a picture of one of the kids that died in that shooting very recently and I, I started crying ’cause I just imagined if it was my kid.

Yeah. And my kid, my 6-year-old is like happy and lovely and, and kind and affectionate and amazing. And I look forward to seeing my family every day, including him. And, and the idea that someone would just shoot him for no. Fucking reason. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, that’s with the, with an assault rifle. I know.

Conservatives only can talk about assault rifles. Go, liberals don’t know what an assault rifle is. What does that mean? It’s a made up word. It means it’s something you use first. Every word is made up like another like group of armed men. It’s not, yeah, you wouldn’t do that with a nine millimeter pistol.

Um, you would do it with, um, you know, a, a, a, a longer [00:15:00] barreled weapon with an ability to shoot multiple rounds, um, you know, in an automatic fashion, right? You can call an automatic rifle if you want, but, you know, there are enhancements. It’s not just about it being a rifle, right? This isn’t like, you know, a car being rifle you might go out and hunt a deer with or something.

This is different. This is something that’s meant to kill people. Um, and we need that in this world. Maybe, I don’t know, probably, but like, I can’t imagine that being my kid. I just can’t. And that’s when I realized like, oh shit. If anything happens to my kids, man. I’m just fucked. I just, I, well, and it, and it’s, and it’s, and it’s a story in my head, right?

Yeah. It hasn’t happened. It’s not reality. It’s not being here, it’s not being present. But I, I don’t know what it is this, I, when I hear one of these things, I think about it and I just, it gets, it gets so, uh, emotional. Like, I just think like, man, that would be like the worst thing [00:16:00] fucking ever. And then I think, okay, well, you know, well, Eddie, where’s your emotional and psychological independence then?

And I’m still dealing with that as a dad, right. I’m like, because I’ve heard a couple, I’m just watching. Uh, I mean, I’m gonna interrupt you in this. No, go ahead man. Because you know, there’s no way to do it. There’s no way to do it. No, you gotta get there. You gotta get in there, bro. Buffet, you gotta get there.

Um. I was just watching a video about this. We had talked about Byron Katie before, and so I’m a big fan of hers and I just watched a video from her that was from 2005, an interview, and that fa there’s a father who has two kids like us, and he is asking her, I can’t imagine if my child would die, what I would do with that.

And you know, I think they went, I can’t exactly remember what she said, but the idea and the conclusion as she kind of got to it was interesting because she said, well, it’s interesting if you, if you were to believe that thought, let’s say you do lose your child, and then you spend all of your time [00:17:00] now focused on the loss of this child and you say, this should not have happened.

This is a terrible thing. This is the thought. This is a terrible thing. What happened? What does that do to the rest of the family? And I thought it was an interesting point because if, because people, I’ve seen this happen where I, you know. We have a friend of a friend, one of their children died. The younger child is now dealing with major mental health issues and this is maybe 10 years on or something like that.

And I don’t know the situation enough to know what happened. I’m sure having your older brother or sister died would be a huge effect on, it may have a big effect on you psychologically, but also I do wonder what effect that it, it is as a younger child to see your parents. Yeah. Go through that grief.

And so the thought, this should never have happened. This is a terrible thing. If it’s believed so strongly and attached to so strongly, what impact does that have on the child that’s left? And do you, do [00:18:00] you cause some new harm by being so attached to the fact that this should never have happened? You know, if you look at this, if you look at stoicism, there’s a fair amount of stuff about.

What would happen if your mo if your wife dies, if your child dies. And I think that they could write those things. We, we can’t write those things now, you know, if write a blog post, no one’s gonna write about that topic very much unless they’ve been through it. But if you, if you are, back in those days, it was so common to lose children and family members.

That’s why you had five or 10 of them because you’re gonna, chances are gonna lose a few. That it became something where it was more like, oh, this is part of life. And I think we’re so far away from it now, now that we have such a low more, uh, mortality rate for child, you know, child mortality and all that stuff.

Um, someone was even saying the other day, like, interesting. And I thought there was a very good point about vaccines actually. They said you used to go to cemeteries a couple hundred years ago and you know what? You don’t. He’s like, you know what you don’t see very much of now is [00:19:00] children child graves.

He is like you, you used to go to, to cemeteries. And a good portion of those gravestones where children. We just don’t see that anymore, and we don’t even have ability to relate to that anymore thanks to vaccines, thanks to, um, you know, other kind of, uh, ways that they’ve been able to reduce, you know, antibiotics.

And so it is interesting to see, you know, um, and I don’t say this with any smugness. I actually had an incident with my children where they had an accident. It wasn’t, it was something we just didn’t see coming. And, um, it was thankfully they were okay. They fell from a high place, um, near in our house. And so I will say to anyone who’s a parent, please lock your window.

So they fell from a, from a second story window at the same time, both of them, because they were both playing at the same time and they fell. And this is the part that I just, when I think about this is as close as I’ve gotten to losing both my kids, is that they fell [00:20:00] onto a pad of dirt that was only two a foot or two away from a pad of concrete.

Had they fell on the concrete instead of the dirt. I don’t know what I, one of them could have died. One of ’em could be, could have been so disabled. Yeah. Disabled. Exactly. I had just, and this is a, this is the part that drives me crazy. About a month before this happened, I was doing my dad work around the house and I thought to myself, I need to, to take this trailer that we have this kind of crappy trailer out of the garage and figure out where to put it.

And the place I had decided I was gonna put it was right underneath that window that they fell out of. And it had been on my mind for months. Like, ah, I gotta get it to that. I just gotta get to that. I gotta put that trailer underneath that. And if they had fallen onto that trailer, it would’ve been a, it would’ve been like falling onto like basically a piece of vertical wood.

Right. They would’ve [00:21:00] fallen right in the middle of their bodies onto this terribly sharp. Poignant, two foot, like vertical piece of trailer, side of a trailer. And who knows what damage that would’ve done to their bodies. Nothing happened like that. They fell onto a piece of, of six by six dirt and had some bruises and we took them to the ER and they had a, uh, you know, they had x-rays done and they were fine.

And it was just like, I, I had never felt more faith and gratitude for God that night than I’d ever felt because it was just coming face to face with, with losing both my children at one night. Anyway, uh, now I lock all the windows we had done. We had basically opened all the windows ’cause it was hot. It was the beginning of summer.

So if you’re a parent and you don’t, and you’re living on a second floor, any kind of floor, uh, and you know, you guys are gonna be in a high rise, please make sure all balconies and windows are very secure, especially as your kids get older. Um, just saying that to everyone who’s [00:22:00] listening. Because you never know with this stuff.

But I will say that like, um, it’s very humbling to have those kind of close calls of, and parents usually have stuff like that. Mm-hmm. And at the same time, I, I agree. It’s like, you know, it makes it, it’s, it’s very powerful. But at the same time, I think, I think the goal should be in life with all this stuff is to hope that doesn’t happen and pray for that doesn’t happen.

But at the same time, have a sense of what, how can we move with things that are difficult? How do we, how do we process things that are difficult? And, uh, I don’t know. I’m not, well this is interesting ’cause what I’m kind of thinking and feeling in this moment is like, you know, our conversations, um, there are things that we might be very knowledgeable about, experts, I don’t know.

Yeah. But there’s stuff that we’re, the two of us are very knowledgeable about from our experiences. And we’re not knowledgeable about, well, we, you know. Yeah. I don’t know how much it, I don’t know how much what we think and feel about stuff matters. [00:23:00] But that’s why I think these conversations where we decided to kind of upload them, um, is because I think they’re useful if, you know, we don’t have experts on here.

We don’t have a Yeah, yeah. Grief counselor for parents or for no times when children have died and we don’t have someone on here who lost their child, but what we have is to parents in my case. Yeah. I mean, my son fell from a, a wall that was a footnote and a half high. Mm-hmm. It was after he just got done playing in the playground, doing all this really dangerous stuff.

On the way back home, he falls off this really low parapet thing and he breaks his arm. Um, we were in our, in our house and he was just fucking around on the couch. Mm. We told him, Hey man, stop fucking around on the couch. So he sits down and he just kind of slides off the couch, back and forth, and one of the times he loses balance falls forward and cracks his fucking nose on the coffee table corner.

Oh my gosh. Another emergency room visit right there. [00:24:00] Um, so anytime your child, I mean, every time my child has gotten hurt, I have gotten, yeah. It just raised all the, you know, emotional, psychological alarms in my head and, you know, your mind goes to like the worst places and then at the end, you know, in, in our case it was okay, well it’s just a broken arm.

Mm-hmm. And he only felt pain for like the first part of it. Sure. And it’s a massive relief and then it’s like vigilance and then it kind of wears off. Oh, it does. Yeah, exactly. And now I put him on a hobby horse on top of a slide, uh, this morning and my wife was super pissed at me and for good reason ’cause she doesn’t remember, she doesn’t forget any of that stuff.

Right. She sends me videos, she sends me Instagram reels all the time of like. These like, uh, security cameras catching a baby, stroller rolling. Those are the worst. But I, I don’t know. They, they seem to proliferate where I’ve seen so many of them now where I’m just like, yeah. Yep. They just [00:25:00] call like, oh, oh my God.

Terrible. This is what’s happening in my wife’s brain. Yeah. All the time. That’s why my wife is like, don’t let meet that. Don’t let him go there. Put your socks on. Oh, sure. You know, I mean, she had a friend in, uh, in Guatemala who died of dengue. Uh, the kid. Oh yeah, the kid. Oh yeah. 9-year-old. Nine years old, man.

A fucking 9-year-old dying of dengue fever in Guatemala. By the way, there’s nothing you can do about dengue, by the way. There’s no like, yeah. Magical shot that you can take. It’s massively fucked. You have dengue where you are. I, I think, yes. There’s dengue here in certain parts of Indonesia. Um, I guess you have to wear.

Oh, it is not where you are exactly. Is in the city very often. There’s in parts it can happen here. And I asked our doctor about like, what is the. What do we do? ’cause this is terrifying. It is because when I was in Thailand, all I thought about was to spray. Do you know what the doctor told us? Well, uh, in repellent.

’cause it’s mosquito born. Exactly. And if you [00:26:00] hear of like an, a dengue outbreak in your area, then kind of like isolates and do suck repellent. And I’m like, that’s it. Like really? Like there are kids dying of dengue right now because we, we’ve done nothing about it to me. Right. It’s one of those moments where like my imagination of what the world is and what the world really is, is like so vastly different and it’s disappointing.

Sure. I don’t know because of all the movies we watch or I just generally not so much anymore, but used to have this sense that like, we have conquered history and death. Yeah. Yeah. And we, but we really haven’t. It’s just like this illusion. Yeah. And it’s, you know, parents conquered a lot, but it’s not, but there’s a lot.

That’s it. It’s like, you know, when a parent. Has a kid with autism and they’re like, oh, look at all these vaccines we gotta give our kids. It’s like, it’s the parents who bear the burden of the worst possible thing that can happen. Yeah. Um, and not, not necessarily autism, but like Yeah. Having a child who is neurodivergent or [00:27:00] on the spectrum now means that, that, that kids in your life will be much different and maybe different than what you imagined it being.

Yeah. And so then it becomes like this thing you have to live with. Uh, plenty of people are neurodivergent. I, I don’t even know if we’ve defined very well. Right. What makes them a neurodivergent. I’ve heard descriptions of characteristics. I’ve met people who have told me they’re on the spectrum as adults.

And Yeah. Uh, you know, I mean, I have a friend whose, uh, whose daughter was just diagnosed with autism. And it’s interesting because she’s a very, I’ve, I’m, I’ve interacted with her enough time, she’s very bubbly, very happy, very talkative. So all the things that I might’ve thought were what autism means. I would never have guessed.

Um, now that living with her though, she’s on the spectrum, so it’s like you say, there’s different, there’s different, um, levels of it and it just feels like it’s become a catchall for a lot of different things. Yeah. And, and I’m not, that’s not a criticism. It’s not like, oh, there’s a movement out there to [00:28:00] create autism where it doesn’t exist.

It’s just, this happens a lot in phases of, um, of when humans are charting the conditions that we have. Mm-hmm. Especially psychologically. I, I don’t think western medicine is a great model or a great grip on just the human psyche and what it, what it means to be mentally healthy. Mm-hmm. You know, I think certain parts of our lives require us to be delusional.

Mm-hmm. Um, a big part of our lives require us to never think about the fact that we’re gonna die one day. Mm-hmm. A, a big part of our lives require us to think as in the, you know, those of us who are from the first world. I don’t live in the first world now, but I’m from the first world and I enjoy first world luxuries.

Um, I’m in an air conditioned space right now. My apartment is air conditioned all of the time. I take an air conditioned SUV to work and back, and I travel around in this air conditioned SUV with a driver. I eat [00:29:00] processed foods and the processed food’s not great for your body. Like, um, um, but it’s also not great for the environment, um, because it all comes in packaging and these factories that make that food, um, that they’re kind of mom like hungry man.

Dinner dinners. What are we talking? Um, well, I used to back upon a once upon a time I was, I worked in, then I worked on process automation stuff. Yeah. And I, we used to go into these factories, you know, like Proctor and Gamble, factories, steel factories. Uh, I used to go into mines where they extract. Like, um, calcium and nickel deposits.

Uh, what else? Uh, Goodyear Plants Tire rubber, but not just Goodyear, I mean not that brand, but all kinds of different tire brands. Tires. Okay. And, you know, cheese factories and like, wonderful yogurt and milk and packaged, processed food, bread, donuts. I mean, you name it. Anything that uses auto, you know, factory automation.

I, I used to go into those types of factories to help sell our, like [00:30:00] automation stuff. Mm-hmm. And it always kind of, I always thought to myself like just all the things that keep this world going from a first world perspective. Yeah. Right. Like that we just don’t understand. Right. The specialization of the different roles of what it takes to be a human, that more than 8 billion people on this planet.

That’s how, that’s how we can have so many people. Yeah. Is these giant factories. Right. Rearranging matter on our planet. And we’re changing it so fast in the air, in the water, you know, to me, you don’t have to get historically emotional about like, oh, we are destroying the planet. We’re not destroying the planet.

We are rearranging the chemical, physical makeup of this planet to a point where we will no longer be habitable by humans. That’s what we’re doing. Right. Yeah, that’s a good point. And so like, we’re not taking matter from another planet and dumping it on here. We are taking, I mean, kind of a little bit, but not, not in [00:31:00] significant amount.

Not yet. That is the plan by the way, is asteroid farming is next. Um, extra, extra mining, I should say. But yeah, I mean, everything on this planet came from space basically. Yeah. But let’s get back to, um, that’s a good point. Thank you very much. Lemme get back to, lemme bring you back to relationships about being a parent, about like, or, you know, you and I have not lost a child, thank God yet.

Um, we haven’t had that experience. We can only talk about the experiences we have had. So I talk about the experiences of. Wow. You know, as a parent, seeing a school shooting, imagining that’s your kid, your vibrant, fun, loving, innocent, beautiful child. Yes. Not coming back anymore. And I, I can’t imagine the grief of the parents.

I can’t imagine what it’s like. And it’s, it’s funny ’cause then I think, oh man, what do I do with these feelings? But just talking to you right now, I just realized like, well, that that’s what comes from not being here and now. And I don’t mean that in an annoying Gotcha. Not being present bullshit way that [00:32:00] I think both of us have experienced by living in Southern California.

Everyone’s playing spiritual. Gotcha. Right. Um, or you use the word should. And you know, I think when you use the word should you end up creating like separate realities that really take you out of the present. So like, I’m just gonna ask you to maybe like, stop using the word should sh. I didn’t meet, I, I had never, uh, hung around enough of those.

I mean, I, I was in those. Alan Watts had a thing about the word should, but he always see this is what made a WATS really great. He had such an, his grasp on the eastern philosophy that he would describe for Westerners all the time was so complete that he applied it to himself in his recordings. And these are like, not like some guy sitting down with a pair of headphones.

This is him being recorded at some, some uni university’s like symposium or something. Yeah. And he’s just totally gnarly, potentially high. Uh, and just talking about like, you know, I just said the word should, and I’m just realizing right now that when I use the word should, I’m acting as if, [00:33:00] um, I’m telling you what to do.

I think I will start using what I’m, I’m gonna start using the word like what I’m interested in, you know, and say, ’cause I’m, I’m really interested in, you know, I’m really interested in the fact that. If I do use Word, should I create these realities and the scaffolding that get me further away from the thing I’m trying to talk about and, and think about.

And I’m kind of like, oh, that’s kind of interesting. He calls himself out and it, it doesn’t feel annoying. He’s a very charming guy also. ’cause he might be potentially high during most of these recordings, but I just realize that like me, you know, it’s just, this happens to me all the time. I feel bad about something that does not exist.

Sure. My kids are over there right now, and they’re of the room. They’re perfectly healthy and happy and I get to see them all the time. Mm-hmm. I could see them right now if I weren’t talking to you and I’m, and when we’re done talking, I’m gonna go out there, I’m gonna see them and it’s gonna make me super happy.

I’m still at the point where when I see my kids, I am so happy. I do occasionally get miffed that they’ve done something that I don’t think they should [00:34:00] do. But then because my wife is so patient and kind, she helps bring me back to this place of like, oh wow. What a, what a lucky thing to have. Yeah. These children.

And then it’s funny ’cause that happiness almost sometimes brings me back to the, like, what if they weren’t here? Which is interesting, right? Because they are here though. So yeah. Getting stressed or upset or prematurely. Mm-hmm. Uh, uh, depressed about something that doesn’t exist. It’s kind of a funny thing.

I do it. Yeah. I, I, I think other people do it sometimes. And you know, to the extent that we can grapple with that, what a, what a great problem to have. Mm-hmm. I can’t appreciate how great things are, what a great, uh, thing to be. There was also to be grateful for, I, I was just listening to a, um, there’s this guy who’s made the rounds, I can’t remember his name, sex something, Sexton.

He’s a, uh, divorce lawyer that’s like popular now. Oh. He’s like a good looking guy. He is probably in his fifties and he, and he kind of, there’s a depth to him that I appreciate and he kind of [00:35:00] calls out, you know, he’s worked with a lot of clients that are terrible to each other. Then he is seen the good, you know, he is like, then there’s good couples that I’ve worked with.

So anyway, I find him interesting. And he was talking, he’s given advice on like what makes a good marriage and he’s a good divorce lawyer, right? Yeah. Because he’s seen the, he hasn’t seen a lot of really great working ones. Yes. He’s like, he’s like, oh, hey, this is what really the ones that end look like.

Exactly. So maybe a good one is the opposite of this. No, totally. Exactly. You, you’re, you are right. I’ll, I’ll think of his name. Um, so I may have had it, it’s James Sexton. So, um, he had a, he had a little video about, and mentioned, uh, an old book by Tick Han, which I used to really appreciate. Oh yeah. The Buddhist.

Holy Buddha. Holy Christ. Right. Yeah. There you go. I think you gave me that book. I probably did. Yeah. I was really into it back in the day. We were at uni. At uni and um, that’s right. He talked about a part in the, in one of these books where he says, when you’re hugging [00:36:00] someone. Try a meditation or a practice would be to imagine this is the last time you’re hugging them, that you’re gonna die.

They’re gonna die, and that’s the last moment you’re gonna hug them. And he said, you know, that sounds very morbid, but the truth is, if we had a little bit more of that and we hugged our children, or we hugged our dog, or we hugged our friend or our wife, husband, um, with a little bit of more thoughtful, like, this is a big deal.

I get to, I get to right now, hug them. Mm-hmm. That would be, and so the practice does seem a little bit morbid because you’re imagining their death. Right. I guess. And that’s a little intense. I don’t know if I could do that with that, but that’s, to me, to me that’s just, but to me that’s like, um, a back way of entering the space of Yeah.

Wow. I really treasure this person. Yeah. Because it’s hard to get there sometimes when you see them all the time. Mm-hmm. Like, you know what I mean? I think take it for. I once had an electrical engineering professor. You know, most of them were not profound. [00:37:00] Uh, most of them I think were just happy to be in this country legally anyway.

Um, many are, especially, especially at my school where it was just kind of like, you know, it’s like, you know, I used to be an engineer in Iran and it’s kind of like, right, okay, well, I mean they do more with less. So God bless ’em, those engineers. Uh, but he, it wasn’t this guy, that guy was not in the game of giving advice other than you suck.

He literally, he wouldn’t put it that way. ’cause like his English as a second language did not incorporate that. When he told people they sucked, it’d be like, Hey, you know, buddy, I think you should not be in engineering. Just like that. He moralize you. And the funny thing was, is like I could tell he thought he was being kind.

Yeah. Not just. To get you away from something you’ll never be good at. Yeah. I think he thought the, like verbal formulation was deeply kind and insightful. Like, Hey, buddy. Yeah. As I get older, I kind of appreciate that. Now, like did, he wasn’t trying to blow smoke up anyone’s ass. He sometimes did this in the middle of class, by the way.

[00:38:00] Wow. If like, he’s talking about being afraid to ask a question. If you, if you said or asked something that was like, just so completely blatantly wrong, he would do that. He’d be like, you know, this answer is, I think, I don’t think he, he kind of like, he had like these papers in his hand and the other hand he had like a chalk.

He’d kinda like cross his hands in front of him and be like, and, and he’d be like, he’s only talking to you even though there’s like 30 other people in the room and just say like, you know, buddy, I just, this answer. I don’t think that you, I just, I don’t think this is for you. And it, and it, the worst part was, it wasn’t even that mean.

Yeah, it sounds, actually, anyway, his house burnt down once and I remember, um, many students celebrated that yours, this one student in particular, uh, she was actually like, pretty giddy about it because, uh, her house had burnt down. Oh. And she missed the final and she came to him before the Oh, funny. All right.

Said like, karma, Hey, I won’t be able to make the final. And he’s like, why not? Like, well, my house burnt down. And he said something to the effect of like, but [00:39:00] you’re here now. Yeah. What’s the big deal? But, right. Like, it’s work. You came, you came here to tell me you can’t take the final. Yeah, yeah. That is in a week.

’cause your house burnt down a few days ago, but you’re here so obviously you can come into a final. Wow. And then his, his house burned down and she was fucking over the moon. It was the, it was, that’s hilarious. Anyway, but I digress. I had an engineering teacher who once told me, and you know, if you take away the creepiness of the statement, uh, he said.

Human beings are basically just analog differentiating devices. And what that means is there’s like a, an, there’s an electrical component called an operational amplifier. And you give it a signal and it will either amplify or make smaller a signal. So you give it five volts and it’ll give you back 25.

You give it five and it might give you two and a half, right? It’s either making it bigger [00:40:00] or stronger. But this, the way the, the signal you gave, it goes up and down. Maybe it’s you singing, you go high, ah, you go low, or it’ll get that and it’ll just amplify the highs and the lows and it’ll get what you gave it and stretch it out.

Or it will shrink it. But it’s always tracking the thing you gave it. And the way it does this is it compares it to something else. It uses that comparison. It’s the difference between these two things. ’cause it’s a, it’s a differential. Okay, well I’m thinking, I’m losing myself in the, in the, in the, in the metaphor here.

But basically it gets a difference, two between two things. Not all of them do this, but this is like one of the main things. It does, it gets a difference between two things and then amplifies it, or it shrinks it. And so humans, to a certain extent, you sense something with your eyes, your skin, your nose, right?

Your taste, your ears. You sense something and your body works very, very hard to either attenuate or amplify the difference. So I’ll give you an example. And now this is where I think it’s useful for normal [00:41:00] people is you are outside and then you walk into your house and then someone in your house has been cooking salmon.

You walk into the room and it’s like, oh shit. You get hit by like a wall of fish smell. And it’s like, Ugh, what is that? And the person in there, it’s just cooking and they don’t smell it. It’s like, what do you mean? Does it smell like salmon in here? And you’re like, yeah, it smells like. A salmon orgy and then place caught on fire and now they’re all being cooked in salmon.

Filth is the smell. But then once you’re in there for 10 minutes, what does your body do? Your body gets that level of smell. Gets that smell, and then makes that the new normal. Right? And your body’s like, oh, okay. The difference between the smell you just walked into and the smell we were just in was huge.

I’m gonna get that difference and I’m gonna make it tiny until the point where it disappears. That’s why when you, uh, cut garlic and you smell like garlic and someone else walks in who wasn’t doing that, it smells like garlic to them and doesn’t smell like garlic to you. Mm-hmm. Your body is this little [00:42:00] machine that helps you get rid of those differences so you don’t have such a bad time all the time.

And so I feel like it does this emotionally, like when things are really great and you’re getting everything you really want in life and you’re so fulfilled. Your body is like, okay, well this is the new normal then this is the garlic smell. You can’t smell it anymore. And someone walks in on your life and they’re like, holy shit.

Your life is a fucking amazing. My kids died, my wife divorced me, my husband, uh, I live in the street on a piece of cardboard. You have this amazing house. Your wife loves you, you love your wife, your kids are amazing. And to you it’s a garlic smell. You’ve been cutting garlic for 30 minutes. Yeah. You’re like, oh, I don’t even notice anymore how amazing my life is.

Right. And I think everyone has a version of that. Um, everyone’s different. I don’t know, but I notice that I do that. I get used to things being amazing. Yeah. And then it builds complacency. Since, um, I will divulge right that I got married later in life than a lot of people I got married in my forties. [00:43:00] Uh, I have been through quite a few relationships, not like a ton, not like Wilt Chamberlain.

It’s not like something I brag about. It’s like I’ve been engaged to be married a handful of times from people with a lot of accents. Uh, anyways, so I have found in my life, in this, in this like, I don’t know, middle later part of life, I didn’t have kids before. I didn’t have like a mortgage. I wasn’t settled down.

I didn’t have a family. I didn’t think I ever would want one. But then I just stumbled upon the opportunity to have it. And every single time it got a little further. It just felt more and more amazing to me and I never got used to it and I still haven’t gotten used to it. It’s been a few years and I will be in bed looking at my wife with our three month old baby, and I’m dead tired, no sleep.

And then I’m just like, I’ve done this. I’ve told her like, I can’t believe we’re married. I can’t believe we have a baby. I can’t believe we have a 6-year-old, uh, sleeping next to us and that I get to see you guys every day. And [00:44:00] then I come home from work and I see them the first thing when I come in and it’s amazing to me.

I feel like I’m been living in a dream. Right. And I just, I think, I mean, even this conversation helps me realize like, you don’t have to get used to it if you’re consciously bringing your attention to it. And that’s what I think the hugging thing that you mentioned was to come back to that when you hug someone and you act as if it’s the last time you’ll ever do it, yes, you could make it not morbid, but you know, people need the jolt they need to the wake up call, right?

Yeah. Most people, most people who are not consciously paying attention to something, not living intentionally in that one little moment. People need the jolt, but if you don’t need the jolt, another way to do it is hug them as if it was the first time you’ve ever hugged them. Yeah, yeah. Right. I mean, that’s a non morbid version of this, but, you know, he’s a divorce lawyer and he’s probably been a, around a lot of people who are very busy appearing their brains.

Yeah. They need the wake up call. Good point. So, but to me, I think that’s amazing advice. I think [00:45:00] it really is. Yeah. And it, and you helped once again, this is why I love talking to you. You’ve helped bring back my attention to this idea. I watch a lot of good reels, you know, um, oh yeah. Most of my, the therapy I can afford is via Instagram.

Exactly. Um, I to your point, I mean, I went into Walmart today to pick up a few groceries, and as I was getting a cart, there’s a, there’s a subway in the Walmart, and I look over through the window, the inside window, and I see a guy, I’m in a, it looks like his late twenties, early thirties. He’s holding a baby and he’s got a bunch of stuff.

I don’t know, like, it just looked like he was struggling. He’s got a bunch of like, stuff that, you know, not just groceries, but like personal stuff and things. And I was like, this guy looks like plastic bags. Yeah. It looked like he was kind of like, him and his wife were a bit nomadic. They were having a subway.

They didn’t look like they were homeless, but they were like, there was a struggling [00:46:00] look to them. And I just thought, you know, I was in my mind before that, I was very like, oh, I’m not gonna do about this. I’m gonna do that worrying about this and that. And I did look at him and think that, you know, oh yeah, you know, I don’t have it so bad and I’m not, you know, celebrating that to that.

He’s got it harder. But at the same time, I should at least be a thoughtful and aware and not just like, you know, it’s very easy to get into your own demen, your own, um, yeah. Your own dimension. Uh, yeah. Of just, it’s like a closed world. It’s like if you’ve ever seen, um. To the dragon where he is in that room of mirrors and he sees himself everywhere.

Yeah. It’s sort of like that’s, that you can really get into that where you really just see only yourself and only your problems and only your, your situation and forget that there’s a bigger picture out there. And, uh, the scene where Brandon Lee playing Bruce Lee Oh. Has an emotional visit with the [00:47:00] ghost of his ancestors while the character he is playing is filming one of the final scenes from the hit Kung fu movie Game of Death.

I have no idea. And he suddenly has his realization about his entire past and his family, and he comes to an inner peace with himself right before dying under mysterious circumstances. Yes. Is this the Crow? Wait, what is it? Yes. KI am. Oh, no wait. He was played by Jason Scott Lee. I’m sorry. Hey, if you’re out there and listening and you’re Asian, I’m not a racist person.

Uh, and so anyway, the, are you trying to say that this was the, uh, movie about uh, Bruce Lee? Like the Bruce Lee story? Yeah, dragon. Dragon. Dragon. Like a fictionalized. Dramatized. That actor died playing that part. Jason Scott Lee? Yeah. No, no, no. Brandon Lee, his son.

Bruce Lee’s son. Yeah. Brandon Lee died playing the Crow. Yes. I thought I remember that part. Jason Scott Lee. Uh, is an actor who played Bruce Lee in this movie. Jason Scott. You know, [00:48:00] actually this is great. Did he live, I guess my question is, did, did Brandon Scott Lee, or did the other, does the actor playing Bruce Lee live or die?

You’re conflating. You’re conflating Lee’s. Okay. Um, yeah, yeah. You know, but this is great. This is what a great segue Yeah. Into something I’ve always wanted to do on this particular conversation thing. Hey, uh, our artificial intelligence companion, um, how is Jason Scott Lee doing? Is he okay?

Something went wrong. Okay. Well, okay. I mean, you know, I like to think that the ghost that killed Bruce Lee, according to this movie is real, but you tell me. Artificial intelligence is Jason Scott Lee. Okay. How was he doing?

Uhoh. Wow. Okay. You know what? It keeps telling me that something went wrong. I don’t wanna, like, I don’t wanna delve into conspiracy theories. Yeah. I think, I think it’s, I think he gets is here with us coincidence also, do we know where that Samurai monster is That killed him [00:49:00] at the end of that movie? I’m gonna give one more, I’m gonna give you one last shot.

This is the proof conspiracy theories aren’t true. How is Jason Scott Lee the actor doing? Is he okay? What? Okay. Well, I didn’t do it again. You know, I have to say something about this movie Dragon, because in the nineties when this movie came out, I must, what was it? 91 9 2? I don’t know. I went to see it with a friend and I, I loved it.

I thought it was an incredible movie. It was inspired by it, it was formational. It was formational to my childhood formational, right? So anyway, fast forward about 20 years and I thought, I think to myself, it would be fun to watch this movie again. And, uh, you know, I have my, I’m married now. I said let’s watch this old movie at Bruce Lee.

She, my wife, is into, you know, um, martial arts. Oh, okay. She’s actually much, she’s an actual martial artist, didn’t like me, and so I think, oh, you’ll, you know, you’ll like this movie about Bruce Lee. She liked Bruce Lee. She knew who he was. Yep. This was an unbearably difficult movie to watch. What? And the racism?[00:50:00]

No, not even the racism, just the corniness. We are watching this movie, and there’s a whole scene at the beginning where he’s working in San Francisco, Chinatown, and these cooks try to kill him or something. It’s the stupid thing. And they’re throwing knives at him, and he is up on a wire, and she was just like, what the hell is this stupid movie?

This is not real. This is like a fake bullshit scene. And I was like, you’re right. This isn’t, this isn’t real. This is like a, a dramatized nonsense. Like you should try to watch this movie. It’s not as easy to watch as you might’ve remembered. It’s it, unless you’re by yourself, I’d like, I’d challenge you to, to have to show this to somebody who’s never seen it, but.

This is garbage. This is a garbage movie. Because the, when they made biographies, they could make him in the style of like Forrest gum. Yeah. And it would be, everyone would be like, great, this is great. And, and you can’t do that anymore. Yeah. You don’t believe in a magic world. Okay. First of, I don’t even where to begin with this.

This is, this is like the authentic taco thing [00:51:00] all over again. I’m glad we have, you know, uh oh. We have deeply unimportant areas of disagreement, which I’ve, that’s, I think that’s what I treasure most about our friendship. We have these, we agree on so many big things, but when it comes to these squabbles, like weird cul-de-sacs of culture, you and I couldn’t be more different, which I find, I actually find it delightful.

It is delightful to me. Here, here, I, you know what? I know where I’ll begin. I, I finally got artificial intelligence to drop, restart the conspiracy theory. Here we go. Jason Scott Lee. Based on the available information, Jason Scott Lee appears to be doing well. Recent news and interviews show he has been actively involved in projects and interviews.

He has discussed his past roles, including his transformative experience playing Bruce Lee and Dragon, the Bruce Lee’s story, and has also talked about his more recent work such as the film, the Wind, and the Reckoning, and his cameo and the live action Lilo and Stitch. Whoa. He has also spoken about living on a farm in Hawaii and enjoying being a father.

Ah, [00:52:00] makes one of us, uh, living on a farm in Hawaii. Not enjoy being a father. I mean, I think we all enjoy being a father. Well, hold on a second. I got one more thing to ask. The, the Internet of things, the bias to woke AI here is like, hold on. Okay, so my buddy and I are talking about the movie, uh, the Jason Scott Lee movie about Bruce Lee.

I have not seen it recently, but I remember being a, a fantastic film. I love the fight scenes. I used to try to pretend to do martial arts by watching the fight scenes, but my buddy here, he says. You can just call him. Kay, I bet Kay here. He says that he re-watched it with his wife and that his wife, who actually does some martial arts, uh, she didn’t like it.

She, and, and he agreed that it was corny. The action scenes, it’s not a real fight that possibly could have happened. Even though this thing is kind of a biography, it seems completely unrealistic. The fight scenes seem like orchestrated kung fu movies. Uh, I think it’s okay to be that way. I think it’s a movie, and I think the fact that he’s playing [00:53:00] Bruce Lee in this movie that he did all these kung fu scenes that are completely unrealistic as well, by the way, makes it a completely nice, almost as kind of meta statement, blending together the artist and the artist’s story.

What do you think settle this debate for us? I understand why you and Kay have different views on the film. It’s true that dragon, the Bruce Lee story, takes some creative liberties with Bruce Lee’s life. Okay. Especially in the fight scenes to create a more dramatic and entertaining. Is a common practice in biopics, which often blend, fact and fiction to appeal to a wider audience.

However, it’s also understandable that viewers, especially those with martial arts experience, might find the exaggerated action sequences less believable. Ultimately, whether you enjoy the film depends on what you’re looking for. A faithful portrayal of Bruce Lee’s life or an action packed inspiring story.

Has there been a faithful depiction of Bruce Lee’s life committed to film by any chance[00:54:00]

Dragon. The Bruce Lee’s story is a popular film, but it’s known for taking creative liberties and exaggerating events for dramatic effect. If you’re looking for a more faithful depiction, you could explore documentaries about Bruce Lee’s life, which often provide a more accurate and nuanced portrayal.

Yeah, do those accurate and nuanced portrayals show a scene of a gigantic demon samurai monster fighting him in a graveyard. Most documentaries focus on factual events. And when that’s a no, that’s a no. I think that’s a no. Yeah, I think so. And um, you know, fair enough. Uh, fair enough. I was just watching, um, what’s that, biopic?

It was a musical biopic, um, kind of about Johnny Cash, but it was a joke. Do you remember that movie? Oh yeah. The one with, uh, John Riley. Yeah. And also it had, uh, uh, Tim Meadows where every time, uh, the Dey pop story, there’s a, there’s a scene where there’s always the artist who walks into like, drugs being done.

Yeah. And, and you, and it’s like a [00:55:00] foreshadowing foreboding event where you’re like, oh no, this, like, Elvis, the first time Elvis tried Quaaludes or drugs or cocaine or whatever. And there’s that. They had that scene multiple times during the movie where it was called Walk Hard. Yeah. Right. Hard. Uh, there’s a, there’s a scene where, uh, John c Rys character walks in on Tim Meadows and a bunch of people smoking weed.

And he is like, what’s going on here? Don’t do it, do we? What’s wrong? It’ll ruin your life. Right? How does it ruin your life? Do you can, can you od on it? No. You can’t od on it. It’s impossible. Yeah. But how, I mean, does it make you feel bad? It actually makes you feel amazing. You feel relaxed. You even a little hungry sometimes.

Wow. But it makes food taste terrible then, I guess. No, it makes food taste amazing. But don’t do it, do we? Right. You don’t want any part of this. That’s right. Then it happens again later with cocaine. It’s like, yeah, no. Is it, is it, does it feel real bad? No. You feel amazing. I feel great. I guess you can’t have sex on it.

No. It makes, it makes you people have sex all night [00:56:00] long. Well, I watching don’t do dey. You don’t want any part of this. Yeah. I was watching something about it and I don’t know, it’s some YouTube thing I got stuck on and, and it was funny ’cause they were like, they, the, the folks who wrote it were so sick of these biopics, the music biopics of Johnny Cash, a lot of them came out in succession, right?

Yes. The one exactly that saw Joaquin Phoenix about Yeah. Johnny Cash then Ray. Right. With Jamie Fox about Exactly. Ray, did he wonder and then, you know, the, the, the different biopics have been made. Yeah. Through about all. Exactly. Yeah. So I thought that was a, I thought it was interesting ’cause I think, uh, is it Riley?

He’s, he said John Riley was, uh. Saying that in all the interviews, he is like, oh, we’re here to win an Academy Award. Because that’s really what the idea was, is that if you made these musical biopics, you would just get an Academy Award. It was just like automatically, uh, given to you. So, um, and so they would tug on the heartstrings, you know, or the, these like, oh, so amazing.

So I did appreciate that they made this, actually, there’s a funny scene from that movie that I love where, [00:57:00] um, have you ever heard the song, um, uh, what is it? Day In the Life? Yeah. Day In the Life. It’s a great song by the way. I dunno. It’s a Beatles song called Day In the Life. And it starts with, uh, I read the news today.

Oh boy, I read the news today. Oh boy, that song. Yeah. I love that song. Yeah. It goes into a crazy, ridiculous orchestra of just like nonsense going on. And in the movie, uh, walk Hard, he does the whole scene of that with an orchestra and is just the most bizarre, wacky thing. Uh, so if you ever get a chance, watch that.

Walk hard. Oh, I’ll rewatch. Oh, that’s a great movie. I like, yeah. Speaking of great movies, uh, I do actually love to leave soon ’cause my is you have a movie? My, uh, my, my wife and child who I have a new appreciation for, um, are outside right now doing movie night without me. Perfect. Um, I keep trying to pitch movie night.

You know, it’s so funny, like this family is like the Senate and I keep trying to get legislation passed [00:58:00] and, uh, I haven’t had a great track record. Uh, I’m married to like fucking Mitch McConnell over here and well, there’s kind of does everything she wants, she plays hardball all the time. Okay. Um, I don’t, they’re watching a movie, this senate allegory.

Can I pick any senator from any time period? Or does it have to be a contemporary of the one I picked my wife to be? Yeah, let’s hear it. What, who, who are you? Are you uh, an ancient, an old one? Are you Seneca? No, not Seneca. Who’s the guy? Uh, from the ancient, yeah. Yeah. There’s probably bunch of prolific one.

That would be a funnier answer is to pick a Roman senator. Yeah. Um, as opposed to now are there, I mean, does Rome have a Senate anymore? Probably not, right? Probably just has a city council. Something lame. It does not. Yeah. Cicero, I was thinking maybe you’ll like Cicero. Um, yeah, I’m sure actually you’re talking about Italy.

I think Italy is just a disaster right now in terms of, of, uh, politics. But yeah, actually, uh, when I’m looking, so I do this thing where I always try to be funny no matter what, even when [00:59:00] it’s not appropriate or welcomed. And one of the go-to punchlines, you always have to be careful nowadays, um, depending who your audience is, you don’t wanna offend if you’re trying to get a good laugh out of them.

And so you do have to calibrate for the audience, right? Like, there are some audiences where it’s almost a necessity to be, to be a little racist. Yeah. I am talking about Latinos and black people. Um, if you’re ever doing jokes with them, then you, you’re gonna have to be a little racist. If you wanna a laugh, you can’t be too.

Yeah, you can be, you’re gonna have to. Um, but then when you’re like around like white hipsters. Offense, uh, you’re just gonna have to kind of like calibrate it in very carefully. Yeah. You know, uh, white guilt is a rich vein to mine. Um, I have noticed you can be like, oh, you mean a sipping tto? And they’re like, oh, we’re terrible.

But we rule everything. Um, uh, but, uh, no, I, I haven’t used often and it always works. I don’t know why it, even with Italians, man. Hmm. Not Italian Americans. That’s, I’m gonna [01:00:00] start real man. But I feel like you can, I think Italian senate is a great punchline, uh, for like a lot. It’s like, it’s like, uh, my, another one of my go-tos is like Turkish Bazaar.

Um, depending on the audience, I might use the punchline Turkish whore house. Uh, like you walk in, there’s like a perfume and maybe it also smells like cardamom, and you’re like, God damn it smells like a Turkish whore house in here. Or if I tried Turkish, Turkish bathhouse. What is that really, that too close to reality?

Um, I would use that as a reference for like gay sex if I needed that. That’s a custom. But, ’cause I, when I was, uh, I haven’t seen this many man on man hand jobs since I was at a Turkish bathhouse. Well, I have a, I was sick of maybe a year ago, and I was just filling crappy, had a fever, and somehow I had this idea that I needed to listen.

I, I was like, I need to listen to some, some calming music. And so I find a playlist called Turkish Bathhouse. And I have to say, besides the references, it [01:01:00] was magical. I was just magical. I felt like I was there relaxing. Yeah. I felt like I was there on ban. Job is exactly well true. Uh, so, you know, Italian senate is a good one.

I have sometimes replaced that punchline with galactic senate if I feel the audience is nerdy enough. Yeah. Um, but yeah, like, uh, oh, let see if I can come up with a good one. Um. I haven’t, uh, it’s like a Roman Senate. Uh, well actually, you know what, I’m just realizing the thing I thought was the Roman Senate, it’s actually the Taiwanese parliament.

Um, when, when a like a, when a fight breaks out and everything is like, just completely haphazard and going sideways and fucked, right? Everyone’s wearing suits. Ah, uh, I’d be like, you know, what the fuck? Stop yelling over each other. What is this it? Taiwanese parliament? I don’t know. Is that true? I dunno. Is Oh, they’re, they’re famous.

They’re famous for having fights. Okay. Oh, good. Um, on camera. Wow. In, in, in their, in their actual, I appreciate that kind of vibe. Vivacious democracy. It’s wonderful. Yeah. So I [01:02:00] feel like the Italian Senate falls into this particular category, although I recently came upon even better joke, which for us from a TV show, uh, I forgot the name of tv.

It’s a new TV show and someone says, no more microwaving. Uh, fish in the, in the office kitchen. It smells like a mermaid cake person in there. That’s a good line, man. You ever hear something so funny? This is how my brain works. I hear. So, you know, I like to make jokes and I think I’m funny. I’m not a comedian, but when I hear a really good joke like that, I just, I get, I keep it.

The first thing I think is, is glee. I’m joyful. It’s funny. Yeah. I love laughing at it, but the other thing I think is like, damn, I wish I would’ve come up with something like that. That’s, that’s such a funny line. Um, anyway, so you’re losing the, you’re losing the movie night, um, vote. Is that right? Yeah. And are you, does that mean you’re losing what movie to watch?

Or are you losing just the fact that you wanna have this thing? They’re the movie nights where I sponsor the legislation and so I get to pick, but then it helps me pick, [01:03:00] everyone will want to like actually watch. ’cause they’re best, you know, they’re, they’re alternative to, no, to a, a negotiated agreement here is to not watch the movie with me.

Which they can’t, they can’t force it. Yeah. They could just do it necessarily. I’m also doing movie night. We haven’t done it for a while, but, um, I love movie night. It is fun and, uh, I’m trying, the selection is key. Making everyone happy. That’s the hard part. I think what most parents, at least maybe, maybe we’ll say fathers, I could see this, I hear this more from fathers, is that they.

Trying to inject their childhood movies into the movie night, Ugh. Against the will of their children. And, uh, I’m absolutely, dude, I’m absolutely, uh, guilty of that. And, uh, so I’ll dito we should do, that’s the topic next week. Yeah. I have a, i, my both well is interesting. Both my wife and I have tried this, uh, remember my, my favorite things about her is how Manish she is sometimes.

I mean, speaking of a Turkish bathhouse. Um, but, uh, yeah, we both tried this with [01:04:00] drastically, like different results. Wow. Um, he, yeah, he wants, okay, so I, this is a preview of next week. I love the, the Disney animated film. Aladdin. Yeah. I used love Robin Williams. He did the Genie perfectly. He did, uh, I was a romantic little kid.

I was a little kid who so badly wanted romance because I watched all these movies and I thought it was a very romantic movie. And this diamond in the rough thing, that’s how I felt I was a fat little kid that no one, uh, liked. And so I thought I was a diamond. I mean, that’s the whole Yeah. Fucking point of the movie because everyone feels like they’re unappreciated for being a scuzzy little fucking street person.

Uh, but I, this movie was such a foundational part of like my emotional makeup and my personality, and so I thought, oh, hey, I will show this to my son and he will get the exact [01:05:00] same thing, feel the same way. Yeah. We’re gonna have this beautiful little moment in which he looks at me dead in the eyes and he’s gonna say, dad, I feel everything you feel.

And I think that the world makes a little bit more sense now because I see it as you do. I thought that was gonna happen. Uh, it did not happen. Hmm. Um, he got super bored halfway through the movie also. I forgot that the first half of the movie is like, set up and I didn’t realize that. Oh, I forgot it ’cause it’s enchanting.

And then he asked us if, uh, Jasmine and Aladdin were brother and sister and he asked us if that’s why they got married. And he didn’t even know that. Like, the connotation is that they’re fucking, he didn’t even Right. He saw them kiss and he still thought they were brother and sister. How did he Well, so like, I don’t remember the part that says they, I don’t wanna like editorialize or whatever and I apologize.

Did they have kids design? Is that why? Apologize if this is defensive, but like Woody really have tried that hard to fuck his [01:06:00] sister, because that’s what the whole movie is. By the way. The whole movie is, I mean, think about it. Zoom out a little bit. That would be the whole movie is him trying to fuck this lady.

Oh, is that right? Is that I, I don’t remember that part. Um. Why? You mean he gets the genie to help him? Yeah. That’s how bad he wants to fuck this lady. He got, doesn’t he just want to be with her the first night he met her too? Huh? Doesn’t he just wanna be with her like romantically or is it really just, is it really sexual?

Yeah. What, just, what do, what did I say? Oh yeah. He could just be a, a sweet version that you know. Oh, you mean like a love it and leave it? Yeah, love it. Leave it like, he just wants to get wet. He wants to be in the friend zone. Oh, no. See, that’s the difference between me and you. When I say he’s trying to fuck this lady so bad to me, it is romantic.

When I hear, when I hear that romantic, like, to me, that doesn’t automatically mean he’s gonna like land bang, leave to me. He’s gonna fuck her and it’s gonna be great, and then he’s gonna wanna be with her the rest of his life. That’s how, that’s how, that’s my entire life. I’ll have to mark this episode explicit.[01:07:00]

By the way. That’s how my life works, is like, yeah. If it’s good. I mean, if it’s really good, they’ll get married. Now what was your wife’s pick by the way? Before we leave. Oh, well, she thought my pick was not that bad. She’s like, oh, I also like that movie. ’cause it’s a romantic, it’s a, it’s one of the romantic ones and romantic classic.

And she grew up, she was like, this is like a romantic, everyone would be the princess, whatever. What’s her face? Anyway, uh, she thought it wouldn’t fail. It failed miserably. Uh, what was the, what was the one she picked? We, I mean we’ve all had, he a little young. He’s only five though, so maybe he would like it.

He was like seven. Uh, we’ve both taken multiple shots on goal here, um, on this particular subject. So she has tried three different times. She’s been equally successful as I have. So What did she show him?

I think

no. Yeah, [01:08:00] no. Yeah. I forget, I’m gonna have to go back and ask, but she, I remember her thinking we both had like this rash of like competing, like doing banjos. Like, we’re gonna get this kid to like what we like. Yeah. And I did Robinhood, the one with the foxes. Remember that one? Oh, that was fun one. Yeah.

That was, oh, he must have liked that, right? That, that movie sits at the core of who I am as a person. Like everything I am as a person is, is basically on that one, that movie Top Gun. Me being the funny Fat Kid. Do you remember? Uh, the Sword and the Stone? Maybe like two or three other things. And then that’s who I am at the core.

Okay. You, do you remember the sword and the stone? That was kind of that era as well, remember? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, I was big into the Excalibur. Bullshit is amazing. Anyway, anyway, but uh, speaking of pulling out, uh, that’s good. SCA reference, not a reference. Yeah. Yeah. It’s been great. It’s been just, it’s been great just, uh, listening to you [01:09:00] every, you know.

You, I think maybe you thought that us talking was an excuse to have a podcast, but for me, man, it’s the opposite for me. There you go. Having a podcast is an excuse for us to talk to. Yeah, we’re just recording it. I enjoy it and I get like, this is a, this is a much higher level discussion about life and being a dad and, and all these other things than I get during the week, even though I almost exclusively write about economics and politics.

Yeah. This is still my favorite conversation, uh, of the week, besides the ones I have with my wife, obviously, because she lives those, those supersede. Um, and I, I have to say, it does help me, I guess it is helping me get off my mind off of the, uh, the mundane, the worries, the doubts, which I seem to be doing a lot these days.

I, I think I’ll get to a place where it’s not, but right now as a, well, it’s an interesting patch for me. I don’t wanna editorialize, but like I feel. [01:10:00] I mean, you have real problems to deal with, but that’s what makes life amazing. Um, yeah, you have real problems to you to deal with. You be bored and life.

That’s a good point. That’s a very good point. But also I think, and I’m not talking about anything new, by the way, there is, since the advent of the industrial capital consumer culture, and this isn’t a complaint, this isn’t like, I don’t have a great idea to replace this. So it’s not a complaint, I don’t think.

I feel like you shouldn’t complain unless you have an idea of how to make it better. Hmm. Um, but, and I love capitalism. Let’s at that on the record right now, it’s amazing. I love consumerism. I love buying shit. It makes me feel good when I watch a commercial. I get my notepad. Anyway, the point is that I think there is in any situation, right, I in any status quo, I ask myself, who benefits from this?

Right? This is like that legal question, right? Who benefits from this? There is a massive industrial complex built around us feeling. Worry and [01:11:00] adequacy. That’s a good point about us being worried, um, about the current state of events. I don’t mean like now, like this year. Yeah. I mean, whatever the year is, there’s an industry, right?

There’s an economy built around, um, getting you to pay attention to it. And the best way to do that, sadly, for us, just going back to your, you know, hug them as if they were gonna die tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. The best way to get people to pay attention to shit is to either scare them or titillate them. Mm-hmm.

And so I feel like the more media, especially social media, ’cause that’s targeted, which is the worst part. Oh yeah. ’cause on TV they’re taking pot shots, right? Like, oh, you’re watching Magnum pi. Okay, well I’m gonna put in a thing here about beer maybe right now it’s like, oh, you know, KP Smith. Uh, you watched this video about how AI is, uh, has run amuck and you’re, whatever, a [01:12:00] reformed woke hip hipster.

Mm-hmm. So now I’m gonna give you like this news that you’re gonna consume, like, crazy about how the real deep state is actually opposing Trump or something, or whatever the bullshit is. I don’t know. Whatever sensationalist, like I’m gonna pull you where you’re already leaning anyway. Yeah. Anyway, kind of thing is, yeah.

Now it targeted. It really does, it really does drive it hard into the, into weird places. And, um, I am consciously these days trying, I, there’s a device called Brick where you can like lock your phone up, uh, with a, with an actual piece of hardware that you have to tap, um, that we bought and it’s working.

And then I’m, and, and so I’m limiting myself to one hour a day of that. That’s better than if I, when I tried to go cold Turkey, I just went back. But I’m at one hour a day, it locks itself up and then I can sort of like, okay, that’s right. I gotta stop this. But it is hard and I think, um, we are in a new territory.

Well, let’s talk about that next time. About Yeah, great topic. What the children and what they’re going to [01:13:00] face growing up. I think we may have touched on this before, but it is di Yeah. My wife and I talk about this all the time, man. It’s terrifying. What is the future like for our children and, uh, what, you know, what are they gonna do?

I mean, so let’s, let’s get into that. That sounds fun. This is a good one, man. Do their life. This also touches upon like my actual what actually research and write about. So this is great. Good. All right. We’ll talk it. All right. Sounds good, sir. Man, Ugh. So good. So good. I’m gonna, you know what? Hold on. I’m just gonna hug you.

Hug, hug you time. This is, there we go. I love it. I appreciate your face. Okay. Can man Turkish bath. Sorry, I did it again. Yeah. All right. Yeah, you’re uh, you can’t help it. Alright, we’ll see ya. We’ll see you next time. Yeah. Take good care. Bye Kate. Bye.