January 29, 2026 • 57 mins
Chai and Zachsquatch provide crucial feedback on the recent episode about intuition and time travel. Murt shares the story of Iowa's "Manhole Michelangelo," and EJW breaks down Canada's new citizenship laws. Plus the 'Board of Peace' and a special rutabaga song. Join Ben, Matt and Noel as they explore these stories -- and much more -- in this week's listener mail segment.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nolan.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer, Dylan the Tennessee pal Facin. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here despite everything, and that makes
this the stuff they don't want you to know. We
are recorded on well, January twenty first, January twenty second,
not gonna split hairs, but if you are hearing this
(00:51):
weekly listener mail segment the evening it publishes, welcome to Thursday,
January twenty ninth, can we believe it? The month is
almost over, guys. I want to congratulate all of us
here on the show and all of us listening at
home or wherever we may be, for surviving most of
(01:13):
January so far. And what better way to celebrate than
to beg a ruda.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
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into some unexpected surprises. That's why America trusts Bega Auto
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My car broke down on the way to my big
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And Bega Auto not only got me there.
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But put in a good word with the hiring manager.
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When I inherited my dad's old Granston, I knew it
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is always there for me whenever the battery dies. He
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Oh yes, that's the addition of a dragod Hero six.
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Speaker 2 (02:08):
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Speaker 3 (02:10):
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Speaker 5 (02:20):
Oh jeez, I don't even drive Biga Auto.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
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Speaker 3 (02:27):
Beautiful poetry Tennesseee loving the cameos done?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
How I even get in there in the podcasting?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
You're too good? Hats keep podcasting with us, though. Hats off,
by the way to the phenomenal writing. I hope, I
hope no cap hats off that you made that that
person made it to important company.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
You know that reminds me of it. It reminds me of
like Nerdy pimple Kid and the Simpsons who works at
the drive in the drive through. You know, I've been
on a deep Simpsons rewatch lately, and some of those
voices like you can be not even paying attention and
then look over at Simpson's and there'll be a laugh
line like or a voice or a sound early Seasons
by the way, but your your Simpson's caliber voice acting Dylan,
(03:15):
I am not getting smoke.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Perfect Dylan, the Tennessee peal Faga ladies and gentleman. Alsollian
some recent uh some recent news as of a few
weeks ago. Uh before we get into listener mail, this
will uh, this will hopefully fascinate all of our fellow
Simpsons stands. Boots Riley is making a a off off
(03:43):
off Broadway, dark post apocalyptic stage play of a Simpsons episode.
And if you look at it, it's like Comedia del arte. Yes,
the mask and everything. I cannot wait, paper mache vibes.
It's very very macabre look.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
But I read that it was based he was making
a movie based on a pre existing that. Yeah, based
on an episode.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, like when they filmed, uh like so many times removed,
like filming Raisin in the Sun, the stage play of
that with the tragedy of Macbeth. Sure, Coen Brothers.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Yeah, I loves Boots on the ground rules.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, he's He's a Riley for sure. And we are
so excited to return to listener mail. We ask the
best part of the show you, specifically you. Every every
week we do these, we do episodes twice a week,
and once a week we always do our listener mail
segment where we ask you to find us on the lines,
(04:47):
to call us on a telephone, to always send us
an email about anything everything on your plate. Cognitively, We're
gonna switch it up a little bit today, guys, and
what's day? We pause for a word from out our
sponsors and go straight to the voicemails.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And we've returned everyone. As we are recording this on Wednesday,
January twenty first, at one twenty three pm, we are
currently awaiting a winter storm that's rolling through all of
the United States and is happening this weekend. So if
you're hearing this, hopefully we've made it through or Atlanta
(05:29):
has succumbed to another Frozen Tundra version for at least
three days.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
That Ghostbuster sequel, what is it? The Ice Kingdom, After Life,
Frozen Afterlife.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Frozen Kingdom. It's all.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
From Life and a couple of other things. I didn't
go great, had fendu on SNL. You guys are the
SNL stirs people. The reviews came in and people really
enjoyed it. Again, it's a it's a cast than it
has been in the past, so people want the time
to chi and you know, I don't know. It's like
(06:08):
criticizing a late night monologue on the old late night
show formats. I'm already calling them old because these people
are putting out monster stuff every single week.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
I tried a lot of flack from making fun of
Will's coming out scene in the finale of.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Uh yeah, that makes sense. It read a little on
the homophobic side.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I just read something, Well, there's a great Harry Potter
sketch in there.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Again. I'm look s and O, I love you I'm
a theater kid. I freaking love you. But I am
literally there every week now for the Cold Open and
Weekend Update, Weekend.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Update, Banger part and sometimes a great musical guest like
Asap Rockey. I love Weekend Update.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Actually it's it's no offense to the writing or the acting.
It's just it. I don't get it anymore. I don't
get the humor often.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Seriously, I'm not so much on the Cold Opens though,
because you know, I know there's truth in comedy. There
always has been in every civilization. We say, you know,
only the jester can stare at the king, right, but
but that the kids are into some of it, some
(07:18):
of it the cold opens. But I think that's what
Matt may be seen on the Cold Open.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I think we're leaning a little either, we're middling too much,
maybe about political chaos in the United States. The guy
who does the Trump impression now is one of the
best to ever do it. But you know there's other
stuff as well that you could do with a cold
app open.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Shrimp Josh Well, well, I love every single one of them,
and I watch every single one and I love them
and every single Weekend Up Date it is those are
my favorites.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Well, that's what I'm saying about middling though, like no
half measures. If you're going to go hard on the
guy in the cold open, go harder, that would be mine, right,
you know. It's funny. I was talking about my Simpsons.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
You watch of late and I just had it on
while me and my kid and friends were playing Monopoly.
Which does anyone ever finished a game of Monopoly? I
don't think that's the okay, well, good good, good on.
You didn't didn't make it, but had Simpsons on the
background and looked over and George h. W and Barbara
Bush were featured in the show, and they weren't being mocked.
(08:20):
They were just sort of like guests, you know. And
I'm like, what a charming era.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That was, the old days of civility. Civility, That's exactly
what occurred to me.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
But you also had George, you know, Bush being mocked. Well,
which way did you say, the senior or the junior?
It was senior, you remember, That's one of the most
iconic sketches on SNL was George Bush senior like over
and over coming on and doing and yeah, it's it's
(08:52):
cool to have a show. They can do both. You
can have you know, a president or a possible president
or even a president elect and all that come on,
but also be mocked because there are crazy things that
happen in this world and to be able to process
them that way.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
It comes from a tradition too, where most presidents that
get mocked are like cool with it or like, you know, openly,
hey you got me zing, and they're not like trying
to sue the network if you could make.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
A joke and take a joke and no, like we're
talking we were talking about Saturday Night Live and know
you're talking specifically about the Simpsons. What I love about
that is the Simpsons cameos were just phenomenal, became such
a gold standard or such a platinum standard of appearances,
Like who else could get Michael Jackson, Homer Palooza, You
(09:40):
got Sonic Youth, you got the Smashing podcasts, some of
the best writers to ever do it. Conan O'Brien shout
out to the Monoail episode Treous of Horror must be said, Uh,
this has this doesn't have too much to do with
some of the It doesn.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, Frank Zappa hosted SNL and we are going to
jump to a message from Dale that regards mister Zappa.
So that's what we're going to do right now.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I love Zappa. He's got such interesting things to say
about the state of the world.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Hi guys, this is Dale from Maryland. Been intrigued by
your Rudabake interludes over the last several years. Just curious
if you guys were aware of a Frank Zappa and
the Mothers of an invention song called call any Vegetable,
which has a bridge that speaks directly to Rude Vegas.
(10:41):
First appeared on his leave his second album called Absolutely Free,
and then was later on a live album called Just
Another Band from La You'll notice that Frank's voice is
a little higher. This was due to this He recorded
these before he fell off the stage and injured his
vocal records. It gave him a more deeper voice. You
(11:06):
also hear Flo and Eddie singing a lot of the
parts who were members of the Turtles, who you'll remember
from the song Happy Together. So anyway, just my two cents,
maybe you want to play this little section of Rude
Beaga on your show. Thanks and love the show. Been
listening for years and years. Don't even know how long,
(11:27):
so long, have a good day?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Thanks?
Speaker 5 (11:29):
By yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Thanks? Are we in a chance it? Can we hear
rudebank hear the bit?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You guys got it. I've got it queued up. So
we've got call any Vegetable from the Mothers of Invention
absolutely free from nineteen sixty seven, eleven years before Zappa
hosted SNL for the one and only time. I believe
it's from Verb Records again. The title is called any Vegetable.
We're starting at fifty three seconds into a very short song.
(11:58):
I believe the song is only about two minutes fourteen
seconds in total. It is the very end of the
chorus going into the bridge, which is the important part
according to dale In, I think we're gonna agree, So
here we go.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Oh God, and the chances are good.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Vegetable will respond to you.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Ruda by Rudea by Rudea by rude a bay Ruda.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
By Okay, we can't continue for a copyright reason.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Credible, Frank, Do you mind if i'd drop a queg
Zappa quote just to show you how like ahead of
the curve he was on so many things, not to
mention rudabagas and song oh yeah yeah in an interview
as some some TV appearance, like a talk show. He
said this, talking about the religious right. You've got to
get in there and fight these guys, because the fascist
(12:59):
fundamentalistic in the United States are really a menace. They've
got a lot of money, and it's all tax exempts,
and you can't audit their books, and they virtually control
a large portion of the policymaking machinery in Washington, DC.
The way they do it it's because they can scoop
up all this money. Here's what they spend the money on.
They buy satellite time, they buy video installations, They set
(13:20):
up what they call colleges, which are basically brainwashing places
to crank out more of these little fascist agents. And
then the rest of the money, this is millions and
millions of dollars they've taken in every year, is used
as political donations for candidates who will play ball with them.
He said this in nineteen eighty six. Y'all, I'm just saying.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
The boy.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yep, it rings true, right, yeah, I mean just a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
It just feels very prescient. And also the more things change.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Right, political landscape in the United States has been such
a weird little dance. We've been playing pretending that the
two sides are different, even though we know this from
previous experts on this show. But guys, I don't want
to get bogged down in that, do you.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
I just wanted to give Frank his due beyond his
root of Bago artistry.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Right, really love that quotational Thank.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
You, absolutely, dude, and thank you Dale for bringing that
to our attention. And uh, you know, put that in
the bank, Dylan. Maybe there's something you can do with that.
I bet there is. Let's jump to a whole different topic,
a heartwarming story coming to us from Mert. The story
is coming out of Sioux City, Iowa, and it's something
(14:31):
that maybe crossed some of our eyes because it was
a local story that became a national news story. And
let's just check it out real quick. Has to do
with the freedom of expression in public places and art.
So let's let's listen to MERT's story here.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
Hey, Matt Man Noel, my name is Mert.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
I just wanted to make sure.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
That you were aware of the manhole Michelangelo and the
sewer part of the city of Iowa. He's just a
public artist, has made public art on the ground and
they arrested him, and uh, we're trying to get his
charges draws because I mean, he's just making a beautiful
things and I just thought it was a beautiful thing
(15:10):
that you should know because he's gone from public news
to national news with the Independence and with Wall Street
journals just like shouting him out as the Bashaw okay, cool,
thanks bye.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
That was a very SmartLess bye.
Speaker 7 (15:26):
It was.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
It was thank you love a weird outsider artist getting
into trouble with the law.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Oh heck yeah, thank you so much, Mert for calling
in and making us aware of manhol Michelangelo out of.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
What work like.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Uh it is it looks like flowers to me, and
that's how it's been described often in the news. You
can check it out some of the original reporting coming
out of KTIV dot com. That's Sue Land's news source,
KTIV Channel four News. It doesn't say what it's associated
with that I don't. No, they've got several images here
(16:02):
of the multi pedaled flowers that are multi colored and
they're generally over the top of or near manholes in
public spacesh you know, look, it's nothing against brand, and
it's not like it's not a piece of art that
you might say was it would I don't know how
(16:23):
to describe this because it's I don't want to crap
on Brandon's art. It's it looks beautiful and it's nice.
It's just not as intricate as maybe some art you
would find on Instagram or someone's you know, pedaling their
art and showing you a cool video of this art.
It makes the space look nice around it. That's you know,
just broken up concrete or asphalt or something like that.
(16:44):
It's just not.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Outsider art.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yes, it wouldn't be a news story, right unless something
something else.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Happened, right, And I've been looking. I'm looking at this
as a as a fan of outsider art. Fake so much.
Big shout out to man Hold, Michelangelo, matt I, bet A,
Ben Buck. There's a reason this guy's in the news
not too too long ago.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, he's in the news because he was charged with
tagging manholes with flower graffiti. He has pleaded, oh, well,
this is weird because this is coming to us from
November thirteenth. Mert called in a while ago, and we're
just now getting to it. So apologies Mert for that,
but and to everybody else, I guess just because we're
only talking about it now, we would just want to
(17:32):
bring it to everbody's attention if you didn't hear about it,
because it is kind of an interesting First Amendment right.
And also the concept of beautifying a city in unconventional ways,
which is something we see a lot of here in Atlanta,
specifically with murals, you know, that are curated that somebody,
somebody paid a lot of money to an artist. We
(17:54):
know several artists who do incredible mural artwork in the city.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
Also to have some graffiti zones, like in the Crog
Street tunnel that anyone can do stuff and every every
so often they whitewash the whole thing over and like
start as a clean slates.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Which I'd like because it reminds me of the It
reminds me of the beautiful practice of sand paintings, you know,
the ephemerality of yes and beauty.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, absolutely, And again like making a city more interesting
into a city that has its own character that is
often eclectic, and you've you know, you've heard most small
towns and big cities have at least a contingent somewhere
that will say, like keep a Lanta weird or keep
Austin weird or you know, and name your small town.
There's a movement for that, which just means keep it
(18:39):
interesting and and unique. Right, So this kind of thing
that Brandon Bradshaw Man Old Michaelangel was doing is that
kind of thing. But he got arrested, and the people
who arrested him said, well, here's a quote from Sioux
City Police Sergeant Tom Kill. We call criminal mischief any
kind of that you don't have permission from the owner.
(19:02):
And this person did not have anyone in the city
to do this, did not ask I guess it's either
misquoted or mistyped there. And it was colorful artwork, you know,
but he didn't have permission to do it. So he
was just doing this with spray paint and it's difficult
to clean up. So it was basically like, hey, criminal mischief.
You're doing something you're not supposed to do. But then, guys,
(19:24):
there was a turn on November twenty sixth, twenty twenty five.
That's when The Independent was writing about it, and also
siueland Public Media was writing about it. And listen to this,
it says you can find the article Sioux City artist
signs agreement with the city to keep painting streets colorfully.
It's written by Alejandra Perez and it says Sioux City
(19:48):
resident Brandon Bradshaw has signed an agreement that would allow
him to continue painting flowers with permission. Is an agreement
with the City of Sioux City and the Sue Land
Chamber of com And it's pretty awesome. So all he
has to do is seek permission before painting, and generally
he's going to get permission to make these awesome flower paintings.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Awesome love to hear.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
I mean, yeah, as more corporate interests and landlords and
you know, giant property management companies swoop in and buy
things up and make things unaffordable, that kind of stuff
kind of starts to disappear, and the authentic parts of
cities start to become a thing of the past, and
(20:29):
they start to be replaced by sanctioned city art, which
can be great. Our buddy Nick Turbo Benson makes his
living doing some of these types of things that are
you know, sanctioned by the city. For example, our public
transit system Marta, had an initiative to redo one of
their main kind of hub stations, the five Point station.
(20:52):
Sadly the bottom drop out of the funding for that,
and it didn't end up happening, so a lot of
artists that were in the running for it, you know,
lost out on that opportunity. I don't know, like I'm
of two minds because on the one hand, I'm glad
to see artists, real working artists, getting to make work.
But then there's also a little bit less of an
edge and a less of like a pure creativity when
things have to go through approval processes by committee, you know,
(21:15):
and the show government entities et such.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Right, I'd also like to shout out the excellent work
of our our long suffering graphic design wizard, Pam Peacock,
the one and only who does a lot of a
lot of phenomenal street art here in Atlanta as well.
We're We're gifted mert with We're gifted with such amazing,
(21:40):
fascinating and distinct artistic voices here in our fair metropolis.
But to Nole's point, there is an argument that it
loses a little bit of something when it gets bogged
down and in licensing, when it gets bogged down and permits.
We understand why those must exist. And of course, if
(22:02):
you own personal property, you may not want somebody non
consensually putting one of my favorite tags in Atlanta history,
the goat Ravisher all over your stuff? Were you guys
around when the goat Ravisher had his heyday? That's just
just a crazy guy. Okay, forget the art, this is
more about the the What is it called when you
(22:26):
climb without ropes? Free solo? Free solo. There's a guy
is basically free soloing at some of the most difficult,
inaccessible public public places. Yeah, of the city. And he
didn't bother with typical graffiti aesthetic once he got wherever
he was. If he's like hanging upside down a few
stories up or something, he would just with black spray
(22:47):
paint in regular block letters. Right, the goat Ravisher or
the goat Ravisher strikes again. I love this Gats. We
also have a great outside of goats. Yeah yeah, hijr kids,
Hija goats. We also have nailed him. A person you
may like, you're doubtlessly aware of a few hours north
(23:11):
of Atlanta is legendary Howard Finster. Another outside artist garden.
Yeah yeah, oh, it's a great place to visit if
you're talking heads album covers of notes. Oh, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well, as we have seen here with the story of
Brendan Bradshaw, if you do want to create some kind
of public art like that that isn't necessarily sanctioned or
paid for by, you know, somebody who wants you to
put it on their building or something, maybe you can
just talk to the Chamber of Commerce and see if
they'll let you make some cool art. It's at least
one way to go about it if you don't want
(23:46):
to be so out. But again, it's just awesome that
he can continue doing that and he is going to
continue doing that. So thank you so much, Mert. Thank
you again, Dale. We will be right back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
And we have returned with another message from ESU. In
this case we are talking about uej W writing to
us about a recent bill that was passed in Canada
that may be of particular interest to those looking for
some exit strategies here from our fair country of the
(24:27):
US of A. Hey, guys, EJW writes, are you all
familiar with the recent C three passed in Canada? On
June fifth, twenty twenty five, the government introduced Bill C three,
an act to amend the Citizenship Act to extend citizenship
by dissent beyond the first generation in a way that
(24:48):
is more inclusive and protects the value of Canadian citizenship.
The bill received royal assent on November.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
This is a very.
Speaker 6 (24:56):
Interesting parliamentary procedure in Canada. Don't know about royal assent
to look that one up on November twentieth, twenty twenty five,
and came into effect on December fifteenth, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
That means the IRCC had to look this up real
quick online.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
That is the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which is
the governmental agency that oversees matters pertaining to immigration and citizenship, refugees,
Canadian citizenship, all of that type of stuff. That means
the IRCC now recognizes new eligible citizens and is applying
the new rules for passing citizenship on going forward. This
(25:32):
doesn't seem like a lot of fanfare, but it's huge.
Do you at any point have an ancestor who was
born in Canada, then congratulations friend. As of fifteen December
twenty twenty five, you are now officially Canadian. Might be
oversimplifying just to touch I think there's definitely some processes
you still got to go through.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
But it is a big deal, and that was me
editorializing there. Oh it's a huge deal. EJW. This is great.
It can't be understated.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
I agree, wrapping up their email. I'm actually writing this
sitting outside a local city hall to inquire about birth certificates.
As Ben says, history is closer than it looks in
the rearview mirror, to apply for my citizenship certificate, partially
for personal reasons I'm the only one in my house
without a Canadian passport, but also with sh TF here
(26:19):
as a backup plan, doing a cursory Google love that acronym,
and there you go.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
That's exactly thank you, Matt. I'm a big ding dong.
I thought it was another Canadian agency.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
I think that's what we talked about at the top,
looking for exit strategies, right, like, yes, SHTF got it.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Things go in foo bar.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
As they say, uh, looking for a backup plan, exit strategy, etc.
And we're listening to just this episode on the way here.
Could it be the timing of this bill is to
try and bring some of the man this fellow loves
an acronym canis diaspora back home.
Speaker 7 (26:56):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
I think you might have an idea of what he's
referred to there. Yeah, Cato in US kind of a
portmanteau of just Canadian US people who have emigrated or
moved abroad and you know, formed communities or new lives
in other countries. Got it?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
So it does?
Speaker 6 (27:14):
It does seem like the timing is very interesting, CJW.
EJW rather posits Probably not, but it is an interesting coincidence.
I might argue there are no coincidences, but of course
there are sometimes.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Thanks for all you'll do.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
You're pretty much my full time road companions, along with
Josh and Chuck and old Robert Evans. In such great
company here, thanks, EJW. And I feel like we need
more of the critical thinking you promote in society. Feel
free to reply, use on air, et cetera. Best EJW.
What do you think you'all? This seems like the antithesis
to what we're seeing with a lot of immigration policies,
which is to lock things down and exclude rather than
(27:53):
include what it is.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Just Canadian born folks right that it's affecting or somebody
within the line that was Canadian.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Is someone who has who has descended from or has
a recent ancestor of Canadian heritage. EJW. Thank you for
Thank you so much. Hope you staying war and safe
in Canada. We've got we've got a lot of a
lot of interesting threads to pull here, to connect Pepe
(28:22):
Sylvia style. Because Noel, you and I were talking on
a fair little bit about how this harkens back to
it leaves a little bit closer to something like Ireland's
longstanding immigration or citizenship policy. You can prove, you know
that you have a grandparent who was born in the
Old Country, then it's much easier for you to acquire
(28:45):
citizenship in Ireland. And it's also interesting EJW. As you
doubtlessly know, given that there has been of late, there's
been a strong anti immigration push in certain demographics in Canada,
and part of that is due to controversies surrounding the
(29:06):
usage of some types of vises, and another part of
that is, you know, a natural outgrowth of the fear
that comes when an economy tanks and housing becomes unaffordable
and so on. But overall, for now, this seems like
a very promising, very positive move, especially because a lot
of people in the US have no idea how difficult
(29:28):
it is to really start a life in a different
country well for sure.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
And also lest you fall into the category that I
was once a member of, where you think of our
neighbors to the north as just all you know, gentle
sunshine and rainbows, you.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Know, potheads or something.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
There's definitely some Canada for Canadians mentality over there as well.
There's certainly a string of racism and isolationism and that
kind of othering over there. No one is immune to
this kind of thing, is what I'm getting at. Let's
just go through a couple of points from Canada dot
ca A. I believe that's the official website of Canada
(30:07):
that talks a little bit about what this means. It
says here the IRCC now recognizes new eligible citizens and
is applying the new rules for passing citizenship on going
forward with the coming into effect of this bill, People
who automatically became Canadian citizens under the new law can
apply to get proof of Canadian citizenship.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
People adopted abroad.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
Before December fifteenth, twenty twenty five by a Canadian parent,
born or adopted a broad can apply for Canadian citizenship
for an adopted child. People born or adopted abroad honor
after December fifteenth to Canadian parent also born or adopted
abroad must demonstrate their Canadian parent has spent three years
in Canada when applying for proof Canadian citizenship and applying
for Canadian citizenship for an adopted child. People born before
(30:45):
September fifteenth who automatically became Canadian citizens under the new
law and were not previously granted citizenship and who now
want to give up renounce Canadian citizenship can apply through
a simplified renunciation process, and then they refer to the
term lost Canadians, which I think is interesting, which is
a term referring to people who lost or never obtained
(31:06):
citizenship because of certain outdated rules in earlier citizenship laws.
Reading from this page on the Canada site. Most cases
were resolved through legislative changes in twenty nine and twenty fifteen,
which restored or gave citizenship to about twenty thousand people. However,
some people remained excluded, including Section eight Lost Canadians and
(31:28):
descendants of Lost Canadians. Bill C three extends access to
citizenship to these remaining lost Canadians, their descendants, and those
born abroad to or adopted abroad by a Canadian parent
in the second or later generation before the new law
came into effect.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I yield. We should keep in mind, folks, this is
a big positive step forward. Typically this is also going
to include some coveats that are treated as givens, like
you can't be a war criminal, you can't have committed
serious felonies in your current country of residents. Right, just
(32:06):
needs to be said.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Aloud, Well, that's awesome, EJW. We wish you the best
when it comes to gaining that citizenship and passport that
you were looking for.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Yeah, no, one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (32:18):
And I think this set segment would stay a little
on the shorter side, but I thought this was a
great piece of correspondence and people ought to know that
this is something you might want to look into. Maybe
check out that ancestry dot com account again, if you
haven't looked at it in a hot minute. We'll take
a quick break now and then be back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
And we have returned. I'm gonna do something a little
bit different here, and I'm hoping we can we can
discuss something that might get people's dander up a little bit.
Uh political converse or geopolitical conversation inspired by none other
(33:03):
than our returning guest, Give it up for folks, brocknest Monster.
This is something we wanted to discuss in depth, maybe
in an episode. But here's what you wrote to us.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Brock.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
You said, so Trump, meaning Donald Trump, the current US president,
wants nations to pay one billion US dollars to join
his peace board? Is it one enormous country club? Does
Donald Trump want to turn Earth into Mara Lago? Brock?
And then Brock, you, first off, thank you always an
(33:39):
excellent writer. To us. Brock, you include an article from
Reuters on January eighteenth, twenty twenty six, before we dive
into it. I believe we've all heard about this peace
board pitch. Is that correct? I did hear?
Speaker 6 (33:55):
The headline that I read was that Trump was inviting
Putin to join?
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yes? Yeah, And I mean if you study truth and
reconciliation stuff throughout most modern history yet that at some
point people who are former enemies do have to find
some way for dialogue. And sheesh. We all know that
current world governments have tried with things like the League
(34:22):
of Nations, the United Nations, the G seven, the G eight,
the G whatever. They just kept adding numbers, right, even
NATO to an extent, Even NATO to an extent, required
some European countries to put aside deep historical beefs and
differences in the idea of securing better chances for continental peace. Right,
(34:47):
And it was also entirely still those folks say, hey, hey,
we know we don't always get alog and sorry about
those many bloody wars throughout those very centuries, but we
can bond because we don't like Russia. Right, So our
dislike and fear of that place is bigger than our
(35:10):
dislike and fear of each other, which how a lot
of stuff happens. So this Board of Peace is not
is not inherently a bad thing if it's what if
it's what it's supposed to be or what it's being
pitched as. But a lot of people have a problem
with this because because of some of the nations that
(35:33):
are joining, and because of the statements requiring a price tag,
a literal price tag. You don't have to necessarily pay
to be recognized as a country by the United Nations,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, wasn't this something directly tied to Gaza when it
was first pitched and it's like has a wider scope.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Now, Yeah, the board was The Board of Peace was
originally pitched as helping end the two year war between
Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and it was advertised as
an institution that would oversee reconstruction. So, as we record,
(36:16):
on Wednesday, January twenty first, a bunch of countries in
the area have agreed to join the Board of Peace.
I'm not sure how much each has individually paid, but
so far the breaking news is Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia,
(36:37):
Pakistan and cutter have recently joined. The other nations have
agreed to joiner Bahrain, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belodous, Hungary, Kazakhstan,
Morocco and Vietnam.
Speaker 6 (36:50):
So more a ministry of truth kind of situation. It's
like the opposite is actually what it means.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, it's I don't know. It's strange he invited or
the administration invited the Vatican as well. But this is
my question for you guys. Do we trust it? Is
it like a good idea coming from a person that
a lot of people don't like, or is it a grift?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
I remember the initial press release the White House put
out about it, and they included Jared Kushner and Steve
Whitkoff and Marco Rubio and a bunch of people that
you know are they're very poly charged within the current administration.
These folks got a lot of connections. And then the
fact that the current standing President of the United States
(37:40):
would be the the chair.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Right, Yeah, let's go to as you know saying this
for years, I was I always like to. I think
we all always like to go to the board, right,
see who's in charge of a new initiative or a
mysterious institution. The Board of Peace executive board includes some
(38:04):
of the names you just mentioned, Matt, not just Marco Rubio,
Jared Kushner, Steve vik Koff or Wit Coffee's accents coming
out us special Envoy, but also some old hits like
Tody Blair, the UK Prime Minister back in the day,
the CEO of an equity firm called Apollo Global Management,
(38:24):
guy named Mark Rowan might be worth looking into. And
the President of the World Bank, aj Benga. So everybody
check out our World Bank episode. Oh NJ Banga. It's
like a DJ name. It's a pretty cool name. We
could say that we know.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
The World Bank has a little hand in the whole
peace war thing that goes on in this world.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Yeah yeah, I m F and Robert Gabriel the last
one for now US National Security Advisors. It's very much
a US production. The headline about the bill dollar thing
brockness is that once states formally formally agree to be
(39:08):
bound by the Charter, the member states are going to
get three year renewable terms. But if you want a
permanency kind of like on the UN Security Council that level,
that's when you start contributing one billion US dollars. And
I'm trying so hard not to doctor evil at that one.
Speaker 6 (39:29):
But you know what these are like, these are like
dues or like when what's the structure for these payments?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Pay to play? You know? That's the term that was
coming from footing around in my head very much. So
we're sharing that because I don't know where it goes.
And I have this I keep having. I strive to
be objective in all things, but I keep returning to
this onion article that or onion headline. I should say
(39:58):
that I read a while back, but it was the
headline was something like devastating a guy you hate just
made a good point. And I know a lot of
us have have always struggled, you know, with someone you
dislike raising a valid point. And the question is should
we give the Board of Peace a chance or should
(40:19):
we just assume, based on precedent that it's going to
be another controversial, halfway thought out grab for power or
financial blood and treasure. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
I learned a long time ago that we should always
give peace a chance, board a chance.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, And this so this is something we want your
opinions on, folks. We want to hear whether this is
that I mean a lot of people are also saying, hey,
this is just another distracting bread and circus kind of thing.
This is a headline leech that will take away from
(41:01):
the failures to disclose the Epstein files, the ongoing allegations
of heavy Russian influence in US policy, which we're pretty
sure are true. There's a lot of sand to it.
We can't wait to hear your thoughts before we head
off into the hinterlands and activitgates. We wanted to share
(41:25):
some letters from home, and these I hope stood out
to all of us, and we hope they stand out
to you. The first is a response from Chai, who
is writing to us regarding our episode about intuition being
gut feelings from the future. I think we all had
a part of a time on that one in a
(41:45):
good way. Okay, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Exactly how I would put it.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
So, Hi, Ben, Matt, and Noel, says Chai. I've been
listening to your podcast for years, and I really appreciate
the caring curiosity you bring to each topic. Your episode
on intuition was especially interesting and got me thinking. When
you talked about intuition maybe no longer being as strongly
tied to survival, using the example of choosing a path
(42:13):
in a park, I felt there was a perspective missing
that might add an extra layer of depth. For many women,
intuition is still very directly connected to survival. Any woman
who has walked home alone in the dark knows that
going with your gut is often about safety, not convenience.
To examples that come to mind, the instinct to change roots,
(42:35):
avoid certain places, or stay close to other people based
on subtle environmental cues. The immediate, sometimes hard to explain,
sense that a situation or person is unsafe, even when
nothing is outwardly wrong. These are forms of intuition that
are deeply practical and still rooted in survival mechanisms. They're
(42:56):
shaped by lived experience, and they show how intuition can
operate differently depending on social context and vulnerability. And then
I think, right, it's safe to say, guys, we all
completely agree with this. Right, we have loved ones who
have told us similar things.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Yeah, none of us that have had that distinct experience, right,
but right, we can we can understand to some extent
from stories told to us.
Speaker 6 (43:26):
I was semi mugged one time in a very empty
subway station in New York, and it was one of
those things where like before I even saw the person,
I felt a way like coming behind me. And luckily
I was with a friend who is a very large man,
who walked up and sort of caused the person to flee.
(43:48):
But I did get a feeling like environmental tingling, you
know something and obviously for women, very different, something that
you much more have to be attuned to on a
regular basis.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
But this, this situation very much rattled me, and for
a while I've felt a certain way being out in
the world, you know, and that's a way that you're
almost a sense memory that you can that kind of
comes back, and the experiences that you're describing here, Chai,
the reason I think these are invaluable for all of
(44:20):
us in the audience tonight is because this is a
perspective that we three dudes do not experientially possess. Right,
we have had as you were saying, that we've all
had similar experiences. But given given the fact that so
(44:42):
many women or non binary people are forced to live
life a constant level of survival mode, there's a lot
of sand and there's a very crucial perspective to what
you're saying here, Chai. You continue, you say, there's also
a lot of discussion around whether women tend to develop
strongnger intuitive skills and how that might relate to heightened
(45:03):
social awareness, pattern recognition, or long standing survival strategies. I
think exploring that angle could be a really fascinating addition
to the conversation. Fully agreed, and you continue, try to
paraphrase a little bit he said, thank you again for
the amazing work you do. Your podcast has been a
(45:23):
companion to be for a long time. Not criticism, but
an invitation a female perspective on intuition could open a richer,
more layered understanding of what intuition really is and how
it functions today. And I think that's awesome. Thank you
so much for taking the time to write to us.
We love to hear those perspectives. We love different perspectives.
(45:47):
We hang out with each other on this show constantly.
I think as a result, right, we tend to get
familiar and normalized with certain things book toy of course, Chai,
as you know, Gavin de Becker's Gift of Fear. But
it'd be great to hear other people's perspectives and experiences
(46:09):
from different parts of the world, from different demographics, different
age ranges. You know, the experience of a fourteen year
old in the Upper West Side of Manhattan is going
to be way different from the experience of a kid
in Namibia, you know, or a kid in Malaysia for sure.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Guys, I just watched my son get his red black
belt and it just, you know, it makes me wonder
if it's a if it's like a false thing, the
concept of training in martial arts or something. It would
make you feel less afraid or makes you more in
danger because you feel confident right that you know, martial
arts are something when you encounter a situation no, like
you're talking about where you're potentially in danger by somebody
(46:54):
who potentially has a weapon, that those skills and that
knowledge isn't going to help you at all.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
You're saying it might make you be more of a
risk taker because I feel confidence. Well, I this is silly,
you could handle it. I'm just curious.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, yeah, this is kind of silly. I just rewatched
the original Karate Kid with my kids, who are both
taking taekwondo right now. And one of one of the
big things that mister Miyagi says there is I think
pretty prescient. He said, you can't you can't kind of
do martial arts either don't you have no martial arts
(47:28):
training and understanding, or you are very good at it
and you've trained a lot and you it's a mindset
more than anything else, because if you're somewhere in the middle,
you're gonna get hurt really badly or killed.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
That's yeah, I agree, that's pressing, and I think that's
that's where you're talking about. Part of it is the
learning curve, you know what I mean? Yeah, I know
how to do a few roundhouse kicks. Let me go
have a problem at the Chili's down the street. That's
not the way to do it. Well, that's also antithetical
to the whole philosophy exactly martial arts. And the more
you learn, the less likely you are to engage in
(48:01):
a physical altercation.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Well yeah, and just the idea if you encounter a
situation like that and theoretically you could defend yourself or
somebody else like is that. I think overall it's a
better thing to have, but I don't know. It does
make me nervous.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
To be prepared is always better. And the folks who
are quite adept at martial arts will, of course are
your preparation is key. And they'll also tell you always
avoid to fight. You've kind of lost a fight if
a fight occurs, just because you didn't remove yourself from
(48:38):
the situation. And there's there's great wisdom to that. Don't
let your look in a lot of street fights, for
anybody's seen them, vent in them we realize immediately. We
don't think about it until in retrospect. But the person
starting a fight is often not starting to fight with
(49:01):
one person, starting to fight with two people there's the
guy outside, there's the guy in their head, their ego,
who is like, oh yeah, this missed big swings back
in town, baby, that guy bumped into you, he spilled
something on his shoes, and that's a very That's what
we would call an opportunity to learn.
Speaker 6 (49:21):
Yeah, to look inward. And so much of martial arts
is as a mindset, like you were saying that, And
if I'm not mistaken, I think it's Judo focuses largely
on just redirecting the energy of your opponent. So it's
not even about attacking. It's about focusing an.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
Attack on you in a way that you know puts
you out of harm's way and kind of honing in
on your opponent's weaknesses in order to miss to redirect
their energy in a way that sort of disarms them.
And Chai, we don't mean to get off topic here
too much. We don't want to lose the plot. This
(49:59):
person that you're providing is not just important, it is
mission critical. The ideal world is what a world in
which anybody, regardless of their identity, can walk without fear
of being harmed. We're going to have a one more
letter from home about the value of other perspectives from
(50:23):
around the world from different people. Like our pal Mike
Render says, hang out with people you wouldn't usually hang
out with, know what their worldview is like. That's how
we connect as in this crazy group project called Humanity,
this long form, non consensual limbrov game called Life. Before
(50:44):
we get to this very valuable correspondence that also speaks
to the conversational that we were having with EJW, we
are going to pause our listener mail segment for an
update on something we discussed previously in Strange News.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
Yeah, sorry, Jomin like this, guys don't want to interrupt
the flow of the important stuff. I'm just jumping in
to say. We talked on this week's Strange News about
Congressman Rocanna and Thomas Massey, who wrote a letter to
Federal Court Judge Paul Engelmeyer asking for a special Master
and independent monitor to quote compel the Department of Justice
(51:19):
to make mandatory production under the Act that is, of course,
the Epstein Act to release the Epstein files. It was
just reported by ABC News as we're recording today, the
same day we recorded that Strange News episode that the
judge has declined to appoint a special master to oversee
the release. That is all back to the show.
Speaker 3 (51:39):
Meaning that things are the same. Basically, there's no there's no.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
The judge just said no, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
That it got it got shut down, but the mission continues. Yes,
And with that update, we're returning to our last, our
last piece of correspondence for program this evening. This is
from none other than Zach Squatch. Love a pun Zack Squatch,
and thank you for the pun. Because there is no
humor like Allo's humor. There is no whistle like a
(52:10):
graveyard whistle. You bring up an important point that calls
back to back to our conversation here and calls forward
to an episode we're going to do in the future. Hi, Gangle.
While back, I emailed you with the theory I had
that American LGBTQ plus people may soon end up seeking
asylum in other countries as the US government makes it
(52:32):
increasingly dangerous for them to live in their home country.
I don't think my theory ended up on air on
your show, but today I came across an article in
the Guardian which unfortunately proved my theory to be correct,
and you link us to that article fear abuse and
eroding rights and forced many trans people to leave the
(52:54):
United States. Can they claim asylum in the Netherlands and
the Guardian goes on to talk about transgender refugees fleeing
the US and just reading this man is worrisome. You know,
we talked about the Great brain Drain, and we talked
about you know, people aspirationally saying they're going to leave
(53:17):
the US regardless of who wins the election. By the way,
no matter who gets voted in for the office of president,
there's always some contingent of people who say they're going
to leave, right they're going to go to Canada or
in cert country here. But the the stuff that's happening
with LGBTQ plus people is pretty terrifying right now. So
(53:42):
Zach Squatch wanted us to share a message with all
of our fellow listeners in that community or allies saying,
please wish my LGBTQ plus ken in the United States safety,
health and happiness wherever they end up being here in
the UK, it's currently horrifying anytime something pops up in
the news regarding your country. We know, Zach Squatch, we know,
(54:06):
hope you all are safe out there and taking care
of each other. It may be a good time to
repost that episode on bug out Bags. Now we all
have friends in these communities. Have you, guys, heard of
anybody seriously talking about trying to move or leave the
country or what? Have you been hearing a couple.
Speaker 6 (54:27):
Of high profile celebs have done it. I want to say,
Rosio Nah moved to Ireland, and there was a couple
of other ones that I remember, But no, I don't
know anybody personally, but I'm sure that number could increase.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Yes, the show, we know a few people personally who
have left for that very reason for concern over children
actually specifically because yeah, because of both real and perceived
you know, like the sense of persecution in that way or.
Speaker 3 (55:03):
Yeah, or something in the wind right, potential stuff on
the horizon, And we want to we want to hear
your experiences with this kind of stuff as well, folks,
because again, as we'll see in an upcoming episode, it
is incredibly difficult to leave any country and start a
(55:24):
new life somewhere else. So we want to we want
to hear your plans. We hope you tune into that
episode and where we hope wherever you are this program
finds you safe. We're all in it together. And since
we're all in it together, let's be pen pals. Find
us online, call us on the phone, send us an email.
(55:45):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (55:46):
You can definitely find us online if you wish, if
the hamlic conspiracy stuff or conspiracy stuff show, depending on
your platform of choice. You can also give us a
telephone call.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
Our number is one eight to three three st d
wyt K. Turn the letters into numbers. Give it a call.
It's a voicemail system. You've got three minutes. Give yourself
a cool nickname and let us know if we can
use your name. End message on the air. If you'd
like to send us an email, you can do that too.
We are the.
Speaker 3 (56:12):
Entities that read each piece of correspondence we receive. Be
well aware, yet out afraid. Sometimes the voider writes back,
and maybe writing to you right now, seriously. One of
the best ways to contact us. Send the links, send
the images, send the random facts and get one in return.
We're hanging out there twenty four hours in the evening,
(56:32):
seven nights a week because we don't respect the sun.
And before you do any of that, before you call us,
before you find us, online before you send us fantastic
emails and correspondents. Hi the to Netflix, which is a
fancy way of saying, get over to Netflix. We're doing
this show. We're doing this thing on Netflix. We hope
(56:53):
you enjoy it. We need your help. Give us a
thumbs up, give us a double thumbs up. This listener
mail again is published in the very end of January,
which means that you have several episodes of Stuff they
Don't Want You to Know to watch on Netflix right now.
Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,
my name is Nolan.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our
super producer, Dylan the Tennessee pal Facin. Most importantly, you
are you. You are here despite everything, and that makes
this the stuff they don't want you to know. We
are recorded on well, January twenty first, January twenty second,
not gonna split hairs, but if you are hearing this
(00:51):
weekly listener mail segment the evening it publishes, welcome to Thursday,
January twenty ninth, can we believe it? The month is
almost over, guys. I want to congratulate all of us
here on the show and all of us listening at
home or wherever we may be, for surviving most of
(01:13):
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to beg a ruda.
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Call our toll free number today.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
You've done it, I say the Dragon. Oh, I have
the Dragon Hero.
Speaker 4 (02:16):
This is for Big Auto paying testimonials.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Oh jeez, I don't even drive Biga Auto.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
It's time to dig up a good time in your car.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Beautiful poetry Tennesseee loving the cameos done?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
How I even get in there in the podcasting?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
You're too good? Hats keep podcasting with us, though. Hats off,
by the way to the phenomenal writing. I hope, I
hope no cap hats off that you made that that
person made it to important company.
Speaker 6 (02:53):
You know that reminds me of it. It reminds me of
like Nerdy pimple Kid and the Simpsons who works at
the drive in the drive through. You know, I've been
on a deep Simpsons rewatch lately, and some of those
voices like you can be not even paying attention and
then look over at Simpson's and there'll be a laugh
line like or a voice or a sound early Seasons
by the way, but your your Simpson's caliber voice acting Dylan,
(03:15):
I am not getting smoke.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Perfect Dylan, the Tennessee peal Faga ladies and gentleman. Alsollian
some recent uh some recent news as of a few
weeks ago. Uh before we get into listener mail, this
will uh, this will hopefully fascinate all of our fellow
Simpsons stands. Boots Riley is making a a off off
(03:43):
off Broadway, dark post apocalyptic stage play of a Simpsons episode.
And if you look at it, it's like Comedia del arte. Yes,
the mask and everything. I cannot wait, paper mache vibes.
It's very very macabre look.
Speaker 6 (04:00):
But I read that it was based he was making
a movie based on a pre existing that. Yeah, based
on an episode.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
Yeah, like when they filmed, uh like so many times removed,
like filming Raisin in the Sun, the stage play of
that with the tragedy of Macbeth. Sure, Coen Brothers.
Speaker 6 (04:20):
Yeah, I loves Boots on the ground rules.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, he's He's a Riley for sure. And we are
so excited to return to listener mail. We ask the
best part of the show you, specifically you. Every every
week we do these, we do episodes twice a week,
and once a week we always do our listener mail
segment where we ask you to find us on the lines,
(04:47):
to call us on a telephone, to always send us
an email about anything everything on your plate. Cognitively, We're
gonna switch it up a little bit today, guys, and
what's day? We pause for a word from out our
sponsors and go straight to the voicemails.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
And we've returned everyone. As we are recording this on Wednesday,
January twenty first, at one twenty three pm, we are
currently awaiting a winter storm that's rolling through all of
the United States and is happening this weekend. So if
you're hearing this, hopefully we've made it through or Atlanta
(05:29):
has succumbed to another Frozen Tundra version for at least
three days.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
That Ghostbuster sequel, what is it? The Ice Kingdom, After Life,
Frozen Afterlife.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Frozen Kingdom. It's all.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
From Life and a couple of other things. I didn't
go great, had fendu on SNL. You guys are the
SNL stirs people. The reviews came in and people really
enjoyed it. Again, it's a it's a cast than it
has been in the past, so people want the time
to chi and you know, I don't know. It's like
(06:08):
criticizing a late night monologue on the old late night
show formats. I'm already calling them old because these people
are putting out monster stuff every single week.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
I tried a lot of flack from making fun of
Will's coming out scene in the finale of.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Uh yeah, that makes sense. It read a little on
the homophobic side.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
I didn't see it.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
I just read something, Well, there's a great Harry Potter
sketch in there.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Again. I'm look s and O, I love you I'm
a theater kid. I freaking love you. But I am
literally there every week now for the Cold Open and
Weekend Update, Weekend.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Update, Banger part and sometimes a great musical guest like
Asap Rockey. I love Weekend Update.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Actually it's it's no offense to the writing or the acting.
It's just it. I don't get it anymore. I don't
get the humor often.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Seriously, I'm not so much on the Cold Opens though,
because you know, I know there's truth in comedy. There
always has been in every civilization. We say, you know,
only the jester can stare at the king, right, but
but that the kids are into some of it, some
(07:18):
of it the cold opens. But I think that's what
Matt may be seen on the Cold Open.
Speaker 7 (07:23):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
I think we're leaning a little either, we're middling too much,
maybe about political chaos in the United States. The guy
who does the Trump impression now is one of the
best to ever do it. But you know there's other
stuff as well that you could do with a cold
app open.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Shrimp Josh Well, well, I love every single one of them,
and I watch every single one and I love them
and every single Weekend Up Date it is those are
my favorites.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Well, that's what I'm saying about middling though, like no
half measures. If you're going to go hard on the
guy in the cold open, go harder, that would be mine, right,
you know. It's funny. I was talking about my Simpsons.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
You watch of late and I just had it on
while me and my kid and friends were playing Monopoly.
Which does anyone ever finished a game of Monopoly? I
don't think that's the okay, well, good good, good on.
You didn't didn't make it, but had Simpsons on the
background and looked over and George h. W and Barbara
Bush were featured in the show, and they weren't being mocked.
(08:20):
They were just sort of like guests, you know. And
I'm like, what a charming era.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
That was, the old days of civility. Civility, That's exactly
what occurred to me.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
But you also had George, you know, Bush being mocked. Well,
which way did you say, the senior or the junior?
It was senior, you remember, That's one of the most
iconic sketches on SNL was George Bush senior like over
and over coming on and doing and yeah, it's it's
(08:52):
cool to have a show. They can do both. You
can have you know, a president or a possible president
or even a president elect and all that come on,
but also be mocked because there are crazy things that
happen in this world and to be able to process
them that way.
Speaker 6 (09:06):
It comes from a tradition too, where most presidents that
get mocked are like cool with it or like, you know, openly,
hey you got me zing, and they're not like trying
to sue the network if you could make.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
A joke and take a joke and no, like we're
talking we were talking about Saturday Night Live and know
you're talking specifically about the Simpsons. What I love about
that is the Simpsons cameos were just phenomenal, became such
a gold standard or such a platinum standard of appearances,
Like who else could get Michael Jackson, Homer Palooza, You
(09:40):
got Sonic Youth, you got the Smashing podcasts, some of
the best writers to ever do it. Conan O'Brien shout
out to the Monoail episode Treous of Horror must be said, Uh,
this has this doesn't have too much to do with
some of the It doesn.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, Frank Zappa hosted SNL and we are going to
jump to a message from Dale that regards mister Zappa.
So that's what we're going to do right now.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
I love Zappa. He's got such interesting things to say
about the state of the world.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Hi guys, this is Dale from Maryland. Been intrigued by
your Rudabake interludes over the last several years. Just curious
if you guys were aware of a Frank Zappa and
the Mothers of an invention song called call any Vegetable,
which has a bridge that speaks directly to Rude Vegas.
(10:41):
First appeared on his leave his second album called Absolutely Free,
and then was later on a live album called Just
Another Band from La You'll notice that Frank's voice is
a little higher. This was due to this He recorded
these before he fell off the stage and injured his
vocal records. It gave him a more deeper voice. You
(11:06):
also hear Flo and Eddie singing a lot of the
parts who were members of the Turtles, who you'll remember
from the song Happy Together. So anyway, just my two cents,
maybe you want to play this little section of Rude
Beaga on your show. Thanks and love the show. Been
listening for years and years. Don't even know how long,
(11:27):
so long, have a good day?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Thanks?
Speaker 5 (11:29):
By yeah?
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Thanks? Are we in a chance it? Can we hear
rudebank hear the bit?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
You guys got it. I've got it queued up. So
we've got call any Vegetable from the Mothers of Invention
absolutely free from nineteen sixty seven, eleven years before Zappa
hosted SNL for the one and only time. I believe
it's from Verb Records again. The title is called any Vegetable.
We're starting at fifty three seconds into a very short song.
(11:58):
I believe the song is only about two minutes fourteen
seconds in total. It is the very end of the
chorus going into the bridge, which is the important part
according to dale In, I think we're gonna agree, So
here we go.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
Oh God, and the chances are good.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Vegetable will respond to you.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Ruda by Rudea by Rudea by rude a bay Ruda.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
By Okay, we can't continue for a copyright reason.
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Credible, Frank, Do you mind if i'd drop a queg
Zappa quote just to show you how like ahead of
the curve he was on so many things, not to
mention rudabagas and song oh yeah yeah in an interview
as some some TV appearance, like a talk show. He
said this, talking about the religious right. You've got to
get in there and fight these guys, because the fascist
(12:59):
fundamentalistic in the United States are really a menace. They've
got a lot of money, and it's all tax exempts,
and you can't audit their books, and they virtually control
a large portion of the policymaking machinery in Washington, DC.
The way they do it it's because they can scoop
up all this money. Here's what they spend the money on.
They buy satellite time, they buy video installations, They set
(13:20):
up what they call colleges, which are basically brainwashing places
to crank out more of these little fascist agents. And
then the rest of the money, this is millions and
millions of dollars they've taken in every year, is used
as political donations for candidates who will play ball with them.
He said this in nineteen eighty six. Y'all, I'm just saying.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
The boy.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yep, it rings true, right, yeah, I mean just a
little bit.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
It just feels very prescient. And also the more things change.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Right, political landscape in the United States has been such
a weird little dance. We've been playing pretending that the
two sides are different, even though we know this from
previous experts on this show. But guys, I don't want
to get bogged down in that, do you.
Speaker 6 (14:04):
I just wanted to give Frank his due beyond his
root of Bago artistry.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Right, really love that quotational Thank.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
You, absolutely, dude, and thank you Dale for bringing that
to our attention. And uh, you know, put that in
the bank, Dylan. Maybe there's something you can do with that.
I bet there is. Let's jump to a whole different topic,
a heartwarming story coming to us from Mert. The story
is coming out of Sioux City, Iowa, and it's something
(14:31):
that maybe crossed some of our eyes because it was
a local story that became a national news story. And
let's just check it out real quick. Has to do
with the freedom of expression in public places and art.
So let's let's listen to MERT's story here.
Speaker 7 (14:46):
Hey, Matt Man Noel, my name is Mert.
Speaker 5 (14:49):
I just wanted to make sure.
Speaker 7 (14:49):
That you were aware of the manhole Michelangelo and the
sewer part of the city of Iowa. He's just a
public artist, has made public art on the ground and
they arrested him, and uh, we're trying to get his
charges draws because I mean, he's just making a beautiful
things and I just thought it was a beautiful thing
(15:10):
that you should know because he's gone from public news
to national news with the Independence and with Wall Street
journals just like shouting him out as the Bashaw okay, cool,
thanks bye.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
That was a very SmartLess bye.
Speaker 7 (15:26):
It was.
Speaker 6 (15:28):
It was thank you love a weird outsider artist getting
into trouble with the law.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Oh heck yeah, thank you so much, Mert for calling
in and making us aware of manhol Michelangelo out of.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
What work like.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Uh it is it looks like flowers to me, and
that's how it's been described often in the news. You
can check it out some of the original reporting coming
out of KTIV dot com. That's Sue Land's news source,
KTIV Channel four News. It doesn't say what it's associated
with that I don't. No, they've got several images here
(16:02):
of the multi pedaled flowers that are multi colored and
they're generally over the top of or near manholes in
public spacesh you know, look, it's nothing against brand, and
it's not like it's not a piece of art that
you might say was it would I don't know how
(16:23):
to describe this because it's I don't want to crap
on Brandon's art. It's it looks beautiful and it's nice.
It's just not as intricate as maybe some art you
would find on Instagram or someone's you know, pedaling their
art and showing you a cool video of this art.
It makes the space look nice around it. That's you know,
just broken up concrete or asphalt or something like that.
(16:44):
It's just not.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Outsider art.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yes, it wouldn't be a news story, right unless something
something else.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Happened, right, And I've been looking. I'm looking at this
as a as a fan of outsider art. Fake so much.
Big shout out to man Hold, Michelangelo, matt I, bet A,
Ben Buck. There's a reason this guy's in the news
not too too long ago.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, he's in the news because he was charged with
tagging manholes with flower graffiti. He has pleaded, oh, well,
this is weird because this is coming to us from
November thirteenth. Mert called in a while ago, and we're
just now getting to it. So apologies Mert for that,
but and to everybody else, I guess just because we're
only talking about it now, we would just want to
(17:32):
bring it to everbody's attention if you didn't hear about it,
because it is kind of an interesting First Amendment right.
And also the concept of beautifying a city in unconventional ways,
which is something we see a lot of here in Atlanta,
specifically with murals, you know, that are curated that somebody,
somebody paid a lot of money to an artist. We
(17:54):
know several artists who do incredible mural artwork in the city.
Speaker 6 (17:58):
Also to have some graffiti zones, like in the Crog
Street tunnel that anyone can do stuff and every every
so often they whitewash the whole thing over and like
start as a clean slates.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Which I'd like because it reminds me of the It
reminds me of the beautiful practice of sand paintings, you know,
the ephemerality of yes and beauty.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, absolutely, And again like making a city more interesting
into a city that has its own character that is
often eclectic, and you've you know, you've heard most small
towns and big cities have at least a contingent somewhere
that will say, like keep a Lanta weird or keep
Austin weird or you know, and name your small town.
There's a movement for that, which just means keep it
(18:39):
interesting and and unique. Right, So this kind of thing
that Brandon Bradshaw Man Old Michaelangel was doing is that
kind of thing. But he got arrested, and the people
who arrested him said, well, here's a quote from Sioux
City Police Sergeant Tom Kill. We call criminal mischief any
kind of that you don't have permission from the owner.
(19:02):
And this person did not have anyone in the city
to do this, did not ask I guess it's either
misquoted or mistyped there. And it was colorful artwork, you know,
but he didn't have permission to do it. So he
was just doing this with spray paint and it's difficult
to clean up. So it was basically like, hey, criminal mischief.
You're doing something you're not supposed to do. But then, guys,
(19:24):
there was a turn on November twenty sixth, twenty twenty five.
That's when The Independent was writing about it, and also
siueland Public Media was writing about it. And listen to this,
it says you can find the article Sioux City artist
signs agreement with the city to keep painting streets colorfully.
It's written by Alejandra Perez and it says Sioux City
(19:48):
resident Brandon Bradshaw has signed an agreement that would allow
him to continue painting flowers with permission. Is an agreement
with the City of Sioux City and the Sue Land
Chamber of com And it's pretty awesome. So all he
has to do is seek permission before painting, and generally
he's going to get permission to make these awesome flower paintings.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Awesome love to hear.
Speaker 6 (20:09):
I mean, yeah, as more corporate interests and landlords and
you know, giant property management companies swoop in and buy
things up and make things unaffordable, that kind of stuff
kind of starts to disappear, and the authentic parts of
cities start to become a thing of the past, and
(20:29):
they start to be replaced by sanctioned city art, which
can be great. Our buddy Nick Turbo Benson makes his
living doing some of these types of things that are
you know, sanctioned by the city. For example, our public
transit system Marta, had an initiative to redo one of
their main kind of hub stations, the five Point station.
(20:52):
Sadly the bottom drop out of the funding for that,
and it didn't end up happening, so a lot of
artists that were in the running for it, you know,
lost out on that opportunity. I don't know, like I'm
of two minds because on the one hand, I'm glad
to see artists, real working artists, getting to make work.
But then there's also a little bit less of an
edge and a less of like a pure creativity when
things have to go through approval processes by committee, you know,
(21:15):
and the show government entities et such.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Right, I'd also like to shout out the excellent work
of our our long suffering graphic design wizard, Pam Peacock,
the one and only who does a lot of a
lot of phenomenal street art here in Atlanta as well.
We're We're gifted mert with We're gifted with such amazing,
(21:40):
fascinating and distinct artistic voices here in our fair metropolis.
But to Nole's point, there is an argument that it
loses a little bit of something when it gets bogged
down and in licensing, when it gets bogged down and permits.
We understand why those must exist. And of course, if
(22:02):
you own personal property, you may not want somebody non
consensually putting one of my favorite tags in Atlanta history,
the goat Ravisher all over your stuff? Were you guys
around when the goat Ravisher had his heyday? That's just
just a crazy guy. Okay, forget the art, this is
more about the the What is it called when you
(22:26):
climb without ropes? Free solo? Free solo. There's a guy
is basically free soloing at some of the most difficult,
inaccessible public public places. Yeah, of the city. And he
didn't bother with typical graffiti aesthetic once he got wherever
he was. If he's like hanging upside down a few
stories up or something, he would just with black spray
(22:47):
paint in regular block letters. Right, the goat Ravisher or
the goat Ravisher strikes again. I love this Gats. We
also have a great outside of goats. Yeah yeah, hijr kids,
Hija goats. We also have nailed him. A person you
may like, you're doubtlessly aware of a few hours north
(23:11):
of Atlanta is legendary Howard Finster. Another outside artist garden.
Yeah yeah, oh, it's a great place to visit if
you're talking heads album covers of notes. Oh, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well, as we have seen here with the story of
Brendan Bradshaw, if you do want to create some kind
of public art like that that isn't necessarily sanctioned or
paid for by, you know, somebody who wants you to
put it on their building or something, maybe you can
just talk to the Chamber of Commerce and see if
they'll let you make some cool art. It's at least
one way to go about it if you don't want
(23:46):
to be so out. But again, it's just awesome that
he can continue doing that and he is going to
continue doing that. So thank you so much, Mert. Thank
you again, Dale. We will be right back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
And we have returned with another message from ESU. In
this case we are talking about uej W writing to
us about a recent bill that was passed in Canada
that may be of particular interest to those looking for
some exit strategies here from our fair country of the
(24:27):
US of A. Hey, guys, EJW writes, are you all
familiar with the recent C three passed in Canada? On
June fifth, twenty twenty five, the government introduced Bill C three,
an act to amend the Citizenship Act to extend citizenship
by dissent beyond the first generation in a way that
(24:48):
is more inclusive and protects the value of Canadian citizenship.
The bill received royal assent on November.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
This is a very.
Speaker 6 (24:56):
Interesting parliamentary procedure in Canada. Don't know about royal assent
to look that one up on November twentieth, twenty twenty five,
and came into effect on December fifteenth, twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
That means the IRCC had to look this up real
quick online.
Speaker 6 (25:09):
That is the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which is
the governmental agency that oversees matters pertaining to immigration and citizenship, refugees,
Canadian citizenship, all of that type of stuff. That means
the IRCC now recognizes new eligible citizens and is applying
the new rules for passing citizenship on going forward. This
(25:32):
doesn't seem like a lot of fanfare, but it's huge.
Do you at any point have an ancestor who was
born in Canada, then congratulations friend. As of fifteen December
twenty twenty five, you are now officially Canadian. Might be
oversimplifying just to touch I think there's definitely some processes
you still got to go through.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
But it is a big deal, and that was me
editorializing there. Oh it's a huge deal. EJW. This is great.
It can't be understated.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
I agree, wrapping up their email. I'm actually writing this
sitting outside a local city hall to inquire about birth certificates.
As Ben says, history is closer than it looks in
the rearview mirror, to apply for my citizenship certificate, partially
for personal reasons I'm the only one in my house
without a Canadian passport, but also with sh TF here
(26:19):
as a backup plan, doing a cursory Google love that acronym,
and there you go.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
That's exactly thank you, Matt. I'm a big ding dong.
I thought it was another Canadian agency.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
I think that's what we talked about at the top,
looking for exit strategies, right, like, yes, SHTF got it.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Things go in foo bar.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
As they say, uh, looking for a backup plan, exit strategy, etc.
And we're listening to just this episode on the way here.
Could it be the timing of this bill is to
try and bring some of the man this fellow loves
an acronym canis diaspora back home.
Speaker 7 (26:56):
Ben.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
I think you might have an idea of what he's
referred to there. Yeah, Cato in US kind of a
portmanteau of just Canadian US people who have emigrated or
moved abroad and you know, formed communities or new lives
in other countries. Got it?
Speaker 2 (27:14):
So it does?
Speaker 6 (27:14):
It does seem like the timing is very interesting, CJW.
EJW rather posits Probably not, but it is an interesting coincidence.
I might argue there are no coincidences, but of course
there are sometimes.
Speaker 3 (27:28):
Thanks for all you'll do.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
You're pretty much my full time road companions, along with
Josh and Chuck and old Robert Evans. In such great
company here, thanks, EJW. And I feel like we need
more of the critical thinking you promote in society. Feel
free to reply, use on air, et cetera. Best EJW.
What do you think you'all? This seems like the antithesis
to what we're seeing with a lot of immigration policies,
which is to lock things down and exclude rather than
(27:53):
include what it is.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Just Canadian born folks right that it's affecting or somebody
within the line that was Canadian.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Is someone who has who has descended from or has
a recent ancestor of Canadian heritage. EJW. Thank you for
Thank you so much. Hope you staying war and safe
in Canada. We've got we've got a lot of a
lot of interesting threads to pull here, to connect Pepe
(28:22):
Sylvia style. Because Noel, you and I were talking on
a fair little bit about how this harkens back to
it leaves a little bit closer to something like Ireland's
longstanding immigration or citizenship policy. You can prove, you know
that you have a grandparent who was born in the
Old Country, then it's much easier for you to acquire
(28:45):
citizenship in Ireland. And it's also interesting EJW. As you
doubtlessly know, given that there has been of late, there's
been a strong anti immigration push in certain demographics in Canada,
and part of that is due to controversies surrounding the
(29:06):
usage of some types of vises, and another part of
that is, you know, a natural outgrowth of the fear
that comes when an economy tanks and housing becomes unaffordable
and so on. But overall, for now, this seems like
a very promising, very positive move, especially because a lot
of people in the US have no idea how difficult
(29:28):
it is to really start a life in a different
country well for sure.
Speaker 6 (29:33):
And also lest you fall into the category that I
was once a member of, where you think of our
neighbors to the north as just all you know, gentle
sunshine and rainbows, you.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Know, potheads or something.
Speaker 6 (29:46):
There's definitely some Canada for Canadians mentality over there as well.
There's certainly a string of racism and isolationism and that
kind of othering over there. No one is immune to
this kind of thing, is what I'm getting at. Let's
just go through a couple of points from Canada dot
ca A. I believe that's the official website of Canada
(30:07):
that talks a little bit about what this means. It
says here the IRCC now recognizes new eligible citizens and
is applying the new rules for passing citizenship on going
forward with the coming into effect of this bill, People
who automatically became Canadian citizens under the new law can
apply to get proof of Canadian citizenship.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
People adopted abroad.
Speaker 6 (30:24):
Before December fifteenth, twenty twenty five by a Canadian parent,
born or adopted a broad can apply for Canadian citizenship
for an adopted child. People born or adopted abroad honor
after December fifteenth to Canadian parent also born or adopted
abroad must demonstrate their Canadian parent has spent three years
in Canada when applying for proof Canadian citizenship and applying
for Canadian citizenship for an adopted child. People born before
(30:45):
September fifteenth who automatically became Canadian citizens under the new
law and were not previously granted citizenship and who now
want to give up renounce Canadian citizenship can apply through
a simplified renunciation process, and then they refer to the
term lost Canadians, which I think is interesting, which is
a term referring to people who lost or never obtained
(31:06):
citizenship because of certain outdated rules in earlier citizenship laws.
Reading from this page on the Canada site. Most cases
were resolved through legislative changes in twenty nine and twenty fifteen,
which restored or gave citizenship to about twenty thousand people. However,
some people remained excluded, including Section eight Lost Canadians and
(31:28):
descendants of Lost Canadians. Bill C three extends access to
citizenship to these remaining lost Canadians, their descendants, and those
born abroad to or adopted abroad by a Canadian parent
in the second or later generation before the new law
came into effect.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
I yield. We should keep in mind, folks, this is
a big positive step forward. Typically this is also going
to include some coveats that are treated as givens, like
you can't be a war criminal, you can't have committed
serious felonies in your current country of residents. Right, just
(32:06):
needs to be said.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Aloud, Well, that's awesome, EJW. We wish you the best
when it comes to gaining that citizenship and passport that
you were looking for.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Yeah, no, one hundred percent.
Speaker 6 (32:18):
And I think this set segment would stay a little
on the shorter side, but I thought this was a
great piece of correspondence and people ought to know that
this is something you might want to look into. Maybe
check out that ancestry dot com account again, if you
haven't looked at it in a hot minute. We'll take
a quick break now and then be back with more
messages from you.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
And we have returned. I'm gonna do something a little
bit different here, and I'm hoping we can we can
discuss something that might get people's dander up a little bit.
Uh political converse or geopolitical conversation inspired by none other
(33:03):
than our returning guest, Give it up for folks, brocknest Monster.
This is something we wanted to discuss in depth, maybe
in an episode. But here's what you wrote to us.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
Brock.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
You said, so Trump, meaning Donald Trump, the current US president,
wants nations to pay one billion US dollars to join
his peace board? Is it one enormous country club? Does
Donald Trump want to turn Earth into Mara Lago? Brock?
And then Brock, you, first off, thank you always an
(33:39):
excellent writer. To us. Brock, you include an article from
Reuters on January eighteenth, twenty twenty six, before we dive
into it. I believe we've all heard about this peace
board pitch. Is that correct? I did hear?
Speaker 6 (33:55):
The headline that I read was that Trump was inviting
Putin to join?
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yes? Yeah, And I mean if you study truth and
reconciliation stuff throughout most modern history yet that at some
point people who are former enemies do have to find
some way for dialogue. And sheesh. We all know that
current world governments have tried with things like the League
(34:22):
of Nations, the United Nations, the G seven, the G eight,
the G whatever. They just kept adding numbers, right, even
NATO to an extent, Even NATO to an extent, required
some European countries to put aside deep historical beefs and
differences in the idea of securing better chances for continental peace. Right,
(34:47):
And it was also entirely still those folks say, hey, hey,
we know we don't always get alog and sorry about
those many bloody wars throughout those very centuries, but we
can bond because we don't like Russia. Right, So our
dislike and fear of that place is bigger than our
(35:10):
dislike and fear of each other, which how a lot
of stuff happens. So this Board of Peace is not
is not inherently a bad thing if it's what if
it's what it's supposed to be or what it's being
pitched as. But a lot of people have a problem
with this because because of some of the nations that
(35:33):
are joining, and because of the statements requiring a price tag,
a literal price tag. You don't have to necessarily pay
to be recognized as a country by the United Nations,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Yeah, wasn't this something directly tied to Gaza when it
was first pitched and it's like has a wider scope.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Now, Yeah, the board was The Board of Peace was
originally pitched as helping end the two year war between
Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and it was advertised as
an institution that would oversee reconstruction. So, as we record,
(36:16):
on Wednesday, January twenty first, a bunch of countries in
the area have agreed to join the Board of Peace.
I'm not sure how much each has individually paid, but
so far the breaking news is Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia,
(36:37):
Pakistan and cutter have recently joined. The other nations have
agreed to joiner Bahrain, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belodous, Hungary, Kazakhstan,
Morocco and Vietnam.
Speaker 6 (36:50):
So more a ministry of truth kind of situation. It's
like the opposite is actually what it means.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, it's I don't know. It's strange he invited or
the administration invited the Vatican as well. But this is
my question for you guys. Do we trust it? Is
it like a good idea coming from a person that
a lot of people don't like, or is it a grift?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
I remember the initial press release the White House put
out about it, and they included Jared Kushner and Steve
Whitkoff and Marco Rubio and a bunch of people that
you know are they're very poly charged within the current administration.
These folks got a lot of connections. And then the
fact that the current standing President of the United States
(37:40):
would be the the chair.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Right, Yeah, let's go to as you know saying this
for years, I was I always like to. I think
we all always like to go to the board, right,
see who's in charge of a new initiative or a
mysterious institution. The Board of Peace executive board includes some
(38:04):
of the names you just mentioned, Matt, not just Marco Rubio,
Jared Kushner, Steve vik Koff or Wit Coffee's accents coming
out us special Envoy, but also some old hits like
Tody Blair, the UK Prime Minister back in the day,
the CEO of an equity firm called Apollo Global Management,
(38:24):
guy named Mark Rowan might be worth looking into. And
the President of the World Bank, aj Benga. So everybody
check out our World Bank episode. Oh NJ Banga. It's
like a DJ name. It's a pretty cool name. We
could say that we know.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
The World Bank has a little hand in the whole
peace war thing that goes on in this world.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Yeah yeah, I m F and Robert Gabriel the last
one for now US National Security Advisors. It's very much
a US production. The headline about the bill dollar thing
brockness is that once states formally formally agree to be
(39:08):
bound by the Charter, the member states are going to
get three year renewable terms. But if you want a
permanency kind of like on the UN Security Council that level,
that's when you start contributing one billion US dollars. And
I'm trying so hard not to doctor evil at that one.
Speaker 6 (39:29):
But you know what these are like, these are like
dues or like when what's the structure for these payments?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Pay to play? You know? That's the term that was
coming from footing around in my head very much. So
we're sharing that because I don't know where it goes.
And I have this I keep having. I strive to
be objective in all things, but I keep returning to
this onion article that or onion headline. I should say
(39:58):
that I read a while back, but it was the
headline was something like devastating a guy you hate just
made a good point. And I know a lot of
us have have always struggled, you know, with someone you
dislike raising a valid point. And the question is should
we give the Board of Peace a chance or should
(40:19):
we just assume, based on precedent that it's going to
be another controversial, halfway thought out grab for power or
financial blood and treasure. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
I learned a long time ago that we should always
give peace a chance, board a chance.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah, And this so this is something we want your
opinions on, folks. We want to hear whether this is
that I mean a lot of people are also saying, hey,
this is just another distracting bread and circus kind of thing.
This is a headline leech that will take away from
(41:01):
the failures to disclose the Epstein files, the ongoing allegations
of heavy Russian influence in US policy, which we're pretty
sure are true. There's a lot of sand to it.
We can't wait to hear your thoughts before we head
off into the hinterlands and activitgates. We wanted to share
(41:25):
some letters from home, and these I hope stood out
to all of us, and we hope they stand out
to you. The first is a response from Chai, who
is writing to us regarding our episode about intuition being
gut feelings from the future. I think we all had
a part of a time on that one in a
(41:45):
good way. Okay, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Exactly how I would put it.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
So, Hi, Ben, Matt, and Noel, says Chai. I've been
listening to your podcast for years, and I really appreciate
the caring curiosity you bring to each topic. Your episode
on intuition was especially interesting and got me thinking. When
you talked about intuition maybe no longer being as strongly
tied to survival, using the example of choosing a path
(42:13):
in a park, I felt there was a perspective missing
that might add an extra layer of depth. For many women,
intuition is still very directly connected to survival. Any woman
who has walked home alone in the dark knows that
going with your gut is often about safety, not convenience.
To examples that come to mind, the instinct to change roots,
(42:35):
avoid certain places, or stay close to other people based
on subtle environmental cues. The immediate, sometimes hard to explain,
sense that a situation or person is unsafe, even when
nothing is outwardly wrong. These are forms of intuition that
are deeply practical and still rooted in survival mechanisms. They're
(42:56):
shaped by lived experience, and they show how intuition can
operate differently depending on social context and vulnerability. And then
I think, right, it's safe to say, guys, we all
completely agree with this. Right, we have loved ones who
have told us similar things.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Yeah, none of us that have had that distinct experience, right,
but right, we can we can understand to some extent
from stories told to us.
Speaker 6 (43:26):
I was semi mugged one time in a very empty
subway station in New York, and it was one of
those things where like before I even saw the person,
I felt a way like coming behind me. And luckily
I was with a friend who is a very large man,
who walked up and sort of caused the person to flee.
(43:48):
But I did get a feeling like environmental tingling, you
know something and obviously for women, very different, something that
you much more have to be attuned to on a
regular basis.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
But this, this situation very much rattled me, and for
a while I've felt a certain way being out in
the world, you know, and that's a way that you're
almost a sense memory that you can that kind of
comes back, and the experiences that you're describing here, Chai,
the reason I think these are invaluable for all of
(44:20):
us in the audience tonight is because this is a
perspective that we three dudes do not experientially possess. Right,
we have had as you were saying, that we've all
had similar experiences. But given given the fact that so
(44:42):
many women or non binary people are forced to live
life a constant level of survival mode, there's a lot
of sand and there's a very crucial perspective to what
you're saying here, Chai. You continue, you say, there's also
a lot of discussion around whether women tend to develop
strongnger intuitive skills and how that might relate to heightened
(45:03):
social awareness, pattern recognition, or long standing survival strategies. I
think exploring that angle could be a really fascinating addition
to the conversation. Fully agreed, and you continue, try to
paraphrase a little bit he said, thank you again for
the amazing work you do. Your podcast has been a
(45:23):
companion to be for a long time. Not criticism, but
an invitation a female perspective on intuition could open a richer,
more layered understanding of what intuition really is and how
it functions today. And I think that's awesome. Thank you
so much for taking the time to write to us.
We love to hear those perspectives. We love different perspectives.
(45:47):
We hang out with each other on this show constantly.
I think as a result, right, we tend to get
familiar and normalized with certain things book toy of course, Chai,
as you know, Gavin de Becker's Gift of Fear. But
it'd be great to hear other people's perspectives and experiences
(46:09):
from different parts of the world, from different demographics, different
age ranges. You know, the experience of a fourteen year
old in the Upper West Side of Manhattan is going
to be way different from the experience of a kid
in Namibia, you know, or a kid in Malaysia for sure.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Guys, I just watched my son get his red black
belt and it just, you know, it makes me wonder
if it's a if it's like a false thing, the
concept of training in martial arts or something. It would
make you feel less afraid or makes you more in
danger because you feel confident right that you know, martial
arts are something when you encounter a situation no, like
you're talking about where you're potentially in danger by somebody
(46:54):
who potentially has a weapon, that those skills and that
knowledge isn't going to help you at all.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
You're saying it might make you be more of a
risk taker because I feel confidence. Well, I this is silly,
you could handle it. I'm just curious.
Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, yeah, this is kind of silly. I just rewatched
the original Karate Kid with my kids, who are both
taking taekwondo right now. And one of one of the
big things that mister Miyagi says there is I think
pretty prescient. He said, you can't you can't kind of
do martial arts either don't you have no martial arts
(47:28):
training and understanding, or you are very good at it
and you've trained a lot and you it's a mindset
more than anything else, because if you're somewhere in the middle,
you're gonna get hurt really badly or killed.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
That's yeah, I agree, that's pressing, and I think that's
that's where you're talking about. Part of it is the
learning curve, you know what I mean? Yeah, I know
how to do a few roundhouse kicks. Let me go
have a problem at the Chili's down the street. That's
not the way to do it. Well, that's also antithetical
to the whole philosophy exactly martial arts. And the more
you learn, the less likely you are to engage in
(48:01):
a physical altercation.
Speaker 2 (48:03):
Well yeah, and just the idea if you encounter a
situation like that and theoretically you could defend yourself or
somebody else like is that. I think overall it's a
better thing to have, but I don't know. It does
make me nervous.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
To be prepared is always better. And the folks who
are quite adept at martial arts will, of course are
your preparation is key. And they'll also tell you always
avoid to fight. You've kind of lost a fight if
a fight occurs, just because you didn't remove yourself from
(48:38):
the situation. And there's there's great wisdom to that. Don't
let your look in a lot of street fights, for
anybody's seen them, vent in them we realize immediately. We
don't think about it until in retrospect. But the person
starting a fight is often not starting to fight with
(49:01):
one person, starting to fight with two people there's the
guy outside, there's the guy in their head, their ego,
who is like, oh yeah, this missed big swings back
in town, baby, that guy bumped into you, he spilled
something on his shoes, and that's a very That's what
we would call an opportunity to learn.
Speaker 6 (49:21):
Yeah, to look inward. And so much of martial arts
is as a mindset, like you were saying that, And
if I'm not mistaken, I think it's Judo focuses largely
on just redirecting the energy of your opponent. So it's
not even about attacking. It's about focusing an.
Speaker 3 (49:38):
Attack on you in a way that you know puts
you out of harm's way and kind of honing in
on your opponent's weaknesses in order to miss to redirect
their energy in a way that sort of disarms them.
And Chai, we don't mean to get off topic here
too much. We don't want to lose the plot. This
(49:59):
person that you're providing is not just important, it is
mission critical. The ideal world is what a world in
which anybody, regardless of their identity, can walk without fear
of being harmed. We're going to have a one more
letter from home about the value of other perspectives from
(50:23):
around the world from different people. Like our pal Mike
Render says, hang out with people you wouldn't usually hang
out with, know what their worldview is like. That's how
we connect as in this crazy group project called Humanity,
this long form, non consensual limbrov game called Life. Before
(50:44):
we get to this very valuable correspondence that also speaks
to the conversational that we were having with EJW, we
are going to pause our listener mail segment for an
update on something we discussed previously in Strange News.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
Yeah, sorry, Jomin like this, guys don't want to interrupt
the flow of the important stuff. I'm just jumping in
to say. We talked on this week's Strange News about
Congressman Rocanna and Thomas Massey, who wrote a letter to
Federal Court Judge Paul Engelmeyer asking for a special Master
and independent monitor to quote compel the Department of Justice
(51:19):
to make mandatory production under the Act that is, of course,
the Epstein Act to release the Epstein files. It was
just reported by ABC News as we're recording today, the
same day we recorded that Strange News episode that the
judge has declined to appoint a special master to oversee
the release. That is all back to the show.
Speaker 3 (51:39):
Meaning that things are the same. Basically, there's no there's no.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
The judge just said no, it's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (51:48):
That it got it got shut down, but the mission continues. Yes,
And with that update, we're returning to our last, our
last piece of correspondence for program this evening. This is
from none other than Zach Squatch. Love a pun Zack Squatch,
and thank you for the pun. Because there is no
humor like Allo's humor. There is no whistle like a
(52:10):
graveyard whistle. You bring up an important point that calls
back to back to our conversation here and calls forward
to an episode we're going to do in the future. Hi, Gangle.
While back, I emailed you with the theory I had
that American LGBTQ plus people may soon end up seeking
asylum in other countries as the US government makes it
(52:32):
increasingly dangerous for them to live in their home country.
I don't think my theory ended up on air on
your show, but today I came across an article in
the Guardian which unfortunately proved my theory to be correct,
and you link us to that article fear abuse and
eroding rights and forced many trans people to leave the
(52:54):
United States. Can they claim asylum in the Netherlands and
the Guardian goes on to talk about transgender refugees fleeing
the US and just reading this man is worrisome. You know,
we talked about the Great brain Drain, and we talked
about you know, people aspirationally saying they're going to leave
(53:17):
the US regardless of who wins the election. By the way,
no matter who gets voted in for the office of president,
there's always some contingent of people who say they're going
to leave, right they're going to go to Canada or
in cert country here. But the the stuff that's happening
with LGBTQ plus people is pretty terrifying right now. So
(53:42):
Zach Squatch wanted us to share a message with all
of our fellow listeners in that community or allies saying,
please wish my LGBTQ plus ken in the United States safety,
health and happiness wherever they end up being here in
the UK, it's currently horrifying anytime something pops up in
the news regarding your country. We know, Zach Squatch, we know,
(54:06):
hope you all are safe out there and taking care
of each other. It may be a good time to
repost that episode on bug out Bags. Now we all
have friends in these communities. Have you, guys, heard of
anybody seriously talking about trying to move or leave the
country or what? Have you been hearing a couple.
Speaker 6 (54:27):
Of high profile celebs have done it. I want to say,
Rosio Nah moved to Ireland, and there was a couple
of other ones that I remember, But no, I don't
know anybody personally, but I'm sure that number could increase.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
Yes, the show, we know a few people personally who
have left for that very reason for concern over children
actually specifically because yeah, because of both real and perceived
you know, like the sense of persecution in that way or.
Speaker 3 (55:03):
Yeah, or something in the wind right, potential stuff on
the horizon, And we want to we want to hear
your experiences with this kind of stuff as well, folks,
because again, as we'll see in an upcoming episode, it
is incredibly difficult to leave any country and start a
(55:24):
new life somewhere else. So we want to we want
to hear your plans. We hope you tune into that
episode and where we hope wherever you are this program
finds you safe. We're all in it together. And since
we're all in it together, let's be pen pals. Find
us online, call us on the phone, send us an email.
(55:45):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 6 (55:46):
You can definitely find us online if you wish, if
the hamlic conspiracy stuff or conspiracy stuff show, depending on
your platform of choice. You can also give us a
telephone call.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
Our number is one eight to three three st d
wyt K. Turn the letters into numbers. Give it a call.
It's a voicemail system. You've got three minutes. Give yourself
a cool nickname and let us know if we can
use your name. End message on the air. If you'd
like to send us an email, you can do that too.
We are the.
Speaker 3 (56:12):
Entities that read each piece of correspondence we receive. Be
well aware, yet out afraid. Sometimes the voider writes back,
and maybe writing to you right now, seriously. One of
the best ways to contact us. Send the links, send
the images, send the random facts and get one in return.
We're hanging out there twenty four hours in the evening,
(56:32):
seven nights a week because we don't respect the sun.
And before you do any of that, before you call us,
before you find us, online before you send us fantastic
emails and correspondents. Hi the to Netflix, which is a
fancy way of saying, get over to Netflix. We're doing
this show. We're doing this thing on Netflix. We hope
(56:53):
you enjoy it. We need your help. Give us a
thumbs up, give us a double thumbs up. This listener
mail again is published in the very end of January,
which means that you have several episodes of Stuff they
Don't Want You to Know to watch on Netflix right now.
Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 2 (57:28):
Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production
of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know News
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Matt Frederick
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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