December 17, 2025 • 24 mins
In this conversation, Karol Markowicz sits down with writer and commentator John Hawkins to discuss the evolution of blogging, political discourse, and cultural commentary in the digital age. Hawkins shares insights into his newest project, Culturcidal, a platform designed to move beyond clickbait and offer meaningful perspectives on culture, self-help, and personal growth.
Karol and John explore the challenges of forming real friendships in an increasingly online world, why people struggle to reach out, and how technology has reshaped human connection. Hawkins reflects on career decisions, lessons learned from working with a life coach, and how intentional action can change personal and professional outcomes.
Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is John Hawkins from culturecitle dot com. Hi, John,
so nice to have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It is so good to see you. I have not
seen you for gosh, It's probably been a decade since
the last time I saw the two of us got
together in person. So so great to see.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
You, So good to see you too, too long for sure.
But we do go way back. We are old timey
blogger friends. Your blog was called right Wing News and
it was one of the biggest blogs in the world
in our blogging time. How did you get into that?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, I had always wanted to write, and I got
so angry and that during the election with al Gore
and Bush when they were saying because I was just
I wasn't in politics, and I'm sitting there watching and
they're saying, I think it was I think I saw
it on CNN or c SPAN where something came across
as one was like Bush concede and It's like, what
this is ridiculous. Somebody needs to start a site. So
(01:04):
I started a site that got me going and we
kind of went from there.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, that was my radicalizing moment also the two thousand election.
Like I always was a conservative and I kind of
like watched politics in the background. But the two thousand election,
I was like, they are trying to steal this election,
and that was it. I sought out Republicans in New
York City. I started going to Republican events. That was
the moment where I was like, oh, I have to
(01:29):
get more involved in this because clearly bad things are happening.
So you start writing news, how does it take off?
Do do you have like a moment where you remember
a large number of people started reading you.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, there's really two levels of taking off. The first
level of taking off as a blog it did pretty well,
in fact, at one point, and this very few people
know this, but Ben Shapiro reached out to me and
he suggested that me him Kurt slicked her and I
forget the last person she was on Fox Yeah, that
we all get together and run right wing news. And
(02:04):
I didn't take him up on it. But now it's like, man,
maybe that could have been the Daily Wire. Now I
don't know if I would have done better because it
would have been split four ways. So I did pretty
much the right wing news. So it's like what I
of course, on the other hand, you know, when you're
talking about paying Steven Crowder eighty million dollars or whatever
it was, they must be doing really, really well. But yeah,
so that was that. But the thing that really kicked
(02:26):
me off was Facebook because we were one of the
first Facebook plages to take off. There were some other
ones out there, but people hadn't heard of them. So
right wing News everybody kind of knew the name, and
once we got on Facebook and exploded, Man, we just
took off like a like a nuclear bomb.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So your news site is culture Sitle. What is that
all about?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Culture Sitle. It's not a news site. I'm writing about
the culture. I'm doing columns, long form essays, that kind
of thing, culture self help, a little bit of politics
in there too. But I wanted to do something. It
feels like everybody is doing click bait and rage bait
and right I did some of that back in the
day when I ran away we use and I don't
(03:09):
want to do it anymore. I don't think it's healthy.
I mean, look where it's gone. You've got Candice Owen's
just running around making up stuff. She's running soap operas,
with real people.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
She's just maybe watching I mean people. It's very hard
to turn off the soap opera. It's a soap opera
meets like a train wreck, so it's it's really got
a lot going on that I understand why people can't
tear themselves away.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But eventually that ends in lawsuits and destruction because she's
making up stuff about real people, and you know, it's
not like soap opera characters, you know, like I like
the male example of a soap opera I used to
love was Buffy the Vampire Slayer because that's really kind
of a It's it's like an action pack thing and
there's vampires and this season she hates this guy and
(03:51):
this season she's making out with the vampire and did
da da, Well she's doing that except as with real people,
and it's gonna blow up on her so big and
it's going to destroyer eventually. But you know, it makes
me sad that that's where people are going and where
the whole thing is. I think it's really awful and
I didn't want to be a part of that, And
I also wanted to do something I think that maybe
(04:12):
had some value because I don't think any of that
stuff has any value. So I want to write about
the culture and what's going on with conservatism, economics, Yeah,
and a lot of that kind of thing self help stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I love that actually. So you wrote a book which
I read a few years ago, one hundred and one Things.
I thought you read it should Know? Yeah, I quoted
it in a column for the New York Post at
one point. I remember, I think, I don't remember what
it was about, but I remember disagreeing with you on
something about in the book, which you know it happens, John,
We can disagree sometimes hurtfull k. So what was that
(04:48):
book all about? And what made you write a book
about what young adults should know?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well as one hundred and one Things all young adults
should Know? It was top fifty and self help for
a while. It did pretty well, slowed down since then,
but I wanted to it was you know, I've tried
a lot of different stuff, but I wrote one of
those articles about things advice for young people that did
incredibly well, and I thought, you know what, I love
to do lists, This would make a great book. And
(05:17):
I think there's so much stuff in there that's useful,
because yeah, some things change over time. So you know,
there was no AI when I wrote the book, for example,
none that was available to the public. But so much
of it's timeless, so much of it does not change
from generation to generation. That book was written, I think
in twenty seventeen or released then. Everything in it, there's
not one thing that's kind of fallen out of favor.
(05:40):
I mean, they're all still relevant today. So I thought,
if you could write something that actually helps a lot
of people get ahead, I always felt like it you
could take a twenty year old kid, give them that book,
and they know everything they should know by forty and
I mean for me, and I think you know in
your own life too. It's you learn so many things
when you're older. You know, what's that old saying if
(06:01):
youth knew, an age could. Yeah, So that's what I
wanted to try to do for people.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I love that. Did you hear from many young people
who were affected by it?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, there's a lot of people. I've had people reach out,
have me give advice to them over that. I've had
people send their nephews and you know, kids over to
me for it, And a lot of people did like it.
So the book did really well. I was really happy
with it. I've really just got to work on a
follow up. I've written like a much shorter I've written well,
I did want it. It was a Kendle short, and
(06:30):
I was like, no, should I pat this into a
book or not? I didn't feel like I needed to,
So I keep going back and forth on that before
I release it. But yeah, so I really need to
get back to cranking those things out.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So this show that you're on right now has an
advice component to it, and people write into me, and
I sometimes I answer their questions. The number one question
that I get from people of all ages is how
do I make friends? I mean it's older people, younger people.
(07:01):
It's people writing in for their young kids and people
writing in for their post college kids saying how do
I make friends? Did you have like a theme like
that where you think people are seeking your advice about
something in particular? That the friendship thing really shakes me
because I think we've gotten to a place where people
just don't know how to do it anymore. It's it's
literally something that they used to be so natural, and
(07:23):
now people just forgot how to.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And I understand their pain because I remember before the Internet,
people got together in personal lot more. And then when
the Internet just started, man, I met all kinds of people.
The Internet was like an extension of the real world.
So I would meet really cool people on Messenger or
some chat and then we'd meet in real life at
some convention and we'd be friends. And like a lot
(07:48):
of people who follow me on Twitter that I know
today who are big in a conservative movement, like I
met them first online and then I met them in person.
But I think that's the key thing is you've really
got to get out of your house. And I think
that's part of the hard thing because there's so much
there's so much cool stuff in your house now. I mean,
you can sit there and I have spent I don't
(08:11):
know how many hours over the last few weeks playing
with grocs. Imagine just working on that and trying different
commands and the AI and seeing what it can do.
And you know, you've got billion, billion, one hundred million
dollar movies going on, you've got games, you've got everything.
But you've got to go out and you got to
talk to people, and you just got to start doing that.
I Mean, one thing I do in my area is
(08:31):
I run a Meetup, like, I actually created a meetup
so that I could meet people in that space. Yeah,
so that that's not, of course Meetup's dying. I know
that that's meet up the website. You're literally, oh my gosh,
you're still using meetup. That's unbelievable. Well, there you go.
Well they were doing great till they raised the rates
and suddenly everybody started dropping off. But I mean I
(08:53):
created one of those. A bunch of people get together
for dinner. We've got a group where we're the biggest
one in the area. We've got something like four hundred
fifty members, although not them they show up, but we
all get together and you meet people that way, and
you just but I mean, really that's part of it.
You just got to go through the churn. And you know,
you're from New York and Florida. I mean, you're a
very sociable person. You know lots of people, and that
(09:14):
I'm sure you would say the same thing or something similar.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, I do say the same or something similar. But
I also acknowledge that it has gotten a lot harder.
I'm coming up on four years living in Florida, and
I've made friends, but not that many, and I am
much more of a homebody as I get older. And
the thing is, you already have your friends, right like
I have the people that I like would turn to
(09:39):
if something was wrong or when something good happens to me.
So it gets a lot harder to meet sort of
what I call the situational friends, like your neighbors or
you know friends, your kids, friends' parents, or that kind
of thing that gets tougher. So I understand why people
are struggling. I think in your one hundred and one
(10:00):
rules for kids or for young adults, I just wonder
if you had a component of friendship. I know it's
from a few years ago now, but was there something
on that well.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I think the first thing that comes to mind was
you've got to be the one that asks. You've got
to be the one that reaches out. You've got to
be the one that goes to the thing, because I mean,
I'll tell you one mistake I made my life coming
up is I had these friends, and I had a
good group of friends, but a lot of times I
would be the one who would call them first or
reach out to them first, and then it was like
(10:31):
they should be reaching out to me, and then you
stop and then they're like, oh, he doesn't like me
anymore and they quit talking to you. And I have
lost friends for that reason, and it's very hard to
get those back once those relationships break. So don't be
afraid to reach out first, to go talk to people,
to be the one who talks to everybody around you,
and I think that will help you a lot. There's
(10:53):
no easy solution to it, especially once you get out
of something like high school and college when you're not
surrounded similar people all the time. And like for me,
it's doubly difficult because I work from home. I did
what I want, when I want, with who I want,
so I don't have to you know, I'm not necessarily
out at a job where I might make ten buddies there,
and you're probably a lot in the same way exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, So what would you have done if the writing
thing hadn't worked out? Did you have a plan?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Be? Well, I had a whole bunch of things I
considered when I was young. I actually did a stand
up comedy set in college. I invited like thirty people
overs really really profane and dirty in retrospect, but really yes,
it was really filthy. I was revery I love Sam Kennison,
so if you've ever heard Sam Kennison's bits, which are
still good, by the way, all this time later. But
(11:42):
so I did those. I thought about being a lawyer.
I thought about going into politics. I think if Right
Wing News would have flopped, I had made enough of
a name for myself, I could have gone to work
being like a working for a think tank or working
as an AID or something. I didn't want to do
that because I hate working for other people. I mean,
I can endure it, but it has The last person
(12:03):
I worked for was Dan Bongino, and I chose to
work for him and reached out to him and all
that stuff, but like a normal person where it's like
a regular boss who I'm sitting here thinking, Wow, this
guy is so stupid, and I can't do that anymore.
I mean maybe I always had trouble doing it. So
why I created my own business in the first place. Yeah,
so that it would have probably been something in politics
(12:23):
as an aid or working for a think tank. Lawyer, yeah,
no knowing. But I did seriously consider going back to school,
getting a master's and going into counseling. So I thought
about that, but I did not want to spend the
years in school then have to spend a year under
someone's thumb before I could start my own practice. Right,
(12:44):
I'm pretty sure I could have done really well doing that.
I'm also I'm probably a little raw for the twenty
year olds who.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Are that's what they need though they well, they do.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
They need that, they don't need anymore. Yes, you're doing
so good. It's so great that you. I do though,
one thing I have done that not everybody does. But
I've had a life coach for a decade and I
talked to her once a quarter and we discussed different
things and we were talking about that. She's like, you
would be great at it, but you would it would
drive you crazy because half the people it's like, uh, okay,
(13:15):
this is the sixth week in a row, have told
you if you want to get your goals, you got
to stop looking at the TV all day. You know
what I'm saying, Like, I don't have patience for that.
It's like not, I mean, I like people who are
trying to do something and you want to help people,
but also at some point most of the time, it's like,
if you want to know why most people fail, you me,
all of us or whoever it's because of them, you
(13:36):
can go look in the mirror and see exactly why
it is. And you're not putting in the effort like
most people will tell I'm working so hard. It's like
not really, no, you're not. You're really not working. I
know what working hard. I mean. I put in seventy
hour eighty hour weeks at one point. I know what
working hard is. Most people are not working hard, and
that's why they don't cut it. And people don't want
to hear that. Everybody wants to here, Yeah, you're doing
so good. It's so great that you worked, you know,
(13:58):
thirty hours this week. It's not so great. Go work.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Does your life coach tell you work harder? And that
is that shit?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Doesn't have to tell me to work all right?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So I'm fascinated by this. I've never I don't think
i've ever heard anybody having a life coach.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
The reason I have a life coach is there are
a lot of things that we let's put it this way.
You have friends, you have relatives, like you have a husband,
you have kids. But you know what, you can't tell
anybody everything right. You cannot sit down and say I
was thinking about this is this a good idea? Because
there's some things you can't tell your husband, or some
things you can't tell you're a good friend, Like.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I should just say I do tell my husband absolutely everything.
Every random thought that I have, he's heard.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Maybe maybe. But let's say let's say you're sitting there thinking,
I don't know. I know you and Mary Catherine love
each other and everything. You're like, wow, Mary Catherine's getting
on my nerves. You can't be well. I should talk
to Mary Catherine about this. I like to run ideas
by another smart person who understands psychology, understands people. And
that's what it does for me. I don't get an
actual Like the whole thing I want out of her
is an hour to listen to things, tell me if
(14:59):
it's a good idea or not. I asked her from
all the stuff I talk about, to give me like
one insight, give me one thing I missed, and that's
you know, I meet with her six times a year
right now, it was it was quarterly. I think we
just moved up to six. But and I mean, I
get something out of that, and I think that's not
something for everybody, But you know, I figure like all
(15:19):
the great athletes, all the great business leaps, all of
them have coaches, all of them have people that help
them a little bit. So just having someone you can
bounce that stuff off of.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
We're gonna take a quick break and right back, I
really am, and we've never even considered it. That's really interesting.
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. What are you most
proud of in your life?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
That was such a hard question, Ka, because I thought
about this probably for half an hour, because I kept well,
I'll tell you why, because the conventional answer is, like
the cool stuff I accomplished, Like I raised six hunder
k for Brett Kavanaugh in a fundraiser right wing news.
I built it up into a top ten to ten
(16:04):
thousand in the world website with thirty employees. It was huge.
I had a three million person Facebook site that had
more engagement than like the New York Post and Brett
bart combined. You know, there's things like that you've done.
And then I thought about it. I was like, man,
the thing I was actually proud of stuff really and
it seems silly because it's so simple. Was the first
time I ever loved a girl and she loved me
(16:26):
back that I really liked. And that feels so silly
and simple because everybody can do it, and probably half
the people have. But that was it. And then it
was like, you know what, we broke up, so that
certainly can't be the thing I'm proud of, So it
can't be that. So then it was like, still be that. Yeah,
it shouldn't be that. I mean, it was great when
it lasted, But I tell you what it was. It's
(16:48):
the fact that I managed to set my life up
in a way that I can get up when I
want to get up, go to bed when I want
to go to bed. I don't have to do anything
I don't want to do. I go where I want
to go, with who I want to go with. Like,
I design my life in such a way that I
just I have you know, I can take for like,
if I want to take six months off and go
sit at the beach, I can take six months off
and go sit at the beach. And I don't want
(17:10):
to do that, but if I did, I can. So
I think there's a lot of freedom to that because
a lot of people, even if they have money or
they have success, they're handcuffed to it. If you're a
doctor making five hundred thousand dollars a year and working
sixty hours away, how great is that? Or if you
have lots of free time but no money to do anything,
how great is that? But if you can combine those
to the decree where you can do what you want,
(17:32):
that's awesome. So I'm proud that I did that.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
That's huge. I think that that's such a great accomplishment,
and that's what you should be proud of. I think
that the freedom to do whatever you want is I
mean unmatched basically, like that is something that most people
can never even dream of having. So I really really
like that. Give us a five year out prediction, and
it could be about anything.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I'll tell you what it is. My prediction is it
in five years. Almost at least, this is gonna start.
Within five years, everything that involves a human being interacting
with another human being over a screen will be replaced
by AI. And by that I mean Hollywood's gonna go away.
Television shows are gonna go away, They're gonna be AI.
Influencers are gonna go away. Instagram Model's gonna go away,
(18:19):
Pornography it's going to change to AI. Only fans girls
going to change to AI. All this stuff because if
you look where it's at visually, now it's there, it's there,
and then you've got other places where the dialogue's not
quite there and the audio is not quite there, but
it's coming along. Like I could go take I don't know,
like you could go take yourself, Carol, you can take
(18:41):
you and I don't know. Jk Rowling and jk Rowling
could be at some dinner in England a picture of
her and it could be a picture of you in
New York. You can have AI slap them together on
a beach and it can already do that, and it
can make it look real. So if we're there, and
that's the cutting end of it. But in twelve to
eighteen months you'll have the Chinese and Indian knockoffs coming
(19:04):
along can do the same thing. And then like in
another two years, the really advanced ones like GROC and
some of the really nice ones. You'll be able to
do full Hollywood quality movies on your computer at an hour,
So you know why spend one hundred and fifty million
dollars on it? I even look at someone like mister
beast and go. You know what, he's probably the last
of the huge Instagram I mean, the last YouTube influencers,
(19:26):
Like he's the last huge one because all the new
ones are going to end up being AI.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Are you worried about that or do you think that
that's just the way it has to go?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Well, I am worried about AI because I think if
we ever get to the point where it has artificial
general intelligence, which we don't have yet, it's a genuine
threat to the human race's continued existence. I think it's
also going to be a three D if we don't
get that. Because Okay, this is slightly crude, forgive me, Carol,
but I don't think people are going to be breeding
in ten years. I don't. I think between the combination
(19:58):
of virtual reality, wrote robots, and AI, nobody's gonna I mean,
there's nobody's gonna want to breed. We're already having that problem.
Every every advanced culture in the whole world right now
is not breeding at a replacement level where it's gonna
drop off a cliff. We're basically gonna need matrix style
tubes to keep the human race going. I think in
twenty years. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That this is pretty you know, concerning what about just
on the micro level, the job that you and I do,
I mean, is opinion maker going to matter? If everything's
they up, Well.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That's a good question. I think the last things to
go on the writing front will be like the more
intricate writing, like I think JK. Rowling is a lot
harder to replace than the guys slogging out news for
Brett Bart or slogging out news for ESPN. Those guys
it can probably replace almost right now. If you're talking
about the people writing the more advanced stuff, that'll be harder.
(20:53):
But it's gonna get there. And when it does, I
mean me, I'll just adjust, I'll go do something else.
But if you get to the point where you can't
do writing anymore, and that that may happen too, and
at some point it will. All we can do is
write it out, okay, because I'm gonna tell you a
lot of people, a huge chunk of the workforce is
going to be replaced. And I mean, I don't know
how the human race is gonna very bad. Well, I
(21:15):
don't mean they're gonna well, they might actually get rid
of us. But that's one thing. If you listen to
Elon Musk talk about it. It's simultaneous. Like Elon Musk
tries to paint a cherry face on it, but he's
also like, we need to be interesting so the AI
doesn't kill us. It's like, okay, you're making.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That I don't be interesting.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
So but yeah, so it's it's hard to say how
this is going to play out. I think you're gonna
have a whole lot of human beings and let's say
twenty thirty years who no longer need or even are
able to work. Now, how does that play out?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, I don't know. My fifteen year old daughter says
that she foresees just communism, because what else are you
gonna do when nobody's nobody has a job.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Well, there is a possibility, and this is the nice
scenario that Elon Musk always suggests, is like we make
creates so much abundance with AI that you may have
not just something like a universal basic income, but universal
basic wealth. Think Star Trek with replicators, where everybody's like,
I want a big house and I want to have
whatever this is, and you've got so much robots and
(22:15):
so much AI, they just make it for you and
that's possible too, but that's also the rosy scenario, very rosy,
and look, it's possible. I don't want to say it's
not possible. The scary thing would be artificial general intelligence
because it's creating something smarter than us that may not
have the same object as we have, and think about it,
we programmed it. I mean, it's like chimps creating human
(22:37):
beings and giving them machine guns and going, hey, use
those for goody, good.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Luck with them. Baby. Yeah. Well, on that very cheery note, John,
it has been wonderful talking to you. I don't feel
like we see enough of each other, and it's been
great to catch up. I loved having you on my show.
Leave us here with your best tip for my listener
on how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I thought about this too. One thing I'd say, if
I'll give you two quick things. One the Paretto principle,
go out everything in life is eighty twent Find the
stuff the twenty most valuable important things in your life,
find a way to get more of them so that
that becomes forty and sixty percent of your life. And
take the worst things that's like, oh my god, I
can't believe I'm doing this, and cut it out and
(23:23):
get rid of it, get rid of the very worst things.
It's like I do not mow my lawn. I pay
someone to mow my lawn because I owe my lawn.
The other thing is, and this is a big one.
Life is cumulative. So don't ever think, UH doesn't matter
if I do this thirty years from now. These little
decisions you make today are going to have an impact.
(23:44):
So live your life like what you do today matters
to the future you, because it does.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Absolutely Here is John Hawkins. You could check them out
at culturecitle dot com. Thank you so much for coming on, John, Thank.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You so much for having me. Kay
Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is John Hawkins from culturecitle dot com. Hi, John,
so nice to have you on.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
It is so good to see you. I have not
seen you for gosh, It's probably been a decade since
the last time I saw the two of us got
together in person. So so great to see.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
You, So good to see you too, too long for sure.
But we do go way back. We are old timey
blogger friends. Your blog was called right Wing News and
it was one of the biggest blogs in the world
in our blogging time. How did you get into that?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, I had always wanted to write, and I got
so angry and that during the election with al Gore
and Bush when they were saying because I was just
I wasn't in politics, and I'm sitting there watching and
they're saying, I think it was I think I saw
it on CNN or c SPAN where something came across
as one was like Bush concede and It's like, what
this is ridiculous. Somebody needs to start a site. So
(01:04):
I started a site that got me going and we
kind of went from there.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, that was my radicalizing moment also the two thousand election.
Like I always was a conservative and I kind of
like watched politics in the background. But the two thousand election,
I was like, they are trying to steal this election,
and that was it. I sought out Republicans in New
York City. I started going to Republican events. That was
the moment where I was like, oh, I have to
(01:29):
get more involved in this because clearly bad things are happening.
So you start writing news, how does it take off?
Do do you have like a moment where you remember
a large number of people started reading you.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Well, there's really two levels of taking off. The first
level of taking off as a blog it did pretty well,
in fact, at one point, and this very few people
know this, but Ben Shapiro reached out to me and
he suggested that me him Kurt slicked her and I
forget the last person she was on Fox Yeah, that
we all get together and run right wing news. And
(02:04):
I didn't take him up on it. But now it's like, man,
maybe that could have been the Daily Wire. Now I
don't know if I would have done better because it
would have been split four ways. So I did pretty
much the right wing news. So it's like what I
of course, on the other hand, you know, when you're
talking about paying Steven Crowder eighty million dollars or whatever
it was, they must be doing really, really well. But yeah,
so that was that. But the thing that really kicked
(02:26):
me off was Facebook because we were one of the
first Facebook plages to take off. There were some other
ones out there, but people hadn't heard of them. So
right wing News everybody kind of knew the name, and
once we got on Facebook and exploded, Man, we just
took off like a like a nuclear bomb.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
So your news site is culture Sitle. What is that
all about?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Culture Sitle. It's not a news site. I'm writing about
the culture. I'm doing columns, long form essays, that kind
of thing, culture self help, a little bit of politics
in there too. But I wanted to do something. It
feels like everybody is doing click bait and rage bait
and right I did some of that back in the
day when I ran away we use and I don't
(03:09):
want to do it anymore. I don't think it's healthy.
I mean, look where it's gone. You've got Candice Owen's
just running around making up stuff. She's running soap operas,
with real people.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
She's just maybe watching I mean people. It's very hard
to turn off the soap opera. It's a soap opera
meets like a train wreck, so it's it's really got
a lot going on that I understand why people can't
tear themselves away.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
But eventually that ends in lawsuits and destruction because she's
making up stuff about real people, and you know, it's
not like soap opera characters, you know, like I like
the male example of a soap opera I used to
love was Buffy the Vampire Slayer because that's really kind
of a It's it's like an action pack thing and
there's vampires and this season she hates this guy and
(03:51):
this season she's making out with the vampire and did
da da, Well she's doing that except as with real people,
and it's gonna blow up on her so big and
it's going to destroyer eventually. But you know, it makes
me sad that that's where people are going and where
the whole thing is. I think it's really awful and
I didn't want to be a part of that, And
I also wanted to do something I think that maybe
(04:12):
had some value because I don't think any of that
stuff has any value. So I want to write about
the culture and what's going on with conservatism, economics, Yeah,
and a lot of that kind of thing self help stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I love that actually. So you wrote a book which
I read a few years ago, one hundred and one Things.
I thought you read it should Know? Yeah, I quoted
it in a column for the New York Post at
one point. I remember, I think, I don't remember what
it was about, but I remember disagreeing with you on
something about in the book, which you know it happens, John,
We can disagree sometimes hurtfull k. So what was that
(04:48):
book all about? And what made you write a book
about what young adults should know?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well as one hundred and one Things all young adults
should Know? It was top fifty and self help for
a while. It did pretty well, slowed down since then,
but I wanted to it was you know, I've tried
a lot of different stuff, but I wrote one of
those articles about things advice for young people that did
incredibly well, and I thought, you know what, I love
to do lists, This would make a great book. And
(05:17):
I think there's so much stuff in there that's useful,
because yeah, some things change over time. So you know,
there was no AI when I wrote the book, for example,
none that was available to the public. But so much
of it's timeless, so much of it does not change
from generation to generation. That book was written, I think
in twenty seventeen or released then. Everything in it, there's
not one thing that's kind of fallen out of favor.
(05:40):
I mean, they're all still relevant today. So I thought,
if you could write something that actually helps a lot
of people get ahead, I always felt like it you
could take a twenty year old kid, give them that book,
and they know everything they should know by forty and
I mean for me, and I think you know in
your own life too. It's you learn so many things
when you're older. You know, what's that old saying if
(06:01):
youth knew, an age could. Yeah, So that's what I
wanted to try to do for people.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I love that. Did you hear from many young people
who were affected by it?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, there's a lot of people. I've had people reach out,
have me give advice to them over that. I've had
people send their nephews and you know, kids over to
me for it, And a lot of people did like it.
So the book did really well. I was really happy
with it. I've really just got to work on a
follow up. I've written like a much shorter I've written well,
I did want it. It was a Kendle short, and
(06:30):
I was like, no, should I pat this into a
book or not? I didn't feel like I needed to,
So I keep going back and forth on that before
I release it. But yeah, so I really need to
get back to cranking those things out.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
So this show that you're on right now has an
advice component to it, and people write into me, and
I sometimes I answer their questions. The number one question
that I get from people of all ages is how
do I make friends? I mean it's older people, younger people.
(07:01):
It's people writing in for their young kids and people
writing in for their post college kids saying how do
I make friends? Did you have like a theme like
that where you think people are seeking your advice about
something in particular? That the friendship thing really shakes me
because I think we've gotten to a place where people
just don't know how to do it anymore. It's it's
literally something that they used to be so natural, and
(07:23):
now people just forgot how to.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And I understand their pain because I remember before the Internet,
people got together in personal lot more. And then when
the Internet just started, man, I met all kinds of people.
The Internet was like an extension of the real world.
So I would meet really cool people on Messenger or
some chat and then we'd meet in real life at
some convention and we'd be friends. And like a lot
(07:48):
of people who follow me on Twitter that I know
today who are big in a conservative movement, like I
met them first online and then I met them in person.
But I think that's the key thing is you've really
got to get out of your house. And I think
that's part of the hard thing because there's so much
there's so much cool stuff in your house now. I mean,
you can sit there and I have spent I don't
(08:11):
know how many hours over the last few weeks playing
with grocs. Imagine just working on that and trying different
commands and the AI and seeing what it can do.
And you know, you've got billion, billion, one hundred million
dollar movies going on, you've got games, you've got everything.
But you've got to go out and you got to
talk to people, and you just got to start doing that.
I Mean, one thing I do in my area is
(08:31):
I run a Meetup, like, I actually created a meetup
so that I could meet people in that space. Yeah,
so that that's not, of course Meetup's dying. I know
that that's meet up the website. You're literally, oh my gosh,
you're still using meetup. That's unbelievable. Well, there you go.
Well they were doing great till they raised the rates
and suddenly everybody started dropping off. But I mean I
(08:53):
created one of those. A bunch of people get together
for dinner. We've got a group where we're the biggest
one in the area. We've got something like four hundred
fifty members, although not them they show up, but we
all get together and you meet people that way, and
you just but I mean, really that's part of it.
You just got to go through the churn. And you know,
you're from New York and Florida. I mean, you're a
very sociable person. You know lots of people, and that
(09:14):
I'm sure you would say the same thing or something similar.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Yeah, I do say the same or something similar. But
I also acknowledge that it has gotten a lot harder.
I'm coming up on four years living in Florida, and
I've made friends, but not that many, and I am
much more of a homebody as I get older. And
the thing is, you already have your friends, right like
I have the people that I like would turn to
(09:39):
if something was wrong or when something good happens to me.
So it gets a lot harder to meet sort of
what I call the situational friends, like your neighbors or
you know friends, your kids, friends' parents, or that kind
of thing that gets tougher. So I understand why people
are struggling. I think in your one hundred and one
(10:00):
rules for kids or for young adults, I just wonder
if you had a component of friendship. I know it's
from a few years ago now, but was there something
on that well.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I think the first thing that comes to mind was
you've got to be the one that asks. You've got
to be the one that reaches out. You've got to
be the one that goes to the thing, because I mean,
I'll tell you one mistake I made my life coming
up is I had these friends, and I had a
good group of friends, but a lot of times I
would be the one who would call them first or
reach out to them first, and then it was like
(10:31):
they should be reaching out to me, and then you
stop and then they're like, oh, he doesn't like me
anymore and they quit talking to you. And I have
lost friends for that reason, and it's very hard to
get those back once those relationships break. So don't be
afraid to reach out first, to go talk to people,
to be the one who talks to everybody around you,
and I think that will help you a lot. There's
(10:53):
no easy solution to it, especially once you get out
of something like high school and college when you're not
surrounded similar people all the time. And like for me,
it's doubly difficult because I work from home. I did
what I want, when I want, with who I want,
so I don't have to you know, I'm not necessarily
out at a job where I might make ten buddies there,
and you're probably a lot in the same way exactly.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, So what would you have done if the writing
thing hadn't worked out? Did you have a plan?
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Be? Well, I had a whole bunch of things I
considered when I was young. I actually did a stand
up comedy set in college. I invited like thirty people
overs really really profane and dirty in retrospect, but really yes,
it was really filthy. I was revery I love Sam Kennison,
so if you've ever heard Sam Kennison's bits, which are
still good, by the way, all this time later. But
(11:42):
so I did those. I thought about being a lawyer.
I thought about going into politics. I think if Right
Wing News would have flopped, I had made enough of
a name for myself, I could have gone to work
being like a working for a think tank or working
as an AID or something. I didn't want to do
that because I hate working for other people. I mean,
I can endure it, but it has The last person
(12:03):
I worked for was Dan Bongino, and I chose to
work for him and reached out to him and all
that stuff, but like a normal person where it's like
a regular boss who I'm sitting here thinking, Wow, this
guy is so stupid, and I can't do that anymore.
I mean maybe I always had trouble doing it. So
why I created my own business in the first place. Yeah,
so that it would have probably been something in politics
(12:23):
as an aid or working for a think tank. Lawyer, yeah,
no knowing. But I did seriously consider going back to school,
getting a master's and going into counseling. So I thought
about that, but I did not want to spend the
years in school then have to spend a year under
someone's thumb before I could start my own practice. Right,
(12:44):
I'm pretty sure I could have done really well doing that.
I'm also I'm probably a little raw for the twenty
year olds who.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Are that's what they need though they well, they do.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
They need that, they don't need anymore. Yes, you're doing
so good. It's so great that you. I do though,
one thing I have done that not everybody does. But
I've had a life coach for a decade and I
talked to her once a quarter and we discussed different
things and we were talking about that. She's like, you
would be great at it, but you would it would
drive you crazy because half the people it's like, uh, okay,
(13:15):
this is the sixth week in a row, have told
you if you want to get your goals, you got
to stop looking at the TV all day. You know
what I'm saying, Like, I don't have patience for that.
It's like not, I mean, I like people who are
trying to do something and you want to help people,
but also at some point most of the time, it's like,
if you want to know why most people fail, you me,
all of us or whoever it's because of them, you
(13:36):
can go look in the mirror and see exactly why
it is. And you're not putting in the effort like
most people will tell I'm working so hard. It's like
not really, no, you're not. You're really not working. I
know what working hard. I mean. I put in seventy
hour eighty hour weeks at one point. I know what
working hard is. Most people are not working hard, and
that's why they don't cut it. And people don't want
to hear that. Everybody wants to here, Yeah, you're doing
so good. It's so great that you worked, you know,
(13:58):
thirty hours this week. It's not so great. Go work.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Does your life coach tell you work harder? And that
is that shit?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Doesn't have to tell me to work all right?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So I'm fascinated by this. I've never I don't think
i've ever heard anybody having a life coach.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
The reason I have a life coach is there are
a lot of things that we let's put it this way.
You have friends, you have relatives, like you have a husband,
you have kids. But you know what, you can't tell
anybody everything right. You cannot sit down and say I
was thinking about this is this a good idea? Because
there's some things you can't tell your husband, or some
things you can't tell you're a good friend, Like.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
I should just say I do tell my husband absolutely everything.
Every random thought that I have, he's heard.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Maybe maybe. But let's say let's say you're sitting there thinking,
I don't know. I know you and Mary Catherine love
each other and everything. You're like, wow, Mary Catherine's getting
on my nerves. You can't be well. I should talk
to Mary Catherine about this. I like to run ideas
by another smart person who understands psychology, understands people. And
that's what it does for me. I don't get an
actual Like the whole thing I want out of her
is an hour to listen to things, tell me if
(14:59):
it's a good idea or not. I asked her from
all the stuff I talk about, to give me like
one insight, give me one thing I missed, and that's
you know, I meet with her six times a year
right now, it was it was quarterly. I think we
just moved up to six. But and I mean, I
get something out of that, and I think that's not
something for everybody, But you know, I figure like all
(15:19):
the great athletes, all the great business leaps, all of
them have coaches, all of them have people that help
them a little bit. So just having someone you can
bounce that stuff off of.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
We're gonna take a quick break and right back, I
really am, and we've never even considered it. That's really interesting.
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. What are you most
proud of in your life?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
That was such a hard question, Ka, because I thought
about this probably for half an hour, because I kept well,
I'll tell you why, because the conventional answer is, like
the cool stuff I accomplished, Like I raised six hunder
k for Brett Kavanaugh in a fundraiser right wing news.
I built it up into a top ten to ten
(16:04):
thousand in the world website with thirty employees. It was huge.
I had a three million person Facebook site that had
more engagement than like the New York Post and Brett
bart combined. You know, there's things like that you've done.
And then I thought about it. I was like, man,
the thing I was actually proud of stuff really and
it seems silly because it's so simple. Was the first
time I ever loved a girl and she loved me
(16:26):
back that I really liked. And that feels so silly
and simple because everybody can do it, and probably half
the people have. But that was it. And then it
was like, you know what, we broke up, so that
certainly can't be the thing I'm proud of, So it
can't be that. So then it was like, still be that. Yeah,
it shouldn't be that. I mean, it was great when
it lasted, But I tell you what it was. It's
(16:48):
the fact that I managed to set my life up
in a way that I can get up when I
want to get up, go to bed when I want
to go to bed. I don't have to do anything
I don't want to do. I go where I want
to go, with who I want to go with. Like,
I design my life in such a way that I
just I have you know, I can take for like,
if I want to take six months off and go
sit at the beach, I can take six months off
and go sit at the beach. And I don't want
(17:10):
to do that, but if I did, I can. So
I think there's a lot of freedom to that because
a lot of people, even if they have money or
they have success, they're handcuffed to it. If you're a
doctor making five hundred thousand dollars a year and working
sixty hours away, how great is that? Or if you
have lots of free time but no money to do anything,
how great is that? But if you can combine those
to the decree where you can do what you want,
(17:32):
that's awesome. So I'm proud that I did that.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
That's huge. I think that that's such a great accomplishment,
and that's what you should be proud of. I think
that the freedom to do whatever you want is I
mean unmatched basically, like that is something that most people
can never even dream of having. So I really really
like that. Give us a five year out prediction, and
it could be about anything.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I'll tell you what it is. My prediction is it
in five years. Almost at least, this is gonna start.
Within five years, everything that involves a human being interacting
with another human being over a screen will be replaced
by AI. And by that I mean Hollywood's gonna go away.
Television shows are gonna go away, They're gonna be AI.
Influencers are gonna go away. Instagram Model's gonna go away,
(18:19):
Pornography it's going to change to AI. Only fans girls
going to change to AI. All this stuff because if
you look where it's at visually, now it's there, it's there,
and then you've got other places where the dialogue's not
quite there and the audio is not quite there, but
it's coming along. Like I could go take I don't know,
like you could go take yourself, Carol, you can take
(18:41):
you and I don't know. Jk Rowling and jk Rowling
could be at some dinner in England a picture of
her and it could be a picture of you in
New York. You can have AI slap them together on
a beach and it can already do that, and it
can make it look real. So if we're there, and
that's the cutting end of it. But in twelve to
eighteen months you'll have the Chinese and Indian knockoffs coming
(19:04):
along can do the same thing. And then like in
another two years, the really advanced ones like GROC and
some of the really nice ones. You'll be able to
do full Hollywood quality movies on your computer at an hour,
So you know why spend one hundred and fifty million
dollars on it? I even look at someone like mister
beast and go. You know what, he's probably the last
of the huge Instagram I mean, the last YouTube influencers,
(19:26):
Like he's the last huge one because all the new
ones are going to end up being AI.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Are you worried about that or do you think that
that's just the way it has to go?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Well, I am worried about AI because I think if
we ever get to the point where it has artificial
general intelligence, which we don't have yet, it's a genuine
threat to the human race's continued existence. I think it's
also going to be a three D if we don't
get that. Because Okay, this is slightly crude, forgive me, Carol,
but I don't think people are going to be breeding
in ten years. I don't. I think between the combination
(19:58):
of virtual reality, wrote robots, and AI, nobody's gonna I mean,
there's nobody's gonna want to breed. We're already having that problem.
Every every advanced culture in the whole world right now
is not breeding at a replacement level where it's gonna
drop off a cliff. We're basically gonna need matrix style
tubes to keep the human race going. I think in
twenty years. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That this is pretty you know, concerning what about just
on the micro level, the job that you and I do,
I mean, is opinion maker going to matter? If everything's
they up, Well.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
That's a good question. I think the last things to
go on the writing front will be like the more
intricate writing, like I think JK. Rowling is a lot
harder to replace than the guys slogging out news for
Brett Bart or slogging out news for ESPN. Those guys
it can probably replace almost right now. If you're talking
about the people writing the more advanced stuff, that'll be harder.
(20:53):
But it's gonna get there. And when it does, I
mean me, I'll just adjust, I'll go do something else.
But if you get to the point where you can't
do writing anymore, and that that may happen too, and
at some point it will. All we can do is
write it out, okay, because I'm gonna tell you a
lot of people, a huge chunk of the workforce is
going to be replaced. And I mean, I don't know
how the human race is gonna very bad. Well, I
(21:15):
don't mean they're gonna well, they might actually get rid
of us. But that's one thing. If you listen to
Elon Musk talk about it. It's simultaneous. Like Elon Musk
tries to paint a cherry face on it, but he's
also like, we need to be interesting so the AI
doesn't kill us. It's like, okay, you're making.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
That I don't be interesting.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
So but yeah, so it's it's hard to say how
this is going to play out. I think you're gonna
have a whole lot of human beings and let's say
twenty thirty years who no longer need or even are
able to work. Now, how does that play out?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, I don't know. My fifteen year old daughter says
that she foresees just communism, because what else are you
gonna do when nobody's nobody has a job.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
Well, there is a possibility, and this is the nice
scenario that Elon Musk always suggests, is like we make
creates so much abundance with AI that you may have
not just something like a universal basic income, but universal
basic wealth. Think Star Trek with replicators, where everybody's like,
I want a big house and I want to have
whatever this is, and you've got so much robots and
(22:15):
so much AI, they just make it for you and
that's possible too, but that's also the rosy scenario, very rosy,
and look, it's possible. I don't want to say it's
not possible. The scary thing would be artificial general intelligence
because it's creating something smarter than us that may not
have the same object as we have, and think about it,
we programmed it. I mean, it's like chimps creating human
(22:37):
beings and giving them machine guns and going, hey, use
those for goody, good.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Luck with them. Baby. Yeah. Well, on that very cheery note, John,
it has been wonderful talking to you. I don't feel
like we see enough of each other, and it's been
great to catch up. I loved having you on my show.
Leave us here with your best tip for my listener
on how they can improve their lives.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I thought about this too. One thing I'd say, if
I'll give you two quick things. One the Paretto principle,
go out everything in life is eighty twent Find the
stuff the twenty most valuable important things in your life,
find a way to get more of them so that
that becomes forty and sixty percent of your life. And
take the worst things that's like, oh my god, I
can't believe I'm doing this, and cut it out and
(23:23):
get rid of it, get rid of the very worst things.
It's like I do not mow my lawn. I pay
someone to mow my lawn because I owe my lawn.
The other thing is, and this is a big one.
Life is cumulative. So don't ever think, UH doesn't matter
if I do this thirty years from now. These little
decisions you make today are going to have an impact.
(23:44):
So live your life like what you do today matters
to the future you, because it does.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Absolutely Here is John Hawkins. You could check them out
at culturecitle dot com. Thank you so much for coming on, John, Thank.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
You so much for having me. Kay
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.