The value of not falling in with a crowd?

We’re back in the studio together after several weeks away.  

We talk about the importance of South Sudan’s near victory over the US in a warmup Olympic basketball and admire the commitment of Luol Deng (and our friend, Jacob Ross) to the effort to improve conditions in the country.   

We discuss the value of maintaining your individuality rather than adopting the persona of any group. Unless you can be Batman, maybe just be yourself and think for yourself.  

We also touch on accounts of a serial abuser with many connections to the fitness industry.  


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Episode Transcript

(00:09):
And we're in. I just wantto make the point here at the at
the head of the opening of theshow that this and every episode of fifty
percent of Facts is brought to youby Good Company Apparel at good at Good
Company Apparel at three sp dot coor good Company Apparel dot com. And
if you're going there right now,many things are sold out, which means
you missed out, and that's yourfault, not our fault. You can

(00:32):
head to Discord good Company Discord dotcom and you will get access to early
access new drops like minded Community,and if things keep selling out, they
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you missed out. New ones comingsoon. We don't do restocks,
but new drops soon, So GoodCompany, Discord dot com, three sped
dot c. The Olympic Star Friday, Olympic Star Friday. I am just

(00:57):
overwhelmed with happiness for our friend JacobRoss and the fact that his South Sudan
team damn near beat the US Olympicbasketball team. No Avengers. Yeah,
they're making waves. They're making wavesfor sure. A lot of comments by
big media ESPN, Paul Pierce,Gilbert Arenas in particular, some real nice

(01:19):
negative things to say. He flippedit around though. Of course, of
course he's just gonna get fired orblasted. Yeah, you're right exactly,
and instead of like and I watchedthis whole like quote unquote apology video,
and it's like fine, but it'sjust it's just like so ignorant, Like
you're you're an NBA player for likefifteen years, You're gonna be a Hall
of Famer. If he's not alreadyin there, I don't think he's in

(01:41):
yet, but he will be.You literally played in the same era as
Luel Dang who's the president, andliterally built this from the ground up with
his team, and he says andthere he's like, oh, I didn't
even know Luel was sou Denise,you know. And before that he's making
insane like continental I don't want tocall it like racism, you know,
because it's just like just computer ignorantcomments. Yeah, classiest, I guess

(02:05):
maybe, or like yeah, justit's so ignorant that you don't know like
third world countryist. Yeah, yeah, you don't know, like and I
don't expect I mean, I guessI should. I guess you should,
like you should have a general ideawhere Sudan is. You should know Sudan
and South Sudan are different countries.You should know that Africa is a continent,
not a fucking country, you know, just like how we phrase things.
And I know he's probably clickbaiting toget views, but then it's his

(02:28):
comeback was just and then there's guyson the team and he did open the
statement, Oh, I guess Ishould do like research, like yeah,
bitch, like uh yeah, it'slike part of your job, like you're
their only job is to comment onsports. And this team has like yeah
they don't have fucking Kobe Bryant,but they have a bunch of guys that
have been in the league or inthe system. Yeah in the G League.
They're playing a D one schools here. Their point guard went to Iowa.

(02:53):
You know, like there's big universitiesand big players on the team.
Let alone again, just the storybeing cool, that's like the biggest thing
to me. And we if youguys go check back. We talked to
Jacob right before they went on theirtraining camp and then now all these games
are the friendlies warming up. Butand I think we referenced it in there
that like this story is like aDisney Channel story. Yeah. I saw

(03:15):
more than one comment about that.Actually after that game. It is like
whether they do well, they dobad. And Jacob mentioned that too.
He's like, dude, the winfor US is already here. Like the
first team to ever come out ofSouth Sudan and qualify, they did good
at the Feeble World Cup last summer. And the Philippines. Yeah again,
like the country literally doesn't have anindoor basketball court, right, and these

(03:37):
guys and of course they all don'tlive there twenty four to seven, right,
but you know they have access becauseagain like their six man is it
going to be a freshman at Duke? And yeah, some of these guys
have facilities training obviously, but thepoint of the roots of where they come
from, where their families come from. To have such success in a sport
that has zero funding and zero likehistory is insane. It's insane, like

(04:00):
trial and error battle to get there. What Jacob said to me I got
a message from remember the weekend,said that from the beginning he and Lewell
thought that like you could have ayou could have a press conference. You
can bring these guys who were refugeesout and have them tell their story and
there's maybe one hundred people there,or you can put together a banging basketball

(04:24):
team, you can play in frontof twenty thousand people and then millions of
people around the world and they startto catch your story and it starts to
make a difference for the people wholive, you know, full time in
South Sudan. Yeah, one hundredpercent. I mean, and before they
played the US, they beat GreatBritain and they're in London, Great Britain.

(04:47):
I don't know how their team isnecessarily this year, but historically Luel
played for a Great Britain yea,and they were an Olympic level probably top
five team in the world. Theyhad a lot of really good players at
NBA players, etceter. And theyput it on them just before. I
think that's their last friendly with theUS. US. They have a tough
ass bracket, but I mean,they're a tough ass team themselves, so

(05:10):
fuck it. I think they haveSerbia, which is a pretty high team
US and I forgot the third intheir group. But it will be fun.
It will be fun to watch.I don't know what the first game
is because the Olympics are what threeweeks and they kind of stagger shit.
Yeah, but they start this week. Basketball should be early because it's a
big tournament. They have group playand then they have the knockout rounds,

(05:31):
so the basketball normally goes the majorityof the time, where like track and
fields one day, right, likethey all called and you just kind of
do one race and then you goto the finals or not. But okay,
twenty seventh is the first game.Yeah, Group A, so Australia,
Spain, France, Brazil, Greece, Canada, Germany, Japan,

(05:53):
France, Brazil all along this twentyseventh South Sta Dan plays on Sunday against
Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico historically isreally good too. They were one of
the first teams to They might havebeen the first team to beat the US
after the Dream Team era. Ohthat sounds about right after we went pro
sports in nineteen ninety two or whateverwith Jordan and them. I think Puerto

(06:18):
Rico beat US in the early twok's and they were the first, yeah,
the first world loss. So Imean, historically they're very good at
basketball. I don't know again howtheir roster is exactly. This year,
it just got too confusing for mebecause there's so many international players in the
NBA. YEA, I used toknow all the international players because they would
stand out like a sore thumb,you know, he'd be like, oh,

(06:39):
I know that one guy from Brazilor whatever. But now there's so
much talent everywhere, and the gapis closing everywhere where. There's a kid
named Cooper Flagg, who you know, cliche saying, but like might be
the next Lebron. He's highest recruitedkid out of high school, literally seventeen
duke starting player, and he's onthe Olympics Select team, which is,

(07:00):
you know, the precursor to goto the Olympics. Yeah, and they
scrimmaged Lebron in them. And Ididn't see the whole game, but the
highlights. This kid's seventeen and he'sputting it on Lebron. You know,
he's like, he's definitely not weakin this competition or intimidated. I guess
no, No, he doesn't givea shit. And that's kind of part
of basketball, the beauty of it. You know, it's like the ego,

(07:21):
like like the confidence is crazy.There's a weird wave of now we're
on Basketball Talk, there's a weirdwave of content creators in basketball right now,
there's a whole content creator basketball leaguethat I think came from like TikTok
and like kids that played the videogame and stuff. But now like all
the streamers are playing basketball and they'rechallenging each other to two on twos and

(07:41):
this stuff, and you can clearlytell, or at least I can clearly
tell who played or and who didn't. Write a basketball is my passion for
fifteen years playing in like five yearscoaching, so I can just clearly see
who, like who's trained, orwho's played or who's not. But then
you can see the kids that likekind of played, you know, maybe
they played on the street or theyplayed junior high. And just confidence alone,

(08:03):
you can see like damn, likekid's starting to make shots, like
he's just like stroking his own egoand he's not very good, but just
like confidence alone takes you so far, which is funny, and golf's kind
of like that. I don't reallydo archery or darts or something, but
I imagine those are similar to like, your skill will only take you so
far. You really have to believein what you're about to do next,
and it just starts to like lineup, Yeah, and I don't know

(08:24):
what the new wave of basketball,because it felt like kind of dead for
a bit, you know, likepeople didn't really care about the NBA as
much. No one's cared about Olympicbasketball in a long time, whether we
won or lost. And this teamis different, right. They grab Lebron,
Steph and Kevin Durant and they're allin their mid to late thirties,
so it is kind of the lasthurrah Lebron's kid getting drafted. I guess

(08:48):
there are some pieces, but Ithink some of it is the international play
too, you know. And PaulPierce I think said it in that apology
too, and it's been true andeveryone's talked about it forever. But I
think like five out of six orsix out of six of the last MVPs
in the NBA were not born inthe US. Yeah, you know,

(09:09):
we're like, yeah, man,Like it's been the story since the Dream
Team, that the Dream Team madebasketball international, So why are you waking
up now twenty years thirty years later, literally thirty years Like every documentary you
watch on basketball talks about that.I think it's it's often the media executives

(09:31):
that you know, don't catch thethe vibe of what's going on. They're
very late to it, you know, especially now. And we're not going
to talk politics, but you wantto talk politics, sports or anything.
The media is because the turnover rateof content is so fast. The media
is a day late. If you'renot on Twitter or Instagram, you get

(09:54):
your news or facts or non factsthere before you get your news or non
facts on mainstream media. Yeah,you know, like this is an example.
Just our local newspaper, the Sacramentob They recently because they you know,
they had for years, they've beenreleasing articles as things come out,
but the paper is like a daybehind, right, at least sometimes two

(10:15):
days behind. And so, andI stopped subscribing to the physical paper years
ago now, but I still getthe electronic version. And now you can
do electronic version that is this day'sprint edition, and then you can do
an electronic edition that is completely upto date, like up to the moment.
They're just constantly putting new stuff innews Twitter, because yeah, because

(10:37):
otherwise it's it's you're you're reading historyby the time it you know, literally,
isn't that crazy? Yeah, it'sit's insanity. I I I think
it's ruined a lot of things.I was thinking about that the other day,
like music, because you're so inundatedwith the it thing now. Yeah,
the trend comes and goes before youcan blink. Yeah, and the

(11:01):
news comes and goes and the newschanges before and that's good and bad,
right, because then it opens thedoor for more. Not that I'm a
fan of investigative reporting to begin with. I think it's all fucked, but
it makes it even more hypothetical becausethey're trying to get it out as fast
as possible, right, and thenthey get an update every ten minutes,
like fuck, I was wrong tenminutes ago, you know, like it

(11:22):
fucks it all. But I wasthinking about, what are those Mega man
shoes or whatever that mischief made thosebig red boots, the red boots,
right, the sonic boots. Yeah, there's these pair of boots that went
viral and they're like two hundred bucks, big red like sonic looking shoes and
they were just like a silly trendbut kind of a streetwear trend, and
they were cool and gone in twoweeks. Yeah. I only saw references

(11:45):
to them. I never actually sawthem. Yeah, no, I've never
seen them a person either. Ithink they're super limited and kind of expensive.
But the point being like that wouldhave been a trend for like a
year, right, it would havechanged into rain boots, or it would
have changed into something. But becausethe internet, you saw it for a
week, and you saw so muchof it for a week, You're like,
fuck, that's lamee. I sawan interview with the guy that created

(12:05):
them, yeah, or one ofthe Mischiefs guys, and I think you
said the amount of boots that wereout there was nowhere near it because they
made like a select amount. Yeah. No, I think it was like
under five hundred, Like it wasnothing any of these. It's the one
top Yeah, the two hundred nineteendollars stock x ones. I was gonna

(12:26):
say top, right, but Idon't even know because now the screen's mirroring
and I'm confused. Yeah, thoseYeah, that looks like I think a
cartoon thing. No, I thinktechnically it was after Astro Boy. I
think so, yeah, yeah,they do look like Sonic boots to me,
because I don't even know what thefun I mean, I know who
astro Boy is, but I don'treally know who astro Boy is. There's
a red red version of yellow,yeah, and then like a yellow croc

(12:48):
version. Yeah. Then it mademe think of it because someone just made
like a Bart Simpson shoe. Youknow, he wears like some silhouette of
a like a skater shoe, yeah, skateboard shoe. And so someone's making
that in real life. And Ilove all that creation, but it's like
sad that those kind of creations comeand go so fast, and even music
and music, I do think,and this is personal opinion, but I

(13:11):
think music is the most ever greenart on the planet where I could listen
to a CCR song Creating's clear Waterwas made eighty years ago, sixty years
ago, nineteen seventies, seventies,yeah, fifty fifty plus fifty plus,
so fifty plus years ago, andit could evoke the same sixties Yeah,

(13:31):
same emotion, same thought, samehappiness in me that it probably did to
the very first producer of it inthe studio, right, and I can
listen to it repeatability. I've listenedto you know, fortune Son for fucking
thousands of times and every time Iget something from it. Right Where clothing

(13:52):
I feel like used to kind ofbe cool, like that you put your
favorite shirt on and you feel acertain way, your favorite shoes on.
Like more traditional mediums haven't really donethat for me. Like a picture or
something. You might get like threelooks out of it, but once you
hang it on your wall, thenext look, you're like it's been there,
you know. Yeah, it depends. Like I like, if you

(14:13):
buy original art, I think itkeeps hitting. I think, yeah,
you feel something. But long storyshort, even music gets ruined. And
that's like the most evergreen thing tome. But I'll hear a song or
I'll find a song still because I'mstill in a hunt and underground hipster shit,
and then it trends on fucking Instagram, and then I can't stop hearing
it, and then I'm over it. I I sort of having that experience

(14:37):
right now as a matter of fact, Like I just, you know,
catch the world up. We haven'tdone this in a month, Yeah,
at least. I think the lastday that we did it was maybe the
thirteenth ish maybe of June. Andit's twenty third, yeah, five six
weeks of July. Yeah, it'sbeen about five or six weeks. I

(14:58):
went to see musical on Broadway executiveproduced by our friend David Tao Illinois,
which is based on an album bySufi and Stevens from twenty years ago,
and like I heard some of themusic because both of my sons were really
into it, but never really likepaid attention. Sure, and a couple

(15:22):
of those songs actually have. Havingseen the performance, I cannot get out
of my head, like really,like seriously cannot get out of my head.
Yeah yeah, yeah, just likereally really melodic and good arrangements and
great voices and you know whatever,like how do you and then like digging
back into the original and then liveperformances by yeah and oh my god.

(15:46):
Yeah, but as soon as thetrends on Instagram, you're gonna hate them,
probably, Yeah, that's what sucks. Probably. It sucks that show
is closing pretty soon. I'd suggestanybody who's near New York and wants to
see East Coasters East Coasters, suggestgoing because it was great And I actually
got to meet David in person whilewe were in New York. Yeah,
and hung out a bit, hungout a bit, super super cool guy,

(16:08):
exactly what I was expecting. Hewas on the podcast a couple of
months ago. If you guys wantto scroll back, creator of a founder
of bar Bend, which maybe Idon't know the exact data, but maybe
the biggest gym or at least ourspace like Barbell Weightlifting Space blog of all
time. Yeah, because then there'sprobably you know, P ninety x or

(16:30):
some bullshit. Yeah, that's big, but they're all paid in trash.
Yeah, and this, and itwas it was wide across kind of all
ye crossfed, powerlifting strong man,et cetera, et cetera. Yeah,
smart dude, Smart dude, isthat our trending updates for the day.
Trying to think what else I got. It's been going on. Basketball has

(16:52):
been on my mind, Music's beenon my mind, Politics been on my
mind. But we're not going todive too deep. But my Twitter crazy,
My Twitter is crazy. My Twitteris going nuts. Man. We're
living in interesting times, bro,It's got to be the matrix. Like
there is some shit that happens everyday and I'm just like, holy fuck
the fuck's going on? Yeah.You know they say that where conspiracy theories

(17:15):
come from is when you look atsomething and it doesn't make sense to you.
Yeah, like it doesn't jibe withwhat your understanding of a situation.
Yes, the whole six months,a lot of stuff going on, That's
the part of the issue for meis, like I just said, everything
else, you get fed so fastand so accurate. Yeah, pretty accurate.
The music the Olympics, Right,Paul Pierce makes these rude comments on

(17:37):
Friday Saturday's apologizing. Right, allthis stuff is so quick. But with
what's going on in the political realm, I got no answers anywhere for any
party, for either side. Youhave no clue what's going on. Somehow
they still keep sit like under wrapsand mysterious. I'm like, bitch,
nothing's mysterious in twenty twenty four,Like, might as well just tell me
what the hell's going on? Yeah, yeah, No, it's crazy out

(17:57):
there. Man, stay safe,man, hug your loved ones, fucking
take care of yourself. Don't buytoo much into this. I think I'm
doing decent job of making it myentertainment because as soon as you start to
buy in or you're just gonna fuckyourself and everything else, you know what
I mean, Like a year fromnow, we're gonna look back and like,
yeah, that was crazy. Butlike what's the stupid cliche? Like

(18:18):
if this doesn't if this isn't gonnabe the exact question or exact thing that
bothers you five years from now,kind of brush it off, and not
to say that who's our next presidentor whatever isn't impactful in the world,
But is it impactful that much onyour day to day, Like, you
still have to figure out your shit. You still have to figure out what
you're gonna get better at. Youstill have to figure out your health,
your business, your family, Likemake sure your real energy is going there,

(18:44):
and then if you've got extra energy, go get entertained by the theater
that is that is our country atthe moment. I think that it is.
It's an interesting time to be anobserver. Observer of politics. Yeah,
be an observer. Yeah, don'tof your little ast you know,
don't don't. Don't die on thecliff for any of this ship. Like,
who knows what the fuck's going on? None of these motherfuckers actually can.

(19:07):
Either side doesn't care about you,They don't know your name. They
just care about them fuckingmself. Sobe an observer. You know, get
educated. I think it's important toget educated. I think it's important to
research and read, and I thinkit's important if you find the right people
you can have discussions with because alot of these motherfuckers you can't even talk
to regular humans, are gonna blowyour head off for no reason. If
you can have a regular conversation witha friend you trust, that's good too.

(19:32):
But observer, I think is theword of the day. Just be
an observer. Another another thing tothrow out there. This was actually posted
yesterday by somebody I know, somebodyI met years ago actually in Philadelphia,
who was part of a very smallcompany that produced the software that inserts advertisement

(19:56):
into podcasts, and he sold thatbusiness as far as I know. But
his post yesterday was talking about howhe said, like I made a lot
of money off of political ads.I made just just a crazy amount of
money I can't imagine. Like helives out in the woods currently and that's
you know, like on land andnice developed stuff and whatever, and continue

(20:17):
to work on it and and justhas has time to work on himself and
you know all that stuff. Hesaid. Instead of donating money to political
parties because God knows they have money, is find a charity that makes sense
to you for sure to give themyour money and give your time. Yeah,

(20:40):
you could impact people's lives maybe moredirectly. Sure, And you know
I mean, politics runs on money, and they and they find money.
Small dollar donors have made a biggerdifference over the last you know, eight
ten years of politics that they probablyever have before. But in reality,
you might be able to have agreater impact on the things that you care

(21:03):
the most about by being involved directlyin a charity. Yeah, these parties
can't even get along anymore, andyou're gonna put your money into a party
either side that doesn't fully see theworld the same. Yeah, yeah,
what are you doing. You're wastingyour time. Go help some people if
you got extra dough or your timeor again, Yeah, focus on your
own shit, get healthy, focuson your family. Yeah, it's messy.

(21:30):
So I was. I was inPhiladelphia at the end of the trip,
and this is actually the view fromthe Rocky steps. So if you
and you run up the rocky stepsand people do it all the time,
Yeah, it's constant, yeah,constantly people like this shot was the first
shot that that and because I stoodthere and waited until there was nobody coming
up, and like immediately after thatthere was this whole group that came up

(21:52):
and took their pictures. Everybody's gottheir hands in the air. Whatever,
looking like Rocky looking like the statue. They probably haven't even seen the movie,
fucking nerds, but potentially not,who knows, They've probably just Creed
and not. Yeah. The funnything about this statue is that it was
up I don't remember what at whatpoint they it was. It was cast

(22:15):
and put in that park outside It'sIt's the Art Museum, and then people
kind of forgot about Rocky and theylike put it in storage someplace and they
took it down. Oh yeah,Actually it was gone for some period of
time and then Creed came out andthey brought it back. I don't know
that is it in one of theRocky movies. I feel like it is,

(22:36):
yeah, right, yeah, andit's in Creed too, Yeah,
Creed for sure, but like Ifeel like, yeah, towards one of
the end of the rock I think, yeah, five or six, he
already shows that he's like legend ina way. Yeah, yeah, I
mean it. And it is hugefor the city of Philadelphia. Although Philly
is like a huge city and alot of history, both like as a
country and sport, the movie isso iconic and I feel like when you

(22:56):
do anything of that level for yourcity, Yeah, not that I put
Philly on the map. That's whatI was trying to get it, Like,
Philly has so much shit, butit is like an easy draw in
your head. When you hear aboutPhiladelphia, Rocky's probably gonna pop up.
Yeah. The the thing I didn'trealize before or not. I've been to
Philadelphia before, but I didn't reallygo as extensively into the neighborhood's side to

(23:19):
this time. The neighborhood that he'srunning through and that Creed runs through is
so far from those steps. It'sit's far either the biggest aerobic capacity or
their fucking liars. It's it's it'sI mean it's miles. That's right then
Yeah, maybe I mean boxers begoing crazy, those motherfuckers be running.
Yeah. I think it's like,I don't know, two and a half,

(23:40):
three miles. Yeah, yeah,that's a realistic then. Yeah,
for a little boxer jog in themorning. Road work they call it in
the biz. Yes, a littlebit of road work. Uh. I
haven't really hung out in Philadelphia.I've been out there for seminar and kind
of went out to the woods withthe Baileys. I was out in reading
reading and hers sheep and you know, which are near ish. But I

(24:02):
didn't really hang out in the cityat all. It's worth it to go
one time. And it was winter, yeah, which doesn't make me want
to hang out anywhere in the EastCoast particularly, No, I agree with
you. But also summer, Yeah, summer would be nice. Yeah,
summer was. It was hot there. That was the hot, hottest days
that we experienced on the whole thewhole trip. Luggy. Yeah, the
first the first few days in Manhattanwere pretty warm and moist. Yeah,

(24:25):
and and then you know, thelast few days, except for the very
last day in Philadelphia where it waslike hot, like you gotta you gotta
retire to a to an air conditionedspace for the afternoon and let things cool
off. But I don't know,I did you watch any soccer during this

(24:45):
I watched all the Copa America USand Argentina games, of course, because
we're gonna win, so you gottawatch it. Yeah, I watched both
of dose. Well, I'll watcha little bit of Europe. You know,
I'm just not as invested in Italygot knocked out real early, so
any time dropped out. But Ithink I watched you always see clips now,
right, so you feel like youwere there although you weren't. But

(25:06):
I watched a little bit of thefinals. But yeah, I'm just an
Argentina fan. You know. Thelast two days we were in in New
York, we went to a hotel. Were like, we were in a
hotel the first seven days and we'reon Airbnb in Harlem, which was an
experience for ten days, and thenthe last two we were back in Chelsea
and we're checking into the hotel andthe guy behind the counter, as he's

(25:37):
you know, doing our cards andall that stuff, he's like, do
you watch soccer? And I'm like, not really yeah, and he goes
me either, and he said,what in the lobby of this hotel,
they've got a you know, seventyfive inch TV that's been on soccer all

(26:00):
day? Yeah. Yeah, andthere are people gathered down there, even
though they could be in the room. No, it's kind of fun.
They're down there. And he's like, you said, those people over there,
they've been watching that game for twohours. Yeah, nobody's scored.
That's such an American. He's like, I don't understand it. Yeah.
I remember being in One of mybest friends would take family trips to Mexico

(26:25):
and they used to bring me inhigh school and so we went once or
twice, but one of them wasa World Cup year, and same idea.
They'd get a projector huge TV bythe pool at the resort and just
everyone's in the pool watching the game, like it was so cool. You
know, everyone's cheering what regardless ofwhat team it is, Like they had
a game on basically twelve hours aday. I do like that shit,

(26:45):
and I feel like the Olympics areeven last World Cup here. I remember
seeing a bunch of like the barshere started to dress up and people show
up. Soccer is getting more popularin America in general, kind of like
the dream team effect in basketball tothe world. I feel like the messy
effect not only coming to America butin general. And then even now,
like the US teams arguably set upto be one of our best teams of

(27:08):
all time as they age, they'rekind of a younger squad. Pulstitch,
our leading striker like is a reallygood player from Europe. I mean he
was born here but plays in Spain, I believe, and so like we
have the potential to be good,and so like that effect plus the leagues
here are getting popular. Sacramento inparticular, what are we the USL,
I don't even know what it is, but we're the smaller of the soccer

(27:30):
leagues versus not MLS professional top level. Yeah, but there's a huge fan
base here. You see like evenone of my neighbors as a flag for
the SZAC Republic, which is ourour football club, or you'll see stickers
and jerseys like it is slowly growingin America. And I know the same.
When I was flying to Austin,Texas, I think with subbouts last
year, maybe there's like people onthe plane with like Austin Texas soccer jerseys

(27:53):
that like traveled with the team andtype shit. Like it really is growing,
which is cool, and it isthe reason I like this sport.
One. I grew up kind ofplaying it, you know, up until
junior high. I liked it alot. But two me and Kyle were
speaking of this the roots of worldwidesoccer. The only thing that we can
kind of relate to here is likeSEC or like Big ten football, where

(28:18):
like if you grow up in Ohioor you grow up in Alabama, your
parents either have been an Alabama footballfan for twenty years before you were born,
or they went to Bama. Thenyou grow up being from Bama.
Obama fan go to Bama. Likethe roots of the sport, it goes
so deep where it just doesn't reallyhappen here, you know, on the

(28:38):
West Coast, people move here.Like the amount of people that have like
two to three generations in Sack arefar and few between. So like the
root of the sport just isn't soor even now, like the legacy family
isn't a thing, right, Likeif so and so went to Berkeley,
chances are that two generations of kids. It doesn't really happen like that as
much anymore. But in Europe,you know, you're going back a thousand

(29:03):
years to your greatest to the tenthGrandpa was born in Spain and you're born
in Spain and football is all youguys, know, like you're going to
be fucking about it, you know, like you're about it more than anything
else, way more than any sportsteam here. Which I do like that
because the culture is just so deep. Yeah, I want to go to
a game. I want to go. We got twenty twenty six, twenty

(29:25):
twenty six World Cup. Really Yeah, Santa Clara Sofi in La Seattle Stadium
the Seahawks, I assume. Ithink maybe Miami. There's a couple of
stadiums, but I know Santa Clara'sgetting games. That's my goal. Hopefully
Messy plays. I don't think he'sannounced it. I haven't been to a

(29:45):
Sacropoblic game in a while, butI don't have to. I have to
check the schedule. My my grandkidsare coming to Thanksgiving and they're really from
Canada and they really want to go. Yeah, they're fun. I wonder
won they're fun. The crowd ispretty good. I just wish we would
get a fucking stadium by now.Goddamn. Yeah, they're supposed to be
working on that, but it's not. I bought my house eight years ago.
They told me they're building the stadium. Well that's always that's part for

(30:06):
the course. I think that's crazy. Yeah, literally, I had to
sign like all these extra contracts forthe construction that's going to go on because
it's right by my house. Right, Yeah, it's crazy. I just
doxed myself. Now everyone knows whereI love. You've done that before,
Yeah, nothing new, Yeah,fucking yeah, I gotta signd all these
contracts, like, hey, theremay be this construction and that construction,
and the roads may change by youand this and that. All right,

(30:27):
man, fucking six and a halfyears later, I don't think they started
digging for the stadium. I don'tthink so either. Yeah, other things
have gone but one day. Yeah, so obviously I'm going to spent the
majority of the majority of the monthaway. Yeah, and a lot of
you know, like I said,we're on the streets in Harlem. I

(30:51):
think I told you. The mostinteresting thing to me was on the fourth
of July. There are all theselike block parties and stuff going on around
us. The music was not wrap, folks, was not rap. It
was like classic R and B,current R and B, very listenable.
But going back to what you're saying, like, there's probably that's not trending,
Yeah, because you're sick of theshit that's trending, exactly exactly.

(31:12):
Yeah, it wasn't stuff I recognized, but other than just what genre,
sure, Yeah, I mean that'swhy, like I grew up listening to
rap, but I don't listen thatmuch anymore. Yeah, just because the
songs do they get spoiled so quickand obviously I'm just an old fogie,
so I hate all the new artistswith no talent, and I can bitch
about all that stuff now, butfor sure, you know, but it.

(31:33):
Yeah, I listen to like fuckingI listened to African artists because of
my Jacob and my buddy law.They showed me afrobeats in like twenty seventeen.
I listen to all those guys,all the guys from Nigeria and South
Africa and a couple from Sudan Cameroon. The uh the only time that I
felt uncomfortable writing the subways and allthis stuff, which the subways are super

(31:55):
clean and they feel very safe.Yeah, I think they're better than Bart.
Huh oh yeah, oh fuck yeah, there's much better than Bart,
much much better than Bart. Imean there was a lot of like like
when when I it was on myFacebook story, like Instagram story was a
Facebook story, and the wife ofone of my cousins was like, oh
my god, be careful in NewYork or whatever, and it was like,

(32:15):
ookay, this is like like seventhor eighth trip to New York ever,
and like it's not my first rodeonumber one, number two. I
don't know how uncomfortable. Yeah,like I've I've seldom been in situations in
New York where where I felt uncomfortable. I'm kind of the same. I
am sadly more uncomfortable in places inCalifornia than I am in New York.
If you look Google to imagine likebart or Bay Area transit like clips,

(32:42):
they're gonna be way, way moredangerous than if you google like New York
subway. Once. New York subwayones are crazy, Like you'll see like
a band set up in there,something you know, like you'll lie to
that. Yeah, like dudes likedriving their motorcycle through the subway like weird
shit circus type shit, but likethe dangerous ship. Yeah. Even friends
that live in the Bay areas stillthey're like, yeah, man, there's

(33:02):
like drugs happening in the back ofthe I never noticed any of that in
the subway either. I did seesomeone shooting somebody else up on the streets
in New York. That was interesting. That was one I hadn't seen before.
I see. The thing. Thething was that was like the most
disconcerting is there was one dude onthe subway. My wife and I were
writing with our niece and guy wasjust like going off yelling and stuff,

(33:27):
and it was you couldn't figure outwhat he was saying, the drug or
mental health or something. It wasclearly I think both. Yeah, I
think it was both. And themental health part of it is like scary.
And the people that like, evenon the streets, the people who
are most intimidating are the people whohave mental health challenges and just don't have
control of themselves. And because theydon't have control of themselves, you have
no idea what's going to happen.Yeah, you can't reason with them,

(33:47):
even if you're calm and want tohave a conversation. That's that's part that's
scary. But that can happen anywhere. It's just the population concentration is so
much higher in New York City thatyou're more likely to encounter than you are
in a lot of other places.For sure. Yeah, Oklahoma doesn't have
a fucking subway. Yeah but itbut you know it manifests and weird and
strange places too. I hope noone is offended by this story as I

(34:10):
tell it, but this is fuckthem all. This is absolutely true.
So we were we were riding thesubway at one point, my wife and
I toward the end of the thething, and it's probably about a twenty
minute ride or so, and therewas a woman sitting are not directly across
from us, but like on theangle across from us in the car,

(34:30):
and uh, notable initially in thefact that she had a long cardboard box
from Crumble and she kept getting intoit and getting pieces of this very sticky
pastry and the humidity and then theeating it right, and like there's a

(34:50):
whole like delicate thing going on withher hands and whatever. Whatever. Yeah,
subway rails are known to be dirty. As the last the last piece
that she took out, she finishedit, she licked her fingers and then
she went to her face like shewas applying something that she just got from
the ordinary, you know what I'msaying, all down her face. I

(35:15):
thought, well, that's that's reallyodd. And then I started looking at
this person more closely, and thiswas, you know, this was a
female presenting person, like credibly sureand maybe one hundred percent except for the
little chin whisker business that was goingon. I was gonna say an Adam's

(35:37):
apple and and like it wasn't untilI put all that together that I thought,
Oh, here's a person experiencing somemental health challenges. Yeah, maybe
because you don't just take the stickyfrom the Yeah, and a face there
is not like a that's not abeauty regime that anyone has subscribed to.

(35:58):
The saliva clean and the face too. That should just retire, Like I
don't even care if you're your auntie. Shouldn't be doing that to a three
year old, Like that's not doingnothing. The lick the finger fixed the
smudge. That's gross. Yeah,I don't even do it to myself.
People still do that to themselves,like lick their thumb and like wipe some
offl and go the fuck, justgo to the bathroom, got running water.
Four. Yeah. Another thing thatI'm just gonna connect to the mental

(36:22):
health thing, Like somebody that Ihave known for twenty plus years was very
recently in the last twenty four tothirty six hours outed as being a serial
abuser. And I know that thisperson has mental health challenges, and I'm
and you know, I'm surprised andnot surprised at the same time, because

(36:45):
like this person was abused as achild, and abuse kind of runs downhill
and has been like under the careof doctors and whatever for years and years
and years in years, and stillthis thing happened. These things, I
mean, if it's hard not tobelieve the women who came forward about it.

(37:08):
Yeah, and I'm just like,I don't I'm not even sure exactly
what to say, other than youknow, some of the women in their
stories had the self to esteem todisconnect themselves from the situation. Yeah,

(37:28):
we're talking about like sexual abuse andthings, which is something you hear often
like a natural behavioral thing where youjust like go third person. Yeah,
and I think if you have tothink about something too hard about whether or
not it defends you, it probablyis not all that offensive. But if

(37:51):
you were immediately offended and you're tryingto normalize it in your mind, that's
probably fucked up. Yeah. It'sa weird year, like again, with
like the content investigations and people's accessto people's lives, like you text me,
I didn't want to text it back. But one of mister Beast's crew
is under like major fire for verysimilar things right now. Yeah, doctor

(38:15):
disrespect. I don't know if wetalked about that on here, but a
twitch streamer I've watched just like twentyfifteen, twenty sixteen, who was at
Norcall Local, you know, wasmessaging minors inappropriately, and then like what
sucks is again like not to likesit on my high horse like I'm perfect
or nothing. But going back tolike that political speech I said, like
people get so tied into what theythey're like crew or their political beliefs,

(38:38):
and you know, identity politics isthe cliche term, but like identity anything
is so bad for all of usas a collective that it happens like,
oh, well, that's my favoritestreamer. He didn't do that. That's
not that bad, Like show meevidence, and you know, we'll talk
politics for now, because it's notus, it's other people. But doctor

(38:58):
disrespecting his crew seem to lean tothe right, and mister Beast and his
crew seem to lean to the left. And two individuals did very similar activities
on both sides. And my Twitter'sfull of now both because it's always been
gaming and like sports, but nowit's gaming sports and politics. And then
the politics dig themselves into the gamingworld and you see which streamers are vocal

(39:22):
or pissed off or cut off othercontent creators. But only when it's on
this other political side, but thewrongdoings are nearly identical. Yeah, when
you have to look on your sidelike that's fucking dumb, bro like,
I hate it, fucking on.That's literally the issue with everything going on.

(39:43):
So again, to be an observerof these things is great, but
if you're tying yourself to an identityto a human or a group that you
have never met, right, youhaven't even shook hands with, let alone
have a real relationship with. Weneed to get off the fucking internet.
We need to understand what a thereal relationship is. And it's easy to
say, but things are happening aroundus, around and we live in the

(40:06):
fucking capital so California, but everywherewhere. You're gonna choose a group that
you don't even know that speaks aboutsomething they believe in. You don't even
know how they act in front ofdoors or behind doors over someone that you
know personally and see and know howthey act like that is fucking insanity.

(40:31):
If you choose something that you trulydon't know over an individual that you can
judge. You have the right tojudge someone you've met and interacted with.
And just because you guys vote acertain way, or you follow a certain
person, or you think you believethe same thing as this group is insane

(40:51):
to me. So my rant endswith I believe that you should judge individuals,
You should believe individuals. You shouldmake your own core beliefs, not
based on what the fuck's going on, not what your political party says.
Make your own judgments on this worldand how you want to move through it.
And then you should connect yourself andcollect individuals that you think have the

(41:15):
same moral ground, not what youvote on, not where my taxes go,
not the point six percent or thepoint three percent you think you're fucking
fighting for, not donating the partiesthat don't give a fuck about you,
like connect with the individuals around you, because it's getting fucking ridiculous, Bro,
it's getting so fucking bad. Andlike that example, the content creators

(41:37):
is just such an even playing field. They're both content creators, they're both
very popular, they're both X,Y and Z, and to see like
people speak out or not speak out, and then they're fighting each other which
one's worse, Like, bro,bad is bad? Yeah? Like bad
is bad? Yeah exactly. AndI think that, like like I was
saying before, like you know inyour gut whether something's right or wrong.

(41:58):
Yeah, if you have to useyour brain AI to justify a thing that
your gut says is wrong a strawman, Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And that's what's going on all thesedebates I read on Twitter, a bunch
of fucking idiots. Man, it'sbad. It's bad. Spread your best
message, Spread it with people youbelieve in. For sure, Connect with
people you believe in. And andagain, like take the individual over the

(42:19):
group. I don't understand where thatbecame so normal to like tie in with
the group, whether you know themor don't know them. Most of the
case you don't know them, Yeah, rather than like just judging the individual
in front of you, how dothey act, how do they believe?
What is the history you have seenthis individual do or not do? And
of course take on this internet evidencebecause some of that's pretty damning. Of
these instances I'm talking of. Butyeah, it's fucking weird, man,

(42:44):
it really, that's what really doesfeel like I'm in the matrix. I
need to unplug like Neo and figurethe fuck's going on. We don't even
have AI yet, or maybe wedo. Maybe, oh, we totally
do. Yeah. I figured outsomething yesterday. Yeah that was good.
Yeah. I started doing math afteryou send me that. I was like,
oh that actually that works out prettygood. Yeah it does. It's
like, ah, okay, yeah, gym's doing fucking geometry math with some
AI. Yeah. It just explainedthe whole thing for me, Like all

(43:07):
I had to do was figure outto formulate the problem. Yeah. Yeah,
yeah, it is crazy. Itis crazy. Yeah. Well,
number you guys need to know.We're having a heat wave again, another
a nice one ten today, Ithink, Yeah, it's it's it's quite
warm, and this is not aconditioned space. And so we're recording at
you know, eight thirty in themorning, and Mike's got something. He's

(43:28):
got a heart out here very soon, and so we're gonna wrap this one
up. But we're happy to beback in the saddle after our breaks.
Mike was in Vegas, I wasin nice East Coast. This is the
longest that the two of us haveboth been gone from the gym since we
opened the thing. Probably true,Yeah, probably true. I'm pretty certain

(43:49):
of it. Yeah, yeah,it might have been the longest I've been
gone in general. Possibly be trueas Yeah, yeah, I normally don't
take. My trips are normally aweek. Yes, ladies and gentlemen,
New episodes Wednesday. We'll catch youthere. Third Street, Barbells, Soccomano,
California, THRESB Dot Seal for allyour nees. I'm so Michael,
you want to find me, I'mMatthews, You're mcdan. All the social
media. This show is fifty percentfacts. For percent is word and fifty
is just numbers. Fifty percent Factsis a speaker Pine podcast association with iHeartMedia

(44:14):
on the Obscure Celebrity Network. Andhave you noticed we have taken a little
bit of a break from Friday episodes. They will be back at some point
soon. Trying to work up towardssomething and making me make some changes in
how we distribute that part of theshow. And we'll see and then we'll
talk to you next time.