October 3, 2025 • 29 mins
College pushing "it/it's" pronouns, political drama destroying families, random questions and more! I break it all down in this Voicemail Friday episode of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.
Send me a voice note: https://www.speakpipe.com/bradvseveryone
Check out the merch: https://bp-shop.fourthwall.com/
Support My Show: https://linktr.ee/bradpolumbo
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 (00:00):
Colleges are pushing people to use it. It's pronouns. I'm
going to react to this and your other wikar stories,
personal scenarios and questions that you guys have for me
in this Voicemail Friday episode of the Bread Versus Everyone podcast,
(00:24):
my daily show where we take on the craziest ideas
from across the Internet, our media, and our politics, all
from an independent perspective. Guys, if you ever want to
send in a voice note, the link is as always
in the description. Now. I love hearing from you guys.
So we're gonna kick this one off with this episode
of Voicemail Friday. We're gonna kick it off with a
real doozy. But when I say a doozy, I mean
(00:45):
like a doozy of a doozy. New pronouns just dropped
and they're not really human.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Let's listen all right, Sorry about the background noise. I'm
actually in college right now. I just saw this on
the Cafeteria TV. You would think that this sort of
shit would be left in like twenty twenty, but they're
just introducing these all new pronoun badges, right, So we
(01:14):
have these lanyards and they are introducing these clip ons
that you can get at the office, and they have
the ones I saw on the TV were they had
they them obviously he he and.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
She, but they had it. It's like they them and
it's it's in a college. These are adults, right, these
are actually adult human beings. What is going on in
the UK?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Dude, that is a very good question. What is going
on in the UK? And frankly, the pronoun pins are
I wouldn't say the least of their concerns because it
is pretty crazy, but not even the top of my list.
Every single day I'm seeing people getting rounded up and
arrested for social media posts, just the most authoritarian attacks
(02:08):
on freedom of speech and acts of censorship going on
in the United Kingdom. It genuinely makes me really sad
and really concerned and just makes me think that I
genuinely believe parts of America would be like that if
we didn't have the First Amendment and stringent legal protections
for this stuff. But no, the pronoun pin thing is
a one level it's just silly and absurd, but another level,
(02:30):
it's kind of sad. I mean, it's pronouns is literally dehumanizing.
It's like making a human beings sound like an object,
sound like they're not even human, and they're presenting this
as if it's some sort of like cute fun thing
or valid new identity that just dropped. And then of
(02:52):
course that if you don't use that, if you refuse
to participate in what I would say is like dehumanizing language,
that's bigotry. That's you know, an assault on their dignity
and their rights. You're misgendering them. I think that's really disturbing.
And the idea that institutions are pushing this, it's not like, Okay,
(03:15):
you're at a college and the kid with blue hair
shows up with a pronoun pin. It's like the top down,
they are pushing the idea that human beings can be.
It's and they them, which is a scientific right. Basically,
every human being is biologically male or female based on
their sex and the structure of their reproductive system. And
(03:37):
it's also disturbing to me because colleges, at least in
the US, and I imagine the same is true in
the United Kingdom, they claim to be these bastions of
social justice and feminism and these other ideas, but then
they also push these kind of retrograde notions I mean
the idea that like, oh, I'm non binary, I have
different pronouns. I'm not a she her, I'm not a woman.
(03:57):
I'm not a man because I'm not masculine, or I'm
not a woman because I don't present typically feminine. I
know they don't realize it. I know they don't see it.
I know they exist in such such an echo chamber
that it's never pointed out to them. But that is
actually sexism. The truth is that it's okay to be
a male and you don't have to act a certain way.
(04:18):
You're allowed to have whatever personality you want. It's okay
to be a female and to dress a way that
is not typically female doesn't make it, and it's and
the people pushing that are not feminists. I feel like
I'm going crazy even that I have to say that,
like the de Lulu is off the charts, haven't dropped
that one in a while, but it's true. What do
(04:40):
you guys think? Have you encountered this level of pronoun
nonsense or have we not hit that level quite yet
here in the US. Let me know in the comments.
Makes your subscribe yeada YadA, Yeah, remember to send in
your voice mails the link is in the description. And
now we are going to hear from somebody who got
called or compared to a Nazi for a simple suggestion
(05:04):
that is not in fact that crazy.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Let's listen, Hi, Brad, my name is Dominic and I
have a will core story to share with you. So
during a debate that I had with a friend, the
debate was about how I support distinguishing sexual orientation, you know,
gay same sex attraction, which is tied to your biological
(05:27):
drive towards men from gender identity, whereas trying to self identification.
And I believe in respecting both of their truths. I
don't believe in lumping all them into one movement. But
(05:51):
because of this, because of my belief of that, I
was called a Nazi multiple times. He even played me
music from the Third Reich about it. When I mean
multiple times, I mean harassed. And even after a conversation,
he still was send me messages about how I was
(06:13):
a Nazi. And when I ask why I am apparently
this Nazi, it was because I because the Nazi segregated people,
and he said, I'm trying to do the same thing.
I'm not. I'm recognizing the differences. That's not transphobia.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree with you in that
simply arguing this is not new. The LGB without the TQ,
that's not a new thing. People have been saying that,
and I don't. I certainly will come to the Nazi thing,
of course, that's ridiculous, But I don't think there's anything
inherently transphobic or hateful about simply saying these things are
(06:55):
different and meaningfully different and distinct concepts. I think if
I was starting from scratch, I would never merge the
two in the first place. Like that, I really don't
believe they have that much in common, and in some
ways even they can be contradictory or at odds. Then again,
like I think some things sometimes the ship hash sailed
(07:17):
and the idea that you're going to really successfully rebrand
to just LGB or anything like that strikes me as
kind of far fetched. But anyway, it's a totally legitimate
conversation to have, and somebody suggesting you are at all
problematic simply for talking about it is being close minded,
not intellectually honest or curious. And then also, I mean,
(07:40):
I really have an issue with the constant, frivolous absurd,
hyperbolic invocations of Nazis and Hitler. It is such a disgrace,
so insulting to the memories of all those lost in
the Holocaust, brutally murdered by Hitler and that terrible regime.
And you're just like minimizing it and down playing it
and watering this stuff down all the score points that
(08:04):
don't even make sense. Oh well, you're like the Nazis
because they wanted to segregate people too. No one's talking
about segregating anything. Talking about how things are different doesn't
mean you're segregating them. Like, ask your friend, are straight
people part of LGBTQ plus, No, then why are you
segregating them? Like simply having categories that include some things
(08:27):
and not other things is not segregation. And y'all sound
deranged now. Of what they mean is that you want
to segregate and I hate to even use that word
in this context, things between the sexes, like sports or
other such things. Yeah, well, not all distinctions or differences
or categories are bad. I mean, surely your friend would
(08:49):
agree that it makes sense that we separate sports by age,
and we have the fifth graders play soccer with the
fifth graders and the twelfth graders and eleventh graders play
with the other high schoolers. Oh, but you're segregating them. No,
it's like, obviously, there are some categories and distinctions where
it is appropriate to treat them differently on the basis
(09:10):
of those things, and there are some where it's not
just inappropriate but evil to do so, like race, And
you have to be able to be a thinking person
and draw those distinctions. And sounds like your friend is
probably beyond saving at this point. I mean, maybe maintaining
a relationship. Maintaining a connection is worth it, because then
(09:31):
if they start to wake up one day, they have
it kind of a lifeline. But yeah, I mean, you
can't reason with somebody who's that far gone and is
unironically invoking the Nazis over such a basic and frankly
uncontroversial conversation. Thanks for the note, and good luck dealing
with all that, because it sounds exhausting. Meanwhile, and this
(09:54):
is sad, this is such a recurring theme on this podcast.
We have yet another family being torn apart over politics.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
So I was publicly disowned by my cousins on the
internet a day or two after Trump on the election
my cousin decided to make a post on Facebook talking
about how if aybody voted for Trump, they are dead
to him and they will also never be a part
of his life, his wife's life, and his son's life.
And I took a lot offense to that because I
am a family member of his and I voted for
Trump along with my parents, and also my grandmother voted
for Trump as well, that is also his grandmother. So
I decided to stand up to him and I responded
to his remark and I said, well, then, just understand
(10:24):
your whole family is dead to you now, and this
is a very disrespectful thing to say. And you know,
I hope understand trually how strong a word you're saying
right now. And then suddenly it turned into this whole
mess and he somehow made himself the victim along with
his sister, which is my daughter, and they claimed that
they couldn't love me anymore, and they one followed me
on Instagram they said are moral and values on the line,
and then they have not spoken to me since. So
I'm getting married in June and I'm not. I'm wading
onto my wedding, So what are your thoughts? On you know,
family members doing this to you, uh, cutting ties because
(10:45):
of political believe Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I mean, unfortunately, this is not a news story for me.
You know, this is something I have probably at this
point received hundreds of voicemails with some sort of story
about this political differences leading somebody, usually the left leading
person in the family to cut off the mega person.
But I have also absolutely heard and even in my
(11:10):
personal life knowing some people from West Michigan where there's
a lot of like Christian conservative families where sometimes their
kids grow up, go to college come back as the
liberal young adults, I've also heard the opposite way, where
it's like, I can't believe you voted for Biden, You're
dead to me, or what have you. But at least
because my audience been because of what I cover, because
I think I generally lean to the right, and so
(11:31):
do a lot of my viewers, I tend to hear
more of the stories of the opposite direction. I also
think that's a little more common for left wing people
to cut off family over political differences than right wing people,
but it does happen in both directions, and I just
think it's a tragedy. I don't think you've done anything wrong.
You're certainly well within your rights to not invite them
(11:51):
to your wedding after they treated you like this. Yeah,
that'd be Why would you? But the only thing that
jumps out to me is I do wish this converse
could have happened in person. It sounds like you went
back and forth with your cousin on social media. Really
I recommend against that. I think people are able to
have much more productive conversations and be much less snappy
(12:14):
and judgmental and absolutist when you're face to face right
than when you are just behind a screen typing words.
There's something about that that leads to black and white thinking,
leads to this like with us or against us mentality.
So I do wish you could have actually been in
a room with your cousin and your grandma and talked
about all of it, because then maybe you kind of
(12:36):
got through to them in a way that you're just
not going to ever get through to somebody dooking it
out on Facebook comments. But it's just sad. I mean,
people are complex beings, shades of gray, very very human.
Few human beings, if any, are unambiguously bad or unambiguously good.
And so when you were just writing someone off because
(12:58):
of their basically irrelevant vote, like one vote makes no
difference one way or the other. There's two problems I
have with that. One is that even if you say,
for example, grant the premise that voting for Trump is
immoral and wrong, Well, because someone does one thing that
you is not moral in your view, doesn't make them
(13:19):
a totally bad person. Doesn't mean you can't have a
good relationship with them. Obviously, there's some level of immorality
or being harmful to others where you have to distance
yourself from a person and it overrides everything. But I
don't think simply checking off a bubble on a ballot sheet,
especially when this comes to the second point, there's a
(13:39):
lack of intellectual humility, right, because what you are saying,
if you are this cousin in this situation, is that
I have the world figured out all these complicated issues
that divide our politics, all the thousands of news stories
and policy positions where these candidates differ. I know all
of it to the point where I know all the
(14:00):
right answers about all of it, to the point where
no one could possibly disagree with me and be coming
from any sort of place of good faith, they must
just be evil. I think that is probably the most
arrogant and intellectually dishonest that just so that there is
no humility to that thinking at all. And I think
it's the most arrogant position or thinking that is at
(14:23):
all prevalent in American society today, because in reality, I
am a political journalist and content creator. I spend all
day monitoring the news. I've spent years reading about stuff,
covering stuff, and yet every single day I encounter news
stories or issues where politicians are taking stances on things
(14:46):
of great importance that I feel like I don't know
enough about to draw firm conclusion. And yet these random
people who don't know much about politics, don't do this
for a living, think they have the whole world figured
out to black and white, cookie cutter morality, all these
complicated issues and everything. I find that to be really,
(15:08):
really arrogant and disgusting. And then I find this whole
thing to be so sad because family relationships are so
special and so important, and my grandparents are passed away.
Now I have my inlaws, some grandparents on my partner's side,
who are wonderful and who I love very much, but
they my grandparents are passed away. So and the idea
(15:31):
that you're discarding a relationship over something this petty and
this one dimensional is just so sad because that person
is not going to be around forever. And your cousin
may have regrets when your grandmother passes away, but same
with the cousin relationships and the other extended family. It's
like you've lost people through actual death sadness like terrible
(15:52):
incidents and tragedies, or through fractured broken family relationships through
abuse or other things, all of which you know I
have some experience with, and many people have much more
than I. Then you look at these people just throwing
away their family relationships for no good reason, and it's
not just sad, it's kind of infuriating, honestly, because they
(16:13):
are just taking for granted and then discarding these beautiful,
precious relationships they could have that other people had taken
from them by fate or by force. It's really horrible,
But no, you didn't do anything wrong. All I think
all you can do is maybe try to extend an
olive branch at some point to your cousin keep an
(16:34):
open mind, be the bigger person. But yeah, I'm really sorry,
and I wish I could say your story was an outlier,
but it's really not. Okay, guys, we got a funny
question from somebody asking me about something that happened years
ago that I talked about at the time but then forgot.
(16:54):
Apparently there's a cartoon show called Big Mouth, which I
have never watched, but my boyfriend watched at least a
few episodes of it years ago, with a couch pillow
named Brad Palombo. And this person encountered that and wanted
to ask me about it. Let's listen.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Hey, Brad, my name is Megan. I was just curious
what the story is of the pillow in big Mouth
being named after you Jay's pillow. I was watching big
Mouth the other day and the pillow's name is Brad Palumbo,
and the more I look at it, it kind of
looks like you. So I was just curious what the
(17:35):
story is behind that, and if you were in on
it or if they just wrote that. I couldn't really
find much online besides people calling you a crazy far
right activist, but I so I just was wondering. But
I love your content. Keep up the good work.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Thank you for the question and for watching the content
and everything. No, this is so funny to me because
this happened a couple of years ago, and the answer,
the short answer is I have no idea. I literally
do not know what this is or why it happened.
But people at the time were like, wait a sec. Also,
the funny thing is he's like, I've never seen the
(18:12):
episode or watched any of the show, but I believe
it's a pillow they like have sex with what the
character has sex with. It's really weird. And so the
thing is it has to be based on me because
my name is spelled unusually so Palumbo is it's a
(18:33):
common Italian last name, but it's usually spelled with a ppa.
But my name is spelled po for whatever reason. I'm
not even sure anyway, but when you look at the
subtitles and like the text associated with the show, they
spell it po. And then that pillow does kind of
almost have these features that look like me, like the
very strong eyebrows. So I don't know. I mean, my
(18:56):
theory is that there's no way that it's just a coincidental,
that maybe there's some like woke gay writer or something
that was trying to mock me or take shots at
me by naming this pillow that is used as a
sex object after me. It's genuinely one of the most
random and weird things that has happened throughout my career,
(19:18):
and I wish I had a good answer for you,
but I actually just don't. But I just wanted to
include this because people ask me about this every so often,
and it's just this random added to the long list
of bizarre and weird Brad Palumbo lore. I guess I
genuinely don't know what do you guys think of Have
any of y'all seen that when you were watching that show?
(19:39):
Let me know in the comments, and just regardless, make
sure subscribe to the like button yetti YETI Yeah. Now
I want to take another question from somebody who is
a member of the LDS Church aka or formerly known
as the Mormon Church.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
Let's listen, Hey, Brad, my name is Amanda. First of all,
I just wanted to thank you for the compassionate and
respectful way that you covered that tragic shooting in Michigan
this past weekend. I'm a member of the LDS Church
and it was really refreshing to hear a political commentator
say such kind and warm things about us and cover
(20:17):
it in such a way, So thank you so much
for that. My question is how were you led to
the more independent perspective of the political spectrum and what
made you decide to share the views that you have
in the way that you do. You've done a lot
of good work, you have a lot of good things
(20:38):
to say. You seem really cool and fun. So just
thanks for all the hard work you do, and I
would love to hear more about what led you to
your views. So thanks, Happy weekend.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Well, I will absolutely answer your question from the second part,
but first I just want to briefly touch on the
first part that you mentioned about me saying kind things
about the LDS church and its member. I do not
do that to be like complimentary. I just do that
because it's just like a fact that I encounter over
(21:10):
and over again that I am blown away by the
kindness and generosity of LDS people. I mean, for example,
the story of this terrible shooting that I covered on
my YouTube channel. I don't think I talked about on
the podcast, but in some of my bonus videos at
this church in Michigan, which of course is where I
lived in Delbury recently, is where I'll be moving back
(21:31):
to in a few years. Potentially, it disturbed me that
somebody would attack any place of worship, whether it's Mormon,
a synagogue, anything. I would always be against that and
horrified by it. But so I spoke about it and
the political lens of it, and just my heart goes
out to the LDS Church and all its members because
(21:52):
it's just a terrible thing for anything to happen. But
then I was blown away by this. It confirmed every
impression I've ever had about LDS people is that they
actually most I think it's primarily LDS members have said,
I have fund raised for the family of the shooter.
Correct you heard that, Correctly. They fund raised for the
(22:16):
wife and children of the shooter, who had no connection
to the crime but have been put through hell. They
raised a ton of money and sent a message of
support and love to the family of the shooter. To me,
that just tells like, that's just stunning to me.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
And I.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Won't get into because I'm not even very well educated
in it, but I'll just say that, like, obviously I
don't share a lot of the beliefs that LDS people
hold in terms of religious or theological beliefs, But I
don't judge people based on that. I judge people based
on how they treat others and how they show up
in the world, and on that basis, I mean, I'll
(23:00):
just say my interactions and experiences with LDS people are
overwhelmingly disproportionately positive my impressions of them, and so I'm
so glad that you listened to the show and enjoy it,
and I again send my love to all of you
after that tragic shooting. Now for how I got my
kind of political bent and how I started even speaking
(23:21):
out on all of this, I'm going to give you
like a super short version. I could go on at
great length, and I think I have in some podcast
interviews and other stuff over the years, But basically, I
went to a super far left college, the University of Massachusetts.
It was insufferably woke, highly censorious, incredibly toxic and unhinged
(23:42):
left wing radicalism. I wasn't super political, but I showed
up there. It kind of repulsed me, and I was
like pushed to the right. And then in the year
sense I became more disillusioned with like the Republican Party,
conservative media kind of MAGA movement, and it became more
(24:04):
of an independent and still have right leaning views, but
I am not closely associated or supportive of these broader institutions
or groups. And that happened over the course of many
years just watching you know how biased and messed up
right wing media is in its own right, and how
it can often just be a mirror image of like MSNBC,
(24:25):
but in the opposite direction, and then many other things,
And so that's kind of where I ended up today.
How I decided to speak out is I just have
always been a little bit of a shit sir. And
when I started speaking out on campus, I got so
much pushback and hate that I liked it, and I
kept doing it and poking the bear and doubling down,
and then it led to professional opportunities for me while
(24:47):
I was still in college. That kind of changed my mind.
And I had thought I wanted to go and become
a lawyer and practice law, and I think I would
have been good at that, but I enjoy this more
and probably I mean there's pluses and minuss overall, probably
lead a better life doing this, but yeah, that's the
super short answer. I'm going to take one final voicemail
(25:12):
from somebody who is having some issues with their dad.
Speaker 8 (25:16):
Let's listen, Hi, Brad, I'm making a friend of the show.
I have a story, not I got concerts the World
Corp story, but you know, I would like to hear
your response to it. So I'm an atheist. I'm a
conservative conservative atheist. I would say I'm living with my
liberal agnostic mom. My dad is a conservative Christian and
my dad knows on him atheist or you know, he did.
(25:37):
And earlier this year, my on Father's Day, my dad
asked me to go to church with them. And you know,
I'm not like an edgy conservative, but you know or
edgi atheists like I used to be. So I did.
I went with them, and uh, now, you know, I've
been going to church with them and doing this, you know,
Christen's Men group, which I kind of pretend to like,
(26:00):
and you know, I kind of been going out of
respect for my dad and I want to want to
spend time with him, but I don't really want to go.
I really just want to spend time with my dad,
and I feel like I'm lying to my dad. You know,
I can't really talk to my mom ago. She's like
a liberal, she hates the church kind of thing. So
to my sisters, I don't think the priest would appreciate,
(26:23):
you know, me being an atheist and going to him
with this problem. So I don't really sure where to go.
You know, what do you even do with the situation?
You know, I really want to hear your thoughts on this.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Thank you, of course, thank you for sharing in the voicemail.
There's actually an answer to this question that is simultaneously
difficult and very easy and straightforward. You need to talk
to your dad. You need to sit down with him
in person and tell him what you just told me
(26:56):
and see how he responds. Say, Dad, listen, I really
want to spend time with you. I care about you.
So I decided to go to church with you because
I want to spend time with you. That's just not
something I want to keep doing on a regular basis.
Maybe I'm happy to go with you once in a while,
but spending time with you is still really important to me.
(27:17):
So I'm hoping we can find something else to do
together and that you can respect and understand my decision
and my feelings about that. And I have a nine
out of ten certainty that your dad is going to
handle that just fine. He'll appreciate you being honest with him,
and that you may have overthought this. I understand why,
(27:38):
but you may have overthought it a little bit. And frankly,
you don't need to go to your priest. You don't
need to go to your mom. You just need to
go to your dad and talk to him and tell
him where you're coming from. And I think he'll understand.
But it's always really interesting to me how these dynamics
play out in families with different beliefs, different faith, different
political stances. And it's kind of a recurring theme of
(28:01):
the voicemail Fridays is people trying to navigate these differences
and these distinctions in our increasingly toxic and polarized world.
But all we can do is our best, and I
think communication is always direct, honest, in person. Communication always
has the highest chance of working out well in these situations.
(28:24):
I can't say it will. It could go horribly wrong,
but it's got the best likelihood of working out for
everyone involved. That's my view at least. But you guys,
let me know if you disagree or have a different
perspective in the comments. Do make sure subscribe to the
like button. If you're listening to an audio podcast, please
do consider taking a second to rate or review this
(28:45):
show wherever you're listening, and maybe even recommend it to
a friend. That's the number one way the podcasts grow.
If you know somebody that might like the Brad Versus
Everyone podcast. And with all of that out of the way, guys,
remember the link to send in a voice note is
in the description and with that, guys, we'll talk. And
also voting mm hmm,
Colleges are pushing people to use it. It's pronouns. I'm
going to react to this and your other wikar stories,
personal scenarios and questions that you guys have for me
in this Voicemail Friday episode of the Bread Versus Everyone podcast,
(00:24):
my daily show where we take on the craziest ideas
from across the Internet, our media, and our politics, all
from an independent perspective. Guys, if you ever want to
send in a voice note, the link is as always
in the description. Now. I love hearing from you guys.
So we're gonna kick this one off with this episode
of Voicemail Friday. We're gonna kick it off with a
real doozy. But when I say a doozy, I mean
(00:45):
like a doozy of a doozy. New pronouns just dropped
and they're not really human.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Let's listen all right, Sorry about the background noise. I'm
actually in college right now. I just saw this on
the Cafeteria TV. You would think that this sort of
shit would be left in like twenty twenty, but they're
just introducing these all new pronoun badges, right, So we
(01:14):
have these lanyards and they are introducing these clip ons
that you can get at the office, and they have
the ones I saw on the TV were they had
they them obviously he he and.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
She, but they had it. It's like they them and
it's it's in a college. These are adults, right, these
are actually adult human beings. What is going on in
the UK?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Dude, that is a very good question. What is going
on in the UK? And frankly, the pronoun pins are
I wouldn't say the least of their concerns because it
is pretty crazy, but not even the top of my list.
Every single day I'm seeing people getting rounded up and
arrested for social media posts, just the most authoritarian attacks
(02:08):
on freedom of speech and acts of censorship going on
in the United Kingdom. It genuinely makes me really sad
and really concerned and just makes me think that I
genuinely believe parts of America would be like that if
we didn't have the First Amendment and stringent legal protections
for this stuff. But no, the pronoun pin thing is
a one level it's just silly and absurd, but another level,
(02:30):
it's kind of sad. I mean, it's pronouns is literally dehumanizing.
It's like making a human beings sound like an object,
sound like they're not even human, and they're presenting this
as if it's some sort of like cute fun thing
or valid new identity that just dropped. And then of
(02:52):
course that if you don't use that, if you refuse
to participate in what I would say is like dehumanizing language,
that's bigotry. That's you know, an assault on their dignity
and their rights. You're misgendering them. I think that's really disturbing.
And the idea that institutions are pushing this, it's not like, Okay,
(03:15):
you're at a college and the kid with blue hair
shows up with a pronoun pin. It's like the top down,
they are pushing the idea that human beings can be.
It's and they them, which is a scientific right. Basically,
every human being is biologically male or female based on
their sex and the structure of their reproductive system. And
(03:37):
it's also disturbing to me because colleges, at least in
the US, and I imagine the same is true in
the United Kingdom, they claim to be these bastions of
social justice and feminism and these other ideas, but then
they also push these kind of retrograde notions I mean
the idea that like, oh, I'm non binary, I have
different pronouns. I'm not a she her, I'm not a woman.
(03:57):
I'm not a man because I'm not masculine, or I'm
not a woman because I don't present typically feminine. I
know they don't realize it. I know they don't see it.
I know they exist in such such an echo chamber
that it's never pointed out to them. But that is
actually sexism. The truth is that it's okay to be
a male and you don't have to act a certain way.
(04:18):
You're allowed to have whatever personality you want. It's okay
to be a female and to dress a way that
is not typically female doesn't make it, and it's and
the people pushing that are not feminists. I feel like
I'm going crazy even that I have to say that,
like the de Lulu is off the charts, haven't dropped
that one in a while, but it's true. What do
(04:40):
you guys think? Have you encountered this level of pronoun
nonsense or have we not hit that level quite yet
here in the US. Let me know in the comments.
Makes your subscribe yeada YadA, Yeah, remember to send in
your voice mails the link is in the description. And
now we are going to hear from somebody who got
called or compared to a Nazi for a simple suggestion
(05:04):
that is not in fact that crazy.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Let's listen, Hi, Brad, my name is Dominic and I
have a will core story to share with you. So
during a debate that I had with a friend, the
debate was about how I support distinguishing sexual orientation, you know,
gay same sex attraction, which is tied to your biological
(05:27):
drive towards men from gender identity, whereas trying to self identification.
And I believe in respecting both of their truths. I
don't believe in lumping all them into one movement. But
(05:51):
because of this, because of my belief of that, I
was called a Nazi multiple times. He even played me
music from the Third Reich about it. When I mean
multiple times, I mean harassed. And even after a conversation,
he still was send me messages about how I was
(06:13):
a Nazi. And when I ask why I am apparently
this Nazi, it was because I because the Nazi segregated people,
and he said, I'm trying to do the same thing.
I'm not. I'm recognizing the differences. That's not transphobia.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree with you in that
simply arguing this is not new. The LGB without the TQ,
that's not a new thing. People have been saying that,
and I don't. I certainly will come to the Nazi thing,
of course, that's ridiculous, But I don't think there's anything
inherently transphobic or hateful about simply saying these things are
(06:55):
different and meaningfully different and distinct concepts. I think if
I was starting from scratch, I would never merge the
two in the first place. Like that, I really don't
believe they have that much in common, and in some
ways even they can be contradictory or at odds. Then again,
like I think some things sometimes the ship hash sailed
(07:17):
and the idea that you're going to really successfully rebrand
to just LGB or anything like that strikes me as
kind of far fetched. But anyway, it's a totally legitimate
conversation to have, and somebody suggesting you are at all
problematic simply for talking about it is being close minded,
not intellectually honest or curious. And then also, I mean,
(07:40):
I really have an issue with the constant, frivolous absurd,
hyperbolic invocations of Nazis and Hitler. It is such a disgrace,
so insulting to the memories of all those lost in
the Holocaust, brutally murdered by Hitler and that terrible regime.
And you're just like minimizing it and down playing it
and watering this stuff down all the score points that
(08:04):
don't even make sense. Oh well, you're like the Nazis
because they wanted to segregate people too. No one's talking
about segregating anything. Talking about how things are different doesn't
mean you're segregating them. Like, ask your friend, are straight
people part of LGBTQ plus, No, then why are you
segregating them? Like simply having categories that include some things
(08:27):
and not other things is not segregation. And y'all sound
deranged now. Of what they mean is that you want
to segregate and I hate to even use that word
in this context, things between the sexes, like sports or
other such things. Yeah, well, not all distinctions or differences
or categories are bad. I mean, surely your friend would
(08:49):
agree that it makes sense that we separate sports by age,
and we have the fifth graders play soccer with the
fifth graders and the twelfth graders and eleventh graders play
with the other high schoolers. Oh, but you're segregating them. No,
it's like, obviously, there are some categories and distinctions where
it is appropriate to treat them differently on the basis
(09:10):
of those things, and there are some where it's not
just inappropriate but evil to do so, like race, And
you have to be able to be a thinking person
and draw those distinctions. And sounds like your friend is
probably beyond saving at this point. I mean, maybe maintaining
a relationship. Maintaining a connection is worth it, because then
(09:31):
if they start to wake up one day, they have
it kind of a lifeline. But yeah, I mean, you
can't reason with somebody who's that far gone and is
unironically invoking the Nazis over such a basic and frankly
uncontroversial conversation. Thanks for the note, and good luck dealing
with all that, because it sounds exhausting. Meanwhile, and this
(09:54):
is sad, this is such a recurring theme on this podcast.
We have yet another family being torn apart over politics.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
So I was publicly disowned by my cousins on the
internet a day or two after Trump on the election
my cousin decided to make a post on Facebook talking
about how if aybody voted for Trump, they are dead
to him and they will also never be a part
of his life, his wife's life, and his son's life.
And I took a lot offense to that because I
am a family member of his and I voted for
Trump along with my parents, and also my grandmother voted
for Trump as well, that is also his grandmother. So
I decided to stand up to him and I responded
to his remark and I said, well, then, just understand
(10:24):
your whole family is dead to you now, and this
is a very disrespectful thing to say. And you know,
I hope understand trually how strong a word you're saying
right now. And then suddenly it turned into this whole
mess and he somehow made himself the victim along with
his sister, which is my daughter, and they claimed that
they couldn't love me anymore, and they one followed me
on Instagram they said are moral and values on the line,
and then they have not spoken to me since. So
I'm getting married in June and I'm not. I'm wading
onto my wedding, So what are your thoughts? On you know,
family members doing this to you, uh, cutting ties because
(10:45):
of political believe Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I mean, unfortunately, this is not a news story for me.
You know, this is something I have probably at this
point received hundreds of voicemails with some sort of story
about this political differences leading somebody, usually the left leading
person in the family to cut off the mega person.
But I have also absolutely heard and even in my
(11:10):
personal life knowing some people from West Michigan where there's
a lot of like Christian conservative families where sometimes their
kids grow up, go to college come back as the
liberal young adults, I've also heard the opposite way, where
it's like, I can't believe you voted for Biden, You're
dead to me, or what have you. But at least
because my audience been because of what I cover, because
I think I generally lean to the right, and so
(11:31):
do a lot of my viewers, I tend to hear
more of the stories of the opposite direction. I also
think that's a little more common for left wing people
to cut off family over political differences than right wing people,
but it does happen in both directions, and I just
think it's a tragedy. I don't think you've done anything wrong.
You're certainly well within your rights to not invite them
(11:51):
to your wedding after they treated you like this. Yeah,
that'd be Why would you? But the only thing that
jumps out to me is I do wish this converse
could have happened in person. It sounds like you went
back and forth with your cousin on social media. Really
I recommend against that. I think people are able to
have much more productive conversations and be much less snappy
(12:14):
and judgmental and absolutist when you're face to face right
than when you are just behind a screen typing words.
There's something about that that leads to black and white thinking,
leads to this like with us or against us mentality.
So I do wish you could have actually been in
a room with your cousin and your grandma and talked
about all of it, because then maybe you kind of
(12:36):
got through to them in a way that you're just
not going to ever get through to somebody dooking it
out on Facebook comments. But it's just sad. I mean,
people are complex beings, shades of gray, very very human.
Few human beings, if any, are unambiguously bad or unambiguously good.
And so when you were just writing someone off because
(12:58):
of their basically irrelevant vote, like one vote makes no
difference one way or the other. There's two problems I
have with that. One is that even if you say,
for example, grant the premise that voting for Trump is
immoral and wrong, Well, because someone does one thing that
you is not moral in your view, doesn't make them
(13:19):
a totally bad person. Doesn't mean you can't have a
good relationship with them. Obviously, there's some level of immorality
or being harmful to others where you have to distance
yourself from a person and it overrides everything. But I
don't think simply checking off a bubble on a ballot sheet,
especially when this comes to the second point, there's a
(13:39):
lack of intellectual humility, right, because what you are saying,
if you are this cousin in this situation, is that
I have the world figured out all these complicated issues
that divide our politics, all the thousands of news stories
and policy positions where these candidates differ. I know all
of it to the point where I know all the
(14:00):
right answers about all of it, to the point where
no one could possibly disagree with me and be coming
from any sort of place of good faith, they must
just be evil. I think that is probably the most
arrogant and intellectually dishonest that just so that there is
no humility to that thinking at all. And I think
it's the most arrogant position or thinking that is at
(14:23):
all prevalent in American society today, because in reality, I
am a political journalist and content creator. I spend all
day monitoring the news. I've spent years reading about stuff,
covering stuff, and yet every single day I encounter news
stories or issues where politicians are taking stances on things
(14:46):
of great importance that I feel like I don't know
enough about to draw firm conclusion. And yet these random
people who don't know much about politics, don't do this
for a living, think they have the whole world figured
out to black and white, cookie cutter morality, all these
complicated issues and everything. I find that to be really,
(15:08):
really arrogant and disgusting. And then I find this whole
thing to be so sad because family relationships are so
special and so important, and my grandparents are passed away.
Now I have my inlaws, some grandparents on my partner's side,
who are wonderful and who I love very much, but
they my grandparents are passed away. So and the idea
(15:31):
that you're discarding a relationship over something this petty and
this one dimensional is just so sad because that person
is not going to be around forever. And your cousin
may have regrets when your grandmother passes away, but same
with the cousin relationships and the other extended family. It's
like you've lost people through actual death sadness like terrible
(15:52):
incidents and tragedies, or through fractured broken family relationships through
abuse or other things, all of which you know I
have some experience with, and many people have much more
than I. Then you look at these people just throwing
away their family relationships for no good reason, and it's
not just sad, it's kind of infuriating, honestly, because they
(16:13):
are just taking for granted and then discarding these beautiful,
precious relationships they could have that other people had taken
from them by fate or by force. It's really horrible,
But no, you didn't do anything wrong. All I think
all you can do is maybe try to extend an
olive branch at some point to your cousin keep an
(16:34):
open mind, be the bigger person. But yeah, I'm really sorry,
and I wish I could say your story was an outlier,
but it's really not. Okay, guys, we got a funny
question from somebody asking me about something that happened years
ago that I talked about at the time but then forgot.
(16:54):
Apparently there's a cartoon show called Big Mouth, which I
have never watched, but my boyfriend watched at least a
few episodes of it years ago, with a couch pillow
named Brad Palombo. And this person encountered that and wanted
to ask me about it. Let's listen.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Hey, Brad, my name is Megan. I was just curious
what the story is of the pillow in big Mouth
being named after you Jay's pillow. I was watching big
Mouth the other day and the pillow's name is Brad Palumbo,
and the more I look at it, it kind of
looks like you. So I was just curious what the
(17:35):
story is behind that, and if you were in on
it or if they just wrote that. I couldn't really
find much online besides people calling you a crazy far
right activist, but I so I just was wondering. But
I love your content. Keep up the good work.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Thank you for the question and for watching the content
and everything. No, this is so funny to me because
this happened a couple of years ago, and the answer,
the short answer is I have no idea. I literally
do not know what this is or why it happened.
But people at the time were like, wait a sec. Also,
the funny thing is he's like, I've never seen the
(18:12):
episode or watched any of the show, but I believe
it's a pillow they like have sex with what the
character has sex with. It's really weird. And so the
thing is it has to be based on me because
my name is spelled unusually so Palumbo is it's a
(18:33):
common Italian last name, but it's usually spelled with a ppa.
But my name is spelled po for whatever reason. I'm
not even sure anyway, but when you look at the
subtitles and like the text associated with the show, they
spell it po. And then that pillow does kind of
almost have these features that look like me, like the
very strong eyebrows. So I don't know. I mean, my
(18:56):
theory is that there's no way that it's just a coincidental,
that maybe there's some like woke gay writer or something
that was trying to mock me or take shots at
me by naming this pillow that is used as a
sex object after me. It's genuinely one of the most
random and weird things that has happened throughout my career,
(19:18):
and I wish I had a good answer for you,
but I actually just don't. But I just wanted to
include this because people ask me about this every so often,
and it's just this random added to the long list
of bizarre and weird Brad Palumbo lore. I guess I
genuinely don't know what do you guys think of Have
any of y'all seen that when you were watching that show?
(19:39):
Let me know in the comments, and just regardless, make
sure subscribe to the like button yetti YETI Yeah. Now
I want to take another question from somebody who is
a member of the LDS Church aka or formerly known
as the Mormon Church.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
Let's listen, Hey, Brad, my name is Amanda. First of all,
I just wanted to thank you for the compassionate and
respectful way that you covered that tragic shooting in Michigan
this past weekend. I'm a member of the LDS Church
and it was really refreshing to hear a political commentator
say such kind and warm things about us and cover
(20:17):
it in such a way, So thank you so much
for that. My question is how were you led to
the more independent perspective of the political spectrum and what
made you decide to share the views that you have
in the way that you do. You've done a lot
of good work, you have a lot of good things
(20:38):
to say. You seem really cool and fun. So just
thanks for all the hard work you do, and I
would love to hear more about what led you to
your views. So thanks, Happy weekend.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Well, I will absolutely answer your question from the second part,
but first I just want to briefly touch on the
first part that you mentioned about me saying kind things
about the LDS church and its member. I do not
do that to be like complimentary. I just do that
because it's just like a fact that I encounter over
(21:10):
and over again that I am blown away by the
kindness and generosity of LDS people. I mean, for example,
the story of this terrible shooting that I covered on
my YouTube channel. I don't think I talked about on
the podcast, but in some of my bonus videos at
this church in Michigan, which of course is where I
lived in Delbury recently, is where I'll be moving back
(21:31):
to in a few years. Potentially, it disturbed me that
somebody would attack any place of worship, whether it's Mormon,
a synagogue, anything. I would always be against that and
horrified by it. But so I spoke about it and
the political lens of it, and just my heart goes
out to the LDS Church and all its members because
(21:52):
it's just a terrible thing for anything to happen. But
then I was blown away by this. It confirmed every
impression I've ever had about LDS people is that they
actually most I think it's primarily LDS members have said,
I have fund raised for the family of the shooter.
Correct you heard that, Correctly. They fund raised for the
(22:16):
wife and children of the shooter, who had no connection
to the crime but have been put through hell. They
raised a ton of money and sent a message of
support and love to the family of the shooter. To me,
that just tells like, that's just stunning to me.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
And I.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Won't get into because I'm not even very well educated
in it, but I'll just say that, like, obviously I
don't share a lot of the beliefs that LDS people
hold in terms of religious or theological beliefs, But I
don't judge people based on that. I judge people based
on how they treat others and how they show up
in the world, and on that basis, I mean, I'll
(23:00):
just say my interactions and experiences with LDS people are
overwhelmingly disproportionately positive my impressions of them, and so I'm
so glad that you listened to the show and enjoy it,
and I again send my love to all of you
after that tragic shooting. Now for how I got my
kind of political bent and how I started even speaking
(23:21):
out on all of this, I'm going to give you
like a super short version. I could go on at
great length, and I think I have in some podcast
interviews and other stuff over the years, But basically, I
went to a super far left college, the University of Massachusetts.
It was insufferably woke, highly censorious, incredibly toxic and unhinged
(23:42):
left wing radicalism. I wasn't super political, but I showed
up there. It kind of repulsed me, and I was
like pushed to the right. And then in the year
sense I became more disillusioned with like the Republican Party,
conservative media kind of MAGA movement, and it became more
(24:04):
of an independent and still have right leaning views, but
I am not closely associated or supportive of these broader institutions
or groups. And that happened over the course of many
years just watching you know how biased and messed up
right wing media is in its own right, and how
it can often just be a mirror image of like MSNBC,
(24:25):
but in the opposite direction, and then many other things,
And so that's kind of where I ended up today.
How I decided to speak out is I just have
always been a little bit of a shit sir. And
when I started speaking out on campus, I got so
much pushback and hate that I liked it, and I
kept doing it and poking the bear and doubling down,
and then it led to professional opportunities for me while
(24:47):
I was still in college. That kind of changed my mind.
And I had thought I wanted to go and become
a lawyer and practice law, and I think I would
have been good at that, but I enjoy this more
and probably I mean there's pluses and minuss overall, probably
lead a better life doing this, but yeah, that's the
super short answer. I'm going to take one final voicemail
(25:12):
from somebody who is having some issues with their dad.
Speaker 8 (25:16):
Let's listen, Hi, Brad, I'm making a friend of the show.
I have a story, not I got concerts the World
Corp story, but you know, I would like to hear
your response to it. So I'm an atheist. I'm a
conservative conservative atheist. I would say I'm living with my
liberal agnostic mom. My dad is a conservative Christian and
my dad knows on him atheist or you know, he did.
(25:37):
And earlier this year, my on Father's Day, my dad
asked me to go to church with them. And you know,
I'm not like an edgy conservative, but you know or
edgi atheists like I used to be. So I did.
I went with them, and uh, now, you know, I've
been going to church with them and doing this, you know,
Christen's Men group, which I kind of pretend to like,
(26:00):
and you know, I kind of been going out of
respect for my dad and I want to want to
spend time with him, but I don't really want to go.
I really just want to spend time with my dad,
and I feel like I'm lying to my dad. You know,
I can't really talk to my mom ago. She's like
a liberal, she hates the church kind of thing. So
to my sisters, I don't think the priest would appreciate,
(26:23):
you know, me being an atheist and going to him
with this problem. So I don't really sure where to go.
You know, what do you even do with the situation?
You know, I really want to hear your thoughts on this.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Thank you, of course, thank you for sharing in the voicemail.
There's actually an answer to this question that is simultaneously
difficult and very easy and straightforward. You need to talk
to your dad. You need to sit down with him
in person and tell him what you just told me
(26:56):
and see how he responds. Say, Dad, listen, I really
want to spend time with you. I care about you.
So I decided to go to church with you because
I want to spend time with you. That's just not
something I want to keep doing on a regular basis.
Maybe I'm happy to go with you once in a while,
but spending time with you is still really important to me.
(27:17):
So I'm hoping we can find something else to do
together and that you can respect and understand my decision
and my feelings about that. And I have a nine
out of ten certainty that your dad is going to
handle that just fine. He'll appreciate you being honest with him,
and that you may have overthought this. I understand why,
(27:38):
but you may have overthought it a little bit. And frankly,
you don't need to go to your priest. You don't
need to go to your mom. You just need to
go to your dad and talk to him and tell
him where you're coming from. And I think he'll understand.
But it's always really interesting to me how these dynamics
play out in families with different beliefs, different faith, different
political stances. And it's kind of a recurring theme of
(28:01):
the voicemail Fridays is people trying to navigate these differences
and these distinctions in our increasingly toxic and polarized world.
But all we can do is our best, and I
think communication is always direct, honest, in person. Communication always
has the highest chance of working out well in these situations.
(28:24):
I can't say it will. It could go horribly wrong,
but it's got the best likelihood of working out for
everyone involved. That's my view at least. But you guys,
let me know if you disagree or have a different
perspective in the comments. Do make sure subscribe to the
like button. If you're listening to an audio podcast, please
do consider taking a second to rate or review this
(28:45):
show wherever you're listening, and maybe even recommend it to
a friend. That's the number one way the podcasts grow.
If you know somebody that might like the Brad Versus
Everyone podcast. And with all of that out of the way, guys,
remember the link to send in a voice note is
in the description and with that, guys, we'll talk. And
also voting mm hmm,
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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.