March 6, 2024 • 59 mins
We open our hearts in this episode, delving deep into the timeless message of "We Are the World," a powerful testament to the unifying force of music, juxtaposed against the backdrop of today's fragmented society. As we navigate these turbulent waters, we confront the poignant irony of international aid amidst local homelessness, prompting a profound inquiry: Can we authentically uplift the global community without fortifying our own societal foundations? Join us on this introspective journey as we unravel the complexities of societal cohesion and individual responsibility, seeking to ignite transformative change through candid dialogue and heartfelt introspection.
Remember, your Perch isn’t just a place to sit; it’s a place to seek a higher perspective.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Good day Perch people Want to.
Before I do anything, welcomeToby back.
Welcome back, toby, glad you'rein the land of the living,
thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thank you Made it through, yes yes, any stories
about her Me was grosslyoverrated.
Yes, yes, it was.
I wanted more money, so we hadto renegotiate the deal.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Fake news, fake news so.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I got 100% raise.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So, before we get into this today's topic I really
want to discuss, I was led tocome up with a what do you call
it?
A slogan model?
What is it called?
Like the meaning of the show.
So literally of course it'scalled Perch.
(00:52):
But I was given an epiphany orsign to call it the Thoughtful
Pause podcast and I never reallytalked about that.
And the reason why I'm bringingit up now is because this
particular episode, wedefinitely need a thoughtful
pause before we start it.
And so what is a thoughtfulpause?
(01:13):
It's that pause.
Literally it's in a name.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You can't define a word.
With a word you know you can'tsay pause is a pause.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
No, so I was going to say why thoughtful pause.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Gotcha, but yeah, but okay, good All right, thank you
.
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
So the reason why I said no the reason why I say
thoughtful pause is because weall kind of came up with the
same expression saying thingbefore you speak, take a breath,
take a beat.
That's a common saying.
But that's just a pause.
It's just that this isintentionality behind it,
meaning, you know, pause toreally think clearly before we
(01:53):
form such strong opinions.
And so now that leads us intoday's topic.
Today's topic it came to me ina weird way and I'll get to that
how it came to me.
But what's today's topic, toby?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
The designated hitter and baseball.
I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You don't know what today's topic is.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I don't Military intelligence, how the two that
can, I don't know.
No, I just yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Today's topic is who are we?
Who are we, who are we?
And there's a reason I didn'tsay who are you?
Who am I?
Who are we?
And the point of this topic isto say that we are collective.
If we like it or not, we are.
We were all created.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
The colloquial we, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
And I'm saying this with intention, because we were
all created to need each other.
We just were From science.
You can bring in religion, youcan bring in any factor it it.
Man was not meant to live alone.
So for us to say, you know whoam I is one thing, but who are
we as a collective body?
(03:04):
And so, ironically, how I kindof I've been coming to this,
this question has been lingeringin my head for a while, but
we're really bought it to theforefront, you know, in a weird
way is I just watched that weare the world.
What was it called the greatestnight in?
What was it called the greatestnight in pop?
(03:24):
I think, yeah, documentary, andI love we all the world, love
the song.
It was transformative for meand when I watched it I wonder
if anyone had the same thoughtsthat I had.
So if you haven't seen it, Ireally highly recommend it for
people who are younger.
You don't even know what we arethe world is.
Please go to YouTube.
(03:45):
What year?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
was that 1985?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Wow, okay Right.
1985 is when we, we are theworld came out and we are the
world was a collective group ofthe who's who and pop music at
the time coming to get some kindof way.
Dan Acroy got in there too.
Don't ask me, that's a wholenother conversation.
I don't know how he got inthere, but it was a who's who
would pop.
(04:08):
The biggest artists on theplanet at the time came together
and they did it to help,charity.
Yeah, it was the famine, whatwas going on in Africa.
So that's why so.
Charity, yes, but, and so thiswas the first time on the
history of the planet where theplanet came together.
(04:29):
And how did it come together?
So they pick we are the worldcharted.
It was a hit.
They picked one day where theworld played and sung.
We are the world at the sametime around the globe.
And the reason why this reallyresonated with me one is I love
music.
I love the way music transcendsreligion, culture, barriers,
(04:52):
how powerful music is to theplanet.
But what really stayed with meis how far we have come.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
There's that we word again, there goes we.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So here it is that all of these people came in.
You have Michael Jackson, Paul.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Quincy Jones.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Bob Dylan.
Prince didn't come, that's all.
He was invited, he didn't showup, oh wow, but it was he.
We look, I mean all the biggestpeople.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So you lost her.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yes, came, and never, not one time, was politics
bought up.
No one said these liberals, noone said you know what's the
agenda around the planet?
There was no question.
You got people of you know thehighest caliber that's booked
(05:45):
and busy all year round.
That dropped everything.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So who called in the favor?
Who put it all together?
Was it Quincy Jones?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It was Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie were the main
two behind it.
But they they took that fromthe first one that people
remember before that there wasband aid, where they came
together so that those bandsover and where was somewhere in
Europe.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I think it was the UK , wasn't it the band?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, that start feed the world Lots of them.
I think that was like.
Wham, and that was GeorgeMichael and those guys,
everybody that was big back then, and so they took that and
people didn't Most of thesepeople in this room didn't know
why they were there, what wastheir purpose.
They just showed up because youknow.
Someone said you know we needto come together and there's a
(06:28):
famine and we need help.
And so when I said you know,who are we Meaning?
That was 1985 and this is 2024.
And as much as I like to bepositive and optimistic, it
doesn't seem like we can do thattoday.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, I don't think logistically, absolutely, and
well, there's so muchdivisiveness.
Yeah, it'd be hard to.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So I was going to say now, when you say logistics,
you know where my head goes.
It's an orchestrating thing.
Well, I mean the idea of tryingto get all that many people
together on a given day.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I mean you shared a little bit about the fact that
you did it right after an awardshow or something right.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
The American Music Award, but no.
So you're thinking logistically, it's a problem.
I'm thinking culturally, andwhere we are as a planet is a
problem, because it's not justAmerica, it's.
Look what happened over withBrexit, look what happened
around the planet, where youhave this.
(07:25):
Can we come together one dayand put everything aside just
for the greater good?
And now we can't even agree onshould we support Ukraine or
should we not support Ukraine?
Can we get out of this?
Palestine versus?
There's so much division, andso when I say who are we, that's
(07:45):
a long way to get to that pointwho we are.
So Toby and I was having aconversation and I bought up
this topic and I'm going to putthis on me I won't put it on you
when I go and I didn't want toget it wrong and I don't want to
quote all of it.
But at one point I remember weused to quote the words on a
(08:08):
Statue of Liberty all the time,so I'm just going to take a
snippet where, on the Statue ofLiberty, the writing says give
me.
You're tired, you're poor,you're huddled, mess is yearning
to breathe free.
And I said Anand goes on.
Anand says send me yourhomeless.
And we live by this creed.
(08:30):
This is who we were asAmericans.
And now we talk aboutimmigration and open borders and
I was like wait.
So we used to say send me.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And we were laying in the immigrants In the French
right, yes, so they probablywanted us to take their tired
and their homeless and theirhungry.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But you know, if we didn't agree, we could have
Returned it.
We could have returned it or wecould have taken it back.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
How do you re-gift the Statue of Liberty?
Stop it.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
But you know what's fascinating too and I learned
this and really looking to theFrancis gift, because there was
a lot of intentionality behindit, because what we don't talk
about is what most of us don'tknow that there's broken chains
on the Statue of Liberty.
And the reason why they changedthe structure like right at the
(09:18):
end is because right after thatwe got the Statue of Liberty
came over.
When was this?
It was in 1883.
And the Confederate the CivilWar had in 1865.
So they didn't want to offendAmericans by having to change so
(09:41):
prevalent.
But there's so muchintentionality in the Statue of
Liberty.
So what they did is you can'tsee it from afar, but they said,
if you look over it, you cansee the chains at her feet.
And so that was saying and thechains were broken.
So the broken chains you knowthe Francis way of saying we see
that there's a change happening, some freedom, but they left
(10:06):
the chains there because theyknew that this was a process
that had begun and as I recall,the Statue of Liberty is
actually a larger version of asmall one than actually exists
in Paris somewhere.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And we talked about this the other day.
Most people don't recognizethat through really the American
Revolution as well as the Warof 1812, the French were our
allies against, of all people,the English.
And today most people look atthe French and go eh, french,
and they look at the British asour allies.
And what's very interesting isyou know, that was really the
(10:39):
heyday of our relationship withthe French, was you know?
If it wasn't for the French, weprobably would have never
gained our independence and ifit wasn't for the French, we
probably wouldn't have won theWar of 1812.
So it is an interesting casestate.
The history is very interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
It is.
And the last thing, because Ifind it's fascinating too they
said if you pay attention to theStatue of Liberty.
They said her right foot isslightly tilted forward, saying
that's a step toward progression, like movement moving forward.
So what does all this have todo with?
You know who are we, and thatwas a symbol.
(11:18):
And so when we're at a timewhen we have had Make America
Great Again, we have differentsayings.
How do we define ourselves?
Who are we?
And some people reference thegood old days.
I'm not sure what those dayswere, but one thing is for sure
(11:39):
change is heart for people, andthat's something that we know.
Change is heart.
But I do want to back up and goback to we Are the World for a
minute, and there's a lot oflyrics.
I'm not going to read them all,I just picked the verses, put
it together, Because they say weAre the World.
They say the chorus over andover and over again.
(12:02):
I never realized like I guessyou had like originally.
I think it was 70 people inthat room and I forgot how many
got a solo, so they had to makesure 70 people with her.
But it starts off saying therecomes a time when we heed a
certain call, when the worldmust come together as one.
There are people dying.
(12:24):
Oh, it's time to lend a hand tolife, the greatest gift of all.
We cannot go on pretending dayby day that someone, somewhere,
will soon make a change.
We are a part of God's greatbig family, and it's true.
You know, love is all we need.
And then the last verse goessend them your heart so they
know that someone cares, andtheir lives will be stronger and
(12:46):
free, as God has shown us byturning stone to bread.
And so we must lend a helpinghand.
When you're down and out, thereseems no hope at all.
You just believe there's no wayyou can fall.
Let's realize that a change canonly come when we stand
together as one.
And the reason why I felt theneed to state those words, it's
(13:07):
because there's a lot in there.
There's a lot, there's religion, there's poor and poverty and
helping out your fellow man.
That's saying recognize in lifeand let's prioritize life and
come together as one and all ofthose things are the things that
(13:29):
divide us Now.
Class divides us, Religiondivides us.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
But to be fair, I think those things have always
divided us.
I think there's a difference interms of how pervasive the
conversation is about how muchit divides us.
You look at the Crusades rightand go back to medieval times.
I mean people killed overreligion.
Look at Northern Ireland andSouthern Ireland.
(13:58):
They've killed for centuriesover religion.
So I don't think that that'sanything new.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Can I add another layer?
Sure, so I do agree that that'snot anything new, but I think
honest conversations about whowe are is we don't talk about
poverty.
And I said this to you.
I said please tell me, pleasetell me when you've heard a
politician say the poor.
Like those words, the poorpoverty.
(14:28):
We talk about broken systems,we talk about welfare, but
seeing people, seeing people andtalking about them and that's
new.
This, literally, was sayingit's time for us to lend a hand.
These were people.
There are people dying, thereare homeless.
(14:50):
And now we say on house, it'sthe same thing, but we won't
even acknowledge the poor.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
But you know the irony behind that, and I'm not
saying this is at all a badcause.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I got a feeling where you're going, but I'm listening
.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
This was a cause for Africa and we had people dying
on the streets of Chicago and LAand New York and yet somehow we
felt compelled to help peopleabout three quarters of the way
around the world.
And my challenge has alwaysbeen that, whether or not you
like to hear it or not, I thinkcharity begins at home and I
think every country has asovereign right to take care of
(15:22):
its own.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
But I think two.
What do I say to you all thetime?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Two things can be true.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Two things can be true.
We can, we do have a right.
That's why I bought up.
Even here in this country, westruggle with seeing the poor
and saying the poor, and sayingtheir name and addressing them.
However, this was a famine thatmillions were dying instantly
(15:49):
just because of food.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I don't remember the circumstances and I'm sure it
was a noble cause.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
But this is why I'm saying, even as day, this is why
something like this can'thappen, because the planet came
together and say do you don'tthink, when the planet, when
this was going on, that theyweren't suffering in India, they
weren't suffering around theworld?
But the world said this is thehouse that's burning and we all
going to attend to this house.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
We are, and I don't know if we were at the time but
we are one of the top 10%wealthiest nations in the world
and we cannot take care of ourown people, and so it's an
insult, it's embarrassing to saythat, but the reality is true.
All you need to do is drive downMain Street in Austin, texas,
or in San Francisco, california,or in Chicago, and the number
(16:38):
of people that you willencounter that are, whether you
want to call them unhoused orhomeless, the poverty, the
mental health issues, and yetand, by the way, everything I
say today is my opinion, so Idon't have to keep saying in my
opinion but we send millions ofdollars to other countries to
help them through various things.
(16:58):
Some of them, as you said, someof them are somewhat
confrontational or somewhatquestionable, whether it be the
Ukraine or other things and yet,at the same point in time, we
don't have time to take care ofour own people, and that should
be a national embarrassment thatwe don't deal with things as
basic as mental health orhousing situations.
(17:19):
It's reached the point nowwhere people can't afford even
middle class people can't affordhousing.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
So We've lost our way , we've lost our priorities and
uh, you know and I'm going tokeep saying every time you say
something I think redundancy isimportant here Then who are we?
Then who are we?
And I hope that resonates witheveryone on listening.
I hope that everyone, becauseit's so easy to say I do this
(17:45):
and I prioritize and I.
But when I tell you people, ifwe don't start with we, if we
don't start with the collectiveand I've told Toby this, I've
been accused multiple times ofvoting against my interests and
I said, because it cannot alwaysbe about me, it cannot.
I say if the collective issuffering and I'm not in that
(18:07):
collective, then I still have tocare about the collective.
That means if poverty is, is,is out of control, and the
unhoused and all of thesenumbers are growing, and mental
health and I and I don't fit inany of those kick those, those
categories Then it's still myinterest because we are one.
(18:29):
And that's why when I say whoare we, I want to keep saying it
, because if we say we are andwe used to say you know we are,
you know a Christian nation,because Christianity used to be
the dominant religion in Americaand in those times I have
(18:50):
turned to, people are turningaway from religion like no other
, because we aren't being who wesay.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
It's also the, the.
The country is becoming moreand more diluted right as as
different cultures come into the, into the world, into our
country.
But you know the thing, andwe've talked about this, you
know, we all like to presentourselves as whole here than
that, and I'm I'm as guilty asmany other folks.
But so we'll say you know, yes,we need to build low cost
housing, yes, we need to do this.
(19:17):
We've talked about this.
And and all of a sudden peoplesay, well, so glad you feel that
way because right there, nextdoor to you, we're going to
build low cost housing.
And what's the first thing?
People say Not right, not myneighborhood, not my backyard.
And so we all suffer from thehypocrisy gene.
And there are obviously peopleout there that say you know, I
(19:37):
don't know we all suffer, but Iunderstand what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
All is a generalization.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
But you know, we, we all believe that we do the right
thing and in reality it's veryhard to do the right thing and
it's hard to have thoseconversations and and please,
and, and.
Politically speaking they'renot politically pop popular.
I mean, nobody wants to go as apolitician to hey, we're going
to build this low cost housingin your neighborhood or we're
going to build this nuclearpower plant in your neighborhood
(20:02):
because people need cheapenergy.
You know the nuclear argumentis long over.
You know it is safe.
We've got millions, of millions, hundreds of nuclear power
plants throughout the world, yetthey're still a bugaboo about
it.
Nobody wants a nuclear powerplant in their backyard any more
than they want at low costhousing in their backyard.
So who are we?
We're, we're, we're a group ofpeople that tend to be very
(20:23):
self-serving.
We care very much aboutourselves.
Part of that is genetic.
You know it's.
It's called, you know, survivalof the fittest.
And the reality is is we don'tlike the idea that we have to
suffer where other people aren'tsuffering, or we believe that
we've we've earned our right toto something greater than other
people do.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, and and I know someone's listening to that
those are grandiose, very, youknow generalizations, but I will
pose this question.
So, as we search ourselves tosay who are we?
What do you believe, like likeat your core, what do you truly
believe?
Because?
And then, if you believe thosethings, then search yourself
(21:03):
again and say how was it showingup in your life?
Because we can have a beliefsystem or we want, but if you,
if we have no residue or noremnants of the things that we
believe um actionable in ourlife, then again I ask who are
we?
Well, how?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
about if what you believe conflicts with what I
believe.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Right, but.
But when you're soul searchingit's.
It's about getting my own housein order, right, that's what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
But, for instance, there are some organized
religions that will say this isthe way it is and there are no.
It teaches absolutes and itsays this is the way it is.
And if you know of anybody whothinks otherwise, they're wrong,
they're heathens, they, they'regoing to hell, all of that.
So.
So my philosophy has alwaysbeen you can believe in what you
(21:53):
want, as long as what youbelieve it never interferes with
my ability to believe what Iwant.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So how do we do that?
And so it's funny we talkedabout this on the last podcast
with Monica Bay the mere fact ofyou know, I grew up being told
that meditation, meditating, wasevil, you know.
I was like, well, that's notgodly.
And I'm like, literally, youare telling people to breathe,
center yourself, you know, clearyour mind, relax, that's all it
(22:24):
is.
And so people believe thatbecause some minister told them
that, some church told them that, and so they won't meditate.
But for me, this is, and I canonly speak for myself.
I will look in a camera, I willlook anywhere and tell
everybody I am a Christian.
I am.
I don't subscribe to a lot ofthings that some ministers say I
don't and I won't.
(22:45):
I am spiritual and I say whatis my?
Okay, god, what do you have forme?
What are you trying to show me?
I have to drown out the noise.
I really do, because literally,like you just said, you turn
religion into something that's astatement of belief.
That's what religion is.
(23:05):
It's a statement of belief intoan absolute, which is a
statement of fact.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
But people kill still over this.
You know I've told the story athousand times.
Much tame her circumstance, butI had a roommate out of college
who would always want me to goto church with him and I would
always make up polite excusesevery week.
And finally, after about theseventh week of saying no for
various reasons, I said why isit so important to you?
(23:31):
He says I don't want you to goto hell.
And so what makes you believeI'm going to hell?
And he says the Bible says soand I said so.
Let me understand this correctly.
I live a virtuous life.
I have never hurt anybody.
I've never raised a fist.
I pay my bills, I give tocharity.
What makes me a horrible person?
He says you don't go to mychurch.
(23:52):
I said so.
Everybody doesn't go to yourchurch is going to hell.
And he said yes.
And I said you know, there areanother 420 religions out there.
Give or take a couple hundred,they feel the same way.
They can't all be wrong, arethey?
And all of a sudden you can'tget an argument from that.
Well, there are 420 and 419 ofthem are wrong.
(24:13):
So to me, who are we is adisparate set of people with
different beliefs that have tocoexist on a planet and somehow
make it work, while recognizingthat there are some core values
that hold us together.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Absolutely that's it.
Well, not that's it Boom.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
That's it, we're done .
Thanks for coming.
Thanks for coming.
We'll catch you later.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
The core, no, but I think part of that.
What I hear you say, I think isat the core what we need to
recognize, when it comes down toreligion, economics, economics,
culture, all of these things,that our differences aren't
deficiencies.
Our differences are notdeficiencies.
(24:59):
I want to say that and that'swhat's at the core of that,
because even when it comes downto religion, you know, we look
at it and we think differentfrom us.
They're God.
They have their own God.
They have their own.
You know, our differences arenot our deficiencies.
They worship in a different way.
They believe.
But if you believe that God isall powerful and all knowing,
(25:24):
why are you trying to label him?
Why are you trying to define?
You know what he is, becausehe's too great.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Oh, why do you worry about?
People don't believe in God atall.
Right, you know how people dobelieve in what they believe in.
There's really really, if youwant to boil the world down to
two simple things, there arelaws.
That are things that peoplehave come together and said this
is simple.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
We're not going to boil the world down to two
simple things.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
This is it.
This is it.
This is the world in 20 seconds.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
That's told me Can.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I just say again there are things that people
have gotten together over thecourse of years to create, and
they call them laws, and eventhose change from time to time,
and those are things that we'veall agreed collectively are bad.
You know and we know what thoseare.
And then there's everythingelse.
You know the other 99.7% ofthings around, which are your
beliefs, your values and whatyou hold to be dear, and the two
(26:12):
of them we handle verydifferently and we should handle
them very, very differently.
And the moment we start to takebeliefs and somehow try to
legalize them or illegalize themand I know this is not such a
word, but let's do it anywayThen we get ourselves into
trouble.
So you know, you and I talkabout this all the time.
You know, when we start to lookat something, say I don't like
what he just said, I don't likewhat she just said, I don't like
(26:36):
what this person just posted,that's not breaking the law,
unless they literally broke alaw.
They're entitled to thatopinion, whether you like it or
not.
And we talk about this withcomedians.
You know a comedian will saysomething you find unpleasant.
I may find it unpleasant toguess what.
You don't listen to it.
You move along.
There's no reason to try tomake it illegal or to censor
(26:59):
them unless it is de factoillegal, but for some reason
we've decided that anythingthat's unpleasant to us as
people should be removed fromthe world, and I don't know when
that started.
I don't know when that happened, but instead of just saying
there are so many great thingsthat we can agree on, we seem to
be in a space right now wherewe're more happy to talk about
(27:23):
things we disagree about.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And I think that it's funny because and this sounds
so overly simplified what I'mabout to say but you know, we
say change, and some peopledon't want things to change and
some people say things it's timeto change.
Well, who doesn't?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
want change.
Who would not want change?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I guess whoever is winning.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
You're playing a board game and I'm winning, we
can quit now, but if I'm notwinning, I don't want to quit
yet.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Yeah, but the conversation we are having is
like going back to some greatertimes and then, for a lot of
people, is moving forward tosomething better.
And I guess I'm saying that tosay doesn't matter if we, if
your desire is to go back togreater times or if your desire
is to create something new, thebottom line is you have to
(28:18):
change posture, whatever you do.
If you go forward, you got tochange.
If you go backwards, you haveto change.
But we wrestle with changeconsistently.
You know, be it gone back.
It seems like we're going backhistorically, we kind of undoing
things that have been done.
But I guess I want to kind ofswitch this when I say who are
we?
Because we talked a littleabout history, we talked a
(28:41):
little about religion, but let'stalk about now, now, with
technology, who, what have webecome in this age of?
You know, see me, like me,follow me and flow, and I just
even think please, please,please, hear me when I say this
(29:03):
because I don't want to be ahypocrite.
Yes, we have a podcast andthat's using, that's using
technology and it's using socialmedia, but I'm very and I'm
just going to be honest andtransparent, because we've
talked about it in private.
It can be disheartening when Isee what we gravitate to and
when I say and I pray that thishits on one spirit be honest
(29:26):
with yourself.
If you are on social media andyou gravitate to every car wreck
, every accident, every fight,every graphic.
Here's somebody tearingsomebody else down, here's
someone else.
And you know how we know thatthis is a true statement,
because now that's where we are.
(29:47):
We have to get Canva and put abig caption to draw your
attention to.
Oh, this one is taking, callingus on out, oh, this person is
taking us to task and what theysay.
And this is what we'regravitating to.
And it makes me sad.
It really does, because thefact that this is the
(30:09):
information technology age andwhen we get a chance to, with
all this toxicity, we continueto gravitate to it.
So who are we if that's what'strending, if that's what we're
investing our time in and whatyou put into you comes out of
you?
So if you put all of that toxictearing down, destroying each
(30:32):
other, seeing each other is lessthan divisiveness, republicans,
libtards, all of these namecalling, and if we become this
thing, this is who we are.
You don't get to say thatthat's not me and it's even
worse than that.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
When Tree First asked me to do podcasts, I had never
watched very many of them.
It was not a medium that I wasall that interested in.
I remember coming back andsaying it's like five pieces of
content that 75 people talkabout and one person says
something whether it's a CandaceOwens or a Jordan Peterson or
somebody on the liberal side,you can tell I tend to lean to
(31:09):
the right and then 2,500 peoplepile on and say see what they
said, see what this is.
There's nothing creative aboutit.
And it just completely takesone soundbite that they said
during a five, not five two hourconversation, which in many
cases is very interesting, andit takes a two minute soundbite
where they disagree withsomebody or make some snippy
(31:30):
comment and they make a two hourpodcast about this one
particular piece.
It is so divisive and it takesthings out of context.
So, for instance, I tend to bea fan of Jordan Peterson.
Now some of you will roll youreyes and turn us off right now.
But one of the things that hetalks about.
Very much is data and he willsay something that data will
(31:53):
lead me to believe this.
He doesn't say I don't believeyou or you're wrong.
He says the data tends to leadme to this.
And then his soundbite will beand that's why women get paid
less money.
So what do you think makes itinto the podcast?
It's not all of the things thatled up to it.
This is why women make lessthan men.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
And all of a sudden that becomes the controversy and
we get 50,000 podcasts off ofthat and I'm going to say this
and this is going to sound likesuch a ridiculous statement, but
this just came to me while youwere speaking.
So if you're going to buycologne or perfume and after a
while you smell a sample, rightand you smell another sample, it
(32:34):
gets in your nasal passages.
So that's why they have coffeebeans out for you to like clear
out all of that.
So I need you to smell thosenotes.
That's in the next one.
And you can't do that if youdon't use coffee.
And then I'm going to go tofood Food when you're doing the
tasting and sampling, they wantto tell you palate cleansing
(32:57):
right.
Clean your palate.
So what I'm saying to everyoneis that we are taking, we're
working in toxic environments,we're living in toxic times or
all this you have.
It's incumbent upon us to cleanour palate.
I mean, start putting good in,because if you can't get blood
(33:18):
from a turnip, you can't getsomething out of something
that's not in there.
You just can't.
You can try.
So I mean, this toxicity andnegativity has to come out of
you if you're putting it in you.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
But you know, what's interesting and somebody I think
it was actually a comedian thattalked about this is that good
news doesn't sell.
Nobody has made a successfulcareer from the beginning of
talking about good things andonly good things, and that's I
hope.
I hope this isn't true, but italmost seems like that's human
(33:52):
nature, that we like to hearabout other people's suffering.
It's a horrible thing, but youknow, people say well, oprah,
oprah brings up all these goodthings.
Well, look at Oprah's past.
There were times when Oprahtalked about some pretty strange
stuff or had some prettyinteresting guests and she
cleaned up her act because shebuilt up such cred and such a
(34:12):
following that she could then goin that direction.
But she couldn't do itinitially.
So therefore it created it's adifferent scenario.
I don't know of anybody thatjust stepped right out and said
from day one I'm going to onlytalk about positive things, I'm
only going to bring up positivebut can I talk about that part
though?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Sure, so since you bought up Oprah, what we know
for sure is go back to your datapoint, go back to it.
And even Oprah said this in herown words when she first
started she was doing a bringinga spouse on the husband.
The first five years Oprah didnot become Oprah until she
consciously decided to like, I'mnot going to do that.
And they said, well, you'regoing to fail, it's not going to
(34:51):
succeed.
And she took the mantra.
She was like, if it doesn'teducate, inform, enlighten, I'm
not going to do it.
And she became her mostsuccessful self with that model.
So there you go, and now yousee a lot of it.
You see your Bernadette Brown,you see your Jay Shedding, you
see all of these people, theAdam Grants, you see all of
(35:11):
these people who have beeneducational, teaching, and
people like me gravitate to it.
Because I am determined todrown out this noise with
positivity, good information andeducation, because I need it,
because I needed to get in me soit can come out of me.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I would challenge folks who listen to this podcast
to give us your positive rolemodels, because I believe that
most people and I hope I'm wrongdon't even know the people that
you just mentioned, because youhave made a point of bringing
positivity into your life asopposed to negativity.
So do people know about AdamGrant?
Do people know about Bernadette?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Brown, new York Times bestsellers, and the last one
of them.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So how do we make sure that those people are
raised and other people we lookat as just being poisonous?
Because I believe the poisongets into the system much easier
than the goodness gets into thesystem.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And I feel compelled to say this too, because I don't
know.
It's like, for whatever reason,this energy behind this show.
It's like I'm hearing voices.
People say yeah, because I'veheard people say that they call
it wretchedness, wretchedness,and it's like the Real
Housewives.
I'm sorry.
All of those reality shows andthey were like I need to see a
(36:25):
train wreck and so for thosepeople it's trash.
It's absolute trash.
But I'm just.
I'm speaking for those peoplewho say reality for me is too
real sometime and I need to.
I watched that because I needto disconnect, I need to
separate, I know it's trash andsometimes I need that.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
But it's not reality.
It's a contrived version tomake people's lives feel better.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
But most people that watch well, the comments I see,
and the people I know that watchit, say they know it's not
reality.
So it's just you know andthat's why they can watch it.
It's like it's just a trainwreck and I watch it because the
train, that's why I bought up.
If you run towards a trainwreck, if you run towards fires,
if you want to fight, what doesit say about?
(37:16):
About you that you need to seebecause there are there are
blurred lines.
So, even though it's a reality,some of these people really
have fault.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
These marriages are really destroyed in some of
these what I'm saying there areadults are really Do you know
the genesis of where reality TVcame from.
It was it was studios thatdidn't want to pay for actors.
Studi studios didn't want topay for writers.
Studios didn't want to payunion dues for people and they
said let's just put some schmoeson stage and see what happens.
(37:45):
That way we don't have to paywriters, we don't have a script,
we don't have to.
So it was the studios beingcheap.
And all of a sudden they foundout that people bought the dog
food.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Right, they're like oh, my God people like this crap
.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Well, let's do some more of this crap.
And the more bizarre it was,the better it was.
Who was the guy who did those,those talk shows where people
would beat each other up thefirst time when it happened and
the ratings went through theseries?
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Jerry Springer.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
No, the other clown there's some more clowns, more
Polish.
Well, you just keep namingclowns.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Donahue, who's the?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
guy who died a couple of years ago and used to like
yell at his audience, and thenhe anyway, if you guys remember.
But they found that this waspopular.
Oh my God, oh my God, this islike a dog whistle.
I mean, people come running tothis stuff, but it wasn't
created because somebody had agenius idea.
It was created because thestudios were cheap and they got
tired of it.
(38:34):
They didn't want to pay actorsand they didn't want to write
scripts, and so they're like,let's try this, I think, but how
?
And not all that worked.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
But how we got there.
I don't think anybody caresthough.
I don't think anyone watchingcares.
More downy, more downy.
Julia, I was seeing a teeth too.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
He had the big teeth like coming at you yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
It scared me Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
And I just, I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Not Robert Downey Morton, not just Claire, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
But you look at it and say I don't know why people
somehow feel, is it because theysay I had a really shitty day
and I'm going to watch this andsee how dysfunctional they are
and it's going to make me feelthat much better?
But I just think it's kind ofjust race to the bottom.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I think too, and sometimes and this is what has
been often said too Sometimespeople just want to, to know
when they, because it's a lot ofdysfunction.
So when you think your familyis dysfunctional oh my God, did
you see it's like, let me know.
Sometimes they think let meknow, I'm not in this alone.
(39:39):
You know, and I have seen, youknow, and I know my family is
dysfunctional.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Hello family we are.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
And then when I see things and I'm like who, then
I'm not alone, but I don't, Idon't need to see other people,
I don't even.
I don't like this functionperiod, so I definitely don't
like it around me.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
But to get back to your theme, who are we?
You know, someday an alien isgoing to land on this planet.
I hope not.
They're not going to be here.
See, what is this?
What is this drivel that thesepeople have been watching?
Nothing about betteringyourself, nothing about home
self-improvement.
You know, I just I don't wantto sound like that, but you know
(40:19):
, at some point you look at thestuff and you go don't you want
to learn a little bit more aboutanother country?
Or don't you want to learn howto do this?
And I mean being a homeowner.
I spend a lot of time on YouTube, but I don't watch the stuff.
You think I look at things likehow do I fix this air
conditioner, or how do I do this, and every one of those things
(40:39):
makes me a little bit smarter.
And now, all of a sudden, whensomebody says, hey, have you
ever fixed that?
I can go do that.
So who am I?
I believe that every day you'renot every day you're learning,
you're living, and every dayyou're not learning something,
you're dying.
So pick which one you want todo.
You can either continue to liveor continue to die, and I just
(41:00):
I'm lost at why there's anyinterest in watching other
people suffer, it just or evenworse, creating false suffering,
filming it and then putting iton TV.
So people who are alsosuffering say, at least I'm not
suffering that much.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I don't get it.
I don't get it either.
I just know that and you hatewhen I use this word, but there
needs to be a reckoning Like wereally do.
We really need to go throughand cleanse and a reset button.
Something has to break becausewe cannot continue to generation
(41:40):
after generation.
And I do have to say this I hada conversation with my nieces
and my nephews all of them andnow they aren't kids, they're
young adults and I said to themand I implore that everyone go
to their family and have similarconversations it's not okay
(42:04):
that we're so disconnected.
It's not okay that we have awhole you know iPad, tablet
generation.
It's not okay that they have noconnection to aunts and uncles
and grandmothers and cousins andthey look like strangers and
they only come around forweddings and funerals.
(42:24):
This is not.
This is who we are.
And we can say well, that's notme and it's not, but it is.
And I had to say to my nephewand bless his heart, kalo, I
love you.
He got it.
But I said to him.
I said have you ever thoughtthat you will soon have a family
and have you ever thought that,like you know your cousins and
(42:47):
you're close to your cousinsthat your kids won't have that.
Have you ever thought aboutthat?
And it's a fact that they won'thave it.
Because if your generation hasstopped reaching out and like,
oh, I'm too busy to pick up aphone, or you know, I text you
every blue moon and we become atext, how do they have any
connectivity to family?
(43:07):
How do they know what family is?
How do they know that it'snormal for aunties to be nosy?
That's just that's what auntsdo?
How do they know that?
You know, uncles, I normallydon't give you much advice and
just stay in a background.
How do they know family doesn'thave grandma's coming in just
to spoil you picture?
So whatever that and it's astereotype?
(43:29):
Yes, it is, and you know.
But how do they know any ofthat?
Speaker 2 (43:33):
But take it into your context I mean, and that is
that if we disconnect socially,we break the links of history,
we break the links ofunderstanding where we come from
, and this came to light reallyjust recently.
We live in just outside ofBirmingham, alabama.
We went to the Civil RightsMuseum several weeks ago.
Talk about eye opening.
(43:55):
First of all, fantastic museum,but just eye opening to the
level of suffering and thingsthat went on that even many of
us who are alive during thattime weren't aware of.
So that brings it to light.
Fast forward.
A couple of weeks later we weredown in New Orleans.
We went to the World War TwoMuseum, another one Don't do it
in a day, you would be justoverwhelmed.
(44:17):
But the number of things thathave gone on in the history of
the world that we don't have toatone for but we have to know
about, because those who do notlearn from history as somebody,
once said, are damned to repeatit.
We don't have to atone becauseit didn't happen on our watch.
I think we need to be aware ofthem.
I think we need to recognizethat we can learn from these
(44:38):
things.
There are a lot of horriblethings that have happened in the
history of the world, thehistory of our country, maybe
even our own history, that Idon't know if we necessarily
want to use the word atone, butyou learn the Japanese in term
and is a perfect example the waywe treated Japanese during
World War Two, the way blackswere treated during a number of
(44:59):
protest movements throughout thehistory.
I think if we don't learn fromthings like that, we are not
again.
We're not evolving as people,so we continue to devolve,
especially if we keep making thesame damn mistakes.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
But what I have to say to that is I just want to
speak truth to power and to saythat so yeah, that was the Civil
War, but what was the CivilLiberties Act was like in 1985
when Reagan sat down and heapologized and now that's such a
dirty word Like he apologized?
That's atonement.
(45:35):
Why should we not atone?
Why?
And he didn't do it.
You could say that generationdidn't do it.
But atonement is necessarybecause that's part of like you
and I talked about in SouthAfrica, about the reconciliation
In order, for apartheid was sohorrific and you know the
(45:56):
genocide that there had to be anatonement.
There had to be areconciliation and no one could
say, well, I didn't do it, ithappened on my watch, but I
wanted the Germans we talkedabout that.
Well, hitler and his atrocitythat there had to be an
atonement when no one said, well, I didn't do that.
It was like you know what Idon't want the residue.
I don't want this to go anothergeneration, I don't want it, I
(46:20):
needed to stop.
So whatever we have to do toclean this up is what we need to
do, and I think that's whyAmerica struggles so much is
because of divisiveness andsaying well, that wasn't on my
watch or that wasn't in my time,and it's like and like
everything I just said aboutmyself earlier.
I'm not going to do thingsthat's so called in my best
(46:42):
interest.
It doesn't matter.
I care about healing a world,and so if people need peace,
people need forgiveness, peopleneed an apology, whatever, why
do we care?
If it makes us stronger and itbrings us together and we want
to in the song where we are toreal set heal the land, why are
(47:03):
we fighting that's?
Speaker 2 (47:03):
more than actually.
It's more than words.
There have to be actions behindthem, and all I'm getting at is
that what I found fascinating isI enjoy history.
I wouldn't say that I'm astudent of history, but when you
, when you realize some of thesethings and you recognize the
number of mistakes in retrospectthat have been made through the
years, through the decades ofthe centuries and you know,
obviously the history of theUnited States is quite short,
(47:26):
small compared to Europe orother parts of the world you
know Roman Empire, you knowthere have been mistakes made
throughout the course of historyand you know one of the things
that I learned very early on isit's not what mistakes you made,
but how you learn from them andhow you move on from them and
everybody moves on in their ownway and how those occur.
But I guess what I'm getting atis as we disconnect as people
(47:49):
and you're talking abouttechnology, there's some stuff
around this as we disconnectfrom each other and stop the
social unit that is us havingconversation and handing down
history, and whether it'spersonal history or family
history or the history of theworld, the number of people
today don't know what 9-11 isall about.
You know when you lose that,you lose and you say 9-11, never
(48:11):
forget.
But they forgot and they forgotand that gets lost in the cloud
of well, I got 12,000 likes onTikTok or I got that.
That's irrelevant to what isreally going on and what the
world is made of and how it willcontinue to progress, moving
forward and technology becomes ascary thing because information
(48:32):
is power and if we allow thatinformation to be monitored or
diagnosed or changed, we're introuble.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Right, and I know again this sounds like another
simplification of a complexissue.
But If we have learned and someof us are still learning, and
this is not a general thing I'mabout to say but we've changed
the way.
When they said, when someonehurts you, when someone hurts
you, now we have morecommunication on.
(49:02):
If I come to you and say, toby,you hurt me, now we become
better communicators my responseshould be if I offended you or
if I hurt you, we're learningemotional intelligence.
Some of us it's a slow learn.
We're learning that never sayif I.
(49:23):
If someone comes to you and sayyou hurt me, you know to
acknowledge to see their pain,to say, wow, you know, I see you
hurt, not really sure what Idid, but how, what can we do to
rectify this?
And that little small, subtletweak goes a long way.
You know, in the minute we say,well, if I, because I have no
(49:45):
idea what I did to you, it shutsdown conversation.
And how does it?
How does that tie into?
Who are we?
But those we have to careenough to start recognize those
little hear me when we ask, whenwomen say you know, hear me,
see me.
It was like well, you know I'mhiring you, you know you're
(50:05):
sitting in that seat and I waslike, and I'm like but it goes
back to what I was saying aboutdiversity and inclusion.
I was like you know, diversityis getting on the team, you know
inclusion is getting in thegame.
So when people are saying to me, as we try to be a better
nation and we try to cometogether as one, we have to
(50:27):
change our language.
We have to be able to hearpeople and stop saying it wasn't
me, I didn't do it, I'm goingto push back a little bit only
because you surprising, right?
Speaker 2 (50:38):
I just think that we've become an overly
sensitized culture, and I can'tspeak for other parts of the
world, but I think here herewe've become overly sensitized
and we've now gotten into asituation where if somebody says
something that offends you, allof a sudden, it should be
removed from the face of theearth, it should be completely
to.
You know, I could say somethingbecause I don't like that, I
(50:59):
don't like the way you said that, or something I said.
Okay, I can understand how thatcould be perceived.
As you know, not liked, I'mokay with that.
But the moment we start tocensor or we start wrong word,
we start to say, oh, because Idon't like that color, I think
it should be eliminated.
Then you start to repeat on myability to say what I think.
(51:21):
So if I walk into a restaurantand I say I really don't think
this food is very good, therestaurant consumed me because I
hurt their feelings.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Where does it stop?
Well, you can, I'll let youhave that overly sensitive and
I'll leave you on the island byyourself and you're entitled.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Certainly not by myself.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
I'm not there with you because I think that this
deal to me goes back a quarterof progression is change, and
change are steps, and so and howthat relates to sensitivity is
we were insensitive.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
So when you recognize that we kind of Were we or were
we independent?
Were we independently minded,and therefore my independent
mind was different from yourindependent mind, you don't
think we could be both.
Yes, we can, oh, absolutely.
But we're not today Because ina reason why Because a speaker
can't go on a campus becausepeople are going to protest and
(52:21):
throw stuff and lay down androll over whether that's a
liberal or conservative.
We've lost our objectivity.
Speaker 1 (52:28):
Well, that's, but it's the.
Would you agree?
And I go back to Newton's LawFor every action there's an
opposite and equal reaction.
Just hear me out.
So, because of insensitivityand the quest for sensitivity,
that's the pendulum, that's howit goes, and so the point of it
(52:48):
is, and I think everything thatwe talked about we talked about
a lot of subjects today and whoare?
We comes back to the middle.
The middle is your core.
The middle is your core.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
There should be core values that we agree with, and
the other things are things thatwe should be able to agree to
disagree without beingdisagreeable, which is the
nature of what we do on thispodcast, and I don't believe
that a situation like If you'rein a university, which should be
the bastion of learning,open-mindedness, thought, and
(53:23):
you have somebody that you can'tbring on campus because people
are going to protest or throwthings protesting, is fine.
By the way, let me take thatback.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
I was gonna say I don't have a problem with
protesting.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
They act out, they don't allow the speaker to speak
.
That is the antithesis oflearning, because learning is
both good and bad.
You can learn things that youdislike.
You can learn things aboutNazism and say I don't wanna
ever do that again.
You can learn things aboutanything that you say this is
great.
But the moment you stoplearning, you're dying.
So whether you're learning,good or bad or otherwise.
(53:53):
So stopping somebody fromteaching you something is
counterproductive.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
I agree, but just again, we need to have that same
vigor across the board.
Agree, I do believe that peopleshould be allowed to speak and
you should be allowed to protest, but you have to hear people
out.
If you don't like what they say, then you protest.
Then turn it off, hear them out.
But that same in reverse goesback to you can't ban books.
(54:24):
People should be allowed toread and make up their own mind.
If you don't like it, thendon't buy it.
If you don't like thattelevision show, turn it off,
all of these things.
But to say you get to exist andI don't, vice versa, I don't
like that at all.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
So not knowing where we were gonna go.
I just printed out a couplethings that I thought was
interesting, and for anybody whowatches the podcast knows I'm a
real big believer in the factthat people should be allowed to
say what they feel and you havethe right to turn that off.
So I thought to myself I wonderif this is a new culture, a new
thing, and I printed outsomething from 2000.
Speaker 1 (55:01):
What's a new?
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
I don't ban people for things that they say that we
somehow cancel them, I guess isthe time.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
No, no, no, it hasn't .
Speaker 2 (55:09):
So I found this interesting article from
therapcom August of 2015, 15comedians that were under fire
for jokes that they said.
Some of these names are gonnablow your mind.
Okay, ready, these are the 15th.
I'm not gonna know all.
Speaker 1 (55:25):
I thought you went back to like the.
You know the early 1900s.
No, no, no, no.
We'll go back to the 15th.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
No, no, not that I had trouble with it, yeah, but
no.
10 years ago we still had this.
Okay, and people know the oneslike George Carlin got in
trouble for his seven dirtywords.
But Louis K made a joke aboutmolestation, okay.
15 years ago Amy Schumer made ajoke about dating Hispanic men.
She said I used to dateHispanic guys.
But, now, I prefer consensual.
Yes, so she got in trouble forthat Another guy, I don't know,
(55:54):
I'll skip him your friend TrevorNoah.
Trevor Noah got in troublebecause he said a hot wife woman
, a hot white woman with ass, islike a unicorn.
Even if you do see one, you'llprobably never get to ride it.
Okay, trevor Noah, 10 years ago, said this okay, pretty sure
he's still on TV.
We didn't cancel him.
Okay, stephen Colbert, rememberhim?
(56:14):
Stephen Colbert said on hisofficial Twitter account he made
a joke about the QingchongDingdong Foundation for
sensitivity for orientals.
Okay, Oriental yes for orientals, all from top to bottom, okay,
and it goes on.
10 years ago, these people arestill in mainstream.
Okay, we're not canceling them,we're not trying to get rid of
them.
Very interesting article in theLA Times.
(56:37):
It actually calls us out andsays for as long as people have
existed, we've had people goingthrough this.
The big difference today andI'm calling it out because you
did social media Social mediaokay, because it happened 10
years ago that somebody saidsomething like that and people
said, oh, I don't find him veryfunny.
Andrew Dice Clay never foundhim funny.
You know a number of people.
(56:58):
George Carlin I didn't thinkwas a big fan.
You know people like Bill Burrare saying things like we should
literally kill people bysinking cruise ships.
Bobby Collins, who's been outthere forever Talks about
chlorinating the gene pool.
He's suggesting genocide andsomehow that's okay.
But now it's now a big dealbecause social media beats us
(57:20):
with it.
Did you hear what So-and-Sosaid today?
Did you hear what they saidyesterday?
Turn it off.
In fact, we should turn offsocial media, Not us.
We're cool, but just turn itoff.
It's poison, and make your owndecisions.
If you find the comedian funny,go see them.
If you don't turn it off, wedon't have to cancel them.
You don't have to get yourfeelings hurt.
(57:42):
You don't have to ball up inthe corner and eat Oreos.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
I like Oreos.
Hey, don't talk about OreosDouble stuff.
Speaker 2 (57:48):
I mean just live, enjoy your life, Don't let the
negative things kill your buzz.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
So, on that note people, we're gonna wrap it up
and bring it home.
So who are we?
We are work in progress and wewill always be work in progress,
but I think, as long as we keepremembering it's not about I,
it's about the collective.
Speaker 2 (58:13):
And she can put up with me.
Speaker 1 (58:16):
I'm doing it because I should get some special credit
to have it, I believe that it'slike a lottery.
Have it as like a lottery.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
The IRS.
I don't know if I'm a taxdeduction but and you don't.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
when you put up with really crazy people, you get a
higher seat in heaven.
Speaker 2 (58:31):
So I'm looking for the best here.
Crazy old white peoplededuction on the IRS form.
It's like line 23 or something.
White man's blues, I tell you,the white man's blues.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (58:43):
Anyway, thank you for joining us.
This was a lot and it was aserious subject and I only put
out there because I try to liveby it.
I try to search myself.
That's why I create a purge tocontinue to sit higher, to see
further, to be moreunderstanding, to be more
informed.
And we can only be morepassionate, caring, loving,
(59:06):
insightful if we are lookinghigher, because we need to see
better and again remember whatwe put in us comes out of us.
So yeah.
Yeah, and that's me, and thesefatty foods too, so.
I gotta hey, I want to fat tokeep coming out.
I gotta stop eating fatty foods.
That's what happens.
But thank you for joining us.
(59:26):
Until we meet again.
We'll see you on the purge.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank
you.
Good day Perch people Want to.
Before I do anything, welcomeToby back.
Welcome back, toby, glad you'rein the land of the living,
thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thank you Made it through, yes yes, any stories
about her Me was grosslyoverrated.
Yes, yes, it was.
I wanted more money, so we hadto renegotiate the deal.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Fake news, fake news so.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I got 100% raise.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
So, before we get into this today's topic I really
want to discuss, I was led tocome up with a what do you call
it?
A slogan model?
What is it called?
Like the meaning of the show.
So literally of course it'scalled Perch.
(00:52):
But I was given an epiphany orsign to call it the Thoughtful
Pause podcast and I never reallytalked about that.
And the reason why I'm bringingit up now is because this
particular episode, wedefinitely need a thoughtful
pause before we start it.
And so what is a thoughtfulpause?
(01:13):
It's that pause.
Literally it's in a name.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
You can't define a word.
With a word you know you can'tsay pause is a pause.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
No, so I was going to say why thoughtful pause.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Gotcha, but yeah, but okay, good All right, thank you
.
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
So the reason why I said no the reason why I say
thoughtful pause is because weall kind of came up with the
same expression saying thingbefore you speak, take a breath,
take a beat.
That's a common saying.
But that's just a pause.
It's just that this isintentionality behind it,
meaning, you know, pause toreally think clearly before we
(01:53):
form such strong opinions.
And so now that leads us intoday's topic.
Today's topic it came to me ina weird way and I'll get to that
how it came to me.
But what's today's topic, toby?
Speaker 2 (02:09):
The designated hitter and baseball.
I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You don't know what today's topic is.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
I don't Military intelligence, how the two that
can, I don't know.
No, I just yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Today's topic is who are we?
Who are we, who are we?
And there's a reason I didn'tsay who are you?
Who am I?
Who are we?
And the point of this topic isto say that we are collective.
If we like it or not, we are.
We were all created.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
The colloquial we, yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
And I'm saying this with intention, because we were
all created to need each other.
We just were From science.
You can bring in religion, youcan bring in any factor it it.
Man was not meant to live alone.
So for us to say, you know whoam I is one thing, but who are
we as a collective body?
(03:04):
And so, ironically, how I kindof I've been coming to this,
this question has been lingeringin my head for a while, but
we're really bought it to theforefront, you know, in a weird
way is I just watched that weare the world.
What was it called the greatestnight in?
What was it called the greatestnight in pop?
(03:24):
I think, yeah, documentary, andI love we all the world, love
the song.
It was transformative for meand when I watched it I wonder
if anyone had the same thoughtsthat I had.
So if you haven't seen it, Ireally highly recommend it for
people who are younger.
You don't even know what we arethe world is.
Please go to YouTube.
(03:45):
What year?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
was that 1985?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Wow, okay Right.
1985 is when we, we are theworld came out and we are the
world was a collective group ofthe who's who and pop music at
the time coming to get some kindof way.
Dan Acroy got in there too.
Don't ask me, that's a wholenother conversation.
I don't know how he got inthere, but it was a who's who
would pop.
(04:08):
The biggest artists on theplanet at the time came together
and they did it to help,charity.
Yeah, it was the famine, whatwas going on in Africa.
So that's why so.
Charity, yes, but, and so thiswas the first time on the
history of the planet where theplanet came together.
(04:29):
And how did it come together?
So they pick we are the worldcharted.
It was a hit.
They picked one day where theworld played and sung.
We are the world at the sametime around the globe.
And the reason why this reallyresonated with me one is I love
music.
I love the way music transcendsreligion, culture, barriers,
(04:52):
how powerful music is to theplanet.
But what really stayed with meis how far we have come.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
There's that we word again, there goes we.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So here it is that all of these people came in.
You have Michael Jackson, Paul.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Quincy Jones.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Bob Dylan.
Prince didn't come, that's all.
He was invited, he didn't showup, oh wow, but it was he.
We look, I mean all the biggestpeople.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So you lost her.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yes, came, and never, not one time, was politics
bought up.
No one said these liberals, noone said you know what's the
agenda around the planet?
There was no question.
You got people of you know thehighest caliber that's booked
(05:45):
and busy all year round.
That dropped everything.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
So who called in the favor?
Who put it all together?
Was it Quincy Jones?
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It was Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie were the main
two behind it.
But they they took that fromthe first one that people
remember before that there wasband aid, where they came
together so that those bandsover and where was somewhere in
Europe.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
I think it was the UK , wasn't it the band?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, that start feed the world Lots of them.
I think that was like.
Wham, and that was GeorgeMichael and those guys,
everybody that was big back then, and so they took that and
people didn't Most of thesepeople in this room didn't know
why they were there, what wastheir purpose.
They just showed up because youknow.
Someone said you know we needto come together and there's a
(06:28):
famine and we need help.
And so when I said you know,who are we Meaning?
That was 1985 and this is 2024.
And as much as I like to bepositive and optimistic, it
doesn't seem like we can do thattoday.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Yeah, I don't think logistically, absolutely, and
well, there's so muchdivisiveness.
Yeah, it'd be hard to.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
So I was going to say now, when you say logistics,
you know where my head goes.
It's an orchestrating thing.
Well, I mean the idea of tryingto get all that many people
together on a given day.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I mean you shared a little bit about the fact that
you did it right after an awardshow or something right.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
The American Music Award, but no.
So you're thinking logistically, it's a problem.
I'm thinking culturally, andwhere we are as a planet is a
problem, because it's not justAmerica, it's.
Look what happened over withBrexit, look what happened
around the planet, where youhave this.
(07:25):
Can we come together one dayand put everything aside just
for the greater good?
And now we can't even agree onshould we support Ukraine or
should we not support Ukraine?
Can we get out of this?
Palestine versus?
There's so much division, andso when I say who are we, that's
(07:45):
a long way to get to that pointwho we are.
So Toby and I was having aconversation and I bought up
this topic and I'm going to putthis on me I won't put it on you
when I go and I didn't want toget it wrong and I don't want to
quote all of it.
But at one point I remember weused to quote the words on a
(08:08):
Statue of Liberty all the time,so I'm just going to take a
snippet where, on the Statue ofLiberty, the writing says give
me.
You're tired, you're poor,you're huddled, mess is yearning
to breathe free.
And I said Anand goes on.
Anand says send me yourhomeless.
And we live by this creed.
(08:30):
This is who we were asAmericans.
And now we talk aboutimmigration and open borders and
I was like wait.
So we used to say send me.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And we were laying in the immigrants In the French
right, yes, so they probablywanted us to take their tired
and their homeless and theirhungry.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But you know, if we didn't agree, we could have
Returned it.
We could have returned it or wecould have taken it back.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
How do you re-gift the Statue of Liberty?
Stop it.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
But you know what's fascinating too and I learned
this and really looking to theFrancis gift, because there was
a lot of intentionality behindit, because what we don't talk
about is what most of us don'tknow that there's broken chains
on the Statue of Liberty.
And the reason why they changedthe structure like right at the
(09:18):
end is because right after thatwe got the Statue of Liberty
came over.
When was this?
It was in 1883.
And the Confederate the CivilWar had in 1865.
So they didn't want to offendAmericans by having to change so
(09:41):
prevalent.
But there's so muchintentionality in the Statue of
Liberty.
So what they did is you can'tsee it from afar, but they said,
if you look over it, you cansee the chains at her feet.
And so that was saying and thechains were broken.
So the broken chains you knowthe Francis way of saying we see
that there's a change happening, some freedom, but they left
(10:06):
the chains there because theyknew that this was a process
that had begun and as I recall,the Statue of Liberty is
actually a larger version of asmall one than actually exists
in Paris somewhere.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And we talked about this the other day.
Most people don't recognizethat through really the American
Revolution as well as the Warof 1812, the French were our
allies against, of all people,the English.
And today most people look atthe French and go eh, french,
and they look at the British asour allies.
And what's very interesting isyou know, that was really the
(10:39):
heyday of our relationship withthe French, was you know?
If it wasn't for the French, weprobably would have never
gained our independence and ifit wasn't for the French, we
probably wouldn't have won theWar of 1812.
So it is an interesting casestate.
The history is very interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
It is.
And the last thing, because Ifind it's fascinating too they
said if you pay attention to theStatue of Liberty.
They said her right foot isslightly tilted forward, saying
that's a step toward progression, like movement moving forward.
So what does all this have todo with?
You know who are we, and thatwas a symbol.
(11:18):
And so when we're at a timewhen we have had Make America
Great Again, we have differentsayings.
How do we define ourselves?
Who are we?
And some people reference thegood old days.
I'm not sure what those dayswere, but one thing is for sure
(11:39):
change is heart for people, andthat's something that we know.
Change is heart.
But I do want to back up and goback to we Are the World for a
minute, and there's a lot oflyrics.
I'm not going to read them all,I just picked the verses, put
it together, Because they say weAre the World.
They say the chorus over andover and over again.
(12:02):
I never realized like I guessyou had like originally.
I think it was 70 people inthat room and I forgot how many
got a solo, so they had to makesure 70 people with her.
But it starts off saying therecomes a time when we heed a
certain call, when the worldmust come together as one.
There are people dying.
(12:24):
Oh, it's time to lend a hand tolife, the greatest gift of all.
We cannot go on pretending dayby day that someone, somewhere,
will soon make a change.
We are a part of God's greatbig family, and it's true.
You know, love is all we need.
And then the last verse goessend them your heart so they
know that someone cares, andtheir lives will be stronger and
(12:46):
free, as God has shown us byturning stone to bread.
And so we must lend a helpinghand.
When you're down and out, thereseems no hope at all.
You just believe there's no wayyou can fall.
Let's realize that a change canonly come when we stand
together as one.
And the reason why I felt theneed to state those words, it's
(13:07):
because there's a lot in there.
There's a lot, there's religion, there's poor and poverty and
helping out your fellow man.
That's saying recognize in lifeand let's prioritize life and
come together as one and all ofthose things are the things that
(13:29):
divide us Now.
Class divides us, Religiondivides us.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
But to be fair, I think those things have always
divided us.
I think there's a difference interms of how pervasive the
conversation is about how muchit divides us.
You look at the Crusades rightand go back to medieval times.
I mean people killed overreligion.
Look at Northern Ireland andSouthern Ireland.
(13:58):
They've killed for centuriesover religion.
So I don't think that that'sanything new.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Can I add another layer?
Sure, so I do agree that that'snot anything new, but I think
honest conversations about whowe are is we don't talk about
poverty.
And I said this to you.
I said please tell me, pleasetell me when you've heard a
politician say the poor.
Like those words, the poorpoverty.
(14:28):
We talk about broken systems,we talk about welfare, but
seeing people, seeing people andtalking about them and that's
new.
This, literally, was sayingit's time for us to lend a hand.
These were people.
There are people dying, thereare homeless.
(14:50):
And now we say on house, it'sthe same thing, but we won't
even acknowledge the poor.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
But you know the irony behind that, and I'm not
saying this is at all a badcause.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
I got a feeling where you're going, but I'm listening
.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
This was a cause for Africa and we had people dying
on the streets of Chicago and LAand New York and yet somehow we
felt compelled to help peopleabout three quarters of the way
around the world.
And my challenge has alwaysbeen that, whether or not you
like to hear it or not, I thinkcharity begins at home and I
think every country has asovereign right to take care of
(15:22):
its own.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
But I think two.
What do I say to you all thetime?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Two things can be true.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Two things can be true.
We can, we do have a right.
That's why I bought up.
Even here in this country, westruggle with seeing the poor
and saying the poor, and sayingtheir name and addressing them.
However, this was a famine thatmillions were dying instantly
(15:49):
just because of food.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I don't remember the circumstances and I'm sure it
was a noble cause.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
But this is why I'm saying, even as day, this is why
something like this can'thappen, because the planet came
together and say do you don'tthink, when the planet, when
this was going on, that theyweren't suffering in India, they
weren't suffering around theworld?
But the world said this is thehouse that's burning and we all
going to attend to this house.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
We are, and I don't know if we were at the time but
we are one of the top 10%wealthiest nations in the world
and we cannot take care of ourown people, and so it's an
insult, it's embarrassing to saythat, but the reality is true.
All you need to do is drive downMain Street in Austin, texas,
or in San Francisco, california,or in Chicago, and the number
(16:38):
of people that you willencounter that are, whether you
want to call them unhoused orhomeless, the poverty, the
mental health issues, and yetand, by the way, everything I
say today is my opinion, so Idon't have to keep saying in my
opinion but we send millions ofdollars to other countries to
help them through various things.
(16:58):
Some of them, as you said, someof them are somewhat
confrontational or somewhatquestionable, whether it be the
Ukraine or other things and yet,at the same point in time, we
don't have time to take care ofour own people, and that should
be a national embarrassment thatwe don't deal with things as
basic as mental health orhousing situations.
(17:19):
It's reached the point nowwhere people can't afford even
middle class people can't affordhousing.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
So We've lost our way , we've lost our priorities and
uh, you know and I'm going tokeep saying every time you say
something I think redundancy isimportant here Then who are we?
Then who are we?
And I hope that resonates witheveryone on listening.
I hope that everyone, becauseit's so easy to say I do this
(17:45):
and I prioritize and I.
But when I tell you people, ifwe don't start with we, if we
don't start with the collectiveand I've told Toby this, I've
been accused multiple times ofvoting against my interests and
I said, because it cannot alwaysbe about me, it cannot.
I say if the collective issuffering and I'm not in that
(18:07):
collective, then I still have tocare about the collective.
That means if poverty is, is,is out of control, and the
unhoused and all of thesenumbers are growing, and mental
health and I and I don't fit inany of those kick those, those
categories Then it's still myinterest because we are one.
(18:29):
And that's why when I say whoare we, I want to keep saying it
, because if we say we are andwe used to say you know we are,
you know a Christian nation,because Christianity used to be
the dominant religion in Americaand in those times I have
(18:50):
turned to, people are turningaway from religion like no other
, because we aren't being who wesay.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
It's also the, the.
The country is becoming moreand more diluted right as as
different cultures come into the, into the world, into our
country.
But you know the thing, andwe've talked about this, you
know, we all like to presentourselves as whole here than
that, and I'm I'm as guilty asmany other folks.
But so we'll say you know, yes,we need to build low cost
housing, yes, we need to do this.
(19:17):
We've talked about this.
And and all of a sudden peoplesay, well, so glad you feel that
way because right there, nextdoor to you, we're going to
build low cost housing.
And what's the first thing?
People say Not right, not myneighborhood, not my backyard.
And so we all suffer from thehypocrisy gene.
And there are obviously peopleout there that say you know, I
(19:37):
don't know we all suffer, but Iunderstand what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
All is a generalization.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
But you know, we, we all believe that we do the right
thing and in reality it's veryhard to do the right thing and
it's hard to have thoseconversations and and please,
and, and.
Politically speaking they'renot politically pop popular.
I mean, nobody wants to go as apolitician to hey, we're going
to build this low cost housingin your neighborhood or we're
going to build this nuclearpower plant in your neighborhood
(20:02):
because people need cheapenergy.
You know the nuclear argumentis long over.
You know it is safe.
We've got millions, of millions, hundreds of nuclear power
plants throughout the world, yetthey're still a bugaboo about
it.
Nobody wants a nuclear powerplant in their backyard any more
than they want at low costhousing in their backyard.
So who are we?
We're, we're, we're a group ofpeople that tend to be very
(20:23):
self-serving.
We care very much aboutourselves.
Part of that is genetic.
You know it's.
It's called, you know, survivalof the fittest.
And the reality is is we don'tlike the idea that we have to
suffer where other people aren'tsuffering, or we believe that
we've we've earned our right toto something greater than other
people do.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, and and I know someone's listening to that
those are grandiose, very, youknow generalizations, but I will
pose this question.
So, as we search ourselves tosay who are we?
What do you believe, like likeat your core, what do you truly
believe?
Because?
And then, if you believe thosethings, then search yourself
(21:03):
again and say how was it showingup in your life?
Because we can have a beliefsystem or we want, but if you,
if we have no residue or noremnants of the things that we
believe um actionable in ourlife, then again I ask who are
we?
Well, how?
Speaker 2 (21:20):
about if what you believe conflicts with what I
believe.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Right, but.
But when you're soul searchingit's.
It's about getting my own housein order, right, that's what
I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
But, for instance, there are some organized
religions that will say this isthe way it is and there are no.
It teaches absolutes and itsays this is the way it is.
And if you know of anybody whothinks otherwise, they're wrong,
they're heathens, they, they'regoing to hell, all of that.
So.
So my philosophy has alwaysbeen you can believe in what you
(21:53):
want, as long as what youbelieve it never interferes with
my ability to believe what Iwant.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So how do we do that?
And so it's funny we talkedabout this on the last podcast
with Monica Bay the mere fact ofyou know, I grew up being told
that meditation, meditating, wasevil, you know.
I was like, well, that's notgodly.
And I'm like, literally, youare telling people to breathe,
center yourself, you know, clearyour mind, relax, that's all it
(22:24):
is.
And so people believe thatbecause some minister told them
that, some church told them that, and so they won't meditate.
But for me, this is, and I canonly speak for myself.
I will look in a camera, I willlook anywhere and tell
everybody I am a Christian.
I am.
I don't subscribe to a lot ofthings that some ministers say I
don't and I won't.
(22:45):
I am spiritual and I say whatis my?
Okay, god, what do you have forme?
What are you trying to show me?
I have to drown out the noise.
I really do, because literally,like you just said, you turn
religion into something that's astatement of belief.
That's what religion is.
(23:05):
It's a statement of belief intoan absolute, which is a
statement of fact.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
But people kill still over this.
You know I've told the story athousand times.
Much tame her circumstance, butI had a roommate out of college
who would always want me to goto church with him and I would
always make up polite excusesevery week.
And finally, after about theseventh week of saying no for
various reasons, I said why isit so important to you?
(23:31):
He says I don't want you to goto hell.
And so what makes you believeI'm going to hell?
And he says the Bible says soand I said so.
Let me understand this correctly.
I live a virtuous life.
I have never hurt anybody.
I've never raised a fist.
I pay my bills, I give tocharity.
What makes me a horrible person?
He says you don't go to mychurch.
(23:52):
I said so.
Everybody doesn't go to yourchurch is going to hell.
And he said yes.
And I said you know, there areanother 420 religions out there.
Give or take a couple hundred,they feel the same way.
They can't all be wrong, arethey?
And all of a sudden you can'tget an argument from that.
Well, there are 420 and 419 ofthem are wrong.
(24:13):
So to me, who are we is adisparate set of people with
different beliefs that have tocoexist on a planet and somehow
make it work, while recognizingthat there are some core values
that hold us together.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Absolutely that's it.
Well, not that's it Boom.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
That's it, we're done .
Thanks for coming.
Thanks for coming.
We'll catch you later.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
The core, no, but I think part of that.
What I hear you say, I think isat the core what we need to
recognize, when it comes down toreligion, economics, economics,
culture, all of these things,that our differences aren't
deficiencies.
Our differences are notdeficiencies.
(24:59):
I want to say that and that'swhat's at the core of that,
because even when it comes downto religion, you know, we look
at it and we think differentfrom us.
They're God.
They have their own God.
They have their own.
You know, our differences arenot our deficiencies.
They worship in a different way.
They believe.
But if you believe that God isall powerful and all knowing,
(25:24):
why are you trying to label him?
Why are you trying to define?
You know what he is, becausehe's too great.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Oh, why do you worry about?
People don't believe in God atall.
Right, you know how people dobelieve in what they believe in.
There's really really, if youwant to boil the world down to
two simple things, there arelaws.
That are things that peoplehave come together and said this
is simple.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
We're not going to boil the world down to two
simple things.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
This is it.
This is it.
This is the world in 20 seconds.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
That's told me Can.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I just say again there are things that people
have gotten together over thecourse of years to create, and
they call them laws, and eventhose change from time to time,
and those are things that we'veall agreed collectively are bad.
You know and we know what thoseare.
And then there's everythingelse.
You know the other 99.7% ofthings around, which are your
beliefs, your values and whatyou hold to be dear, and the two
(26:12):
of them we handle verydifferently and we should handle
them very, very differently.
And the moment we start to takebeliefs and somehow try to
legalize them or illegalize themand I know this is not such a
word, but let's do it anywayThen we get ourselves into
trouble.
So you know, you and I talkabout this all the time.
You know, when we start to lookat something, say I don't like
what he just said, I don't likewhat she just said, I don't like
(26:36):
what this person just posted,that's not breaking the law,
unless they literally broke alaw.
They're entitled to thatopinion, whether you like it or
not.
And we talk about this withcomedians.
You know a comedian will saysomething you find unpleasant.
I may find it unpleasant toguess what.
You don't listen to it.
You move along.
There's no reason to try tomake it illegal or to censor
(26:59):
them unless it is de factoillegal, but for some reason
we've decided that anythingthat's unpleasant to us as
people should be removed fromthe world, and I don't know when
that started.
I don't know when that happened, but instead of just saying
there are so many great thingsthat we can agree on, we seem to
be in a space right now wherewe're more happy to talk about
(27:23):
things we disagree about.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And I think that it's funny because and this sounds
so overly simplified what I'mabout to say but you know, we
say change, and some peopledon't want things to change and
some people say things it's timeto change.
Well, who doesn't?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
want change.
Who would not want change?
Speaker 1 (27:45):
I guess whoever is winning.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
You're playing a board game and I'm winning, we
can quit now, but if I'm notwinning, I don't want to quit
yet.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Yeah, but the conversation we are having is
like going back to some greatertimes and then, for a lot of
people, is moving forward tosomething better.
And I guess I'm saying that tosay doesn't matter if we, if
your desire is to go back togreater times or if your desire
is to create something new, thebottom line is you have to
(28:18):
change posture, whatever you do.
If you go forward, you got tochange.
If you go backwards, you haveto change.
But we wrestle with changeconsistently.
You know, be it gone back.
It seems like we're going backhistorically, we kind of undoing
things that have been done.
But I guess I want to kind ofswitch this when I say who are
we?
Because we talked a littleabout history, we talked a
(28:41):
little about religion, but let'stalk about now, now, with
technology, who, what have webecome in this age of?
You know, see me, like me,follow me and flow, and I just
even think please, please,please, hear me when I say this
(29:03):
because I don't want to be ahypocrite.
Yes, we have a podcast andthat's using, that's using
technology and it's using socialmedia, but I'm very and I'm
just going to be honest andtransparent, because we've
talked about it in private.
It can be disheartening when Isee what we gravitate to and
when I say and I pray that thishits on one spirit be honest
(29:26):
with yourself.
If you are on social media andyou gravitate to every car wreck
, every accident, every fight,every graphic.
Here's somebody tearingsomebody else down, here's
someone else.
And you know how we know thatthis is a true statement,
because now that's where we are.
(29:47):
We have to get Canva and put abig caption to draw your
attention to.
Oh, this one is taking, callingus on out, oh, this person is
taking us to task and what theysay.
And this is what we'regravitating to.
And it makes me sad.
It really does, because thefact that this is the
(30:09):
information technology age andwhen we get a chance to, with
all this toxicity, we continueto gravitate to it.
So who are we if that's what'strending, if that's what we're
investing our time in and whatyou put into you comes out of
you?
So if you put all of that toxictearing down, destroying each
(30:32):
other, seeing each other is lessthan divisiveness, republicans,
libtards, all of these namecalling, and if we become this
thing, this is who we are.
You don't get to say thatthat's not me and it's even
worse than that.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
When Tree First asked me to do podcasts, I had never
watched very many of them.
It was not a medium that I wasall that interested in.
I remember coming back andsaying it's like five pieces of
content that 75 people talkabout and one person says
something whether it's a CandaceOwens or a Jordan Peterson or
somebody on the liberal side,you can tell I tend to lean to
(31:09):
the right and then 2,500 peoplepile on and say see what they
said, see what this is.
There's nothing creative aboutit.
And it just completely takesone soundbite that they said
during a five, not five two hourconversation, which in many
cases is very interesting, andit takes a two minute soundbite
where they disagree withsomebody or make some snippy
(31:30):
comment and they make a two hourpodcast about this one
particular piece.
It is so divisive and it takesthings out of context.
So, for instance, I tend to bea fan of Jordan Peterson.
Now some of you will roll youreyes and turn us off right now.
But one of the things that hetalks about.
Very much is data and he willsay something that data will
(31:53):
lead me to believe this.
He doesn't say I don't believeyou or you're wrong.
He says the data tends to leadme to this.
And then his soundbite will beand that's why women get paid
less money.
So what do you think makes itinto the podcast?
It's not all of the things thatled up to it.
This is why women make lessthan men.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
And all of a sudden that becomes the controversy and
we get 50,000 podcasts off ofthat and I'm going to say this
and this is going to sound likesuch a ridiculous statement, but
this just came to me while youwere speaking.
So if you're going to buycologne or perfume and after a
while you smell a sample, rightand you smell another sample, it
(32:34):
gets in your nasal passages.
So that's why they have coffeebeans out for you to like clear
out all of that.
So I need you to smell thosenotes.
That's in the next one.
And you can't do that if youdon't use coffee.
And then I'm going to go tofood Food when you're doing the
tasting and sampling, they wantto tell you palate cleansing
(32:57):
right.
Clean your palate.
So what I'm saying to everyoneis that we are taking, we're
working in toxic environments,we're living in toxic times or
all this you have.
It's incumbent upon us to cleanour palate.
I mean, start putting good in,because if you can't get blood
(33:18):
from a turnip, you can't getsomething out of something
that's not in there.
You just can't.
You can try.
So I mean, this toxicity andnegativity has to come out of
you if you're putting it in you.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
But you know, what's interesting and somebody I think
it was actually a comedian thattalked about this is that good
news doesn't sell.
Nobody has made a successfulcareer from the beginning of
talking about good things andonly good things, and that's I
hope.
I hope this isn't true, but italmost seems like that's human
(33:52):
nature, that we like to hearabout other people's suffering.
It's a horrible thing, but youknow, people say well, oprah,
oprah brings up all these goodthings.
Well, look at Oprah's past.
There were times when Oprahtalked about some pretty strange
stuff or had some prettyinteresting guests and she
cleaned up her act because shebuilt up such cred and such a
(34:12):
following that she could then goin that direction.
But she couldn't do itinitially.
So therefore it created it's adifferent scenario.
I don't know of anybody thatjust stepped right out and said
from day one I'm going to onlytalk about positive things, I'm
only going to bring up positivebut can I talk about that part
though?
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Sure, so since you bought up Oprah, what we know
for sure is go back to your datapoint, go back to it.
And even Oprah said this in herown words when she first
started she was doing a bringinga spouse on the husband.
The first five years Oprah didnot become Oprah until she
consciously decided to like, I'mnot going to do that.
And they said, well, you'regoing to fail, it's not going to
(34:51):
succeed.
And she took the mantra.
She was like, if it doesn'teducate, inform, enlighten, I'm
not going to do it.
And she became her mostsuccessful self with that model.
So there you go, and now yousee a lot of it.
You see your Bernadette Brown,you see your Jay Shedding, you
see all of these people, theAdam Grants, you see all of
(35:11):
these people who have beeneducational, teaching, and
people like me gravitate to it.
Because I am determined todrown out this noise with
positivity, good information andeducation, because I need it,
because I needed to get in me soit can come out of me.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
I would challenge folks who listen to this podcast
to give us your positive rolemodels, because I believe that
most people and I hope I'm wrongdon't even know the people that
you just mentioned, because youhave made a point of bringing
positivity into your life asopposed to negativity.
So do people know about AdamGrant?
Do people know about Bernadette?
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Brown, new York Times bestsellers, and the last one
of them.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
So how do we make sure that those people are
raised and other people we lookat as just being poisonous?
Because I believe the poisongets into the system much easier
than the goodness gets into thesystem.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And I feel compelled to say this too, because I don't
know.
It's like, for whatever reason,this energy behind this show.
It's like I'm hearing voices.
People say yeah, because I'veheard people say that they call
it wretchedness, wretchedness,and it's like the Real
Housewives.
I'm sorry.
All of those reality shows andthey were like I need to see a
(36:25):
train wreck and so for thosepeople it's trash.
It's absolute trash.
But I'm just.
I'm speaking for those peoplewho say reality for me is too
real sometime and I need to.
I watched that because I needto disconnect, I need to
separate, I know it's trash andsometimes I need that.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
But it's not reality.
It's a contrived version tomake people's lives feel better.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
But most people that watch well, the comments I see,
and the people I know that watchit, say they know it's not
reality.
So it's just you know andthat's why they can watch it.
It's like it's just a trainwreck and I watch it because the
train, that's why I bought up.
If you run towards a trainwreck, if you run towards fires,
if you want to fight, what doesit say about?
(37:16):
About you that you need to seebecause there are there are
blurred lines.
So, even though it's a reality,some of these people really
have fault.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
These marriages are really destroyed in some of
these what I'm saying there areadults are really Do you know
the genesis of where reality TVcame from.
It was it was studios thatdidn't want to pay for actors.
Studi studios didn't want topay for writers.
Studios didn't want to payunion dues for people and they
said let's just put some schmoeson stage and see what happens.
(37:45):
That way we don't have to paywriters, we don't have a script,
we don't have to.
So it was the studios beingcheap.
And all of a sudden they foundout that people bought the dog
food.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Right, they're like oh, my God people like this crap
.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Well, let's do some more of this crap.
And the more bizarre it was,the better it was.
Who was the guy who did those,those talk shows where people
would beat each other up thefirst time when it happened and
the ratings went through theseries?
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Jerry Springer.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
No, the other clown there's some more clowns, more
Polish.
Well, you just keep namingclowns.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Donahue, who's the?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
guy who died a couple of years ago and used to like
yell at his audience, and thenhe anyway, if you guys remember.
But they found that this waspopular.
Oh my God, oh my God, this islike a dog whistle.
I mean, people come running tothis stuff, but it wasn't
created because somebody had agenius idea.
It was created because thestudios were cheap and they got
tired of it.
(38:34):
They didn't want to pay actorsand they didn't want to write
scripts, and so they're like,let's try this, I think, but how
?
And not all that worked.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
But how we got there.
I don't think anybody caresthough.
I don't think anyone watchingcares.
More downy, more downy.
Julia, I was seeing a teeth too.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
He had the big teeth like coming at you yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
It scared me Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
And I just, I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Not Robert Downey Morton, not just Claire, yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
But you look at it and say I don't know why people
somehow feel, is it because theysay I had a really shitty day
and I'm going to watch this andsee how dysfunctional they are
and it's going to make me feelthat much better?
But I just think it's kind ofjust race to the bottom.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
I think too, and sometimes and this is what has
been often said too Sometimespeople just want to, to know
when they, because it's a lot ofdysfunction.
So when you think your familyis dysfunctional oh my God, did
you see it's like, let me know.
Sometimes they think let meknow, I'm not in this alone.
(39:39):
You know, and I have seen, youknow, and I know my family is
dysfunctional.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Hello family we are.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
And then when I see things and I'm like who, then
I'm not alone, but I don't, Idon't need to see other people,
I don't even.
I don't like this functionperiod, so I definitely don't
like it around me.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
But to get back to your theme, who are we?
You know, someday an alien isgoing to land on this planet.
I hope not.
They're not going to be here.
See, what is this?
What is this drivel that thesepeople have been watching?
Nothing about betteringyourself, nothing about home
self-improvement.
You know, I just I don't wantto sound like that, but you know
(40:19):
, at some point you look at thestuff and you go don't you want
to learn a little bit more aboutanother country?
Or don't you want to learn howto do this?
And I mean being a homeowner.
I spend a lot of time on YouTube, but I don't watch the stuff.
You think I look at things likehow do I fix this air
conditioner, or how do I do this, and every one of those things
(40:39):
makes me a little bit smarter.
And now, all of a sudden, whensomebody says, hey, have you
ever fixed that?
I can go do that.
So who am I?
I believe that every day you'renot every day you're learning,
you're living, and every dayyou're not learning something,
you're dying.
So pick which one you want todo.
You can either continue to liveor continue to die, and I just
(41:00):
I'm lost at why there's anyinterest in watching other
people suffer, it just or evenworse, creating false suffering,
filming it and then putting iton TV.
So people who are alsosuffering say, at least I'm not
suffering that much.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
I don't get it.
I don't get it either.
I just know that and you hatewhen I use this word, but there
needs to be a reckoning Like wereally do.
We really need to go throughand cleanse and a reset button.
Something has to break becausewe cannot continue to generation
(41:40):
after generation.
And I do have to say this I hada conversation with my nieces
and my nephews all of them andnow they aren't kids, they're
young adults and I said to themand I implore that everyone go
to their family and have similarconversations it's not okay
(42:04):
that we're so disconnected.
It's not okay that we have awhole you know iPad, tablet
generation.
It's not okay that they have noconnection to aunts and uncles
and grandmothers and cousins andthey look like strangers and
they only come around forweddings and funerals.
(42:24):
This is not.
This is who we are.
And we can say well, that's notme and it's not, but it is.
And I had to say to my nephewand bless his heart, kalo, I
love you.
He got it.
But I said to him.
I said have you ever thoughtthat you will soon have a family
and have you ever thought that,like you know your cousins and
(42:47):
you're close to your cousinsthat your kids won't have that.
Have you ever thought aboutthat?
And it's a fact that they won'thave it.
Because if your generation hasstopped reaching out and like,
oh, I'm too busy to pick up aphone, or you know, I text you
every blue moon and we become atext, how do they have any
connectivity to family?
(43:07):
How do they know what family is?
How do they know that it'snormal for aunties to be nosy?
That's just that's what auntsdo?
How do they know that?
You know, uncles, I normallydon't give you much advice and
just stay in a background.
How do they know family doesn'thave grandma's coming in just
to spoil you picture?
So whatever that and it's astereotype?
(43:29):
Yes, it is, and you know.
But how do they know any ofthat?
Speaker 2 (43:33):
But take it into your context I mean, and that is
that if we disconnect socially,we break the links of history,
we break the links ofunderstanding where we come from
, and this came to light reallyjust recently.
We live in just outside ofBirmingham, alabama.
We went to the Civil RightsMuseum several weeks ago.
Talk about eye opening.
(43:55):
First of all, fantastic museum,but just eye opening to the
level of suffering and thingsthat went on that even many of
us who are alive during thattime weren't aware of.
So that brings it to light.
Fast forward.
A couple of weeks later we weredown in New Orleans.
We went to the World War TwoMuseum, another one Don't do it
in a day, you would be justoverwhelmed.
(44:17):
But the number of things thathave gone on in the history of
the world that we don't have toatone for but we have to know
about, because those who do notlearn from history as somebody,
once said, are damned to repeatit.
We don't have to atone becauseit didn't happen on our watch.
I think we need to be aware ofthem.
I think we need to recognizethat we can learn from these
(44:38):
things.
There are a lot of horriblethings that have happened in the
history of the world, thehistory of our country, maybe
even our own history, that Idon't know if we necessarily
want to use the word atone, butyou learn the Japanese in term
and is a perfect example the waywe treated Japanese during
World War Two, the way blackswere treated during a number of
(44:59):
protest movements throughout thehistory.
I think if we don't learn fromthings like that, we are not
again.
We're not evolving as people,so we continue to devolve,
especially if we keep making thesame damn mistakes.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
But what I have to say to that is I just want to
speak truth to power and to saythat so yeah, that was the Civil
War, but what was the CivilLiberties Act was like in 1985
when Reagan sat down and heapologized and now that's such a
dirty word Like he apologized?
That's atonement.
(45:35):
Why should we not atone?
Why?
And he didn't do it.
You could say that generationdidn't do it.
But atonement is necessarybecause that's part of like you
and I talked about in SouthAfrica, about the reconciliation
In order, for apartheid was sohorrific and you know the
(45:56):
genocide that there had to be anatonement.
There had to be areconciliation and no one could
say, well, I didn't do it, ithappened on my watch, but I
wanted the Germans we talkedabout that.
Well, hitler and his atrocitythat there had to be an
atonement when no one said, well, I didn't do that.
It was like you know what Idon't want the residue.
I don't want this to go anothergeneration, I don't want it, I
(46:20):
needed to stop.
So whatever we have to do toclean this up is what we need to
do, and I think that's whyAmerica struggles so much is
because of divisiveness andsaying well, that wasn't on my
watch or that wasn't in my time,and it's like and like
everything I just said aboutmyself earlier.
I'm not going to do thingsthat's so called in my best
(46:42):
interest.
It doesn't matter.
I care about healing a world,and so if people need peace,
people need forgiveness, peopleneed an apology, whatever, why
do we care?
If it makes us stronger and itbrings us together and we want
to in the song where we are toreal set heal the land, why are
(47:03):
we fighting that's?
Speaker 2 (47:03):
more than actually.
It's more than words.
There have to be actions behindthem, and all I'm getting at is
that what I found fascinating isI enjoy history.
I wouldn't say that I'm astudent of history, but when you
, when you realize some of thesethings and you recognize the
number of mistakes in retrospectthat have been made through the
years, through the decades ofthe centuries and you know,
obviously the history of theUnited States is quite short,
(47:26):
small compared to Europe orother parts of the world you
know Roman Empire, you knowthere have been mistakes made
throughout the course of historyand you know one of the things
that I learned very early on isit's not what mistakes you made,
but how you learn from them andhow you move on from them and
everybody moves on in their ownway and how those occur.
But I guess what I'm getting atis as we disconnect as people
(47:49):
and you're talking abouttechnology, there's some stuff
around this as we disconnectfrom each other and stop the
social unit that is us havingconversation and handing down
history, and whether it'spersonal history or family
history or the history of theworld, the number of people
today don't know what 9-11 isall about.
You know when you lose that,you lose and you say 9-11, never
(48:11):
forget.
But they forgot and they forgotand that gets lost in the cloud
of well, I got 12,000 likes onTikTok or I got that.
That's irrelevant to what isreally going on and what the
world is made of and how it willcontinue to progress, moving
forward and technology becomes ascary thing because information
(48:32):
is power and if we allow thatinformation to be monitored or
diagnosed or changed, we're introuble.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
Right, and I know again this sounds like another
simplification of a complexissue.
But If we have learned and someof us are still learning, and
this is not a general thing I'mabout to say but we've changed
the way.
When they said, when someonehurts you, when someone hurts
you, now we have morecommunication on.
(49:02):
If I come to you and say, toby,you hurt me, now we become
better communicators my responseshould be if I offended you or
if I hurt you, we're learningemotional intelligence.
Some of us it's a slow learn.
We're learning that never sayif I.
(49:23):
If someone comes to you and sayyou hurt me, you know to
acknowledge to see their pain,to say, wow, you know, I see you
hurt, not really sure what Idid, but how, what can we do to
rectify this?
And that little small, subtletweak goes a long way.
You know, in the minute we say,well, if I, because I have no
(49:45):
idea what I did to you, it shutsdown conversation.
And how does it?
How does that tie into?
Who are we?
But those we have to careenough to start recognize those
little hear me when we ask, whenwomen say you know, hear me,
see me.
It was like well, you know I'mhiring you, you know you're
(50:05):
sitting in that seat and I waslike, and I'm like but it goes
back to what I was saying aboutdiversity and inclusion.
I was like you know, diversityis getting on the team, you know
inclusion is getting in thegame.
So when people are saying to me, as we try to be a better
nation and we try to cometogether as one, we have to
(50:27):
change our language.
We have to be able to hearpeople and stop saying it wasn't
me, I didn't do it, I'm goingto push back a little bit only
because you surprising, right?
Speaker 2 (50:38):
I just think that we've become an overly
sensitized culture, and I can'tspeak for other parts of the
world, but I think here herewe've become overly sensitized
and we've now gotten into asituation where if somebody says
something that offends you, allof a sudden, it should be
removed from the face of theearth, it should be completely
to.
You know, I could say somethingbecause I don't like that, I
(50:59):
don't like the way you said that, or something I said.
Okay, I can understand how thatcould be perceived.
As you know, not liked, I'mokay with that.
But the moment we start tocensor or we start wrong word,
we start to say, oh, because Idon't like that color, I think
it should be eliminated.
Then you start to repeat on myability to say what I think.
(51:21):
So if I walk into a restaurantand I say I really don't think
this food is very good, therestaurant consumed me because I
hurt their feelings.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Where does it stop?
Well, you can, I'll let youhave that overly sensitive and
I'll leave you on the island byyourself and you're entitled.
Speaker 2 (51:38):
Certainly not by myself.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
I'm not there with you because I think that this
deal to me goes back a quarterof progression is change, and
change are steps, and so and howthat relates to sensitivity is
we were insensitive.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
So when you recognize that we kind of Were we or were
we independent?
Were we independently minded,and therefore my independent
mind was different from yourindependent mind, you don't
think we could be both.
Yes, we can, oh, absolutely.
But we're not today Because ina reason why Because a speaker
can't go on a campus becausepeople are going to protest and
(52:21):
throw stuff and lay down androll over whether that's a
liberal or conservative.
We've lost our objectivity.
Speaker 1 (52:28):
Well, that's, but it's the.
Would you agree?
And I go back to Newton's LawFor every action there's an
opposite and equal reaction.
Just hear me out.
So, because of insensitivityand the quest for sensitivity,
that's the pendulum, that's howit goes, and so the point of it
(52:48):
is, and I think everything thatwe talked about we talked about
a lot of subjects today and whoare?
We comes back to the middle.
The middle is your core.
The middle is your core.
Speaker 2 (53:02):
There should be core values that we agree with, and
the other things are things thatwe should be able to agree to
disagree without beingdisagreeable, which is the
nature of what we do on thispodcast, and I don't believe
that a situation like If you'rein a university, which should be
the bastion of learning,open-mindedness, thought, and
(53:23):
you have somebody that you can'tbring on campus because people
are going to protest or throwthings protesting, is fine.
By the way, let me take thatback.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
I was gonna say I don't have a problem with
protesting.
Speaker 2 (53:32):
They act out, they don't allow the speaker to speak
.
That is the antithesis oflearning, because learning is
both good and bad.
You can learn things that youdislike.
You can learn things aboutNazism and say I don't wanna
ever do that again.
You can learn things aboutanything that you say this is
great.
But the moment you stoplearning, you're dying.
So whether you're learning,good or bad or otherwise.
(53:53):
So stopping somebody fromteaching you something is
counterproductive.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
I agree, but just again, we need to have that same
vigor across the board.
Agree, I do believe that peopleshould be allowed to speak and
you should be allowed to protest, but you have to hear people
out.
If you don't like what they say, then you protest.
Then turn it off, hear them out.
But that same in reverse goesback to you can't ban books.
(54:24):
People should be allowed toread and make up their own mind.
If you don't like it, thendon't buy it.
If you don't like thattelevision show, turn it off,
all of these things.
But to say you get to exist andI don't, vice versa, I don't
like that at all.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
So not knowing where we were gonna go.
I just printed out a couplethings that I thought was
interesting, and for anybody whowatches the podcast knows I'm a
real big believer in the factthat people should be allowed to
say what they feel and you havethe right to turn that off.
So I thought to myself I wonderif this is a new culture, a new
thing, and I printed outsomething from 2000.
Speaker 1 (55:01):
What's a new?
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (55:03):
I don't ban people for things that they say that we
somehow cancel them, I guess isthe time.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
No, no, no, it hasn't .
Speaker 2 (55:09):
So I found this interesting article from
therapcom August of 2015, 15comedians that were under fire
for jokes that they said.
Some of these names are gonnablow your mind.
Okay, ready, these are the 15th.
I'm not gonna know all.
Speaker 1 (55:25):
I thought you went back to like the.
You know the early 1900s.
No, no, no, no.
We'll go back to the 15th.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
No, no, not that I had trouble with it, yeah, but
no.
10 years ago we still had this.
Okay, and people know the oneslike George Carlin got in
trouble for his seven dirtywords.
But Louis K made a joke aboutmolestation, okay.
15 years ago Amy Schumer made ajoke about dating Hispanic men.
She said I used to dateHispanic guys.
But, now, I prefer consensual.
Yes, so she got in trouble forthat Another guy, I don't know,
(55:54):
I'll skip him your friend TrevorNoah.
Trevor Noah got in troublebecause he said a hot wife woman
, a hot white woman with ass, islike a unicorn.
Even if you do see one, you'llprobably never get to ride it.
Okay, trevor Noah, 10 years ago, said this okay, pretty sure
he's still on TV.
We didn't cancel him.
Okay, stephen Colbert, rememberhim?
(56:14):
Stephen Colbert said on hisofficial Twitter account he made
a joke about the QingchongDingdong Foundation for
sensitivity for orientals.
Okay, Oriental yes for orientals, all from top to bottom, okay,
and it goes on.
10 years ago, these people arestill in mainstream.
Okay, we're not canceling them,we're not trying to get rid of
them.
Very interesting article in theLA Times.
(56:37):
It actually calls us out andsays for as long as people have
existed, we've had people goingthrough this.
The big difference today andI'm calling it out because you
did social media Social mediaokay, because it happened 10
years ago that somebody saidsomething like that and people
said, oh, I don't find him veryfunny.
Andrew Dice Clay never foundhim funny.
You know a number of people.
(56:58):
George Carlin I didn't thinkwas a big fan.
You know people like Bill Burrare saying things like we should
literally kill people bysinking cruise ships.
Bobby Collins, who's been outthere forever Talks about
chlorinating the gene pool.
He's suggesting genocide andsomehow that's okay.
But now it's now a big dealbecause social media beats us
(57:20):
with it.
Did you hear what So-and-Sosaid today?
Did you hear what they saidyesterday?
Turn it off.
In fact, we should turn offsocial media, Not us.
We're cool, but just turn itoff.
It's poison, and make your owndecisions.
If you find the comedian funny,go see them.
If you don't turn it off, wedon't have to cancel them.
You don't have to get yourfeelings hurt.
(57:42):
You don't have to ball up inthe corner and eat Oreos.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
I like Oreos.
Hey, don't talk about OreosDouble stuff.
Speaker 2 (57:48):
I mean just live, enjoy your life, Don't let the
negative things kill your buzz.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
So, on that note people, we're gonna wrap it up
and bring it home.
So who are we?
We are work in progress and wewill always be work in progress,
but I think, as long as we keepremembering it's not about I,
it's about the collective.
Speaker 2 (58:13):
And she can put up with me.
Speaker 1 (58:16):
I'm doing it because I should get some special credit
to have it, I believe that it'slike a lottery.
Have it as like a lottery.
Speaker 2 (58:24):
The IRS.
I don't know if I'm a taxdeduction but and you don't.
Speaker 1 (58:26):
when you put up with really crazy people, you get a
higher seat in heaven.
Speaker 2 (58:31):
So I'm looking for the best here.
Crazy old white peoplededuction on the IRS form.
It's like line 23 or something.
White man's blues, I tell you,the white man's blues.
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (58:43):
Anyway, thank you for joining us.
This was a lot and it was aserious subject and I only put
out there because I try to liveby it.
I try to search myself.
That's why I create a purge tocontinue to sit higher, to see
further, to be moreunderstanding, to be more
informed.
And we can only be morepassionate, caring, loving,
(59:06):
insightful if we are lookinghigher, because we need to see
better and again remember whatwe put in us comes out of us.
So yeah.
Yeah, and that's me, and thesefatty foods too, so.
I gotta hey, I want to fat tokeep coming out.
I gotta stop eating fatty foods.
That's what happens.
But thank you for joining us.
(59:26):
Until we meet again.
We'll see you on the purge.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank
you.
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