September 3, 2025 • 25 mins
What makes a valued immigrant—credentials, or the ability to endure and build? Jerremy and Dave expose the realities of human trafficking and labor exploitation, challenge America’s fixation on credentials, and highlight stories of resilience such as Olga’s deep patriotism. This finale ties personal narratives to systemic reforms, asking how America can move beyond exploitation and paperwork toward dignity and thriving communities.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Greatness Redefined: Skills vs. Character
(09:51) Olga’s Story—Patriotism and Belonging
(12:16) Exposing Trafficking and Labor Exploitation
(15:40) Lessons Learned and the Next Fight Ahead
📢 Solving America’s Problems Podcast – Real Solutions For Real Issues
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alex (00:00):
Immigration’s heart isn’t numbers—it’s people.
From a Russian immigrant’s deep lovefor America to the stark reality of
exploitation, these stories show what itmeans to BUILD OUR immigration NATION.
Dave (00:13):
Who should immigrate?
Who are we welcominginto the United States?
because I think this comes up in a lotof our conversations the last few weeks.
Who?
And like when we talk to Melissa,you know, her world is very
much about STEM businesses.
Like, these are developers, theseare scientists, these are people
(00:37):
who are good at math and thesecompanies, they need, the scientists
in order to do what they need to do.
So the companies are willing toput up the money, put up the time,
energy in order to get those folks.
And we learned all about that whenMelissa, but then we also heard, well,
yeah, if you're a world class salesguy, sales salesperson yeah, good luck.
(00:58):
Or if you're an incredible entrepreneurfrom anywhere in the world, you're
not being treated special, right?
Even if best salespersonhappens to be Mexican, forget
it, they're stuck in Mexico.
And then you get people who immigrateor are pushed into situations that are.
(01:18):
Kind of weird, you know, whetherit's having to basically get forced
into a marriage in order to stay,or, vacationing in the United States
when you're nine months pregnant sothat your child can be born here.
You know, I think we also sort of indexto smart people and college graduates when
we need people who can, twist a wrench.
(01:42):
And, you know, we need build people tobuild our builds and the incredible skill
and intelligence necessary in order to,build anything in the United States.
None of that comes with a college degree.
And there aren't sadly, a lot ofAmericans who even want those jobs.
And you know, those skilledpeople are immigrants.
(02:05):
And I don't know about you.
I know a lot of smart people.
I have worked with a lot of smart peoplein highly technical positions, some of
them immigrants, and they, they are,we don't test for psychopaths, right?
You know, like if you are a crazyson of a bitch, but you happen to
have an advanced degree in something,you're welcome to the United States.
But if you are a world classpoet from someplace else,
(02:29):
good luck getting in the door.
So I think we overindex for certain thingsand we say, oh, those must be good people.
And we completely under index forthings that we actually need and tie
it to jobs and like, okay, so whoshould be coming to, the United States?
Jerremy (02:45):
Well, let me answer your question by
asking you a question.
How would you define great,because that's my answer.
My answer would be, let's get great people
into this nation.
If you're gonna immigrate inhere, I want you to be great.
I don't want you to be a scum human being.
There are scum, human beings.
I haven't met a lot myself 'causethat's just 'cause I have my perception
(03:07):
and the people I surround myselfwith, but I want great people.
So how would you definea great individual?
Dave (03:15):
It's shown over and over again that the people who are happy, the people
who on their deathbed say I did it.
Well, those people.
Over index for things like compassion.
They're social, they're curious,they have a bit of a intelligence
(03:41):
about them, and they really care.
And with those qualities, they succeedand the people around them succeed.
They tend to be a bit more familyoriented community oriented.
And those are the people who are notonly the happiest, they live the longest.
(04:03):
And that is success morethan anything else for me.
So bringing in a job producer thathas hundreds of millions of dollars
but is a crazy son of a bitch wholays waste to everything around them.
Is worth very little to me thansomebody who has those other
(04:25):
qualities that I talked about.
The kindness, the compassion the socialaspects, because they bring more, like
the people around them are productive.
They are the job creators.
They are creating businesses,they are creating community.
They are actually bringingmore to the United States.
So I think that greatness is aboutthose soft skills and those soft
(04:47):
skills where you look at that personand you're like, I admire that person.
I see this in you all the time.
It's like, I admire you as a personbecause you have those qualities
and great things happen aroundyou because of those qualities.
It's not because you're the smartest orthe richest or the craftiest or the one
who's willing to do whatever it takes.
(05:07):
You have the qualities that underpinall of that that are more important.
So that's what I think is.
Jerremy (05:12):
Thanks man.
So you're saying I'd be a good immigrant
Dave (05:14):
What did you, what was the country?
What was the country you chose?
Was it wasn't Grenada?
Aruba.
Aruba?
Yeah.
Aruba will be lucky to have you.
Jerremy (05:22):
Thanks man.
You, but to your point,I like that answer.
Meaning.
Imagine if it was as simple as we tooksomeone who had a lot of wisdom, insight,
experience, call them someone that was,let's just say you're 70 years old.
(05:42):
'Cause that's way tooold to be the president.
And you say to yourself, okay, sinceyou're 70 and you have all this wisdom
and age and experience and talent, let'sput you on the front lines of hire.
Going through an interview processfour hours a day for 80 minutes
per person to interview immigrants,people who wanna come to this nation.
And you have this list of questions.
(06:04):
And at the end, you've got the job, didn'tget the job you have these people that
are trained and talented and awesomeand have care and compassion and can
actually listen to stories and judgeI think this person's a great person.
'Cause they have those certain qualities.
That's what a hiring manager at a job.
Of almost any company, theyhave to talk to people crazy.
(06:28):
Like we have to actually learn whothis individual is because I do think
there are some characteristics, whatI said earlier about the physicality
of becoming an immigrant, was both alittle bit of a hyperbole, but at the
same time would be an actual legitimateaspect of an interview process of are
you healthy or are you gonna come to theUS and be a ginormous burden physically?
(06:54):
we don't need any moreobese people in America.
We had a health podcastdiscussion already, podcast,
and over 30% of the US is obese.
So there are Okay.
Certain levels there that's important.
Physicality, like mentally,spiritually, emotionally.
How do you relate to people?
What is your general charisma,kindness, thought process.
(07:15):
Do you smile?
Do you like other human beings?
Do you provide good energy?
Are you nice?
Do you understand the complexitiesof human interaction, like shaking
hands and smiling and giving me eyecontact and being a great human being?
I think there's plenty of peoplethat would mind taking that
job or that volunteer position,because that's really the answer.
It can be that easy.
Let me interview and pass or fail.
(07:38):
Do you smell terribly?
Are you just unkempt andmean, and angry and terrible?
It's okay, if that person's a genius
and they're gonna invent the nextincredible invention, let 'em do it in
their home country, because we probably,as US citizens, don't necessarily want a
(08:00):
lot more horrifically, angry, frustrated,terrible people that are running things.
I just think that ultimately, it should be
easy or it should still be somethingwhere there is a level of component.
And if someone takes the time, energy,and diligence to, I think you mentioned
(08:23):
be an incredible world renowned poetand they came to a job interview and
they said, what's your number one skill?
Or like why would you be here?
What value do you provide to thiscountry, company in this example?
And they just recited for 17minutes this beautiful poem.
Are they gonna get hired?
Probably like that's gonna berelatively impressive to somebody.
(08:47):
And if it's not at that exact job,maybe that person who's hiring
is oh wow, you're not fit for thefront desk at human resources.
Like you need to be the copywriter.
You need to be in the languagedepartment for this company.
And so I think that ultimately islike, yeah, everyone doesn't have to
fit into for everything, of course.
(09:08):
But for the people, whoshould be in this country,
great people.
That's who should be here.
People that are gonna add incrediblevalue, who are gonna do great things,
who are gonna care, who are gonnabe kind, who can be compassionate,
who are gonna do their best to bean amazing, loyal, caring citizen.
And if the time comes, ifit ever needed to happen,
(09:29):
Got invaded,
would you fight for it?
And I think that's a realizationthat, listen, I know some people
will or will not because of somereason or rationale, but most people
who would consider themselves anAmerican would go, yeah, if it, I'm
not saying put me on the front line.
I'm saying if this country gotinvaded and we had to, would
Dave (09:51):
How beautiful was that when Olga said, like she knew she was an
American when, at nine 11, she waslike, I would die for this country.
And I'm like, oh myGod, I just got chills.
Jerremy (10:03):
Man.
Me too, dude.
That's patriotism.
And you know what frustrates me?
I'm a rampage tyrant today.
This I feel, and maybe this ismy newsfeed, maybe it's my media,
I'm not sure, but people demonizepatriotism and because they think it's
one
Dave (10:18):
Who's doing that?
That's ugh.
Jerremy (10:20):
and they go, only hard-nosed Republicans can be patriotic.
No, exactly.
I agree.
I'm like, what?
We're like, what?
What are you talking about?
And I think if someone wears aginormous American flag shirt and
American flag pants, I did three orfour polls on this on my Twitter.
(10:42):
The majority of people say, or at leastthe people that voted for it, right?
They say that they would viewthat person as a Republican first.
There's that flag, baby.
There's that flag.
And so it's just man, I don't think thatneeds to be the case, nor should it be.
It's like being a patriot ofthis country just simply says,
you know exactly where you live.
(11:02):
You know exactly why you live here.
As much as I love Aruba and I wouldimmigrate there, I ain't got a rubian flag
anywhere in my house that welive here and left, right middle
center, far either direction.
Be an amazing human being, be anamazing citizen, be an incredible
advocate for this country.
(11:22):
That is what makes patriotismin any country exciting.
And we all should have a degreeof that, and that needs to
certainly be a very important
component
Dave (11:31):
Yeah.
whoever is demonizing patriotism.
I think that got wrapped up in thehole, woke in the last few years.
That is a dying thing.
I have definitely seen a lot moreleadership on the left side saying,
Hey, no, patriotism is amazing.
I spend some time in Turkey andeverybody has a Turkish flag.
(11:52):
They're wearing Turkish,shirts and it's a cool flag.
people just love it andthey're proud to be Turkish.
it's infectious.
we did lose that, but
I don't think it was real, I think it wasjust something else to make people crazy.
I think it was right coded fora while, but so was working out,
Jerremy (12:09):
valid.
Dave (12:11):
it was like, oh, must be a Republican.
No.
Yeah.
It's no.
Jerremy (12:15):
Yeah.
Dave (12:16):
I don't know how we landed on this side of it, but I still have this.
When we label somebody illegaland when we have illegal ness
as far as this immigration thinggoes, we create another class.
We create effectively like economicslave labor that have, no protections
(12:39):
that can be manipulated by fear.
And we also create, as far as anybody ismeasuring the largest human trafficking,
anything on the planet that is onlymaking some of the worst people on
the planet, filthy rich, and leavingpeople in these uncertain situations
(13:06):
or in, human trafficking situations.
Drugs and prostitution, like the worstthings in the United States are tied
around this economy of human trafficking.
I don't know, man that's gotta,all of that's gotta stop.
You know, like all of it, we haveto make it so it is economically
(13:27):
not viable at all to traffic anotherhuman being into the United States.
Have them work here for nothing, have themwork in prostitution or like, all of it,
It's just, it's gottastop, like all of it.
Alright, that was my rant.
I don't know.
Jerremy (13:45):
Oh yeah.
No, I love, I love your
Dave (13:46):
did we say, oh, this is how, like I, Melissa changed me completely
to be like, ah, let's not focus on theillegal at all and let's focus on all
the business and economic prosperityand making sure that people can come
here and work safely and legally.
Wouldn't that get rid of theillegal aspect of this completely
Jerremy (14:06):
Yeah.
Dave (14:07):
temporary work visas
Jerremy (14:09):
And I think if we spend more time, energy, and focus on that portion
of it to your realization that I thinkmost people will not have listened
to Dave, is that where they're like,they don't even think about, oh wow.
Companies can traffic
humans from different organizations,from different countries.
(14:30):
They're here legally, and thenwe induce them into slave labor.
Dave (14:35):
Yeah.
Jerremy (14:35):
For a
long time like that happensway more often than it should.
And that should be anincredibly horrific fine.
And I say fine, like penalty, right?
You're going to prison for a verylong time if you're getting caught
and doing something like that.
'cause it's a human life.
And I think the more we just realizeto your aspect of having the ability
(15:00):
to work and then doing it legallyversus illegally and piecing all the
past work together, that is keep peoplesafe, make it, like you said, non
economically viable for that to happen.
For anything to even be createdillegally with illegal labor, slave
labor, traffic, labor, all thatshould be really looked down upon.
(15:22):
And that is absolutelysomething that's just not.
Really openly talked about at anyhigh level of American government,
and I don't necessarily think thatthis is the time to theorize as to why
that is, but that is something that'sreally very un openly talked about.
Dave (15:37):
Boo
Jerremy (15:37):
Yeah.
Big boo.
I agree.
But I like how you said that Melissa
changed you, meaning I think both ofus had some fun tweaks and adjustments
and this whole evolution of thispodcast, because that's the reason
that we're doing this for so long.
I want our listeners to know thatis I personally need to learn more
(15:58):
and spend more time and energyto just really uncover topics so
that I can have not my media fed.
Boilerplate closed perspectives thatjust got fed to me that I never explored.
But to hear different opinions, heardifferent points, look back at them.
(16:20):
Dave does an incredible job at takingAI to distill a lot of information
and to piece a lot of this informationtogether and really show us what
we're talking about visually andlyrically, and literally put it on a
page so that we can understand whatwe discuss, how we discussed, at what
points were made, why they were made,and what we're gonna do about it.
(16:41):
And I think that's really cool that thisentire series did give us tweaks for sure.
Both of us adjustments on,Hey, think about this way.
Consider not only thatopinion, but this opinion.
And every single person that weinterviewed and discussed just really gave
us a new, fresh perspective on the tinyadjustments that we can not only make now,
Dave (17:02):
It's a, through this series I knew coming into this, it would
be very, it's a hot topic, right?
And at the end of this series, you know,like all of that energy is out of me.
And is very, very frustrated with thepolitical class where it should be, right?
(17:23):
Like that's the responsibility of the,is at the people who have abdicated
doing anything about this for 50 years.
And Americans not really paying attentionto it or being, you know, made crazy
about, well, it's illegal immigrantsand they are taken away from you.
Like, that's a, a dividing line.
(17:43):
I'll give you some inside baseball here.
I actually should pro I, I'll runthis by her, but Melissa's episode
for all of our listeners here.
For everybody we interview we sendout early, early cuts to anybody we
interview and we're like, Hey, here it is.
Great interview.
You know, like, if you need anychanges or updates, just let us know.
(18:06):
And by and large, it comes backwith a thumbs up and out it goes.
Other than like a CEO that comesback and says, Hey, you know, I
dropped like way too many F-bombs.
Can you cut out like 10% of my F-bombs?
I'm like, yeah, sure, no problem.
And then other than that we do, lightediting to make sure it sounds okay.
But you know, like it's extremely rare.
(18:28):
But with Melissa's episode, shecame back, you know, remember
she's an immigration attorney.
She came back and she said, Hey, this,you know, this one section is, um.
She was like, you know, like, you knowwhat I said was technically correct, and
in the context of what you and I weretalking about, it was perfectly fine.
(18:51):
And I think 99.99%
of everybody that listens to it would'vebeen like, okay, yeah, no problem.
Yeah, that makes sense.
But you know, the 0.99%
that is angry about this is goingto get angrier by this answer.
And she was like, yeah, couldyou do me a favor and like
(19:14):
clip this And it wasn't much.
We're talking 10 seconds, right?
And we actually answered the question.
I just took out, you know, a fewsentences and then I had to take a
little bit extra out because you sounded
stupid.
Jerremy (19:27):
It was like literally
two
Dave (19:29):
and it was totally innocuous.
I don't think she would mind me sayingit was really around our discussion of
businesses firing Americans, but openingup a bunch of visas, To hire foreigners.
And what we learned therewell that's not the case.
(19:50):
Like these companies actually are big andwhere they're hiring and where they're
firing are in totally different areas.
And mind you, businesses have tospend a lot of money on this process.
Often the immigrant is actually beingpaid more than the American because
of this stupid table that the USgovernment puts together on, salaries.
(20:14):
And the companies come back and it'slike, I cannot pay, an immigrant,
a hundred thousand dollars extrathan my American counterpart.
She goes, well, that's what it is.
And it was in that world, right?
And we were talking about it, thethree of us were like, we get it.
But there just a couple ofsentences in there that were like,
oh, that could piss somebody off.
And she was like, Nope.
(20:34):
Out.
And I'm like, no problem.
And that comes back to, I thinkpeople listening to this whole
arc of us, I'm hoping that the onething that they take from it is
that this is not an angry issue.
This is not an us versus them.
This is about America.
You wanna be angry at somebody, whoeveryou voted for, be angry at them because
(20:55):
they have abdicated all of this.
That's what I want people to be angry at.
Jerremy (21:00):
I like that ultimately it's gonna be a policy situation
and who you voted for or evenbetter, who you did not vote for.
Be angry at somebody in thisenvironment that actually has the
ability to create that change.
And not only be angry, butgive 'em some solutions.
And those solutions can be comingon podcasts just like this one.
(21:22):
Having open conversations,give ideas, right?
Come up and sit downwith what should we do?
Why could we do it?
Where could we do it?
How could we do it?
Make adjustments, make tweaks,make alterations, give thoughts to
really creating integral changes.
That's.
I feel we did a great job at, during thisduring this briefing, during this entire
(21:43):
series, is just having a way to createpotentially policy centric reframing,
Making systematic or systemic fixes andtweaks and adjustments that allow for some
radical changes in the Immigration Nation.
(22:05):
Yeah.
Dave,
What are we talking about
next?
What's on the docket for our
listeners?
Dave (22:11):
voting, voting,
Jerremy (22:13):
what do you mean voting,
We gotta vote.
Like how
can we possibly
talk
Dave (22:15):
solving America's problems is voting.
This can go like a lotof different directions.
There's so
much.
Jerremy (22:25):
tons.
You got my tweet, right?
I I, yeah,
Dave (22:28):
I think
Jerremy (22:30):
I did send him a voice memo.
I'm like, Hey man, canyou come on my show?
So we'll see if it's a yes or no, butfor our listeners there was someone
who was very political, who talkedabout, we, how they should update or
how we could update the voting process.
And dude got so much hate mail forjust wanting the idea, the simple
thought that we should make votingeasier and people are hating on this.
(22:51):
And that just blew me away.
A pretty intricate stance
on voting.
So I want every single one of ourlisteners to tune in very closely into
our next series, because I can assure youthis will be one of my most passionate
topics
Dave (23:07):
that.
That's incredible.
I.
I'm totally stoked about this one.
I'm putting togetherthe research on it now.
You know, like we start allof these with a research and
I'm like, man, it's bonkers.
Voting is bonkers.
I think we did it again my friend.
It's also a little Easter egg inthe show notes for Olga and Vena.
(23:28):
So I'm gonna prompt our listenersto look at the show notes.
There is something veryspecial hidden in there.
I'll give you a little hint.
Olga talked about an amazing cookie.
There might be a little recipesnuck into the show notes for
Jerremy (23:47):
Easter Egg, if you like
cookies.
Dave (23:48):
Much better than whatever the.
Mayonnaise drenched stuffyou were talking about.
Ugh.
But yes, next up onsolving America's problems.
Probably fewer cookies,but a lot more on voting.
Alright my friend.
Wrap us up.
Jerremy (24:05):
Friends and family team and fans, Americans of
all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for listening.
This is solving America's problems.
We will continue to solve problems andcontinue to have incredible conversations
with remarkable people just like yourself.
But we need your help.
(24:27):
Share this episode and any otherepisode that you feel called to share.
Give us a five star review.
If you feel we have deserved it andwe have brought high quality, high
produced content, give us love.
Follow us on X, follow us on Instagram.
You know where to track us down.
We look forward to not only hearing fromyou, but continue to solve your problems.
(24:49):
Continue to hear your voices.
Put great people in great places,and solve America's problems.
Immigration’s heart isn’t numbers—it’s people.
From a Russian immigrant’s deep lovefor America to the stark reality of
exploitation, these stories show what itmeans to BUILD OUR immigration NATION.
Dave (00:13):
Who should immigrate?
Who are we welcominginto the United States?
because I think this comes up in a lotof our conversations the last few weeks.
Who?
And like when we talk to Melissa,you know, her world is very
much about STEM businesses.
Like, these are developers, theseare scientists, these are people
(00:37):
who are good at math and thesecompanies, they need, the scientists
in order to do what they need to do.
So the companies are willing toput up the money, put up the time,
energy in order to get those folks.
And we learned all about that whenMelissa, but then we also heard, well,
yeah, if you're a world class salesguy, sales salesperson yeah, good luck.
(00:58):
Or if you're an incredible entrepreneurfrom anywhere in the world, you're
not being treated special, right?
Even if best salespersonhappens to be Mexican, forget
it, they're stuck in Mexico.
And then you get people who immigrateor are pushed into situations that are.
(01:18):
Kind of weird, you know, whetherit's having to basically get forced
into a marriage in order to stay,or, vacationing in the United States
when you're nine months pregnant sothat your child can be born here.
You know, I think we also sort of indexto smart people and college graduates when
we need people who can, twist a wrench.
(01:42):
And, you know, we need build people tobuild our builds and the incredible skill
and intelligence necessary in order to,build anything in the United States.
None of that comes with a college degree.
And there aren't sadly, a lot ofAmericans who even want those jobs.
And you know, those skilledpeople are immigrants.
(02:05):
And I don't know about you.
I know a lot of smart people.
I have worked with a lot of smart peoplein highly technical positions, some of
them immigrants, and they, they are,we don't test for psychopaths, right?
You know, like if you are a crazyson of a bitch, but you happen to
have an advanced degree in something,you're welcome to the United States.
But if you are a world classpoet from someplace else,
(02:29):
good luck getting in the door.
So I think we overindex for certain thingsand we say, oh, those must be good people.
And we completely under index forthings that we actually need and tie
it to jobs and like, okay, so whoshould be coming to, the United States?
Jerremy (02:45):
Well, let me answer your question by
asking you a question.
How would you define great,because that's my answer.
My answer would be, let's get great people
into this nation.
If you're gonna immigrate inhere, I want you to be great.
I don't want you to be a scum human being.
There are scum, human beings.
I haven't met a lot myself 'causethat's just 'cause I have my perception
(03:07):
and the people I surround myselfwith, but I want great people.
So how would you definea great individual?
Dave (03:15):
It's shown over and over again that the people who are happy, the people
who on their deathbed say I did it.
Well, those people.
Over index for things like compassion.
They're social, they're curious,they have a bit of a intelligence
(03:41):
about them, and they really care.
And with those qualities, they succeedand the people around them succeed.
They tend to be a bit more familyoriented community oriented.
And those are the people who are notonly the happiest, they live the longest.
(04:03):
And that is success morethan anything else for me.
So bringing in a job producer thathas hundreds of millions of dollars
but is a crazy son of a bitch wholays waste to everything around them.
Is worth very little to me thansomebody who has those other
(04:25):
qualities that I talked about.
The kindness, the compassion the socialaspects, because they bring more, like
the people around them are productive.
They are the job creators.
They are creating businesses,they are creating community.
They are actually bringingmore to the United States.
So I think that greatness is aboutthose soft skills and those soft
(04:47):
skills where you look at that personand you're like, I admire that person.
I see this in you all the time.
It's like, I admire you as a personbecause you have those qualities
and great things happen aroundyou because of those qualities.
It's not because you're the smartest orthe richest or the craftiest or the one
who's willing to do whatever it takes.
(05:07):
You have the qualities that underpinall of that that are more important.
So that's what I think is.
Jerremy (05:12):
Thanks man.
So you're saying I'd be a good immigrant
Dave (05:14):
What did you, what was the country?
What was the country you chose?
Was it wasn't Grenada?
Aruba.
Aruba?
Yeah.
Aruba will be lucky to have you.
Jerremy (05:22):
Thanks man.
You, but to your point,I like that answer.
Meaning.
Imagine if it was as simple as we tooksomeone who had a lot of wisdom, insight,
experience, call them someone that was,let's just say you're 70 years old.
(05:42):
'Cause that's way tooold to be the president.
And you say to yourself, okay, sinceyou're 70 and you have all this wisdom
and age and experience and talent, let'sput you on the front lines of hire.
Going through an interview processfour hours a day for 80 minutes
per person to interview immigrants,people who wanna come to this nation.
And you have this list of questions.
(06:04):
And at the end, you've got the job, didn'tget the job you have these people that
are trained and talented and awesomeand have care and compassion and can
actually listen to stories and judgeI think this person's a great person.
'Cause they have those certain qualities.
That's what a hiring manager at a job.
Of almost any company, theyhave to talk to people crazy.
(06:28):
Like we have to actually learn whothis individual is because I do think
there are some characteristics, whatI said earlier about the physicality
of becoming an immigrant, was both alittle bit of a hyperbole, but at the
same time would be an actual legitimateaspect of an interview process of are
you healthy or are you gonna come to theUS and be a ginormous burden physically?
(06:54):
we don't need any moreobese people in America.
We had a health podcastdiscussion already, podcast,
and over 30% of the US is obese.
So there are Okay.
Certain levels there that's important.
Physicality, like mentally,spiritually, emotionally.
How do you relate to people?
What is your general charisma,kindness, thought process.
(07:15):
Do you smile?
Do you like other human beings?
Do you provide good energy?
Are you nice?
Do you understand the complexitiesof human interaction, like shaking
hands and smiling and giving me eyecontact and being a great human being?
I think there's plenty of peoplethat would mind taking that
job or that volunteer position,because that's really the answer.
It can be that easy.
Let me interview and pass or fail.
(07:38):
Do you smell terribly?
Are you just unkempt andmean, and angry and terrible?
It's okay, if that person's a genius
and they're gonna invent the nextincredible invention, let 'em do it in
their home country, because we probably,as US citizens, don't necessarily want a
(08:00):
lot more horrifically, angry, frustrated,terrible people that are running things.
I just think that ultimately, it should be
easy or it should still be somethingwhere there is a level of component.
And if someone takes the time, energy,and diligence to, I think you mentioned
(08:23):
be an incredible world renowned poetand they came to a job interview and
they said, what's your number one skill?
Or like why would you be here?
What value do you provide to thiscountry, company in this example?
And they just recited for 17minutes this beautiful poem.
Are they gonna get hired?
Probably like that's gonna berelatively impressive to somebody.
(08:47):
And if it's not at that exact job,maybe that person who's hiring
is oh wow, you're not fit for thefront desk at human resources.
Like you need to be the copywriter.
You need to be in the languagedepartment for this company.
And so I think that ultimately islike, yeah, everyone doesn't have to
fit into for everything, of course.
(09:08):
But for the people, whoshould be in this country,
great people.
That's who should be here.
People that are gonna add incrediblevalue, who are gonna do great things,
who are gonna care, who are gonnabe kind, who can be compassionate,
who are gonna do their best to bean amazing, loyal, caring citizen.
And if the time comes, ifit ever needed to happen,
(09:29):
Got invaded,
would you fight for it?
And I think that's a realizationthat, listen, I know some people
will or will not because of somereason or rationale, but most people
who would consider themselves anAmerican would go, yeah, if it, I'm
not saying put me on the front line.
I'm saying if this country gotinvaded and we had to, would
Dave (09:51):
How beautiful was that when Olga said, like she knew she was an
American when, at nine 11, she waslike, I would die for this country.
And I'm like, oh myGod, I just got chills.
Jerremy (10:03):
Man.
Me too, dude.
That's patriotism.
And you know what frustrates me?
I'm a rampage tyrant today.
This I feel, and maybe this ismy newsfeed, maybe it's my media,
I'm not sure, but people demonizepatriotism and because they think it's
one
Dave (10:18):
Who's doing that?
That's ugh.
Jerremy (10:20):
and they go, only hard-nosed Republicans can be patriotic.
No, exactly.
I agree.
I'm like, what?
We're like, what?
What are you talking about?
And I think if someone wears aginormous American flag shirt and
American flag pants, I did three orfour polls on this on my Twitter.
(10:42):
The majority of people say, or at leastthe people that voted for it, right?
They say that they would viewthat person as a Republican first.
There's that flag, baby.
There's that flag.
And so it's just man, I don't think thatneeds to be the case, nor should it be.
It's like being a patriot ofthis country just simply says,
you know exactly where you live.
(11:02):
You know exactly why you live here.
As much as I love Aruba and I wouldimmigrate there, I ain't got a rubian flag
anywhere in my house that welive here and left, right middle
center, far either direction.
Be an amazing human being, be anamazing citizen, be an incredible
advocate for this country.
(11:22):
That is what makes patriotismin any country exciting.
And we all should have a degreeof that, and that needs to
certainly be a very important
component
Dave (11:31):
Yeah.
whoever is demonizing patriotism.
I think that got wrapped up in thehole, woke in the last few years.
That is a dying thing.
I have definitely seen a lot moreleadership on the left side saying,
Hey, no, patriotism is amazing.
I spend some time in Turkey andeverybody has a Turkish flag.
(11:52):
They're wearing Turkish,shirts and it's a cool flag.
people just love it andthey're proud to be Turkish.
it's infectious.
we did lose that, but
I don't think it was real, I think it wasjust something else to make people crazy.
I think it was right coded fora while, but so was working out,
Jerremy (12:09):
valid.
Dave (12:11):
it was like, oh, must be a Republican.
No.
Yeah.
It's no.
Jerremy (12:15):
Yeah.
Dave (12:16):
I don't know how we landed on this side of it, but I still have this.
When we label somebody illegaland when we have illegal ness
as far as this immigration thinggoes, we create another class.
We create effectively like economicslave labor that have, no protections
(12:39):
that can be manipulated by fear.
And we also create, as far as anybody ismeasuring the largest human trafficking,
anything on the planet that is onlymaking some of the worst people on
the planet, filthy rich, and leavingpeople in these uncertain situations
(13:06):
or in, human trafficking situations.
Drugs and prostitution, like the worstthings in the United States are tied
around this economy of human trafficking.
I don't know, man that's gotta,all of that's gotta stop.
You know, like all of it, we haveto make it so it is economically
(13:27):
not viable at all to traffic anotherhuman being into the United States.
Have them work here for nothing, have themwork in prostitution or like, all of it,
It's just, it's gottastop, like all of it.
Alright, that was my rant.
I don't know.
Jerremy (13:45):
Oh yeah.
No, I love, I love your
Dave (13:46):
did we say, oh, this is how, like I, Melissa changed me completely
to be like, ah, let's not focus on theillegal at all and let's focus on all
the business and economic prosperityand making sure that people can come
here and work safely and legally.
Wouldn't that get rid of theillegal aspect of this completely
Jerremy (14:06):
Yeah.
Dave (14:07):
temporary work visas
Jerremy (14:09):
And I think if we spend more time, energy, and focus on that portion
of it to your realization that I thinkmost people will not have listened
to Dave, is that where they're like,they don't even think about, oh wow.
Companies can traffic
humans from different organizations,from different countries.
(14:30):
They're here legally, and thenwe induce them into slave labor.
Dave (14:35):
Yeah.
Jerremy (14:35):
For a
long time like that happensway more often than it should.
And that should be anincredibly horrific fine.
And I say fine, like penalty, right?
You're going to prison for a verylong time if you're getting caught
and doing something like that.
'cause it's a human life.
And I think the more we just realizeto your aspect of having the ability
(15:00):
to work and then doing it legallyversus illegally and piecing all the
past work together, that is keep peoplesafe, make it, like you said, non
economically viable for that to happen.
For anything to even be createdillegally with illegal labor, slave
labor, traffic, labor, all thatshould be really looked down upon.
(15:22):
And that is absolutelysomething that's just not.
Really openly talked about at anyhigh level of American government,
and I don't necessarily think thatthis is the time to theorize as to why
that is, but that is something that'sreally very un openly talked about.
Dave (15:37):
Boo
Jerremy (15:37):
Yeah.
Big boo.
I agree.
But I like how you said that Melissa
changed you, meaning I think both ofus had some fun tweaks and adjustments
and this whole evolution of thispodcast, because that's the reason
that we're doing this for so long.
I want our listeners to know thatis I personally need to learn more
(15:58):
and spend more time and energyto just really uncover topics so
that I can have not my media fed.
Boilerplate closed perspectives thatjust got fed to me that I never explored.
But to hear different opinions, heardifferent points, look back at them.
(16:20):
Dave does an incredible job at takingAI to distill a lot of information
and to piece a lot of this informationtogether and really show us what
we're talking about visually andlyrically, and literally put it on a
page so that we can understand whatwe discuss, how we discussed, at what
points were made, why they were made,and what we're gonna do about it.
(16:41):
And I think that's really cool that thisentire series did give us tweaks for sure.
Both of us adjustments on,Hey, think about this way.
Consider not only thatopinion, but this opinion.
And every single person that weinterviewed and discussed just really gave
us a new, fresh perspective on the tinyadjustments that we can not only make now,
Dave (17:02):
It's a, through this series I knew coming into this, it would
be very, it's a hot topic, right?
And at the end of this series, you know,like all of that energy is out of me.
And is very, very frustrated with thepolitical class where it should be, right?
(17:23):
Like that's the responsibility of the,is at the people who have abdicated
doing anything about this for 50 years.
And Americans not really paying attentionto it or being, you know, made crazy
about, well, it's illegal immigrantsand they are taken away from you.
Like, that's a, a dividing line.
(17:43):
I'll give you some inside baseball here.
I actually should pro I, I'll runthis by her, but Melissa's episode
for all of our listeners here.
For everybody we interview we sendout early, early cuts to anybody we
interview and we're like, Hey, here it is.
Great interview.
You know, like, if you need anychanges or updates, just let us know.
(18:06):
And by and large, it comes backwith a thumbs up and out it goes.
Other than like a CEO that comesback and says, Hey, you know, I
dropped like way too many F-bombs.
Can you cut out like 10% of my F-bombs?
I'm like, yeah, sure, no problem.
And then other than that we do, lightediting to make sure it sounds okay.
But you know, like it's extremely rare.
(18:28):
But with Melissa's episode, shecame back, you know, remember
she's an immigration attorney.
She came back and she said, Hey, this,you know, this one section is, um.
She was like, you know, like, you knowwhat I said was technically correct, and
in the context of what you and I weretalking about, it was perfectly fine.
(18:51):
And I think 99.99%
of everybody that listens to it would'vebeen like, okay, yeah, no problem.
Yeah, that makes sense.
But you know, the 0.99%
that is angry about this is goingto get angrier by this answer.
And she was like, yeah, couldyou do me a favor and like
(19:14):
clip this And it wasn't much.
We're talking 10 seconds, right?
And we actually answered the question.
I just took out, you know, a fewsentences and then I had to take a
little bit extra out because you sounded
stupid.
Jerremy (19:27):
It was like literally
two
Dave (19:29):
and it was totally innocuous.
I don't think she would mind me sayingit was really around our discussion of
businesses firing Americans, but openingup a bunch of visas, To hire foreigners.
And what we learned therewell that's not the case.
(19:50):
Like these companies actually are big andwhere they're hiring and where they're
firing are in totally different areas.
And mind you, businesses have tospend a lot of money on this process.
Often the immigrant is actually beingpaid more than the American because
of this stupid table that the USgovernment puts together on, salaries.
(20:14):
And the companies come back and it'slike, I cannot pay, an immigrant,
a hundred thousand dollars extrathan my American counterpart.
She goes, well, that's what it is.
And it was in that world, right?
And we were talking about it, thethree of us were like, we get it.
But there just a couple ofsentences in there that were like,
oh, that could piss somebody off.
And she was like, Nope.
(20:34):
Out.
And I'm like, no problem.
And that comes back to, I thinkpeople listening to this whole
arc of us, I'm hoping that the onething that they take from it is
that this is not an angry issue.
This is not an us versus them.
This is about America.
You wanna be angry at somebody, whoeveryou voted for, be angry at them because
(20:55):
they have abdicated all of this.
That's what I want people to be angry at.
Jerremy (21:00):
I like that ultimately it's gonna be a policy situation
and who you voted for or evenbetter, who you did not vote for.
Be angry at somebody in thisenvironment that actually has the
ability to create that change.
And not only be angry, butgive 'em some solutions.
And those solutions can be comingon podcasts just like this one.
(21:22):
Having open conversations,give ideas, right?
Come up and sit downwith what should we do?
Why could we do it?
Where could we do it?
How could we do it?
Make adjustments, make tweaks,make alterations, give thoughts to
really creating integral changes.
That's.
I feel we did a great job at, during thisduring this briefing, during this entire
(21:43):
series, is just having a way to createpotentially policy centric reframing,
Making systematic or systemic fixes andtweaks and adjustments that allow for some
radical changes in the Immigration Nation.
(22:05):
Yeah.
Dave,
What are we talking about
next?
What's on the docket for our
listeners?
Dave (22:11):
voting, voting,
Jerremy (22:13):
what do you mean voting,
We gotta vote.
Like how
can we possibly
talk
Dave (22:15):
solving America's problems is voting.
This can go like a lotof different directions.
There's so
much.
Jerremy (22:25):
tons.
You got my tweet, right?
I I, yeah,
Dave (22:28):
I think
Jerremy (22:30):
I did send him a voice memo.
I'm like, Hey man, canyou come on my show?
So we'll see if it's a yes or no, butfor our listeners there was someone
who was very political, who talkedabout, we, how they should update or
how we could update the voting process.
And dude got so much hate mail forjust wanting the idea, the simple
thought that we should make votingeasier and people are hating on this.
(22:51):
And that just blew me away.
A pretty intricate stance
on voting.
So I want every single one of ourlisteners to tune in very closely into
our next series, because I can assure youthis will be one of my most passionate
topics
Dave (23:07):
that.
That's incredible.
I.
I'm totally stoked about this one.
I'm putting togetherthe research on it now.
You know, like we start allof these with a research and
I'm like, man, it's bonkers.
Voting is bonkers.
I think we did it again my friend.
It's also a little Easter egg inthe show notes for Olga and Vena.
(23:28):
So I'm gonna prompt our listenersto look at the show notes.
There is something veryspecial hidden in there.
I'll give you a little hint.
Olga talked about an amazing cookie.
There might be a little recipesnuck into the show notes for
Jerremy (23:47):
Easter Egg, if you like
cookies.
Dave (23:48):
Much better than whatever the.
Mayonnaise drenched stuffyou were talking about.
Ugh.
But yes, next up onsolving America's problems.
Probably fewer cookies,but a lot more on voting.
Alright my friend.
Wrap us up.
Jerremy (24:05):
Friends and family team and fans, Americans of
all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for listening.
This is solving America's problems.
We will continue to solve problems andcontinue to have incredible conversations
with remarkable people just like yourself.
But we need your help.
(24:27):
Share this episode and any otherepisode that you feel called to share.
Give us a five star review.
If you feel we have deserved it andwe have brought high quality, high
produced content, give us love.
Follow us on X, follow us on Instagram.
You know where to track us down.
We look forward to not only hearing fromyou, but continue to solve your problems.
(24:49):
Continue to hear your voices.
Put great people in great places,and solve America's problems.
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